Winter Whacks Again

I woke up this morning to a beautiful day, 50 degrees out, sun shining and a holiday to boot.  I was anxious to do a couple of projects on the Journey, starting with pulling off the engine hatch, cleaning off the old epoxy and re-gluing it. 

If you remember, I used some nylon tie straps to temporarily hold it all together until I completed a permanent fix.

My plan was to completely separate the metal frame from the fiberglass, take a drill with a wire wheel on it and grind off all the paint from the metal frame and rough it up so the epoxy would grab on better.  Then to top it off, I was going to put several stainless steel screws on each edge to give additional holding strength to the hatch.

If I was able to get all that done, I was going to move on to changing out the water separator/fuel filter. 

 I would have done that last fall but I broke my strap wrench.  I recently went to Sears and bought a new one, a Craftsman, just in case I broke that one, I could get a free replacement. 

To be sure I wouldn't be stuck if that happened, I bought a second one, you can't have too many of them.  Actually, if you have two strap wrenches, it helps to take the filter apart easier.

I dropped Marti off at work, unfortunately, she didn't have today off as a holiday.  Bummer, she'd have loved to just spend another day kicked back on the couch letting her ankle continue to heal. 

As I drove away, the sky began to get darker.  By the time I got home, it was raining and the temperature dropped about 15 degrees and a bit of wind kicked up.  Yep, Winter whacked my plans right out the window.  Grr.

I want to get these things done because we have our Disney World vacation coming up in about three weeks.  I don't want to have those items hanging over my head.  I have some other maintenance work that is scheduled to be done this spring.   I have to replace the air filter, which on a diesel pusher motorhome is a major project.  It's not like popping a new filter in your car, the filter, which is about the size of a beer keg is tucked underneath the floor in the back of the MH above the muffler.  Looks to be a two hour job for this alone.  When I do that job, it will be subject of a post or two, for sure.

Also upcoming is the Allison transmission oil and fluid change,

 and the engine antifreeze change. 

 Both jobs I'll have to take the Journey into a shop to do, not because I can't do it myself, but I don't have the place to do that work.  Most stuff I do is on the street in front of my house.  Juggling gallons of antifreeze and automatic transmission fluid is not doable street side.

So, I'm keeping my fingers crossed so that some warmer weather comes along my way.  Forecast for the evening is rain, sleet and changing over to snow, 4-5 inches worth.  Come on spring!

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