Oil Change

[Edward Buker]

Gerald, you had posted this earlier for me when I did the change and I believe this was correct for sizing....

It is a little bit of a job to remove and plug the hoses, and since your coach is so low mileage, you may want to wait until you get a day with nothing to do. To remove and plug the hoses, you have to remove the alternator. and remove the filter hose and fitting that comes out of the water pump area and install a plug. I think that the plug is a 7/16 hydraulic plug with an "O" ring. The other hose goes into the intake manifold, and is accessible from under the coach. The plug for it is 1/2 inch pipe thread.    

Later Ed

[Mitch Dashiell]

Ed:  Thanks for the info.  I was going to ask if it was necessary to remove the alternator as I could not see a way to get to the plug behind the alternator with out   removing it.

[Edward Buker]

Mitch,

That was a Gerald post, I was just passing it along..... If you remove the alternator you may find it hard to get it to go back in position due to clearances between a bushing and a casting.

There is a bushing on the alternator back ear that will move with some light force. Before you try and put the alternator back in place take a small pipe or equivalent to support the ear around the bushing and use a light hammer to tap the bushing and move it just a bit so it will have clearance to the mounting casting that is on the engine. That bushing goes tight against the casting as you tighten the alternator down. The pipe support will prevent you from possibly breaking the aluminum casting. If you are lucky you will not need to do this...I was not so lucky. Moving that bushing makes this an easy job.

Later Ed

[Mitch Dashiell]

Gerald:

Just completed the removal of the coolant filter.  The pipe plug is 3/8 and the other end is 7/16 with an O ring seal.  The hydraulic 7/16 was $11.00 from the Cat dealer and the brass pipe plug $1.75 from Home Depot.

Alternator came out and went back with out any trouble.  It was tight but not a problem.  Sprayed a little WD40 on the mating surfaces and it wiggled back in place.  

Thank you all for your assistance.