Rock My Soul: 2001 Thomas MVP ER

[Tango]

Galvanized is great stuff. Just make sure to etch it thoroughly before putting any paint on.

[ism minerals]

Put some more panels up, these were put up by my wife and myself. We now have the almost full sized sheets left almost 10 ft long. We called some friends and really got a lot done. Only the front panels are left, we are waiting for some insulted RV windows, but the front will be large; so we have to do some work fitting them before we can continue.

Only had one set back, once the rivets were removed the roof rain guard bowed out a bit, we used a # 10 screw to bring bow back in. we forgot to remove the screw and it left a gap, which the rivets did not like. about 15 rivets needed to be drilled, removed, and reinstalled. Lesson learned

[ism minerals]

Originally Posted by Tango

Galvanized is great stuff. Just make sure to etch it thoroughly before putting any paint on.

Thanks Tango, going to use Orpho (spelling) on it before primering it. Will also use a self etch primer to help on that. Then comes some paint, then hopefully we can registrar as an RV and work on it at our house.

[nat_ster]

Looking great.

I would never buy non galvanized sheet steel again after using galvanized.

Nat

[ism minerals]

Ok finally got all the sheet metal up and started sealing the roof joints.
The alternator bearing decided it did not want to run anymore. So picked up a new alternator off ebay and changed most of the belts on the motor. What a pain in the butt, something i am guessing should have took 1 hour at most turned into a all day project. The water pump belt was a pain, who they heck designs these things. The lower front motor mount was too close to the harmonic balancer and the belt had to be just right to slide past. Anyhow, i need to replace the fan belt and the tensioner. Anyone know a good place to get the tensioner for the fan, i can not seem to find it anywhere. Seems the air operated fan is disconnected also, but i will save that for a later date, it works when there is no air supplied to it. Maybe a rebuild kit for the fan when i get a chance to tackle it.

Here is the question, it seems the bus will not start now, no crank. The transmission key pad does not light up when the key is on, is this due to moving the bus with no alternator ( a couple of hundred feet)? the batteries are fully charged now. Is there a way to reset it that anyone knows?

[nat_ster]

Wiggle the transmission shifter while trying to crank the engine. The lockout may be stuck.

Nat

[ism minerals]

Nat,

thank you for the advise , but it is a push button type. Read somewhere to jump the starter solenoid it may reset the the computers. darn i should have went all mechanical. Oh well it will give me the motivation to remove all the safety interlocks.

[nat_ster]

Sorry, I looked, but didn't see you had the 3000 series trans.

Could it just be a start solenoid? Most buses have a few between the key and the starter.

Nat

[ism minerals]

Nat,

Hopefully it is and not the transmission keypad or TCU for the Allison. I will jump past all the safety switches and power up the starter to find out. I read somewhere that may fix the issues.

[ism minerals]

Ok got the bus to start. Looked up how to find the trouble codes and reset them. Pretty simple, press the up and down arrows first and then press and hold in the mode button. It went right into N and shifted as it should


if anyone needs the owner manual pm me

[EastCoastCB]

Good stuff! Victory!

[Dragonpop]

I talked to one transmission shop one time and he said that with the right
key combination you could force the trans to upshift into sixth gear but only
on certain md3060s. Does yours have sixth gear opened up? Just ran mine up
the freeway yesterday and 2000 rpm puts me at 65 mph in 5th gear.

[Scooternj]

Originally Posted by Dragonpop

I talked to one transmission shop one time and he said that with the right
key combination you could force the trans to upshift into sixth gear but only
on certain md3060s. Does yours have sixth gear opened up? Just ran mine up
the freeway yesterday and 2000 rpm puts me at 65 mph in 5th gear.

Might just be easier to get in touch with Allison and get their authorization to get 6th unlocked

[ism minerals]

Dragon,

I will have to look into that.

But the allison shop is close by and have a friend of a friend working there, so once this thing gets painted, off to the shop I go. Well unless I can find the key combo.

I am glad it was something stupid and an easy fix though.

[ism minerals]

Looking for info on changing the regulator type on a leece type alternator. I want to change it from self excite fixed voltage to remote sense. Is it as easy as replacing the regulator, or is there internals that need to be changed?

[RHOMBUS]

PM comin' your way for owner's manual. I have pretty much the exact same bus.

I approve of the window treatment ;)

[nat_ster]

Originally Posted by ism minerals

Looking for info on changing the regulator type on a leece type alternator. I want to change it from self excite fixed voltage to remote sense. Is it as easy as replacing the regulator, or is there internals that need to be changed?

If your bus was mechanical, I could answer that.

However, your bus has a computer. So hopefully someone else will know the answer to your question.

Nat

[ism minerals]

Originally Posted by nat_ster

If your bus was mechanical, I could answer that.

However, your bus has a computer. So hopefully someone else will know the answer to your question.

Nat

Nat,

I think it would be the same, or am I missing something. I want dual alts eventually, and would purchase a controller for both. I would like to keep the alternators internal regulation system though, just make it the remote sense type for the external controller. It would be nice to run a split unit ac off an inverter going down the road and not taxing a single alt too much or running the generator.

[ism minerals]

Its been a while since I posted. We moved from NJ to NH, new jobs and all that good stuff. Rock My Soul has been sitting at a friends shop for a while. Just got new batteries and all the goodies for an oil change. The belt tensioner (Fenner drive) for the fan belt had a stripped bolt and would not hold properly, luckily ebay had one for a great price. Pretty weird tensioner though. We put some 4'' round LED lights in place of the old turn and brake lights. The front turn signal lights were a nightmare, as the panels were thick steel. Tried everything and ended up needing a plasma cutter to get it done. We are trying to get the rv windows cut in and some bracing welded in to screw the windows to Next time we go back down. We have 5 gallons of Sherwin Williams black auto paint and 2 gallons of epoxy primer ( mostly for the galvanized metal), what ever is left will be used on the bus panels. NH was awesome for registering the bus . Hopefully be driving it up to NH in a month or so.

[dan-fox]

Originally Posted by ism minerals

Its been a while since I posted. We moved from NJ to NH, new jobs and all that good stuff.

NH was awesome for registering the bus . Hopefully be driving it up to NH in a month or so.

Good to hear about NH! I will be moving to Keene in a year or so and hope to have a bus by then to bring with me.