Stuck Eagle - 1990 Silver Eagle 6V92 DD

[plyonsMC9]

Good evening kind bus folk.  I'm posting this for Pastor Paul Perkins out of Ocean Springs, MS.  Trying to get their 1990 Eagle back home.  Any suggestions or assistance appreciated I'm sure.   


I had a diesel truck mechanic looking at our Silver Eagle but nothing has been resolved as of yet.  He contacted a bus group in New Orleans but they had no software to trouble shoot our bus.  The mechanics son-in-law might have the ability to trouble shoot with computer/software but he is a trainer and has not been able to free time up to come by.  I have been out speaking at a family conference in south Louisiana and then strait to the State of Maine for my grandmother's funeral and have been out strait.
However, I need to resolve my shifting problems so we can get our Eagle back home.
I would greatly appreciate your help in posting this topic to try and get some advise from folks who know.

We drove an hour, pulled into a parking lot, swung around to the left to park on the outer edge of a parking lot, stopped, pushed Neutral button then Reverse button and nothing happened.  Went back to Neutral and then tried Drive then neutral, 1st (ran thru all selections) and the bus will not move.  The lights all light up on the shifting panel.  The bus is a 1990 Silver Eagle 6V92 DD with 220.000 miles.  It has a ZF (1st generation) Ecomat transmission.
I have checked for fuses but cannot find any.  I have unplugged all power and let it set for 30 min to maybe reset system.  I have unplugged the brain and checked connections (all is clean and no burn smell).  I have checked the physical transmission, fluid level is fine and does not smell burned.  Underneath all looks good with nothing that appears to be disconnected or broken off.  I have unplugged and plugged back in the push button shift assembly and checked for any burned connections or disconnected wires.  All looks good to me.  The high idle toggle switch works fine.  Bus starts fine.  All lights and accessories work as they have......  It just won't shift into any gear.
We think it is electrical.  I know nothing about electronics, I have worked on the mechanical side, but do not know how to use a tester to check connections. 
Please help.  Thank you!
Paul Perkins

[Scott & Heather]

Can't say for sure this will help, but this is straight off the Friedrichshafen website.  There is a service center partner near New Orleans they might want to call. But check this out:





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[bigred]

My Prevost/Allison did this same thing.But I can't tell you what caused the problem!! Drove it to a campground and it was working fine .Started to leave the camp ground ,would not go in gear.Went through all the motions like disconnecting batteries etc.Nothing helped.Wound up having it towed to an Allison service center.It sat there for quite sometime before they could get to it .Once they did get around to checking it'they fired it up ,put it in drive and the thing has changed gears ever since .No codes stored for the tranny and no reason was ever found as to what caused this .Only thing that has happened since ,it can be a little slow about going into gear during cold weather.The only thing is ,now when I take this thing on the road,and it has set for a few day's ,when I hit that button ,the pucker factor goes sky high wondering if this will happen again!!!

[luvrbus]

Contact Melbo on this board he can tell you how to wire around the ZF ECM to get you going and he has the contact for about the only guy in the world in CA that deals with a ZF where are you Mel   

[jackhanow]

I believe those are electro pneumatic shift. Could be a broken airline. I believe it would only be a 1/4 inch. And maybe only leaking when the parking brake is released. So you may need to block the wheels and release the brake and listen for the leak and the bus may need to be running and have a gear selected. Thing is, it's  hard to hear over all the noise. And may be regulated at a lower pressure making it that much harder to find.

[GIBCSE]

Contact Melbo on this board he can tell you how to wire around the ZF ECM to get you going and he has the contact for about the only guy in the world in CA that deals with a ZF where are you Mel   

I will contact him. Thank you!

[GIBCSE]

Can't say for sure this will help, but this is straight off the Friedrichshafen website.  There is a service center partner near New Orleans they might want to call. But check this out:





I have switched ignition off and on and unplugged the batteries for 30 minutes. We also contacted the folks in New Orleans and they said they didn't have any software to try running for codes on a 90 SE. I may pull the ECU and take it to them (save $125/hr road fee ) to check. Thank you!

[jackhanow]

Do the lights illuminate correctly on the shift panel. The gear is supposed to light up brightly when the gear has engaged? Ifselected gear doesn't light up then it's not even trying to engage the gear.

[luvrbus]

Call Harbor Diesel @ 562-591-5665 I forgot the guys name but he is the only person I know of that can help with a ZF transmission, Melbo will know his name the ZF lives on a different planet for me 

[jackhanow]

Before you take the ecm out make sure you have air going to the shift acuator. It on the right upper side of the transmission as you look at the motor. Just open the ecm and look inside. Most times you can see what's burnt. Look for a bad solder. Normally it's shiny when good and dull and grainy looking when bad. Check and make sure all the wiring is intact. Check the splices by pulling on each one. Most likely it's just something that was done when modifying to work in the bus.

[Scott & Heather]

Any updates on this?


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[GIBCSE]

Do the lights illuminate correctly on the shift panel. The gear is supposed to light up brightly when the gear has engaged? Ifselected gear doesn't light up then it's not even trying to engage the gear.

The push button shift panel has buttons for 1,2,3, D N R  The D button has never lit up since we've owned the bus but always worked.  All the other buttons do work as they have (light up when pushed).
Thank you

[GIBCSE]

Any updates on this?


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That's what I'm beginning to learn...    I will try calling this gentleman to see what we can learn!
Thank you

[GIBCSE]

Before you take the ecm out make sure you have air going to the shift acuator. It on the right upper side of the transmission as you look at the motor. Just open the ecm and look inside. Most times you can see what's burnt. Look for a bad solder. Normally it's shiny when good and dull and grainy looking when bad. Check and make sure all the wiring is intact. Check the splices by pulling on each one. Most likely it's just something that was done when modifying to work in the bus.

I'd like to thank everyone for the help/comments.  I am an hour and a half away from the bus, and have not been able to break free to go up and work on it for a couple of weeks.  (I've been waiting on a guy who was going to try and run codes but he hasn't been able to get free from work yet).  I am going to try to drive up to the bus tomorrow morning and check things like:
all of the relays dealing with transmission
air supply to shift actuator
ECM condition by pulling cover off of it.
Gear Release function (When I turn air brakes off, I have to push the brake pedal down and hold it a second before release will take place.  I don't think this is an issue because we can push the bus when I turn brakes off, and before when the gear release stuck due to sitting for a while, the transmission engaged and I could feel the bus try to move forward).

Thanks again for all the help thus far.

[jackhanow]

Where is the bus?