Hi All,
I have a brother-in-law with a high bid of $7500. on a 66 model Eagle. I'm going with him to pick it up this weekend. The bus has been sitting about 8 yrs so we'll have to do a little work to get her going. The biggest problem with the bus is pockets of corrosion around the windshields. Is there any way to repair this or will it have to be replaced?
Thanks for any help.
Richard
Richard, depends on where the rust is if it is real bad just cut it out and replace it not hard to do post us some photos here and on the Eagle board and maybe somebody will have the upper part for you.I know were one is at in New Mexico.Have your brother in law sign up on the Eagles board www.eaglesinternational.net.
How is the gear change working for you.By the way we are having a rally at Breaux Bridge La. May 1-4 come on down it is going to be fun and we will let you park with the Eagles if you don't mind the rust sound at night soothing to us Eagle owners good luck
Hi luvrbus,
I haven't seen the bus lately and can't remember the extent of corrosion ,but it was around the sides and lower windshield. I thought you might clean it up and maybe seal it with something and then repaint. Since my inlaw knows little about buses, I'm probably going to help him alot. You might know this bus, it belonged to my late uncle Jack Bishop. With some new Batts and tires it should be good to go. I haven't been able to use my bus alot as I'm working on my cab and TV in the drivers area. I did make a run to the coast and everythings doing great. I saw your post about the rally and would like to go. Might even get the inlaw to go.
Richard
I had to replace the complete breastplate on our Eagle 01. Luckily the framing members were in pretty good shape, just had to fix small areas on two of them. I bought the fiberglass breasplate from R&M Fiberglass. Had to cut, fit and modify, but it turned out pretty good. You can see some of the work on my website and Eagles International.
Good Luck,
~Paul~
I had a bit around my model 10. It still had plenty of integrity, so I sealed, coated, and fiberglassed it. You can get an idea what you will see when you remove the skin. The corrosion was in the upper corners and lower corners. See attached picture.
Thanks Guys,
I'm not sure, but I think the skin around the windows is alu. It looks like the paint has popped up and there are pockets of corrosion. Doesn't seem to go through to the inside. Is there anything to seal the corrosion, fill in the holes and then paint it.
Richard
I used a product similar to bondo called Duraglass, you can buy it from most any auto body paint stores. Great to work with and IMHO much better than the old bondo.
~Paul~
Thanks Paul,
It's been over a year since I saw the bus so it may be worse than I remember. We won't be able to get the bus till Sat. afternoon so we will see.
Richard
PS How does MaMa like fulltiming?
Richard, We moved into the bus last Friday, finished moving stuff into storage on Monday, then I left for Vancouver WA for about a month. I wish I could have spent more time at our new home so I could have helped her get more settled. She's doing OK, hasn't gone totally crazy with cabin fever yet. At least she hasn't complained much, except she can't watch her favorite local TV channel ABC. :'(
Keep us posted on your Eagle fix.
~Paul~
Okay Guys,
Went to get the bus sat. afternoon and after about an hour of battery charging the bus fired right up. Lots of black smoke but it cleared up pretty quick. the big problem is we can't get enough pressure to release the brakes! Pressure will only build to 84 lbs. Help! Where do I go from here? Is there a place I can put a fitting to hook a comp. to air this thing up? I'm have a MCI so this Eagle has me guessing. Help Help!
Richard
Richard,
Where is this bus? Maybe someone is close enough to come by and give you a helping hand.
Dallas
Richard, there is a air fitting behind the front bumper to air up with but you need to check for a air leak because you are not going to be able to drive the bus.If the bus has any of the door control valves start there the one for the door first.I am going to email my # to you.FWIW is that the 01 outside Temple TX good luck
Clifford's right on with the air hookup. You should be able to hear the compressor cycling. Do you hear any leaks? If Clifford can't help you nobody can!
Keep us posted on the progress.
~Paul~
Being parked for awhile ,could be that some critters could have chomped thru an air line or two,agreed check for leaks and keep us posted.
We found a couple of air leaks and repaired those, and at the minute cannot hear any more.
Are there any check valves or anything else that could be keeping the air pressure at 84 psi?
Richard
If the leaks are gone, either a bad gauge, or the govenor needs to be adjusted. Time sitting can do strange things, hope you find the problem.
~Paul~
Boy, what a day,
First thing , the bus is in New Braunfels Texas about 20 miles N. of San Antonio. Come on by Dallas and give us a hand. Today was a bad day. Couldn't find a place behind the bumper to air up the bus so I'm going to get some fittings and make a place on the air tank below the driver. Of course you know that all the fittings I took with me were the wrong ones so I'll have to get what I need in the morning on the way back to the bus. Next we tried to start the bus and the batt were dead. Put my chargers on the batt and one of them quit so now is a good time to get a new bigger one. SO we decided to check out the 12v system and no go. This thing has a 60amp 110v to 12v converter and it was humming right along but no 12v output. checked fuses,reset button ...nothing. Decided to call it a day and go back tomorrow armed with more stuff to work with. Makes me want to eat a piece of coca cola cake Missy made today so I think I will. Will check in later.
Richard
Richard, The air fitting to air up the coach on my 01 is above the bumper about 12-18". Does it have an Eagle Emblem on the front, it might be behind that. It should be there someplace, can't remember if it's a cap or a plug. If you don't see it look up under the front unless you have a pan there, you should spot it. The tank you found is the accessory tank, not sure if it will allow you to air up the coach through there or not, think it has a check valve. I'm not at home so can't go look in my books.
This was when I broke down in Palm Springs, showing the snorkle I hooked up.
Good Luck,
~Paul~
Hi Paul,
I did find that place with a cap that didn't want to come off so I thought I'd try the small tank. I have one there on my MCI and it will air up my bus so I'll try that first cause it looks easier and then I'll do it right. I'd like to be able to hook up without having to take the front off. Thanks again Paul, The fitting was where you said, and the cake made everything better!
Richard
Is the compressor loading and unloading? If it is the gage could be faulty. If it is not unloading it could be:
A. Bad gov. on compressor.
B. The valves on the compressor. There are two of them inside a side plate. They look somewhat like a float valve on a carb. The rubber tips will sometimes stick to the seal when the coach sits for an extended period. When started the rubber gets damaged and will not seal. Mine did that and would not make full pressure.Bendix makes a kit with everything to replace them. They say field serviceable, but unless you can stand on your head, have four arms, and mouse hands, its easier to remove the pump. Four bolts, and don't forget the gear that is behind it.
Don't forget the old school tricks....in this case tapping on the compressor head and governor with a light hammer. For more accuracy and hard to reach areas I enjoy a socket extension bar I place one end on the casing of the suspect sticking spot and tap on the other with a hammer. Works great for stuck float valves, thermostats, starters etc....see no reason why it might not free up a compressor governor. Also seeing as this is a bus that needs work maybe a little wd40 into the inlet of the governor. I do not know how the unloading mechanism works in the eagle but I know that the one in my GM has a handful of parts and can be disassembled quickly, sometimes a little clean up is all it needs...keeping it simple is always a good idea when trouble shooting.
Hi Guys,
Sorry it to so long to get back to reporting on the Eagle, but a brother-in-law passed away and I have had family and friends at the house for over a month during his illness. So, here goes ----
My brother-in-law (Bill) and I went to get the Eagle on 3-17-09, but there was still not enough air pressure to release the brakes. I hooked a fitting to the air tank below the driver, and as you said, it had a check valve so we couldn't fill the air there. So we tied into the line that went to the front of the bus by the Eagle emblem. Before we could get it aired up the compressor released and we built up enough pressure to get the brakes to release. We spent about a day and half trying to get the 12 volt system working before we drove the bus. We found out it's not good to work on a bus when you are tired. Anyway, after all that, we found that when the house batteries had been installed the wires were hooked up backwards. So it took a lot of tracing wires to get everything right. Now the 12 volt system is working great. When we went to start the bus, it wouldn't start from the driver's seat. I found a button in the engine compartment, pushed it, and it started. It took us a while, but we found a switch in the engine compartment (that we thought was a light switch) and flipped it, and then we could start it from the drivers seat. Meanwhile, the brother-in-law was checking out switches inside the bus, and when we started it up the engine died. I thought we might have fuel problem, checked the fuel filter and it looked brand new. So that wasn't the problem. After checking everything to see why it wouldn't run, we found that the emergency flap was closed, so no air was getting to the engine. Now here's the good part - my brother-in-law had pushed the emergency switch, which he thought was the emergency flashers, but it was the emergency shutdown. We reset everything and - walla - everything worked. It was late in the day, the bus started, air pressure was good, started to drive off, and then we had nothing but idle. When we pushed on the gas peddle the fuel linkage wouldn't move at the engine. So we gave up for the day, went home to get some rest and went back the next day. We removed the bed to get to the linkage, WD-40'd everything front to back, kept working it until it finally released. So now we are ready to go. As my brother-in-law drove the bus off and I was following him, there was black smoke blowing like crazy. We stopped to get fuel and then came on to my house. We finally made it - and now the work began. We pulled the air filter and found it was stopped up - full of everything from sitting, grease and whatever else could be in it. Then we found none of the upper clearance lights worked. In order to get a inspection sticker we had to make sure everything was working, so we started looking to see what was wrong. There was power going up in the engine compartment, but nothing at any of the lights on top of the bus. We got the front lights working but still had a problem with the back upper lights. Since there we had no wiring diagram we decided to run a new wire, and that fixed everything. So now the bus is licensed, inspected and insured and ready to go. We took it for a couple of test drives without the filter (because we hadn't bought one yet). It still smoked on acceleration, but we decided we would drive it for a while and see if it stops smoking. We think there may be an EPA value that isn't hooked up, but we will check all that out later.
The brother-in-law joined our website, FMCA and has applied for membership to Eagle International. We are also going to make the trip to Louisiana in May for the Eagle rally and hope to get more information about owning an Eagle, from all you Eagle guys.
I have to say, working on an Eagle is completely different than an MCI.
Later, if I can figure out how to do it, I am going to try and post a picture of the bus before it was cleaned up.
Richard, if he hasn't changed the differential and transmission grease I would do that with the bus setting that long it will save him money in the long run.Looking forward to seeing you at Breaux Bridge good luck
Hi luvrbus,
The bus looks like it needs a grease job. What should he use? Also, isn't there a place here on the board that tells you how to post pitures?
Richard
Richard, any good chassis grease will work, tell him to go to Fastenal and buy a bag of zert fitting he will need them. About the posting of photos I gave up on that along time ago but guys are going through photobucket to do it now.Tell your brother in law to put his Eagle in the project thread on the Eagles board also check it out www.eaglesinternational.net Dale added us a new feature where the photos of the buses rotate on the top of the page it's pretty neat. If he needs a lube chart just ask in the Tech section and somebody will post one for him good luck
Richard, I forgot to mention that when on the Eagles site hit the refresh button and it will change the photo to a different bus at the top. good luck
Richard, Sounds like you are learning the hard way, but sometimes that's the best way. You won't forget all the little steps that you missed or pushed the wrong button or switch!
If you need help with posting pics at Eagles International don't listen to Clifford, it's not that hard! ::) We'll help you or Bill work that out. Can't wait to see some pics of the bird!
Good Luck and Welcome!
PS, sorry to here of your brother in laws passing. :'(
~Paul~
Let's see if the picture of the Eagle shows up on this post.
Richard, You can post a larger pic in the post if you want, that's pretty small. After I enlarged it I saw the horns on the cap and the painted aluminum siding. Are you keeping the horns? ;)
~Paul~
Hi Paul,
Bill's wife says the horns stay!!! He said he's going to leave like it is for now and use it. The bus is finished inside and everything is working. I think he made a really good deal. I'm sorry about the small picture but after 3 hrs of trying, I was lucky to come up with this. I wish they had a step by step for posting pictures. I'm sorry, but I have to agree with Clifford, It's to HARD! See you at the rally!
Richard
Richard, I can send you a step by step instruction if you want, it's really not that hard to post a picture. Once you've mastered it, it's a cake walk! ::)
If you want to wait until the Rally I'll go over it with you in person, you do mean TBR 2009 right?
I agree with Bill, leave it alone and get used to it, fix it when you need too, and have fun. Good Call!
~Paul~
Paul,
Bill and his wife Cynthia,(and his new Eagle bus) and me and Missy and our good friends Robert and Oxana in our MCI are coming to the Breaux Bridge Rally. The wife and I WILL be at TBR 2009 this year and whoever else we can talk into coming with us. We are also going to Niagra Falls in late July this year. Finally going to start using the bus. We'll see you at the rallys.
Richard
Great Richard, See y'all at both of them!
~Paul~