No Power to Generator - 99 Diplomat

[jacwjames]

When I bought my rig in 2008 the first thing I did was take it to the nearest Cummins shop, I knew the manager and when I called him he said bring it on and he'd take care of me.  I wanted a service and inspection to make sure everything was OK.  They also checked the engine with the Insite computer and gave me a copy of the ECM parameters.  Worth the cost for the piece of mind and the manager said I had gotten a heck of a deal and the rig was in "cherry" condition.  I think at the time the cost was $350, not sure what it would cost now, much more considering shop labor and consumable costs.

Since then I've done all my own service.  My rig hold less then 5 gallon of oil so I use a 5 gallon bucket, I put a plastic garbage bag inside and after the oil is trained I can simply tie off the bag to prevent spills.  Last time I changed oil I just punched a hole in the bottom of the oil filter, loosen it up and let it drain before removing.  Only made a little mess.  Also changed the fuel filters and suggest you buy some spares and carry and know how to change, read many times where people were stranded because of fuel filters. 

 

 

[jimc99999]

2 hours ago, Dick Roberts said:

I'll be working on the air leak today. I'm thinking I should take it to a cummins shop for LOF. I watched a video on that, on a semi not a DP, and I don't think I want to mess with 10 gals of old diesel oil. Not sure where my closest truck service shop is yet.

I bought a large drain pan that holds all the oil, and it's the same as any other oil change. Drain the oil, change the filter and reinstall the drain plug. Fill the oil, dump the old oil in the now empty new oil containers and return them to the auto parts store for recycling. Mine holds around 6 gallons, and Autozone has 5-gallon buckets of the Shell Rotella (easy to pour the old oil into).  A regular car-size drain pan works for the generator, it takes around 1 gallon I think. Both drain pans fit in the storage bay next to the propane tank where I keep my power cord, water hoses, sewer hose supports, etc. 

Some people install a Fumoto valve in place of the drain plug which allows you to drain the oil at a more leisurely pace and shut it off if your drain pan is too small. 

A chain strap wrench might be necessary to remove the oil filter. I have to disconnect my dipstick tube from the block and push it out of the way to fit the chain around the filter. 

If your generator is not slide-mounted, you can either access the oil filter from the little access door underneath the coach, or you can remove the side cover. On mine the side cover is easy enough to remove but takes a few minutes of fiddling to get all the bolt holes lined up, so I usually just work through the access door underneath.

Edited January 28, 2023 by jimc99999

[lusgi]

On 1/28/2023 at 12:49 AM, jimc99999 said:

My chassis batteries also get charged on generator or shore power via the inverter/charger, and the alternator can charge the house batteries. I replaced the solid-state isolator with a ML-ACR from BlueSea. But I now think a DC-DC charger and Amp-L-Start would be a better setup. If you change house batteries to lithiums and you want to charge them from the alternator, you still should have a DC-DC charger. And with the DC-DC charger, the only thing you really need to keep the chassis batteries topped off while the motor isn't running is the Amp-L-Start. 

 I am a little confused. I currently have the solid state isolator and an amp L start. I was thinking of adding the ML- ACR In case I needed to get an alternator on the road. Would not the amp L start and the DC-DC charger do the same thing?

[jimc99999]

23 minutes ago, lusgi said:

 I am a little confused. I currently have the solid state isolator and an amp L start. I was thinking of adding the ML- ACR In case I needed to get an alternator on the road. Would not the amp L start and the DC-DC charger do the same thing?

The ML-ACR replaces both the solid state isolator, the "boost" solenoid used to connect the battery banks, and the Amp-l-start. The solid state isolator allows the alternator to charge the house batteries, but does not allow the inverter/charger to charge the chassis batteries. The ML-ACR joins the banks when it senses charging voltage on either side. 

However, the only reason I ever needed to join the battery banks was when house batteries were too low to start the generator. If your generator cranks from the chassis batteries (I switched mine to that), then there's pretty much no reason to join the batteries. House batteries generally don't push enough amps to help much for starting the big diesel motor if your chassis batteries won't do it.