1972 Chieftain Winnebago A.K.A 'Where Dogs Lie'

[moezart]

Ah heck, it seems we all need to pull a chair around a circle, introduce ourselves, and tell our stories  :)rotflmao

I crossed my brown wire on my alternator to my black wire, thinking it was ground, only to find out it was positive to my battery  Hm?  I fixed it! I'm now back to my slow, small draw somewhere. Am I crazy to move on and wait till I get home?

On a good note, I did start the motor today for 10 seconds, and it sounded great!

I decided to work on installing my shift kit to the transmission!

[Rickf1985]

Do NOT go with stage 2! That will be very hard on components in a heavy vehicle.

[moezart]

Come on now, what do think I am? Crazy?   :)rotflmao  i?? . . .Wait! Don't answer that. Hello, my name is Morgan, and I like to dump large amounts of money into an old relic that's not worth it. . . . :)rotflmao. . .I think I'm cracking up here. Lol

I went with stage 1, heavy duty. You kind of made me do a double take there. As a matter of fact, I'm glad I did it. I was missing a steel check ball in the number 4 position.

Is there a special way to fill the radiator? I mean how does one get anything in that small space? Am I crazy to attempt the drive with a slow draw on the battery? I've had it on the road over 300 miles without an issue. I will disconnect battery at night. I really want to be on the road by Sunday.

[M & J]

Throw some Willie Nelson in the 8 track when you head out.

[CapnDirk]

I may be late to the dance on the slow draw issue, but what I do to narrow it down is use one of those 12 volt ice pick light testers (pick on one end, and a wire with an alligator clamp).  Turn everything off, pull one fuse at a time and jump the pick end and other end across the terminals where the fuse was.  If there is a draw, you will get a slight glow.

[Rickf1985]

Have you checked all of your compartment lights to be sure they are all off? Closet lights? I guess it depends on how much of a draw as to whether I would think it needs to be addressed right away. If it is a 1 amp draw that is something that needs to be found. 1/2 amp, eh, should be found but you can get by. Like the Capn said, do the test light thing and try to narrow it down to a certain circuit, maybe it is something you can leave disconnected.

[LJ-TJ]

So here's my question. Does the voltage meter on the dash show a charge while your driving/idling? If it does turn your head lights on and see if they dim and draw down you volt meter. If your showing a charge then I'd go for it. I'd just make sure when I turned the rig off that I unhooked the battery every time. That should be good enough to get you home with out killing the battery. Hm?

[Rickf1985]

As long as that drain is not a short that is just starting but not quite there yet. Sorry, been there done that in my almost 50 years as a auto electrical specialist. I want to know where that power is going so I don't get a surprise on the road.

[CapnDirk]

Ditto on what Rick said on checking compartment lights.   I spent a month trying to figure out what a switch was at the step going in,  Nothing went on or off with it.  Then by luck I found out it was for the basement lights (seven compartments) and every one of them burnt out.  No doubt from leaving them on.

[moezart]

 I traced it to a light green wire that is on the tail light, stop fuse, but I don't see it on the wiring diagram. It has multiple lines junctioned together.





Then, it's here down below with a yellow wire. The brown wire is actually the light green wire, but severely burnt. I looked for the leads underneath that they are suppose to connect to, but could not find them.



On a good note. I disconnect it from the fuse line, no more draw.

I don't believe any of my cabin lights work.

[LJ-TJ]

  WOW! Good find.

[Rickf1985]

Hence my warning about an almost short!!! It could have been draining out through the carbon on that burnt section of wire and one bump and POOF! You could cut that section of wire out of there back where it joins the others and then plug the fuse back in and see if you still have a drain. If you do just keep tracing each wire in that group. You have it narrowed down to the one circuit and as long as itis nothing but cabin lights then you are good to travel. At this point you can just do some tracing at leisure to try to find the real problem.

[moezart]

I agree Rick, it's a good thing I checked. I'm going through the wire diagram and it's looking like my running lights, but I have running lights  Hm?  i?? Go figure

If it's the cabin lights, yeah no worries, and I'll shove on, deal with them when I get home.

[legomybago]

Good job! This makes me want to finally find my slow draw!! Thanks for the wake up call!!

[Rickf1985]

Check and make sure your headlight switch is not rotated all the way to the left, this would manually turn on the interior lights and give you a draw. It sounds like you are on that circuit.

[Froggy1936]

Another way (useing the test light with probe an clip) Is to disconnect either battery treminal and put the test lite in place of that connection , If there is any draw the light will come on , Start pulling fuses till the light goes out , Do not reinstall fuses till all done due to a possibility of more than 1 curcuit has a problem  For a severe draw you can wire in a turn signal flasher between batt term and cable  when the clicking stops  you have found the suspect curcuit !  Just always remember DO NOT LET THE SMOKE GET OUT OF THE WIRES ! Frank

[moezart]

Yeah, I've been tracing everything from my test light on the positive side of battery. I actually pull all fuses first, then snap the fuse in one at a time till it lights up. I have found pulling one fuse at a time can drive you crazy if you have multiple draws on different fuses. Then, I focus on that one fuse.  Eh, it works for me.

Another problem arised. I filled her with fluids and started it right up, but then the starter kicks in as it is running  Hm? I attached the white wire to the ignition switch, the one that leads to the brake sentinel line. I'll take it off and hopefully stop the starter from engaging.

I attached a video of it happening. If you listen, you hear it hit at the end, before I kill the motor.

http://s1228.photobucket.com/user/moezart01/media/Chieftain%20Winnebago/20161124_085946_zpssaow0hki.mp4.html

[moezart]

I installed the HEI ignition in today, and started it up. It sounds great! Once I put the wires in the correct spot, I no longer had issues of the starter engaging. I'm doing a test run today, but should go well.

I know I thank all of you guys that put your input here, and I know my family thanks you too. I couldn't of done it without you, and feel safe to travel. I'm heading out on Sunday to bypass all the traffic heading to Las Vegas from California. Have a major storm coming from Oregon hitting Cali, and a severe weather alert in Montana. Time to hit the road.

Hopefully you don't here from me until I get home.
Thanks again,
Morgan

[M & J]

Via con Dios.

[Rickf1985]

Have a safe trip and be sure to let us know when you get there.

[LJ-TJ]

No,no,no you don't. Nice try buckaroo. You don't get away that easy. We'll be standing by here JUST, just in case you run into any trouble. Don't know what your computer capabilities are but remember McDonald's  has free WiFi so as do several other places so when you get hunkered down for the night just drop us a quick all's well. Let us know how the trips going. Have a safe trip.   

[moezart]

Thanks guys. Unfortunately, my test drive didn't go so well. So, after installing the shift kit, it's not shifting so well, almost like it's slipping now. Remember, this is a rebuilt, and I wasn't having trouble, but thought it was a good move to add the heavy duty kit.
When I was re-installing the shift linkage, I noticed one of the arms on the actual linkage itself for the pinch bolt was missing and broken off, allowing slop to the shifter. Although it did have a problem with alignment, it never had problems like this.
Sooo, I'm thinking three things here, and hopefully you guys can help on what I did wrong. Either the linkage is giving me problems now, and not properly sitting in the gears fully, allowing it to slip, the down shift rod to carburetor is not set correctly? Or, I did not tightened the valve body bolts enough? No, I did not have a inch pounds torque wrench, so I tightened the bolts as much as I could without snapping them. This is not the first time adding a shift kit, but first time it not working. Before I tear back into the tranny again, I'm going to test it tomorrow with the shift cable off and down shift rod off to rule them out. Any ideas guys? Thanks.

[LJ-TJ]

Sorry mate that's out of my ball park. RICK, DAVE?

[M & J]

Did you say inch pounds? And tightened as much as you could without breaking? 12 inch pounds = 1 foot pound. What were the torque specs for that valve body? Maybe 30 inch pounds? If all above is correct those bolts should have torqued around 3 ft pounds. That would be a hair above snug without a torque wrench. Assuming I've understood what you  typed correctly you could have warped the valve body, squished gaskets or seals and caused what you are experiencing. Wait and and see what Rick says. I could be wrong.

[DaveVA78Chieftain]

Sorry, tranny's out of my realm.