On my DP I have a vent on the rear exterior bottom by the engine compartment. Behind it is some sort of cooler/radiator that has two electric fans on it. The lines go toward the front. About half way up the coach these lines have a garden hose type shut off valve. Can some one tell me what this is and what the valve does. Does it need to be serviced somehow? It looks pretty difficult to get to. Thanks in advance for the help.

Pictures?

Rear cabin heater???? Is there a AUX heater switch on the dash?? Does it energize the fans??

Nick

There is no switch on the dash that I can see. The pic with the fins in the circular hole is from the bottom looking up

As the radiator is outdoors, it won't be a heater. More likely it it the radiator for the dash air. In fact, I'm pretty sure I recognize A.R.A. as a supplier of aftermarket A/C in the old days.

ARA auto airconditioner condenser unit for dash air, it looks like. sky

Thanks Corey and Sky, I can't seem to get the dash air to turn on. It is stuck on defrost so I don't really know if it is working. I read that these dash controls are from Dodge/Chrysler. Are they run by vacuum? The large vent by the frt door passenger side by the Dom. off/on switch, doesn't seem to open no matter what I press. But if I push on it, it opens. But again I can't get anything through the dash vents, only defrost. Thanks again..Gerald

On our Breakaway there is a vacuum genertor beside the brake resievor. This goes to a vacuum accumulator and then to the heater controls. No vacuum no controls.

I have the same radiator on the side and have not figured out what it is for, but believe it was a transmission oil cooler that is no longer being used.

on the round bottle vacuum accumulator in the generator compartment, on the fire wall there should be 2 hoses coming from the vacuum venturi in the manifold next to the bottle.
one creates the vacuum, the other shuts the venturi when enough vacuum is created in the bottle. what i have found is that if you take your finger and block the venture exit on the venturi output, it will cause the one of the vacuum lines to pop off the accumulator.
If i had to guess that might be what has happen. you might have an extra vacuum line hanging from the venturi make sure it has vacuum. plug it back into the open port on the accumulator.

Thanks for the help everyone. It may be a vacuum problem. The lines are hooked up to the vacuum bottle (2 lines) but there is a third line that comes from the the round silver thing (vacuum generator?) On this silver generator there are three ports, one points towards the firewall, one points towards the Koehler generator, and one points straight forward. The one that points towards the firewall is the one that is disconnected. It was getting dark so I could not see very well. I will start it up in the morning and see if I can feel any vacuum from this hose.. then see if I can find where it should attach.
Is it possible that this disconnected hose needs to be blocked off?

Corey: For some reason your posts are cut off on the right side. Cant read total post..........

quote:

Originally posted by carlflack:
Corey: For some reason your posts are cut off on the right side. Cant read total post..........

Better now? I just redid his time/temp banners to stack them. If you can read them now, maybe it has to do with that?

Gerald, I'd guess you have 2 issues:

1. A/C and/or heater heat exchangers not getting fluids in the proper pressure: Fix one, then do the other. Isolating the problems make them easier (less difficult?) to fix.

2. Dash HVAC airflow routing not working: (Typically, these are Chrysler components, operated by vacuum,the latter either generated by a vacuum pump or ejectors powered from the engine air system). I don't like anything that can cause leakage from the engine air compressor, as ejectors can (they take air from the brakes and transmission shifter). I'd recommend replacing the HVAC vacuum ejectors with an electric pump.

Anyway, as I mentioned, the drill is to isolate each component and test/fix it.

Gerald, There should be 3 lines total to the accumulator. 1 to the vacuum controls on dash, and 2 to the vacuum venturi. the vacuum venturi
should have 3 barbs. 1 should be a exhaust while running until enough vacuum is present in bottle.
1 should be to the bottle providing vacuum to bottle. and 1 should be from the bottle back to the venturi to provide vacuum the the venturi to close when enough vacuum is present.

Gerald I wanted to put in this disclaimer. I'm not looking at my coach and going by memory.
I think that there is a picture of the venture in the improvments section of the web site. it was written by mwrench if i remember right. subject was electric vacuum pumps or air leaks.
hope this helps,
scott