Wednesday, April 12, 2017

The Coach is Done - No, Really It Is - Fan Bearing Problems with photos.

Periodic inspections and preventative maintenance isn't something the previous owners of my RV knew anything about. Arkansas Diesel found this (pictures below) when I had the coach in for annual pm (oil, oil filter, fuel filters, lubrication of the chassis).  The bad part is that you cannot see any of these parts from the engine compartment because the fan, fan clutch and serpentine belt are inside a fan shroud without inspection holes. It now has inspection holes in it (wink).  Without this fix our trip to New Orleans and Jazz Fest (first week of May) would have ended badly. 

The coach was also missing (as in gone, not there, vanished) all eight of the front sway bar bushings, this created considerable slop in the steering wheel and was one of the things I wanted checked during the annual maintenance. We still haven't figured out why or how they had gone missing.  Anyway, it is now safe to drive and shouldn't be as wonky in the wind as it was.

I had them use full synthetic oil in the coach and that gives me 15,000 miles on an oil change. The air filter was another shocker. When they pulled it they found that it had been last serviced at the Speedco (truck oil change shop) in Dallas. It was dated 1/27/11. Yeah, maintenance wasn't something the PO was good at. The service tech turned the air filter over and it immediately deposited a pile of silt on the floor.  Fortunately the end of the filter that was at the supercharger end was very clean.

Based on the fan bearings I had another oil analysis done on the engine and it all came back pristine. That's a relief.

Fan Bearings (what's left of them)


Fan bearing and clutch block front assembly


Parts from the fan 

Our most recent blog

"Stick Em Up" - Old Tucson Studio and Theme Park

High Chapparral Ranch Set Admittedly I'm old. How old? Let's just say I hold the patent on dirt. I grew up in the 50's whe...