E36 M3ter’s Full

Cat thieves and people how scam old folks suck. 

Please do be safe!  

After nearly a year of it being broken I finally got the generator working again. 

Unfortunately there wasn't much troubleshooting I could do to identify the problem. I had voltage to the unit, but it wouldn't engage the starter(or do anything else). My 2 options were either spend ~$50 in components to build a circuit that bypassed the stock control board(and honestly the vid with instructions for this was a bit sketchy), or spend $400 for a new board. 
 

So the new board arrived this week & after what seemed like a ridiculous time priming it(over 5-minutes), and the first couple cranks blowing water out the exhaust, it fired up and seems to be running both smoother & quieter than it had previously. 

Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) said:

I took the RV for a little drive this afternoon out to our guitarist's house & back, for a total of about 50-miles. I put in 20 gallons of gas first & used about 7 of them based on the gas gauge, so no real change there. It ran fine & pulled strong, so no problems there. 
 

Next on the to-do list:

• The powered steps quit working when I left home & failed to retract, so I need to get its motor swapped out. 
   
• The HVAC system has the same problem I deal with on the van - they're stuck in the defrost position. So while the AC is blowing cold, it's mainly cooling the windshield. 
   
• I think shocks are going to be the next major purchase. It seems weird to call them a "major purchase" but at just over $500 for the set they're about as much as I've paid for Konis in the past. 

The HVAC defaults to defrost when there is no control vacuum....

In reply to bentwrench :

So I found a cheap trick for the vents that actually works better than I anticipated. I picked up a pair of cheap transparent & adjustable HVAC vent deflectors from Home Depot & wedged them between the dash & windshield over each defrost vent. Even though they're not angled down much more than the windshield you can at least feel it blowing on you now.  

A couple minor updates. I took the RV to get the tires rotated. It was $35 to rotate all-7, so there was absolutely no reason to do it myself. 
 

We had quite a bit of engine/exhaust heat entering the cab on our trip last summer, so I started by adding more insulation to the center console. 
 

No idea if it will actually help with heat, but it was noticeably quieter driving on the interstate to the tire shop & back. 
 

I also happened to notice the radiator has a sticker on top that says "single row" or something to that effect. I'm wondering if I should replace it with a 2-row to help with cooling when driving through the mountains and/or desert?

Today was perfect for some good ol' Mississippi engineering. 
 

E-series still use vacuum operated climate control & they often develop leaks, which causes them to default into the defrost position & stay there. The common fix - which worked on the E250, but not the RV - is to install an additional accumulator under the hood, run a new line from it, through the passenger side inner fender, and up into the passenger footwell, with a 1-way check valve installed wherever is convenient. 
 

The RV had too many vacuum leaks inside the dash, so I had to figure out something else. Fortunately I found that the vacuum solenoid which switches between the vents & defrost is located under the small cover in the center of the dash. 
 

Since I wanted to be able to still switch between defrost & vents, my bodge was to figure out a way to manually switch the diverted valve between each setting, like this. 
 

It works, let's hope it holds up. 

In reply to Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :

Seems like a great fix to me

While it's documented better in this thread. Here's the finished radiator/transmission cooler sprayer I fabricobbled together. 
 

Summer vacation 2023 recap:

• The radiator sprayer definitely lowers trans fluid temps, but didn't seem to impact coolant temps. 
   
• My redneck HVAC vent control works fine & it was amazing to feel cold air the whole drive. 
   
• The insulation I installed under the center console definitely helped keep interior temps down too. 

Onto the trip...

We left Biloxi on 6/23, stopped in Cape Girardeau, MO for the night, then briefly stopped near Quincy, IL on 6/24 so SWMBO could visit her brother for a few hours, before continuing on to Topeka, KS where we stopped for the night. That was a long day. 
 

Sunday 6/25 as we were leaving Topeka I stopped for gas & discovered the outside right-rear tire was flat. Being Sunday, the only tire shop that was open was Goodyear, but it was back the opposite direction. So after 45min of crawling down side streets we made it there, and a bit over an hour later we had a new valve stem installed & started to head out again. That's when I noticed the exhaust leak...

I'd bought a replacement cat for the OE one that was stolen last fall, but couldn't find any local exhaust shops that work on RVs, so I had to clamp it in there with a couple extra pieces of pipe. Apparently one of the massive craters that popped our valve stem also started working lose the exhaust. So after about another hour in an Autozone parking lot we were finally back on the road. At least the weather was decent & Topeka seemed like a nice clean city. We did make it to our destination that night, just much later than planned. 
 

Our 11-days in the Colorado Springs area with our daughter, son-in-law, and their 70lb golden retriever puppy were fun. Besides eating way too much & spending too much money:

• I hiked the Manitou Incline with our son-in-law. While definitely a workout, it wasn't as rough as I thought it might be. 
   

• I helped them buy their first new car. 
  

• And we brought home our old 2009 Fit, since they no longer needed it. The event that pushed them toward buying their new Civic was on 6/29 the outboard passenger-side CV joint on the Fit broke, leaving our daughter & SWMBO stranded. Fortunately their mechanic was able to get it fixed before we left town. 

We rented a tow dolly Thursday afternoon after the car was fixed, and left for home Friday morning. Somewhere along our route the passenger side tail light popped out, but I was able to zip-tie it in place. 
 

Yesterday, while driving through Louisiana, and just 3-miles before our stop for the night, we popped the valve stem for the inner dual wheel on the left side. Fortunately I was able to reach a local shop right before they closed & they met us there at 9am this morning to get us back on the road. The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful. 
 

Here's the short version of the to-do list:

• I discovered during a downpour today there's a slight leak around the LF cab corner. When we got home I found some RTV had peeled off, so that should be an easy fix. 
   
• I need to revisit the wiring for the inverter I installed, as I'm apparently missing something. It works fine when the vehicle is off, regardless of whether I'm plugged into shore power or not, so I know the transfer switch I installed is working. However, when it's running the inverter continually cycles on/off over & over. I'm thinking it must have something to do with the circuitry that charges the house batteries off the alternator, but I'm not sure what/where it might be. 
   
• The rack I built & installed above the cab to hold our sugar gliders' travel cages seems to be working loose. I need to drop the headliner in the cab & check the bolts holding it in place. 
   
• I really need to replace both slide-out toppers soon & the awning is starting to deteriorate now too. We don't use it much though. 
   

While I didn't track our mileage, the Scangauge seemed to stay in the 8-10mpg for most of the trip, except for steep uphills or strong headwinds, regardless of whether we were towing or not, and anywhere from 65-75+ MPH. So I'm pretty happy with that, despite the fact that we still spent an absolute fortune in fuel. 

That's a mighty fine beard you're sporting there Sir.

In reply to Stampie :

Thanks! You should have seen it before I trimmed it back in the spring.