Wes_Tausend
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Re: New Ford V8
theoldwizard1 wrote: Wes Tausend wrote: I've noted a lot of folks have found fault with the steering of new Ford E-450 chassis. Having experienced this myself (along with a buddy who bought the same year), we discovered that a new 450 chassis apparently has exceptionally stiff ball joints. Consequently, the steering direction tends to stick wherever the last road bump deflects it. E-Series steering has been an issue for many, MANY years. You need to find and old fashioned alignment shop and tell them your issues. They will adjust the caster outside of the factory specs. The steering will stay centered with no wandering. This will NOT cause additional tire wear ! The main reason I became more acutely aware of the slight bind in new Ford ball joints is because I learned from a used F-250 I bought a few years ago (4dr 2000 4x4 diesel tow vehicle with a 6.5 foot bed). The F-250 spent most of its life in a garage, ran well, had low mileage, new tires and new ball-joints, so I paid a little over book for it. Unfortunately, it steered very poorly, even as I test drove it. I initially thought some simple thing was still loose, or it was slightly toed out perhaps, but thought that it would be an easy, cheap fix. Still, the tires showed absolutely no sign of the inside feathering from toe-out. At the same time, I also owned (and still own) a 2000 4x4 Ford Excursion which has a nearly identical chassis except the Ex chassis has a shorter wheelbase, that of just a 2dr F-250 extra cab. After buying the F-250 and checking further, it still made no sense for months why it steered and handled so much worse. Yet back then, the worn Excursion steered and handled just fine on new tires in spite of having a rather loose original passenger ball-joint with about 120k miles on it. Research on the net turned up only one guy who knew what he was talking about. He knew he had experienced a bind (as opposed to all the other forum replies that were foolishly doubting him). I also dug up info from Moog that their replacement steel-on-steel ball joints required a very specific tightening sequence, or the ball joints would be forced together during assembly and then bind. So, I dug around more and followed a little-known Ford shop TB procedure I found, by setting the front axles of both trucks up on jack-stands, tires off the ground. In that way, with the engine dead, I measured the relative amount of free-wheel steering torque required to steer the trucks using a fish scale. The F-250 required 15# and the Excursion only 5#. These axles should be identical. I also found info that Ford had realized that the Excursions were expected to have more car-like handling than truck-like, and Ford had specifically chosen special slippery OEM ball-joints for them. The ball joints had a nylon cup in them that allowed easier car-like steering, but the design did not allow for a zerk. They were considered life-time lubricated. They may have been used in other light trucks. Over the years, scads of Ford owners, especially diesel owners, complained that the Ford engineers were apparently too dumb to install decent ball joints and almost all folks who needed repair installed steel-on-steel after-market ball-joints with zerks because it seemed obvious they should last longer. Then, because of perceived wandering, many then went about adding all kinds of expensive, useless suspension do-dads trying to get their binding steering and handling back to OEM standards. It turns out that the Ford engineers weren't so dumb after all. Like I mentioned earlier, the original zerk-less joints on my Excursion went over 100k and any ball-joint life with Ford (and Dodge/Ram) heavier diesel engines is/was about 80k tops. Worn ball-joints usually self-center, socket-to-ball, tracking just fine for many years without tire wear until they are so loose the ball pops out of the socket when the wheel hops. I suspect a lot of shops capitalize on early detection by showing customers a little wiggle play when there are still years of service actually left in them. I also know folks that let them get so loose they fell apart on the road. So finally knowing what was wrong, I checked first with the tire dealer that had done the new joints for the previous owner on the F-250, offering to pay for loosening, then resetting them correctly. I had been buying tires from them and liked their shop. However, when I pointed out that I wanted him to be sure his guy reset the joints in the correct sequence, the manager suddenly claimed there was no such sequence thing, that all F-250s steered like I mine did, even his. He didn't want to take a test drive, so I lost faith and left. Checking with a local Ford dealer, they told me that another tire dealer near them did all their suspension work, so I went over there. This tire shop would not touch it unless I had them install all new ball joints for hundreds of dollars. The joints were already new, just set too tight. I finally went to a respected truck shop that does a lot of school buses, commercial trucks and the like. The manager knew exactly what I was talking about on binding joints and they happily reset the F-250's ball-joints and added a damper, all for about $300. I didn't have 'death wobble' but what the heck. The truck immediately steered much better and the next day I checked the steering torque, back up on jack-stands, and it measured only 8# (even with new damper drag), quite a bit down from the earlier 15#. Then some 'lady' totaled the parked F-250, right in my driveway, so back to the Excursion. Since the ball joints were working, I was most concerned about replacing shock absorbers and doing brake work in it. Off-hand, I had also ended up sticking a new V-10 in it early-on, the winter before I found the F-250 diesel. I liked the truck shop's work, so I later took the Excursion in for full brake work, ball-joints and shocks. I requested OEM nylon ball-joints if they could get them, but they could only find two, the uppers, I believe. The bottom joints are steel-on-steel, correctly installed. The SUV steers straight as an arrow, easily with two fingers, probably couldn't be better. One thing not great: now that I don't need a heavy-duty tow vehicle, I wish I had a smaller back-up vehicle with better fuel economy. All in all, it's true, enough extra caster can overcome binding in steering. But in my opinion, Ford chassis with modified extra caster will still steer easier (two fingers) set back to factory specs when they are broke in. I'm not sure about the magnitude of extra tire wear due to incorrect over-caster, but on any slope, the wheel will fight the driver to steer 'uphill' as though it's turning a constant corner, if that is any indication. Consider this: if extra caster was a good thing, a man might think all vehicles would come with it from the factory. Otherwise, I believe incorrect toe settings are the only thing that significantly affect tire wear. Wes874Views0likes0CommentsRe: New Ford V8
Kenneth Sons wrote: Good Engine, easy to maintain, air filter size is small so it clogs easily. Keep a spare. Oil changes are easy, has variable cam timing so change often such as at 5000 miles to keep the variable device from silting up. We have a Forest River 2551TS which weighs 13,600 loaded and gets 9.5 to 9.7 mpg at 65 mph. Plenty of power, crests Eisenhower Tunnel at 65 mph. When new it would only do 45 at the last stretch, likely a Ford break-in de-powering mode. The engine is suppost to be limited to 3900 rpm; however, it will run up past 4500 at full throttle. The interior engine cover stays cool. The E450 chassis like all chassis needs alignment after Forest River adds 7000# to the partial chassis. For us this was a 1-1/4 degree camber/caster bushing (passenger side) installed all toward caster and 0" of toe-in. This chassis hates toe-in, as it caused poor steering response and a measurable reduction in fuel mileage. Good post. I've noted a lot of folks have found fault with the steering of new Ford E-450 chassis. Having experienced this myself (along with a buddy who bought the same year), we discovered that a new 450 chassis apparently has exceptionally stiff ball joints. Consequently, the steering direction tends to stick wherever the last road bump deflects it. During this break-in time, following tire deflection, the driver is forced to constantly slightly correct the steering which is tiresome. Strangely, it may feel as though the steering must be loose instead of too tight and also gives the impression that the new RV truck chassis wanders. Normally these binding ball-joints break-in (loosen) after the first few thousand miles and then the rig steers just fine, as it now does for my buddy and I. Ford really should earnestly publish a statement to owners, RV dealers and Ford service centers that this break-in situation may or does exist, as it seems not well understood, and I imagine it seriously irritates the majority of new owners. One questionable fix has been to increase castor beyond factory specs which then becomes unhandy after break-in. The reasoning is that the normal recommended castor setting is only temporarily inadequate to auto-return any brand new "binding-steering" to dead-center, after any minor road deviation diverts it. Later the extra castor is undesirable as it constantly causes the front steering wheels to want to climb the crowns and slightly depressed wheel-track ruts in asphalt roads. Excess castor also unduly increases steering effort to turn during hard, emergency braking. Also, I'm not so sure that the factory alignment is always off. It certainly may be in some cases, but it seems it shouldn't be by much just on account of the constant "house-load". If this were a chronic design failure, then all van-bodied Ford 450 chassis would greatly suffer between loaded and unloaded conditions. Maybe they do? I don't have any experience in that, just in my RV. That said, I would certainly have to concur that alignment could be possibly idealized by the assumption that a near-constant heavy load like our RVs would mean alignment could be purposely fine-tuned to the upper range. That may be why some rear suspensions have been boosted level by either air bags or newer plastic jounce spacers. I suppose any toe-in might already be too much if the suspension is new too. The very idea of toe-in is because there is normally a bit of slop in worn suspension and rubber mounts. The drag from forward motion then causes a slight spread (to toe-out) and the toe-in setting somewhat pre-compensates for this. Note that front wheel drive cars are normally set to toe-out because the driving force of their traction effort (instead of drag) tends to allow any slop to alternately allow toe-in. You are correct. Toe-in does cause muted steering response. Some auto-cross racers purposely set their normal toe-in to toe-out for quicker steering response. Wes873Views0likes0CommentsRe: F53 460 Engine runs very poorly when heat soaked
pilotanpia wrote: RLS7201 wrote: Gdetrailer wrote: pilotanpia wrote: MT BOB wrote: Lots of F53-460 fuel pump problems, and threads,on the net. 2 things you can try,cheap and easy,replace the TFI and the fuel pump relay. Other things to try- at your risk- when it acts up,1-loosen or remove the fuel cap 2- when it acts up, throw trans in neutral, turn off and restart engine. I tried the TFI aka Ignition Module which is located on the front apron between the left headlight and radiator. So, not exposed to engine compartment heat. Bottom line, it did not resolve the issue. Thank you. TFI is only one part, there is the ECM (Engine Control Module) which is the "computer" or "brain" that controls ignition timing and fuel delivery to the engine. ECM has predefined fuel and ignition maps and uses a variety of external sensors (some which you have replaced) to determine timing and fuel delivery.. ECMs where often mounted in the engine compartment near the windshield, not sure where it is on a Chassis build.. Failing ECMs can affect engine performance.. ECM on OP's chassis is on the inside of the fire wall, just in front of the steering column. Not exposed to engine heat. Richard Richard, As it turns out, I didn't replace the TFI Ignition Module. The module that is on there looks really dark gray or black. It says Motorcraft on it. The dialectric compound is dry and powdery. I will get a new TFI but not install it until I get the problem to come back. I will then, immediately replace it. If the problem goes away that should be my solution. Either way since you suggested that i use a new gray one, I'll just leave it in. After all, the one in there is 26 years old. Richard, which brand do you recommend? Donald Donald, If you dare drive it with the doghouse removed, or quickly removeable, you might have a helper spray the TFI module with something like this coolant to quickly cool it when the RV acts up. This is much quicker and works like a charm. By the time you change out the part, whatever quit will have cooled off anyway. One caveat, make sure if you substitute, that it's non-flammable. A full can may help if another part must be tested. We used to do that all the time (very economically) back when consumer electronics weren't throw-away. Maybe 20% of electronic repairs were heat related and intermittent. Of course cheap raw refrigerant spray was common before the Ozone layer problem was recognized. :S Wes1.2KViews0likes0CommentsRe: F53 460 Engine runs very poorly when heat soaked
Gdetrailer wrote: Wes Tausend wrote: ... One more heat susceptible thing, not related to fuel, was the TFI (Thick Film Ignition). Ford used it in the 80's and early 90's. I'm not sure if it was used on the 460 engines but it's highly probable. The short story is I ran into this with a 1990 5.0 engine that worked fine previously, then sat around before it was installed in a hot-rod. The engine consistently ran poorly when hot and was even hard to start. Usually the fix was to remove the module from it's mounting on the distributor and put new thermal paste between the module and a heat sink on the main distributor body itself. Apparently the thermal paste dried out from either time or inactive use. Wes From memory, if I remember correctly, there was two versions of the early TFI as it has been many yrs since I looked at these systems.. One version was the TFI was mounted directly to the distributor and the other version was a remote mounted version. The distributor mounted version was typically used in cars and the remote mounted version was used on trucks. I have worked on the distributor mounted version with frustrating results for a family member. Never ever got that engine to run correctly without it randomly stuttering to death at stop lights.. Changed every sensor, the distributor, coil, the TFI module twice, fuel pump, injectors and the ECM but yet the issue still persisted.. I did find there were some folks on the Internet that discovered part of the issue was grounding issues in the wiring harness, Ford doesn't use a central grounding point and many things are randomly grounded all over the vehicle. Grounding wires from various places in the wiring harness would corrode and fail causing all kinds of strange engine issues.. Family member sold the vehicle before I could try that. I did briefly look at a pickup truck with poor idling, that is when I noticed on the trucks the TFI was mounted separate remotely from the distributor mounted to the wheel well liner, makes sense since a truck under heavy use generates considerably more heat than most autos.. Gdetrailer, I believe the distributor problem was exceedingly common. The reasoning is the long story. The hotrod was a Shelby sportscar replica. My buddy bought a finished car after seeing mine. His engine was giving him fits just like the OP here, especially in slow, hot parades. Gotten busy at work, my rig was still sitting unfinished and gathering dust, so I loaned him my unused distributor. Unfortunately my 'trial' distributor had exactly the same problem, although it had worked flawlessly in the Mustang it came from. After pulling his hair out, my buddy finally discovered the distributor thermal paste problem (passed down from another hotrodder(s) who had also experienced the gremlin). From what I understand, it takes a special tool to remove the module from the distributor body, so he bought the tool along with some correct new thermal paste. That procedure fixed it right up for him, good as new to this day. Some trivia... I think he brought my defunct distributor back maybe a year later. I am not even sure where it is now. By then my employer had suddenly gotten busy and stayed that way for the next 15-20 years. It was a curse. They worked me 80 to 100+ hours a week, mostly out of town. I did little else but work and eventually lost hope in the car until it didn't matter. All I remember is working and sleeping for most of it. The long forlorn chassis project continues to gather dust up on a lift. It's a shame. Wes1.2KViews0likes0CommentsRe: F53 460 Engine runs very poorly when heat soaked
... One more heat susceptible thing, not related to fuel, was the TFI (Thick Film Ignition). Ford used it in the 80's and early 90's. I'm not sure if it was used on the 460 engines but it's highly probable. The short story is I ran into this with a 1990 5.0 engine that worked fine previously, then sat around before it was installed in a hot-rod. The engine consistently ran poorly when hot and was even hard to start. Usually the fix was to remove the module from it's mounting on the distributor and put new thermal paste between the module and a heat sink on the main distributor body itself. Apparently the thermal paste dried out from either time or inactive use. Wes1.2KViews0likes0CommentsRe: F53 460 Engine runs very poorly when heat soaked
... It can't be that hard. But yes, it can be confusing, has happened to all of us... then is simple and obvious when the demon is finally found. The engine only needs three things to run. Compression, fuel/air and ignition. I guess we could randomly brain-storm and maybe somebody will hit upon a useful idea. It almost can't be compression. With one caveat I mentioned earlier. If it has a knock sensor that has an extreme ******-ignition ability, then it could knock and ****** back so far as to kill power, but I can hardly believe it would ****** that much. Unless the computer is in the heat. Or any ignition module, even new does that in your case. EDIT: I see the word r e t a r d starred out above. So if not the above, that leaves fuel and air. Since there should be a dog-house beside the driver, one could drive without the dog-house and have another observer look for problems on-the-go. Except it may run so cool when open, as to be fine if heat is a contributor. Not that it wouldn't bake the occupants as the whole house heated up. But the problems might be that the throttle body is not opening. Offhand, I can't imagine why not. Can the EGR do anything weird on these engines? It's part of the intake. There isn't a soft rubber intake hose ahead of the throttle/mass-air that can collapse when warm... is there? Other things that can be done with the dog-house uncomfortably open is to more directly observe what the vacuum is doing when the problem occurs. By more direct I mean it is easier to connect a vacuum shop-gauge directly to a manifold vacuum source. Otherwise one may run a longer vacuum line to the cabin with the dog-house on and also observe a dash-like vacuum gauge. A similar thing can be done with a fuel pressure gauge. Even an old mechanical oil gauge should be in the range of fuel pressure, or any mechanical water pressure gauge that has a brass bellows. One would want to be be certain that no high pressure (say 45#) fuel leak occurred. I think at least some fuel lines have a built-in fuel-line schrader valve for shop testing. Highway Patrol sometimes tap it (state shop-added valve) for motorists out of gas. It would take a bit of similar jury-rigging to get a non-specific pressure gauge connected. This extreme effort wouldn't make any sense at all until it was insured that the fuel line from the pump and tank was not somehow overheated. Then such a convoluted fuel pressure test becomes a last resort. Lastly, I should explain how compression can change. You probably have iron heads, but if the steel valve inserts in aluminum heads, as I mentioned earlier in http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/30288794/gotomsg/30288823.cfm#30288823 come loose, the intake manifold pressure drops to near zero (or ambient) with the throttle open. But even with the throttle wide open, the engine is running under vacuum (or at least some cylinders) when the inserts stick. Some cylinders are 'throttled' by the insert ring following the valve out. When a piston compresses a high vacuum, such as at idle or other port restriction, it forms very little compression. This is the reason the throttle should be jammed open during compression checks, with all the plugs out also of course. For those that want to understand all modern fuel injection, I highly recommend this book: https://www.ebay.com/itm/384450433528 . Charles (edit: not Fred) Probst helped develop modern F.I. ground up and then taught other Ford engineers how to develop their program introduced in 1988. Wes558Views0likes0CommentsRe: F53 460 Engine runs very poorly when heat soaked
pilotanpia wrote: My 1995 F53, 460cid runs poorly after being heat soaked. When engine is cold it runs like gang busters. After a fuel stop and the engine has soaked up the heat due to no airflow through the engine compartment, there is virtually no power at full throttle. Once above 3000 rpm it starts to get power but misses and hesitates. Once up to highway speeds the engine smooths out and runs fine. I bought the unit with 60,000 miles on it, 6 years ago. I have replaced the following: fuel pump, spark plugs, ignition module, both coolant temp senders, IAT sender, water pump, radiator, timing cover, thermostat and all related coolant hoses. I replaced the fuel pump in 2017 because it would only go 35 mph. I was able to hobble it home and make the repair. It was a very easy task, once the fuel was off-loaded. The fuel pump solved the main issue and it runs well until I let it sit for 30-40 minutes during refuelling. One other note, it tends to do better in cooler climates. Not much problem at all in winter months, here in North Idaho. Most recently, we were coming home from California and our road has one portion about 3/4 mile that is about 7-8% uphill. I could not get past 5 mph using full throttle. It usually pulls the hill at 20-25 mph. If anyone has any ideas, I would appreciate it. Kind of a longshot, but I once sort-of repaired a Corvair (flat, air-cooled aluminum 6 cylinder) that did this when hot. The engine had probably been overheated and several steel intake valve seat inserts had loosened in the aluminum cylinder head. They would temporarily pop back up in place when cold, run fine, then drop back down and shroud the intake valves to self-throttle barely over idle as the engine warmed back up. I temporarily "fixed it" by peening the aluminum head material tighter to the steel valve inserts. It unbelievably ran ok that way for the owner until the engine quit entirely which wasn't long, a couple more months maybe. Otherwise it sounds like the fuel may be boiling in the line somewhere, likely near the engine or less likely close to the exhaust system on back to the tank. Un-pressured gasolines boil between 100 and 400 degrees F, but should usually remain ok, compressed as liquid, for 30-45lb fuel injection. In older carb units, the fuel line pressure was zilch since the fuel pump was not pushing behind it and tended to vapor-lock the pump. Faster speeds do allow a cooler engine compartment that may mysteriously resolve this. Is there a fuel pressure regulator on the line? I'm guessing that there is, if it's F.I. This regulator may be on a return line for the excess fuel that early Ford pumps used. What is the required fuel pressure and does it maintain this? Older carb engines sometimes would cook and boil the carb itself if the exhaust cross-over under the carb (within the intake manifold) was somehow permanently stuck in the high cross flow cold-weather position, or one exhaust down-tube was restricted by a dent or such, causing excessive hot intake cross flow. The cross-over heat is intended to vaporize large raw fuel droplets which can't turn well to the cylinders and therefore hit the intake floor during cold weather. I have also found intermittent intake vacuum leaks on fuel injection that can cause unusual power losses and stalling. F.I. systems run so lean that they are very sensitive to any more air. These type leaks may tend to initially occur during normally high throttle decelerations, such as a vacuum elbow tube temporarily inverting at a break. Good luck to you, Wes321Views0likes0CommentsRe: Onan Generator Hunts Under Load
wa8yxm wrote: Hunting on a governerned engine is NORMALLY a fuel/air ratio issue. As i recall running rich. The Carb has two fuel metering adjustements one is for no or very light load (Idle or low speed adjustment on a car engine) the other is loaded (RUNNING or high speed) Just for the fun I googled Onan Carb adjustments and... https://itstillruns.com/adjust-carburetor-onan-28-generator-8023075.html Great link wa8yxm, Thanks. Other than a misadjusted governor, I can't think of any other reason that a carbureted gas engine hunts other than running too lean, with or without a governor. The governor makes it worse if anything. I think Cummins is between a rock and a hard place in their recommendations servicing these quieter enclosed generators, because they have to offer only an EPA approved remedy for the least of carb problems to make legally the sale. Otherwise any maladjustment immediately nullifies the rating. Since the engine has to also meet California requirements, they all do, no matter where sold. In that context, manufacturer advice generally turns out to be an expensive new, pre-set carb that should be professionally installed/adjusted and to treat an entire 55 gallon fuel tank with anything that might help. IMO, the real solution for Cummins is to either fuel inject the engine (preferred) or run a timed cool-down fan after shutdown... to save baking the enclosed carb. Also see Onan Microquiet 4000 Surge Fix @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ph_C6XF2TCU . That I could determine, this Jeff Berry produced the only detailed, actually useful YouTube video for fixing the surging issue on the Onan. Wes1.2KViews0likes0CommentsRe: Onan Generator Hunts Under Load
... Usually the only reason a generator engine hunts under load (or any other time) is because it is running lean; in this Onan 4000 case the carb is clogged with dried fuel residue. Whatever you do, don't just start adjusting things. Adjustments seldom change and if you leave them alone, they will still be correct as soon the carb is cleaned. If the $3-400 carb is replaced, well then every lousy adjustment surely needs to be rechecked anyway, not only incredibly expensive, but an unnecessary labor nuisance as well. See the end for simply cleaning these units. There is a long story behind why this specifically occurs and it is not because of ethanol, or anything like that. If these small engines (generators, yard equipment etc) were designed a little differently, they would run as reliably as our car and truck engines. The fuel is fine. This seems to be a point even Onan missed by some remarks I've seen in their literature about recommending exotic fuel treatments to cure a simple chronic carb problem. Since these engines don't normally idle (they run at 3600 rpm, I think), they don't have but one jet that handles medium to full throttle to maintain precise rpm under varying loads. That jet is controlled by a main needle that has an obvious black knob normally marked for altitude. Since almost all engines are now designed to run lean and clean, the altitude knob limited adjustment is needed to pass all EPA and allow the gen engine to be set to altitudes from sea level to over 10k feet. Not like our now common fuel injected stuff which is automatic. To clean this carb does not require removing the entire carb; it requires that one remove the float bowl. To do that, first unplug and unscrew the ground of the anti-leak solenoid wire that leads to the bowl bottom so you don't twist it off. (FYI, this wire is there to shut the fuel off in case of a leaky float needle. Our application doesn't need this feature since we only pump the fuel up to the gen. Other remote Onan applications may use a gravity fuel feed, so everybody gets this useless (to us) feature.) When the wire is disconnected, remove the brass hex nut from the bottom of the bowl along with the solenoid assembly, taking care not to twist the darn expensive solenoid wire. Don't lose any gasket washers. There are three. After one removes the float bowl, they can blow the jet out with an ordinary cheap spray can of carb cleaner that you can buy at auto stores (Walmart etc). You have to spray backwards from inside the bowl, against the needle tip hole. Watch your eyes for splash since the bowl and holes will direct spray back at you. Keep it off paint too. You may be able to unscrew the needle entirely from the carb by prying the knob adjustment stop off, although I've heard of folks breaking the tamper-resistant plastic knob, so take care. If you forget where the needle was set, it will start when 1 1/2 turns out, but better to get it exact. Noting the exact position of the plastic part, I removed the plastic EPA stop and unscrewed the needle entirely which allows much better cleaning access. In the future I should be able to remove the needle this way without disassembling the bowl which will save considerable time because of that confounded solenoid wire. My generator seemed to have clogged in my driveway up right after 20 days of non-use even though I've gone several months in the past without "exercising it" (to keep fresh fuel in the bowl). Fresh fuel keeps the dried-up residue from forming. My guess is that mine actually clogged up the next day (or hour) after I used it because I didn't realize how sensitive these generators obviously are to heat soak. By heat soak, I mean that the carb is trapped inside the shroud which gets like an oven inside when no new cool air enters to flow past it. There is a lot of hot iron in these things after they've run awhile. Could probably cook a pizza. Onan casually recommends running their generators a few minutes after use without load to cool them down. IOW, shut the AC off and run over 10 minutes before engine shutdown. I did do about 5, but that was apparently not long enough. It was a well over 103°F day which was the reason I ran the AC. What I should have done after AC-off is run it longer with the gen access door closed normally, then opened the door and shut the gen down from outside the camper. AND I should have left the gen door wide open for 45 minutes while the stationary gen finished cooling off. By not doing that, I'm suspicious the carb boiled all the fuel out in just a few minutes since it was like leaving it in a closed hot oven right after baked cookies have come out. Gasoline boils at as low a temperature as 100°F, depending on winter-summer formulation. The carb could just as well have sat for a year drying out... and here I accelerated the detrimental process down to a few minutes. My guess is that is a large part of the problem that many Onan plagued owners suffer from... a bad last shut-down. Someday I plan to actually check the cool-down curve with a pointed meat thermometer stuck through the bristle seal. Wes1.2KViews0likes0CommentsRe: Unusual tire wear
... Even though this thread is already aging, I would like to add some comments to it. It is one of the better subjective discussions of tires that I have ever seen in that it contains fairly wide ranging ideas. I think it will make a good future reference source for RV_NET readers. I know that it is a common belief that tires worn on both the outer edges are always always caused by under-inflation. I would like to question that. I had recently been researching dual tire pressure equalization systems whereby the dually tire valves are connected together so that each inflates at the same time from one valve port. I seemed to have run across a related wear issue in this. I read one or more opinions that dually mounted tires will wear unevenly when they are not inflated equally. One of the info sites was http://www.stengelbros.com/truck-and-wheel-parts/cat-eye-tire-pressure-system/. The claim here is that the under-inflated smaller tire will wear more because the larger full tire will "drag" it a bit. A detailed Case Study by Bridgestone is cited. The thing is, that if that is true, and a single, non-driven tire is over-inflated and the center tread is larger (bulged), shouldn't the main center tread, which certainly has the most traction, also logically drag the lower contact outer edges of the same tire? In this case, the outer edges should wear more than the center when the tire is over-inflated, not under-inflated as is commonly believed. This is exactly what the OP states of such wear in his original post.. "...have been over inflated if anything...". Even I am not sure about the above "wear" implication, but I like to keep an open mind. One might be able to detect the best inflation by just tediously choosing the tread inflation shape that yields the lowest TPMS temperature reading. Any scrubbing definitely adds heat, but less scrubbing adds less. I did a fair amount of tire work on passenger, truck and tractors at my job when I was in high school and learned a lot, not necessarily all from older employees. This was back when belted tires first began to appear. From that and experience since, I can say that very few tire shops fully understand what they are doing and "old wives tales" do very much abound, so a healthy grain of salt is advised. This caution also goes for alignment, balance and ball-joint replacement. Shop training is often more sales-tactic than tech-tactic and probably always was. The odd wear on the outer passenger and inner drivers front steer is probably caused by the necessary chronic drainage crown on both country gravel roads and paved highways. Even on interstates, the RH lane has this same RH downhill crown. All vehicles are then forced to steer slightly uphill while driving straight ahead. This crown is even known to cause the front passenger ball-joints to wear quicker since more weight is also tilted to the front rh steer tire while it jitters along down the road. The more even additional wear on outer edges of the steer tire is due to side wind and this should actually be detectable by added front tire temps during intermittent windy area's on such days. But the overall wear should still be slightly more on the outer edges because, although both sidewalls roll slightly, greater weight-shift is on the downstream tire in a wind or downhill crown. As an example race cars generally have the camber changed (to lean in) to accommodate turn-traction, a flatter tread contact pattern during turning on the more heavily loaded tire. In such a case, the tire tread is flatter, rather than tucked-under when the sidewall rolls. If tires could just roll ahead on level ground with no side forces, with no tread squirm, they shouldn't wear at all. Of course there is always some tread squirm, even level. Wes558Views0likes0Comments
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