I bought a 1985 Foretravel Travco last summer. AWESOME!! Wife loves it. Kids love it. I love it. BUT... I went to fire it up this spring and what I believe to be the Chassis battery was dead... as a doornail... So I replaced both batteries, and a bad lead I found on the positive cable of the Chassis battery (there are 3 cables on this single post) Fired Up Like a Champ!!! BUT... the motor quit on its own when left to idle, AND one of the cables leading to the Solenoid on what I believe to be the Fuel Pump (or its Diesel Equivalent) was smoking! and hot. I pulled the Solenoid, and it looks clean, put it back and tried again. SAME THING!!! I would love to be able to check the wire that is getting hot without tearing into the whole harness. Does anybody have any resources for manuals or wiring diagrams for this particular coach??
Thanks Muchly,
Shaun
Check how much voltage that solenoid is getting, maybe it is getting 24 volts and it is a 12 volt solenoid. Are you talking about the one on the top of the engine that is standing up?
Check from chassis ground to the red terminal on battery where all the connections to coach are attached. Make sure it reads 12 volts approx, and not 24.
Thank you for your responses! Yes it is the one sticking straight up on top... I wonder if My batteries are run incorrectly, I put them back the way I found them but maybe I did it wrong, I will check the voltage at the solenoid and at the chassis/battery connections get back to you guys soon. I will also try to post a pic of how my batteries are run currently.
Thank you!
Okay, I have checked the batteries, and solenoid. Batteries are showing 12 volt solo and battery to battery if that makes sense. However, I get no reading if I put the negative probe directly onto the chassis not sure if this is indicative of a problem or not. Solenoid shows no voltage with key on or key off... I did not try it with the motor running though which in retrospect was probably dumb of me... I will try that this evening I have attached a picture of my battery hookup, please let me know if this looks wrong or if you have any Ideas... post 4 is the one I believe is running to the starter and some of the cables run to a switch that is a cutoff for cold storage. Post 2 to the rest of the coach. That is what I remember the previous owner telling me but I could be mistaken. Posts 1 and 3 both run to the chassis on one side, I am not sure about the other side
A little hard to tell from the pictures.
But, assuming both are "chassis batteries":
Positive of battery #1 to positive of battery #2. Positive of battery #2 to starter, etc.
Negative of battery #2 to negative of battery #1. Negative of battery #1 to chassis ground.
CLEARLY THE INTERCONNECT OF NEGATIVE OF #1 TO POSITIVE OF #2 IS ABSOLUTELY WRONG.
I had a similar experience with my 1981 Travco by Foretravel. The battery isolator apparently went bad and it fried the wire going to (and into) the alternator. I needed to replace both the isolator and the alternator.
According to the markings on the batteries both negatives are tied together. The "green" lettering does not follow the battery markings. Can't see where the positives are tied together at least not in the photo.
Roland
Terminal #3 is a negative battery terminal. Can't be positive but it looks to me like the wire on terminal 3 is a positive coach lead as it is red. And the wire on terminal 2 looks like a ground wire on a positive battery terminal. It appears you have to swap those wires. The one on what you marked terminal 2 looks like it should be on terminal 3 and the wire on terminal 3 should be on terminal 2.
Roland
I just looked at the photo, and I apologize for my mistake! Post 3 is a negative post I had it mislabeled as positive... here is a revised photo. Is the battery isolator the same as the cutoff switch? It is located on the side of the steps, next to the battery bay if that is helpful. You guys are AWESOME!!!
But, still don't know where the cables go. Again, assuming both batteries "make up" the chassis battery, why do you have more than one positive terminal with wires to starter, etc and more than one negative terminal with wires going to (I assume) ground.
Better for battery longevity for the electrons to flow through both batteries.
I have been in contact with the manufacturer to try and see where those leads are supposed to go. But without a diagram I am kind of flying blind. Are you saying, in theory, that the positive cables should be going to the same place? If they were would it be normal, or even beneficial, to have a cutoff in that loop before they join up?
Better check today where those wires on terminal 2 and 3 are going. Someone may have used a red wire for ground and a black wire for positive but it looks suspicious to me. And yes there seems to a lot of wires there for a start only set of batteries.
Roland
I was told that the battery with the abundance of wires was the chassis and the other was the coach. I apologize if I communicated that poorly,
Wow-- those are really small batteries for one to be doing chassis duties and the other house duties.
Check your engine manual for their minimum recommendation for amp-hrs of battery.
At 30+ years old, the original diagram probably wouldn't help even if you can find it. Someone who really understands how those old coaches were built is your best bet at solving the problem. Unfortunately, that probably rules out anyone under 60.
I still don't understand what is smoking.
The batteries are both 8Ds there is quite a bit of each of them out of frame:) there is a trio of cables that run to the fuel solenoid on the motor, one and only one of them gets hot and begins smoking when the key is in the on position, running or not. I can send a pic of that in a couple hours.
Guess my eyes are fooled-- sure don't look like 8D's.
But, if they are and they are in good shape they will do you as long as you don't do a lot of dry camping.
At first glanced at your pictures I thought they weren't 8 D until I realized you were only showing the first 2 cells in the picture.
The 3 wires going to the solenoid are the ground, the hold in winding and the pull in winding. If the hold in winding and the pull in
winding are crossed the solenoid will over heat. The pull in winding comes on with the starter and goes off when the starter is off.
I hope this helps.
From you picture it the batteries have a common ground and one battery is for the coach and the other is chassis battery. The isolator
is to keep the two batteries separated when using them and both will get charged from the alternator
Thank you, All three of those wires are going into one point on the solenoid, I assume the positive side of it. but only one wire is getting hot, and only when the key is active, there is a separate point that I was assuming was the ground, as it bolts straight from the solenoid onto the fuel pump. I will send a photo as soon as possible.
The battery on the left is the chassis battery and the battery on the right is the house battery. The battery isolator should be mounted on the left frame rail behind the left rear wheel. You can see it by opening the side door where you hook up the 120 volts and the water fill
Here is a photo of the solenoid, I will check the isolator later today, and keep you all posted, thanks!
Disclaimer: I have not worked on that vintage solenoid (or whatever the heck it is). Hopefully, someone with first hand info will know.
Side note: Look carefully at the terminal connections, particularly on the wire that gets hot. If many strands are broken and/or corroded, that could be enough resistance to cause overheating. Actually, I would just cut that wire back to clean copper and crimp on a new connector.
The "ground" cable bolts right onto the pump... I will get a new spade and try that as well. Thank you for sticking with me!
Shaun, this is a 3208 Cat, correct?
A couple more ideas:
Have you seen any sign of rodents?
How is the fuel pressure? Is there a manual pump on the water separator/fuel filter assembly?
When was the last time the fuel filters were changed?
Yes 3208 with the Allison, I did find some mouse scat late this winter but it was isolated and old... I had kind of pushed it out of my mind... unsettling thought.
There is a manual pump, I already checked that, I am getting fuel, and the motor starts and runs, it just eventually cuts off after the wire starts smoking... I will check under the dash by where I found that scat for chewingas well I guess.
Shaun,
Before spending too much time/worry about that overheating section of wire, do yourself a favor and cut it back to good copper and crimp on a new end. May be an illusion, but with the hard angle it forms, the wire may be broken inside. And, if only a few strands making contact, even with all wires hooked up as they should be, it would overheat.
On edit: I would do this even if you find something else as the root cause. A burned wire is just not something to count on. If the wire is not long enough to allow you to cut it back to good copper, use a butt connector and another piece of the same gauge wire to repair it.
Do you have a volt meter to measure voltage?,get one and measure volts to the smoking solenoid,make sure the solenoid is a 12 volt.Let us know exactly what type of batteries you have.Just read the above post,clean those cables.
Sorry I was giving information on a Cummins. I would go with what Wolfe recommended, it looks like the insulation on your hot wire
is burnt
If the voltage is good to the solenoid and the wire is good, maybe the windings in the solenoid are bad. If you remove the solenoid the engine will run and to stop it you can reinstall the solenoid or push down the lever inside.
Thank you everybody for your Great Feedback! The TRAVCO LIVES!!! that solenoid did in fact have a short (it was pulling about 30 amps!) replaced it and bingo! Running smooth, off to the tire shop for some skin repair and then we hit the road for a short overnight with the kids. Thanks everybody for your help!
Shaun,
Congratulations.
At the risk of sounding like I am nagging. that way overheated wire still needs to be "repaired".
Copper wire when over heated, devolves a resistance
Sound advice Sir, will do!