Pulling air bags and/or brakes before a tow to the scrap yard??

[daveola]

I have an MCI 9 that I am scrapping out, and I was going to be pulling the wheels for a wheel swap with my bus anyways, so I realized that it would be a great source for air bags.

Is it possible to pull the air bags of a bus and still be able to tow it a short distance without bags if I'm not really worried about hurting the bus?

And any thoughts of what else I should pull off before throwing away a perfectly good MCI 9 shell?  (I'm taking the engine/tranny already)

[Gary Hatt - Publisher BCM]

Air bags blow out all of the time and folks have to drive their bus to the nearest facility that can replace them so it should not do any damage to the bus, but it sure could be a rough ride if all air bags were missing.  However, I am not sure it is worth the trouble to remove the old air bags as they are probably pretty well worn now unless you recently replaced them and air bags are not very expensive anyway. If you are going thru all of he work to do that, I think you would want to invest in new air bags. I used to carry a spare in my MC-9, as they don't take up that much extra space because mine were pretty worn. My 2 cents worth.

[eagle19952]

Air bags blow out all of the time and folks have to drive their bus to the nearest facility that can replace them so it should not do any damage to the bus, but it sure could be a rough ride if all air bags were missing.  However, I am not sure it is worth the trouble to remove the old air bags as they are probably pretty well worn now unless you recently replaced them and air bags are not very expensive anyway. If you are going thru all of he work to do that, I think you would want to invest in new air bags. I used to carry a spare in my MC-9, as they don't take up that much extra space because mine were pretty worn. My 2 cents worth.

what he said...not worth the time...a risk not worth it.

[chessie4905]

Power steering,engine, transmission, rear axle, brake drums,radiators, windshields,side windows, baggage doors, engine doors.

[RJ]

Dave -

Are you stripping the coach in the Bay Area?

If so, there's a large bus collision repair facility in Alameda, Complete Coach Works, that might be interested in such things as baggage bay doors, bumpers, bumperettes (corner pieces), wheel well trim, etc.

Might be worth a call?  510.749.1398

If you use Facebook, post on the bus conversion sites, somebody's always looking for parts.

FWIW & HTH. . .

[daveola]

Power steering,engine, transmission, rear axle, brake drums,radiators, windshields,side windows, baggage doors, engine doors.

Having paid to replace power steering, that's a good point - but how hard is it to remove?  Guess it's time to consult the maintenance manual.

We're already pulling the engine/tranny, that's why the bus is coming down.

Is the rear axle really worth pulling?  Because I need to have the bus towed to a scrap yard after pulling things.

[John316]

Dave,

I had to replace the rear axle on our DL3. It was pricey and needed to be done. Check your rear axles. Normally the grit from the road "sandblasts" them to paper thin. Then they rust away and need to be replaced.

Cheers,

John

[buswarrior]

A worn differential can be a selling trigger for the last operator...

Not spoken of much by busnuts, but differentials are wear items that get replaced in the commercial world with regularity.

happy coaching!
buswarrior

[daveola]

You mean check the outer housing of the rear axle, in case I want to do a swap?  Or check the axle inside the housing?

Because I don't think I can just pull the rear axle from the other bus and keep it, since I need to tow the donor bus to the scrap yard.

And the mechanic it is at is just an engine guy, not a bus guy, so he's not interested in pulling anything off the bus for me, unfortunately.  Heading out there tomorrow with my tools to see what I can do.

[daveola]

Are you stripping the coach in the Bay Area?

If so, there's a large bus collision repair facility in Alameda, Complete Coach Works,..

Great - called today and left a message, hopefully we'll be able to reach them tomorrow.

[John316]

Dave,

BW is right. The differential is important. I was thinking of the tag support.

[windtrader]

Dave, Change of plans for me so I'll be able to drop by Benicia tomorrow. Left you a text. CCW is in Alameda on the old Navy Air Station. Not sure what the co-interest is but hey, give them a try. Their yard at that location looks pretty full. Are you needing a place to store it as a parts donor? It might make sense to park it nearby for a month or two to get more parts off it. But I have zero experience to know if it'll be worth the time and money to do so. Hopefully see you tomorrow. don

[ol713]

Dave -

Are you stripping the coach in the Bay Area?

If so, there's a large bus collision repair facility in Alameda, Complete Coach Works, that might be interested in such things as baggage bay doors, bumpers, bumperettes (corner pieces), wheel well trim, etc.

Might be worth a call?  510.749.1398

If you use Facebook, post on the bus conversion sites, somebody's always looking for parts.


Also try the guy in Williams, Ca.  I believe it is called Coach Services.  He is usually parting
a coach or two.  Do a google search for contact info.
                                              Merle.

FWIW & HTH. . .

[daveola]

Also try the guy in Williams, Ca.  I believe it is called Coach Services.  He is usually parting
a coach or two.  Do a google search for contact info

I know Ted.  He's amazing (and amazingly hard to contact), but he is not terribly interested in MCIs.  He's always bemused my my MCI when it shows up and he often surprises me by having 1 or 2 parts for it.

The Coach place in the Bay Area just does repair - they don't salvage buses.

Right now the bus made it fine to Benicia and it looks good, but it hasn't been registered in a million years and we're jumping through California hoops to get a junk slip for it so we can be sure that a salvage yard will take it.