1995 Beaver Patriot quits on highway

[Cathy McDowell]

Hello,
We got on the road yesterday and were driving down the interstate in rainy, cold weather and the engine quit.  Thankfully we were in the right lane and were able to get off on to the shoulder.  The power steering was out as were all the dials on the dash.  We started the engine again and it ran for awhile and then quit again when we were traveling.  We added Sea Foam to the gas tank in case it was some water in the gas.  My husband checked all the contacts which appear tight and in good condition.  He also sprayed electronic cleaner in the ignition switch.  He said he thought the problem might be in the ignition switch but he isn't sure.  

He said the same thing happened one time on the way back from CO where it was purchased in Sept of 2010.  We took a long trip to New England in the fall of 2010 and had not problems.

Any help and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.  
Thank you!
Cathy McDowell

[Edward Buker]

Cathy,

If it sharply quit like it would when you shut it down but then restarts it would seem most likely that it is electrical. The extra telltale is all the dash dials being out....I assume that you looked closely at things like the voltmeter that would be good indicators given the tach would be at zero if powered but look like it is out.

If electrical I am guessing that there are other relays involved so it could be the switch or a relay that is powered by the switch or possibly wiring. I do not have a schematic to see but Beaver Coach sales may.

I assume it is starting now. You could wire in a temporary parallel manual switch to the ignition switch if you could sort out which wires get powered to maintain the ignition on condition with some voltage measurements. That could be a stop gap measure to follow your hunch. If once you started you left that switch on also and it never quit that would indicate ignition switch. If you shut the temporary switch off first and it at some point it caused the engine to quit with the ignition switch still on that would also indicate the igntion switch is the problem.

It might be easiest to order a new ignition switch and an ignition relay, if that is involved, given those are both mechanical contacts and likely sources of intermittent elecrical problems. Ths items should not be that expensive and it will rule some things out. At 16 years old they would be good items to renew even if not the culprit. Beaver Coach sales may know the PNs and have the parts available that are involved.

Later Ed

[Cathy McDowell]

Thanks Ed,

I'll replace them at the first opportunity.

Terry and Cathy

[Phil N Barb Rodriguez]

Cathy,

Our previous coach was a 1994 Patriot, Alliance with a Cummins 8.3. Seems as though we had a similiar problem with the engine shutting down. That only happened a couple times before I took it to my Cummins guy. As I remember, I think he said it was related to the injector pump solenoid, or a ground to the solenoid.

[Gerald Farris]

The highest probability is that the part that is giving you the problem is the ignition solenoid. It is located in the left front electrical bay. It looks like the old style Ford starter solenoid.

Do not use a starter solenoid as a replacement because they are not continuous duty rated. You can get a continuous duty rated solenoid at most RV supply stores because they are used on many class C coaches as a battery isolator.

Gerald

[Robert Wilson]

This happened to me on the bridge over the Mississippi river in st Louis  it was the solenoid Gerald was stating I jumped the solenoid made it back to Wisconsin and replaced .

[Cathy McDowell]

Thanks for all the help from everyone.  

I have cleaned the ignition switch, contacts, and also removed the extra keys on the ignition key ring.  Since then, no further problems.  The extra weight of the 6 other keys on the ring may have caused a little bouncing around on the bumps.   Occasionally, I have turned the ignition switch to the on position, and nothing happened.  Back off and then back on, the warning lights and warning beep come on.  To me, this indicates an intermittent problem with the switch.   I'm going to replace the switch when I get back.

 There isn't any visual or obvious problem with the solenoid.  All connections are tight and corrosion free.  Since it is the original, I'll replace it also.

Terry

[Larry Fritz]

It took me 3 years with rare intermittants before I could confirm it was the relay that Gerald discussed. Been running fine since 2004. The nice thing about this is that you can just jumper it (as another responder suggested) and the coach will run fine)

Larry

[Bill Sprague]

Mine almost quit on I-5 near where we used to think Monaco built motorhomes.  I limped into the Cummins shop across from where Kay Toolson used to borrow money, sell stock and recruit dealers.  Cummins spent 6 hours at $100 per hour looking for electrical stuff.  Laptops were plugged in and everything.  Finally, a seasoned lube, oil and filter guy walked by and said "Let's change the fuel filters and see what happens."  

My Cummins has been growling at Cats perfectly ever since.  Bad fuel  led to a clogged filter that led to the fuel pump having fits and recording "faults" in the computer.  It looked, for six hours, to be an electronic issue.

As everyone has posted,  it is probably electrical.  But, it might not be!