Power sterring belt Holiday Rambler P-30

[Phillip T Rodden]

After or rather during my first outing in my " Back on the Road " Holiday Rambler 1987 I experienced loss of power sterring. My trip was short so it was just a pain in the a--.    I am not a mechanic but when I took the engine cover off I saw what I beleive to be the power sterring pump located at the top left of the front of the motor and there is no belt at all on the pulley .  Can I just look up the belt for a P-30 and order it ? Any advice would be very appreciated .  If I can repair it my self I need to. 

[Phillip T Rodden]

I will have another look at going in from the top. There is not much room towards the front where the belts are because of the overhang of the dash. But if I go in from the side  maybe I could get in there. I just don't have the funds at the moment to spend on taking it to the shop. The weather has been so nice on the east cost that I would have liked to drive her out to some of the local State Parks for the day. But, now it seems that winter has found me.  Thank you for the insight. 

[Jim Stoltz]

Yes, it got cold in the northeast today. It's going to warm up as the week goes on, culminating in a warm, rainy weekend. 

I did mine from the top on my '84 Allegro, but my dash may not overhang as much. I found that completely removing the doghouse (mine is hinged at the front) gives me a lot more working room. You still have to be a bit of a contortionist to get in there.

[Phillip T Rodden]

Well I got under it after driving it up on some solid ramps I made out of 2x10's . It appears that what we have is a leaking hose. It seems that I may be able to do this reoair myself. When it stops snowing I will have another look at removing the hose and finding a replacement. I'll take a good look at the others while I'm at it. Any more advice ? I do appreciate it . Thanks folks . 

[Ralph Javins]

Good morning, Phillip; 

Yes, going under, or taking covers off, and looking around to see how things are doing can help catch things when they are in an early stage, and they are easily scheduled for repair or replacement.  Much more convenient than needing to do it beside the road. 

A lot of this really is just plain common sense examination and simple evaluation.  Much of motor home RV maintenance is relatively simple and straight forward, which is a good thing considering that the main problem can be just getting to the things to see how they are doing.  My own Chevy 454 V8 engine is pretty well buried far inside the body of the Winnebago Elandan.  They did not make it easy to gain access to many parts of these things.  

However, it is worth the effort.  I have been working on cleaning up the electrical wiring on the Elandan.  Some of the cables and wires have been rerouted and some excessively long large cables have been shortened to reduce the voltage drop with the current passing through those cables.  I have also been adding labels and clear heat-shrink tubing over the labels to identify them and where they go as an aid in trouble shooting the electrical system later on if I am beside the road somewhere.  Having a collection of wires with the same color insulation on them really does not help when trying to trace where the voltage went.  This is a case where having the wiring diagrams or schematics, and perhaps also the pictorial diagrams of the terminations, really does help.  When you know where the things are supposed to go, it does help when trying to find where they went. 

With the availability of large capacity USB Flash Drives and .pdf file copies of the wiring diagrams, illustrations, parts lists and diagrams, and specifications, with a computer you can see where things are supposed to go and how they are supposed to be set.  Having a copy of the servicing literature for your motor home RV is a practical thing now.  If it is not something that you feel comfortable doing, the mechanic who is trying to work on your motor home for you will really appreciate having that information right there with the motor home, and just a USB Flash Drive with all that information on it does not take very much storage space in the motor home.  It will make his life so much easier, it will take him less time, and you will save money. 

Enjoy; 

Ralph 

Latte Land, Washington 

[Rich Thomas]

Hi Phillip, I think your moving a long, Every thing you do your self has an added value. The obvious thing is saving money but, the not so obvious is your gaining skill, your gaining confidence and your getting a working knowledge of whats under the hood of your RV. I would encourage you to spend as much time under there as you can muster in this climate and just observe everything you can put your eyes and fingers on. Take a look at things like brake lines & hoses, ball joints or kingpins and all the drive line and suspension components. Look for fluid leaks around the brakes, engine and transmission; if for no other reason than to familiarize your self of whats there. good luck Phillip. PS YOU CAN DO THIS!!  :)

[Phillip T Rodden]

I'm back.   It's been a while . I made a solid ramp to lift the front end so I could get under and look around ( stacked 2x12's ) and it looks like it may be a leaky power steering line. It's all messy and covered with fluid. I quess I will clean it off and try to make sure, but it looks like it has a leak. So , looking on the Youtube it seems like this should be something I can do. Seems like getting the correct line will be the trick. I assume that the best way is to remove the bad one and find a replacement that is the same. It looks like it will be fun reaching the ends of the line to remove it. 

  

[Rich Thomas]

Good for you Philip, next thing you know you'll be out there enjoying the long summers eve. Just sitting around a camp fire listening to the peepers singing and sipping on a cold beverage of choice. Man is it still winter. bla