| Author |
Message |
R TERRY (207.230.144.240)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, September 10, 2004 - 10:40 pm: | |
For a little while during the Labor Day holiday, I stood behind the RTS with the engine compartment door up, the transmission side-door open, grease up to my elbows on both arms, and transmission fluid streaming onto the ground.
My mother, for lack of anything else to do, was keeping me company while I worked on the bus. After I explained what was going on, she said, “RT, you are sure lucky.”
Apparently, but I am not so sure.
The bus had been sitting for the past year exactly where I had parked it, in semi-storage in the lot behind my mom’s house in San Simon, AZ, right next to the GM 4905. During that time, it had been overtaken by weeds and began sinking into the soil. On a previous visit, I attempted to move the bus to remedy this neglectful situation but it failed to budge, unable to propel itself forward or backward even one inch. At first I thought it was too deeply stuck in the ruts from the tires being half buried in the dirt. Later I realized the RTS had a transmission problem and wasn’t about to go anywhere.
This is a curious coincidence, one that prompted my mother’s comment.
In my zeal to have an RTS, I had bid on a Phoenix Transit “throwaway”. (Any perfectly good bus with a 6V92TA that sells for less than a thousand bucks is, in my opinion, being thrown away!). Until the time of purchase, there was no way of knowing what condition the bus was in except for the brief description painted on the windshield —“RUNS”—, and what could be observed from a visual inspection (hardly anything).
As luck would have it, it ran well enough to drive home and then, several months later, be taken on a 250-mile trip through the Arizona desert to San Simon. However, all this time it remained an unknown entity: It came with no maintenance records, no documentation of any kind except for the Bill of Sale and an application for a new title, and the tires had been labeled as “junk” by Phoenix Transit. I never had it serviced nor inspected other than to check the fluid levels, and it leaked air all over the place. I never even put fuel in it.
The curious thing is, the RTS is now sitting exactly where I had wanted it, and not one foot farther. What’s curious about that is, it would not have gone one foot farther. Had San Simon been another ten miles down the road, or had my mother lived in, say, Lordsburg, NM, I wouldn’t have made it. I would have been stranded alongside the highway with a disabled bus in the middle of nowhere.
So, last weekend, after transferring most of the engine grease to my arms, I found the problem, along with this useful information: With the engine running, the bus can pump a gallon of transmission fluid out onto the ground in less than a minute. (There’s no difference between that and taking a wad of money out of your pocket and throwing it into the wind.)
It’s my guess that this particular problem is rather unusual, although it appears to be an easy fix. A cylindrical device with transmission hoses on the top and bottom —a heat exchanger, maybe?—located in the right rear corner of the engine compartment completely split in two, dropping the lower hose section onto the engine cradle, emptying its fluid contents and that of the transmission.
Mom seemed to appreciate the good fortune that came with this messy predicament. In spite of all possible odds, and irrespective of its unknown maintenance history and complete lack thereof on my part, the RTS had made it to its precise destination BEFORE it broke down.
Mom said I was lucky.
I have another word for it: STUPID.
R TERRY |
Marc Bourget (209.142.38.81)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, September 11, 2004 - 5:50 am: | |
I think you're been too hard on yourself.
Quesstion now is, what are you going to do about your "stupidity"
Funny, I missed the criteria page on this BB where it says you have to buy a $10K bus for $1K or less or you're stupid.
Forrest Gump said something like "Stupid is as Stupid Does" and you screwed that up by finding the problem and exhibiting sufficient knowledge to determine the fix.
Somebody truly stupid couldn't type, operate a computer or perform as stated.
You might have been impetuous, a trait that is one of the great mothers of education. Impetuous may be inefficient but it ain't STOOPID!
The most important part of this post follows:
Onward and Upward
Marc Bourget |
FAST FRED (4.245.218.40)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, September 11, 2004 - 6:11 am: | |
AS a parts source the coach had the good heart to get "home".
Isn't that all that was desired?
FAST FRED |
John that newguy (199.232.244.9)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, September 11, 2004 - 7:28 am: | |
Hey....... Maybe it made it there because it thought you were going to fix it?
"Like a little lamb, to slaughter"
(watta' tear-jerker!) |
BrianMCI96A3 (152.163.100.73)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, September 11, 2004 - 10:08 am: | |
Actually the "cylindrical device" could well be a transmission filter
If it was a burst tranny filter, then it was obvious the filter needed changing for quite a while, it is also possible that the filter might not have burst for a bit if the bus hadn't sat for a while.
Hopefully changing the filter (if it is one) and refilling the tranny will cure your tranny trouble.
Brian |
madbrit (67.136.80.237)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, September 11, 2004 - 2:42 pm: | |
That "cylindrical thing" sounds like the water to oil transmission cooler I have sitting here, but that has another set of hoses connecting it to the cooling system too.
Peter. |
Jim-Bob (12.46.52.74)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, September 14, 2004 - 11:00 am: | |
I too think it sounds like the cooler. If it has 2 water hoses & 2 oil hoses connected to it. If it is, and it broke, you're still lucky 'cause that's a lot cheaper & easier to fix than a transmission.
By the way, could this have frozen & burst? |
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