You Can't Compress a Liquid

The Power of Hydraulics

I've been so busy working on the hydraulic leveling system on the Motorless Home that I forgot to take pictures!

Anyway, I'd been trying to think up ways that I could get the old blown motor out of the Motorless Home.  When I discovered that the boom on my engine hoist wasn't long enough to reach, I got really discouraged, and that's part of the reason that I let the blog go for so long.

After getting started with repairs recently, I took another look.  I realized that if I removed the front bumper, I might be just barely able to get the boom over the engine block to remove it. So, I got under there and started to take it off.

It was clear that someone had recently removed the bumper. Several of the bolts that hold on have been replaced with new stainless steel ones.  I'm guessing that the previous owner had the engine out at some point, and had used this very method to reach into the engine bay.  Once removed, I slid my engine hoist in for a test fit.

Son of a bitch. I could see that I had enough clearance to get the engine hoist into the engine bay, but now, the top of the engine bay opening was hitting the top of the hoist.  I could not push it in any farther!  Argh! I thought to myself that if the engine hoist were only a few inches shorter, I could get it in there.  Then it hit me.  If I raised the front of the Motorless Home up, it would have the same effect.

If only that hydraulic leveling system worked, I could use it to get the clearance I need. Since I was frustrated by the engine hoist problem, I decided to take a detour and explore why the hydraulics didn't work.  When we first got the Motorless Home back to the house, we tried to make the hydraulics work.  They didn't. We tried putting power right to the pump, but it would not move. We even smoked the solenoid trying to deliver enough power.  We just concluded that the motor was toast and moved on to other things.

When I decided to explore the hydraulics, the first thing I did was to disassemble the electric motor that turns the hydraulic pump. It was clearly in poor shape. Water had pooled in it and rusted out some of the components.  I cleaned everything up and reassembled it as best I could.  To make sure that it worked properly, I bench tested the motor and it ran beautifully.  However, after reconnecting it to the hydraulic pump, it would not turn -- just like the day that we got it home.

Well, it turns out that the reason that it would not turn was twofold; the hydraulic pump requires that the fluid that it is pumping go somewhere or the pump will lock up.  It can either go into a hydraulic cylinder to expand it, or it can cycle through the system and return to the reservoir via the return line. I removed the supply and return lines from the pump, and when I gave it power, it shot a stream of hydraulic fluid several feet!  Thank God.  The pump actually works.  Now, trace it to the next place.















I thought that the problem might be a blockage in a line, or perhaps in the control valve manifold.  In order to troubleshoot it, I had to dismount the manifold. Guess what? Some genius spray-foamed the bejeesus out of it.  I can understand why they might have wanted to apply spray-foam in that area. Some good reasons include:

• There may have been water leaks, and getting sprayed by the driver side tire is no fun.
• Soundproofing. You can get a lot of road noise from right there, and perhaps they were trying to make for a better driving experience.
• Insulation. Maybe they didn't want their little tootsies to get cold while driving.

All of these are very good reasons to apply spray-foam to that area.  But...

Hey Genius! How about you put a piece of plastic over that valve manifold before you spray? That way, you can still have the insulation you want, but you put a "bubble" around the unit so that it's not completely encrusted!

I spent 30 minutes lying on my back, working over my head with a screwdriver chipping that foam out of there until I could figure out how to remove the valve manifold. Even with safety glasses on, that stuff still got in my eyes.  What a pain in the ass.

Once I got the manifold dismounted, I had to disconnect the hydraulic lines. There were six in total.  One for each of the four jacks, a supply from the pump, and a return to the pump. They were all corroded and rusted. I hosed them down with SeaFoam Deep Creep, and started to remove them.  It was quite an ordeal!  While attempting to remove the line that feeds the right rear jack, the fitting broke. Son of a bitch!  That is the longest line on the whole coach!  GAH!

I also discovered one of the reasons that the pump would not turn.  The return line was melted (from the fire, no doubt) and was completely sealed. After much cussing and finagling, I was able to get the valve manifold removed and into the garage to my workbench.

This thing was definitely in need of some cleaning and TLC.  The levers would not operate smoothly, and there was loads of gunk.

I slowly dismantled the unit, making sure I kept track of where all the parts went.  After I removed all four spring sets, I noticed that there was a single steel check ball laying on my disassembly towel.

This was troublesome. Since all four valves are identical, they should all have the same parts in them.  Unfortunately, since I had taken apart the first one and it did not have a ball, I wasn't looking for one.  After I found that ball, I checked out the work area.  Nope.  There were no more.  They were missing from the manifold.  Great. Someone's had this thing apart before and not put it all back together right.

I set the ball aside for later consideration.  The only other complication during the disassembly was the pump switch. Apparently, the casing was cracked or I damaged it while disassembling something else, because It came apart in a few pieces.  Luckily, by reassembling the switch, it worked fine -- I just had to figure out how to stick it back together again. Also, the screws holding the switch onto the bracket were so rusted out that I wound up breaking one of them.  So, a trip to the hardware store was in order later.

Once it was fully disassembled, I cleaned it up really well using a wire brush.  Got all the gunk off and reassembled it.  I chose not to put that check ball back in since I only had one. I surmised that they would be needed, based on the design of the valve.  However, since I wasn't sure, I left it out, and figured that the manifold would behave strangely if it needed them.

Wow!  This thing cleaned up nicely! I had to stop for the night here since I had run out of time to hit a hardware store to get the screws for the switch and a 1/8NPT pipe plug to block off the port for the broken hydraulic line.

Today, I stopped at the hardware store and got what I needed.  I reassembled the switch and screwed it into position.  However, the switch did not want to stay assembled because of the pressure on it.  So, I mixed up a blob of JBWeld Stick and used it to hold the switch in the right alignment.  A bit of overkill, but hey, it worked, and I had the JBWeld Stick already!

My next challenge was to reconnect the hydraulic lines and the electrical stuff so that the manifold's switch could operate the power to the pump. In order to get the pump working properly, I had to drill out a broken bolt so I could secure the power cables, and I had to borrow a solenoid from another area under the hood since the one that went with this pump motor was cooked.  I wired up the electrics and went to connect the valve manifold to the hydraulic lines.

Well, in the process, I bumped one of the levers.  Since the electrical connections had already been made, the pump activated and I got a face full of hydraulic fluid.  Thankfully, that stuff doesn't burn like gasoline would.

I also had to sort out the return line, since the one I had was completely melted shut. I found a section of air hose in the garage that already had the right fittings on the ends.  It was a few feet too long, but when I go to remount everything, I'll make sure that's neatly tucked away.

Now, for the moment of truth:  It worked!  The three jacks that I had connected function!

However, it looks like I will need to get those check balls and reinstall them. When I would operate the lever for one of the jacks, the others would get some fluid too.  This is because those balls need to be in there to completely seal off the other channels when one is getting fluid. I will also need to tighten the supply fittings, since they were seeping a little.  My guess is that the previous owner tried to troubleshoot the hydraulics, and when he disassembled the valves, he wasn't careful and lost the check balls.

Because I don't have all four jacks working, I can't level the unit.  Also, the rear jacks are over the grass, and they would just sink into the ground anyway.  I'll have to put some blocks under them to spread out the load.

I did, however, manage to raise the body of the Motorless Home up just enough to get my engine hoist into the front all the way.  It looks like I now have enough clearance to remove the blown motor!

So, what's next? 

I need to get that broken hose fitting replaced.  I will have to completely remove the hose from the vehicle and take it to a hydraulics shop to see if it can be repaired.  I really hope so.  Since this is the longest hydraulic line on the whole vehicle, it will be quite expensive to replace.  The line this uses is $0.33 per inch. That's over $4 per foot, and it's probably close to 30 feet in length.  So the hose will likely cost $150 to replace!  Yikes!  If I'm lucky, they will just put a new fitting on the end and I can get out of there for $30 or so.   Thankfully, I still have one of check balls for the valve body. I can measure it with my digital caliper so that I can be sure to get the right sized replacements, probably at the same shop that I take the hose to.

Also, I can start working to remove the old engine block.  That is a real sore spot for me, and having that thing out of there will really be a milestone on this project. Cross your fingers!

Out with the Old and in with the ... Water Damage!

Making Space and Finding Faults

Linda and I decided that the large closet in the hallway of the Motorless Home had to go.  A previous owner had tried to remodel it and did a piss-poor job of it.  Also, since Linda and I don't own many articles of clothing that need to be hung up, it seemed like a colossal waste of space.

After removing the crap job that the previous owner did of moving the sliding doors to the bottom, I then ripped out all the crappy structural work that he did to try to make this modification work.  You can see the huge pile of lumber and junk on the floor.

That's one upside to this -- I will have some extra lumber to use in the project for other things.

I then removed the paneling on the inside to expose the hidden factory wiring.  I'm going to have to redo a lot of this wiring, since there are several feet of extra length that we won't need in the redesign.

In this image, you can see the wheel well for the tag axle on this RV.  I can't remove or change that, except to remove that god-awful carpet. I'll have to incorporate this wheel well into the new design.

Both wheel wells are visible here.  I was hoping to open up the area much wider than the closet that was in there, but that wheel well for the drive (dually) axle will determine width of this space.

Since I believe that the metal of this wheel well is rusted out, I may be able to replace the metal and tweak the width a little to make more space.

You can also see a little light coming in between the wall and the carpet. The sidewall of the RV has separated from the floor along this side, as well.  Yay. More water damage.

The wiring running across the floor will also need to be moved. It appears that a main 12VDC supply line comes up through the floor here. I will have to move that, as well.

I spent the next little while removing the wiring from the walls and removing the walls themselves.  You can see the 12VDC and 110VAC wires hanging from the cabinet here.  I'll have to find a way to reroute those.

For now, I've left the vanity that is part of the bedroom intact.  It will be removed eventually, but since there is plumbing involved, I need to have the supplies to cap the water and drain lines before I tear that out.

When I was removing the rearmost wall, I found more water damage in the ceiling.  So, I cut away part of the ceiling covering to inspect.  It's not as bad as some of the other areas, but it will need to be completely replaced.

I had planned on replacing this section of ceiling anyway, but it just goes to show you that water damage usually goes a lot farther than you think. I guess I need to get up on the roof tomorrow and apply a layer of temporary sealant to the other areas, just in case water is penetrating there, too.

A popular modification of RVs is to replace the dinette with a bartop and additional storage. Linda and I like this idea, since the bartop can do triple duty as a work desk, an eating area and a food prep counter. So, I decided to start removing our dinette, as well.

I figured that I'd remove the rearmost seat first, since that would free up more space, while leaving the forward one for a seating area while we conduct repairs.

These things are beefy! It's made of a welded steel frame that is securely bolted to the floor.  I'm guessing that it was made this way so that it could be rated for use as a vehicle seat, and therefore could be occupied while the vehicle was in motion.

Sadly, the bolts just turned.  The bottom end was  far too rusted out.  So, I removed the seat top from the pedestal and decided to use a sawzall to cut the bolts.

The seat top was easy to remove.  Four nuts and washers, and I lifted it right off and carted it into the garage.

Then the fight started. I spent 45 minutes and killed four metal-cutting blades trying to cut through these !%@$# bolts.  They must have been made of fsck!ng Unobtainium or something!

After much cussing and finagling, and a little "bonus" damage to the floor structure, I finally got the bolts removed and the pedestal frame carted off to the garage.

That's when I discovered even more water damage. This is a result of the separation of the wall from the floor. Right at the floor-wall joint between the two seats, the paneling was delaminated. I picked at it.  It was dried out, but clearly water damaged.  When I get this sidewall reattached to the floor, I'll have to replace part of this inner panel and make sure it's all watertight.

I reinstalled the tabletop from the dinette so that I'd have some usable space.  I'm worn out and I am definitely done for today.

I picked up my tools (mostly) and will start tackling cleaning up some of the wiring and mess where the closet used to be tomorrow.
















I'm going to bed.  Good night.