I stopped by Carl F.'s place this week. Nice guy, nice Barth, had a nice visit. I particularly liked the immaculate and comfortable interior.

I violated rule No. 1 and tried to assist with a few items. Since some of the process of id things is a 2-man job, we had some success.

Unfortunately, when shaking his coolant overflow bottle to better see the fluid level, my thumb punctured the brittle container wall. Not trying to justify the action, but if it was that brittle it was overdue for replacement.

This sounds like a no brainer, until one tries to find a replacement.

Two questions:
1. I cannot find an aftermarket branded or generic replacement of the similar form factor/size. I have visited Chevy, Napa, Advanced Auto and searched endlessly on the web. Does anyone know of a source for a similar size/factor/selection of bottles?

2. The bottle appears to be of 3 to 4 quart capacity. The largest generic replacement I could find is 2.5 quart at Advanced Auto. For his Checy 454, is a 2.5 quart overflow bottle of adequate size?

Views of the bottle (to judge the size, the mount holes are 6 in. centers):

bottle view 1

bottle view 3

Check Ebay Item number: 260020756596

A couple years ago my coolant bottle ruptured when we stopped for a potty call, & spilled its contents in the rest area parking lot, a scary sight until I saw what actually happened. Believing that all the expansion had gone out of the system, we continued to our destination without incident, keeping a close eye on the temp gauge.

I bought a generic at a parts house, cobbled up a mount & it works fine. The rig (sorry Dave, I've been using that term too many years to change) is in storage so I can't take a look or a photo to describe it accurately, but it isn't any bigger than 2.5 quarts. My original wasn't either, not nearly the size of your original example.

This might work, although you've probably seen it. My 6.5L TD has about a 1-gallon tank, but the "cold" and "hot" level markers are at about 1/2 qt. and 1 qt., respectively, so 2.5 qts should be enough.

And Carl certainly helped me when I visited, chauffering me to the auto parts store and helping repair wires to the house A/C control board...fine gentlemen and a very, very nice Barth.

Rusty, your 1 gallon bottle sounds like his bottle, as the cold and hot marks were very low on the bottle.

I doubt that the 1 gallon size can be found. Since I poked my thumb through it, I have been searching junk yards for a bottle config that will kinda match his, but so far no luck - too 'deep' front to back.

If it were mine, I would install the 2 qt napa unit, top off the coolant, put the bottle level at 3/8 quart , run the engine until the thermostat temp is reached, check the bottle. If it is not over 7/8 full, I would go with it.

1 gallon is overkill on a healthy 454 cooling system, and if it is not healthy, a 5 gallon bottle won't save your butt!

My Cummins holds 12 gallons of coolant, and it's bottle is only one gallon, with cold mark at 1 qt. and hot mark at 2 qt.

On a 'generic' bottle hot and cold marks are arbitrary anyways.

But I feel bad about ruining his bottle, but it could be a blessing in disguise. At least I left a very good dog leash behind to console him :-)

I would reccommend that everyone try to poke their thumb through the overflow bottle periodically!

quote:

And Carl certainly helped me when I visited, chauffering me to the auto parts store and helping repair wires to the house A/C control board...fine gentlemen and a very, very nice Barth.

Yup, a very helpful and friendly guy - and mary was fun to talk with.

quote:

Originally posted by olroy:
...cobbled up a mount & it works fine ...

I once had an old vehicle that I located a resting place for a bottle that it would sit unsecured, for years.

Bill Stevson has the right answer. Buy the 88-98 GMC/Chevy Truck Coolant Reservoir Bottle from 1A Auto. I checked my '85 Chevy Truck Parts
Book and the Coolant bottle wasn't shown. If the
bottle can be used for all Chevy Trucks, which would include the 454 V8 models, then it can be used on the Motorhome chassis of the same vintage. I called 1A Auto to verify this point, and the technical person checked and said that it covered the 454 V8. The picture on Ebay doesn't show the mounting holes, but the description said that it can be directly bolted on the vehicle. I asked the technical person how much the bottle held, but he couldn't tell me, and their warehoouse is at another location, so he couldn't check it.

This same overflow bottle was used as a temporary fuel tank to transport the chassis to
the car and train carriers and off of them at the delivery point. When the 1973 oil shortage
turned off sales of the motorhomes, Chevrolet had chassis at the various motorhome builders that had sat in storage for over a year. The result was that the sun had depleted the plastisizers out of the bottle, and the bottles cracked and broke. However, the gas had evaporated and left a gooey mess at the bottom of the bottle. We had to put a black baggie over the bottle to keep out the sunlight, and add a label warning that this the temporary fuel tank, and do not remove the baggie until the chassis was built into a motorhome.

Jake Jacobson

Again a sincere thanks to all. I tried E-Bay,Googled around the world,called the local parts stores and came up ziltch. I was trying to retain the approximate size of the original tank. All the Chevy and GMC (as all others) tanks exceeded the front to rear measurement. I took the advise about the "universal" tank from NAPA and installed it today. It looks tiny compared to the original but was easy to install. Will crank it over tomorrow and will keep you posted if there are problems. Although Garryp really felt bad when the tank ruptured,I felt pretty darn good that all this happened in my driveway and not in the middle of nowhere.

"THE TOY" 88 33' Regal SE Coach #3448

Can anyone tell me how to get my screens off so I can clean them? I have a 28' 1991 Breakaway. Thanks.

To what screens do you refer?

quote:

Originally posted by Sniboy:
Can anyone tell me how to get my screens off so I can clean them?

Now that's a Thread Drift or is it hijacking a thread? In this case I like hijacking a thread better. Look at me talk about thread drift. Ha,ha,ha!

quote:

Originally posted by Rusty:
To what screens do you refer?

I think he's talking about the sliding window screens.

In my coach I have Hehr Windows. The lower track and upper track has a piece of plastic in it that the screen slides on. Open the window and screen all of the way towards the front of the coach and place a screwdriver tip under the upper piece of plastic in the track farthest from the screen. Pry down on the plastic just enough to grab it with your finger tip. pull the plastic out but try not to kink it.

Now the upper track has more room. Move the screen to the middle of the window and lift up. The screen will travel farther upwards then the frame of the screen thus allowing you to pull it away at the bottom while lowering it out of the upper track.

(Stay with me, I'm trying to get this to come full circle)
Now if you are talking about the screen on your computer monitor... Carl Flack, who oddly enough this thread was started about, has a great screen cleaner for the inside of your monitor that he'll send you thru an Email for free. After I used it I don't have to lean forward to stare at my "Dirty Screen" anymore. It works great and I didn't have to remove it!

To get this train back on track. If the other one doesn't work Carl this looks nice and can be found here

I'm going to have to check my Hehr windowns to see if N.Y. Bill's advice about the upper slide applies to mine. It would be a lot easier than what I've been doing, i.e. open both window & screen all the way, slide the screen back far enough to free the rounded end, work the bottom of the screen out as far as possible, then pull on the center of the vertical rib to flex the screen enough to pull it all the way out. Installation is the reverse.

If that upper track insert is indeed there, it will be a whole lot easier, & a lot less likely to damage the screen.

quote:

Originally posted by Bill N.Y.:

quote:

Originally posted by Sniboy:
Can anyone tell me how to get my screens off so I can clean them?

Now that's a Thread Drift or is it hijacking a thread? In this case I like hijacking a thread better. Look at me talk about thread drift. Ha,ha,ha!

quote:

Originally posted by Rusty:
To what screens do you refer?

I think he's talking about the sliding window screens.

In my coach I have Hehr Windows. The lower track and upper track has a piece of plastic in it that the screen slides on. Open the window and screen all of the way towards the front of the coach and place a screwdriver tip under the upper piece of plastic in the track farthest from the screen. Pry down on the plastic just enough to grab it with your finger tip. pull the plastic out but try not to kink it.

Now the upper track has more room. Move the screen to the middle of the window and lift up. The screen will travel farther upwards then the frame of the screen thus allowing you to pull it away at the bottom while lowering it out of the upper track.

(Stay with me, I'm trying to get this to come full circle)
Now if you are talking about the screen on your computer monitor... Carl Flack, who oddly enough this thread was started about, has a great screen cleaner for the inside of your monitor that he'll send you thru an Email for free. After I used it I don't have to lean forward to stare at my "Dirty Screen" anymore. It works great and I didn't have to remove it!

To get this train back on track. If the other one doesn't work Carl this looks nice and can be found here

Bill, I am slowly figuring out this thread business and one day might actually understand it. Thanks for the info. Most helpful. Smith

quote:

Originally posted by Sniboy:
Bill, I am slowly figuring out this thread business and one day might actually understand it. Thanks for the info. Most helpful. Smith

Glad you're finding your way around the site better... Remember, your coach #3710 was right behind my #3709 so if you do have Hehr windows then I'm sure yours come out the same way.

Bill N.Y.