Greetings...
My driver side Tag won't air up. I have air past the on/off valve ...but no lifting action.
Thanks.
How long has it sat down?
If you hear no air leaks...
The axle has not been greased properly and is seized.
Common affliction in buses held by second and third tier operators, and passed on to unknowing busnuts.
Get the manuals, get your grease gun, and start pumping. Somewhere close to a hundred dry grease zerks are in your future...
After that, you have some careful prying to do, to assist the strength of the air pressure in the bellow to overcome the stuckness. And then you have to cycle it up and down using your choice of methods, jack, curb, run-up blocks, with the air turned on and off to effect maximum travel, as you put more and more grease to the axle. Do NOT mess with this with the wheel off, unless you have the unit restrained. And be careful how far you raise it with the wheel on and where you are in relation to it for the same reason: When it lets loose, it may do so suddenly, and if it goes to full extension, the only thing holding it from whacking all the way is the shock, possibly injuring bystanders or you, and the condition of that shock will be suspect.
Best to wait for the books and think really hard about all the ways this bus can kill you, if you strike out on your own, boldly going where you shouldn't...
happy coaching!
buswarrior
Believe me.....I'm scared :)
It sat for one year. How big an air leak would do this and if it was an air leak, could you hear it at idle?
Tag moves a little since I freed up the valve for that side today and have been see-sawing the thing back and forth......but doesn't seem to want to get up as high as the other side. Or maybe it just seems squishy. Making the bus tilt a little to that side when I motor around corners.....does that make sense?
So, I'm a grease monkey now, huh? For some strange reason I've always enjoyed greasing up a chassis. (never had one this big though)
Thanks.
"could you hear it at idle?"
Air up and turn the engine off. Then you would.
May also pay to exhaust the air from both tags using the valves and check that the height valves on the drive axle are doing their job.
When air bags die it is from water. The metal insert in the bottom of the bags rust out and it is hard to hear them leak because the bag muffles the noise.
Quote from: Tony LEE on February 09, 2008, 04:47:45 PM
"could you hear it at idle?"
Air up and turn the engine off. Then you would.
May also pay to exhaust the air from both tags using the valves and check that the height valves on the drive axle are doing their job.
When I drove it home (about 25 miles) we had to unload the one working tag so we could run level......(had a bunch of windy back roads.....talk about tipsy) My wife was following behind in the car and called me to tell me not to wreck it.........already had my hands full trying to keep it on the pathetically narrow roads ...now I'm talking on the cell phone also.
Great fun..... in a scary kind of way. Kind of reminded me of the first time I flew a remote control airplane I had worked on for six months. (yes, I wrecked it.....about 30 seconds later...No, I don't want to hear it :))
Anyway, this brute sits level if both tags are unloaded. I'm trying the grease monkey routine but after pumping 1/2 tube into the first zerks I ran out. Had my wife pick up a case. Will carry on. Thank you for your support. All comments taken to heart.
I assume you have MCI. If so try backing that tag wheel over a double 2x8 plank or so to see if it move freely up ward with air off. If not then you have either dry or frozen tag pivot shaft or frozen shock. Common that tag's shaft and bronze bearing are worn out.
Even with higher than normal air pressure in that tag's bag won't move frozen tag arm down.
Let us know whatever you find!
FWIW
Sojourn for Christ, Jerry
The more I think about this, the more intrigued I become....
The tag axle is supposed to have a regulated air supply, and shouldn't be throwing the side to side level of the coach off by appreciable amounts... I've driven one with one side completely removed and the other aired up and it wasn't noticeable.
Seized shock absorber, I'd forgotten about that....
Well, check to see if proper ride height and movement is present both sides of the drive axle, check to see if there is proper tag axle movement both sides... at some point, a pressure gauge to the tag system to be sure they aren't doing more or less than they should...
What else, folks?
happy coaching!
buswarrior
Yes, it is an MCI (mc9)
I can lift the working side 3 to 4 inches with the tag axle. So when one side is pumped up, it has quite a tilt. (Exciting)...kinda reminds me of driving a bobcat along the side of a hill for the first time...."Is it gonna tip?" guess not , but it sure feels creepy at first. :o
That sounds about right, I have not measured the amount of lift from the tags, but I recall it is probavbly about that on our MC-8
I would remove wheel after lifting tag using a bottle jack under the lifting point. Adjust bottle jack to use almost a full stroke to get tire barely off the ground. This will allow you to check downward travel of the tag axle when you release the jack. This downward travel is where the lifting action, and load carrying capacity is. Tag axle air bag is supposed to have 35 PSI. An over-pressure valve will release air at about 70 PSI.
I had a tag that would move, but not full range. I kept pumping grease in and working tag up & down using a hydraulic jack unger the tag axle lifting point. (I removed the shock absorber during this operation) I would apply air when trying to push tag down and release air pressure when lifting with the jack. Tag freed up after a while.
There are 4 grease zerks on each tag axle. 2 are on the cross-over tube and 2 on the 2 piece collar that keeps the tax axle in place. Jack
Ok ....I'm off to play tag. ;D
Will let you know after I have each of your suggestions a run.
Thanks .
Well, to make a long story... umm, .....even longer, :)
I took off the tag wheel , greased the stew out of all the Zerk's...(pumped so long, I felt like I was at the gym) played around with the air and jack thingy like you told me to and...... poof!!!! works fine. Ran her up and down the road. No longer tilts!
Thanks for your help, everyone.
Quote from: chazwood on February 10, 2008, 04:31:04 PM
Well, to make a long story... umm, .....even longer, :)
I took off the tag wheel , greased the stew out of all the Zerk's...(pumped so long, I felt like I was at the gym) played around with the air and jack thingy like you told me to and...... poof!!!! works fine. Ran her up and down the road. No longer tilts!
Thanks for your help, everyone.
Chazwood,
Glad to hear it works as it should now! But I have to ask when you say you greased the stew outta all the zerks. I do hope you are refering to only those that are on the tag axle itself, and not any of the ones for the brakes on that hub! The ones for the brakes still need greased just as any others, but please do not just keep pumping away on these as it could fill your brake drum with grease with you knowing it! On the ones for the brake anchor pins I usually give them about 3 pumps. The one for the S-cam anywhere from 5 to 10 (depending on when it was last greased and how much other items are taking). The slack adjuster usually only takes 1-2. And 1-2 for the brake chamber itself (if it has 1 some do, some don't). Happy bus'n! And as for (Recently overheard..... "What possessed them to buy that?") tell them it's a therapy project ! LOL!
;D BK ;D
wait a minuet....brake Zerk's!? Where they hiding all the break Zerk's!?
Now, about the quote in my byline. My wife and I have young kids that play tournament tennis. We travel all over the south east a few weekends a month and have always stayed in hotels. Having a rather large group (six kids) we are always forced to get two rooms. Not cheap. I ain't gonna stay just anywhere, so, we've been dumping about $500 to $750 a weekend in hotel bills alone. (not to mention 3 meals a day...eat'n out.)
Now, if there's anything you need before a tennis tournament it's sleep....but, put 6 kids in a strange room and forget it....they sleepwalk into walls, fall over the furniture, stub toes, scare themselves half to death, toss and turn and invent new reasons to wake up their parents, all night long. We had to make a change, so we decided to solve our problems with the "Coach approach". (and bought a bus to convert)
Anyway, we live next door to my in-laws and told then 5 mins. before we drove up with the new bus that we would be using their driveway for the night . (wasn't sure the bus would make it up mine without scraping the street) We had never even bothered to tell my father-in-law that we were thinking of buying a bus. He was clueless. Just about the time we drive up his wife yells to him that she's going out side to check out the bus and so he comes out the door and you could have knocked him down with a 2x4....or is it a feather... Come to think of it.....Never mind. ;)
Picture this ...no one tells you anything; you step out your door and sitting in front of your house is a 40 ft MCI on fast idle with every last light on the whole bus blazing to beat the band. He could not have been more dumbfounded if a spaceship had been sitting there with little green men running around. When I walked up to him he couldn't tear his eyes off the bus and said in a squeaky, strange voice.......well, you already know what he said.
I haven't stopped chuckling about it yet. :D