mustrmrk
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Posts posted by mustrmrk
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Linda,
I bought a Cardone 53-2776. According to Summit Racing (https://www.summitracing.com/parts/aaz-53-2776) and some other places I checked, it is a dual diaphragm booster. It's supposed to fit 89-95 4wd truck and 4runner. So far, with the addition of a 5/16 spacer, it fits my 87 Escaper. I'll update as I progress...
I think Yotamasters sells one like it, too, but they're pretty spendy - like twice as much. Forgot to mention that Yoramasters lists two boosters that cover 79-95 if you're looking for one that will fit the older models. In the notes, however, they say the steering shaft might interfere with installation on some trucks - sounds familiar...
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The new booster arrived today so I started test fitting it. The old one had a 3/8 spacer built in and is smaller in diameter. The new one wouldn't quite seat without touching the steering shaft. So I fabricated a spacer out of 5/16 flat aluminum stock and made the appropriate adjustment to the pedal clevis. That seems to have done the trick - I'll know for sure once I get it bolted in, hopefully tomorrow.
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Linda,
Here are the parts. The jury is still out on how they fit - delivery scheduled for tomorrow, so I should know This or Fri. I'll let you know how it goes.
Booster Cardone reman 53-2776
MC Dorman new M39996
I got both numbers from https://www.roundforge.com/articles/toyota-4x4-brake-master-cylinder-and-brake-booster-specs/
It looks like I have room for the larger booster. Fingers crossed.
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Check valve tested and seems fine. Flow in one direction and not the other. It even held vacuum for several hours after I turned off the engine. Which begs the question maybe the diaphragm is still intact?
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Check valve tested and seems fine. Flow in one direction and not the other. It even held vacuum for several hours after I turned off the engine. Which begs the question maybe the diaphragm is still intact?
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WME,
That's my thinking too. They're both getting replaced tomorrow or Friday. I'll let you know how it goes.
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Maineh,
That's really interesting. I thought brake fluid in the booster was a death knell for the diaphragm. It's an old, rusty Bendix, not sure how old. Symptoms are press brakes slowly, get assist, pedal may or may not reach floor. Press fast, no boost, rock hard pedal, brakes that work if I stand on em, pedal stays high. Seems to me that intermittent boost with good vacuum (18 inHG at idle) points to booster. Maybe I'm totally wrong?
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For what it's worth I pulled the booster a few days ago. It was full of brake fluid. Now I'm just waiting for new dual diaphragm one I ordered to arrive so I can see if it will fit.
I also have a new 1" bore master cylinder to replace the leaking one. Hopefully these take care of my issue.
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Ctgriffi,
I haven't tried Gmaps in bicycle mode - great idea! I already use Maps, anyway, but never thought about using bicycle mode. I'll mess around with it and see how it fits. Thanks for the tip.
And Google already knows all about me - been using Gmail since early in the "invitation only" phase, and I have a Pixel phone. Ah, well.
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For a spendy alternative, check out the Hella Marine 2 speed 12vdc fan. 6.5 watts.
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Greg,
I'm red green color "challenged". Is there any way I can change the topic title link color in the message list? When I look at a list of topics on my phone, I see the subject and the text in the same color. When I click on the subject, it turns "http link light blue" and I can see it. Otherwise, no.
Oh. I just remembered that I have color accessibility turned on on my phone - I'll go try that and see if it makes a difference.
Edit - nope, no difference. I'm pretty much used to it all now, so it's only a minor annoyance, anyway.
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My wife and I prefer to avoid the interstates and travel at a more leisurely pace whenever possible.
Years ago we discovered a pretty neat feature on our old TomTom GPS - by setting "maximum planning speed" for 45 mph, we discovered a wealth of back roads and small towns we would have otherwise missed.
Unfortunately, TomTom quit supporting our unit so we started looking for a replacement that had the same feature. Around that time, TomTom decided to remove maximum speed from their entry-level units and now only has it on their RV and truck units (read more $$). Garmin also has it in their RV and truck offerings, but they're pretty expensive, as well. We've been looking (albeit not too hard) for a cost-effective solution ever since.
A few years ago, we started searching for apps and found that CoPilot GPS had maximum speed (and offline maps), so we bought it for $10 with lifetime map updates, IIRC. Then CoPilot decided to move the feature to their truckers app which is only available via subscription. So we still own our original non-subscription copy and use it sometimes for off-line route planning when we don't have a cell signal, but we really miss the slow routes it used to give us.
I tried Sygic a little over month ago, but it failed to load the maps during install on my Pixel phone, so I was unable to test it out. I contacted Sygic and was told "we are aware of the problem". So, in the hope that they'd fixed it, I tried again last week and got "your free trial has expired". That being not very helpful, I wrote off Sygic.
Then, just yesterday, I found MapFactor Navigator. It has maximum speed in the vehicle profiles and is free when used with Open Street Maps. Or for $18 each you can buy TomTom car maps for the US, Canada, and Mexico or for around $50 each TomTom truck and RV maps (not that our Toyota MHs need to worry overmuch about most of the things semis and Class A RVs do). It's ad supported, but you can turn ads off for $2. Other "premium" features available for a few bucks each include heads-up display, online search, and alternative routes.
The jury's still out, but it seems to do what we want during testing. I find the interface a bit kludgey, but expect that will improve as I get used to it.
I was wondering if anyone else out there uses "maximum speed" like we do, and, if so, what software and/or hardware you use?
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Fred,
Thanks for your input. I considered bleeding them again, but the PO assured me that he'd done a full fluid replacement and bleed. The brakes are totally firm, no pumping needed to be near the top. He's a plane
mechanic for the Marines and seems to know his stuff. Mechanically, the Escaper is in great shape, cosmetically, well....
At any rate, you could very well be right. I'll give the passenger rear a quick bleed and see how the fluid looks.
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Hi everyone. It's been a few years since I've posted here - we sold our '87 Escaper in 2018, tried a few other rigs, and missed it so much we just bought it back yesterday. On our way home, I had some brake issues I thought I'd run by the list and see if anyone has any suggestions.
New rear brakes, drums turned, cleaned front brakes, plenty of pad left, everything bled.
Leaving the campground this morning I had to stand on the brake pedal to get stopped. After a short downhill, the brakes worked much better, but the pedal went almost to the floor. For the rest of the ride home they were pretty much okay except for being spongier than I'd like. BTW - there is no sponginess with the engine off - the pedal stops firmly near the top of it's travel, giving me no indication of poor adjustment or air in the lines. I thought it might be the booster or the check valve, so about 4 hours after we got home and shut it down, I pulled the booster side of hose off the check valve and heard a bunch of vacuum suck in. So it hadn't leaked down in 4 hours, suggesting (to me, anyway) a decent check valve and booster diaphragm. I have to take it in for a Virginia safety inspection and am afraid it'll fail the way it is. Not to mention that I'd prefer not to die or kill anyone else on these mountain roads <g>. I guess the next step might be to attach a vacuum gauge and get some real numbers to report. At any rate, any suggestions as to where to look next appreciated.
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FYI - hunkaman is correct - the cost of the Inter Agency Senior Pass will be going from $10 up to $80 - not sure when. If you qualify and haven't got yours yet, you probably should do it soon.
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Been a while since I've been here. We just finished up a 1.5 year trip from the east coast to the west coast, down as far as the southern tip of Baja California, and up as far as Vancouver island - some 40k miles of full-time RVing in our Escaper. I guess it depends on what you're looking for. We always tried to find free places when we could - we're pretty self-contained and we traveled a lot - seldom stayed out boondocking for more than a week, so no hookups works well for us.
We made excellent use of several apps - some free, some paid - here are our top 5.
Our #1 "go to" app - Ultimate Campgrounds - public campgrounds - many free - worth every penny. You can check out their web based version at ultimatecampgrounds.com. Ted is great about accepting feedback, suggestions, and new site submissions.
Gas Buddy - free, also used nearly every day - saved a ton on gas, especially in California where we found prices could vary as much as $0.75 per gallon within 1/2 of a mile of each other just off the Interstate.
Public Lands, especially good for making sure the free BLM site you just discovered really IS BLM and not private - about $5 IIRC
All Stays - about $10 - great for finding private and public campgrounds, casinos, dump stations, etc. It's probably the best overall with some overlap with Ultimate, but we used them both and found many sites that were only in one app or the other.
Sani-Dump - pretty much obsolete for Android, still works on iPhone and on web site. We submitted a few and never saw them included, so no idea how up-to-date it is.
We don't pay for campgrounds often if we can help it - can't afford to do it for this long if we did - but we also joined Passport America. We paid for our membership in the first two weeks of our trip by staying a few nights at a CG just outside of Montreal near the last commuter train stop - great for going in to see the city.
One last thing - absolutely the best investment we made for the trip was getting an Inter Agency Senior Pass (https://www.fs.fed.us/visit/passes-permits/recreation-fees-passes) At 62 and older, you pay a one time $10 fee for a lifetime pass. This will get you and everyone in your vehicle free admission to national parks (including Yosemite, Yellowstone, Sequioa, Arches, etc.), and pretty much any national recreation area (except Mt. Rushmore), 1/2 price camping at most National Parks, Corps of Engineers, Forest Service, etc. campgrounds.
Cheers.
On 3/28/2017 at 8:23 AM, jjrbus said:I have had good luck with Passport America 1/2 off club. It is not 100% coverage for all of the America's but I have always got far more than I paid back!
You can check where you are going and see if they have parks available without joining. When I can get full hookup parks for $10-20 a night I will stay in parks rather than Wal Mart or some such place.
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Ours was rusted out behind the passenger side hood hinge - not accessible even when the wiper cowling between the hood and the windshield was removed. I ended up using a 3" hole saw to cut a hole and applied a bunch of caulk to make a "dam" to keep water channeled to the drain where it was supposed to go before the rust occurred. The only real fix I could see would be to make an even bigger hole and weld in a repair.. The caulk dam works just fine, though, and was a lot easier and cheaper.
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We've got the same intermittent starting problem in our 1987 Escaper. Ours is definitely the ignition switch. Try turning the key to the start position and gradually release it - sometimes ours catches and starts part way back. It happens more with a cold start - after it's up to operating temperature, it doesn't seem to happen as often.
When we were in Baja last winter, I ran a fused wire from the battery to a push button starter switch near the steering column and back to the starter. Works like a champ every time the ignition switch decides not to work. I just ordered a new replacement switch and will be changing it before other sections of the old switch fail.
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Back when I was a foreign auto mechanic in the 70s the question was "Why do the British drink warm beer", the answer being "Because Lucas makes all their refrigerators."
Coming up on about a year of living in our RV full-time w/ 2 golf cart batteries, a 2000w Xantrex inverter, 240w of solar panels, an MPPT controller, and a 5.1 cu. ft. freezer converted into a fridge, I have a few comments to make re. AC refrigeration in an RV for full-time use.
1) The inverter draws 0.5a at idle, just waiting for the fridge to run. That translates to about 12 ah/day wasted.
2) We spent much of last winter down in Baja California and most of the fall and early spring in the SW US. In November in Nevada, even on a bright sunny day, I barely made enough power to run the fridge. Once I made the panels tiltable, so I could compensate for the lower winter sun, things got much better. Everything was great over the winter, we had plenty of power - of course, it we also only had one or two overcast days down in Mexico and, because we were much nearer the equator, didn't have to tilt the panels.
3) The freezer surges up to near 20 amps DC at startup, and once it starts it draws about 11-14 amps depending on where it is in its run cycle. Thankfully, the chest design doesn't spill too much cold air when opened, so even more thankfully, it doesn't run all that often. All the same, I estimate that we use around 60 - 70 ah/day, mostly for the fridge.
4) Once we started moving north a few weeks ago, we had 4 overcast and rainy days - the panels just couldn't keep up so we had to either run the generator or move to get things charged back up again.
We love the chest fridge - great space, storage, but there's a trade-off - no freezer, hence no ice. Tough to give it up, but since we're not planning to stay in the SW US this summer or next winter w/ lots of sunlight, we're looking at alternatives.
We have friends with a 4.7 cu.in. Vitifrigo 12vdc fridge rated at 3.2a. They're really happy with it, and, as much as we hate to spend the money, I think we're going to bite the bullet and get one, too. On our boat, our Adler-Barbour 12v fridge had about a 20 - 30% duty cycle. Expecting about the same, it seems like the Vitifrigo would use about 23 ah/day at 30% duty cycle - about 1/3 as much as our current 60-70 ah/day chest fridge. That would be a luxury.
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I guess it depends on how you plan to use it and what you use it for. At 12 volts, 500 watts translates to just over 40 amps - that's an awful lot to expect from a cigarette lighter socket. If you think you may be drawing near the full load I'd seriously consider hard wiring it in with appropriately sized fuse and conductors.
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It sounds like you have a battery problem. I would concur with Linda's diagnosis re. the sail switch.
We were having problems recently with our furnace starting intermittently or not re-igniting after one cycle of burning. First I checked the voltage, but it was fine. So I pulled the furnace apart and found mud dauber nests and sunflower seeds packed into the combustion air tube?!?! A strange combination. Once I cleaned it out and reinstalled it, there was enough air flow to reliably activate the sail switch and it's worked fine ever since.
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Another thing to consider. On our sailboat we had a wind generator, solar panels, and the engine alternator. When we motored we sometimes noticed that alternator wasn't putting as much into the batteries as usual. Turns out that, on a bright sunny day, the voltage produced by the solar panels would fool the alternator regulator into thinking the batteries were full. I installed a switch that allowed me to disconnect the solar panel controller while we motored and the problem went away. Then, of course, there was the problem of remembering to turn the solar panels back on after we anchored....
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Same here - 240 watts of solar, rare shore power connections. Our fridge runs off the inverter which has it's own duplex outlet built in. I installed a "fridge only" outlet inside w/ a plug and cord that can either plug into the inverter or into a 120v ac outlet nearby. If we have shore power, I turn off the inverter, and move the fridge plug to the shore powered outlet near the inverter. Simple and it works great.
My only problem now is that the sun is so low in the sky during the winter, the roof mounted panels aren't keeping up. My Christmas project while we visit our son in Redding, CA will be to make them tiltable.
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Generally, I would advise looking for a "pure sine wave" model. I've had great luck with Xantrex, but there are several other less expensive options out there - however, less expensive can also mean increased RFI noise. Also try to mount it as close to the battery as you can and use adequately sized conductors to minimize voltage drop.
Brake booster question
in General Discussion
Posted
To finish this up, the Cardone 53-2776 booster fit well. I only had to fab a 3/8 spacer to hold it off the steering shaft a bit and adjust the pedal rod clevis accordingly.
The Dorman M3996 master cylinder bolted right in. I had to slightly bend both brake lines because of the new position caused by the new booster. And the float switch connector didn't match my harness so I swapped ends with the old one.
All in all it was a pretty easy job and I'm happy with the results.