whats this thing on the top of my bus

[Eric]

Mine was the radio antenna, however I changed the tnc conector and used it as a pickup for my wifi repeater! Works great no "dead spots" in larger camgrounds for me!

[buswarrior]

Yup, radio antennae cover.

And that isn't the front cap your coach left the factory with.

Lots of MC8 had a slope top riveted on to hide the hump, trying to fool the customers that it wasn't an "old" bus.

This is as good as any: Compare the MC8 to the MC9, you'll see what the slope top was imitating:

http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://www.barp.ca/bus/coach/voyageur/1275.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.barp.ca/bus/coach/voyageur/index.html&usg=__0LK-qn2HOoXu1kivlP-aNLHBo6U=&h=490&w=766&sz=122&hl=en&start=15&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=Gr23VWf-jXVGYM:&tbnh=91&tbnw=142&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmci%2Bmc8%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26sa%3DG%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26tbs%3Disch:1

happy coaching!
buswarrior

[reelnative]

wow thats good to know man thanks I thought that the mc8 and mc9 were almost the same except for the cargo doors had a diff lift system and a couple of suspen things were diff and I thought the mc12 was also pretty much the same look but it had sq headlights.

does your mc8 have that slope like in the pics

[ojgetaway32]

Van:

That gorgeous Eagle came from Harran?  So did my 9!  I have those things on mine too.  What are they again?

Josh Miller

[reelnative]

hey buss I also noticed on the mc8 the first window and the side plackard area are slanted forward, and on the mc9 in your pics the first window and side plackard are strait or squared off, my bus front window and side plackard look like the mc9 in your pics

[buswarrior]

The stock MC8 has a roof line that had a marked hump behind the driver/entrance door.

This was a continuing styling mimic of the trendsetting GM Scenicruiser, and the following MC7, and the GM 4107/4108/4903/4905.

All of these had windows in the hump, but leaks were a pain.

The MC8 maintained the visual cues, but were solid humps, no windows.

With the MC9, the move to taller windshields and a flat roof front to back began.

Towards the end of the useful commercial life of the MC8 line, towards the turn of the millenium and beyond Y2K, the 2nd/3rd tier operators started installing dress up kits on these older coaches, as the customers were becoming savvy to the fact a hump in the roof meant old bus. To be fair, it was also an easy way to fix the fibreglass hump if it had been damaged, or was cracking due to sagging supports beneath or otherwise the ravages of time.

All those modernizing facelifts from R & M, and others, continue this opportunity to this day.

My MC8 has a stock roof hump.

happy coaching!
buswarrior

[buswarrior]

reelnative, in looking at your pics again, your MC8 appears to be of the last batch that had the square windows front to back, no "D" window behind the driver and no slanted roof brace midships.

Find a unit number for your coach, either a plate riveted to the ceiling near the driver or back in the rad fan compartment. I'm doubting it is a '76. That style of side window was just before MC9 production started, 1978 or so.

happy coaching!
buswarrior

[Busted Knuckle]

reelnative, in looking at your pics again, your MC8 appears to be of the last batch that had the square windows front to back, no "D" window behind the driver and no slanted roof brace midships.

Find a unit number for your coach, either a plate riveted to the ceiling near the driver or back in the rad fan compartment. I'm doubting it is a '76. That style of side window was just before MC9 production started, 1978 or so.

happy coaching!
buswarrior

BW if you'll notice his rear windows on each side are angled while the rest look like a "9".
FWIW   BK 

[buswarrior]

Yup, BK, that's how they did the last of the MC8.

For what reason, I have no idea, IIRC, there weren't that many built that way before the switch to the MC9.

Those MC8's square windows were all shorter than the MC9.

My parts book is not at hand, or I'd find the build date for those.

reelnative, got a unit number for us?

happy coaching!
buswarrior

[reelnative]

yea its s12198 and the plaqe behind the drivers seat says it was built in 1976, ive looked and cant find it in any of the web sites ive been to that have a bunch of build numbers that tell you were your bus first went to after it was made, ive found close numbers but not mine.

[Van]

Josh, thanks for the compliment , I have been told that I am good with PHOTO shop . Yup mine was built for HARRAN coachways ( Comac L.I, unit 601, then went to some tour co. in chicago, were it was purchased through an estate auction by the PO. The extra radios were to stay in contact with the other tour co's they supported i believe, found this out after exploring the prom chip that was installed in it. Atlantic City for one, the N.Y.C sports teams club house's (mets, Yankee's, Islanders) as well as 12 other tour company's names were also displayed. If any one want's them (antenna covers), I will send them out to you once they are removed ( mid summer) F.O.C.
 

  Van

[buswarrior]

reelnative, we/you need the unit number. It's on that same plate.

The serial number in those days was determined at some point in the ordering process of the coach, the Unit number determines when in the run it was built, and is the number used throughout the maintenance and parts manuals to differentiate the coaches and their quirks.

For instance, there were EIGHT different air schematics for the MC8 model run.

Your unit number should be something in the low 30 thousands, your serial number is 800 and 900 higher than my two 1975 coaches, so it does correlate to 1976.

Now I'm really confused...maybe I remembered the years wrong for the square windows? Or someone playing monkey business with the coach build plates?  Where's my manuals....

happy coaching!
buswarrior

[JackConrad]

Reelnative,
    In addition to looking at the unit number, look closely at the manufacture date and make sure it is 1776 nad not 1978.  Jack

[reelnative]

Hi Jack and Bus the unit number is 31576 and the man date is march 1976

[Slow Rider]

My 76 also has the square windows.........