What have you fixed on your motorhome this week?

Fitted a radio aerial booster. The booster came with standard DIN sockets either end which I only had one adapter to convert to Fiat ISO plug so I dug out the soldering iron chopped the new booster into the existing aerial lead. Very pleased with results until I found that the standard Rapido Pioneer head unit already had a DIN/ISO adapter plugged in it so I needn't have bothered with the soldering iron 🥴
 
Greased the Alko Chassis this week. That concludes all work before our trip to France. Really quick and simple to lift each side and pump in some grease. Not sure it’s been done for a while!
 
dunnah01 said:
I thought you had to have both sides hanging at the same time 🤔
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Nope as long as the side you are greasing is lifted it will be fine. Probably best if you can to lift both, Alko say ideally lift both!

We recommend greasing your AL-KO axles every 20,000 Km, or once a year whichever comes sooner. Ideally jack the motorhome so both wheels are off the ground. 5-7 pumps of a hand grease gun for each side should be sufficient, until resistance is felt. Excess greasing could break the seals and fill the torsion tube.

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Probably the most difficult job I ever did - fitted a couple of magnetic torch holders...



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Probably the most difficult job I ever did - fitted a couple of magnetic torch holders...
 
To take advantage of the dry, sunny weather, over the past two days, I have been removing the 16year old sealant around the roof skylights and resealed it with new.

I prefer to be proactive about maintenance of my vehicle and not have problems in the cold, wet months.

So far, with only a few exceptions over the past 50yrs, it has worked.
I now have to wait until the next heavy rain to see IF I have done it right! 🤞😄


PS. Yesterday I was standing on top of the ladder with soft soled boots for so long while digging out the old sealant, that I lost ALL feeling in both feet & legs.

What do I do?

Slight panic set in because, I'm nearly 80, there is no-one about and I'm up this ladder! 😱

Thank goodness no-one was about because for the next 10 minutes I'm trying to flex first one and then the other foot to, once again, get some sort of circulation going. (I was probably worth a YouTube video) 😄

After 10 minutes, I gently lowered one foot onto the lower step, little feeling at first so couldn't judge or see if it was actually on the rung but It was, after a time, I was off the ladder.

Needless to say, today I moved up & down the ladder about every half hour because,
believe me, it's the strangest sensation ever to be able to see your own feet BUT have no feelings or control over them! 😱
 
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Changed the Timing belt on our Fiat Ducatto 2.3 multijet. Pete said it was bloody awkward to do as not much room to get the plastic cover off, which had a bolt under a pulley so had to remove alternator belt, then pulley then cover 🙈still it saved us a few hundred quid so alls well lol 😊
 
If you remember, last month at Devizes before travelling to the Peak District THS and Drax, I had trouble fully retracting my hab step and had to make a temporary repair?
It was caused by the steps thick plastic undertray having a bend in it and catching the retracting step.

Today, in tortuous 33C heat here in East Anglia, I removed undertray and used said heat to flatten undertray. Success!

All is now working again and I have a lovely, if slightly painful, suntan! 👍 😄

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Fixed over last weekend the wiper motor, not a big job but fiddly if you dont remove the bonded scuttle cover to stop the rain dribbling all over the engine bay. Mind pleased it went this week as we on Germany in 3 weeks, would have been a dam sight dearer over there, £37 and my time lol.
 
Not fixed yet, next on the list!

always happens before you go on a big trip!
The MH has now thrown another fault my way!

Can’t wait to try and sort the following: -P20E8 fault code and urea tank.
 
DJL220 said:
Not fixed yet, next on the list!

always happens before you go on a big trip!
The MH has now thrown another fault my way!

Can’t wait to try and sort the following: -P20E8 fault code and urea tank.
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Worst thing invented for vehicles, crystallisation is the death of most tanks. Has it ever ran dry? Have you used cheaper adblue from supermarket etc
 
Replaced the hab door FAP interior lock. One of the many springs in the works broke on our last outing leaving us unable to open the door without extra manipulation of the latch.

£117 and my time.
 
Rapides said:
Replaced the hab door FAP interior lock. One of the many springs in the works broke on our last outing leaving us unable to open the door without extra manipulation of the latch.

£117 and my time.
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Could you not get just a spring, seems dear to replace the whole lock

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So, while emptying the waste water, I gently as I am gentle with everything I do.. I pressed the control on the EC800 control screen, yep it all collapsed to inside. I described this in a different post!
So the black surround simply clips onto the silver housing, underneath is 4 screws, you take these out and the housing simply lifts out. Behind the silver housing is the glass touch screen this is a oblong glass with electronics sandwiched between a rear black plastic sheet (a back plate). when the glass and the plastic are sandwiched together the bottom fits into the lugs on the bottom of the silver housing, when you then push the housing back in place, it holds together against the wall the control screen and parts, I hope! You then screw back the 4 screws and clip back in the black cover.
I am having mine checked under warranty as I don’t think the sandwiched screen and electronics in between and the black plastic back plate should come apart. But we will see..
Anyway I put this all back together and it’s working.. who ho!
IMG_0042.jpeg
 
1967bowesj said:
Worst thing invented for vehicles, crystallisation is the death of most tanks. Has it ever ran dry? Have you used cheaper adblue from supermarket etc
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I’ve had the MH a year and never ran dry on my watch. Brought Adblue from pump or motorfactors. Stuck some Wynns crystal clear in first, see what happens. Will also plug in the Topdon and see what pressure is being delivered too.
 
My leisure battery should be gel. On investigation it was a 110Ah flooded LA of an unknown make (Pavilion)
With assistance of eldest son have replaced it with the required gel battery ( those things are heavy) and now have a large spare 110Ah battery which tests as OK (CCA 790A) for which I have no particular use. Suggestions?
 
A loud “boing” as I braked at the bottom of our very steep drive announced the failure of one of our front road springs. At 10 years old and less than 30,000 miles this was not something we had expected. Our local garage quoted something over £1300 to replace springs and shocks on both sides while I calculated my parts cost at slightly over £300 using supplies from Coastal Motorhomes. Enough incentive to blow the cobwebs off my tools!

This is not the easiest of procedures, requiring fascias on both sides of the dash to be removed to give access to the suspension strut top fixings. On the offside this also requires removal of the fuse box.

We invested £200 (of the saving over the garage cost) in a hydraulic spring compressor and this made the dismantling and re-assembly of the struts somewhat easier. Fortunately we already had suitable axle stands, trolley jack and torque wrenches to complete the task safely and to specification. A spell, first of cold, and then very wet weather stretched the job out much more than anticipated due to working outside.

The most challenging aspect of the process was re-locating the bottom of the re-assembled struts into the top of the hubs. Not being built like a rugby player, this required the application of brainpower rather than brawn and a jig was welded up to compress the strut in situ using the trolley jack. This worked a treat once the technique had been devised and implemented.

While the van was on the stands, it seemed like a great opportunity to change the gearbox oil. This was relatively straightforward by comparison.

before_starting.jpg broken_spring.jpg that_goes_in_there.jpg compression_jig.jpg special_tool.jpg
 
After Lizzie, one of our old rescue dogs, lost her sight due to cataracts she'd managed to wreck our sliding fly screen two years ago by trying to run through it. After eventually sourcing a wide "cats tails" (we seem to have a wider than normal hab door at 75cm) style hanging one, in a decent colour way, it became time to remove the old one for fixing off line.
Only a small amount of jiggery pokery required due to the top screws being shielded by the bottom lip of the Dethleffs control panel board, which in turn needed the hinged flap hiding the cable run for for the TV aerial, solar panels etc to be removed in order to remove that.
Minded not to bother reinstalling it after fixing it,as it was always a faff trying to slide it if you were carrying anything - and always a potential issue with the dogs if they suddenly decided to exit stage centre.

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RandallC said:
Not a lot, sprayed the roof with wet and forget.

Now.

Poised for post school holidays get away.
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Did that some 4 weeks ago and pretty disappointed with the results so far, but still hold my breath.
 
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Today I was re-connecting our immersion water pump.

It was always a pain because the pipe and the pump were so close I had to do it inside the tank.

At last I got around to extending the pipe by using a spare non-return valve and a bit of extra pipe.

I can now do the connection above the floor.

I should have done it years ago. :LOL:
 
1967bowesj said:
Could you not get just a spring, seems dear to replace the whole lock
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The only spring I could find was £35 with no guarantee it was the right one. Didn’t fancy trying to fabricate one myself, so the complete lock was the only answer.
 
Rapides said:
The only spring I could find was £35 with no guarantee it was the right one. Didn’t fancy trying to fabricate one myself, so the complete lock was the only answer.
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Shame, I’d be looking for spares for the new lock as they not made to last these days
 

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