long, interesting day on the bus

[bevans6]

A lot of work got done today!  Thank heavens for the indian summer weather we are enjoying up here!

I installed the trailer light converter that Gumpy made for me.  Worked perfectly the first time, as expected!  One thing I did that may be different from others is I used an independant 12 volt converter to power the trailer.  I used one that splits the input voltage, so that I get a 12 volt supply that exactly mirrors half of the main bus battery voltage, and I can therefore use it to maintain the charge in the breakaway switch battery.  I mounted the adaptor in a weather tight box on the rear wall of the curb side engine bay, beside the air compressor discharge muffler.  Along the way I found clear signs that the engine has been out of the bus, so that was interesting.


Next I changed the shutterstat.  Aside from a big gush of coolant as I whipped the old one out and whipped the new one in, no dramas there at all.  Now the shutters and dampers work properly.

Then I tackled the rear brakes.  All I wanted to do was check the adjustment of the slacks, but I decided the right thing to do was pull the wheels and have a good look around.  Needless to say not as fast as on my race cars.  Worthwhile exercise, because I found that I have automatic slack adjusters back there that are perfectly adjusted, so fewer worries for the next few thousand miles.

On to the front slacks.  One didn't feel right when I adjusted it a few months ago, I didn't think the ring that holds the hex of the adjusting bolt seemed right.  Sure enough, the ring slipped over the end of the bolt OK but it spun in place, not locking anything.  As an interim fix I drilled the bolt head for safety wire and wired it in place, that will hold it very securely and i can check it easily, which I will do.  Permanently I think I will change the front slacks out with new ones.

Final job of the day was to change out the two tank drain valves for the wet and parking brake tanks that are in the front wheel bay.  Simple job, but you do have to squirrel around under there to reach them.  I routed the pull cords (the previous valves had rings only) into the fuel filler area, the wet tank one was just barely long enough to reach.

Tomorrow I reinstall my defroster blower motor, change out the rest of the turn and tail light lenses, and change the wiper blades.  What with having changed the engine and gearbox fluid in the past two weeks, getting an alignment done, adjusting the clutch, getting all of the running lights to work, I think I have finally completed all of the routine maintenance that needed to be done on the coach when I got it in May.  We are leaving December 5th for a nice run down to Huntington Beach State Park, at Merrills Inlet south of Myrtle Beach for a few days, then pop on down to Roebling Road Raceway near Savannah to watch my buddies play with their race cars and eat Barbeque (they bbq a whole pig on Saturday, and steam oysters).  When they heard I was coming without a race car they said I could drive the pace car, should be fun!

Brian

[Runcutter]

Brian, a great amount of work, and it's great to see someone address the safety issues (brakes) as a high priority.  What would happen of you offer to use the MC5 as the pace car?

Arthur

[bevans6]

The pace  laps would take about as long as the race usually does!  It's quite a high speed track, I normally run about 140 on the straight there, I could probably get up to about 45 in the bus, depends how the 2 - 3 shift goes...   

brian

[Ed Hackenbruch]

What kind of coffee do you drink and how many cups???