Progress... finally

I had to get the van towed to another shop 18 miles away ($95) and pay them to do the rear brakes and the rear end. He never finished a single damn thing after 3 months. In the next few months, I may sue him for the cost of towing and half the labor I paid him. It cost me $700 more with the towing on top of what I paid him.

But the job is done and I got it back home but the brakes are STILL not working 100% right so I gotta figure out the problem. The front had air in the lines which I bled out which helped a little but not totally. It may be the master cylinder, booster or the proportioning valve. Ugh.

The tires were so bad off, I had to rush out and get new ones before I could even drive it home so I went to Sears and bought a set of 4 Dunlop Rover H/Ts in LT225/75/16. Was just under $800 with installation, road hazard and tax.

I went and bought a new gravity water filler from a local RV place yesterday since the one it had was partly broken from someone forcing it open when they didn't have the key. I had intended to install it today but changed my mind..... read on for the reason why.

I forgot there was water still in the fresh tank so I had to drain that out by removing the broken drain valve and putting a piece of tubing into the rubber hose and feed it down the drain hole. I pulled the whole tank out so I could clean it's compartment better and have better access for replacing the lines around the water pump. The tank is in fine condition with no cracks. It just needs to be sanitized which I will do when I go and reinstall it. For now, it's now sitting in my garage up off the floor.

The hoses around the water tank and plumbing in the van overall are so old and the condition is unknown that I have also decided to re-plumb all the fresh water lines. It appears to currently have Poly-B (very unreliable, leak-prone tubing) for the fresh water lines. I will put that on hold for a while since I can get by at RV parks/campgrounds without using the plumbing in the van for a little while. I will do the job myself since I am good at plumbing and shouldn't take more than a day to do.

Awesome retro vans & RVs

I found an awesome page featuring photos of some pretty awesome vintage vans and RVs. Some on the road, some in museums!

Here is a sample of what you'll find there:

Doing laundry

Some people out there try to devise ways of doing laundry by hand by various methods. I truely wonder if they have ever tried to do so. I have... and it's NOT easy! The easy part is dropping the clothes into soapy water and sloshing it around. The hard part is getting the water OUT of the clothes! Clothes, when what... become very heavy and hard to handle it is also very hard to squeeze out the water as well as a washing machine does.

My plan for laundry will cost a little but it makes practical sense... use laundromats! From camping experience, the best way I find to store laundry is with duffel bags and/or cloth laundry bags such as the one shown below. A duffel bag is great for clean storage and laundry bags are great for dirty storage. Being soft-sided storage, they take up less room when they are less full.. which is vital to vehicle and RV dwellers who must make use of every inch if space. Avoid plastic laundry baskets if possible due to taking up valuable space when not in use.

3 months later... still not done

It has been almost 3 months now since I took in the van for the brake job which turned into a differential rebuild. I have ended up having to buy $250 worth of tools today on ebay for the mechanic to be able to do the job. In the next 7-10 days I should get them in.. and he'll have zero excuse for not completing the job.

I will be staying there watching him when he uses the tools as things have a way of disappearing in his shop. He has lost parts to the van a few times... as well as parts to other people's vehicles such as someone's alternator out of their truck. He had to go get one from the salvage yard to replace it. He tends to leave the shop wide open and people just walk through and steal things. The old differential shims are gone despite being in a hiding place in the van. I think he moved them and forgot that he did. I think one of the van's rim+tire is gone. If it is stolen, the person who stole it was an idiot. It's a 16.5" rim with a 20+ year old tire on it that I wouldn't trust very much. But I guess if that's the case... he.. or I.. will have to go get a used 16" tire and put on one of the 16" Ford rims I got.

So anyway.... yes. 3 months now and it's still not done. He's had all the parts to do the brakes for a month now... and it's still not done even.

I was about to have him do the brakes and pay for towing to get it taken to another shop but buying the tools are a better way to go. That way he can do it, it'll be done.. and I can resell the tools on ebay and recover most of the money I paid for them.

But.. he did do a ton of work on my old beat up daily driver car for me for only $50 to fix the leaking oil pump. So he did give me a good deal on that at least. He's not dishonest so much as scatter brained and over worked having to do all the work himself. Although... I had to go put the exhaust back on the car... my arms are skinny enough to get in there where his weren't. He said he fought with it for 30 minutes and couldn't get it. I walked over and had it on within 5 minutes. But it took him a week to do it.

After a week of riding my bike, I was happy as a clam to have the car back. I found myself NOT complaining about no AC in the car because I was so glad to have it back.. and.. without any oil leaks now.

Now $1000+ rear end rebuild

The differential gears were badly worn the mechanic said. I had to order new complete sets of gears (ring gear and pinion set & inner/spider gear set) plus a complete bearing set.

And it STILL didn't come with a freaken crush sleeve!! I had to call up Napa today to place an order.. which won't come in until Tuesday they said. I ordered TWO crush sleeves for good measure. I can return the extra if it's not needed. Better to be safe than sorry.

Cost is well over $1000 now. But at least it'll be all new and should be good for the life of the van now.

Brake job? Nah.. rear end rebuild

Okay... so I took my van in for a $120 brake job and it's turned into a $500 complete rear end rebuild pretty much.

Brake shoes, wheel cylinders on both sides, all the seals, spindle nut kits of course, right side inner bearing is rusty (has a small rust ring on the right axle). The mechanic is going to have to pull the differential cover to get at the inner bearing he said. The axles were almost bone dry for lubricant but the differential DID have some oil in it still thank goodness.

Considering he's only charging me $250 labor for everything... I guess I can't complain. But I did do almost all day running around trying to source the 2-9/16" socket (for the spindle nuts) and the parts. But I couldn't even find in-stock spindle nut kits or high quality brake shoes, so I ordered them on RockAuto today with 2 biz day shipping so maybe they'll come Friday if I'm lucky. I also ordered the differential cover gasket via priority mail from RockAuto on a separate order due to the way it was trying to charge me for shipping on the same order.

I will be taking the drums in for turning on Friday. I took them in yesterday but they we're fully disassembled so they couldn't do it. I had to bring them all the way back (17 miles..) for them to be taken apart the rest of the way. I'm replacing all 16 lug studs (8 each side) since they all had to be knocked out from the drum anyway for turning. It probably has the original, nearly 34 year old lug studs so I think I best replace them all while I have the chance. They may be a bit stretched by now.

I'll replace the lug nuts later when I get the new tires due to already spending WAY more than I planned on this job.

Starter died

A month ago the started acted like it was dying or had a low battery. Finally though, it got the engine started.

Fast forward to a few days ago. I tried to cranking it and it turned over slowly then not at all. It just made a very faint humming sound you had to put your ear near the starter to even hear. It was deader than a doornail. I took it in to O'Reilly and had them test it to be sure. I got a new (rebuilt) one with a lifetime warranty for $60, tax included. I put it on yesterday.. problem solved.

Taking it in to get the rear brakes done this morning just a half mile down the road from my house.