RoadTripper2084

Very interesting. Please do report back when you've got it all installed and working.

Try messaging Charles at CRY1942 above, he's the one organizing the air throttle replacement kits. Does your cruise control still work, but not the throttle itself? You might try taking the King Control box into an electronics repair shop to see if they can fix it. Also, try tracing the connectors from the throttle to the box, could be a corroded or otherwise lose or damaged connector issue relatively easily resolved.

Bit of an update. I wrapped up the wire repairs, re-wrapped and zip-tied the bundles along the dash to the floor and into the outside fuse bay. Spray-foamed the opening between the fuse-bay and the side console. I also cleaned up the ground connections for the ground bar and re-mounted it to the dash. Then I started attaching a few connectors to the dash and console components until I got to the point where I could start the engine again. Once I achieved that, it was simple to locate the air leak, with the protective wrap removed from around the air lines. It was right in front of my eyes the whole time! Lines were touching the melting wire right where it joined the ground bar in the middle of the dash. It turns out that only the brown hose was leaking, pin-hole from the melting, as you can see. It's amazing how air and sound can travel, with the wrap still on the lines I could have sworn that it was the yellow line leaking, and the that the source was near the floor in the corner. 🤷‍♂️ Once I found the brown hose leak I inspected the yellow and could see similar damage, but as of yet no actual leak. So all I had to do was cut out the small sections that were damaged and install a push-on joiner to re-join each hose to itself. Leak fixed. What remains to do is to re-install the front dash framing and then the dash and side consoles themselves. As part of that I have new plastics for both, so I need to transfer each dash component/sub-module to the new plastics first. Unfortunately, I just realized that the new plastics have the wrong size cutouts for every toggle button, they are for the smaller sized buttons. 😞 Old on left, new on right. You can see where I enlarged the end hole already, testing various methods. Fortunately the rough edge is covered by the button when it's installed. I am going to attempt to very carefully enlarge the button holes myself using a plastic cutting disc on my dremel...

Not to derail the thread, but would you happen to have the specs on the o-rings required for the Wynn system? I'd like to pick up a set of spares for mine "just-in-case". Thx.

Jim, yes I can follow the lines from the gauge to the floor in the front drivers corner. The connectors are fine, when it was connected to the gauge and aired up there was no leak at the gauge, but seemed to be further down closer to the floor. The leak sound would change if I flexed the hose, which is making me think it might actually be in the section that goes through the floor. I guess I could just replace the line from under the floor to the gauge, not too sure how difficult it will be to run a new line through the floor opening.

Thanks Jim. I can access the brown and yellow lines all the way into the floor passthrough, and if need be, under the coach to the tank(s). But there was no leak sound outside the coach, and a loud hissing sound inside. I was pretty sure that the leak was coming from the yellow line going to the air gauge, from the last time I had it aired up, as I could feel air coming out from the protective shroud around the air line. I was expecting to find an obvious spot where the hot wire had melted into the line, but have not. I think I'm going to proceed with re-assembly of the dash, so long as I can still access the air lines, and then air it up from the engine compressor (Plan A).

Thanks, I sources some similar stuff at the local Home Despot (https://www.homedepot.ca/product/great-stuff-smart-dispenser-fireblock-insulating-foam-sealant-16oz/1001181677). So I have now completed replacing all of the damaged wires. Yay! Unfortunately, I haven't been able to determine where the air leak is. The 1/4" hoses from the air gauge appear to be intact from what I can see. Now I have the problem that because the entire dash has been removed, I am unable to start the rig to air it up again. If I could add air I could likely find the leak via the soapy water spray method, or just by following the loudish leak sound. I'm also unable to open the generator tray at the front which would provide access to the external air port. I *might* be able to access it from underneath so I've ordered a Type M fitting that I'm hoping will fit. Otherwise I'll just proceed with re-wrapping/zip clipping the wires again as much as I can while still providing access to the air hoses, and get the dash components transferred over to my new dash plastics that I picked up earlier this summer. Once the dash is fully connected, but not closed up/mounted, I should be able to start the engine and then find the air leak. I'm open to any suggestions on alternatives to getting air into the 1/4" hoses to find the leak. Do you think shooting air out of my portable compressor into the open end of the line would be enough pressure to hear and see the leak further down the hose?

With the Femco, if I wanted to stop flow to switch out my oil bucket, I would "unplug" the hose, then re-attach to start flow? It doesn't start leaking oil all over the outside of the hose fitting as soon as it's inserted but before the outer lock ring seats?

Thanks guys these tips are invaluable. So far I've picked up the 90-degree zerk connect fitting for grease gun (as well as the latch on fitting), moved to a hand-pump gun for single handed operation. I'm also going to pick up a larger tray to put under/around my 5 gal pail when I drain to catch and spills and use for the tranny maintenance. That battery powered grease gun looks great but this is the only vehicle I need to grease so can't justify the cost. What's your favourite grease to use? I've heard about Red and Sticky but haven't seen that locally here in Canada.

Guys, I just turned 53 yesterday, hoping to be able to manage my own maintenance for awhile yet! 😀

I'm gearing up to complete my annual maintenance soon and was looking for some expert advice on my equipment choices. For oil changes, I've ordered a HP 12v pump, plan is to pump oil from a 5gallon pail into the engine. Also going to order a quick-release drain plug so I can control the flow easily, ideally directly into another empty 5gal pail. Quick-release Oil Drain Plug Any concerns? For chassis lube, I've heard good things about the LockNLube grease nozzle. Anyone here use one? Will this nozzle-head fit all the zirks on my 97 Roadmaster RR8S chassis, or am I going to need a smaller head also? Would a cheap-o model be just as good? I figure by the time I pay for the cheap one and add the LockNLube tip I might as well just buy the LockNLube gun. Pistol grip vs lever? Going to go with this drain pan, right combination of smallish size for storing in my 2 car garage and able to hold 4 gals. Want to be able to use it for transmission also, will this be wide enough to swap the built-in filters on my Allison 3060? Or will I need to do one filter at a time? Thanks in advance for any feedback.

Well progress is slow but steady. I figure I'm about 75% done the wire repairs now. Once the wires are all reconnected I plan to fire her up and build air pressure to help me find the air leak. Here's a few pics of the "path of destruction" the shorted wire took from the fuse box on the driver's side of the coach, under the left console to the ground bar near the middle of the dash. Seems like approx. 18 wires involved at different points along the path. All 14awg, one 12awg. Anyone know where I can find the likely fire-retardant black expanding foam to re-seal the hole between the fuse bay and the coach?

Well, it's black now! 😉

Actually, the "black wire" in this case was actually a white 14 AWG ground wire that was completely disconnected just sort of floating in space there, and that had somehow swung over and contacted and shorted against the battery-positive connection in the picture while we were driving. I can't remember how the end of it was capped (or if it was just cut off), and I can't tell from the "original" picture I have either. I remember looking at that bundle of wires after I purchased the coach and wondering what it was originally meant for, but didn't really occur to me at the time that it was a time-bomb the way it was just hanging in the fuse bay like that. So I consider this a bit of a freak accident, but one that was entirely avoidable. The best mistakes are the ones serious enough that we learn from but not so bad that they can't be overcome with a little hard work and inconvenience. 😉

Yes it's actually a big relief to know the origin was just something foolish and not because there is some inherent wire wear issue in the coach. After going throw all the wires I have I'm happy to report that the overall condition of the wiring is excellent, with no wear at brackets or other pinch points. I'm going to make sure all the orphaned/cut wires are probably capped and taped too before I close things up. I still want to map the radio + amplifier circuits to make sure they are all properly fused, since they are no longer using the bottom fuse slots for the amplifiers in the fuse bay.

Another 3 hours cutting zip ties and removing metal wire guides. I tried to use the snake camera thing to see down the hole to the fuse compartment but could never get a clear shot. Then the battery died. However, I was finally able to release the bundle in the left front corner and get to the melted wires in the back, and also determined that the brown wires from the fuse panel were just running through yet another zip tie right in the middle of the floor passthrough that I had missed. This means that I can trace the burnt wires along their entire path from the source in the fuse compartment to the ground bar under the center of the dash. I also found my picture of what the fuse compartment looked like before the fire. Here's a before/after comparison for all of us amateur fire investigators: I'm really annoyed with myself for not dealing with those wire immediately when I found them that way. Just wasn't thinking at all, figured must be okay if the previous owner left them like that. Doh! And the answer is: The ground wire end moved in transit and shorted nicely into the battery positive distribution bar. Some accidents are as predictable as if you planned them. 😞 At least I've confirmed the source of the short, owner stupidity! So that white ground wire got hot enough to melt off all it's insulation, and even came apart in several places. This in turn melted the insulation of any wires wrapped in close proximity to that ground. The actual wires involved varies along the path of the ground from the fuse panel to the dash ground bar. You can see it got hot enough in the fuse box (due to being wrapped around itself and the brown wires several times) to blacken the large 2/0 red wire above it. I also believe that's what melted the black plastic wire wrap at the top of the compartment primarily, as flames/heat from the coiled ground wire rose up. And closer inspection of the back of the 2/0 red battery positive wires found this nasty bit of damage, which I think was caused when the ground wire wrapped around it started to burn. This would have only made the short even worse: I'll make another post later showing the "path of destruction" pics. Time to order some suitable wires and supplies to begin the repairs.

Thanks for all the support guys. I've got all those items except the rated wire and connectors! I forgot all about the camera, it's sitting in a cabinet in the coach. I'll use that to see if I can figure out where the burnt wires that appear to go into the floor are going. Thanks, real-world feedback is invaluable. Fortunately? it appears the most of the damage is along one long, thick harness across the dash and down to the fuse panel outside. I think I'm going to try to make a list of every damaged wire I can identify along the length of it and then just run a small bundle of new wires the length of the damaged area to replace them. Thoughts on repairing the 1/4" air line? I believe somewhere I saw you can by a splice kit type of thing with push-on connectors? But first I need to get into that corner... Yeah, I'm really hoping the root cause is obvious when I find it. There's no indication that the dangling wires contacted the giant 2/0 positive battery terminal near them in the fuse box. At the time we had the stereo running loud, generator on, a/c units on, dash fans on... I believe that some of the damaged wires are involved with the stereo system. After the incident the Sony deck was showing some very odd glitches on the LCD display (bad ground?). That's when I pulled all the related fuses. Also, this coach has slots at the bottom of the fuse panel for two amplifies but no wires running to them. The amplifiers are installed under the dash though, so going to need to take a hard look at the stereo circuits to make sure it's properly fused, etc. I do not believe there is any physical damage to the large red cable, I will take another look though. Also, the loom was not contacting the solenoid relay terminal, though I will inspect the terminal for any indications of contact. The photo is deceiving there was several inches of space between them. Good idea to check for shorts now between the fuse terminal circuits - will do that. Well it's an 1997 coach, previous owners have made a few undocumented changes over the years. These wires in the fuse box had been wrapped and dangling there since I got it. I could have swore I had pictures of it before the incident but can't find them now. Wanted to double check what the white ground wire was terminated with. Under the dash, there are quite a few other wires that have been cut and "capped" with a butt splice. I'll be cleaning all those up too with a proper terminator.

Well we were either extremely lucky or unlucky (depending on your view of how full the glass is I guess) last weekend. After a very pleasant 60 mile drive down the highway to our campground all hell broke loose. A block before pulling into the campground I started to here a loud hissing sound from under the front dash that I hadn't heard before, then just as we were pulling up to stop at the front gatehouse acrid smoke started to pour out of edges of the left side of the front dash. Electrical fire! I quickly got everyone out of the coach, shut it down, and disconnected the batteries via the disconnects in the rear engine bay. After a few minutes things seem to settle down, no more smoke, though I had a new air leak under the dash. I was able to fire it up and drive to a large parking lot about 50 yards away. There I started to disassemble the dash and open the driver's side fuse compartment. Long story short, there was a set of 3 wires that had been dangling wrapped loosely around other wires in the fuse compartment that had basically disintegrated with most of their insulation melted off. These wires were not connected to anything in the fuse compartment (was this way when I bought the coach last fall), but had somehow shorted out and melted. It's amazing how fast you can figure out how to remove the dash cover when you think there might be a fire smouldering under it. Once I got the dash partially off I was also able to see one white wire on the ground bar completely melted, along with a second wire attached to the same ground port. At the time, I pulled all the fuses for stuff we didn't need to drive the coach, and disconnected the burnt ground wire from ground. The burnt wire in the fuse compartment read 0v and no continuity to ground, either. We were able to complete our camping weekend and drive home without further incident. Fortunately, the air leak under the dash was slow enough to allow the compressor to more than compensate so we could drive. Now I've completely removed the dash, dashboard, and side control panel to gain better access. I'm attempting to trace the damaged wires so I can determine which other wires were affected and repair them, and hopefully find the source of the short. The wires in the fuse compartment were not connected on this end. Appears to be 2 live brown wires crimped together on the end, and one white ground wire. These all melted together or lost their insulation completely. They shared a plastic wire loom with the generator slide switch wires up and into the opening through the floor. The loom was completely melted but through some miracle the generator slide wires were not harmed. Even up through the floor opening there is only minor scorching on the surrounding wires, which appear to be fine. I was able to pull this wire up through the floor opening into the drivers side compartment (where the transmission controls, etc. live) and discovered that they actually seem to disappear under the floor somehow, and do not actually run through the compartment above the floor. Nor do they run under the coach. So this remains a mystery and I'm not sure how to proceed tracing these, they seem to be solidly routed into the floor. Under the dash, I was able to find two toasted ground wires. They both shared the same ground port, so one really toasted white wire, and one partially toasted green wire. Tracing that wire back toward the driver's side of the dash, there are partially melted wires surrounding it inside the middle of the bundle. Likely different wires at different locations just based on which wires were closest to the melting wire at that point. So far I've been able to trace the melted ground wire to the bottom left corner where it drops from the dash and runs down to the floor, and then continues on to the opening through the floor and the fuse box. I have NOT been able to get enough access to see if the damage continues around the bend and to the opening yet, just as far as the middle of the drop to the floor. I was also able to determine that the yellow 1/4" air line going to the air gauge is the one leaking, and seems to be coming from that same front drivers corner where the wires and the air lines go through the same rubberized metal bracket. Though again, due to tight access I wasn't able to actually pull things apart enough to see the leak/damage. At this point I have to assume the hot ground wire burned a hole through the air line. Sorry for the really long post, but I wanted to share everything I've found so far. So questions for anyone who has experience with this sort of thing: 1. It seems like I should be able to replace the damaged wires by either patching in new wires for sections where they are damaged, or even just running new wires the length of the damaged section. Opinions? 2. What if I can't determine where the short occurred? Any advice or tips is appreciated. 3. I'm having a bear of a time accessing the front left corner under the dash, the steering column is in the way. Would it be sane to remove the steering column? Probably just the U-joint and then maybe 4 large bolts holding it to the floor (plus wires)? Obviously a very close call we could have lost the whole rig. I feel we actually were very fortunate the way things have turned out thus far, but really wanting to make solid repairs to avoid similar issues in the future.

Thanks guys, I get it now. My cap was almost fully cranked down in my hand, so wouldn't sit over the opening properly. I was able to release it by holding it in some pliers and now it's sitting on tightly again. Thanks! Sometimes the "obvious" isn't.

Yeah, that's why I posted it. I didn't want to dump oil in there only to find out it needed something more exotic for some reason. The filter on the driver's side is the coolant filter. Here's another stupid question, the cap on my hydraulic fluid tank says "Tighten->" on it, but I can't seem to get it to tighten down at all, just spins. I also don't see any obvious threads on it, and there are maybe some threads on the inside of the hole it goes into.

Thanks! That's a much easier location to access, so I'm glad to hear it! 🙂

...can anyone tall me what the fluid fill is for at the front right side of my C8.3? It appears to be a secondary engine oil fill, with the regular one being on the top left side (shown by the arrow). If not, what is it??

This. On my rig I discovered that the u-joint behind the cover under the steering wheel had been tightened with slack in it causing about an inch of slop in the wheel. So I loosened it and raised the bottom rod from the steering box to make a snug fit and re-tightened - that really improved the wheel sloppiness.

Could be your toilet floor/flange seal needs to be replaced. Had a similar issue with my rig this year and that fixed it. I found the plastic flange was only screwed to the floor well on two sides and the parts that the toilet bolts mounted on were pulled up away from the floor, breaking the seal. I added additional screws to the flange and a new seal, problem solved.

For me so far the closest to empty I've gotten was a hair below 1/4, with the low fuel light solidly lit. It took 88 gals into my 130gal tank to fill to the bottom of the fill tube opening. I figure I might have had 5 or maybe 10 gallons useable left, or less if I had to park on an uphill, etc.