Systems check.....ignition.....Houston we have a problem.

 I am the guy who always tries to see the silver lining in a grey cloud. So although the newest 'fillmore event' dropped me momentarily into a place somewhere between despair and outrage......I took a few moments to breathe and allow my blood pressure to stabilize, and then I started formulating a plan.

But lets start by finishing, meaning, the last post I talked about trying to seal the wire loom coming into the living area in Fillmore. The flange was made and installed, then the loom was wrapped and sealed.

Hopefully this will keep us dry inside when its wet outside!

Now that this was complete, I went through a systems check, fluid levels, battery health, etc etc. Check, check, check! It was time to fire him up for the summer season. I turn the key, he turns over and with some mild protest he starts to come to life. But as many of you know the first go around on a cold start often sputters out and we try again. So I did. I , once again, turn the key....and nothing. Crickets!

I can hear the fuel shut off solenoid opening up but nothing from the starter.

I went through my check list, battery, starter relay, power to the starter solenoid. Everything seemed fine. But still no starter reaction. I though of the old school 'wrap the starter with a hammer/screwdriver handle' Sometimes the pinion gets stuck on the flywheel and wont retract.

So I crawled underneath to give it just a little tappity tap tap..............oh shit!

I am sure that the pinion is stuck, but that's the least of my worries. There is a crack in the flywheel housing! I talked to David at STR and showed him some pics. His mechanic figured he could weld the crack. I was happy tp hear that, and to have a plan. In preparation of getting this done I needed to do two things, first move Fillmore by hand so that he could be towed. So with the use of a sturdy tree, lots of long tow straps and a hand winch, I did a super slow-mo three point turn to get the bus into tow ready position.

With that being done, the second thing on the list  was to give the mechanic as much room as need be. So I removed the panels from the engine tower to get better access.

The front panel isn't designed to come off but rather swing up and out of the way. Subsequent engine room modifications (mounting of the inverter) prevented this from happening anymore so I opted to remove and modify while I was at it.

A split mid way on the front panel will allow it to be swung up in stages and allow better (less head crashing incidents)

My next step(no pics) was to remove the exhaust, it just gives more breathing room under there.

The final step was to remove the starter, this will allow the welder yielding mechanic to get in there and fix things up....or will it? (insert ominous music)