1976 Eleganza II
- Thread starter tmsnyder
- Start date
I did tint and it claimed to reject some % of infrared. It did help, you can feel the difference just holding your hand in the sunshine behind the tinted window vs a non tinted window. I also have Reflectix cutouts for covering the windows at night, and we'll typically put those up on the sun-facing side.
I'm sure you intend to move that dump tube to the right and tuck it up behind the bumper. It won't last long in the current position.
Best Interior at Olcott Beach Car Show 2021!!
There were about 1000 cars registered at this show!!
There were about 1000 cars registered at this show!!
The original Onan carburetor has me stumped. I'm throwing in the towel. I think fuel is getting past the needle and seat. I've rebuilt it 2x, kits are about $20 each, so I've got about $50 in the rebuilds and $60 in a new low pressure fuel pump. Fresh rebuilt carb from the vendor is $200 plus $200 core charge, I'm not quite willing to go there $-wise.
I throw in the towel on the old carb. It's got me beat. It's in a box on a shelf just in case.
On ebay I notice there are Walbro LMB carb knockoff's for $15. No joke. $15 to my door. It arrived quickly, just a few days vs the 2 weeks I waited for a rebuild kit from a small engine parts house.
First impressions: The knockoff is a little bit bigger. Bigger bowl, bigger throat, longer end to end. Hmmm, first test; will it fit on the intake manifold studs?
The studs on the intake manifold fit perfect. It's exactly the same. The holes were so tight on the studs, in fact, I actually opened them up a little with a drill. I had the carb on and off several times during the process and opening them up made it a lot easier.
The fuel hookup is on the opposite side. Ok, no big deal, it can be tightened down in any direction so it went in a direction pointing towards the fuel filter.
The throttle shaft is bigger diameter and longer. Bummer. Was hoping that it could be swapped out for the old shaft but no luck. On the new carb there was a 90 deg bend in the throttle linkage. It was in the way so it was cut off where the red circled area is in this photo:
There was also a return spring on the shaft which was removed. Then a small bit of linkage was fabricated in order to pick up the governor link. Measured carefully and attempted to get the link hole in the same exact spot relative to the shaft. Old carb is farther away from the camera in this photo so it looks a little out of perspective but you get the idea. The throttle shaft nut and an unused hole were used for a screw and nut to attach. Distance and angle to the hole is as close as I could get it.
The collar to connect to air filter has a completely different screw center to center distance, and different screw size. And no room to drill and tap another pair of holes. So a small adapter made from 1/4" aluminum plate to be able to connect the collar.
This made the whole carb assembly even longer, but everything still seems to hook up ok inside the generator compartment.
CHOKE:
I wish the automatic choke worked but it doesn't. On mine it wasn't working when I bought it. The actuator is kaput. On the new carb the choke is on a return spring so it's held open all the time. It is not connected but it's also not hurting anything. Still works manually. From stone cold it will start even without the choke (at 70F air temp) after several attempts, just like the old one did. Starts a lot easier with the choke, I'll add that to the to-do list.
First adjustment was to make the governor linkage drop into the carb linkage with engine off and carb held at WOT.
Then with the governor arm spring on the middle hole I started it up and adjusted the rpm to give 63 hz and let it warm up a few minutes. Then applied a load.
After loading it with a hair dryer, toaster, space heater, roof a/c and the water heater it pulled the speed too low, 55hz and 110v. No good.
Tried the next closer hole to the governor arm pivot and it was much better. No load I set it at 63hz and 130V. With one thing on, roof a/c or water heater, it drops to ~61hz and 125V (perfect imo) and with full load it was 57hz and 115V. I could probably go to the next closer hole on the governor arm for tighter control on the hz and V but I'm pretty happy. I'll never run with all that amperage. Water heater plus A/C is probably all it'll ever see and with those two on it's right at 60hz and 120v.
Time will tell how it holds up but at the moment it seems to run great, doesn't smell terribly bad like unburned fuel, doesn't surge excessively when a load is applied.
Just what I did....
I throw in the towel on the old carb. It's got me beat. It's in a box on a shelf just in case.
On ebay I notice there are Walbro LMB carb knockoff's for $15. No joke. $15 to my door. It arrived quickly, just a few days vs the 2 weeks I waited for a rebuild kit from a small engine parts house.
First impressions: The knockoff is a little bit bigger. Bigger bowl, bigger throat, longer end to end. Hmmm, first test; will it fit on the intake manifold studs?
The studs on the intake manifold fit perfect. It's exactly the same. The holes were so tight on the studs, in fact, I actually opened them up a little with a drill. I had the carb on and off several times during the process and opening them up made it a lot easier.
The fuel hookup is on the opposite side. Ok, no big deal, it can be tightened down in any direction so it went in a direction pointing towards the fuel filter.
The throttle shaft is bigger diameter and longer. Bummer. Was hoping that it could be swapped out for the old shaft but no luck. On the new carb there was a 90 deg bend in the throttle linkage. It was in the way so it was cut off where the red circled area is in this photo:
There was also a return spring on the shaft which was removed. Then a small bit of linkage was fabricated in order to pick up the governor link. Measured carefully and attempted to get the link hole in the same exact spot relative to the shaft. Old carb is farther away from the camera in this photo so it looks a little out of perspective but you get the idea. The throttle shaft nut and an unused hole were used for a screw and nut to attach. Distance and angle to the hole is as close as I could get it.
The collar to connect to air filter has a completely different screw center to center distance, and different screw size. And no room to drill and tap another pair of holes. So a small adapter made from 1/4" aluminum plate to be able to connect the collar.
This made the whole carb assembly even longer, but everything still seems to hook up ok inside the generator compartment.
CHOKE:
I wish the automatic choke worked but it doesn't. On mine it wasn't working when I bought it. The actuator is kaput. On the new carb the choke is on a return spring so it's held open all the time. It is not connected but it's also not hurting anything. Still works manually. From stone cold it will start even without the choke (at 70F air temp) after several attempts, just like the old one did. Starts a lot easier with the choke, I'll add that to the to-do list.
First adjustment was to make the governor linkage drop into the carb linkage with engine off and carb held at WOT.
Then with the governor arm spring on the middle hole I started it up and adjusted the rpm to give 63 hz and let it warm up a few minutes. Then applied a load.
After loading it with a hair dryer, toaster, space heater, roof a/c and the water heater it pulled the speed too low, 55hz and 110v. No good.
Tried the next closer hole to the governor arm pivot and it was much better. No load I set it at 63hz and 130V. With one thing on, roof a/c or water heater, it drops to ~61hz and 125V (perfect imo) and with full load it was 57hz and 115V. I could probably go to the next closer hole on the governor arm for tighter control on the hz and V but I'm pretty happy. I'll never run with all that amperage. Water heater plus A/C is probably all it'll ever see and with those two on it's right at 60hz and 120v.
Time will tell how it holds up but at the moment it seems to run great, doesn't smell terribly bad like unburned fuel, doesn't surge excessively when a load is applied.
Just what I did....
I like your solution, good job! I'm sure there's an explanation for the stock carb, but is it worth the trouble finding out? Sometimes not. I've done something similar on a little 125 yamaha bike once. The stock carbs were just known for being troublesome, nobody seemed to like them much. A knockoff from ebay really did the trick, and made the bike enjoyable again (no one likes a kick-start that's reluctant to start).
I'm sure someone could figure it out. I think we're at the point for a lot of the GMC components where we'll need to start replacing parts with new available parts that will fit with some modification or fabrication. Originality isn't as important as function, that's what I like about the GMC.
We took a trip in my brothers newer motorhome, it was hot and we were boondocking and dry camping for almost a week. I gained a whole new level of appreciation for a reliable generator on that trip. It meant the difference between laying on top of the sheets drenched in sweat praying for the roof fan to draw in some air from outside, listening to car doors slamming and people talking in the parking lot; not sleeping! compared to running the generator, windows closed, with the fan blowing and A/C running, not hearing any outside noise just the drone of the generator and being nice and cool under the covers was EYE OPENING. And they burn basically zero gas. Insignificant compared to what's burned driving down the road. Several days on the grounds at OshKosh for EAA Airventure and we didn't notice any movement in the gas gauge. It made me and my brothers true believers. It's the only way to boondock when it's hot outside.
What I'd like to do someday is build a diy efi system for the onan and deliver fuel and spark in a more efficient manner. That would get rid of most exhaust fumes associated with the old beast especially the spark control. 24 degrees is just not enough timing to get all the fuel burned when it's running at very low throttle. Admittedly, efi for the Onan is really far down the to-do list though.
Todd,
If you do any of the flywheel/Pertronix mods, you can then set the spark at 26° and she will run much better.
Matt
If you do any of the flywheel/Pertronix mods, you can then set the spark at 26° and she will run much better.
Matt
Now that would be a fun project. Maybe a Speeduino with some donor parts off a motorcycle? I'll wait for you to do it, so I can live vicariously through you.
Thats what I was looking at, the Speeduino with 2 spark and 2 injector control, it's like a $60 kit.
Dad, always looking for a reason to add onto his total roofed area, decided that he wanted to build us a place to store our RVs. Two of us have GMCs, one has another newer brand and unfortunately for him, even though there's room under the roof, his height is too high to fit under the rafters. GMCs rule!
What does a normal person do when they want to build something? they head to Lowes or HomeDepot. What does my 80 yo Dad do? He heads to the woods, cuts down trees and saws exactly what he needs. All this lumber is from his woods. Mostly hemlock. We cut a bunch 20' long b/c the posts are on 10' centers and he wanted to stagger the joints. The posts are larch; nature's pressure treated.
$1700 in steel roof panels:
Non-GMC owner brother wishing he had a GMC that could fit in there...
Getting closer to move-in day:
What does a normal person do when they want to build something? they head to Lowes or HomeDepot. What does my 80 yo Dad do? He heads to the woods, cuts down trees and saws exactly what he needs. All this lumber is from his woods. Mostly hemlock. We cut a bunch 20' long b/c the posts are on 10' centers and he wanted to stagger the joints. The posts are larch; nature's pressure treated.
$1700 in steel roof panels:
Non-GMC owner brother wishing he had a GMC that could fit in there...
Getting closer to move-in day:
Nice, I have some (2) very large and strait oaks I dropped this year and was wishing I had one. Was going to offer them on Craigslist but will probably just cut and split.
