September 28th - Homer to the Shop Tomorrow

Homer is headed to the shop tomorrow through no fault of his own. Squirrels got under him, tore up the insulation in the underside of the cab floor to make a nest and chewed a hose off that needs to be replaced. Here is a picture of the material I pulled out that was being made into a nest under the cab. 

Seeing a squirrel in the area and something hanging down under Homer the other day is what caused me to investigate.  Here is a picture of the chewed hose. 

It appears to be a braided gas line. I started the engine and no gas came out so I'm thinking it might be a breather line or a return line. In any event I don't have the knowledge or parts to fix it. While Homer is in the shop I'm having the parking break repaired as well. Sometimes it engages when pressed and sometimes it doesn't. The parking brake is important to use when Homer is stopped for the night and we are sleeping inside.

 

September 8, 2021 - Homer Waxed and the Rattle Fixed

Well, at long last, Homer has been cleaned and waxed from top to bottom on all sides. It is a four day project for this old man, one day on each side. Here are the pictures showing a nice shine on all sides. 

This time I purchased a ceramic coating to use in lieu of wax but I ended up only using it on the front and back caps. I put one coat on the back cap and two coats on the front cap but black streaks from dirt running down off the roof immediately appeared on both. This was VERY disappointing because black streaks are quite hard to get off. I may clean the two caps again and recoat them with the ceramic coating to see if more coats decreases the streaking. I am quite disheartened because, for this old man, the ceramic coating is much easier to apply than hand wax and it is much more expensive than wax.

Yesterday Homer's oil was changed and he was inspected for relicensing. He passed inspection with flying colors. This morning I bought two year license tabs so he is ready to roll anywhere we want to go. We may take him on a trip down the Natchez trace in late September.

When we were leaving in July for our trip up north we heard a significant rattle from the front passenger wheel. We stopped by my mechanic to get it checked out. He thought it was only the wheel simulator, took it off, and no more rattle. Not a safety issue so we headed out with a major rattle to ignore. I have never had a problem with these simulators rattling before and I guessed it was due to their reinstallation after the new tires were put on. I have learned over the years that guys who mount tires are not very careful about installing wheel simulators correctly. This morning I pulled the front simulators off, repositioned their mounting plates, and reinstalled them. No more rattling. It just takes a little extra effort.  Good to go.