Busy past few weeks

So here I think I am having battery charging issues, jumping the old girl every time she won't start... sometimes as bad as a single click when turning the key. This problem reared it's ugly head just before the Lake Wenatchee SP trip, so I brought along my charger as it seemed a freshly charged battery seemed to have the gumption to turn her over. I swapped batteries around thinking that was the problem... nope.

Figured out if I pushed the coil arm forward I could get it to start, so I wanted to try one more short trip to see if the battery would hold up on it's own. So I went for an over-nighter with my Brother to Lake Easton SP, just up and over the pass... well if it didn't start there either.. finally got her started and headed for home... only to run out of gas 2 miles from home. Poop.

Got some Gas from my other brother, got it started and got her home just in time to get showered and head out the door to a wedding. Sunday Morning I pulled the old starter down and drove to my Dad's shop to tear it apart to see what was up... we thought it was a corroded washer for the post contacts... well yes that was corroded for sure, but that wasn't the real problem... the armature was snapped in half, and it looked to be that way for quite some time based on the rounding off at the break point.

Okay, I'll just get a new armature and replace it, right? Nope. They stopped making those about 20 years ago. Then I'll just get mine fixed right, nope. I was turned down at several machine shops as it would take them several hours to lathe out the inside to try to either press fit a pin inside to fix the break, or turn it to insert a new 1/2 in rod. Either way the outlook didn't look good for my old starter, so I should look to see if I could find a replacement. How about ebay?

I scoured ebay for days looking at hundreds of possible fits, only to be shut down time and time again. Hole was too big or too small... mounting holes were too close and too far. Bendix was the wrong size, too many or too little teeth... nothing was right.

See the problem I was running into here was this starter as far as I can tell was specifically made for only the 1969 Clark Cortez with a 4sp Clark gearbox and the Ford 302. Period. No other years of clarks, not a 302 ford starter... no this was a custom cast nose mounted on what I can tell is a 350 chevy motor... at least that is the NEW one re-manufactured by Dixie. (S-1183) Then I find out it's available at the local auto parts store for 1/3 the price... ouch.

well here they are... old and busted and new and shiny:





So after I ordered that starter, and was waiting for it to arrive... I installed the Coleman Mach III AC with the Elect-a-heat option. I picked this up from the guy I bought the awning from for the Barth. $180 and it works great. Even got the owner's manual for it... this AC is older than me. :)



out came the ceiling fan (for now, plan to re-use this in another area later) it's a power Hehr vent... have to re-use. But I took it out to make room for the AC.



Got some help to lift it to the roof



inside



3 long bolts squish the roof and hold it in place with this bracket



Found Clark decided to wire all 1969 Cortezes with 110v duplex, just in case the customer choose the option... in my case I did, just 42 years later. I wired it in to the box then installed the heater element panel



forgot to take an interior shot of it installed... or Exterior with the shroud on... got destracted trying to trace that wire to find out why I didn't have power...

So I took down several ceiling panels to trace that wire only to find it dropped down the wall but was not connected to the panel. But I couldn't find the otehr end, so I pulled it out of the wall then ran it back down and tied it into the 20 amp fuse for the Converter/Charger. Both run just fine together and have yet to blow the fuse.

So starter is in, AC is working... time to clean her up a bit and get ready to head up to Lynden for another Vintage Trailer and RV rally this weekend. Can't wait!