Coast Resorts Open Roads Forum: How many of us are there? Owners of Dodge based RV's?

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

Posted By: Trish Davis on 06/15/08 06:34am

Happy Father's Day !!

Posted By: 79powerwagon on 06/16/08 06:09am

Trish Davis wrote:

Happy Father's Day !!

Thanks Trish! I don't "officially" become a father (step) and grandfather until September 27, but I'll accept your salutations anyway! [emoticon]

She ain't purdy, but at least she's slow!

Posted By: eyeteeth on 06/16/08 07:48am

Well... another several days wasted... I had a couple of days off, I was originally going to go racing, but can't go without the MH, so I figured I keep the days off to work on it. Unfortunately, my youngest came down with something and had 104 fevers both days, so I got to stay home and play Mr. Mom.

I'm starting to think its just not int he cards for me his year... [emoticon]

Posted By: Leeann on 06/16/08 08:00am

eyeteeth wrote:

I'm starting to think its just not int he cards for me his year... [emoticon]

Nah....it'll all work out in the end [emoticon]

'73 Concord 20' Class A w/Dodge 440 - see profile for photo

Posted By: 65CrewCabPW on 06/16/08 05:58pm

ALnCORY wrote:

Hey Jerry,
Well I have fixed all my leaks and have fixed all the water damage in the overhead. Resealed all my drip rail and some windows and replace broken vent to solve some leak issues and have repaired all the water line breaks. I still have alot to do, new counter top, paint inside, new flooring. My wife is building new curtains and cushion covers. I haven't spent alot of money yet but its very time consuming. I still have to do some basic engine work, tune up kind of stuff, and get a new pan seal on the tranny, but I hope to take it out on a trial run this fall. What are your favorite local camp grounds? Maybe we could meet at one some weekend. I would love to see your rig up close. Keep in touch, Al

I should point out to you that a common leak on the transmission appears to be the pan, but is actually the o-ring on the filler tube, and the seals on the shift / kickdown shafts. They are one inside the other over on the driver's side of the tranny. The filler is on the passenger's side near the front. The O-ring gets hard and starts seeping in every old one I've ever owned.

The seal change requires dropping the valve body, which isn't actually all that hard to do. One is changed while the valve body is out, the other is part of the shifter shaft mechanism. One is a classic seal, the other looks like a waved washer.

Another small seep spot is the cooler line attachment points. They're pipe thread and vibration loosens the threads and thye begin to seep small amounts of oil. The only real "fix" is to pull the fittings, clean everything, and put it back in with a very good sealant, one more revolution in, so it's tight again.

Sometimes the tailshaft seal leaks, but it's relatively easy to change, and doesn't usually leak unless the chassis is pointed uphill.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Mopars forever... Not German, Japanese, Chinese...American Mopars!
The price of freedom is higher than the price of slavery, but it's still a bargain!

Posted By: ALnCORY on 06/17/08 09:35am

Thanks Crewcab,
I have a friend who is a retired tranny mechanic and I will be taking it out to him to help me with the tranny when I get to that part. That way he can give it a good go over and see if there are any trouble spots lurking. Mine doesn't seem to leak when parked on an upslope but does leak when parked so that the drivers side is lower.. don;t know it that means anything or not. As long as I have good fluid level in it, shifts smooth as glass so I figure its mostly just seals that are the problem.. thanks again for your advise.

I don't think anyones dying statement ever contained the words "I wish I had spent more time in the office", so lets go somewhere!

Posted By: Griff in Fairbanks on 06/17/08 10:43pm

ALnCORY wrote:

That would be the seals on the shift/kickdown shafts. If it doesn't leak a lot, I wouldn't even worry about it.

A727 Torqueflite/Loadflite trannys are hard to kill ... I know, I've tried unusual things that'd kill most other automatics. Keep the fluid full and change the filter once in a while and they'll last almost forever. (Kinda like a Dana 70 rear axle ... just about the only way to kill one is to run it dry.)

1970 Explorer Class A on a 1969 Dodge M300 chassis with 318 cu. in. (split year)
1972 Executive Class A on a Dodge M375 chassis with 413 cu. in.
1973 Explorer Class A on a Dodge RM350 (R4) chassis with 318 engine & tranny from 1970 Explorer Class A

Posted By: Goatmaiden on 06/18/08 10:03pm

ALnCORY wrote:

Goatmaiden?
Does your Road Ranger say if it was made in the Caldwell Idaho plant? If so I might have worked on it. I worked at the complex during that time but usually on the travel trailers. I remember them being pretty nice little rigs. They listed at about 14,000 if I remember correctly...

Awesome! I went out to take a pic of the badge on her side which says that she was in fact made at that plant, but my battery died. That's pretty wild tho.

Sooo.... we took as much as we possibly could off the old beast to try to get at the engine, with the help of some friends, but eventually admitted defeat. Mostly not because we didn't want to / couldn't continue on, but, um, I'm working full time and am leaving Oregon by the end of the month and the whole plan was to travel by RV to our new abode. So it's more of a timing thing that has prompted us to call in the professionals.

Anyway, we will get a chance to find out exactly what went wrong with the engine, and in place, we have worked out to have a professionally remanufactured 440-3 engine put in that comes with a 3 year warranty. I know to some this probably goes against the spirit of having an older RV, but I will say I have learned more about pistons, bearings, heads, valves, the difference between cast iron and forged crankshafts, etc. in the past 2 weeks than I ever thought could possibly fit in my brain. And, like I told Ron the rebuilder, I'm the black sheep of a Mopar family, so this was the only way I'd ever get to talk with them [emoticon]

(that was another problem, I'm moving back to be closer to them, but I wish they were here now!)

P.S. CrazyMopraGuy - The reason I was asking about that paint job is because we just painted the front of our rig brown and it looks a lot like yours!

Posted By: tommyj3 on 06/19/08 12:52pm

I'm in need of some help from you owners of the older Dodge RV's.
My problem is:
I have a 77 Dodge RV with 440 engine. I am unable to shut engine off with key switch. It starts fine and runs fine, but cann't shut it down. I have replaced the ignition switch with new one and still have the same problem. Any Ideas. Just about got all my hair pulled out on this, what little I have left anyhow.

Posted By: 65CrewCabPW on 06/19/08 01:34pm

Someone, somewhere, has installed a relay, and miswired it, or miswired the voltage regulator voltage feed circuit, and it's running on the alternator.

I can't help you much beyond that, as far as by text help...

However, this you might want to check...

Is there a load on the battery with everything off and the motor not running?

Check by pulling the battery cable and hooking it back up.

If it keeps running after turning the key off, somehow the ignition is energized. So... One simply has to trace why or how it has power. Obviously, not the ignition switch. If someone has miswired a relay, it would most likely power an electric fuel pump, and it acts like a latching relay... it powers itself, once it's on.

Or, someone has "hotwired" the rig to get it to start, and the ignition is actually "always" on. That should not be too hard to figure out.

Also, there is a relay that energizes the ignition, bypassing the ballast resistor while you crank the engine.

This relay is rectangular, usually not far from the battery, and has a heavy wire between it and the battery. if it were stuck, or the wire were bypassed to battery voltage, it would not shut off.

This is all I can think of right now.

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