GENERATOR COMPARTMENT
This post is going to be the longest made so far. Look at photos 1st so you will not be overwhelmed and bored reading all this. It will take me a long time to write. This post is about my Generator rebuild, re fabricate area. This was the hardest repair job of the entire bus and I am giving you all the entire information I can remember. Believe me when I say this was a bummer and each new area of the bus I work on gets harder and harder and more involved and this again is the worst to me.
You will see my generator compartment as purchased about 15 years earlier and then when I got to work on it it was worse. It took I believe 4 months total to repair and rebuild the battery compartment and the generator compartment area and all alone. I lost a lot of sleep over this in planning and worried I was doing all the best way I know how and now it is done I believe I reached that goal.
I found sheet metal installed over areas of framing not knowing what they were there for and now I believe it was to hide these areas from a potential buyer or something like that. Why in hell would anyone do that especially on the main vertical framing supporting the drive torsilastic tubes? Anyhow you will probably see the very worst frame rust rot in your life of bussin right here in this post. I hope it helps any newbies because I put a lot of time in documenting this information for all Bus Nut Bulletin Boards to see, and use for absolutely anyone needing this. I would not do this to absolutely no one and I hope to prevent others from doing the same to naive people like I was. I hope now to be considered a consultant that can be trusted on this if needed. Please feel free to contact me by FB PM method and give me information to call you back if you wish. Who in hell else would do this? Offering this makes me feel good too.
Now my Generator (Onan 7.5) has not been run all the time I owned it, over 20 years and $30,000 later. So I have no idea what to expect there, perhaps another post of information. I designed and fabricated my new generator compt just using common sense and trial and error method. When I go camping, I hate to hear someone’s generator running all night etc. and they are so noisy and I do not wish for others to feel that way about my generator use. I just hope all this work pays off big time in personal satisfaction that my plan was good.
I had to use my engine hoist, (Thank God for that tool) to pull out the generator from the compt. Man was I in for a treat on my full inspection, remember, I have a lot of experience now and hope you will have at the end of all these posts I am making. Everything is all rusted out to HELL, like always only 50% or more worse!!!!
The sheet metal I talked about above was removed from the side of the framing and undercarriage of the main framing of the generator compartment. These two areas are the main horizontal support of the engine cradle, look at these photos and see if I am right or wrong. Anyhow I just dived in after taking all the photos you see and started cutting. Oh I hope no one gets screwed as bad as I know now that I did. I spend so many hours trying to document all this stuff over the years hoping to help those stupid like I was.
I looked at the original design of the engine “A” frame and I still do not believe the strength of the “X” design used by Eagle but I guess it works. BUT NOT FOR ME! So my plan is to remove as much old rotted, rusted material as I can after inspection of the integrity of each piece of framing and then replace it all and in the sections of 1 ½” tubing they used, (Metric Tubing), I plan to do as usual and (double frame) this area in particular because of the use of each section.
I choose to beef up the right side of the main engine cradle with ¼” diamond plate and seal weld it to install more integrity of this major engine support. This area was not as rusted out as the left side of the engine, thank God.
The engine on this side of the bus and transmission is quite visible, more so than the left side, I choose to clean as best as I can and then paint it the green color that EAgle likes to paint theirs. But remember this engine will be replaced so all this was a waste of time.
The framing for the generator decking took a lot of planning and time to figure out,I had to install the generator for fitting to the new frame to double check my plan and mark where all hold down bolts are and where I wish to put in also a oil spill well that can be drained from underneath if needed. Just something extra in my thought process.
Looking at the framing after being painted was a pleasure to finally view. This was a challenge I hope to never duplicate ever again. Now a plan has to be done as to how to isolate the generator compartment from the engine compartment and old battery storage area and what you will now see is what I fabricated to make a sound proofing wall between the engine area and generator and all ends to isolate the generator from everywhere I hope to control sound. My reason for all this in the first place is that when I went camping several times, big buses with these generators would be next to me running their generator and driving me nuts with noise. I do not wish to do that to anyone so I thought hard how to control this from happening.
I even framed and insulated the overhead of the generator compartment to cut down on sound in the cabin bedroom. My insulated wall and cafe door entrance to the generator compartment are only the beginning of my plan. I have a removable two piece wall separating the generator from the engine, and the way I have this planned is that the very front of the generator has a removable panel that opens to the old battery compartment which also feeds air to the generator from the outside of the bus. The air is intended to flow over the generator to the back of the generator and downward thru the floor and out into the air as sound does not go around corners very good and this is my intent to cut down the volume of sound from the generator.
Looking into the old battery bay area you will see a 16” fan, (1 of 2) mounted to help keep the engine cooler and make the flow of fumes from the engine go out the back of the bus when traveling down the road. This is controlled by me when my gages show engine heat on my gages.
The painted generator area looks really good and now and now I need to fabricate new cafe bay doors but that will be the next post. I am tired out. Look at the photos and enjoy.