Reviving an MCI project

[Jolly Roger bus 223]

crown guy will know better than me but they do sell an oil with a zinc additiive

[cadillackid]

trans fluid... here is my take on it...



brand new trans fluid has a lot of detergents in it.. those detergents are great for cleaning things up inside the trans.. ie the valve body, solenoids, valves, etc..

BUT
those detergents also do a real nice job of wearing the softened layer off of the clutch frictions right fast.. if thats the only layer left then your frictions are gona and bye bye transmission..



if the fluid is black or dark rown most people want ot change it right quick... well chances are if the fluid is black that transmission is short-lived anyway. so either rebuild it or drive it with the old fluid till it breaks...



if I want to know how much life a trans has left in it i change the fluid and filters and flush it.. then I drive it locally.. if it survives a couple hundred miles of in town driving its likely still a solid unit and will be good.. if it starts slipping.. time to build a new one..

[Mtrdrms]

Well its a manual transmission so I don't think it will hurt to change it.

I finally got around to picking up some 20 ton bottle jacks from harbor freight so now I can jack it up enough to swap a tire and address the air distribution issue.

Do any of you swap your own tires? I mean on and off rims? I have a line some good used tires.

[Seriousracer]

It won’t hurt to change the manual transmission fluid check the cooler if it has one.
Find out if it takes the straight fifty wieght synthetic

Work more on getting your gear change rpm (or road speed) pay attention to it. Our ten speeds have 400 rpm drops while the two stroke nine speed has 300 in the first three and four hundred rpm drops in the next six
Willing to bet the rpm drop on the bus with a five speed is progressive.ie Larger rpm drops in higher gears.

[Mtrdrms]

Ok, that's good to know. I really should get a tachometer.

[kidharris]

Originally Posted by Jolly Roger bus 223

yes i have bought many new to be vehicles and always did a full fluid/filter change and anything i touched like valve covers,oil pans,tranny pans all got cleaned inside and out with a fresh coat of paint to dress it up and i or my son would drive it daily for a month or two to check it out before we post it as good for sale and we only dropped the transmission pans on the ones that had a gasket leak but every pan i dropped and cleaned inside and out had transmission problems in 2-3 months so i had/to sell them as tranny needs replaced,rebuilt and some of the smaller stuff i rebuilt or replaced.
what i have learned is that the metal particles in the pan still flow in the fluid and help cushion the bands in the transmission internals so just because they are in the pan doesnt meen they are waste and need to be cleaned out.
yes and including a stick shift.
my latest was a 77 ford c6 transmission that i thought i was doing good with a fluid filer change and cleaning the pan? dead in a month 1000 dollar fix.
my oldest son at 20 yr old is a ford mechanic now and almost every vehicle they do a tranny flush on older than 2000 wont even move out of the bay.
he says if the newer stuff does its religeous by the book fluid stuff that they dont know how long they wiill last but now ford is sharing motor technology with gm and gm is sharing tranny/allison info with ford?
chevy tranny to use in ford trucks for ford to give info on there eco boost motor to be used iin there corvette

Back in the 60's and 70's this was true, but the problem then was that all of the older stuff ran non detergent oils and cleaning out the insides allowed the crude to fall of in pieces and block oil galleys, etc. Then when you filled it with new detergent oil/fluid it just loosened more crud and made it worse.


Could something like this be happening with the newer stuff?

[EastCoastCB]

Originally Posted by o1marc

I found it strange in the 05 that the clearance lights, that are mandatory, were not on the headlight switch, but had it's own switch to turn them on/off.

All my buses have had a dedicated clearance light switch.

One thing I like- individual wiper knobs for each side.

[Mtrdrms]

Ok, so a few electrical observations. I'm hoping someone here can help while I wait for my bus conversion magazine account to be approved....

When I plug the house battery to the bus (this is used to start the generators) the clearance lights come on. I do not see a dedicated clearance light switch. I believe the chassis electrical is 24v but the house system is 12. Weird.

Once I have the generators running, if I unplug the house battery the generators will die within a minute. I do not see a "converter" to charge the house batteries while the gen is running - is that a problem?

The parking brake activates the rear brake lights. Is that normal? Once I shut down the engine, the brake lights stay on so I have to disconnect the start batteries to get them to turn off - and not kill the batteries.

[Mtrdrms]

Ok, so whats the trick for getting off the lug nuts? I broke a breaker bar, the impact gun doesn't work, I bent a 6' pipe using a torque multiplier. I don't get it...

[o1marc]

Originally Posted by Mtrdrms

Ok, so whats the trick for getting off the lug nuts? I broke a breaker bar, the impact gun doesn't work, I bent a 6' pipe using a torque multiplier. I don't get it...

Still trying to get that done myself. Bought a multiplier and couldn't budge them. Wed I bought a 20v- 1/2" impact (1200PSI) and then spent traveling between 5 stores looking for a 1/2" - 3/4" socket adaptor for the multiplier socket. Finally found one at O'Reilly's for $6. Get home only to find the socket is a 1" drive. Screwit, I just order a 1/2" drive 1-1/2" impact socket.
Guy at the parts store said that they are left hand threads on the left side of the bus. I had never heard this before and got home and checked to see they are not left hand threads.

[Mtrdrms]

Sounds just like my last 2 days! I was able to get 2 off. Heat helped but it took forever with my little hand held propane torch. I'm looking for an oxy torch to borrow...

[Kubla]

make sure there are not little L's stamped on the ends of the studs, those would be left hand threads

[EastCoastCB]

Originally Posted by Kubla

make sure there are not little L's stamped on the ends of the studs, those would be left hand threads

We got a free 1966 Ford school bus locally back when I was a young man. Spent a couple days bending breaker bars and extensions and wasting butane in a torch till we tried spinning them the other way. They were left hand thread on the drivers side and right hand on the passenger side!

[ol trunt]

Lots of fantastic folk lore about transmissions in these posts. What I'd like to know is why, if metal shavings "help cushion the bands" do transmission manufactures include a large magnet in the oil pan to collect such shavings? I 'spose it could be a conspiracy to shorten the life of a transmission---- I don't know.
Jack

[EastCoastCB]

Originally Posted by ol trunt

Lots of fantastic folk lore about transmissions in these posts. What I'd like to know is why, if metal shavings "help cushion the bands" do transmission manufactures include a large magnet in the oil pan to collect such shavings? I 'spose it could be a conspiracy to shorten the life of a transmission---- I don't know.
Jack

IDk if its for that but allison does include a magnet on their 2000 series.

[Mtrdrms]

Well I had to summon the wheel gods (Zeller tire in Torrington) to get the wheel off and swap on my new tire. I guess I only needed a 1" impact gun and 200 psi. Who knew?

On another note, I found a great coach bus scrap yard about an hour away in East Hampton CT. Fowlers auto wrecking. They've got dozens of busses and like-new tires. Apparently they have a deal with the big touring companies to get they're old stuff when they upgrade. Knowledgeable guys too. Recommended.

[Crown_Guy]

Originally Posted by Mtrdrms

Well I had to summon the wheel gods (Zeller tire in Torrington) to get the wheel off and swap on my new tire. I guess I only needed a 1" impact gun and 200 psi. Who knew?

On another note, I found a great coach bus scrap yard about an hour away in East Hampton CT. Fowlers auto wrecking. They've got dozens of busses and like-new tires. Apparently they have a deal with the big touring companies to get they're old stuff when they upgrade. Knowledgeable guys too. Recommended.

See how it goes? I suggested early on that you get a proper truck tire repair guy with a mobile service truck with the air compressor and the default 1" drive 30/40 pound, two handed air impact wrench, and air powered jacks, and let him do it. It's easy that way and he can dismount and re-mount everything right there for you. Pay the man and go on your way. Sometimes it's just plain smarter, faster, and much easier to call the professionals for help and let them do their thing.

It sounds like you've also found a source for parts and expertise as well, very good. This will pay big dividends for you as you go along. I'd also look around for any charter or transit operators who had them in service and may also still have new old stock parts laying around as well as possible mechanics with experience on MCI's. You're going to need these kinds of relationships as you try first locating problems and then fixing them. Things like that Racor Primary fuel filter/water separator needs to be re-mounted correctly pretty early on I'd say for sure.

Scrounging for take off parts in a salvage yard is a very time honored tradition and I do it all the time for my Crowns. Some parts are still available new but others require inspired searching and usually come form "retired" donors, may they RIP. The adventure continues.

[Mtrdrms]

Originally Posted by Crown_Guy

Pay the man and go on your way. Sometimes it's just plain smarter, faster, and much easier to call the professionals for help and let them do their thing.

This is it.

It was the first wheel I ever met that I couldn't pull and swap. Ugh, dam ego is always getting in the way.

[Mtrdrms]

Haven't done a ton to the beast lately but I'm getting better at driving it. A little. Using the clutch to engage one gear to the next is useless. You have to "feel" it into gear while matching engine speed and wheel speed. Ugh, wish this thing was an automatic...

I'm getting the front end looked at this week by a local HD shop. I'm lazy and it's cold out. It also has one leaking airbag.

Will post back after the shop goes through it.

[scooter01922]

Well, thanks to Mtrdrms for deciding to sell this lovely bus its now my project. No 900 mile journey home, only a couple hundred back to Massachusetts. Working on addressing the myriad of things here and there that it needs but overall a great place to start from. I'll make a new thread with my progress and the questions i know i'll have.