RoadTripper2084

Well I'm pleased to report that this repair job is nearly complete! 😅

Installing the replacement dash and console plastics turned out to be a much bigger effort than I was anticipating. Apart from having to hand-cut each button hole larger there were several other holes that were drilled backwards, or mirrored from the correct positions (must have had the template upside down?), so I had to field correct those, fortunately in each case the original holes were hidden after final installation.

At this point everything is connected, but the dash, console, etc. is not secured back in place just yet to allow for access.  The coach drives, and I was able to adjust my speedometer to be accurate for the first time since owning it.  I added an additional ground wire to the dash instruments as well, and that also seems to have solved an issue I had with the tach and speedometer randomly jumping to higher values and later returning to closer to correct ones as well as an issue I had with the temp. gauge jumping up a bit when the lights were on.  😎

The big news is that everything works again!

...except for the top front clearance lights. 😞

The rear clearance lights work correctly.  Based on the wiring diagram, it appears the the front and rear clearance lights combine in the power distribution / fuse bay below the driver's seat.

This would indicate that everything "up circuit" from there is working fine (ECC switch, fuse, etc.).

The black wire with the green zip tie on it is the "bad" one that I think is for the front lights. When I test the two black wires with the lights on, the other one (with no zip tie) clearly acts as a ground to the 12v at the Clearance Lights post, but the zip-tied wire does not, and also does not "buzz" to ground like the working wire does.

So it would appear that I have a simple break or misconnection on my front clearance light circuit. 

It's possible that I cut the wire meaning to replace it and simply missed it and forgot to connect it. 

The other thing that occurs to me is that I stuffed a bunch of fiberglass insulation in the top cap earlier this summer, it's possible that in doing so I disconnected a wire on one of the clearance lights at that time and they haven't worked since then. Being summer we haven't needed to use the lights so could have gone undetected.

So I'm faced with a choice of two unpleasant options, either I cut open all my nicely bundled wires beside the driver's seat again and try to trace the bad black wire all the way to the front pillar, or I try to remove the fiberglass insulation that I wedged tightly in some cases into the top cap to see if I can gain access to the clearance lighting circuit there.

8 hours ago, Bob Jones said:

Don't know if you guys know about these Steam Cleaners (I'm usually the last to know) but the other day I realized, that after 5 years of full-timing, I should probably clean the tile floor. I recalled how my Mom used to do it, on her hands and knees with a scrub brush and buckets of soapy water, and I thought, there must be a better way. 

Anyway, long story short, I bought the Dupray Neat Steam Cleaner on a lark. Well, not really a lark, after reading all 15,000 reviews I finally decided it was worth the $230 CAD (about $167 USD). 

Wow. Just wow. Other than the tile floor, the main reason for buying it was to get rid of the cooking grease stains on the white fuzzy ceiling above my microwave. Then I realized it could also do the carpets. Then I realized it could do the mirrors and glass windows. Then I realized it could do the roof. Then I realized I could steam clean the interior of my car and the windows in the car. Finally, I put it to the acid test, I have a piece of carpet outside under my awning that has been there for years. You know how hard it is to clean the window channels and the fungus that grows in them? Not anymore. 

I absolutely cannot believe how useful this device has been. Steam clean the toilet? How about the interior walls? Want to remove years of Pledge from your cabinets? How about the felt headboard that gets grease from your hair on it over the years? 

 I did the carpets with the expensive ($800) Bissel Cleaner. It was good. This is better. How about the couch? It's really hard to find something you cannot clean with the steam cleaner. Defrosting the old Norcold freezer? You'd be shocked how fast that goes with pressurized steam....My neighbors saw me doing it, now they ALL have one. This is an amazing device and I happened to come across it when trying to find a way to not scrub the floors. 

Speaking of which, vacuuming the tile floor takes maybe 3 minutes. Steam cleaning it takes slightly more. I'm not kidding. And it dries virtually instantly. Same as the carpets, because you are using pressurized steam. Got spots in the carpet you can't get rid of? Not anymore. I've even used the d*** thing to melt the grease off my George Foreman grill in the nooks and crannies you can't get at any other way. 

You guys may already know all about these things but I didn't. I had not idea they had become portable or so cheap. The last one I used was in the 80's to clean the engine in my car at school and it was about $5,000.....but man, it did the job.

I've yet to use it on the outside of the unit (other than the windows) but I will. And I am sure it will be excellent. Not the greatest picture to show how small it is but you know the cabinet under the sink in the kitchen? It easily fits in there although I leave it out all the time now because it takes up dick for space and I use it often so I want it handy. 

You know what's really weird though? I've cleaned lots of things with cleaners but when they are steam cleaned the surfaces just feel different. Like there is nothing on them at all. Btw, all those chemicals you use for cleaning? You can replace them all with straight water which is what the steam cleaner uses *no* cleaners or additives, just water. 

The link at the top has better pictures. 

 

Thanks Bob!  You totally sold me on that cleaner.  I happened to look on amazon.ca and they had a pre-owned one in good condition I was able to buy for $150 Cdn!  

7 hours ago, Bob Jones said:

Well....it finally happened. And mostly due to this site because someone posted up a model of fridge that fit in the hole without a lot of carpentry work. But, just to be clear, my Norcold 1200 LRIM from 1999 was still working.....and the freezer was -18c and the fridge was 1.4c - after installing the rows of fans for the fins inside, an adjustable thermistor (Snip the Tip) and a separate circulating fan to keep the fridge evenly cold. 

So why ditch it? My hydro (electric) bills were way too high for living in a small elongated box! I calculated (and I am NOT kidding) that the Norcold was using $40 of electricity per month to keep it at those temps and the new fridge uses under $4 per month. No kidding. The new fridge costs $40 per YEAR and the Norcold cost $40 PER MONTH. 

And of course, there are the host of other reasons that everyone knows so well. 

This is on my 2000 Diplomat. I know everyone (and their dog) installs the Samsung RF18. But I also see that most people take 3 days to rework the cabinet and many have taken out their front windows or used a forklift to put them through the side windows. I didn't want to do that all that work and I am ONE person so an 18 cubic foot fridge is way overkill.

But the fact is, my hydro bill last month was +$130. To me that was ridiculous. When I started out, before 'fixing' the Norcold, they were in the $55 range. Waste, waste waste!

Anyway, I went with the Frigidaire FFHT1425VV. I wanted to do it two years ago but the reviews of the fridge during the pandemic were atrocious. At that time it was $850 but given the reviews, there was no way I would do it. I then looked last year but the price had climbed to $1,200 (!!) This year it was on sale at $919 CAD including shipping and the reviews were much, much better. So I ordered it up. 

Despite it's small size I still had to remove the doors and one of the feet to get it through the door. The good news is that it weighs nothing. The widow (+70) across the way helped me install it 🙂 No kidding. I used a floor jack to lift it up instead of making a dolly. I *still* had to make a 1" Plywood floor for it to sit on and I through bolted it on the backside although I would never count on them for keeping it in place. I'm going to installed two U-bolts, one at the bottom front and one at the top and use a ratcheting tie down to keep the doors and the fridge in place when going down the road. There is *NO* way it will ever come out with that system in place. 

I used insulating foam hand cut to size for the outside vent and I bundled up the installation from the inside of the cabinet and put it in a garbage bag and forced it into the roof vent. I then used the same insulating foam to create a new 'ceiling' in the compartment so that it's fully insulated. Because the fridge is a bit smaller than the opening in the cabinet there is no need for concern about air circulation. I'm going to leave it open. 

But you know what is really weird? It's considerably warmer in the motorhome now. I think it's not only going to save me $37 a month in hydro, I think this winter it's also going to save me from more hydro that would otherwise be used to heat the motorhome. The heat it's taking from the fridge gets reused to heat the interior. But I find it off that it's so much warmer in here now than when the Norcold was installed. Perhaps because that cabinet is no longer effectively open to the outdoors? 

Anyway, this fridge, according to my kill-o-watt, uses 70 watts of power when running. And it does not run much. The Norcold? 500 watts on a constant basis other than when it went into a defrost cycle. That's huge. Plus, even though my Norcold ran at -18c in the freezer, as this one also does, the fact is that frozen food in this one is rock solid hard. Like concrete. Here's some pics, nevermind what's in the fridge, it was just stuff lying around 🙂 I'm very pleased with the quality of the fridge. I did reverse the doors and it worked out well. Did I mention it weighs nothing? The Norcold weighed a ton. Massive weight savings there. Btw, I had to disassemble the Norcold to get it out. Completely strip it including the cooling unit. And the backside of that thing was grungy and mouldy and stank. It was nasty. But...not a trace of burnt wood in the cabinet after 20 years and my dad used to run the thing on propane....a lot! It seemed a shame to throw out a perfectly good cooling unit but anyway, it's gone now!

Nice job with the fridge. We really like the residential fridge that our rig came with as well. 

Biting my tongue on your dietary choices though. 🤔

Here's the link to the video in question:  

22 hours ago, dwleckie said:

I bought the Rostra 250-1223 control, the Rostra 250-3592 dash mount switches and the Rostra 250-4165 VSS magnetic speed pulse generator kit for the control.  All in was about $400.  

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

18 hours ago, dwleckie said:

I have an immediate need for parts and information to convert my 98 Monoco with C8.3L mechanical diesel.  King controls dead - running a clothesline throttle cable 😢.    Any advice or kits available for a desperate RVer?

 

David Leckie

dwleckie@cox.net

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...

13 hours ago, Greg Carter said:

new O rings in the Wynn filter system

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.

23 hours ago, Ray Davis said:

Ken can you see the air lines where they attach to the gauge?   I think the lines are a push on connector.  There was a thread on IRV2 where that connector broke I'm not sure how they resolved the broken piece.  Why not inspect that area before reassembling just to be sure?

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.  

On 9/20/2022 at 6:46 AM, jacwjames said:

I'm not sure where the wires that melted/burned are in relation to the air lines but on my coach there is a large plastic cover on the firewall in front of the steering column.  This cover covers up the air lines that go to the brake pedal but also have the air lines for the dash air gauge, I believe there are 2 lines for the gauge since it shows front and rear pressure.  There is also a supply line to the park brake.  My guess it is either the dash air gauge line or the park brake line.    All the lines are a different color, attached is a air schematic that might help you identify which is which!  It matched what I have pretty darn close. 

If you have the plastic cover similar to mine it might give you access to be able to listen for the leak after you pressurize the system. 

Air system roadmaster chassis.pdf 1006.92 kB · 9 downloads

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).

On 9/12/2022 at 12:20 PM, Tom Cherry said:

Maybe??

this is what frequently showed up on Google

https://www.homedepot.com/p/GREAT-STUFF-16-oz-Fireblock-Insulating-Spray-Foam-Sealant-with-Quick-Stop-Straw-99053992/207077797

check it out….who knows?

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?

On 9/18/2022 at 7:11 AM, rustykramermetalfab said:

I use the Femco and it works well and is a very high quality product. I had one on  my first coach and just installed on my 06.   I personally know a farmer who lost a diesel engine on a combine do to a lever  type being damaged and leaking out his engine oil. The Femco plug is very low profile as Dennis stated. 

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?

2 hours ago, Ray Davis said:

Sorry, the burned wire you have circled looked black to me.

Well, it's black now! 😉

3 hours ago, Ray Davis said:

This is a great thread, thanks to all of the posters especially Roadtripper the OP.   We can all see how lucky he was, this could have been a catastrophe.          Roadtripper has done a great job of disconnecting things, moving the coach, and locating the burned wires.

We can also see how easy it can be to get into electrical trouble with perhaps one little wire unprotected or sharing a wire or substituting a larger fuse.         I think it may have been close to the whole bundle of wires becoming involved.  Which could have been tragic.

It looks to me like the original owner picked up 12v for some device that was added.  That yellow wire was surely fused but it was too large for the added black wire.   If the black wire had it's own proper fuse it would have blown and resulted in no burned wires

 

 

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. 😉

9 hours ago, Jim Pratten said:

That’s great knowing with confidence what caused the over current.  Good job and good luck with repairs. 

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.

14 hours ago, Tom Cherry said:

Comments….from some auto and maintenance “smoked” scorches. You sound more than up to the task….so I hope you don’t take this as talking down.

get a small flexible camera and use your phone, or even better an iPad or tablet.  They are wireless so all you need is a usb or some have a rechargeable battery.  I chose “best seller” or Amazon’s choice…less than $50.  You will be amazed.  They have an LED on them for light.

next up…a nice high quality ratcheting crimper….they are the nuts.  And a basket full of butt splices and a lot of #14 & #16 stranded hookup wire.

finally a Brother labeler.  Get a variety pack of the tape cartridges with several colors.  Then when you cut and use the old wire as a snake….to pull the new wire in, you put a label or number or alpha code on each end.  Do one at a time.

probably a good pair of SS Forceps….locking with a long tiny nose.  I use them on most “delicate” wiring jobs….

a pair of “precision” cut wire (side cutter or diagona)  to get clean, and easy to get into a butt splice connector.

as to pulling the steering column.  Do some googling. Someone has done that before….again, that seems within your skill set.

photo and document..  blue painters tape and a sharpie are your friend.  If you are concerned, as I would be, and can’t trace or find the culprit…then pull the offending wires out.  You may want to use some inline fuses on the power leads you have to splice…..just put them in accessible places and label.

that’s about it. Keep us posted.

 

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.

13 hours ago, On_the_road said:

I bought a Klein Tools tracer to help me follow wires behind the dash and in the fuse boxes.   Unfortunately, it was no help.   The signal seems to couple into adjacent wires, and at the same time the signal weakens in the correct wire.   Within one foot you can't tell which wire the signal is on.   The tracer may work well in AC wiring in a house where the wires are spaced apart, but it does not work when all the wires are in a bundle.

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...

10 hours ago, Jim Pratten said:

A possible root cause to consider is you have a poor ground connection on a larger conductor.  A smaller conductor may have served as an alternate current path exceeding its capacity. The larger conductor would show no signs of damage in this senecio. I haven’t dug into my dash yet but my drawings show a couple ground buss bars inside the firewall. I’d look for and tighten/reconnect any suspect grounds.  

Good luck!

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.

6 minutes ago, dandick66 said:

Looking at your first photo… it looks like there was chafing near the zip tie.  Is the insulation intact on the large red cable?  Also, follow that large red cable and it looks like it is going to a solenoid relay.  It looks like the top terminal on the solenoid is touching the wire loom.  Is the wire loom intact?  It looks like maybe the loom rubbed through and hit the solenoid terminal.  You said you pulled the fuses for all the stuff you didn’t need to drive.  You might want to get a meter and check each of those connections where you removed the fuse.  Alternatively, you could start replacing the fuses and see if one blows.  Even if they don’t blow, test the device associated with the fuse.  Since you said the wires weren’t connected to anything in the fuse panel, I’m a little confused.  Do you have any aftermarket devices that may have been wire into the system?  
Glad you are safe and were able to prevent further damage.

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.  

11 minutes ago, Dr4Film said:

Trust me the only "fool" is someone who chooses to NOT ask any question and then gets themselves into more trouble later.

Now, I have to ask, what is the spin-on filter on the driver's side of the engine for?

I had the same exact engine in my previous Windsor, but it never had any filter in that location. Everything else is identical.

Also, I could never open up that secondary oil filler cap so I always used the one on top. I didn't want to force it and then break it into pieces as it looks like a plastic piece.

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!  🙂