There are maintenance / upgrades that should
be made to the GMC before they hit the road the first time.
These are items that will hurt you or let you down. If you
read the literature, there are bad stories of coaches burned up,
crashed with no brakes, etc. I think we can avoid most of these
with
good maintenance. This might become a prioritized list of maintenance
items.
But some of these are upgrades that do not appear in the shop manual.
1 Service your bearings now
(30,000
miles) or you will have a failure. If you didn't do it, it did not
happen.
2 Tighten your lower ball joints
at least every time you grease the front end or your will have a lower
control arm failure.
3 If your TIRES are over 5 years old,
you
are past the OEM warranty. Good time to
change the tires.
Look on
the sidewall for this lable
Third week of 96
In the year 2000, the serial number went
to an 11-digit number allowing for a four digit serial week code
to
identify new decade.
4 (May not be a truth, but I believe) if
you have 100,000 miles on your 20 year old coach, you need new:
engine
master cyl
vac booster
gas lines
gas pump
water pump and temp fan
brake cyl -front and back
alternator
These are going to leave you broken on the road. This is not to say a broken gear tooth or an errant duck through the radiator will not still get you. Failure of the items above I guarantee will happen to you. (most of them have happened to me)
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Transmission
vent, drain hose(vent has burned up several coaches)
Steel gas line to the engine
Dash
Heater Fire Hazard - clean out the Heater Box (8/13/05)
Replace
the Engine Oil cooler Lines (8/13/05)
Install an APC
Alternator Protection Cable to stop an Alternator failure from
burning up the Dash Wires.
Wire electric gas
pump through the oil switch and Ignition
Replace Rear Battery
booster cable
Replace
fire extinguisher
Replace isolation pads near the air tubes for
the suspension
Test propane system for leaks / bad regulator
Replace rubber brake lines
Add a vacuum
backup for the brakes
Replace
front bearings
Replace rubber gas lines(including generator)
Check steering and suspension
Replace tires over 5 years old
Use auto-reset circuit brakers on rear lights
and air system
Modify
Davo bunk bed to keep from smashing fingers
Please send me your items and your
priority
gene