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Topic: Front cap water leak (Read 583 times) previous topic - next topic

Front cap water leak

Every time it rained hard or I went through a truck wash, water would pour inside from the upper windshield area by the door, and puddle onto the dash.  I resealed the marker lights in the spring, thinking that might have been the source, but today I was installing the upper bracket for the ZipDee NX arms, and pulled off the cap trim strip (had to cut a section out of the strip for the NX bracket) and found this huge gap between the top skin, side skin and front cap.  You can see in the picture the clean area...looks like the water was pouring into the cap strip and entering the front cap unabated for a long time...that's how I found it.  The gap there was big enough for my pinky, and appears to have been that way from the factory.  PO applied a bunch of silicone to the door gutter area in an effort to stop the intrusion, but the water was coming down from the roof into the front cap strip and straight into that gap.  Packed it well with Lexel, along with all the screw holes, and will revisit the area when I get down to Q.  Hope that's the end of that leak saga for now, but guessing the entire cap strip will have to come off and do the same to the drivers side.  Woody.
2001 4010 U320 build #5865 "Bluto-d-Bus" since 09/18
2006 Honda Element ESP Toad
Full timing since 2016 in Western MT
Copilot: Sitka
1975 GMC 260 Avion: sold

Re: Front cap water leak

Reply #1 –
Thanks for the photo and update!
I will check my coach and look for the same.
 Let you know what I find.
99 40' U270 #5574
2010 Honda Element
Hot Springs Village, AR.
K5IIK

Re: Front cap water leak

Reply #2 –
Bilge pump! You need a bilge pump.....
Tim Dianics
Pam Sapienza
Vader PupZilla Labrador Canine Beast (AKA Pup)
Columbia, MO
1996 U320 4000
2021 Jeep Gladiator, Diesel

Re: Front cap water leak

Reply #3 –
Quote from: TGordon –
Bilge pump! You need a bilge pump.....


OK, I am from Texas.  We have a saying "that ain't rite".

Plenty of experience with bilge pumps, but always on sail boats!
Brett Wolfe
EX: 1993 U240
Moderator, ForeForum 2001-
Moderator Diesel RV Club 2002-
Moderator, FMCA Forum 2009-2020
Chairman FMCA Technical Advisory Committee 2011-2020

Re: Front cap water leak

Reply #4 –

If a motorcoach has a basement...... it must be a Sump Pump, not a Bilge Pump, my apologies......
Tim Dianics
Pam Sapienza
Vader PupZilla Labrador Canine Beast (AKA Pup)
Columbia, MO
1996 U320 4000
2021 Jeep Gladiator, Diesel

Re: Front cap water leak

Reply #5 –
Quote from: TGordon –
If a motorcoach has a basement...... it must be a Sump Pump, not a Bilge Pump, my apologies......

Still, "ain't rite".
Brett Wolfe
EX: 1993 U240
Moderator, ForeForum 2001-
Moderator Diesel RV Club 2002-
Moderator, FMCA Forum 2009-2020
Chairman FMCA Technical Advisory Committee 2011-2020

Re: Front cap water leak

Reply #6 –
As I explained on FB. Place the bus on level ground, make sure the glass looks square in the cap.
Unscrew one half of the cap, pry the panels apart enough to clean the joint.
 Apply /inject  a urathane  bonding glue.
Rivit between the screw holes.
 Seal the edge  when the entire cap is replaced .
  Do the other side,  You may want to drill the drip rail so that the water drains short of the cap .  I posted a pic someplace regarding the AC drain thread . 

Re: Front cap water leak

Reply #7 –
Ah what a timely post. So sorry for  your issues, but, as we sometimes know, your issues can be mine, and I am sure it is!
Yesterday, while pulling out the visor over the inside front to recover it, for the continuing saga of redoing the tv area over the drivers seat, I had to pull the trim off the sides to remove it, and around the door. Now I know the door seal was bad, the PO told me so, and I have rust around the bottom step, so it was a future project. But on removing the trim around that passenger side area just back from the windshield, I found this....  Ah rust.  Water has been coming down that area for a while. I knew it the second I started to take out the screws and found rust of the screws, so you don't have to take the entire thing off, just a few screws to know it. So some rust treatment is in the future. So while I was pretty bummed out seeing that work I have to do now, I now know, Pyolet of the cause of said intrusion.... or most probably anyway. I put a post out a long time ago about trying to get that bottom area off, but after a while realized that its all one piece, but that the top piece is a cover for the gap.
Shame on the builder that left a gap there.
Also noticed that tucked behind the decorative covering that my front steel beams for what of a better word, are only tack welded together and the welder went out to lunch that day and forgot to completely weld it up. It held up for over 100k miles and 20 years so I guess its not going to come apart anytime soon, but still, not great work.
First pic the rust, second, omg its a mess!
'99 U320 40 WTFE
Build #5462,
1500 Watts Solar 600 amp Victron lithium
2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland Hemi
Instagram bobfnbw
Retired