When Parts Fall off and things happen on the road..... The Saga Continues

[Hartley]

Hi All,

Here is something that everyone who has rooftop a/c units should look at on a regular basis....

Is the Plastic cover for your rooftop a/c damaged or coming apart?

It is amazing that while running down the highway that my front a/c unit started shedding the cover in chunks...
I heard a racket but couldn't figure out what it was until I saw a 1 foot chunk fly away behind me in the mirror....

Luckily the guy on the Harley saw it coming off in bits and pieces and changed lanes behing me rapidly....

I had gone up there and thought that I had secured the remaining parts.. However the other day while
running at nearly 70 another chunk came loose and slammed into the fan blades, wrecked the whole
unit and made such a horrible noise that I dived off the highway thinking I had blown a tire...
The noise continued until I turned off the A/C unit....

So much for having a/c over the weekend, But it was cool and almost cold at times in Hoboken GA. So It
wasn't a disaster.

It is safe to say that Duo-Therm's shrouds they put on the Brisk-Air 15,000 units is a flimsy and crappy bit
of plastic, They age so fast that they are brittle within a year in the sun and prone to exploding with shards.
They are also almost impossible to find replacements for since they keep changing the design and the half metal
and half plastic is one that few aftermarket people want to deal with....

On another Story,

I while back I replaced the drivers side radiator on my MC9 and left the passenger side alone for later replacement.

Well, Yet another grand plan smashed into oblivion... As I left Georgia and was running down U.S. 1 and just as I got several miles past Hilliard Florida I stopped to get a bite to eat. Walked towards the back of the bus and there was that dreaded pink liquid running across the parking lot.

The older radiator puked one tube down near the bottom and was spewing a finger size stream of coolant.... ARGGGGHHHH...
So here I am 180 miles from home. No way to reach the ruptured tube. I went into the Winn-Dixie store and bought two bottles of black pepper and a sandwich.....

I had asked if there was an auto parts place nearby.. Uh.. NO.. There was one is Hilliard and one in Callahan and I was 6 miles away from either. Besides it was Sunday too....

I sat for about 40 minutes having lunch and thinking.... Gee what was I to do?

MC9 Radiators are not something that everyone has or everyone can afford and being so far from civilization didn't help....

I could call my wife and have her load up the spare core and tools and we could change it there but that didn't make me very happy..It would have been a 2 day job in the field..... Nahhhh.. There's gotta be a way to slow the leak...

As I started down the steps I realized that yet another grand experiment was worth trying.. So completely out of left field comes a plan.. In the bay where I had been doing some stuff I had a caulking gun with a fresh tube of Insta-Grab exterior adhesive and a 1X2 stick about 3 feet long....

So armed with Insta-Grab, Stick, Screwdriver and bottle of Black pepper the experiment was upon me...

I let the last of the coolant stop flowing. Loaded the end of the stick with a glop of adhesive and started spackling the
area of the radiator where the tube ruptured. I used almost the whole tube and made this giant white plastered area
while pressing the adhesive into the core tubes and fins..... Let that sit for about 30 minutes...

Then dumped 1/2 of the pepper into the reserve tank and filled up the tank and radiator.... It was still leaking but slower...
Hmmmm... How about a little heat, I started the engine and let it idle and circulate the pepper, The leak continued a bit more so I quickly cloed up everything, stuff the water hose in the bay and started down the road. I stopped outside of Callahan and put another 2 gallons of water in the tank. Then ran on to the autoparts place.

Added 2 bottles of Bars Leak and a quart of water... The leak had stopped completely. The water temp stayed down and I ran all the way home with the pedal on the floor at 72 mph and the temperature stayed cool.

I checked the coolant level today and it's still full.....

Now to change the other radiator and flush the system.....

Way too much Fun......

Dave.......

[Dale MC8]

Hiya Dave, it may be to your benefit to go to an air conditioning shop and have them make you a sheet metal shroud. Paint it to match the coach, etc.

Just thinking out loud

Dale MC8

[DrivingMissLazy]

Explain the pepper please!
Richard

[Dallas]

Explain the pepper please!
Richard

Back in the 'Olden' days, coarse ground black pepper was used as radiator stop leak.

IHTH

[Ace]

and it DOES work too!


from someone that has BTDI

Ace

[DrivingMissLazy]

Well, I thought I knew everything but I learned something today. LOL
Richard

[Hartley]

Black Pepper - Hillbilly Radiator Repair (aka: Redneck Radiator Repair)

It's been used since the 1920's to fix a lot of holey radiators.... Just imagine how much pepper it took
to follow Route 66....

There also was a commercial product based on ground Oatmeal that was said to work better than pepper.
someone told me it was made by Wynns but is off the market now....

The only bad part of the pepper deal is that if you have a hunting buggy built from a 49 dodge which is basically a frame
with only a seat bolted onto it and the radiator hose blows all that hot pepper water comes flying back into your face...
Nearly caused a wreck as the driver was temporarily blinded as well as ME the passenger....Not a pretty sight...

What amazed me was that the Insta-Grab actually worked. It contains superglue and polyurethane and heat
along with moisture seems to activate it. I guess that SikaFlex would also work in that case....

[brojcol]

The ingenuity of busnuts never ceases to amaze me...

[RTS/Daytona]

Wynns radiator stop leak - super stuff - works great - special formula of ground oatmeal - I've used it for many years - never had it clog a radiator - but it almost always stops the leak

sold at automotive repair shops only or by distributers see--> http://www.wynnsusa.com/

Pete RTS/Daytona

Black Pepper - Hillbilly Radiator Repair (aka: Redneck Radiator Repair)

It's been used since the 1920's to fix a lot of holey radiators.... Just imagine how much pepper it took
to follow Route 66....

There also was a commercial product based on ground Oatmeal that was said to work better than pepper.
someone told me it was made by Wynns but is off the market now....

The only bad part of the pepper deal is that if you have a hunting buggy built from a 49 dodge which is basically a frame
with only a seat bolted onto it and the radiator hose blows all that hot pepper water comes flying back into your face...
Nearly caused a wreck as the driver was temporarily blinded as well as ME the passenger....Not a pretty sight...

What amazed me was that the Insta-Grab actually worked. It contains superglue and polyurethane and heat
along with moisture seems to activate it. I guess that SikaFlex would also work in that case....

[Dreamscape]

This board never ceases to amaze me. I learn something every time I log on.

Pepper, now that is one I will never forget. How does it work, swell up? 

Paul

[bobofthenorth]

It doesn't work.  For the one time that pepper or stop leak or bars leak or whatever gets someone going again there are countless times that it does nothing other than gum up the rad.  If you have a leaky rad get it fixed.  Pouring stuff in the top won't fix it. 

[H3Jim]

I agree with Bob.  If it leaks, fix it right.  These stop leaks and pepper too should only be used as a last resort when you are on the road trying to get somewhere. fixing it right usually means re- coring, or at least taking it apart.  The stop leak is more likely to just gum things up and create it own issues.

[Hartley]

Bob,

You must be wearing your Fuddy Duddy Costume eh?

Dave...

Seriously it does work although no on the road fix works 100% of the time.

Us Po peoples have to use whatever means at hand... I didn't have anything to lose anyway as it
was. I was 180 miles from home and in the middle of just about nowhere. I was only hoping to get
a few more miles closer to either someone that had a place that I could work on the bus or home
without burning up my engine..... So home it was....

Your grandpa apparently didn't teach you some of the simple stuff, Mine did luckily...

I asked him once why he drove down the middle of the road... He replied that he would move over
if someone wanted to use the other half.....

[Hartley]

I should have figured that I would get flak from a bunch of Prevost Weenies... Just Kidding Guys...

If I could afford one of those late models I too would be like that I guess....

I have a new core, I didn't change both when I should have, Now I get to change the right side.
I just didn't want to do it in a parking lot if I could help it....

Us people that run the not-so-fancy coaches can't rely on the checkbook fix every time. But that said
I definately have better tires that either of you. Mine cost $700 each and I have 8 of them on the ground.
and that was WITH the discount..... Don't pick on me.. I am trying....

[H3Jim]

Sorry if I  / we came across that way.  I do like to get things done the right way if I can, its less hassle and expense in the long run.  I admire peoople that can do a roadside fix and git er going to make it back to civilization.

I bet my fuel is better than yours though, I think I paid $3.25 a gal for what's in my tank  )