Hi All,
We are newby Motorhome owners. We purchased a '97 40' Newmar London about a month ago. First purchase after that was a membership here.
Anyway, since we bought the coach I (along with a fellow member here) have been working out the kinks and figuring out how I "missed that" when I was checking it out before purchase.
So far we have changed the oil and filters on the engine (330 8.3 Cummins), changed and flushed the coolant and changed both thermostats, gaskets and the water filter.
Changed the tensioner on the serpentine belt.
Changed everything on the genny - oil, oil filter, fuel filter, air filter, thermostat, belt and realized that somewhere during it's life someone had hit something with the genny's exhaust pipe and knocked the mufflers inside the housing out of their mounts. So we fixed that and rehung the exhaust pipe (was hung with wire) and it's nice and solid now. Should have seen the mess when I took out the spark arrester plug and started it. Don't think that was ever pulled.The genny has 2000 hours and runs real smooth.
I used up a brand new big can of spray lube the first day lubing anything that opened. Now things are getting nice and loose - some too loose, like the genny hood.
The coach has a driver door and that needed lubing and the electric window barely moved up and down. I opened up the door to get to the innards and lubed everything including the tracks and now it goes down very smoothly but still has a stutter while coming up - still 100% better than before.
I fixed any basement doors that needed it and now they are smooth operating. Still have to figure out exactly how they are supposed to be closed - I read somewhere that the last inch is supposed to be electric. I have bigger things to work on before I worry about that.
When inspecting the coach we turned on the air and it seemed to be fine. Me not knowing how to use a 4-button controller, didn't realize that the full extent of the controller was not working because we didn't switch to Zone 2 and later (this past weekend) found out how to switch (I didn't get manuals with this coach :-( ) and found out that the controller wouldn't change anyway. Mike had an extra one that someone had given him when they upgraded to a 5-button so we swapped his in and it worked and we switched to Zone 2 and found that it was off. I need to tweak the springs in the controller to see if it still works - all functions work 'cept the ability to change zones.
The electric steps stopped working on the first day - we worked on other things and got back to the steps this past weekend. Found a wire pulled out of a butt connector in the electrical bay. Must have been luck to be working at all recently, the wire was in the middle of a big bundle, with no reason to be disconnected like that. I re-butt connected it and "sticky" heat shrinked the wires. In the troubleshooting process we pulled out everything on the step and lubed it all up to include the motor. Steps work great now.
The shore power electric reel didn't work when we bought and I suspected something simple - it was a CB popped :-) Found the CB, reset it and all is well.
I changed the yellow lights at the top of the cab out with new lights (they were still original and cracked, leaking) and while doing so cleaned all the old caulk off and sealed the new ones up well.
Mike changed the shrouds on the AC units with new heavy duty models. He also cleaned up/out the front one very well and briefly on the aft (removed about 5 huge dead wasp nests) - I will clean that one.
Had some nice finds that I, again, didn't pay much attention to during inspection - the coach has a fridge/freezer in the basement that is original and it works just fine in both modes. The spot light on the roof works and traverses nicely. Both Air Con works great. New convection microwave.
Still have a lot to do on her before she is ready for the dance but she's come a long way in the first month.
Rick and Larrie Dee
