Vehicle Maintenance #4of9

1978 Dodge Trans Van, continued

In the city of Orleans, France, we discovered our cooking gas was depleted. We filled the tank, then smelled gas, so we knew for sure we had a leak. We turned it on for cooking, then off to save gas, until we got it fixed a week or so later at Cousin Henri’s in Montivilliers, France. At a hardware store we bought some epoxy that, after applying several coats to the leaking brass fitting, was tougher than the brass. It was almost impossible to even scratch the epoxy with a metal file.

Starting late in our travels in 1983, we discovered that if the engine was not started every 10 or 12 hours, it could be difficult to start — not usually a problem, we keep on the move each and every day. It was “looked” at by several mechanics, but finally in 1985 Henri and I went to a mechanic who looked and found the problem the others had missed. A leak in a little rubber hose. Took a few minutes, and a couple of dollars to fix.

We bought a battery for the RV side of the Van. We continued to have problems with the battery, and finally it cost $12 for a mechanic in Brugge, Belgium, to find the problem, and a few cents to replace the blown fuse. It blew again, we replaced it with a larger one, and that was just what it needed.

Later, in the Netherlands, we had battery problems with the battery on the truck side. We went to a garage that installed a battery, but we soon found the gauge was showing the battery was not being charged. We went back to the garage, and they took off the cables, cleaned them, and put them back and it worked fine — for an hour.

We drove to Zwolle, Netherlands, a larger town, and stopped at a Ford dealer. The mechanic spoke English, so checked it and found the alternator was charging fine, but power was getting to the camper battery, but not the truck battery. I had him reverse the wires and we could at least keep the truck running until we found someone who could find and solve the real problem.

In Amersfoot, a mechanic in the same garage that worked on the 1977 Dodge, followed my advice and checked the gadget that keeps the vehicle battery separate from the RV battery. That was the problem, and they had a replacement part. Most likely we didn’t need the new battery.