Fun / Projects / with my 1997 America Dream

A racing website I was unaware of!! Thanks!
I raced altereds for years in brackets. Lots of fun and always popular. The RED is boring but I have won more in it. 406 SBC with old 23 degree heads. 7.90's usually. 7.85 in perfect weather and the wind blowing down the track.
I'm afraid I don't race as much as I used to. My son's jr gets raced all the time now.

Bucky1320 wrote:
So let me get this straight. You buy a beautiful motorhome, fix things that need fixed and can't keep your hands off the rest of the stuff. And you drag race.
This sounds familiar! 99' Harney here and Rear Engine Dragster mechanically injected. And yes.....I can't keep my hands out of things. :)

Yep! It is a sickness.

You forgot having to go faster all the time.

Check out this Front Engine Dragsters.

Although the name is front engine dragsters, there is a category for rear engine dragsters.

So let me get this straight. You buy a beautiful motorhome, fix things that need fixed and can't keep your hands off the rest of the stuff. And you drag race.
This sounds familiar! 99' Harney here and Rear Engine Dragster mechanically injected. And yes.....I can't keep my hands out of things. :)

Ok....so....with the last update I left everyone hanging on the edge of their seats with this problem with the extra bracket and screw.

I would like to say that I have the perfect solution to the answer but I do not, I do have a partial solution.

enblethen provided a parts break out of the refrigerator. Atwood Water Heater manual

Below is pictured the important page.



1)It shows the "short" thermocouple I need, and the reason why (the long one will hit the gas solenoid).

The problem is the part number associated with the short thermocouple is the part number on the long one I have received. I just hope the new one that is coming is the correct one and the first one was bagged incorrectly. My thinking is it will be the same and the part has been superseded. The only good part of this is the old thermocouple is working just fine.

2) In the parts break out there is the angle bracket and screw that I had left over (it is circled in red, in the diagram above).

The perplexing thing is the bracket I have left over does not fit in that spot, and the machine screw does not go into the hole on the burner.



So I made some modifications to the bracket, I drilled a new hole and created a slot for the wires on the thermocouple to come through.





So here you see the burner apart for the fifth time, you can see the screw hole is offset from the thermocouple, and the collar on the thermocouple. The new hole in the bracket lines up with the original hole in the burner, and a new stainless steal screw has been found that fits the hole, and the new slot in the bracket fits over the thermocouple, but not the anodized collar on the thermocouple, so the thermocouple is now retained in the burner.



Old bracket in the new configuration screwed in place.





This new configuration was tested this weekend and worked.

The next project is already in the works, and some pictures have been taken, but racing comes first.

I have two problems now with the refrigerator.



1) The thermocouple arrived from Dometic.







The invoice has the correct serial number, model number and product code on the invoice.



The thermocouple however is way to long.







The one in the burner is only as long as the black anodized tube on the new one. The tube ends there on the original one and the wires make a 90 degree turn and run in back off the gas solenoid. The new one will not fit as the copper tube would need to run right through the gas solenoid.

I have called Dometic, they are sending a second one at no charge, and they think it is bagged incorrectly. I looked one up on fee-bay and it looks like the one that Dometic sent me.







2) I have the dreaded extra parts left over. I do not understand it. I took pictures the whole time, I was very careful, but I have this bracket and screw left over.



On the bracket the screw fits like it should be in the hole, there is only one hole, and it is not threaded.



The underside is sort of clean like it was up against something. The bracket shows no sign that the screw was ever installed in the bracket (no clean areas or scratch marks).



The screw is a machine screw, not a sheet metal screw.

I have reviewed all the pictures I took while taking the unit apart, I have taken the unit apart twice now and can find no place where this would have gone.



It does look like there should have been a bracket on the end of the burner to hold the thermocouple in place but there wasn't one when I took the unit apart. This bracket will not fit in that location.















Went to the races this weekend and the refrigerator worked great.

Seems they all use that plumbers putty tape on the furnace,water heater and fridge. My PaceAroww was like that.

So...I have a race this weekend so I wanted to get a jump on putting the refrigerator back together.

Here is the burner and igniter as they were removed.



I took everything apart and soaked the pieces in alcohol, good thing I have a blown mechanically injected alcohol burning front engine dragster.



I examined the orifice carefully for obstructions. Do not try and pock something through the hole in the nozzle, look carefully at this photo there is a clear (maybe mica) washer in the end of the nozzle)



There is a very small hole in that washer.

If you look at the nozzle from the other end against a light the hole looks quite large, it is temping to try and find something that size and clean the inside of the nozzle, DON'T DO IT



So after soaking everything, I used a scotch bright pad to go over all the pieces and reassembled the burner. By that way this dumb thing is put together with metric nuts and bolts.



I cleaned the end of the igniter with some emery paper and adjusted the igniter gap to 3/16 of an inch.



I ran a vacuum cleaner over the whole inside of the case, tapped gently on the chimney until no more rust pieces fell out.



The Thermocouple still has not arrived yet, but as it is not that much work I put the burner back into the refrigerator. I also cleaned the ground to the spark coil. I fired the unit up and it started the first time.



I had been concerned that there was no drip tube to catch the condensation from the coil inside the refrigerator, turns out America Dream had a better idea than hanging it out through the cover, there is an internal drain, note the yellow tubing.



So...I will stop here and wait for the new thermocouple to arrive, install it, clean the frame, apply new silicone, and put the cover back on.

I'm cleaning up the outside frame and the more I clean the more it appears the frame was not originally sealed with silicone, but a material more like plumbers
putty. Any thoughts?

Next will the hot water heater, as it is also temperamental, some times it will not fire either and we have to use the electric heater in the hot water heater, which means running the generator and it takes a long time to heat up.

Any advice on cleaning and adjustment of the burner in the hot water heater, How do you adjust the mixture of gas and air on the burner?

I thought someone might be interested so here are two shots of the piston and spring from the oil pressure regulator.



What happens is as the oil pressure builds in the system the piston is pushed back in a cylinder until the piston is pushed past a port in the side of the cylinder the piston is housed in. This port is a bypass allowing the oil to "bypass" the oil system there by regulating the pressure in the system.

As tolerances in bearing increase with wear, there is more oil "leaking" from the system so the piston is not pushed back as hard.

The same is true as the oil gets hot, more "leaks" passed bearing and the piston is not pushed to the point that the bypass is open.

The other thing that happens over time is the spring can become weak so it is easier for the piston to be pushed to the point that the bypass port is reached and the system pressure is lower, because of the weak spring.



I hope this makes sense.

I haven't forgotten to update this thread, I'm still waiting on the thermocouple to come to put this back together

I have a 1997 American Dream with a Gillig chassis.

My front end seems to float to much and in a dip sometimes bottoms out.

I was going to have the front shocks replaced at Camping World but was told that they are Koni adjustable shocks, they want $300.00 each and an hour a side to put them in.

Had a big fight with Camping World over some brakes that were repaired incorrectly, (CW Brake Repair) fought the battle and got a total refund off $1,700.

Just ordered the correct shocks from Gillig for $189.00 each, and a local spring shop will install both for one hour labor.

Part number for a 1997 American Dream is KONI part # is 88-1458SP2.

They cannot be drop shipped when ordered through Gillig, so they have to go from Kentucky to California to New York, Four weeks shipping time.