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my son in law has gotten into guitars in a big way.  he is a budding Luthier and has been picking up alot of different kinds of very collectible guitars.  in fact he was the biggest buyer at the recent Mecum classic car auction (they did collectible guitars after the cars) in phoenix a few weeks ago.  

he has been also buying classic Luthier tools.  He just got a number of them in an auction batch and he knew what every one did except for this one tool.  even after research, so far nothing.  it was from a batch of tools that a violin luthier sold him.  

any brilliant minds out there know that this tool is for?

he also is starting a collectible guitar store.  here is his link to his facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/wickenburgguitar/

now go figure out what the tool is.  

tom

This may be a very tough year to be a "snow bird".  

I regularly read the "RV Goddess" blog https://rvgoddess.com/more-changes/?unap...omment-146 who winters at the Motorhome Country Club through the Winter/Spring months near Palm Springs.  But this year, the country club  (like everything else in Palm Springs) is largely shut down - restaurant, golf course, gym, pools, etc.   Worse yet, California is a "shelter in place" state currently.  While it's not fun there right now, if this continues as expected into the May or June months - you'll have people trying to survive in the desert...in summer...in RV's.  

While there are a number of Newells that also stay there - can even a Newell handle 115+ F "dry heat"?

And if not, with all the states shutting down public parks (with many private parks forced to follow suit), where is a full timer to go  with no "stick and brick" option to fall back to???

I have been able to complete a number of projects while at Newell House for the past 3+ weeks including the removal of our 38 year old 12 gallon tank type water heater, and replace it with a Girard Tankless water heater.  I bought the Girard from a source on eBay who was selling these as 'scratch and dent'. It cost me just $430 shipped, and except for a small cosmetic dent in the metal case it works perfectly.  This Girard is a side vent water heater.  Most Newells have regular water heaters located in their water bays, but our coach was built with a side vent setup. After removing the old tank type water heater (quite difficult by the way) I cut the flange (11th picture) off of it so I could remount the old door, which was painted by Newell to match our Newell paint scheme.  I had to create a wood frame (3rd picture) out of 3/4" plywood to fit around the Girard as it was much smaller than the original hole cut for the original water heater.  I had to align the heater so the vent pipe was lined up with the vent screen on the original door. I painted the wood frame black, as the Girard door is also black (9th picture).  Once the Girard was installed (8th picture) I remounted that original door (10th picture), and it looks great.  There was a coolant hose connected to the old tank type water heater to heat the water while we were underway, so I had to connect the two ends together (2nd picture).  I used PEX and Sharkbite plumbing fittings (5th picture) to connect the original 1/2" copper plumbing to the Girard, and it was easier to do than I first imagined.  The pictures below show all that I am writing about.  The installation took place over a couple of days as the old water heater took so long to remove.  I probably spent about 10 hours in all from beginning to end.  The final task was to install a 12 volt interrupt switch (7th picture....switch located to the right of a light switch) between the Girard, and the digital control panel (6th picture) located in our bedroom so we can turn shutoff power to the Girard when we are dry camping/boondocking  the picture came out sideways for some reason.

                                 

                           

I also took apart our 38 year old Thetford dump valves to replace the large, circular rubber gaskets which seal against the paddles in the down position, one of the paddles, and the gasket between each half.  The gray dump valve had always leaked a little water, but recently the black valve developed a pretty steady leak.....as long as we were connected to a sewer  connection things were fine, but it made dry camping a little difficult.  Tom was of great help, and moral support while I wrestled with the 18 stainless steel screws which hold the two halves of the Thetford valves together.  They are located on the blind side of the valve between the valves and the segmented tank.  You can see in the first picture below the 9 stainless steel screws on the backside, or blind side of the valve.  All but the 9th screw shown in the picture, were relatively easy to remove, however, due to its location, the 9th screw was very, very difficult on each valve.  I removed one, and Tom graciously helped me get the other one out.  I guess it took over 90 minutes to remove each of the 9th screws.....crazy.  After cleaning the interior valve surfaces, and installing the new gaskets it took about an hour to put it all back together.  Now nothing leaks.  In all it took Tom and I 6 hours beginning to end to complete the task.  You can see the rubber gaskets that hold back the effluent when the paddles are in the down position in the fourth picture.  The one on the right was the one in the Thetford valve for the black tank....it was trashed, but the gray water gasket still looks pretty pristine, and could be reused, if an emergency arose.  I had bought a new Thetford valve as well as one rebuild kit.  I took the new stainless steel pull rod, and paddle from the new Thetford valve and used it to replace the old paddle in the Thetford valve controlling the black tank. In addition I used the new round gasket, and valve gasket from the new valve combined with the same gaskets from the rebuild kit.

                         

I recently replaced all my basement AC units in my 1994 Newell with Roof AC units. Several of the AC components are still in working order and are available for sale.  These are Dometic units used in many of the early 90 model coaches. I currently have 3 compressor units, all still work. I also have 4 thermostat boards all working.  I also have 3 Air handlers, one of which does have a bad circuit board. My coach number is 350 and I can be reached via email @ [email protected] or by phone @ 251-979-9900.
Gene

First, our gratitude to the health care professionals and other essential workers who cannot avoid exposure. 

For those staying pretty close to home as Rhonda and I, we hope that your experience is a calm one like ours. Our days are serene and peaceful. We can’t change or control what is happening outside our little cocoon, but perhaps we savor each other a little more. We are more appreciative of each other’s strengths as we weather this storm. 

We look forward to seeing all of you again in person. We wish good health for you and your families.

Have any of you who own early 80's Classics with a 6v92 power plant pulled out your block heater heating element to just check its efficacy,  or just replace it? How big is it,  and how difficult was it too change out? Mine is working fine with no issues,  but my brother-in-law's (Glenn Parker)is not working, so this is more for him than me,  but I'm wondering, too.

Just noticed 1462 at The Motorcoach Store...$577,777. Rather striking grey interior which has become much more popular with recent vintages:
https://www.themotorcoachstore.com/defau...id=8567189

background.....

i just changed a front drivers side airbag on my 99.  aired it up and measured each corner from friday till today.   holds steady for 3 days

i started the engine up briefly to straighten the front wheels out.  after turning it off there was a loud air leak i could hear as soon as i went out the door.  

traced it to the engine compressor air dryer in the drivers side rear wheel well.  when spraying soapy bubbles on the back side of it that was facing the rear engine firewall, you could hear the bubbles hitting the leak as you sprayed it    no bubbles though since the leak was so big

took it off, and the pictures tell the story.  inside was totally gunked up and the you can see the holes on the side of the filer cartridge that was facing the rear firewall and had rusted through.  

i had one in the supply cabinet so changed it out and all was good.  

i did put jackstands under it and a jack at the rear trailer hitch.  didnt want to loose an arm.....ha

btw,  the reason it didnt leak only on shop air is there is a check valve there somewhere that isolated that filter from the main coach air. when i started the engine up, it put air on that filter and it started leaking.  

to

Hey all I'm about 300 miles outside El Paso are there any good places to stay?

Six years ago when I bought the coach, the generator took three or four attempts to actually fire and run. You could run the prime on the pump and it would crank right up. Replacing the fuel pump ( with it's internal check valve) solved the problem. 

In the last month it started again. Ok, I know this drill. Amazon delivers the pump and I install last night while fending off mosquitos. 

However, it is really hard to get it to fire now. Fire and stumble. Fire and stumble. Repeat about ten times despite burping the fuel system twice. I finally get it running. Flip on the ACs to put a load on it and it dies. Hmmm, try the Aquahot and the generator slows and dies. I am thinking about this time that das ist nicht gud. 

Ok, calm down. Do you put the old pump back on? Let's think, diesels are simple animals that need fuel and air. What keeps it from getting fuel. Filters. Hmmm. Change out both filters, prefilling them with ATF. Fires right up and runs without any further problems. 

Yeah, yeah, I know. Follow my own advice. Look at simple first. 

In my defense, in 15 years of motorhoming, this is the first time I have ever had to change a filter because the engine was starving.