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Contributor
Location: Panama City Beach, FL | Just saying hello, as I'm a new owner and soon to be member of this group. I recently picked up #0055 and "saved" her from an unknown future of likely neglect and/or demise. She's 'extremely original', which I like, and appears to have spent most of her life stored indoors as the interior is in stunning good condition, a real 'survivor'. Even has a 1970's era table top space heater in it that is in perfect new condition, and made in USA! Also, has an RCA black/white TV hanging above the kitchen and roof top old-fashioned house antenna.
Now comes the challenge of getting her road worthy as she's been off the road for some time. She runs and drives but has the wobble of doom going down the road, which I need to address first. The holding tanks and main front water tank are gone and previous owner just plumbed it for campground direct hookup. If I can get her driving better I'll put new tanks under her. The house AC's work amazingly as do many of the other systems, even the generator fires up.
I'm first tackling replacing the shocks with the recommended Monroe sizes I found in this forum. I do have a question about the rear shock mounts, which I can't seem to find an answer to in the forum, or any pictures of the correct setup. The rear shock mounts seem to cause the shocks to have an angle at the ends, such that it puts a significant, awkward angled 'load' on the rubber bushings on each end the shock where the big mounting bolt goes through. The bottom mount does not sit straight below the top mount, it seems an inch or so out of parallel, which causes stress on the shock ends. Anyone have pics of proper mounts that I can compare to? Or ideas? I have found a few posts that discuss other fixes for stabilization.
Bob
Panama City Beach, FL |
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Elite Veteran
  
Location: Victoria, BC. Canada | Morning Bob and welcome to the fraternity of FMC Motorcoach owners!
Appears you, too, have been bitten & smitten early on in your relationship with these old patriarchs of the motorcoach world.
Sounds like you've scored yourself a real 'peach' which is cool considering the horrific condition people often find these things in, sinking into fields, rodent infested, bereft of any maintenance... love.
With the early coaches it's a good idea to confirm the factory recalls were addressed on your coach. When RVS - the now extinct FMC service center that was in CA. - was still around they kept a service file/history on many coaches which came in handy for subsequent owners to learn about stuff like this.
Other folks who know more about shocks than me and who've addressed the alignment issue will likely chime-in here to help you.
As to your steering issue, it's a common thing with these coaches and (IMHO) it's due in large part to the 'ass-heavy' design of these coaches which is but one of the Achilles-heels inherent to these old-gals that can be remedied.
Fellow member, Barney Martin's treatise on 'Steering' is an invaluable read I think for all coach owners.
You can find that here: http://www.fmcowners.com/mbbs22/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=1256&pos...
Once you've got the steering and suspension dialed-in on these coaches, they will out-drive and out-corner all coaches in their class and are simply - a joy to drive!
Also should mention there's a F-book FMC Group that's sprung up of late and gets a lot of traffic these days; that said, I truly hope that true FMC aficionados will continue to recognize the true value of this Forum, both, as an important place to seek and find answers to the 'hard-questions' from qualified and helpful people as well as a searchable service/parts/maintenance record going forward.
This Forum is 'pure' FMC while Facebook (IMHO) is also very much about EGO.
I'm currently mired in the midst of a Cummins swap on #846.
Good luck with #55... a genuine 'Early-Bird'!
Terry
#846 |
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Contributor
Location: Panama City Beach, FL | Just a quick update. Now have replaced all four shocks and the ride is quite a bit better. It appears one of my rear shock mounts is 'bent' more than the other, as it really causes the shock to be side-loaded at a greater angle than that on the other side. May see if someone can give it a few good whacks with a sledge hammer to get it where it's supposed to be (as in have a shop heat it up and gently tap her back a bit so that the angle is the same on both sides....then maybe come up with some inserts like #846 suggests above. Going down a flat straight road at speed she still has some sway, but not as horrific as the day I picked her up! Next I'll see if there's anything I can tighten in the steering on the front end and try installing some Timbrens per my other post. |
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New owner/member #0055...the journey to road worthy begins...shock mounts?
