New Member!! Just bought a bus!

[dzalinsky]

Hey everyone! Future Skoolie owner here!
My buddy and I finally found a bus that we wanted. Its a 1999 International 3800 with a DT466e and an AT545 trans(previous owner told us it was the MT643) So we will be making that swap in the future. Just wanted to say hi and glad to be a part of this community!

[Oldyeller]

Welcome to the forum. Nice find.

Re. the trans, you don't have to worry about it until there's something to worry about. Folks here that run them will tell you how to get the most and best out of the 545.

I was looking for your location. Take a minute to add that to your info. so we can tell where you are.

[dzalinsky]

Thanks it too a while to find around my area. Paid $5k for it 181k on the dash.
My main concern about the trans was taking it on trips around the country and flat towing behind it. While driving it home it wasnt happy with the hills on the highway. Thats a major safety concern of mine.

[Oldyeller]

Originally Posted by dzalinsky

Thanks it too a while to find around my area. Paid $5k for it 181k on the dash.
My main concern about the trans was taking it on trips around the country and flat towing behind it. While driving it home it wasnt happy with the hills on the highway. Thats a major safety concern of mine.

Where in Jersey? I'm in near Lake Hopatcong.

Did you buy the bus in Jersey? If yes, did you crawl under it to check for rust?

181,000 on a DT466 is just getting started assuming it's been properly maintained.

Re. the 545, there are folks here that run them and know how to keep them healthy for as long as possible. If yours is healthy then you may as well take care of it and get as much use out of it as you can before you go through the work and expense of swapping. I assume one or more of them will comment when they see this thread.

In terms of your drive home, it's possible problems in hills had to do with rear end ratio as much as with the tranny. Without knowing more about your experience it's hard to be sure of anything.

[dzalinsky]

Im down by Trenton.
I bought the bus out in Wernersville, PA. The guy who had it stripped the interior already so that saves me a lot of demo work. He said it was used to help people learn how to drive a school bus. Never used as an actual school bus.
I did check under the bus. I had a lot of surface rust.
The only rough spots were before and after the rear wheels. A quarter size rust hole on both sides. He had already patched the floor near the wheels. Besides that no other rust on the interior floor.
Yeah ill have to deepdive to see what gears are in the rear. And on the 2hour ride home it had a hard time coming out of 1st into 2nd.
Also after poking through some posts it seems like my bus is governed at 60mph at 2600rpms.

[cadillackid]

did you verify its in fact an AT545 and not a MT643 with a broken spring in the valve body which defuncts the lock-up function?

[dzalinsky]

Yeah I found a post on here that showed the physical differences between the two. Its definitely the AT545.

[Oldyeller]

Originally Posted by dzalinsky

Im down by Trenton.
I bought the bus out in Wernersville, PA. The guy who had it stripped the interior already so that saves me a lot of demo work. He said it was used to help people learn how to drive a school bus. Never used as an actual school bus.
I did check under the bus. I had a lot of surface rust.
The only rough spots were before and after the rear wheels. A quarter size rust hole on both sides. He had already patched the floor near the wheels. Besides that no other rust on the interior floor.
Yeah ill have to deepdive to see what gears are in the rear. And on the 2hour ride home it had a hard time coming out of 1st into 2nd.
Also after poking through some posts it seems like my bus is governed at 60mph at 2600rpms.

Hanging shifts is one of those little tidbits of information folks need to provide good feedback. Maybe you'll get lucky and the question CaddilacKid asked will lead you to a happy discovery - one can hope.

[cadillackid]

the Max RPM of the DT466 is 2600, so its not governed there. you are just out of Gears.. there's no computer governer you can set to give you more speed.. you'll either have to swap to an Overdrive trans or re-gear the rear end.



if all of your shifts are having trouble at light throttle its possible your modulator has stuck engaged, 1-2 and 2-1 shifts going berzerk were the first signs when one of my 545's failed.. I probably couldve rebuilt the valve body and saved it but I hated the transmssion from day 1 so I did a trans swap before it became undriveable..

[dzalinsky]

Okay Ill have to dig around to see what I have in the rear.
Yeah im not really looking to dump time or resources into this trans. I dont mind spending the time and money to swap it out for the MT643 in the future. There is no rush since im planning on a year for this full skoolie conversion.
Thanks for the info though. Appreciate it.