My clipper saga. part two

[retrorob]

After getting my power center squared away and tested, I still had that funky smell. So bought an ozone generator to help remove the odors. Well this little units work great, but after a few days the smell would return. "Has to be that old household carpet" I'm thinking. I pulled the front seats out pull the beige carpet out of the cab and coach. Beneath the the carpet in the couch I find the old original orange shag, not in great shape but better than the stuff I just pulled up. I purchased a new carpet kit for the cab from O.C.C.( black, I think it will hide stains better). Although this is a "custom" fit, it still required fitting. I ordered an extra yard to do the area just behind the seats to where the coach carpet begins. I also figured while the doghouse cover is out I'll do quick tune.
First thing I realize is how packed full of 440 that compartment is! I really pity the guys on the assemble line who put these together. Just getting at the plugs requires several extentions, a "wobbly" socket and a box full of expletives. Also time to change out the belts because I pretty much burnt them up bringing it home. This operation required laying on my back for several hours, a few band-aids, half a six pack and me to invent new choice swear words cause is used the good ones up changing the spark plugs. After  the new cap and rotor ( not easy either) I decide to fire it up and check the belts. She fires up fine and I let her warm up. This is the point that I discover, because the doghouse is off, that the valve cover gaskets leak. OK, I've done my fair share of V/C gaskets in my time but I have never run into the material these things are made out of. It was similar to cardboard only really dense. Over time this stuff alternately stuck like cement to the heads and cover and in the middle had hardened into a petroleum based fossil. I ended up taking the covers to work and bead blasting them but the cylinder heads was hours of scraping with a knife making sure the crap didn't fall down into the heads.I get the carpets, seats and doghouse gack in. winter is fast approaching and I decide I will work on the little things inside where I can stay warm.
The old carpet is gone along with the rodent hotel but that funk is still here! The ozone machine knocks it back only to return a few days later. What the hell? Well I think I had better winterize so I drain the fresh water tank I had filled to test the plumbing. With the fresh water system drained I decide to do the black water system. Nothing there, good! Next the gray water. OK to set the stage, I have a clear elbow on my drain hose. Now the guy who invented this must be kind of a oddball because the idea of being able to watch the material coming out of these tanks for entertainment would never occur to me. I pull the lever on the gray tank and out comes this brackish slurry with clots of congealed fungi flowing out to the drain. Eureka! The source of the funk! Thirty gallons of wicked brew only god and the last owner knows how long this stuff has been festering! Five gallons of bleach and the rest filled with water ought to put the hex on that funk! I let the bleach/water sit in that tank for two weeks. Funk gone!
More to come in part three.........................

[John Eversoll]

   Oh God please write the book ..............

[USNRetired]

  Is all I can do except laugh... ha ha ha ha ha ha  !!   

[John Eversoll]

Hey Jim, Just sent you an E mail hope ya get a laugh out of it as I did!!!!

John