| Author | Message | ||
| Gary Stadler (Boogiethecat)
Rating: N/A |
My Crown has (had) this annoying habit... the engine has to come to a complete stop before it will restart, if the ignition switch is momentarily turned off while driving. For example if I need to turn the key off, even for the tiniest moment, to reset the tach or speedo electronics while I'm driving, etc, the engine dies and won't restart until it completely stops turning and sits in that state for a few seconds. Uncomfortable situations sometimes arise from this, because I occasionally forget that it will occur and find myself in a sticky scenerio having to pull over and wait for the engine to restart. The culprit is the fuel shutoff solenoid on the PT fuel pump- it's actually one of it's design features (screwups?)- it will close but under active fuel pressure it will not reopen. Ebay to the rescue... I recently bought a very thorough "PT Fuel Pump Rebuilding and Calibration" manual and going thru it I found a little section on just this problem. Seems it kinda ticked off Fire departments because their engines need to often be stopped and started instantly, and the wait was potentially dangerous... So Cummins answered the problem with a little kit, part number AR-5592, a "high pressure fuel shutdown" kit that enables the fuel solenoid to open against high fuel pressures as would be seen if the engine is still spinning. It's still a current part number, and consists of a spacer, a new pair of valve plates, some screws, etc. Took me about 5 minutes to install it, and guess what? Turn the ignition off and back on again and the engine keeps running !! Wheeee @@ The kit is about $125 but I see it as cheap insurance to keep me out of potential trouble.. If any of you Crown guys want to get one, call your Cummins dealer & buy one, and email me, I'll email you the simple instructions to install it. Cheers | ||
| R.C.Bishop
Rating: N/A |
Gary......Thanx.....I think...????? (why in the world would I want to turn off the engine while I am driving, I ask myself.....my self said..dunno!) KISS and save $125....  RCB '64 Crown | ||
| Gary Stadler (Boogiethecat)
Rating: N/A |
Had a great trip this weekend, and found yet another reason to turn off the engine while underway, and have it come back on without pulling over... As I was driving out near San Bernardino where the winds get pretty thick, the bus started pulling to the right. Wind, I thought. But then it seemed a lot more "tug" than usual in winds, and when I got out of the area I still found myself fighting the steering wheel to keep the bus from making a hairpin right turn on the freeway... Hmmm what the heck? I thought of all the things it could be and then it occured to me that maybe the power steering had failed. So when I got to a place on the freeway that I could safely coast for a bit, I put the clutch in and turned off the engine, and low and behold, the bus straightened out and the fight went instantly away. Let the clutch out and fired up the engine again and there was the fight back. So what ended up is that the power steering blew a seal in its control valve, and from there it thought I was wanting to turn right all the time. I was fighting the hydraulic ram to keep it going straight. In 5 minutes under the bus re-arranging the hydraulic lines, I had the power steering system bypassed (I disconnected the lines to the ram and reconnected them so the ram looped to itself and the control valve looped to itself, disabling the system while still keeping oil from getting all over the road)and the rest of the trip was a bit more "armstrong steering" than usual, but not dangerous anymore. Nice that I can now turn the motor off and on again without penalty, and nicer yet that Crowns are so simple to mess with.... Simple is good. Flexibility is better! The $125 was well worth it~ | ||
| R.C.Bishop
Rating: N/A |
Gary....I'm praying for you....that does not sound so "simple".....Hope my Crown does not present me with such....might trade it in for another make. Then again....maybe not. Meantime, we keep on goin'. Wrotsa Wruk! RCB | ||
| Gary Stadler (Boogiethecat)
Rating: N/A |
Well, if you have the older power assist steering that uses a ram instead of the one that's built into the steering gear box, you might expect something like this someday. This is the second unit that's crapped out on me although the first time it was a different failure mode. It's just "stuff" that I feel you should expect when running a 43 year old bus... heavens, that's an old machine, considering how well mine runs most the time, this is a no-biggie. I carry all my tools so stuff like this is just a few minutes to fix and get safely back on the road again... Thanks for the prayers but all I need is a good set of wrenches and what's left of my 56 year old brain... | ||
| R.C.Bishop
Rating: N/A |
Guess I just take all that into consideration in owning a '64.....Lotsa fun, lotsa challenges...lotsa keepin' fingers crossed. A million miles plus about 7,000 and I figure I'm at least even, no matter the odds.... I carry tools as well, but am not about to go into overhaual mode when there comes a problem of major significance....that's why I carry Insurance....$89 per year, for all our vehicles....have used it on each...and it works....four years now into the program and no problems with the carrier. As for me.....KISS.... FWIW RCB '64 Crown Supercoach (HWC) | ||
| Henry R. Bergman, Jr. (Henryofcj)
Rating: N/A |
Gary...about (almost?) (kinda?) the same thing happened to me with my '74 10-wheeler. My Victor's VT42 power steering pump blew up (well, actually it got really really hot and threw out a BUNCH of oil and was actually screaming) and my power assist power steering (usually very very powerful) became not power assist completly. Naturally I failed to bring along any kind of emergency tool kit which I should have brought along. I was traveling from Bakersfield CA to Cave Junction OR. This happened going thru Sacramento on I5 Northbound going to Oregon. What to do? I NEVER would have figured on just looping the two (2) long hydralic hoses leading from the pump all the way up to the front of the Crown to the power assist power steering cylinder. Anyway, I did not have a tool kit (did I already say that?...duh!!!) soooos I whipped out my trusty Gerber tool and just cut (destroyed) the two (2) brand new Gates expensive power steering belts and drove the Banana Boat (her name!) the rest of the way to the land of freedom...the Oregon Republic without power assist power steering. No big deal. I do not remember any pulling to the left or right or any particular pulling at all: the only difference was the steering was a little bit (well, maybe a little bit more than a little bit) harder at low speeds. At 80 mph I could not tell the difference. Do you realize how $expensive$ Crown power assist power steering pumps are? AAUUUGHHHHH!! Anyway, after a bunch of $$$$$ I changed out the blown up Victors' VT42 right hand pump. I also had both long long hoses replaced as they were a little tired looking. Are we having fun yet?? CROWNS FOREVER!!! Henry of CJ | ||
| Gary Stadler (Boogiethecat)
Rating: N/A |
Yeha, yes the Vickers pump in a Crown is outrageous! I looked at a rebuild place once ('cause mine was obnoxiously noisy) and all the pumps they had were in the $200-$400 range EXCEPT the one for the Crown which was $1400... ouch... So I ended up just taking mine apart and rebuilding it, bought new (generic)bearings and seals and lapped the inner vane race with some carbide grit and a 1-1/2" piece of hardened steel tubing chucked in my lathe. It was a bit of a job but I actually got the darned thing smooth and working, quiet, and happy. I added an engine-sized spin-on oil filter to the system to give it a quart more capacity and keep it clean so that damage to the pump wouldn't occur again...tho it probably took 300,000 miles to kill it in the first place... Funn with da Crowns... |