Salem Boys Auto Motorhome Info

It contains tips and hints and technical information about the maintenance of these motorhomes. If you have a question or a hint of your own or have something you want posted to this page, send it with your name and phone number to mark@marksalem.com. I must be able to verify who you are by speaking to you BEFORE your information is posted here. Thanks and enjoy. Hey Mark, On my new American Eagle, the brake lights go on when the exhaust brake is applied. So as I go down a long downgrade, my brake lights are on, even though my foot is not on the brake. Truckers and others call me on the CB and tell me to get off my brakes or I wouldn't have any by the time I get to the bottom of the hill. Having the brake lights on all that time is also very distracting to me at night because I can see the glare in my backup camera on my tow vehicle. How can I disable the brake lights when the exhaust brake has been applied, yet still have brake lights when I apply the brake pedal? That one is very easy. In the battery compartment, (the passenger side of the coach, second from the back) on the left side behind a black plastic cover just about the metal door that covers multiple fuses and a circuit board, is a small plug in diode that is numbered D-3. It will look like a typical newer style fuse but one blade is vertical and one is horizontal. Take a pair of small needle nose pliers and pull that diode straight out and put it in your tool box. That diode allows power to pass on and energize the brake light relay and turn on the brake lights, but the diode also blocks the power from the brake light relay when it is energized by brake pedal application, otherwise when you applied the brakes, it would backfeed and apply the exhaust brake. Mark My wife and I own a 1996 Eagle VF-40 with a Cummins 325. We travel about one month a year. This year was one of those "Vacations From Hell". We had a front tire blow at 70 mph, we lost our air system, the drivers side windshield popped out, we lost the dash A/C and we ended up with a radiator leak, all which cost me more to fix than the darn trip cost, and I had my two teenage daughters with us! As I have time, I will add tech tips to this area as we repair and service our coach. Many will be lessons we've learned, some will be changes we've made to make our coach better or more dependable and some ideas will be from others. Feel free to let me know what you think. Ranae and I hope you enjoy this page and others throughout our web site. Air system --- I was traveling in the mountains just south of Lake Tahoe when we decided to stop and smell the pine trees and let the dog water one. When we took off, I noticed my air pressure was at 60 psi and dropping. I just began to worry when the air alarms go off and the rear spring brakes begin to apply because of the lack of air. I pulled over, left the engine running and walked around to the back of the motorhome where I found air leaking out of the bottom vent of the air dryer. I called my road service who dispatched a big wrecker and a mechanic. By the time they got there, I'd come to the conclusion that the purge valve on the bottom of the air dryer was either stuck open, or defective. I remembered reading in the American Coach Association magazine how to bypass a defective air dryer by using a 1/2 inch female pipe coupler. So my choices were to have our rig towed to Reno for $1200 or pay the time & mileage to have the mechanic drive to the closest town which is 30 miles away and have him get a coupler. It was an easy decision to make. Once I got the coupler installed, I could drive the coach. I ended up in Reno the next day and I had the air dryer pulled and rebuilt. It turned out the end of the turbo valve broke off and jammed the purge valve open which caused the air leak that caused my low air pressure problem. So look at it this way, that 1/2 inch female pipe coupler I should have been carrying cost me $260 to have it delivered. When you can't build up air pressure AND the air seems to be escaping from the black nozzle at the bottom of your air dryer, that usually means the purge valve is bad or being held open by debris (from a broken turbo valve or trash). The repair is to overhaul or rebuild the air dryer. But getting stuck with 40 or 50 psi of air and unable to build anymore to get the rear spring brakes released creates the need for a big tow truck or low boy flat bed tow truck . . . unless you happen to have a female 1/2 inch pipe coupler. That will look like a piece of pipe that has threads inside of each end. The threads are pipe thread. First, remove both inlet and outlet hoses from the air dryer and both 1/2 inch brass fittings that screw into the air dryer. Then use the coupler to connect those two hoses. This will allow you to make and hold air. Here is a parts list to duplicate what I did when I got home so the next time I have an air problem, it will be easier to deal with! 2 - brass 1/2 inch pipe male couplers 1 - 1/2 inch pipe (female on both ends) ball valve or on/off valve 1 - brass 1/2 pipe tee 1 - brass 1/2 to 1/4 male / female bushing or reducer 1 - 1/4 pipe air gauge that goes between 0 and 150 - 400 psi Coming out of the inlet port of the air dryer, I installed a brass male pipe coupler, then attached a ball valve or on/off valve. Then I used another coupler to the other horizontal port of the tee. Then I screwed the brass fitting I originally took out of the air dryer into the other horizontal port of the tee then reattached the inlet air line. On the top of the tee, I used the bushing so I could screw in the air gauge. The end on the right goes into the inlet port of the air dryer while the inlet hose attaches to the open port at the left of the picture. Now you're saying to yourself, why's he doing all of this? Well here's the reason for my madness. First, if my air system fails again, I will need to know if my compressor is bad or the dryer is the problem. If I shut off the ball valve to the air dryer, I will be able to see if the compressor is making air by watching the air gauge because the air gauge is before the ball valve. If the air compressor is OK, I will take the air pressure gauge and the bushing out of the top of the brass tee and screw the outlet air line of the dryer into the gauges place. By keeping the ball valve closed (which stops the flow of air into the dryer), I have effectively bypassed the dryer and can continue on my way. By the way, in order to rebuild your air dryer, you will need both a DQ-6026 repair kit ($140-180) and a DQ-6020 major repair kit ($45-60) to accomplish the job. The more expensive kit comes with both filters and most everything else EXCEPT the turbo valve or the purge valve. They come in the other, cheaper kit. I found that most NAPA Auto Parts stores have access to these part numbers. If you have someone else overhaul your dryer, it should cost around 2 to 3 hours at around $60-70 per hour. 082698 How I could have saved $633 if I would've cleaned the rocks out of the cups of my jacks! So there we were, my two teenage daughters and my wonderful wife in the Edmonton Mall, me and the dog snoozin' inside the coach and watchin' TV. I decide to level the coach because I thought we might be in the parking lot for the next 4-5 days or until the girls ran out of money. I promptly realized that the drivers side rear jack had gone through the blacktop and down into the rocks and sand under the asphalt. I pulled up, covered the hole up, repacked the blacktop but I never took the time to clean all the rocks, sand and dirt out of the jack cup. About 105 miles west of Billings Montana the low coolant light came on. After I pulled over, I found the radiator leaking coolant as fast as I could pour it in. So I shut off the engine and attached a water hose to the outside shower hose. I ran it through the bathroom window, down the hall, under the bed, over the engine and into the coolant overflow jug. When my wife Ranae would turn the pump on, the pump would fill the coolant overflow jug with fresh water. So as I would drive, I would watch the dash warning lights. When the low coolant light would come on, I would begin to watch the temp gauge. As it began to climb, I would yell and Ranae would turn on the water pump. Then I would watch out the rear camera until I saw a white mist come out of the back of the coach which meant the overflow jug was full and overflowing. We went 105 miles and used 100 gallons of water. When we pulled into the Cummins shop, we were running hot and empty of water. Between 130pm and 6pm, those awesome Cummins techs pulled the radiator, repaired the hole and reinstalled it all for the very fair price of $633. The drivers side rear jack is positioned right in front of the cooling fan which makes the fan downwind as you travel 65 mph or so. Rocks inside the jack cup fell out and bounced up from the highway and into the cooling fan which then shot the rock through the radiator and made a hole like a 22 cal bullet. Had I cleaned out the rocks that were inside the jack cup, I would have never had to stop in billings and spend $633 to have my radiator fixed. 101498 Am I the only one who has a tough time getting under the rear of the coach to drain that rear air tank? My newest idea and pictures . . . coming soon. Mark Salem visit campingworld.com

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