| Author | Message | ||
| pete hyser (4501pete)
Rating: N/A |
Well..2 shattered legs later and a close call almost having to sell my bus..it and me have a new lease on life.. which brings me to my problem.. when coasting ot a light pedal the front end starts to hop so badley that i almost loose control. I had a mechanic drive with me and he never saw anything like it. The shocks are 4 years old but only 3000 miles on them. I went to North Carolina and on the way home on RT 85 it started..i was going a bit fast..85..lol and hit a rather large dip in the road.. and it has gotten progressivly worse..i have been tole that the shocks are fine.. any ideas? pete | ||
| RJ Long (Rjlong)
Rating: N/A |
Lots of possibilities: Wheel lost balance weights Tire has a bubble Broken shock mount Blown shock internally Kingpins Tie rod ends Slop in steering box Slop in prop shaft between steering box and base of steering column Just for starters. . . Might get someone to go with you in a chase vehicle and video tape the front end to see what's happening. Use an industrial park area on the weekend when there's no traffic. Good luck, and let us know what you find! RJ PD4106-2784 Fresno CA | ||
| niles steckbauer (Niles500)
Rating: N/A |
Pete - I'd take it in for a front end alignment - in the process they will inspect almost everthing up front anyway - JMTC - Niles | ||
| pete hyser (4501pete)
Rating: N/A |
its going to lukes in a few weeks...bernie and billy couoldnt figure it out.. thanks pete | ||
| sylverstone (Sylverstone_pd4501864)
Rating: N/A |
nice cruiser pete.  glad to hear things are looking up for you. my first thought when reading this was "you need to call luke". my second is that it's a tire. a car with a broken belt, tire coming apart, bulge in a tire, etc. will behave *exactly* in this manner. keeping in mind that an airbag is nothing more than a high pressure, reshaped bouncy ball. the shocks keep the rig from being a pogo stick, but they aren't designed to deal with an out of round tire. (if they were it would ride like a solid tired forklift) off the assembly line, the cruiser was about a 21k/8k weight balance, and it's likely that almost everything that's been done was adding more to the rear than the front, just because of the way the bus is built. that's a lot of leverage. if you think it's okay to drive it to test, then grab a mechanically inclined buddy to chase you in a car, and have him tell ya which side is doing it. (should be really really obvious) or take it to a truck tire shop and have both the front tires looked at. a jack and a piece of chalk should tell you really quickly what the problem is if you're up to jacking up the front end and spinning a tire or two. if you can afford it, take it to a truck tire shop and get both the front wheels balanced, the bad one should be pretty obvious when they're not on the bus. good luck -dd | ||
| John MC9 Rating: N/A |
"I went to North Carolina and on the way home on RT 85 it started..i was going a bit fast..85..lol and hit a rather large dip in the road.. and it has gotten progressivly worse" Knock the leveler out of adjustment, didja? Kinda' like riding a porpoise? | ||
| David Hartley (Drdave)
Rating: N/A |
Check air pressure in tires including the tag axle. My MC9 was starting to bounce and I corrected it by putting the front tires at 120 and the Tags at 120. Somehow a very slow leak dropped the pressures just enough to let the front end start to bounce at 70.. That fixed it. If you lose pressure on the tag the cruiser front end will hop, bob and weave because it takes a lot of the weight off the front end. Like a big lever action there... You could have a weight balance problem and with the cruiser there is a lot of overhang way behind the drive axle. You may have found the C.O.G. without knowing it. The Tag pushes down on the front end using the drive axle as the pivot point. | ||
| pete hyser (4501pete)
Rating: N/A |
yea john..like an orca or kujo on roids..lol we had a problem with the back levelers..dropped at 65 on the pa turnpike..that was fun.. the cop walked over to the door...said "what the hell is this? " saw i had 2 casts on my feet ...shook his head and mumbled something about being close to getting off for the day and drove away..lmao true story | ||
| John MC9 Rating: N/A |
I'm just a novice at all this, but I've driven buses with bad levelers,and they can start bouncing like that with the slightest shift of weight. When you mentioned hitting that dip in the road (who was it, btw?) I wondered if a leveler rod may have dislodged, or had it's adjustment changed due to the impact. Just a thought...... | ||
| RJ Long (Rjlong)
Rating: N/A |
Speaking of levelers, we had a bus at the transit fleet I worked for that the driver kept writing up for a front end shimmy at 35-40 mph. After balancing the tires, replacing the tires, doing a front brake job, replacing the shocks, a front end alignment, another set of tires, and a third try at balancing, somebody on the lube rack noticed that the front air bellows seemed "taller" than normal. That led to a journeyman checking the ride height, and discovering that the leveling valve was set way too high. Reset the ride height, and the shimmy went away. The shop spent a lot of money on something that was really a simple solution. All that to say, check the leveling valves for all axles to see that the ride height is set correctly. In addition to all the other stuff mentioned by others. . . Good Luck! | ||
| morgan Clough (Mclough777)
Rating: N/A |
i would just issue one word of caution here. Im not mechanically inclined BUT if it is a front tire problem doNOT drive it. i expericenced a blow out of the front drivers side tire and i pray to GOD that i never have to go through that again. i went clear across 2 lanes of traffic and almost over the embankment before manhandling it back to breakdown lane. almost a mile ride while doing this. morgan | ||
| pete hyser (4501pete)
Rating: N/A |
the tires have less then 1000 miles on them..i got them new...it was fine until i hit that dip in the road..my bet is a leveler or i did blow out the shocks...needless to say ...i KNOW now that my 4501 will do 85 or 90..ill not do it again.. | ||
| Craig (Ceieio)
Rating: N/A |
Pete - that might have been enough to break a belt, like others have mentioned. Look for distortion in the tread face and /or a bulge in the sidewall just to be safe. | ||
| sylverstone (Sylverstone_pd4501864)
Rating: N/A |
pete: you mean your tag axle stowage and so on actually works? (my airbags in the back are all strung together on both sides, so i'm not sure the porposing is somethng mine will do?) -dd | ||
| pete hyser (4501pete)
Rating: N/A |
its comming from the front..the tires are fine..they were looked at.. air bags in the tag actually do work..lol everything works.. ahhhh luke will get it..lol |