On the way to Calgary for dirt bike races late Friday PM, I notice the Hot Engine light and the Low Oil Pressure lights start blinking... My dash gauges look normal. The engine starts sputtering... I turn to Valerie and says: this is going to shut us down! Then the gauges go weird: low, high, I pull over, the engine gauges at the back show normal, so I feel better thinking it is only a shorted wire and get going again. Then the oil press. shows consistently low, temp. high! Pull over again, fearing the worst. Looking for oil on the ground, none. Antifreeze in the oil, none. Oil in the rad fill, none. WTF!? Getting late, no internet access to ask you guys for help. Oh boy, a tow truck to home, 100miles, no insurance, $$$. OK, I've got to calm down and figure this out... It won't stay running after I release the starter button. The air plunger pushes the shut down lever on the governor. So I take it out of the way so the engine stays running. Press. and temp. are normal from the back gauges, confirming to me that it must be an electrical fault in the shut down circuit. Then I remember earlier that day replacing the air filter, and wrenching on the turbo oil return line to fix a leak, disturbing some wires on the engine frame with the wrench and making a mental note to fix them this winter. Now looking at them I see that they are part of the shut down circuit, near the oil press. sender. So off we go again, gauges wild and idiot lights blinking, but running good and hoping the heck I'm not wrong about the cause... Stop for supper. Then another 100km to Calg. The gauges look normal again, and no blinking lights. Feel better.
Next day at the track between races, I find the hot side to the press. sender is shorting onto the frame from cracked insulation, along with other wires. Fix that and hope that it is my fix. Today, drive home with everything normal, what a relief!!
Well, I know that the emerg. shut down system works.
I know that I will be shopping around for a roadside assist. insurance for the peace of mind.
Although it ended well, it was quite stressfull at the time. Being a new coach to me, I am not familiar with everything on it, and I didn't know what to do at first.
Oh well, onward...
JC
People seem to like Coach.net
Glad you made it home under your own steam ;) calling the hook is just not fun, i too have read several folks comment on coach net, does any one know if good sam covers buses , it is still a rv?
Good Sam will cover our conversions as well. I prefer Coach-Net myself and a lot of people seem really happy with their Canadian coverage.
I recently found out how expensive a low boy is! $160 an hour. My enclosed trailer was originally going to be put on a low boy, but the low boy was out on a job by the time we were ready. It was put on a regular flatbed tow truck for ONLY $130 an hour after we transferred everything to a rental trailer.
With Coach Net the only thing you get besides good service is a renewal notice. With Good Sam you will get a ton of junk mail. They want to sell you all kinds of things every month. After i let Good Sam lapse and went to Coach Net i still got junk mail for a year and a half from Good Sam.
JC,
Glad to hear you had the reserve to take a breath, think and correct the problem. Not easy to do in the heat of the moment, but your experience got you home.
Very good job !!!
Now look at insurance.....
Take care there fellow 5C'er..
Gary
You are right about the junk mail from good sam BUT they did load my 8 on a landoll and take me over 75 miles sometime around O'dark thirty so I don't mind throwing out the junk mail -- the operator told me that I was looking between one and two thousand by the time they had to move it again to a shop after it opened and I never saw the bill.
Just my experience
HTH
YMMV
Melbo
Great that everything worked out well, except the darn tow. It's good to be back on the road again I bet
Sorry my post wasn't very clear: I didn't get a tow truck, I just feared having to call one. I was able to disable the emerg shut down system to get us going again. And thinking I should have insurance in case I need it in the future.
JC
JC since I am in Alberta I have AMA - RV its about 150.00 a year. I would imagine BCAA has the same type of plan.
John
hello i am in calgary i have a ama from calgary i have ama rv plus 165.00 a year
i drive a 1970 mci 7
Thanks neighbors, I'll look into that. Will they tow a bus?
We should have a mini rally!
JC
I guess we are probably the only one who has road side service through Allstate. They are the ones we have our bus insured with, so we got the road service. We have had the bus towed a few times over the years. Also, had a large claim about 10 yrs ago with them. No problems.
Good morning JC
i like the idea of having a rally
i am a biker so me and my bus go to alot of bike weekends
we will keep in touch i think there is a lot of people here in manitoba ,saskatchewan,alberta and British Columbia with buses that are on here and would come
trevor
I got to go now, but I'll email you later today.
JC
I have allstate too. I pay $100 a year and it covers my boat, motorcycle, cars and my bus. I used them this past weekend to get a tire changed. I needed a new loose tire installed at the storage place. They did not have a contract with anyone local to do it so i will get reimbursed. The bill was $180. I asked the lady how much they would cover and she said they cover 100%. So if I get the cheque I will be happy.
Im in Manitoba, and have CAA RV Plus. Covers everything I drive. About $160 per year.
We have used it a couple times for the Mrs. pickup truck (once was a 200+km tow), but thankfully, never needed it for the bus.
Best regards.
Mark
Hi JC
I use Good Sam Road assist for the last few years, had coach net for two years. Good Sam is a Little cheaper. Glad you made it home okay.
Gary
I, too commend Coach Net. Last weekend I had a tread separate on my S&S. They had to get a guy 45 miles away (it was Sunday). The tire man was there in a little over an hour, mounted my lose tire, and I was on the way pronto-pup.
BTW, I gave the guy a $20.00 tip. DW says I'm cheap. I say she overtips. Should I have done better?
I klnow I'm going to get some flak for stating this but one of the very first things I did when I bought my bus was to remove the emergency shut down baffle from the intake. If it ain't there it can't cause problems.
And for all of you who are in opposition to what I did let me ask a question: Have any of you actually needed to use the emergency shutdown on any of the DD powered buses? I've been using DD engines for most of my life and yet to have one 'run away'! On the very rare occasion where the E/S is used it's is very expensive to correct all the problems it causes. Usually the first thing that happens is that it inverts the blower seals which could allow lube oil into the combustion chambers giving the engine an alternate source of fuel. Yes, I understand that the baffle starves the engine of air for cumbustion (theoretically) butit's not fail safe. Fogging the engine compartment with CO2 does a complete job without damaging expensive internal parts.
One last comment...I never travel on Friday. If you run into problems on the road you're going to sit there for the week end or pay some mighty high labor coasts for overtime.
NCbob
I think we haven't been talking about the emergency flap, but the low oil pressure shut down. That operates via the shut down, zero fuel lever on the governor, with an air cylinder. The OP said he had a short in frayed wires from the oil pressure switch.
That said, when I got my bus the emergency shut down flap was disconnected. I tripped it once by accident, couldn't start, and that's when I called the local Detroit Diesel affiliate shop and asked if it should be reconnected. The shop foreman said no, we stopped putting them on years ago, and we disconnect them now. I said you guys replaced the blower on this engine a couple of years ago, he said that's probably when it got disconnected.
FWIW and all of that. later on I figured out that I don't have any of the original shut-down stuff left connected on my bus, makes me pay more attention to the gauges maybe!
Brian
JC has a 92 series anyway very seldom do you see those on a 92 expect the old green block, the main purpose was the 71 series had a old style fuel rods with no springs and if a injector stuck open you could not shut the thing down with out cutting off the air fwiw most 71 series have the spring loaded 1 screw adjustment fuel rods most have been changed over the years
good luck
Hi JC,
I was with BCAA (including RV Plus)for 27 years and have changed over to Coach Net.
They cover everything I drive including motorcycles. Allthough I haven't had to use them
yet, Coach Net seems to offer more and for less $$ .
HTH....Tim
Thanks guys for insurance recommendations.
My 6V92 does not have a flapper emerg. shut down. Luvrbus is right, 92s don't come with them. The 4-71 on my Courier 96 has one because of the old style fuel rod.
My 6V92 emerg. shut down system senses low oil pressure or high coolant temp. and tells a solenoid (Skinner) valve to activate the air plunger to push the shut down lever on the governor. That is also what happens when I turn the run switch off on the dash.
We do travel on Fridays, Sats and Sundays and any day of the week cause we have to. We deal with break downs or anything else as they happen. That's life.
JC
I sincerely apologize for not properly comprehending the cause of the problem. There are a few topics that trip my trigger and the E/S is one of them. Hope I didn't offend anyone. At 75 I guess I ought to read more carefully in the future instead of responding on the spur of the moment.
NCbob
But then you wouldn't be Bob :)
Frank