Wheel Chair Lift Removal

[Dwyn]

The Wheel Chair lift in my bus runs off of electricity even though I bought it with the remote missing...which I know cause I blew the fuse.

My question is: When I remove it...Which I'm currently attempting to do...How do I remove it without damaging important wiring to the bus?

Because this whole bus is designed to survive Armageddon basically and there's trap after trap. Everything is connected to everything. If I take out the wheel chair lift, will something else decide it can't work anymore? And how do I avoid that if that's the case?

 

[Corbi]

Wheelchair lift

There are builders on this site that know more about this than I. My lift was wired in at purchase. You can follow the hot wire that goes underneath the vehicle into the engine compartment where it should be attached to a 30 amp fuse block. it may have a rubber covering. I think if you just remove the wire from the fuse block, you should be OK to remove other wiring. Make sure you unhook the negative wires from both battery terminals.

 

[HamSkoolie]

There should be a safety interlock (or several) in the system. There are probably many throughout your bus.
You need to determine if the switches on the lift and lift door provide (or break) a ground (most likely), or a powered circuit (less likely) to tell the system the door is open or the lift not stowed.
If they provide a ground then you simply attach that wire to a ground and you're good.
If they break a ground then removing the wire is all you need do.


Most likely the system is designed so that the stowed position provides a ground and the open door or deployed lift opens the ground and that signal tells the interlock system to prevent gear shifting, engine starting, sound an alarm, or whatever the spec was.
This provides that if the circuit is damaged and the ground is broken it will activate the interlock. If designed so that the stowed position breaks a ground then a damaged circuit could be interpreted as a stowed and safe condition thus defeating the purpose of the interlock.


I used to work on E350 transit buses with lifts and I've designed and installed replacement interlock systems when the fancy (and expensive) circuit boards failed.

 

[EastCoastCB]

the handi buses I've had I do like Corbi says- disconnect the big power cable to the unit then remove it.
FWIW- after removing 3 or 4 of these I've found the easiest way is to deploy the unit, get at the bolts and grind off the ones I can't get at then pull the pins off the arms/pivots and take it apart. Easier to handle the pieces than the whole unit.

 

[HamSkoolie]

As for the power to the lift.


Address the safety interlocks FIRST. Once they are taken out of the circuitry and the bus will still start, shift, and the brake will release.......


DISCONNECT THE BATTERIES



Then pull out the lift.


Remove any unnecessary wiring including the heavy gauge wire to the lift unless it will be repurposed in that area.


Reconnect the batteries.


You SHOULD NOT attempt to disconnect an energized heavy gauge cable except at the battery(ies)