Bridgeport, TX - TT

Monday - It was a productive morning. The motorhome's left turn signal was intermittent. If I put pressure on the lever, it would work ... most of the time. This is a recurring problem as I had repaired it before. I removed the lever assembly and disassembled it. It wasn't designed to be serviced but I didn't let that stop me. Several of the contacts inside of the assembly were burned. All bulbs on the motorhome's left turn side are regular tungsten filament bulbs. About half of the bulbs on the passenger side are LED. It may be time to change all of them to LED. One project finished. 

By early afternoon, the rain had stopped and the ground was almost completely dry. I removed the boot from the transfer case lever to see if the cable was still attached. It was. After crawling under the Jeep, I found the shift rod on the transfer case, and the end that should be attached to the shift lever cable wasn't connected. I'll assume that the tech just forgot as opposed to incompetence. I snapped it back on and the lever now shifts properly and the dashboard display registers correctly.

I was worried that I was losing hydraulic fluid on the RV. This is hydraulic fluid for the steering and the engine fan. I had checked the fluid in Cheyenne and the reservoir was full (the shop filled the reservoir). I hadn't checked it again until Hondo and I needed to add a couple of quarts. I used to check it every drive day and usually needed to add a little each time. There is some sort of pressure relief valve on the hydraulic pump that has a small crack and the shop in Cheyenne temporarily fixed it last year with some marine epoxy. They couldn't get the part in time for us to leave last year so they mailed it to me in Hondo. I have the part and just need to find a shop to install it. It needs a very large wrench and, I suspect, it'll make a mess when the old one is removed.

The reason that we are back here is to have the passenger-side windshield glass replaced. The shop that I had contacted earlier received the glass from the insurance company and is located in Arlington, TX, which is north of Fort Worth. This TT park is within the mileage allowance the insurance allows. He is planning to come out here on Tuesday. Rain and wind were forecasted for today. Tomorrow is supposed to be pretty nice. It's been blowing pretty good today with gusts almost to 50mph.

Tuesday - No wind and blue skies. I had picked up this extendable pole for the StarLink dish from Amazon and it was delivered right before we left Hondo. Today was the first time to try it out. The 15m cable is long enough to reach from this location on the rear ladder, through the driver sliding window and almost reach the router. I had picked up a weatherproof RJ-45 coupler last month and was planning to put a pass-through into the side of the RV. When I tested the coupler with a functional Ethernet cable, it didn’t work. So for now, the cable passes through the window opening. 

I tested the coupler and there is continuity on all 8 pins. One Ethernet cable failed on pin 8 so maybe I have a bad cable. Once the glass company is finished, I’ll try the coupler with a different cable. 

This afternoon, a team of four replaced the rubber seal and the passenger half of the windshield. To replace the seal, the drivers side also needed to be removed. The new glass appears to fit better than the old one as the corners look seated. 

The RV needs to sit for at least 24 hours so the urethane can set. Hopefully, this fix lasts… 

I tried using a cable (commercial Cat6 cable) that didn't have continuity on pin 8. Several cables from the same vendor exhibited the same flaw. Starlink sends power to the dish using the unused pairs on the Cat5/6 cable which includes pin 8. The good cable I'm currently using came from Walmart.

The only task remaining at this time is the rear furnace.

More RV Tasks

Friday - The super reliable rear furnace wouldn’t light sometime last week after working just fine for quite a while including all night. Odd. This morning, I removed the burner assembly, disassembled and cleaned it. The flame diffuser was starting to fall apart but it was still in one piece. I ordered a replacement diffuser and after vacuuming out the furnace, I reassembled it and tested it. It's working again. 

I installed a ladder-mounted pole for our StarLink antenna but haven't tried it out as we are heading back to Bridgeport, TX, in a couple of days so our windshield could be replaced. The pole and mount seem to be sturdy and well-made. All metal with no plastic pieces. I’ll set it up at the next campground. The unknown is whether the StarLink cable is long enough to reach the router from the ladder. I’m bringing a Cat6 coupler and an additional 25’ cable.

The glass shop picked up the RV glass from the shipping company yesterday. Slow shipping as it took almost two weeks to get from Oregon to Texas. There is rain predicted for Monday so the shop is targeting  Tuesday for the installation.

Saturday - The furnace didn’t run last night as in the blower didn’t even come on. The previous problem is that it wouldn’t light. Another thing to troubleshoot over the next few days. Today, I started getting things put away for travel. There must be a hydraulic leak as I had to add oil to the hydraulic reservoir on the engine. 

The basement storage seems empty as a lot of stuff was moved to the shed. 

Sunday - We left before 9am as we had a long-ish travel day planned. Challenges started first thing. Apparently, the dealer neglected to connect the shift lever to the transfer case. So we couldn’t flat tow the Jeep. Bridget drove it to our destination which was over 350 miles north. We are back at the Bay Landing TT park near Bridgeport, TX.

Ural Now Runs

Thursday - This morning, I thoroughly cleaned the Ural left carburetor by soaking it in carburetor cleaner after disassembly. Put it back together using the same adjustments it originally had. I re-installed it and it ran fine. Or at least as well as it did last spring. 

I rode it to D’Hanis to fill up the gas tank with fresh fuel and I noticed that downshifts were difficult. I adjusted the transmission shift stops and it didn’t help. That’s when I noticed the cracked shift lever and the lever flexed at the crack enough to hit the footpeg mounting bolt. If I can get the shift lever off without breaking it the rest of the way, I can probably get it welded.

I guess it’s always something with a Ural… And, I should clean the right carb just because. It looks filthy compared to the newly cleaned left carb.

Working on the Ural

Monday - Pulled the left cylinder head and all looked good. I re-torqued the head and checked the valve clearances. The intake was tight but within specs. DomC had found a forum entry on Soviet Steeds that sounded exactly like what I'm seeing. They had the PowerArc aftermarket ignition as do I and the solution was to re-install the stock ignition. 

I also dropped off the Jeep at the dealer in Uvalde. 

Tuesday - This morning, I loosened the PA interrupter disc which is attached to the end of the cam so it makes one revolution for every two revolutions of the crank. There is one slot for TDC and multiple slots around the circumference of the disc. The interrupter disc can be seen in the picture on the left but the TDC slot is hidden under the black LED/phototransistor pickup. With the engine at TDC, I rotated the disc 180°. If there was a problem with PA, then it should fire on the other cylinder. That didn't happen which meant that the PA was probably functional. 

I pulled off the carburetor from the non-functional cylinder and disassembled it as far as I could. The needle had varnish on it and the power  was full of what looked like algae. The air tube and the main jet were partially blocked. I cleaned it up as well as I could, re-assembled it and it now ran on both cylinders though the left one was really lean under load. I think I need to pick up a can of carb cleaner and put the parts in to soak for a couple of hours. 

Wednesday - I just got an update from the Jeep dealer. A rodent had eaten through part of the wiring harness. The dealer fixed the harness and didn't insist on replacing it. I'm also having them replace the oil in differentials and the air filter. We should be able to pick the Jeep up this afternoon.

I also heard from SafeLite about the RV windshield. The glass has finally arrived in TX and now I'm waiting to hear from the glass shop, which is located in Arlington, TX. Once we hear from the glass shop, we will move the RV back to the Ft. Worth area. Probably back to Bay Landing TT as that was within the 90miles that was approved by the insurance company,