I broke my bus ---well, actually just broke an air fitting

[Paladin]

I was moving my bus ( MC-8) last night and when I was doing a walk around preparing to leave again from getting some fuel I thought I heard a hissing sound coming from inside the left front service door. I opened it and sure enough heard hissing and when I moved a line it got louder and louder. I soon noticed that it was an air line going to the air reservoir that is mounted just above the door. The hose was coming out of the fitting and breaking and popped entirely off when I bumped it. Of course now I had a very loud hissing sound too!
I looked and saw that the air pressure was dropping quickly. I kept the air up as best I could and limped away to where we could park it before I had real troubles.
We had another vehicle following me so being nearly 10:00 pm on a Saturday night about the only thing I could think of was Lowes down the road to desperately try to find some kind of cap that would screw onto the end of the air reservoir to see if that might help me just get home. I couldn't find anything that threaded but I did find a nylon cap that I thought would just jam the nylon threads rather than damage the reservoir fitting so I bought it and it worked......sort of. I still had a little loss but I was surprised that it didn't blow off completely under pressure.
I restarted the bus and the pressure came back up quite well and everything (important) seemed to work, no troubles with brakes and the bags came up so I decided to limp home. I had nowhere else to go!

It was a short 10 minute freeway trip on empty roads and all went fine, I came in and shut down and could hear it leaking down and I just let and went in.
I guess tomorrow I need to find another crush sleeve or whatever it takes for the metal fitting that twists on. I was thinking the local EVCO hose supplier since that's where I've gotten fittings for every other type of pressure line. I'm not sure of another place here in SLC to look.

Soo.......was I dumb to try to drive it?  I really had nowhere else to go.

Does anyone know what that reservoir is and what type of fitting I need to ask for? I looked it up and it seems to be an accessory tank? I noticed that my left wiper didn't work well but I didn't need it anyway thank God.

My first drive on the freeway was another fun story.

-Dave 

[JackConrad]

The tank above the door is the accessory tank. This tank feeds the wipers, air horn, etc. The line that broke could be the line feeding the tank or a line coming from the tank.  DEo you have a service manual fo the bus?  If so it will has an air system schematic.  Jack

[FloridaCliff]

Dave,

During your process of checking out your bus, get a splice fitting for any size air, fuel line you have.

Also a pair of needle nose vice grips to clamp off a leaking or broken line,

This is just to get you off the road or to limp home.

You can't carry EVERY repair part, but having the proverbile duct tape and bailing wire can save a trip.

I once used a sippie cup straw, duct tape and four tie wraps to fix a fuel line to get me out of a rest area to get a new fuel line.

And they told me watching McGyver was a waste of time...LOL   

Cliff