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Toogreys's avatar
Toogreys
Explorer
Nov 26, 2014

Need Help! Coach wont restart!

All, Need some assistance. I have Good Sams roadside assistance but hope its an easy fix.

We are on the road visiting realitives. Needed to get some more propane since we are up north and started up the coach to pull in the sideouts. The bedroom one seemed to come in just fine. The large living room one seemed to come in ok but there seems to be a larger gap at the bottom along the floor than normal but if you look at the end of the slide behind the drivers seat it looks like its seated ok. Pulled it in and out a couple times. Looked out side and the slide appears to be sealed ok and flush with the outer wall of the RV.

Turned off the coach and was about to get off when I thought while I was inside I might as well raise the jacks. Put the key in the ignition and it wouldnt start. All gauges etc work so dont think its the battery. Nothing happens when I turn the key. No clicking Nada.... Was wondring if its some sort of saftey lock out that needs to be reset or I blew a fuse or relay or something. I checked what fuses I could think of and they appear to be ok.
This is a 2003 Southwind with a 8.1 Workhorse gas engine.

Any sugestions before I call in the Goodsams Roadside assistance would be greatly appreciated!


Thanks
Stan
  • According to my battery charger the battery is fully charged. Even has a Jump mode and still no luck.
  • The slide safety switch was my first thought too. I've run it in and out a couple times still comes in looking like it's still got a bit of a higher gap between floor abnd slide. Ran the slide all the way back out and still couldn't start it with it all the way out. Is there a way to reset the switch?

    I've tried moving the gear shift around and tried to start it in both park and neutral with no luck but will try again.

    Took the starter relay into a parts store and it checked out ok. They mentioned maybe the starter but I had no indication of a starter problem. Always started first time every time until now.
  • I had a problem like that with an old van on Sunday. Drove it to the grocery store and it wouldn't start after I got the groceries. I did get the click and one feeble turn of the starter, then nothing. Boosting the battery made no difference.

    I took the battery home and charged it for twenty hours. Then it started. The vehicle isn't driven very much, and only short hops. It is -15C here. The van is old and needed quite a bit of starter time to get going for the run to the store. The battery is 3.5 years old. It is a little smaller than it should be because of the difficulty squeezing it into its place in the van. The thing is, engines don't charge batteries very well and batteries lose capacity when they are discharged very much.
  • sounds like a slide safety switch to me too, especially since you thought slide wasn't going in correctly.
  • I,D go for a safty switch on one of those slides not locked in, if y0ou can run them out a bit and back in, the one with the gap is a place to start.
  • Neutral safety switch problem.
    Try moving gear shift to neutral, hold key in start position and jingle gear shift selector.
  • Range the PRDL gear selector handle through all the gears, place it in N then try cranking again.

    To use the proper vernacular your problem is, the engine refuses to CRANK.
  • Are you sure it is fully in the right gear? (Obvious item, but easily done.)
  • Oh I forgot to add, according to the panel on the RV both batteries good. They both are showing 13.?? of amps when checking them.

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