Fun / Projects / with my 1997 America Dream

Looks great Glenn. I love seeing someone taking care of their vehicles like that. Makes me feel like I am not so crazy all by myself.;)

Mike.

Little update on the Jeep to be towed behind the MH

Time to work on the inside of the Jeep for a little bit. I bought some original parts awhile back. One of the pieces was a seat. The seat cover was in almost perfect condition with one small exception. The seat frame was rusted out in the area of the right rear mounting bolt area and as it turned out the rod used to hog ring the seat cover to was also rusted out. My original intention was to have the two seat covers swapped, the good cover swapped to my good frame, have them leave the other cover of the rusted frame, weld it up and then put the old cover on that frame and sell it. It turned out the old frame was not savable, so I have just the cover. I think I will just hold on to it as it is not that bad.



As is always the case you start one project and another pops up, the inside of the Jeep looks pretty sad

I guess I will have to do something about it. I have been want wanting to get to this rust for awhile now.



I have used this paint a number of times and it was a pretty good match, but this time it did not match up that well, but makes little difference as it is under the capet. Here is my tool of destruction. It works well.





I taped off the area after grinding and sjhot some primer and then the paint and then clear on top. As I said above it did not match as well this time as it did in past projects, I was closer once I cleaned up all the over spray from the primer, and I really should have taken more car and covered EVERYTHING with drop cloths before spraying.





A little soap and water cleaned up the rear very nicely.



I can never leave well enough alone, so when I saw the seat frames, they had to be sand blasted and powder coated. Both front and rear





So how do you tell a crazed jeep fanatic? Well look for the guy out in his driveway in the freezing cold cleaning the carpets in his Jeep. Another piece of original stuff I picked up was another complete carpet set. I have cleaned both the set of carpets that were in the Jeep and the set set of carpets that I picked up used. i will install the best and then sell the other set. They actually came out pretty good.





The newly cleaned carpet and the freshly powder coated seat frames really look good together.



Another item I picked up was an NOS roll bar cover.




It did not come with the foam pad needed to go under the roll bar cover so one will have to be made. I have extra if anyone needs some


We cut the pieces, and then trimmed them to fit. The piece that goes over the top is just a square piece 60" X 1/2" X 9" and fits perfect. The short piece that runs down the back side of the seat 23 1/2 " X 1/2" X 9" has to be trimmed at the top to go around the seat belt bolt and fit the intersection of the rear brace. The piece that goes around the rear brace has to be trimmed to fit the rear deck of the wheel house and the intersection of the top roll bar. 36" X 1/2" X 9". I then used tape to hold the foam in place to put the cover on, I taped the whole length of the foam to give it a uniform thickness and left it in place.




I have some wrinkles in the cover, and hope they will come out over time, I will go back and try and straighten them out as time passes.




As always I wan to thank the help of the car nuts that show up to eat my food and drink my drink, and help out.



So it is time to start packing for our long planned trip to the Gator Nationals, It will be good to see green grass again.

Just a note, for anyone that thinks I have been foolish in posting my trip plans, my son George will be staying at our house instead of in his apartment taking care of the fish and taking a vacation from his room mate.






Hey, I'm always looking for NOS parts for this Jeep (tow hooks, light switches, Garnet interior pieces, etc. keep me in mid please.

As always I have updated my web site with more pictures.
http://www.leverfamilysite.com/1984_Jeep_CJ-7_Progress_2014_02_22.htm

zmotorsports wrote:
Good looking trailer Glenn. Jeep matches it well.

I look forward to seeing pictures of the coach hooked up to the new trailer.

Are you racing the Jeep @ the Gator Nationals?;) I would have thought you were towing the other trailer with the dragster.

Mike.

Thought about it but the engine is still in pieces, and there is no real class to run in.

Should have pictures of the trailer on the MH in a couple of days.

I need the transportation because I'm going to take the class room portion of Frank Hawley's dragracing school after the Gators and need to get back an forth to the track

https://www.facebook.com/FrankHawleysDragRacingSchool

Good looking trailer Glenn. Jeep matches it well.

I look forward to seeing pictures of the coach hooked up to the new trailer.

Are you racing the Jeep @ the Gator Nationals?;) I would have thought you were towing the other trailer with the dragster.

Mike.

Starting to pack for our trip to the GatorNationals.

By the way if anyone thinks I'm being foolish about posting that we will be away, our son George will be house sitting while we are away.

This is what it looks like with lights on in the shop I think it will work out nice at night



I got out to the shop today and the MH should be completed tomorrow.

I did not get a chance to call anyone, but did find the data plate.

It is directly under a line for the A/C compressor and has to be read upside down.

I took some shots with a camera and they came out better than I thought. They were upside down but I rotated them with picture editing.

The plate says it is a 6CTA, Ref # 53-34874-004 engine # 45358278, model C8.3-325, read that as 325 HP.

Looks like I have more engine then I thought! I thought it was a 300 HP. It seems this engine was used in marine applications and fire trucks

I googled the engine and it comes up with many references to Marine Diesel References, any ideas??????

http://www.sbmar.com/cummins-6cta-tech-info.php



I called Cummins Customer Service today.

Phone number 1-800-377-3000

They were unable to identify the doohickey on top of the engine (I did not use that terminological with them I am reserving that technical description for this forum as a joke).

I was given an e-mail address to send the photos along with text to request that information.

The e-mail address was powermaster@cummins.com

It is a general e-mail box and I was told it would be forwarded to the correct department, so it may be some time before I hear back.

Here is the text of the e-mail I sent.

Sirs,

I have a 1997 Fleetwood American Dream which has a Cummins engine in it

Ref # 53-34874-004
Engine # 45358278
Model C8.3-325
Cummins 6CTA

It was in a repair shop where the repairs were less that adequate.

In the second repair shop that repaired the damage done by the first shop a senor or solenoid was found to have at least one broken wire one it (the connector was still on the sensor, but the wire was laying beside it). This is an RV shop not an engine shop and they have been unable to determine what the sensor or solenoid is and whether it should have a second wire attached to it.

This is a diesel pusher so if this was in a normal location the sensor would be located on the top of the engine on the left rear as the driver sits in the vehicle.

I have attached three photos starting with a full shot and then with each additional shot gotten closer to the item in question.

My questions are, what is it, should there be two wires attached to it, the contacts were clean which would indicate to me that they were protected from the weather.

Your help would be greatly appreciated.

I have received this back from them

Thank you for contacting Cummins.

You will receive a personal response from one of our customer service specialists within two business days. If you have a more immediate need for assistance, please call Monday through Friday, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. CST at 1-800-DIESELS (1-800-343-7357). If you are located outside of North America, you can reach us at 812-377-3000.

Please do not reply to this email as it was automatically generated in response to your communication.

I tried Syracuse, NY | Cummins Northeast, LLC and was asked to send them an e-mail with engine info and pictures. I did that and the e-mail was returned with

Reason: 550 5.1.1 unknown or illegal user: matthew.barklty@cummins.com

It is after hours now so I will call tomorrow and check the e-mail address.

I e-mailed fleetwood and asked if they could provide me a list of options that this coach would have come with

The three position couch with the center fold down armrest with a drink holder was not an option for this coach



All though it is a Flex-steel as is all the other couches and chairs someone added it.

This is the option list for this coach

Option Description
RECESSED COOKTOP
SIDE BY SIDE REFER
GILLIG CHASSIS 8.3 LTR 325 HP
SCREEN DOOR FE
COMPARTMENT SLIDEOUT TRAY 54
LEATHER MAGIC BED
DESK W/FLXSTL LEATHER RECLINER


I should have the desk in back of the passenger seat not the couch that is there now.

At some point in time the desk option was removed and a FlexSteel couch was put in it's place. It is only lag bolted to the floor as is the seat belts (not through the frame as it should be).

I would like to see what the desk option looks like.

If you have that option I sure would like to see lots of pictures of it from different angles.

I like the opposing couches and will probably correct the way it is bolted into the chassis.

I have now got this tread caught up, these last updates may not make complete sense as there are multiple updates within one post.

mike brez wrote:
As I'm looking for a rv in the same era I gotta ask and if you don't want to say I understand...but what was the purchase price and how much have you spent at this point and how much more to complete. I'm getting a little nervous seeing all that is going on.

Well that is kind of a long story that I will try and make short.

Purchase price was 42,000. It was falsely advertised and I would not have paid that much if it had been local. I had a 1,000 dollars of travel and boarding to get there and it would have been a 1000 back had I not purchased it. A fair price might have been 35000.

The first shop I went to ripped me off and fixed things that were not asked for and charged outrages amount of hours to fix things 10,000. NY state agreed with me and made them refund half, and stated that I should take them to small claims to get more back, first repair bill should have been 3500

The repair bill at Caledonia RV has been 11,000 (more updates to come on repairs made, and take note that a lot of these repairs were superficial and did not have to be done)but for what was done and the quality of work it was a very good price.

so cost should have been 49,500. More than market value, but it is now in my mind of a much higher value that what you can purchase for that price in a newer vehicle.

Lessons learned, be willing to say forget it and walk away, get repairs in writing even if you know the people in the shop.

As I'm looking for a rv in the same era I gotta ask and if you don't want to say I understand...but what was the purchase price and how much have you spent at this point and how much more to complete. I'm getting a little nervous seeing all that is going on.

I have fallen behind here so time to update.

It appears that the 1997 American Dream 39 AF had three different seating options.

Two opposing couches which is what mine has (although this diagram indicates one with two seats and both of mine have three)

One with one couch and on the other side two swivel chairs with a small table between them.

And finally one couch and on the other side a desk with a swivel chair. I believe at one time that was the setup in this couch because we found under the second couch a power outlet and a cable for a phone jack.

Does anyone one have pictures of this option? I will call Fleetwood and see if they know what configuration this couch originally had.

I think I like the desk setup and may call salvage yards to see if I can find it.



It has been found that this doodad on top of the engine was disconnected.




I suspect that when my meniscus ConWay was working on the engine it was disconnected / stepped on, while the work was being done on the exhaust manifold.

It looks to be a pressure sensor more than a shut of solenoid but could be either.





There was one wire laying there broken so a new end was put on it and connected to the doohickey.


It could be grounded through the unit but the second terminal certainly looks as if it had been protected from the elements making me believe that there was another wire connected to this gizmo.






Does anyone know what this is, what wires would be connected to it (pictures would be outstanding).

The lights are coming along, not done yet but getting closer. Here is the rope light in the bedroom. There are two shots, one with a flash and one without. The actual effect is somewhere between the two shots. There will be a piece of molding pit up in front of the rope light that goes across the top of the bed so the effect of the light is visible but the actual lights will not be seen.

First with out a flash




and now with





Next is the bathroom, again several shots with and without the flash and from two directions. There is one rope light up under the cabinet and another along the lip of the counter

With a flash

?

Now with out




and now from the doorway between the bathroom and the kitchen



And now a couple of flash and non flash pictures and from different directions of the kitchen and lounge area, looking forward from the bathroom to the drivers area


.


Note the accent lights in the window shade valances




and now from the edge of the counter with no flash with no flash





There is still more to install, my awning has a small florescent light in the grove of the awning. Power comes from a jack in the porch light on the side of the coach. It is next to useless at night and I have seen people put LED lights down the side of the coach under the awning. I find the light very bright to look at and it does not seem to illuminate the area. My idea is to remove the florescent light and replace it with a rope light inside the same grove. This is what it looks like now





I thought about getting additional florescent lights and filling the grove the full length of the awning, but found that that would not work as they would draw to much current.

It turned out that the grove was to large to hold the light in place, there were rubber stoppers to hold the florescent light from sliding down the track and they worked great for holding the rope light in the tube


We came up with a better idea of using clear tubing to slide the rope light through and then slid the tube into the grove. We just have to find the right clear tube. We will use the original cord to connect the rope light to the porch light for power.

LongWeekends wrote:
Looks awesome! And the goat food is a nice touch. :-)

I can't wait to do some updating such as yours to our coach!

Thanks all, so people really do look, I did not notice the Goat Food