mystery knob

[cody]

I found a large rotary knob on the sidewall to the left of my drivers seat, it has 4 positions, position 1 is on the left, "both" is on the top, postion 2 is on the right and "off" is on the bottom, it says "stop engine before switching to the off position". It is set to the "both" position , any idea's what it is and what it does? I took a couple of pictures.  I feel kind of dumb because it's always been there but I had a piece of cardboard and an atlas covering it, I wonder what else I could be finding if I cleaned up the bus lol.

[pete81eaglefanasty]

 I beleve it's the battery selector switch. For battery 1 - battery 2 - both batteries, and then off.

        Pete & Jean
          Fantasy

[H3Jim]

I suspect its a battery selector switch. Do you have house batteries? or perhaps it will allow you to "save" a battery for starting.

cole Hersey makes those swithches, and the 1 or 2 , both  or off also  suggests this use

[cody]

My starting batteries are located back by the engine, my house batteries are separate, I have 4 golf cart batteries for the house, kinda makes me wonder what else might be lurking behind debri and stuff lol.

[jjrbus]

Battery selector switch. Now what they are useing it for is another story! Turn it to off and see if you have any DC power. If it is the only battery switch you have on bus. Never leave the bus with it turned on. Then you will never haave dead batterys due to something draining them!

[JackConrad]

     Looks like everyone agrees it is a battery switch. Just for grins, turn switch to battery 1 and try the starter and try an interior 12 volt light. Then do the same thing on battery 2. If it starts on battery 1 and no interior 12 volt lights work, Battery 1 is your bus(start) batteries and battery 2 is your house batteries. Or vice versa if it starts on battery 2 and interior lights on battery 1. If this is how it is connected, leaving it on Both when dry camping could result in discharged start batteries (not good1).  If the connections do not check out as above, I do not have a clue, but maybe somebody else will have a suggestion.  Jack

[cody]

I appreciate it, you guys nailed it, position 1 starts the coach but no lights, position 2 lights but won't start, off has nothing, won't start or lights, both works everything, I'll clean some more and see what else I locate lol.  The way my luck has been lately, I'll find Hoffa behind the couch lol.

[pvcces]

Cody, one other thing. There is no cable you can readily buy that I know of that will give you a small enough line loss in your cables. You should not have that switch that far away from your batteries.

You may be getting away with that setup now, but it's likely to give you trouble if temperatures drop, battery condition deteriorates or loads increase. Having the same switch in the rear of the coach near the batteries would really cut into the risk of problems later.

This is why such a switch is usually located right in the start battery compartment.

With that setup, I wonder what sort of grounds you have.

I'm not really saying that changes need to be done now, but if you have primary power problems later, you need to be aware of the trouble those long runs can cause.

For what it's worth.

Tom Caffrey

I appreciate it, you guys nailed it, position 1 starts the coach but no lights, position 2 lights but won't start, off has nothing, won't start or lights, both works everything, I'll clean some more and see what else I locate lol.  The way my luck has been lately, I'll find Hoffa behind the couch lol.

[cody]

I have another switch in the battery compartment that has only 2 positions, on or off.  This switch by my seat, apparently has been there for many years, I've had the bus for several years so I know it was there before I got it, hopefully it won't cause problems.  This bus was originally the personal  bus for a blues singer and was never used as a trailways or grayhound type purpose, so I assume it was put in by the original converter.