My friends went out to AZ to buy their new bus! A 1948 3751 Silversides. They have struggled to make it to where they are, and are now looking at towing to Albuquerque as a last resort.
He suspects junked up injectors. The bus does run but has no power at all. They left Chino Valley, so they have driven it some distance. He cleaned the fuel filter, which was really dirty. He says he has good fuel delivery at the engine.
Questions - Does anyone know of a good shop nearby to have it towed to, rather than just leaving it up to the tow company? They are currently sitting about 140 west of Albuquerque at a truck stop.
We all would really appreciate any kind of help. They have had a lousy trip home already with several breakdowns, and had to buy 4 new tires and rims, so to say the least, they are bummed.
TIA
John Z
John, there is a small shop in Grants NM that did work for me one time that had a service truck and knew 2 strokes well cannot find the name of it right now but the Napa auto parts store in Grants sent me to them sorry i couldn't be more help
I greatly appreciate your response,,, and my friends will even appreciate it more. You may have been way more help than you imagine. Thanks again.
luvrbus,
i have contacted a fellow named Barry in Grants, and also a pair of brothers who seem to be old time diesel guys named Albert and Bo. Do any of these names ring a bell with you?
Normally I don't reccomend DD Dealers, Buttttt........... I will say that the one in Albuquerque (?) is a good one! They were the ones who finally pin pointed Sean & Louise's Problem with the "Odyssey" when they had no power and over heating and had been everywhere & had the engine rebuilt without correcting the problem! It turned out to be a restricted return fuel line! I'd highly reccomend these folks as I'm sure Sean & Louise do too! Jsut my 2 cents worth! ;D BK ;D
Thanks BK. I have not heard from them in about 6 hours or so. I have no idea what is going on out there. But i will call them and give them this information. Thanks again, i appreciate your help.
Hey BK, i just called my friend to relay your info and guess what? His bus was just being hauled into the DD place in Albuquerque. He could not even talk for long, as he said he wanted to give them a hand unloading the bus.
Again,,,, thanks.
John Z
From my experience two years ago with my 4104 if it was sitting very long the fuel filters will need at least two complete cleanings and probably four.
Did he clean both primary and secondary filters. I bet that is his main problem.
Gus, i asked him the same question this morning. His bus only has the original filter, a single unit. He opened it up and he said it was full of junk. But i don't know if he was able to locate a replacement cartridge for it. I just heard from him about 10 minutes ago, and the bus is on the ground at the DD shop. They are in a hotel for the night. They have a rental vehicle and are going to drive home to northern Minnesota for work Mon morning. They have no idea when the bus will be ready for pickup.
Again, thanks to everyone for your help. Both of them appreciate it very much.
JZ
John,
I'll bet dollars to doughnuts that it has 2 fuel filters and the one he's looking at is the secondary.
If it's like my old Look Transit, (1948), it has a strainer type primary filter somewhere in line ahead of the fuel pump.
Mine unfortunately was behind the differential bolted to the bulkhead. Not a pleasant place to access when the temp was -22°
Have him look for it. I'm almost certain it is there unless some idjit got rid of it.
Dallas
Dallas,
Is there anything you DON'T know about these old GMCs?
We need a digital copy of your noggin! Or is that proprietary? ;D
Quote from: buddydawg on October 12, 2007, 08:06:01 PM
Dallas,
Is there anything you DON'T know about these old GMCs?
We need a digital copy of your noggin! Or is that proprietary? ;D
Believe me...you do NOT want to see what's there. Trust me on this one. LOL
Actually, being married to Dallas I have found that he seems to know something about almost everything. He builds cabinets, makes curtains, makes lasagna that would make even Rachel Ray say Yum-O, work on buses, cars, and can argue politics (please don't get him started) or the Bible. However, as smart as he is on all that stuff, the smartest thing he ever did was to marry me. HEHEHE
Quote from: buddydawg on October 12, 2007, 08:06:01 PM
Dallas,
Is there anything you DON'T know about these old GMCs?
We need a digital copy of your noggin! Or is that proprietary? ;D
I really don't know anything, I just have opinions, and we all know about opinions.
Actually, I learn something new everyday, either from this board, BNO, many of the yahoo groups, in our shop, from BK, from Capn' Ron, from you, from the silly dog down the street that chases cars.
If a day goes by that I don't learn something, I think it'll be time to close up shop, say goodbye to my friends and loved ones and crawl into a 3-7-77* for the long sleep.
* 3-7-77 is on the shoulder patch of the Montana State Police. I asked one about 30 years ago what it meant and he didn't know. He and I researched through the Montana State Library system and found that it may have come from a sign put on the door of drifters, grifters, whores and conmen by vigilante groups. It meant, "Be out of town by sundown, or you'll wake up in a hole, 3' X 7' x 77".
Just my bit of trivia for tonight.
Dallas
Charlie at the Detroit place will take good care of him.
He always has been helpful for me.
Right now I'm in Missouri at the Jersey Roundup but I have a storage area near the place he is in Alb
If there is anything I can do to help I will be back in town (Albuquerque) on Monday
You can contact me on this board or use the email in my profile.
Melbo
Thanks Melbo, i will pass your offer on to them. They were quite relieved to hear the good things about the DD shop. I know he is apprehensive about being back in Minnesota while they are working on his new bus, but all the good things we are learning about the shop will make it easier for them.
JZ
John,
Tell your friends not to get bummed because of this mishap. It is likely to happen to any of us who enjoy this adventure. I'm sure when they are able to pick it up it will bring a huge smile on their faces.
I know when I broke down last year in Palm Springs CA I was truly bummed out. But because of that I was able to make a new friendships with some busnut friends that will last a lifetime. It was really worth the experience. ;) It just brings us all closer together.
Paul
Thanks Paul. I talked to them later last night. I told him (i could hear his wife in the background) that they sounded in better spirits than they had in the morning.
I agree that when it is all over and back to normal that the fun comes back. And i can really relate to it all too! When i lost the wheel bearing last summer it took 3 or 4 days on the side of the road to get the bus moving again. Drove 100 miles and the axle broke. Got it to a shop for repair and found out things had gotten too hot and the spindle had collapsed and needed to be replaced! After getting it all apaort the shop manager told me that i needed a brake drum and shoes, plus all the bearings and other parts in there. Plus 4 new rims and tires. It really seemed there was no end to it!
The bus has been back on the road for a few months, but only short trips so far. Longest was a 700 mile weekend run. My confidence is slowly coming back, and your right about the smile. My last two weekend camping trips have been great. I hop out often with the temp gun to scan the hub temps, but the bus is running great. For the combined mileage for the last two weekends, it has averaged an honest and accurate mileage of 10+ miles per gallon!
John, when you get a chance, let us know how they are doing.
We pulled into the big truck stop in Grant, and they were there. It did not look like they had a problem, so we did not think to talk to them. Now, I feel terrible!!!
It looks like they have a pretty good bus to work on. I hope they can get past this issue and find a way to enjoy their new project.
Jim
Hi Jim, i have not heard from then the last couple days. Since they were driving back and the bus was being taken care of, i did not want to bother them. When i see them i will tell them you asked about them. Were you in your bus when you were in Grant? I actually would have thought their bus would have been on a trailer by then. I am sure they will appreciate you asking about them.
JZ
I agree with Dallas, the original primary fuel filter is back on the right side firewall and is not readily identifiable as a fuel filter. It is the stacked disk type and is not hard to clean. I actually prefer it to the screw-on secondary which is probably the one he said was clogged.
The original secondary was not a screw on type but a cartridge type so the screw on is an improvement there. However, I like the primary because all you need to clean it is a wrench, spray can of carb cleaner, a rag or two and some diesel to refill it. You don't need to carry a spare filter. The primary filtering media is so fine that if you keep it clean very little crud gets throught it to the secondary.
Hi John.
We were in our Eagle. We pulled in around noon last Friday for some lunch and so I could rubber neck in the truck parts store. When we pulled in there was a large wrecker close by, but no trailer. The wrecker left, so I guess we assumed they were chatting about the neat old bus.
I loved the plates. I think it was "48hound" or something like that. I hope they get to keep them, but since it is a different state, I guess that won't work.
I love the old Silver Sides. I commented to Pat that I would love to do one of them, but I will never get ours done :(
Jim
Gus, i wish the bus was either here in Minnesota, or he was back out there with the bus. I sort of bet it is a fuel issue too, and if he missed the primary,,,, and the secondary was that dirty, i bet that is a huge part of the problem.
Jim, that was them alright. And you got the plate right too! 48HOUND. Sure is a tough way to start out with a new bus. But hopefully they get a call from the shop in a couple days, telling them it is running like a top, come and get it!
The new bus nuts and the 48 Hound are home! We were parked about an hour south of here when we got a call from them Sat morning. There were about another hour south of us, and north bound to Duluth. They had left Des Moines that morning. When they picked up the Silversides from the shop, they made it only 10 miles and it started acting up again!!! Can you imagine. After two other flights out to AZ to pick it up; paying all that money to have it worked on, and then only get 10 miles! It turned out to be loose fittings on the new fuel filters, so they were quickly back on the road and noorth bound. Bus ran good for them, other than they could find no way to turn on a fan to push heat out. They could feelt he heat at the floor registers though. Luckily this was a pretty warm weekend. After their call Sat morn, we put on a fresh pot of coffee, put some rolls in the over, and soon enough, here they came down the street! We took the tour of their new bus, and then let them warm up in ours while we had coffee and listed to the excitement in their voices. I think they will be busnuts for some time to come. Thanks to all of you for your offers of help.
John Z
John,
Thanks for the update and happy conclusion to the story!
Getting the Bus home stories are some of my favorites.
If you remove the word bus from the story and put in the words "wooly mammoth" you would think we had
just figured out a way to wrangle that beast home... ;D
Cliff