Another Senior Moment

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Since I last personally ran a tire durability and Hummer towing test combined, I have done fairly well in the senior moment department. My tires are still round, and life in general is pretty good.

In preparation for the OSH trip I did some work on things that are related to the trip. The hangar brakets for the generator exhaust needed some work so among other things I took care of that. It involved some banging and cutting of the old broken hangar, and a replacement with a new one. Since the generator acted a little funny the night before pulling into POGI due to what I think was a fuel pump issue, I also replaced the fuel pump. I don't want to spend a week dry camping in the hot sun without a generator in top condition. To prove to myself my repairs did the job I fired up the generator. In my garage. With both big OH doors open.

I forgot I had monkeyed with the exhaust pipe. I forgot how much crud gets loose when you bang on that pipe. I forgot just how far that stuff can get blown when you fire up your generator.

I'll be cleaning up the black diesel exhaust soot that is EVERYWHERE in my garage for a long time.

That is today's lesson from Casa del Grease Pit.

[Ben]

Here's a tip for ya: never change your generator oil when the hours meter ends in 666. My generator was due to for an oil change when the meter read 3666.

http://209.15.130.207/genhours.jpg

My oil change was uneventful until it was time to fire up the generator. I hit the switch and waited for the preheat to finish so the thing would start up. But before it fired, a campground employee distracted me and got me to the other side of the bus... and at that moment, the generator started up.

It only ran for a minute or so before shutting down and that's when I realized that it had spewed fresh oil all over the place. It turns out that the rubber seal from the previous filter stayed stuck to the generator (unnoticed by me since it was the second time I'd ever change the oil and I didn't remember if the seal stayed with the filter or the generator). So, in the process of changing the filter, I ended with with two seals and when tightened they got deformed and allowed oil to spray all over the place.

http://209.15.130.207/genoil.jpg

(that oil pan overflowed since it had both the old oil and the newly spewed added and that wet spot on the ground is oil as well)

I was parked in the Badlands at the time and had to drive quite a distance before I could find more oil and get the generator running again. I could also smell oil in the coach each time I ran the generator for about a week afterwards before I think I had to cleaned up well enough. I'm thinking of steam cleaning that compartment to really clean it out.

Lesson: never change the generator oil when the gauge ends in 666 and always check to make sure the oil filter seal has been removed before putting the new filter on... and always stay within view of the generator the first time you fire it up after changing the oil.

If I was 25 years older, I might call that a senior moment, but at my age, I'll have to chalk that one up to simple stupidity.

Look at what was parked at the place where I found some oil....

http://209.15.130.207/series60.jpg

He had series 60 badges on both sides of his pickup truck... that thing must have been able to easily pull tree stumps with all that torque ;)

[lewpopp]

Poor Ben... You must have been a sheltered fellow in your younger days. The rest of us had to work for a living when we were young at jobs like service station, etc. You probably worked in a computer sweat shop and the oil never needs changing. That is where we learned to always check for a double gasket possibility. Normally the mistake was made by us at someone elses expense.