HoosierDaddy,
I just noticed your signature is "Always Fixing Something!" I can relate as I do just about everything myself, ripped out our kitchen to studs-drywall-wiring-plumbing-cabinets, finished basement, 1978 Crestliner boat with a '69 Johnson engine, 1974 Sears Suburban tractor with Onan BF engine, 2 1972 Suzuki TS enduro's and on and on, oh....always a vacuum cleaner to repair as my 2 kids always seem to kill one when I'm away on a trip. We sold our 1973 Midas Mini motorhome which was on a Dodge B-300 chassis in April which helped purchase the Newell. It took 4 years to restore but was simply 2 small for our family. All of this has been done on a budget as I was laid off 4 times in a 6 year period. Hopefully those lay-offs are behind us.
Sadly Newell has not been able to provide me with any info on our coach beyond who ordered it and what what they ordered. I've joined many forums in an attempt to identify what it is that we've got but I'm really not making any progress. The Ford forum sent me a parts breakdown of a 1971 F-600 brake system but it doesn't look anything like what I've got and does not mention the 2 boosters at all. Our master cylinder is right under the floor where the brake pedal is, it looks just like any other brake master cylinder. It pumps fluid to 2 vacuum boosters which are located behind the driver side front wheel, one for the front brakes and one for the rear. These look OLD and I worry what I'd do if they fail.
The front brakes are easy to get to and look to be in great shape.
But it appears that you have to pull out the axle shafts from the rear to remove the rear drums and I haven't had time to get that done just for an inspection. Now that I've blown the seal in one of them I have to get to it. I will probably just rebuild the wheel cylinders if they are in decent shape, there is even a place that will re-sleve them if we can't determine what kit to order.
I don't think our coach has a galvanized frame and it kind of zig-zags around in the back to make room for the chauffeur's waste tank. Since it has the engine up front and Newell prided themselves on building rear engine chassis, I was hoping that this was built on a common Ford chassis since it has many Ford electrical parts and had a Ford engine. I just haven't seen any Ford emblems on anything to give me evidence as to what chassis it might be.
The Generac is belt driven but I haven't seen too many vertical shaft diesels. It's a 2 pole generator also which would require 3200 rpm and I still like the 1600 rpm that the 4 pole Onan turns. But if you know of a vertical shaft diesel that will run at 3200.....
There are lots of modifications I'd like to perform such as changing the rear High gear ratio to allow a higher top speed. Right now we're limited to 63 mph and that's running the diesel at the red-line. Not something I want to do. She's really a 55 mph machine right now.
New brakes would also be nice, but our focus is just getting things running, safe and reliable. New motor and transmission mounts and carrier bearings are also on the list of things to replace. I'm going to face the same problems with trying to locate those as well as the engine was replaced in 1981 with a diesel and we still don't know what chassis was used.
Thanks thanks thanks for help and advice!