Dean Bennett

Ivan, it is starting to feel like I'll be whole-sale replacing all of the fuel lines and filters first. If that does not fix the intermittent pressure bouncing, this solenoid looks like another great place to check. I'll probably need some sort of voltage recording device as it can go 500-1000 miles between it happening. It is just curious that accelerating usually makes the pressure bouncing (down) stop? Anyone with a great recommendation on fuel line, please chime in. The local hose shop is recommending: FLEXTRAL GRIP LOC J3 At least, that is what they sell.

I see it - Thanks! What am I looking for on the voltage? Would an intermittent voltage to it cause the pressure to bounce down? Thanks....

I updated the Pump photo to indicate where the pressure is taken off. It mostly runs steady at about 150 PSI. Good for an M11. I just checked, the material in the filter is not magnetic at all. It is hard and granular but, if you rub it between your fingers, it will fracture and break up. Not RPM related. There is no solenoid in the fuel circuit? At least my M11 manual does not show anything and I don't see anything?

This has been a long battle that now has come to a head. I don’t know if this is two issues or one. For a long time, there would be intermittent ‘bouncing’ of the fuel pressure. Bouncing down. The first owner installed a fast-response, electronic fuel pressure gauge you could see while driving. The pressure would bounce down to zero or almost zero. You would not feel this in the engine unless they got bad, then, there would be some bucking. The 2nd (previous) owner – Removed the old Racor pre-filter/purge system, changed all the filters multiple times, run bio-cyde and complete tanks of fuel thru it a few times and replaced the Racor with a new Racor 760R30. Still, it showed up occasionally? Most times it was only noticed during deceleration. Usually, accelerating would make it stop. All of this time, all of the fuel lines were dry (that we can see). Note: The very-small filter that Is actually inside the fuel pump has not been changed. Who knew there was one in there – On the list to change it. My last trip to the beauty shop, it died hard. Let it sit for 5-minutes and it would run for 60-90 seconds. So, for the last few days, I’ve been moving some clear hose around the fuel run looking for bubbles or??? After blowing out the fuel-line to the tank and bypassing the Draco it idles nicely. I had not looked at the filter on the Draco as it was changed less that 500 miles ago. I should have looked there first. You can see from the photos there is granular, black, hard material filling the inspection bowl and the filter. Now I know why it will not run with the Draco on. I’m trying to find any excuse not to deduce this is decomposing fuel lines that need replaced? I looked around the tank with my bore scope (see pictures). The tank sides look new. But, I see some tell-tale signs of a small amount of algae on the bottom (not a lot) and, what looks like black granules in there. But, it is really hard to tell looking thru diesel! My best rookie guess, the return fuel line is decomposing also? Note: The coach spent the first 21-years in south (humid) Texas then moved to dry-Vegas area for the last 4 years. Any thoughts from the seasoned pros for the back granules? On the bucking - If it is not related to above, I hear from some old-time M11 mechanics that there is a plug on the top of the M11 pump where a mechanical Tach could be attached. That plug has an o-ring that is notorious for being bad and causing air in the fuel and bucking? For the life of me, I don’t see a plug (see photos)? Nor do I know if this is real? Help.… Dean

X 2! - Norcod, outside air envelope. Res-fridge, inside open air envelope. If you get a build-in fridge, you can trim around it. I've been running my res fridge and trash compactor on a Xantrex RV3012 (modified sine wave) for 10+ years now. I added about 400W of additional panels to cover the fridge upgrade and don't need to run the gen. Love it!

That is a cool idea I had not thought about. We boondock a lot and with only 2-gallons of glycol, the Wabasto cycles every 15-20 minutes when it is in the 30-40's outside and it drives me crazy (short trip).

I have a 2001 Windsor with a Hydro-Hot (HH). Not quite an AH but, the same idea/company. We full-timed in the MH from 2005 until 2013. The HH only has 2 gallons of Glycol to store heat unlike the 8ish gallons in the AH so, showers (on electric) were very short until the water turned unbearably cold (depending on the incoming water temperature). So, my first upgrade was to install a 240V element. I can’t remember the wattage. Probably 3.5-4.5kw. I was careful to get one that was not too long. I’m not sure how the AH is wired but, the HH has a ‘stir’ pump that comes on when the Wabasto is fired up. I assume it is required to allow the 50K BTUs of heat from the Wabasto to effectively enter the fluid without any surface boiling. I was afraid that might be the case with the larger element. So, I wired a relay that would activate the stir pump whenever the unit called for electric heating (or diesel) to minimize any heat buildup around the higher output element. Notably I also did something in the relay circuit to break both poles of the electric feed to the element. And, of course, had to run a 3-conductor power feed and install a 2-pole breaker. After a few weeks of using and testing the setup, it was much better but, you could still run cold (it was winter). So, I constructed a copper vessel to hold another heating element, connected it into the relays and plumbed it into the stir loop. Of course, a 2nd power run and 2-pole breaker were also installed. Now you can take endless showers as hot as you want. You can also heat the coach in extreme weather from only electric. We spent 2-weeks in Colorado about 8 years ago when the outside temperature never got above 20 below and did just fine. Another notability, you can’t run the electric elements unless you have a 240v/50A (2-phase/pole) service connection. You can’t run the stock element (practically) on a 15a service anyway and, I have never been where they had a 30A (single pole) and not a 50A connection. So, not a show stopper for me. I also installed a switch on the HH unit that lets me turn off the second element which is not needed in the non-winter months. The challenge is balancing all of the coach loads. With both elements running you can/should only run two air conditioners on a 50A service. Ergo the 2nd-element switch. It works out as you don’t need two electric heating elements if you also need air conditioning. The picture was before I appropriately encapsulated the 2nd element connections and insulated the vessel.

I can not imagine how hard this would be with the tires in place. Especially at my size! My ‘welded’ wrench would hang down under the rig and I’d put a giant Crecent wrench on it with about a 3’ piece of pipe on the end of it and the nuts would just barely break loose. I guess 20-years of road grime had just about welded the nuts to the bolts. None of my air wrenches generate near the needed torque. I don’t have any right-angle impacts. Let alone fit them up in there. My 3/8” wrench might have fit but, it only does 30-40 ft-lbs. I’m guessing I had to get near 200 ft-lbs or more to break them loose. There is not even enough room above the nuts for a 1/2” wrench with a deep socket (on my rigs). Amazon/eBay sells a ‘Torque Multipliers’ for less than $100.00 that makes removing lug nuts beyond easy. To re-torque the lug nuts, I got an inline 3/4” digital torque meter for about $75.00 (harbor freight) and a 3/4” breaker bar and a 4’ piece of pipe to put on the end of the breaker bar. I keep the pipe, torque multiplier, breaker bar, tire chocks and a 20-ton jack in the rig just in case I’m in podunks ville and don’t want to be scammed for a tire/service. I’ve been lucky so far. I got a few quotes for changing the bags out this last time. About $500-600/bag. They would really earn their money considering the work involved. I like the authors idea of lifting the chassis. That would make ‘adjusting’ the bag opening much easier. When my cribbing was a little too tall, I’d have to attach the bag top, then attach the airline and put a very small amount of air in the bag to extend the lower bolts into the holes.

I just finished installing my second set of MH Bags this last spring. The first set was on our 2000 Windsor about 4-years ago then, this spring, on our 1999 Exec. On both rigs there was little or no-room to get a wrench much less an impact on the top nuts. I spent almost a day per bag on the first two bags until I welded up a nut-breaker tool. I should have done this 8-bags ago! The tool was no help running the nuts up, but breaking them loose now takes just a few minutes each. I changed out 3 bags in one day using it. Most of the time was jacking up the axle, removing the wheel and then replacing it when done. I did use the ‘cribbing’ in the H-Frame approach. I never found it difficult to compress the new bags but, I did fill the old bags before starting to give a fair amount of clearance (the cribbing was about the height of a bag). If I had to compress a bag, I’d place it on the ground, smush it and put my finger over the fill hole to keep it compressed while setting it in place. I hope to never do this again as I’m getting too old to be crawling under rigs! I did find that a generous amount of Kroil oil on the bolts/nuts beforehand and I could just get a 3/8" Milwaukee M12 cordless ratchet on some of the nuts for running them on and off much quicker. Also, a wheel dolly is worth it's weight in gold.

Tom, Thank for the response! Zone-1 (front) uses the internal thermostat. Has AC, Heat and Furnace options. Zone-2 (Middle) uses an external Dometic thermostat. Has Furnace option (AH). Zone-3 (Back Bedroom) uses an external Dometic thermostat. Has AC, Heat and Furnace options The 630 Series Dometic units are 13.5K “BTU” rated that have the controllers in them Per Dometic and the 4-Button to 5-Button conversion kit, the boards I have work on 630 Series units. So – The middle unit has the ‘hidden’ controller. It has a thermostat in the hall whose wire ‘appears’ to go straight down. The board is not obvious in the cabinets that surround the path going down. It is not around the AH unit in the bay below but, there are bay ceiling covers in the bays that the thermostat wire may come down into. I was hoping someone with a 99 Exec or, experience working on one might have a tip-off before I start disassembling the rig. I’m just finishing up changing the 8 air bags and one HWH slide cylinder so, I’m growing weary of ‘digging’ around 🙂 Thanks!!!… Dean

First post - Please to pardon any faux pas. I just acquired the rig and it as an old 4-button system. I have a number of 5-button controllers and 3311557 boards laying around and I was thinking of upgrading to 5-button as I did on my 2000 Windsor. The Executive has 2 Dometic 630215 roof-top units but, three zones show on the 4-button controller. The rig has 3 AH heading zones and 2 AC zones. Despite a call into Dometic and them not knowing if I needed two or three controller boards, my reading of web-posts suggests - If there are 3 zones showing on the controller, there are three controller boards. And, from a wiring perspective, that only makes sense. The two controllers in the AC units are easy to find but, I'm not having any luck locating the third one? I've checked most of the easy places. Anyone got any enlightened ideas where Mondco might have stashed third one on a 99 Exec? Thanks....