Tag Archives: Electrics

The ceiling and Air-con down the front part 1

24/10/2018 Bernie Cross

A Bigger job than it looks

The last owner had put some sheet aluminium across the top of the front windscreen then fitted the Air-con there. This might have been ok then, but now things will have to change. I was going to make this one of the last jobs to do, but now it will have to be done before I can go any further .

To start with I will have to remove some of the old overhead T.V. cabinet to make room for the air-con. I must admit I do like pulling things apart, then trying to work out how I’m suppose to make it fit back together again.

Screws and pop rivets holding things on.

the thing you have to do to move the air-con, there go’s the clock.

This job is turning out to be bigger than I thought.

Carpet ripped off and all other trim gone.

As you can see the air-con will not fit in the old T.V. hole, so I will have to make out where I have modify this section. before I go to far There is some 240v and 12v cables to run around behind where the air-con will go, I thought it might be a good time before I make it to hard for myself later on.

240v and 12v cables that I can think of for the passenger side.

The switch board will be above the drivers seat some were.

Now out with the grinder for lots of noise and dust, as it’s time to make a space for the air-con.

Now to start fixing this mess

As you can imagine nothing on the coach is square, so I can only cut and fit the ply one pice at a time. I can then work out where the next pice will go and what shape it will be. First of will be the backing board that will give me some thing to work from.

You just have to make it up as you go a long sometimes.

There are lot’s of thing to think of When you are making thing on the go.

The slot on the bottom of the side panel is for the air-con pipe’s.

Let’s see if the air-con fit’s

To start with pulling thing apart so that I don’t stuff things up. There is not much room to play with or put things apart from hopping the stuff does not break.

Well all I have to do now is some how by myself lift the air-con into place, holding the pipe work at the same time shape the pipes into their new area.

Well it fit’s, but just, now to move the air-con pipe work.

That’s all for this blog, more to come soon.

Motorhome fit out

The last of the wall to go in.

15/08/2018 Bernie Cross 2 Comments

It’s so nice to finish off the wall at last.

After starting on the bedroom wall at the Bowen house sit, now at a house sit in Laidley Heights a year and a bit later it’s finally time to finish them. With the floor down and the front window in place, all that needs to be done is to cut the ply to length with the window cutouts. I’ve packed more insulation around the window with some 12v and 240v cables to go into place.

Just the NOT so much fun one to cut on this side now.

I’m glad that all the wires have been tagged both ends, otherwise I’d have a hell of a time working out what I have put where. On the passenger side window I have painted some of it black as I’m covering some of it up. I will be putting in insulation where I had painted.

Well that fitted like a glove, more ass than class.

Only one side painted as the other side of the coach has stuff everywhere.

Apart from where the new door will go in and around the driver’s seat all the wall panels are in place. We are still looking at different products to finish off the walls, but that will do for now.

Motorhome fit out

Kitchen wall this time

06/07/2018 Bernie Cross

Walls Walls Walls

The kitchen walls are the next job on my list, as we have worked from the back of the bus to the front. building as we go, or making it up as we go, as we have never done anything like this before. By the time we have finish the motorhome We might know how to build one.

So now that the floor in the kitchen is down the wall are next. This means more sparky stuff for power points and light switches too. there is too much to think about some times, but it’s better to get it right now. Like gluing the insulation into place one of the job I don’t like.

Mid timber packer in place, screwed and glued.

On the driver’s side I also had to cut out holes for the fridge vents, that I’ve already talked about.

Fridge vents cutouts were in the right place.

Now thats finished, time for the next sheet to go up.

That’s as fare as I can go on this side for now.

Some plumbing & sparky fun

There are so many things to do when it comes to power and water, the main thing is to get them in the right place. The dishwasher and kitchen sink will beside each other on this side. The wall oven is going above the dishwasher, so will have to have 240v for both. Then I’ll be running 12v cable for the lighting for both sides of the kitchen, there will be lots of lighting options from low lights top ceiling lights.

Plumbing for the dishwasher & kitchen sink as well as power for wall oven & dishwasher.

240v for the power point and 12v for the light switch.

Every cable is tagged so I know were it go’s.

Lot’s of lighting options here, should look great when it’s finished.

240v and 12v cables in place for the fridge and range hood as well as a power point.

Motorhome fit out

They look like new mirrors

12/06/2018 Bernie Cross

There back from the powder coater’s

Garden City Powder-coating in Toowoomba did a great job with the mirrors, now I’ve just got to put then back together.

I don’t need to put the spotlight bracket back on as someone has stolen them, so will have to buy some more later on. I had left them under the front of the coach, as they needed to be sprayed as they are a little rusty.

Now can I put them back together

With two box’s full of parts and two washers to make to fit between the main mounting bracket and the mirror arm. Then I will have to fit the lights inside the mirror housings and run the power cable for the 24v.

Making new parts for the mirror support.

Wiring in the lights to heat the mirrors to de-fog them.

Now to finish putting them together and feed the wire through as I go.

I’ll be wrapping the mirrors in cling-wrap, then run a bead of silicon around the housing. This is so I can remove the mirror if the globes ever blow.

So all I’ve got to do is put the mirrors back in and run a bead of silicon around before putting the face plate on.

Don’t know who drilled the holes for the brackets but one mirror I can only get three bolt in, that’s after drilling out the hole bigger. This will have to do for now as later on I’ll have to pull the mirrors off again to paint the front of the coach some day.

Motorhome fit out

The mirrors don’t defog

06/06/2018 Bernie Cross

Some one cut the wire to the mirrors

Like many other wire’s, the mirror de-fog wires had been cut. when someone fitted the spotlight brackets. I only found this out when trying to get the mirror de-fogger to go.

Side mirrors have had the wire’s cut for the de-mister’s on both side’s.

Now I now why the wires were cut, no holes in the spot light bracket

To start with I didn’t think this little job was going to that much of a problem, once again I was wrong. So now that I’ve started this job we may as well fix it for good. The first job is to pull every thing apart so that I can get all the bit’s powder coated.

Drivers side mirror off, now to finish pulling it apart.

Will have to strip it all apart to re wire it.

Mirror out, but this one was glued in & I cracked it getting it out.

The cut wires at one stage went to two lights in the mirrors to heat the glass up to de-fog them. I thought there was going to be a heating element in there, but two 24v light globes would work just as well.

But something just will not come apart. Bugger!!!

I don’t think anything had been touched for years, so bolt and grub screw are seized up. Now I will have to drill every one out, then try some easy out’s.

Drilling the bolt out so I can use a easy out bit.

Well so much for the easy outs, they didn’t work. The next plan is to drill them right out and use some recoils and new bolts. This job just keeps getting bigger.

Every thread must be done as they are all stuffed.

I’ve even had to recoil the bracket point on the coach as they had rusted and they were stuffed to. Well at least when I get to the stage of painting the coach I’ll be able to get them off again.

the coach looks a bit weird with out the mirrors on.

All the part are off to the powder coat shop for a good sand blasting, then a coat of satin black. Also I’ve been of to O’Brians Glass to get new mirrors cut too, so now it’s a waiting game.

Motorhome fit out

It just will not start.

20/05/2018 Bernie Cross

Starter motor problems

Just one of those days, Charmaine had gone to work and I was packing up the coach to move to a new house sit in Laidley Heights. While going down the road driving, I decided ro stop on the side of the road to check everything was ok inside and out. After checking things I jumped back into the driver’s seat turned the key and nothing happened apart from some clicking. So there I was on the side of the road…. the only good thing was I parked under a nice big tree, so I had some shade.

I gave Charmaine a call and when she had finished work she came back so at least I could jump-start the coach. That didn’t work either and we were going to have to spend some money and get some help. A $110 and a 1hr later help arrived, we hooked up two 12v batteries to make 24v and even that didn’t work until he put power straight to the starter motor bypassing the solenoid the Detroit started like nothing happened.

That was not the only problem

So back on the road again, I had tested the engine brakes on the flat but now it was down the Toowoomba range to give them the real test. Charmaine went on ahead down the range in front of me, as I put it in second gear and switch on the engine breaks and down the hill I went no problem. Finally something worked right, I made it down the range in one pice.

The next thing to go wrong was the inline diesel filter under the bus started to block about 10 klms from a our next house sit, so I had to pull over, stop to clean the inline filter and the main filters too. On the side of the road for the second time in one day with no way to start the coach by myself, so another call to Charmaine to come to the rescue again. This time Charmaine was inside the coach to turn the key while I did the 24v power bypass to the starter motor and back on the road again.

Now to fix the starter motor

It turns out the contacts in the solenoid is stuffed, so another thing to fix. Good thing about big motors there’s lots of room around them to work.

Just have to remove the end plate to the solenoid.

All fixed just forgot to take pic of it apart. oops…

Just the wires to go and it will be as good as new.

I forgot to take photo’s again, I just had to clean up the contacts for the 24v solenoid till I can find some new one. This job was a lot easer than working on a car. Well the starter motor doing it’s thing again and turning over the Detroit 6V92TA, got to love that sound.

Motorhome fit out

Time for new fuses

14/05/2018 Bernie Cross

Replacing the old fuse with new one’s

With all the obsolete wires and fuses the old fuse board is looking a bit crapy. I needed to upgrade to new fuses as well as fix some of the wiring. I had already had the new fuse blocks in storage somewhere under the bus so it was time to dig them out.

Out with the old & in with the new

When I was fixing the engine brakes, I thought it was mechanical to start with, but after some tested it turned out to be electrical. I had to trace the wiring from the back of the bus to the front which took days, as the fuze board was a mess. In the end it ended up being a 24v relay in the spot that needed to be a 12v relay, the only one in a 24v system.

So now to fix the board, after finding the new fuze box’s under the coach in the bins and labelling then. It was time to remove all the old fuze holders one at a time, then wiring in the new ones so I didn’t lose track of were the wire’s went.

You can see why I am not cutting all the wires at once and only cutting one at a time, then fitting then to the new fuze box’s. Other wise I wouldn’t know which wire went where.

Top row in place after a lot of soldering.

Even have some spare’s for latter if I need them.

There are still some fuze’s that will be not needed latter on, but for now I still need them. When we fit the sola power system in there will be 10 of these fuze’s that wont be needed, but till then we do.

Motorhome fit out

It looks like coloured spaghetti

19/12/2017 Bernie Cross 2 Comments

Too many wires !!!

The engine’s brakes had not been working properly since I bought the bus and I didn’t have to use them anyway as it was so flat in South Australia and the Northern Territory. This is going to be a job the will take some time as I will have to trace the wiring loom from one end of the coach to the other. The main problem is info, I’ve have most of the manuals that I need to be able to fix most things but finding out the colour codes for the wires is not so easy as nothing matches what is on the drawings that I have. I have searched the internet for more wiring diagram but to no avail and I can’t seem to find anything that looks even remotely the same.

So with a multimeter in hand, I thought the best place was to start with power to the switch, then start tracing the wires from there. Well the good thing is I’ve got 24v at the switch, the bad news is now people have been here before me modifying the wiring loom.

The main board outside, below the driver’s seat.

Looks nice and tidy in here, but somewhere in there may be the problem of the J brakes.

Mmmmm some one has been here before me, lot’s of cut wires.

Doesn’t look so nice now as there are lots of wires that have been cut or have never been used. The fuse holders that have been burnt out (3 of them) after being moved, as well as modifications over the years to fix or been up graded.

This job just got bigger

So now its time to trace all the wires not being used and tagging both ends of them, this will help find where they go. After making a 9v system to clip onto the wires its just a matter of finding the other ends of the loom.

Now the fun begins, just have to find out where they are going.

Sub board down the back of the coach in the battery bay.

Somewhere in here is the wires for the J breaks that are not working.

Look more wires behind the dash. Ahhhhhh!

Some switches work and some will not be needed any more.

The J breaks will have to wait

I’ve just been told that I can move into the equestrian shed so the wiring will have to wait for now, as the main problem is the roof leak under the top decking. This started after we move up to Toowoomba, it may be a small pop rivet as it’s not a big leak more like some capillary action going on.

Just a small shed 🙂 Makes the couch look small.

Motorhome fit out

Some new running lights for the old coach

10/12/2017 Bernie Cross 2 Comments

Upgrading time for the running lights

It was one of the jobs that was started down at Leigh Creek, but I ran out of time before heading up north to Yulara. The old running lights did make it to QLD with a quick fix up here and there. We are waiting to move under cover in to the big equestrian indoor arena at the Toowoomba Showgrounds to start fixing the roof leak found on a good down pour while up here.

We have been in the Toowoomba area now for four weeks and I must say it’s quite a nice place. Apart from having to move out of the Showgrounds for one week as the place was booked out. We decided to stayed on a farm for that week at a farmstay called The Chookhouse. It was great, the owners were very nice, it was the first time for them having a 12m motorhome parked there.

LED light time

The old running light had seen better days and as the front of the coach had already been fix in S.A , we now thought it was a good time to finish them.

The former owner had already fitted new LED indicators/reflectors which made the old running lights at the side of the bus look even older.

Just a little bit stuffed, how where they even working?

I’ll have to patch up the holes later before the paint job.

More soldered and insulation under the coach.

That will do for now

Until the inside is finished, the outside will have to stay looking like someone does not love it. I’m really looking forward to the outside being all painted, it’s going to make such a big difference, that will have to wait for another day.

Motorhome fit out

Bathroom vanity wall time

31/10/2017 Bernie Cross

Setting up for the black mirror area

But first I’ll have to run some 12v cables for the LED lights for the vanity as well as the laundry area so they can be switch on by them self. Than we will need 240v power for the front load washing machine under the bench, some were as well as a power point.

240v ran in the conduit and 12v for the vanity light.

More power bits. On this side will be the start of the kitchen.

12v power for the LED lights and a 240v power point.

I’m leaning the wall back at the top so I can see in the mirror.

Clean up time

Now that is done it will be time to start cleaning up as I’ve made a mess, our house sit is getting close to ending and we will need time to organize the coach back into some kind of a place we can live in again. I’ve still have to put the sola panels back on and rewire then and a bit more to tidy up outside before we can start packing up.