Mystery lever on dash

[eaglekelly]

    Can someone tell me what this lever located at the upper left of my 1969 Eagle coach is. I know it is an air valve but it doesent seem to be connected to anything. The people I bought it from didn't know either. I hope the picture comes through ok. It's not the original dash so the location my not help.

[tekebird]

hard to say as thats not an original Dash.

could be the old AntiSkid system which just deceases the brake pressure when icy or wet roads are encountered ( Driver's Choice.

or a valve for the old air bifold door.

again hard to say......my suggestion is to trace the line

[compedgemarine]

not sure but it looks like the lever for the door. do you still have a two piece air door? if you have a one piece door it is possible that it was there when it had an air door and was never removed when the door was changed.
steve

[Dreamscape]

That is the lever for the air operated door for sure. I just pulled mine out, don't need it. Have single piece door.

Paul

[kysteve]

I agree Paul, I too say its the air switch for the door operation.  I have one just like it on my 69 Eagle.

[Kristinsgrandpa]

   The man I bought my coach from got a little hot while driving it one day and decided to let in some air by opening the door. That locked up all the brakes and put him into the windshield (no seat belt) At a fairly slow speed it wasn't too serious.

  The point being that there is an interlock on the park brake on air operated doors. If you remove the air operator and have trouble with the park brake not releasing you'll know where to look now.

A repair/troubleshooting manual would be a big help in such a situation.

For some reason I think that the door should not open when in gear, maybe mine is (was) defective. The air operators, and the double doors, are now gone so it doesn't matter.


Ed.

[Busted Knuckle]

Ed,
Some coaches had that safety feature and many didn't! I remember one time I was at the office of the guy who bought the first Setra's I ever worked on collecting the monthly maintiance bill. We were in his office talking while he wrote out the check, when we heard the secretary tell some one I'm sorry but he has someone in his office at the moment can I take a msg. After telling who ever it was 2-3 times he was busy, she poked her head in the door and said I'm sorry to interupt Mr. G, but I think you should take this call while Bryce is here. Well that made both of us curious, so Mr. G asked if I wanted him to put it on speaker phone. I told him it was his company and his call, but I'd listen if he wanted me too. Well when he took the call one of his drivers was frantically telling him that they "had big trouble, and he'd better get a wrecker out here fast, and might as well find another bus to finish taking these people from Dothan (AL) onto Panama City Beach!" When he finally slowed down Mr. G told him "Ben slow down and let me know exactly what the problem is." Ben say's well earlier I had problems with the brakes not releasing just hissing and the button was just pushing back up, and now the transmission is out, and it won't go anywhere!" Mr. G looked at me and before either of us could say anything, Ben said "I've been calling the shop for 1/2 an hour and Bryce is gone and they don't when he'll be back! If we could only get ahold of him, he'd have an idea what to do!" Well we chuckled a second and then Mr. G told Ben I was sitting right there listening too! So I asked Ben "when the brakes wouldn't release was he pushing down on the yellow or the green button?"  He immediately yelled "the damn brake button! right here beside me, oh there are two of them. What's the difference?" I told him that "the yellow one is the one that he's supposed to use, but in an emergency with no air pressure you push and hold the green one and it will allow you to get the bus safely off the road! And that sounded like that was his brake problem earlier. So what is the problem with the transmission?" He said "well everything was working fine until I stopped for this R. R. Crossing, but now the bus won't go. It just sits here and won't even pull. I've made everybody get off the bus and there are police officers here blocking traffic from behind. But they said we're gonna have to call a wrecker and get it off these tracks NOW!" I asked Ben "do you still have the door open?" He said "what difference does it make?" Mr. G asked again "Ben do you have the door open?" Ben started screaming at us yelling "I've been driving buses longer than the two of you have been alive, and the damn door has nothing to do with it!" Mr. G was blood red in the face, but calmly said "Ben close the door" Ben started screaming "The damn door ain't got nothin' to do with it, I'll just tell these officers to call whoever and you can deal with them" I told Ben "Hey Ben just to humor us try closing the door" He said "Ok but I'm telling you........ OK thanks chat with YA"LL later" CLICK! Mr. G was PISSED, but couldn't help laughing with me after a moment! He finally said "see what kinda day care I run here! LOL!" It wasn't that the transmission was bad, it was the safety feature that would not let the engine accelerate while the door was open (Ben didn't notice that the engine wasn't speeding up, and at IDLE it couldn't pull the tires out of the dip & over the track). I've also seen them where the brake would set if the door was open, or where they would not go in gear with the door open or the other way around where the door would not open with it in gear! FWIW
  BK 

[buswarrior]

Funny how far a little familiarization training on a piece of new equipment might go...!

When the artics arrived in big transit here, over 20 years ago now, the powers that be said "it's a bus, they're bus drivers, get to it!"  Well, the number of collisions with hinge swing and tail swing...

An expensive bit of arrogance, at taxpayers expence.

Always a good idea to get some qualified help to show us first...

happy coaching!
buswarrior

[eaglekelly]

Thanks everyone. I wonder why the former owner bothered to mount the control on the new dash if it wasn't connected. I've only tried operating it while parked but I dont hear any valves operating. I'll tear into it and if there's no air pressure applied to it I'll just remove it. I've got some nice walnut that will improve the look of the dash.

[Dallas]

I know what it is! it's actually a switch to operate the ejection mechanism..... it has a thingy in the drivers seat and when activated it slices open the drivers wallet and ejects whatever cash and plastic all over the road!

[Busted Knuckle]

Funny how far a little familiarization training on a piece of new equipment might go...!

When the artics arrived in big transit here, over 20 years ago now, the powers that be said "it's a bus, they're bus drivers, get to it!"  Well, the number of collisions with hinge swing and tail swing...

An expensive bit of arrogance, at taxpayers expence.

Always a good idea to get some qualified help to show us first...

happy coaching!
buswarrior

BW It's funny that you mention that! The day Mr. G brought the first Setra he bought home he started asking me "what's this? what does this do?, how does this work? Etc? Etc?" I told him "I didn't know but give me a little time & I'll figure it out!" Then he hand me a VHS tape that has SETRA TRAINING VIDEO on it, and says "oh, by the way they gave me this too!" (DUH!) So I took it and watch it, and was really impressed! I mean seriously I thought it was well done, and very informative! (and I am the one who usually says wake me up when it's over about training videos!). Anyway the next day I told Mr. G that he needed to have all the drivers watch it, BEFORE taking the SETRA out on a trip. He said thats a good idea. Well dad came by that evening to help me with something and I told him I had a video we needed to watch. I microwaved some popcorn and we watched the video together. Dad thought it was great too. And asked would it be OK if he took it home and had mom make an extra copy of it? I said shoot while shes making copies ask her to make about 5-6 of them. She did and they brought them to me, and I gave them to Mr. G and told him "here's 6 copies of that video, have all the drivers take one home and watch it!" He said he would. But he never did, because the drivers all constantly called me during all hrs ask stupid stuff they would know if they watched the video! I finally ended up grabbing the extra copies from his office one day and still have them. Anytime a potential driver asks for an application from us I give them a copy of the video to watch and bring back with the application. So far the couple drivers I have had watch it have told me it's an excellent source of information. I just sent one home today with a driver (he used to own the buses dad & I started out driving, before he sold out to Mr. G) who's gonna start driving my bus some to give me more time to spend building business!
FWIW   BK