Bringing the Red Striped 4106 Home -- The Saga Part 1

OneLapper · March 02, 2009, 07:26:41 PM

Here goes the saga of bringing the Red Striped 4106 from GA to Connecticut:

I thought I would kill two birds with one stone. I hosted a car track event at Carolina Motorsports Park in Kershaw, SC. I thought that since I was in SC it would be the perfect time pick this bus and drive it home. The timing worked out, but the ride home wasn't too smooth...

I loaded up my 4106 with my car trailer and race car, picked up my buddy Bruce and pulled out of New Haven at 3:00 pm. I had topped off the fuel tank the day before so we were good to go. Despite the MAJOR blowby, she ran like a champ and got 7.66 mpg at 65 to 70 mph over 1800 miles. We topped off the tank along the way (to double check the mileage) and pulled onto the scales. She weighed in at

Front Axle: 8060 lbs
Rear Axle: 16,980
Trailer Axles: 6700 Total 31,000 plus.

On the way down we stopped by to visit Bus Nuts Bob and Deb (known as GM4106 on this board) in Mount Holly NC. Bob and Deb are seriously nice people! They invited us in, made us a great lunch, and after we gave each other tours of our respective buses. I was almost embarrassed to show them mine compared to theirs!!!!! I loved the floor plan in their bus, and the rear bedroom was fantastic with the original rear windows and the side windows creating a very airy, open room that seemed huge! And then there was the 8V71 Turbo!! I loved it!

We left Bob's and headed to Kershaw. The track event went great, no accidents, and on Tuesday at 5pm we pulled out of Kershaw to head to Spartanburg SC to meet my friend Kevin (that got the Red 4106 up and running) and drove it from GA to save me some time. We met up with each other, had dinner and ran into the first issue. My buddy Bruce who was going to drive my bus and trailer home decided that he wasn't up to the task. Kevin volunteered to drive my rig home if I bought him a flight home. No problem I said, and we pulled out of Spartanburg at 11:45pm. We decided to drive straight through non-stop, and since Kevin and I are seasoned Cannonballers (I've won 5 years in a row and Kevin came in Third place last year, check out www.onelapofamerica.com) 850 miles in one shot is no problem!

Well! The generator light came on about 5 miles into the trip, and stayed on the entire time. I ran overnight with the lights just running off the batteries. That wasn't the problem. Both buses ran GREAT for 600 miles. The Red bus is an empty shell and had nothing inside. The heater and defroster were disconnected so no heat. I used my Gerbings heated motorcycle outfit hooked up to two of my house batteries that I pulled out before we left. It was so flippin' cold in the mountains on RT 81 that my Coke and bottled water froze!!! It was around 17 degrees, but I had my heated jacket, pants, socks and gloves so I was good to go! I had to use sound canceling headsets (Bose) to endure the noise!!!!!! She was SO loud without any insulation that I thanked goodness I had the forethought to bring them along, and they kept my ears warm to boot.

Around 600 miles the power seemed a little off. At 700 miles she started to get an engine vibration, so we pulled in to top off the tanks and that's when I realized the rear main seal must have let go!!!! The engine was 5 gallons low on oil. Now, when we started out, the dash oil pressure gauge was inop, but the rear mechanical gauge showed 20 psi at a hot idle and the engine ran so well with tons of power and so smooth, I thought I hit a home run by buying this thing! But the reality of it is that I added the 5 gallons of oil and limped it home the last 200 miles, adding another 5 gallons of oil that leaked out of the rear seal along the way. The vibration from the engine was pretty bad when we pulled in to my shop. Oil pressure was zero at idle and 15 psi on high idle when hot. The temp gauge was working and it never got hot. The clutch is shot now as well, it never slipped but started to drag pretty bad.

What a bloody shame! The engine was great, the tranny fine, rear end silent, recent muffler, New front brakes shoes, cams, drums and shocks (still have black paint on them)! The rear brakes are new as well. The steering was manual, but has zero slop in the wheel. The rust is a non issue. There much less rust in this bus than on my bus! MUCH less. Some of the cargo doors are good, but most have dings or dents.

Now what do I do with this bus?

I originally was going to part out the bus and scrap the rest, but after seeing and driving the bus, I intended on fixing the few mechanical issues, putting on some good, used tires, servicing the engine, tranny and axles, cleaning it with a pressure washer inside and out, getting the inop oil pressure gauge working and selling it as a excellent roller.

At this point I've got north of two grand into it, but that includes my friends flight back to GA. Scrap value is around 1k as it is.

Oh, and my wife is NOT HAPPY with me, now that I have two buses!!!!!!! I told her that there's a theme here, two Porsches, two tractors, two motorcycles, two cats, two daughters (third daughter is only two months away). See!! Two of each!!! She mentioned something about wife number two, but that sounds too expensive and costly!!!!!!!!!

gm4106 · March 03, 2009, 05:59:00 AM

Mark was real nice to meet you and Bruce. You all are more then welcome to stop by anytime. Sorry to hear about you trip. But sounds to me like you want to fix it up. So that's my vote too. You have a running bus now, so now you have a lot of time to do this one your way. Stay in touch

Airbag · March 03, 2009, 05:59:26 AM

Stick with your oringinal plan, fix it. Easy for me to say huh. Great story

zubzub · March 03, 2009, 07:47:32 AM

Good story! I liked the frozen coke part reminded me of home. Way back I drove someones '72 beatle from montreal to toronto in the middle of the winter. It was -32 out and the useless heat exchanger system, wasn't even attached so we had zero cabin heat. I used a credit card all the way to keep the windshield free of ice, my toes were freezing but we got there and had a great time in toronto. sounds like maybe you have a little canadian in you. Sorry to hear of the engine problems....might not be too bad though, only grease and sweat will tell.

JackConrad · March 03, 2009, 07:59:04 AM

Since replacing the rear main seal will require removing the engine, might do that and while it is out, inspect the bearings & crank. Then you can make a more informed decision. Jack

viento1 · March 03, 2009, 09:33:48 AM

All I can say is good call on the second wife...

I followed your link to that one lap race - that looks like alot of fun and very competetive - congratulations are certainly in order. What class do you race in (so I know which one to avoid)

Oh ya, I tend to get rid of stuff unless it is of use in the immediate future. I am sure someone out there will give you $2200 for your shell as is - Yee ha $200 profit 10% that is serious return, just ask your local investment "specialist"

MattC · March 03, 2009, 10:02:23 AM

Wonderful story! Wife followed along and agreed with your assessment on second wives. =P

Unfortunately, it reminded her to reiterate her ONE BUS ONLY edict. =)

Ain't Buss`n a wonderful addiction?

johns4104s · March 03, 2009, 10:29:53 AM

Great story,

Try 4 buses, I really dont know how I finished up with 4.

John

OneLapper · March 03, 2009, 06:17:30 PM

Quote from: gm4106 on March 03, 2009, 05:59:00 AM
Mark was real nice to meet you and Bruce. You all are more then welcome to stop by anytime. Sorry to hear about you trip. But sounds to me like you want to fix it up. So that's my vote too. You have a running bus now, so now you have a lot of time to do this one your way. Stay in touch

Hey Bob, again, it was really nice to me you and your wife. The two of you have a beautiful coach. I haven't decided what the vote it yet, but thanks for the words of encouragement! I'll be back to SC soon, I'm trying to put another event together for April.

OneLapper · March 03, 2009, 06:29:56 PM

Quote from: JackConrad on March 03, 2009, 07:59:04 AM
Since replacing the rear main seal will require removing the engine, might do that and while it is out, inspect the bearings & crank. Then you can make a more informed decision. Jack

Yup, the engine and tranny have to come out regardless, whether I keep her or scrap her. I'll have to pull the tranny, clutch and engine just to repair the rear main seal, so I'll pull the pan and mic the crank to see if it's within spec. If so, I'll put in new bearings, rear main seal, new clutch and proceed with the plan to make someone a real nice bus for a conversion. If not, it's parts heaven. After being awake for two full days, just I was pulling this bus into my shop I couldn't help but think that fate may have had a hand in bringing this bus back to CT (originally delivered new to a CT bus company). Who knows.

Jriddle · March 03, 2009, 06:40:26 PM

Sorry to here about your trip and plans going south. Wife Two that sounds like a bad choice to me at least wife one she is joking with you! That is a good sign you might talk her into spending some to fix the new bus. I have not meet Bob, but bought some thing from him once and have to say he is first class in my mind. Good luck.
John

OneLapper · March 03, 2009, 06:46:08 PM

oops. repost

OneLapper · March 03, 2009, 06:52:53 PM

Quote from: viento1 on March 03, 2009, 09:33:48 AM
All I can say is good call on the second wife...

I followed your link to that one lap race - that looks like alot of fun and very competetive - congratulations are certainly in order. What class do you race in (so I know which one to avoid)

Oh ya, I tend to get rid of stuff unless it is of use in the immediate future. I am sure someone out there will give you $2200 for your shell as is - Yee ha $200 profit 10% that is serious return, just ask your local investment "specialist"

Thanks for the advise on the second wife. I can hardly keep up with Wife Version 1.0.

Great thing about this race is "There are No Rules". Absolutely anything goes. You can take a Ford Festiva and shoehorn a SuperCharged Yamaha V6, MID MOUNTED!!!!!, into it. My co-driver is one of the toughest automotive nuts out there. I do the track driving, and we split the transit driving. He also tends to all the needs of the car, as well as keeping my @$# pointed in the right direction. The race is eight days in a row, 24 hours a day. We race at a track during the day and drive overnight to the next track, and do it all over again the next day. It's nonstop, very little sleep if the race is a long one, maybe two hours a day. We've driven 1350 miles overnight to race at Sears Point, just to turn around and drive 850 miles to the next track! One year we drove 6500 miles in 7 days, all at night, during the day was spent at the race track. We've gotten at little as 25 hours of sleep over the course of the week. Very cool event, and some of the greatest people from all over the world compete in it!

viento1 · March 04, 2009, 07:44:27 AM

I just finnished my 1969 karman Ghia with a WRX drive train. I think i will be in the vintage import class. If it rained everyday than I would probably do quite well. I will see if dear ol dad is interested... Too bad about the wheel base requirement - the bus would be great for the indurance portion.

OneLapper · March 04, 2009, 02:20:05 PM

Quote from: viento1 on March 04, 2009, 07:44:27 AM
I just finnished my 1969 karman Ghia with a WRX drive train. I think i will be in the vintage import class. If it rained everyday than I would probably do quite well. I will see if dear ol dad is interested... Too bad about the wheel base requirement - the bus would be great for the indurance portion.

Don't worry about that wheelbase rule. Check out Team 56.

http://www.highlanddesignstudio.com/2008/index.php?do=photocart&viewImage=12065

No Joke! That thing ran the event!!!! And they had it on some of the tracks!!!!

I want to run my 4106 one of these days.

Bringing the Red Striped 4106 Home -- The Saga Part 1

Airbag