Standard side

The Winnebagos winter storage at the skiresort took a new turn.

The wife, kid and fatty himself drove the W up in the mountains. They spent the better of 4 days to get the W attached to the 10 square metres "cabin".

When the temperature dropped to around 3 degrees centigrades, the cold was apparent. Buddy Joe regretted not putting down the 6mm insulation plates and heatfoil under the vinylfloors while he was at it. Still, the inside temperature was acceptable.

The gastank access was blocked by the "cabin". This was acceptable considering other heating and cooking options. The wife bought one of those small ovens.

The watertank was drained and it woud be a minor hassle to use the servicecenter to do the washing and other stuff needing water.

The craptanks was emptied and cleaned. Again, thinking it would be alright to use the servicecentre for the .....You know what.

It just so happened that The Wife, The kid and lard ass was invited to some fellow campers down the road. They spent their time in one of those modern campers that You pull with Your car. What was strikingly apparent was the heat inside the camper. Would You know that they had floorheating in addition to central heat based upon antifreeze/coolant liquid? 

The gas for cooking was beeing supplied from portable gasbottles in a seperate room in the camper.

They even had a watertank wich was easily filled and drained. They had a crapper onboard with a detachable tank.

When leaving the camper, The wife and lardass was somewhat dumdstruck. They had no idea that todays modern campers was that advanced. "What to do now?" Buddy Joe asked The Wife. She on the other hand had already made the decision.."lets have a look on the net to see whats available" she said.

The next day, Fat Joe and family was the proud owner of a 8 metre camper with all the necessities avaiable, beds for seven, a crapper, shower, tanks, gas, floorheating and central heating.

So, what to do with the Winnebago?

Well, the interior upgrades are still ongoing after Buddy Joe dismounted the "cabin" and brought the W back to the shop. We got the front seats back from the interiorguy, still waiting for the dinette.

The W is now in the paintshop getting painted in a Mercedes 1798 Santini Beige color. Yes, it is gold. The W will be used for spring, summer and fall travels. The camper will stay attached to the "cabin" and will be used during winter.

Stay Tuned...

We are back...se below.

The fine folks at Biltekno AS did it again. it's all back. It's georgous.

Lard ass was somewhat perolexed when he first went down to the shop to pick up the seats. I am sure that the observant reader reflected on the colordifferance between the seats and the enginecover.

When Buddy Joe got the faux leather for the engine cover, he was certain that he picked the dark brown leather for the seats. Needless to say, Joe was wrong. 

Anyway, it turned out as planned by the Wife. One minor detail that she pointed out, the classic oak got to go. She said the cabinets needs to be "dated". Alright, more to to for Joe and the boys. Not like they didnt have any other things to do here at the shop.

How about a Retro look?

The Brave is turning out nicely Modern Retro. The front seats are in. Buddy Joe will eventually post better Pictures.

We are not so sure about the tabletop color, it looks a little too red. We have to consult the Madam for a second opinion.

We are also in the process of getting samples for carpeting. The Wife is down to 2 samples as we speak.

The red seat is gone. As mentioned earlier, Lardy got hold of a used Cevy Starcraft seat with integrated seatbelt.

This seat was then sent off to the interiorshop for a remake. This is the result. The seat will de designated to the Little Princess while cruising off into the sunset.

Funky thing, Buddy Joe seems unable to rotate the picture.

Well, what can I say?

The people at Westrum did a splendid job. The color fits like a hand in a glove to this Modernized Retro Brave. 

It looks a little plain. Do not worry. The folks at Graphichrv.com are on the case. We expect the fancy graphics in a couple of weeks.

The Wife is happy it turned out just like she thought it would.

The observant reader will also note the forward mounted frontmirrors. A nice touch.

We told You about The PMD and these engines. We put in a new unit from HR Services wich "failed" after a total of 7 hrs on the road. We got the "new and improved" unit from Stanadyne. This one lasted about 5hrs before the 6.5 said thank You but no thank You.

So, now what? Having 3 PMD failures in a row within hrs seemed impossible. We told You that these engines do have some issues.

We then disconnected the gearboxswitch above the pedals. At the same time we opened the fuelcap for additional air availabe to the tank. This seemed to work fine, the W ran like never before. This was when Joe brougt the W to the paintshop.

Coming back here after completed paintjob, the W started running rough. Joe stopped and again opened the fuelcap and the W once again ran like never before....thats until it started running rough and entered the no pull mode. So, not the PMD, not the switch and nor the cap. What then?

Correct, the liftpump. This item is  also a major source for trouble in these engines. When testing the old, it seemed to struggle creating fuelpressure. We put in the new one, done in 15 minutes, and no problems getting fuelpressure.

i apologize to HR Services, Your PMD is probably just fine.

What happens is that the liftpump weakens over time, thats why it helped loosen up the fuelcap for with less strain on the pump. The fuelcap is alright with ample airflow. Ask me how I know and I will tell You how dieselfuel tastes.

Lets hope this minor fix did the trick.

The new liftpump definitely helped the W run better, when it ran.

Would You belive that the W still stopped while running. The dieselfilter swap, the Pmd swap, the install of new liftpump did nothing to help our problem.

After more research, the wastegate solenoid and boost sensor failures could give the same symptoms as we experienced. The Solenoid was tested for sufficient vaccum. The vaccum from the vaccumpump was correct but no vaccum from the solenoid to the waste gate. Could it be so that the problem was beeing found?

We put in a new solenoid just to see the same results as previously tested. How about power to the solenoid? Correct, no power.

It turns out that one of the previous owners had cut the wires leading to the solenoid. The wires was spliced and Voila, Fat Joe and The Wife is ready to go.

The Wife said the Oak had to go. If fact, she said she could not stand it. Make it more modern, she said. 

What to do? Joe got the paint to match. "Bentley Brown", she said. And some beige to go with that also, was our instructions.

The bases and doord on all cabinets were promed and painted with two coats. Brown on base and beige doors.

The Wife is happy.

The W seemed it a little plain with no decals or graphics. We got hold of our friend at Graphicsrv.com to see what they could come up with. We found a set that would work for us.

It is nice to see whar some "minor" details can do.

Fat Joe and partners are pretty much done with the restoration of this beauty. We hope You enjoyed our prosess and updates.

It is now summer and all of us are ready for som nice trips all over the place.

Thanks for watching.

Joe.

What do you know?

After Lardass and tha family was loaded, the beast ended up at 6 tons. That is quite a bit for the 6.5, especially during those 10% climbs.

So what to do? The simple answer would be Ateam Turbo. It's on order from Leroy Diesel.

The new turbo would also delete the need for vaccum, wastegate and solenoid. These areas are known troublespots on these engines. We can't wait to get it on.

How nice can it be?