How many of us are there? Owners of Dodge based RV's?

[whiteknight001]

I'm new here, and curious.

How many of us in Class C own Dodge B300 incomplete
cab/chassis based RV's? I know two others- Steve aka
Ripsaw, with a 1977 Brougham, and Leroy aka 1978_Dodge
_Delta who owns a 440V8 powered sharp looking 1978
Delta RV. I would like to ask, and offer, help, idea
swapping and comparing notes on our particular RV's
which are based on the Dodge B300 van chassis.

Yeah, I know. These are low tech, podgy old RV's that
would be considered "entry level" for folks like me,
but I have a deep and abiding respect for the quality
of these old "monsters of the open road". And anyone
wanting to pick brains, joke about, share notes or just
brag about our old A- Dodge-io's are certainly welcome
to PM or email me. Between all of us we can form a real
good support group, and help each other with problems
we know we'll encounter with an older vehicle.

Sure. I'd love a new RV. But I'd rather have an older
one already paid for, and a lotta great memories. Call
me frugal, an old hippie, or whatever you will. I'm proud
of my old land yacht.

Mopar Madness Manifest in the flesh,

Mark aka White Knight

P.S. Mine's a '72. Is there an older one out there someone's
motorvating in? Maybe even a Travco? W/K

[fierystorm]

Hey Griff,

Thanks a lot for your advice and very kind offer! I'm going to deal with the fuel tank when I get an extra pair of hands this weekend.

But boy oh boy is the location of the temperature sending unit eluding me. I have two service manuals, both show different locations, both are wrong. The first shows it is right next to the thermostat housing, accessed through the hood. But short of two hoses next to the radiator hose, all I'm finding there is a 3 prong vacuum source nipple temp sensor for the EGR, and it's nothing like the replacement single prong replacement I picked up at NAPA, who told me the 3 prong I located is definitely not what I'm looking for.

The second book shows inside the doghouse on the front of the intake manifold. No joy. I've followed every wire I can in both areas and I'm lost :h I know you have different models/years than I do, and sorry to ask, but do you happen to have any thoughts where it might be? I can't believe this little part is so hard to find.

[Griff_in_Fairba]

fierystorm wrote:
Hey everyone 🙂

Since I have no breaks and the fuses are good I'm assuming my coolant temperature sending unit has bit the dust and I'll be installing a new one this coming weekend.

But as to my fuel gauge. Grrr... argh... My line and grounds look good, and my fuel gauge has continuity (I'm hopeful that means it's still good) so all I can think of is that either my floats or the whole fuel sending unit is toast. Which means dropping the whole tank :E not looking forward to that one. If anyone has any thoughts over whether it might be the floats/fuel sending unit or any other ideas I would really appreciate it!

Here's to hoping I get to enjoy the great weather we're having by getting on the road soon. Thanks all 🙂

Disconnect the temp and fuel level sending units and put an ohmmeter, or multimeter on ohms setting, on them. (No current to them while doing so -- extraneous power will mess up the reading and possibly ruin the meter,)

Both sending units are variable resistors. The resistance put out by the senders varies based on changes in coolant temperature and fuel level.

The temperature sending unit is inexpensive and easy to replace. NO teflon tape or thread compound on the the unit!! Ground for the older senders like you have is through the block and tape or compound will insulate it from ground.

Depending on the vehicle, fuel level senders vary from zero to 75 ohms or zero to 240 ohms -- I can't recall off the top of my head what the range is for Mopar vehicles or whether the the resistance varied high to low or low to high with changing fuel level.

Make sure you have a good ground to the fuel level sender ... run a jumper for the mounting screw on the sender to the negative post on the battery and see if that changes the gauge behavior.

In addition to being a PITA to change, OEM fuel senders are difficult to find. If all the tests I suggested show the sender is bad, send me a PM -- I might have an old OEM sender laying around that you could have for the price of shipping.

Good luck.

[fierystorm]

Hey everyone 🙂

Update on my end... Spent my Saturday crawling around under my rig. Redid a bunch of grounds and, lo and behold, my Oil Pressure gauge is now responding!:C No joy on my temperature or fuel gauge:R. But I'm getting power to the temperature gauge (but no power at all to the fuel gauge) on my main board although it still doesn't register on the gauge itself.

Since I have no breaks and the fuses are good I'm assuming my coolant temperature sending unit has bit the dust and I'll be installing a new one this coming weekend.

But as to my fuel gauge. Grrr... argh... My line and grounds look good, and my fuel gauge has continuity (I'm hopeful that means it's still good) so all I can think of is that either my floats or the whole fuel sending unit is toast. Which means dropping the whole tank :E not looking forward to that one. If anyone has any thoughts over whether it might be the floats/fuel sending unit or any other ideas I would really appreciate it!

Here's to hoping I get to enjoy the great weather we're having by getting on the road soon. Thanks all 🙂

[TreeSeeker]

oldtrucker63 wrote:
A Steel plug in an Aluminum tank NOT Good, You might heat the plug and get it loose...

Actually, the plug needs to be cooled, not heated. Heating it will cause expansion and you need contraction. Heating the tank and cooling the plug would be the best.

You could cool the plug with a small piece of ice or even better, dry ice.

I would first soak the plug threads with PB Blaster--maybe overnight. PB Blaster works better than WD40 for this type of thing, IMHO.

Edited: After my post, I see that you got the plug out, but I think this clarification about heating and cooling may still be useful.

[Jer_Ger]

That's great Leeann. oldtrucker, I did finally get that darn plug out. A combination of different wrenches & muscle finally got it to budge a little :)and from there it just took a little effort & time :M(about 2 hrs.)

[fierystorm]

Grats Leeann!

Now here's to hoping I figure out what's going on with my dashboard gauges 🙂

[Leeann]

Finally got my voltage regulated properly, thanks to the Yahoo Travco list. Got a Mopar voltage regulator, part #P4529794, from Summit and, at idle after warmup, we saw the voltage steady at 13.5.

That's a first since we bought the rig.

[oldtrucker63]

A Steel plug in an Aluminum tank NOT Good, You might heat the plug and get it loose but don't put to much heat straight to the tank, Keep it to the plug as much as you can, A small propane torch should work well.

[ALnCORY]

Short of trying some WD40 or similar product to loosen it up some I don't know.... Theres not much room to work on them usually.

[Jer_Ger]

Thanks. I just went out and took the fuse out from the charging circuit. I also took a look at the water heater. Someone put a steel plug in the drain hole and I can't get it out so I can check and/or drain it. Any ideas for that anyone? This is looking like more work than I thought.

[TreeSeeker]

Jerry wrote:
It is a Trojan something and seems to be holding a charge now that the unit is plugged in.

Keep in mind that these old converters do not have smart chargers. Mine just holds the voltage at 13.6v which boils the battery dry in no time and eventually kills the battery. I find it best to disconnect the battery from the converter and charge it using a smart battery charger or maintainer.

Also, note that the engine battery is not getting charged when on shore power. I use another separate charger for that battery too.

[Jer_Ger]

Well Al, I did find the battery and it was right under the drivers seat! I want to change to my two 6v. golf cart batteries but I don't think there is anywhere to put them :(. It is a Trojan something and seems to be holding a charge now that the unit is plugged in. So far everything seems to work except the engine battery, so I guess it time for a new one there. I keep you informed as I go. Jerry

[fierystorm]

Hi guys,

Thanks for answering to my question! Sorry its taken me so long to reply but I've had some net issues.

I'll check his thoughts out, thank you SG!

hey Treeseeker,

Grounds are good. Voltage on the battery is right where it needs to be. Checked the voltage from my voltage limiter - interesting results... old one is a pulsing 5 volts at each gauge. New one registers 12 volts (so much for limiting the voltage) at each gauge and so I'll be exchanging that replacement for a new one.

Oii! 😮 Yes, sorry about that I wasn't thinking when I named the gauges. 4 gauges - water temp, fuel, amps and oil pressure. All fuses seem to be good as far as my fuse block. I'm not finding others on any of my schematics or from hunting around if there are any direct fuses for the gauges, just the gauge lights? If I understand correctly it goes from the battery straight to the board, to the limiter, to the gauge itself.

So I'm still hunting. :h

[ALnCORY]

Sounds good Jerry,
I saw one with the house battery down under the motor somewhere.. you had to crawl under the rig to get the house battery out.... I think that was a class A though.. any way good luck, hollar if you need anything.
Al

[Jer_Ger]

Thanks Al, we'll have to do that. I don't know what we are going to be doing yet, things are really up in the air for the time being, with the new RV work I need to do. Heck, I haven't even found the house battery on that thing yet! I'll keep in touch and we WILL get together! Jerry