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Old 05-21-2019, 08:31 PM   #1
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Location: Charlotte NC
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Year: 1992
Engine: Caterpillar 3116
Angry I did something massively stupid

Hello Everyone,
I am coming to this Forum after doing something that I can't believe I did. Please go easy on me but any insight is greatly appreciated. I cut the econocruise speed limiter out. I did it thinking it was something related to bus signal lights and was no longer needed. The engine by the way is a caterpillar 3116. I attempted to wire it back in today but while it says it has power it does not ever indicate that it has a signal. Have I ruined my bus?
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Old 05-21-2019, 11:40 PM   #2
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I don't have anything useful to add here, but so I can follow along, please indicate what the make, model and year of your bus is.
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Old 05-22-2019, 07:39 AM   #3
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Shouldn't be that big of a deal, hook the throttle cable back up to the injection pump and eliminate the speed limiter altogether.
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Old 05-22-2019, 06:35 PM   #4
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Thumbs up Quick Update on what's going on

For the person that asked for more information on the bus it is a 1992 Thomas MVP-ER with a Caterpillar 3116 and an AT545. So after a night of feeling hopeless about the big mistake I made, I have come to my senses and decided that not all is lost and whatever was done can be undone. I am getting advice from a few different people, some that say just reattach the unit and some are saying by pass it all together and take it out of the mix. I would love to get some more information on the second option. How would that work? I imagine I will have to remove some more wiring to do that properly. Is that safe for the engine? For those of you in the camp that says reattach it. Does anyone have a good idea about how this thing works as a whole? and furthermore can you identify what the five wires that are coming out of the unit would be? I no longer am worried that I ruined my bus, I just made a mistake and now need to undo it or find a different solution. I would appreciate any insight you wish to give.
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Old 05-23-2019, 11:28 AM   #5
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a 3116 cat is an all mechanical motor. If that is a speed limiter, it will go between your foot and the injection pump on the engine. Usually, they intercept the throttle cable from the pedal, run that over to this box, and this box then has a 2nd cable that goes to the pump. Normally, the throttle cable can simply be removed from this box, reattached to the pump, and your back on the road.

Take some pictures at various angles of where this box was, the top of your engine, and under the dash near the throttle pedal. Take some pictures of the end of the wires themselves.

Are you sure that isn't a cruise control device? econocruise made those as well and they've been long out of business for anybody to check.
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Old 05-23-2019, 01:34 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Booyah45828 View Post
a 3116 cat is an all mechanical motor. If that is a speed limiter, it will go between your foot and the injection pump on the engine. Usually, they intercept the throttle cable from the pedal, run that over to this box, and this box then has a 2nd cable that goes to the pump. Normally, the throttle cable can simply be removed from this box, reattached to the pump, and your back on the road.

Take some pictures at various angles of where this box was, the top of your engine, and under the dash near the throttle pedal. Take some pictures of the end of the wires themselves.

Are you sure that isn't a cruise control device? econocruise made those as well and they've been long out of business for anybody to check.
Thank you! I am pretty sure it is a speed limiter. There is no controls for cruise control in the drivers area. Could you think of any adverse effects that removing the speed limiter could have on the engine?
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Old 05-23-2019, 03:18 PM   #7
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No, as long as you're smart enough to understand that the faster you go the harder the engine works.

All it does is keep your top speed below a set mph.
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Old 06-10-2019, 09:28 PM   #8
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Talking Another update and call for help

Thank you Booyah45828
Ok, so another day of the saga in the books I thought now would be a pretty good time to update you all on what my progress is and ask for some more instructions.
The econocruise system has a total five wires running into the unit (See first two attachments). If I go into the engine bay I see that three of those wires are coming from the front of the bus and two of them are going back from the unit towards the engine. One is running into this actuator (see attached) and from there going into the engine via cable that controls the amount of fuel the engine is getting. The other I will need to investigate. I didn't get a good chance to look at this picture until I got home.
Is it really as simple as finding and connecting the wires from the accelerator into the unit to the one going out of the unit to the actuator. Does that whole system need to be eliminated? I am pretty new to all this so the more in depth you can be with you explanation the better. Any advice is very appreciated and I will keep updating everyone on what is going on. Also included is a couple of pictures of the accelerator pedal both topside and bottom side. I am going to do some research on how this system works but haven't been able to yet.
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Old 06-11-2019, 09:26 AM   #9
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Ah! See you have an RE bus so therefore this is different.

What you show in picture 4 and 5 is an air throttle pedal.

What is the box at the top left of picture #3?

Where do the wires all go that you show in picture #2?
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Old 06-11-2019, 11:15 AM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by robdaug View Post
Thank you Booyah45828
The econocruise system has a total five wires running into the unit (See first two attachments). If I go into the engine bay I see that three of those wires are coming from the front of the bus and two of them are going back from the unit towards the engine. One is running into this actuator (see attached) and from there going into the engine via cable that controls the amount of fuel the engine is getting. The other I will need to investigate. I didn't get a good chance to look at this picture until I got home.
Is it really as simple as finding and connecting the wires from the accelerator into the unit to the one going out of the unit to the actuator. Does that whole system need to be eliminated? I am pretty new to all this so the more in depth you can be with you explanation the better. Any advice is very appreciated and I will keep updating everyone on what is going on. Also included is a couple of pictures of the accelerator pedal both topside and bottom side. I am going to do some research on how this system works but haven't been able to yet.
What you're calling wires is actually more then that. Each "wire" you refer to is actually a bundle of wires.

In your first picture, it looks to me that one towards the bottom might be a speed signal wire, I would guess that is the one with the metal sheathing around it. See where it leads to.

The rest of the wires look like they probably either receive or supply power.

I'm going to assume the top most bundle probably supplies the box with power, ground, and key on.

What's odd is that your throttle pedal is air actuated(Looks that way) and yet I don't see anywhere where the air enters the picture at.

See if you can take some pictures on the side of the engine where the cable attaches.
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