Looking for a literal dipstick

My motorhome has a weird arrangement for the oil dipstick in order to route it forward to the "hood".  The dipstick broke off and while I have both bits, I can't check my oil level.  The GM part number is 10218767, but it's been discontinued for a number of years now and no one seems to have one.  It's about 54.25" long, but I haven't found a way to search dipstick part numbers by length.  Any ideas on where I can go to find such a thing?  I've got some ideas on how to fabricate such a thing, but if I could get a real one, that'd be best.

If you can find something longer, you can cut it down. That's pretty long, though! Maybe a trans dipstick?

Contact an RV mechanic? This can't be a rare occurrence.

The dipstick tube is the same as the one in P30 vans (bread trucks and such), so you might be able to find a used one from one of those.

Chrysler has a special tool (dipstick ) that is about the length you are looking for.

Something like this

Paul

We made a Chrysler special tool dipstick from a van transmission dipstick...

As long as you have both bits you could patch it by using a piece of a similar size and brazing it all together.

^^ I would NOT do that, when would it fail? Stuck in the long ass tube, seen it before.

kazoospec said:

Now, that's thinkin' with your dipstick, Jimmy!

My colorado has a braided wire stick with a plastic piece at the end with fill/full markings.  It might be easier to make something using this design.

I am a little hesitant to just try to tack, braze, or even rivet the two bits together because I feel like I already won the lottery having it break as it was coming out of the tube so I could get both halves!  I am not a lucky person by nature, so I think I already used it all up here.

I've tried a couple "rv salvage yards" and they've all said they don't have one.  Which I'm sure is a load of poo because if they have any Chebby-powered class-A RVs from something like 1991-1996, they have one.  I'm guessing it's not worth their effort to ship it to me.

Trans dipsticks are a good idea.  The one that was linked, however, is about 2 inches short.  So I'm back to my problem of how to search for dipsticks based on dimensions, not application.

I'm thinking that maybe I could get a metal fishtape used for pushing wire through walls and cut it to size.  With the right markings on it, I could just keep that in the basement and use it like an old boat fuel gauge stick.

It's such a simple part, it's just surprising to me that it's so hard to find.  And that no one who makes things like this seems to publish any sort of catalog with dimensions.  Frankly, I'm in the same boat with trying to find a windshield wiper arm -- plenty of ways to search by application, but nobody can just list out all the straight 24.5" long wiper arms with a certain sized bolt hole with splines.

Walk in to your local NAPA and make a beeline for the oldest parts guy. Tell him you need the longest dipstick he can find. Heck, he may have a dimensioned catalog behind the counter.

Or talk to someone who fixes RVs, because he's had to deal with this problem and he's solved it.

The fishtape is a good idea.

Have you tried any of the larger RV dealers ?

Supposedly, the 10218767 dipstick was used on the P30 Van. 

This Dorman 917-434 is 55.1" long and is supposed to fit that van

https://www.autopartswarehouse.com/sku/Dorman/Oil_Dipstick/RB917434.html

Might be worth $30 to find out

Cut to length and put a handle on a speedometer cable center and mark the end to match what you have.

I've tried the RV places and as soon as I say the word "Chevy" or "454" they shoot me to the GMC parts counter.  I tried NAPA first and despite about 20 minutes of searching around the place, the old guy came up empty.

That Dorman part, on the other hand, looks like it's the business.  I can trim it down if I need to.  There's a different part number out there for the stepvan versus the motorhome chassis, but too long is a much easier problem to solve than too short.  (thatswhatshesaid)

Out of curiosity, how were you able to track that Dorman part down?  I tried to find a catalog that would list dimensions and I tried searching for anything that was for a 454 but my google-fu is not as strong as yours!

I found a site that listed the applications for the part number you supplied.  The P30 was listed and I assumed that there were a s*it load of them made, so just searched for a 1991 P30 dipstick.

Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in a while...

In reply to CJ :

haha!  Thanks for that!  It looks like the specific application is for the 6.5 diesel, but the length is about right.  That got me to poking around more on Dorman's web site and despite not being able to search or sort by length, I just clicked on every single dipstick they had.  I found one for a transmission on Chevy Express vans that was plain metal all the way down and that was 60+ inches long.  $13 bucks and it's Prime-eligable.  Plus Amazon's return policy is pretty generous.  We'll see how it turns out in a couple days!