The title quote is from Roseanne Roseannadanna - Gilda Radner on SNL.

Spring and summer have presented me with a variety of "unscheduled" maintenance, on StaRV II, the house, and appliances:

APR '08:

- Blisters on StaRV II's front tires (one of 'em anyway) - replaced in MS at a star party
- Homeward bound from that star party, tranny wouldn't shift into overdrive. Rebuilt, all HD components.
- Engine A/C compressor failed (My fault - in redoing the wiring, I connected to the hot side of the HiLo pressure switch, and a bad connector for the condenser fan broke - done by another - the compressor overpressured and blew its seals).
- Discovered the fix by my Tranny Guy repaired only one leak in the Ford van. Finally located and repaired the other (O-ring on the dipstick tube).

May '08:

- Pressure washer carb needed refurb
- Weedeater fuel tank sprang a leak; replaced
- Heat recovery pump (Uses waste heat from the house A/C to heat hot water) failed; dealer first supplied 120VAC pump, but I caught the error before installation.

JUN '08:

- Well pump tank bleeder valve failed.
- Noticed StaRV II's rear bumper was shakey. Discovered it was attached only with lag bolts. Installed SS carriage bolts and secured it.
- Discovered that, having been pulled out of a field by a tow truck, the muffler had dragged, dislodging the flex pipe from the turbo discharge. Repaired; also installed mandrel-bent elbow while I was at it.

JUL '08

- I'd noticed a "hop" driving StaRV II; had the rear tires rebalanced - all were 2-5.5 oz. off...
- Master bedroom shower started shedding tiles. Discovered the tiles were backed by greenboard; replaced the lower half with Wonderboard, and retiled - also replaced the shower door.

AUG '08:

- Car tends to drain the battery after a couple of days. Suspect a bad diode in the alternator, but haven't had a chance to check out.
- Finally got around to building the new peecee. Outboard RAID controller failed to initialize. Drivers for onboard controller woouldn't load (worked around). After 30-40 hours configuring it, made one last test before putting it into service. Motherboard failed; RMAed, awaiting new one.

SEP '08:

- Freezer door on the refrigerator kept condensing moisture - always wet on top. Removed door - about 2 lbs. ice inside. Refurbished steel sections, repainted, and replaced the missing piece of insulation causing the problem.

Okay, folks, your turn...

We were out for a week 8/14 to 8/20.

1. Right front airbag failed.

2. Something caused the alternator/smog pump drive belt to wear through. This was annoying to trouble shoot, as the smog pump and alternator both turned freely and smoothly, but something howled causing me to stick in the spare alternator for trouble shooting purposes. Howl was still there, so it is the smog pump. Apparently it locked up, causing the crankshaft pulley to wear out the belt. Naturally, the wrecked belt whipped around like a berserk weedwhacker on meth, and angered a trans cooler line connection, which squirted enough oil into the lower radiator support channel to leak for three days after the event. No leak was ever found, even with Susan stalling the convertor with me underneath with a light. I tightened all connections anyway, but the radiator channel continued to drip oil, convincing me that I had angered Odin or somebody. This was complicated by the fact that we were parked on a hill, and I had dug a 6 inch deep holw for the left front wheel as part of my levelling. This in addition to 9 inches of ramp under the right rear drive wheel. The right tag wheel was just hanging. My pitiful attempts to clean things well enough with what I had on hand were inconclusive. Part of me knew that the oil drip was just residual, but I could not see how so much could drip for so long from that channel. Of course, we were far from a proper pressure water supply to do a decent clean job, and my outside shower would not reach. I finally emptied the Cold Fire solution from my 2 1/2 gallon fire extinguisher for reuse, filled it with water, pumped it up to 100 psi, shot the channel with engine cleaner, and gave it a proper wash down and all was well. No more oil dripping.

3. The fridge stopped not fridging.

4. Three of the four 12 volt outlets in the living room would not power my laptop. That's gonna be fun to track down. They show 12 volts, but the voltage swings under a heavy load.

5. Laptop battery dies in 20 minutes.

There might be more that I forgot, but that was more than the usual trouble for a week of RV fun.

But, the good news is that the two tumors they cut out a week earlier came back benign on the biopsy. One of them had me worried.

JUL '08 (Forgot):

- Took the Shop-Vac into the bathroom to clean up the residue from the old tile and greenboard...crapped out, with maybe an hour's worth of use. Blown fusible link. Jumped, and has a lot of flame from the brushes. I replaced with a Rigid top-of-the-line with lifetime warranty, on sale.

About four years ago at the end of August, I left Memphis going to Clinton, Arkansas for the National Chuck Wagon Races, should have been about 300 miles. There were some friends also going, he pulling horse trailer, she towing small popup. I was pulling my 21 foot travel trailer with a Dodge Dakota, about 90 miles from home truck kinda did a hiccup and then leveled out. About 1/4 mile down the road it quit on me so I pulled over to the side of the road and got out and when I walked around the side of the truck the rear end was "SMOKIN" no fire though. So here I am in the middle of nowhere, pull out my cell phone (thank goodness it worked) called State Farn and told lady I needed a phone # for a tow truck, she gave me three, first two no answer, third answered and I explained my dilema. Lady sent tow truck for my truck and owner brought his personal pickup and towed my trailer to his place of business. We made arrangements to take truck to repair shop and friends went to Clinton-dropped horse trailer- and came all the way back to get me.

Repair shop said truck would be ready in about four days. Went to Clinton and had a good time but found broken leaf spring on camper, finally found a replacement and changed that out. Thought Hubbie would get truck-come to Clinton-get wife and trailer and we would all go home. Truck not ready- We are on some man's Ranch and have to get off his property so he can be a Rancher again. Son called friend and borrowed about a 1965 Chebby with a Crate motor (five mpg) Hubbie drives to Clinton to get wife and trailer-runs out of gas can't find switch for other tank-knocks on door and man takes him to get gas, finally Hubbie arrives to pickup wife and trailer and we have an uneventfull trip home.

Although there were many trials and tribulations on this trip, I had more fun than should be allowed.

Moral of this story:

Rusty it happens to me all the time, so don't feel bad

Well, last year I spent a huge amount of time "fixing" up my Barth and enjoyed most minutes of it. We used it a couple times, we had to be towed home the second time. My Better half really wanted a bigger unit so we purchased the SOB in April. I should have left it where it sat. Since buying it I have

• replaced radiator with a re-core
  
• patched the transmission cooler, brass worked well
  
• replaced one steel hydraulic xmission cooling line with hydraulic hose
  
• replaced belt tension er
  
• wire brushed the engine (6bt) and painted the same
  
• learned how to use electrolysis to clean parts, and it really works well!
  
• re-routed wiring along frame rail because I did not like how it was hung.
  
• removed no less than 6 circuits (wires) that were run from the front to rear.
  
• learned that that the a/c was never wired correctly from the factory!
  
• installed xmission temp, egt and boost guages.
  
• rewired the dash fans, radio, accessory lights to operate off of the coach battery,
  
• new fluids, filters
  
• new brakes, rotors, hoses up front
  
• remove/replace rear brakes (found to be installed wrong)
  
• replaced all 6 tires, learned that 19.5's are easier than 16" pickup tires... Replacement was encouraged by having one blow out on the interstate. Progressive roadside was very prompt
  
• and a ton of other crap...

now that I finished whining about my SOB, All of this has given me enough experience to start on Mary's command center..Y'all gonna see this thing in a couple weeks. I hope I get it right the first time because it is over 530 miles on her first leg of the trip, and around 300 home to Memphis.

I am looking forward to a summer that I can spend more time driving on the inside rather than laying on the bottom side.

whining over...

Doug, Hubbie and I were talking at dinner tonite about how without you I would not be a two Barth owner with her own rolling pit man (at least part of the way) and I can not thank you enough.

Sure you can!
You can block the other drivers out of my way around the race track!

I probably will be pushing the weight limit of them buggies.... so I will need all the help I can get!

So far so good, I have spent too much time watching RNC this week, but I have manifold gaskets, wires, plugs, filters and oil in the car ready to be put on this weekend.
I've not seen anything major wrong, I guess the police department did spend a few bucks on grease and oil. I also found a magnetic decal in one of the cabinets for the police department....I don't know that it was ever used since Barths are aluminum.

I'll be in touch!

quote:

Originally posted by Bywaters:
I also found a magnetic decal in one of the cabinets for the police department....I don't know that it was ever used since Barths are aluminum.

Maybe they need to make the test harder.

But seriously, it probably was for quick attachment to a car door. Some PDs put them on and off, depending on the need.

Well, with a little duct tape we fix this thing so every law man from VA to TN will ignore this aluminum can while it's breaking the sound barrier between Flint Hill and Chattanooga

Forgot:

JUL '08:

Shop-Vac flamed (literally); oddly enough, Home Despot had it's top-of-the-line vac on sale.

SEP '08:

(Addendum)

After leaving Nick and Donna Cagles' hospitality Friday, I stopped at the rest stop to dump the waste tanks. The starter was very sluggish - barely got started. I had to change parking places here at the Peach State Star Gaze and barely got 'er started. Replaced aged battery, no change. Yesterday replaced the starter, back to normal.

quote:

Originally posted by Rusty:
Forgot:

JUL '08:

Shop-Vac flamed (literally); oddly enough, Home Despot had it's top-of-the-line vac on sale.

I had a shop vac send a spark into its contents. Sawdust. Didn't know it at the time, but a little later, apparently after smoldering for a while, my trash can outside caught fire and melted my Jag's taillight lens and part of the bumper. The only reason I discovered it in time was that I went out to go to work. A little later, God knows what I would have lost. It was right next to the house.

I hate to take this to the level of competition, but I just dropped $2200 on getting new rear leaf spring (stock ones were woefully undersprung) with two extra leafs, new shackles too.

Since he had the rear apart, I told him to change out all 4 calipers too. Barth was starting to wander under braking. They were all 2o years old.

Two new shocks too.

It rides a lot better, but the list of things to do is really quite long still.

Windsor, it isn't competition - it's a Mutual Whining Society...

quote:

Originally posted by Rusty:
SEP '08:

(Addendum)

After leaving Nick and Donna Cagles' hospitality Friday, I stopped at the rest stop to dump the waste tanks. The starter was very sluggish - barely got started. I had to change parking places here at the Peach State Star Gaze and barely got 'er started. Replaced aged battery, no change. Yesterday replaced the starter, back to normal.

Let's see. Replaced the battery, no change. Replaced the starter. Why does that sound familiar? Oh, Yeah, Been there-Done That. That's what happened on the trip home when we bought the Barth.

Nick

Now, this'll mean nothing to non-astronomers (maybe Susan would understand), but one of the things I do at star parties is imaging (a little with the scope folks looked through at Raccoon Mountain, but usually with a more elaborate rig).

Anyway, I set the imaging ensemble up and it worked fine the first night (visual only). The next night, I discovered a broken motor mount for one of the drives...

It's always something!