05-12-2022, 10:51 AM
Well this is one of those fixes that once you figure out exactly how to do it you really wonder why you struggled so long at it. Here's what I needed to do.
Detach ram and pull generator our supported on a hydraulic lift table. I opted to leave the fiberglass front door on and just work around it with some block on my lift cart. When pulling out the gen it will get hung up on the horizontal roller and you'll need to lift it up over that roller and then come back down. I left just the last few inches of the generator on the slides.
Take a piece of 2" exhaust and make yourself a tool like below there you cut some notches in the pipe and bend it to make a cone shape. You don't really need to go as aggressive as I did on the cone shape in hindsight. One other thing I would change is I made my tool about 6" long and in hindsight I would do 12"-18" as you'll have an easier time inserting it.
You need some 5/16 packing material made by Palmetto and it is Model No. 1030AF. Somewhere like Grainger has it, but it must be this exact model number as it needs to be flexible enough along with tough enough to be hammered flat.
https://www.grainger.com/product/PALMETT...al-5-4RTW4
Cut a piece of the packing seal that is a couple inches longer than the circumference of the 2" exhaust. Take a 4lb hammer or something similar and work that gasket material until it's flat. It will be roughly 1/8-1/4 thick when it's right. You'll have to whack it pretty good. The picture below is for effect only, that material being pounded out is Palmetto #5000 and it is NOT the model number you want as it's not flexible enough. But it did make for good practice as I was figuring this out
. Trim the ends square as the will frey when you're flattening.
Remove the exhaust pipe from the generator at the top elbow along with the air cleaner.
Insert one thin and even better if small person into the compartment by just sliding past the generator on the drivers side where you just removed the exhaust from. This is a two person job from here on unless you're super tiny and can slide right past the gen as there is fine tuning you're goign to need to do with that hammer and fine tuning on length of it.
Clean out the flared end of the 2 1/4" exhaust that is fixed to the coach and attempt to insert that packing seal. Once you see about how much you need to trim off you can trim it down, but leave it maybe 1/4" to a 1/2" longer than you think as you're going to be expanding it out against that pipe and you don't want to be short. Once you get it trimmed and fit it there by hand spray a little high temp anti-seize on that cone shaped tool and insert it in there. This is where it's a little tricky. You want it tight enough that your cone tool can expand the seal but yet still let you insert the cone tool all the way past the cone. Too lose and we're defeating the purpose. Too tight and when you attempt to hammer on that cone tool you'll just drive the entire gasket inside the pipe. Once you get it squeezed in there let it sit for about an hour as that gives the material time to hold that shape.
Remove the cone. Spray exhaust with high temp anti-seize and insert all but about 2' so you can slide past it on your way out but not so far you can't grab it.
Slide generator back in and attach the ram. Reach and and grab he exhaust and reattach.
Seems so simple now and really it is with right tools, a thin helper and about 3 hours.
Detach ram and pull generator our supported on a hydraulic lift table. I opted to leave the fiberglass front door on and just work around it with some block on my lift cart. When pulling out the gen it will get hung up on the horizontal roller and you'll need to lift it up over that roller and then come back down. I left just the last few inches of the generator on the slides.
Take a piece of 2" exhaust and make yourself a tool like below there you cut some notches in the pipe and bend it to make a cone shape. You don't really need to go as aggressive as I did on the cone shape in hindsight. One other thing I would change is I made my tool about 6" long and in hindsight I would do 12"-18" as you'll have an easier time inserting it.
You need some 5/16 packing material made by Palmetto and it is Model No. 1030AF. Somewhere like Grainger has it, but it must be this exact model number as it needs to be flexible enough along with tough enough to be hammered flat.
https://www.grainger.com/product/PALMETT...al-5-4RTW4
Cut a piece of the packing seal that is a couple inches longer than the circumference of the 2" exhaust. Take a 4lb hammer or something similar and work that gasket material until it's flat. It will be roughly 1/8-1/4 thick when it's right. You'll have to whack it pretty good. The picture below is for effect only, that material being pounded out is Palmetto #5000 and it is NOT the model number you want as it's not flexible enough. But it did make for good practice as I was figuring this out
. Trim the ends square as the will frey when you're flattening.Remove the exhaust pipe from the generator at the top elbow along with the air cleaner.
Insert one thin and even better if small person into the compartment by just sliding past the generator on the drivers side where you just removed the exhaust from. This is a two person job from here on unless you're super tiny and can slide right past the gen as there is fine tuning you're goign to need to do with that hammer and fine tuning on length of it.
Clean out the flared end of the 2 1/4" exhaust that is fixed to the coach and attempt to insert that packing seal. Once you see about how much you need to trim off you can trim it down, but leave it maybe 1/4" to a 1/2" longer than you think as you're going to be expanding it out against that pipe and you don't want to be short. Once you get it trimmed and fit it there by hand spray a little high temp anti-seize on that cone shaped tool and insert it in there. This is where it's a little tricky. You want it tight enough that your cone tool can expand the seal but yet still let you insert the cone tool all the way past the cone. Too lose and we're defeating the purpose. Too tight and when you attempt to hammer on that cone tool you'll just drive the entire gasket inside the pipe. Once you get it squeezed in there let it sit for about an hour as that gives the material time to hold that shape.
Remove the cone. Spray exhaust with high temp anti-seize and insert all but about 2' so you can slide past it on your way out but not so far you can't grab it.
Slide generator back in and attach the ram. Reach and and grab he exhaust and reattach.
Seems so simple now and really it is with right tools, a thin helper and about 3 hours.
Brad Aden
2003 Newell #653 Quad Slide Cat C-12 engine
Towing 2020 Grand Cherokee Summit
St. Louis, MO