[encantotom]

tony drove off yesterday.  got everything done.  bob (winegrower) from tucson came and spent 3 days with us too.  both of them stayed in our two guest rooms in the house.  like a adult sleepover.  darlene kept us fed well.  

we got the slide seal back in place.  this time we used sika 221 as the adhesive.  it is black so it makes your hands stained....ask tony.  a real version of "skin in the game"

once again we needed to use ratchet straps in the bays to get the slide back in.  so...slide seal all done.  

i had ordered for tony 2 of the f350 vacuum pumps we use to suck the slide seals down.   i installed and tested them both.  for both slides.  

he had pretty bad side skin shifting between the two slides.  it had caused some bending at the bedroom slide side.  

so on monday before the gang got here on tuesday i got my floor jack out and i lifted the coach up just below the back of the front slide on the frame crossmember and got the skin in alignment.  all rivets had sheared between the two slides.   i put the original size rivets in the existing holes.  then went back and drilled new holes (using a drill stop collet) for the larger steel mandrel rivets newell recommends in between the existing rivets. i added 2 in between each previous set of rivets.  it aligned up nicely.  as those that have done it knows, you need to get an air rivet gun to do those bigger steel rivets.  or have hands the size of godzilla.  i bought the 40 dollar harborfreight one and it worked just fine.  very easy to use.  

his essex remote keypad at the door had failed and would no longer work.  i traced the 5 wires that are used coming out of it, put my meter on them and for sure both lock and unlock signals were not coming out of the pad.  ordered the newer version of the essex that fits in the exact same mounting holes and replaced it.  lets just say easier said than done.  but it works fine and now they can lock and unlock the bode air door.  i programmed it with a new master code and user codes for him.  his door lock switch on the inside had a loose connection that i fixed as well.  

the water leaks on the manifold.   i got the brass 90's and borrowed a plumber friends pex crimper and put pex on them.  then used sharkbite fittings to plumb them into the coach.  then they leaked at the new brass fitting.  ended up the brass threaded part was longer and wouldnt seal, so we cut off about 3 /16 off the brass part and cleaned it up and it worked like a champ.  it is hard getting behind those water manifolds unless you have hands the size of gi joe doll.  ha

his auto water fill was also plugged so we cleaned that up.  

i replaced the extend front slide solenoid as well, that is what caused all this in the first place as it caused slide creep outward.  

it was fun having tony and bob here this week.  

later

tom