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Almost have a Bus -- My Story
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mechanicjay
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 28, 2016 1:43 pm    Post subject: Re: Almost have a Bus -- My Story Reply with quote

I'm confused, are you guys implying this is a swap from a 411/412 rather than an original bus motor?

If so, how can you tell just by a visual?

If so, what does that mean in the grand scheme of things?

--Jason
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jefflewis
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 28, 2016 4:07 pm    Post subject: Re: Almost have a Bus -- My Story Reply with quote

Look for the engine code on the case.
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busdaddy
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 28, 2016 4:16 pm    Post subject: Re: Almost have a Bus -- My Story Reply with quote

The oil filler is a big clue, but the code on the case is the final answer, if it's what I think it is the code will be stamped on top of the case on an angle near the bellhousing on the left 1/2.

It's not a "bad thing", but if it still has domed pistons you'll have to treat it differently.
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Tcash
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 28, 2016 6:42 pm    Post subject: Re: Almost have a Bus -- My Story Reply with quote

VIN, Chassis, Engine number locations
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mechanicjay
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 29, 2016 11:03 pm    Post subject: It's Mine! Reply with quote

The stars aligned and I was actually able to pick-up the Bus TODAY rather than having to wait until tomorrow. I can't tell you how stoked I am. It turned out, that getting home was not without adventure.

I made it 1/10th of a mile out of the seller's driveway before the bus sputtered and died.

That has to be some kind record. It's also either a very auspicious start to Bus ownership, or good luck -- time will tell.

As I pulled off the road in front of a neighbours house and popped the decklid, I could hear the fuel pump clicking away, but there was just air in the in-line filters. I figured, either a blockage, the pump was bad, or it was just out of gas. I called Spencer back, he came up the road to help. The neighbor, Dexter came out to help. We pushed it into Dexter's Driveway. Yes, I was pushing my new bus after only 1/10 of a mile and 15 minutes of ownership.

Dexter dumped about 3/4ish of a gallon in and "Sunshine Daydream" fired right up, stumbled a couple times and settled down into a steady idle.

With my first Bus Breakdown out of the way, I was off and headed towards the gas station, where she took just a tick over 14 gallons.

We avoided the freeway on the way home, instead sticking to state hi-ways and local roads, just in case of further incident. We headed towards Snohomish for dinner on the way South to Seattle and I discovered something:

Bus be slow. An uphill on-ramp onto Hiway 2 was like some kind of slow torture.

I will say though, that after a little while on the hiway at 55 mph, she felt a lot better. Maybe we're starting to get to know each other.

When we did stop for dinner, I discovered something else:

Bus leak oil! The plume of blue smoke from oil burning off the exhaust when I parked was somewhat embarrassing. Oh well. Dinner was good.

We continued on home, where I made my third great discovery of Bus Ownership coming down hiway 9. An extended uphill pull at 45 mph just didn't want to happen. It felt like the engine was spinning too fast to cruise it at that speed in 3rd and I was just out of the powerband in 4th. Rather grossly exceed the speed limit, I did a leisurely pull up the hill in 3rd at 40 mph.

Overall though I had blast just driving it home, it's really astounding how easy these things are to drive. I did feel that at times, the engine was working a hell of lot harder than others to move down the road. The seller warned me of a dragging right rear break, which could certainly explain that.

We made it home with no incidents. I parked the Bus and smoked my neighbour out with another giant plume of blue smoke off the exhaust.

Exhausted now and headed to bed.

Good night all and lets give a warm welcome to "Sunshine Daydream".
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Stuartzickefoose
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 30, 2016 7:07 am    Post subject: Re: Almost have a Bus -- My Story Reply with quote

Congrats man!!!


I believe the rear brakes shoes were just about done but nothing majorly obvious pointing to the wheel locking up, except possible soft lines. Happy to chat about it too if I can help I will. Very Happy
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mechanicjay
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 30, 2016 9:54 am    Post subject: Re: Almost have a Bus -- My Story Reply with quote

I did some poking and prodding this morning before work and discovered a few more things.

1) There was almost no oil showing on the dipstick when I pulled it...yipes!
2)The left side carb is dripping raw fuel all over the place. I feel lucky she didn't burn up on me on the way home yesterday!

As such, I think I just down graded my bus from "Driver" to "Runs and drives".

The carbs are dual solex. No vacuum ports to be seen for either the timing retard or central idle circuit.

Anyway, do I rebuild these Solex carbs, or just go for a new setup with the right vacuum stuff to help emissions and economy?
Decisions....
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RONIN10
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 30, 2016 10:20 am    Post subject: Re: Almost have a Bus -- My Story Reply with quote

mechanicjay wrote:
Anyway, do I rebuild these Solex carbs, or just go for a new setup with the right vacuum stuff to help emissions and economy?
Decisions....


I learned the hard way that sticking to stock is best when it comes to the engine, but that's what worked for me, your mileage may vary. I still have those stock carbs for you if want them, it's not a full dual carb setup, but will get you a lot of the way there. I'll bet Ken at The Bus Co. In Duvall could get together whatever it's missing.

I also have a full set of dual Weber IDFs that have been sitting on the shelf, I wouldn't mind parting with, but that would be a sale. I used to run them in my yellow 76 and they worked fine there.
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mechanicjay
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 30, 2016 10:50 am    Post subject: Re: Almost have a Bus -- My Story Reply with quote

RONIN10 wrote:

I learned the hard way that sticking to stock is best when it comes to the engine, but that's what worked for me, your mileage may vary. I still have those stock carbs for you if want them, it's not a full dual carb setup, but will get you a lot of the way there. I'll bet Ken at The Bus Co. In Duvall could get together whatever it's missing.

I also have a full set of dual Weber IDFs that have been sitting on the shelf, I wouldn't mind parting with, but that would be a sale. I used to run them in my yellow 76 and they worked fine there.


Um, yeah if you have a set of stock carbs for this you're willing to part with, that'd be amazing!

If I can cobble together a stock setup for not much $$, I'd be a very happy camper. I had other plans for the first $500 other than a new set of carbs. I realize I could rebuild for far less, but I think that would only be a temporary solution.
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 30, 2016 1:00 pm    Post subject: Re: Almost have a Bus -- My Story Reply with quote

The ones you got ran incredibly smooth, figure out where the leak is and keep using them for now. Trust me they shouldn't need replacement for a few months at the very minimum unless something drastically changed.
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mechanicjay
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 30, 2016 9:23 pm    Post subject: Re: Almost have a Bus -- My Story Reply with quote

Stuartzickefoose wrote:
The ones you got ran incredibly smooth, figure out where the leak is and keep using them for now. Trust me they shouldn't need replacement for a few months at the very minimum unless something drastically changed.


The leak is coming from the top of the fuel bowl. Probably needs a new gasket. I have an idea to drill and tap the carb for vacuum advance while I have it off....

I decided I needed to do something small to start progress on this project so I started on some of the dash electrical.

I was able to get the dash lights working. Not hard, had to hook up the feed wire, plug a couple sockets in and make a new ground wire to tie it all together. I do, however need 2 light sockets for the cluster. 1 is missing and 1 is fubar and won't stay in the socket. I also need a dome light for this thing and all the cab lighting will be functional (though I haven't checked the door switched yet).

I also cleaned up the various hanging loose live wires that were sparking and blowing fuses....

I pulled the placebo radio out of the dash, as it wasn't hooked up and I have other plans anyway.

All-in-all a successful 90 minutes!
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Tcash
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 30, 2016 9:35 pm    Post subject: Re: Almost have a Bus -- My Story Reply with quote

Quote:
The leak is coming from the top of the fuel bowl. Probably needs a new gasket. I have an idea to drill and tap the carb for vacuum advance while I have it off....

Maybe the carb needle and seat are dirty.

Hi

Carburetor needle and seat cleaning

As suggested if your oil smells like gas, change your oil.
Start it up and pinch the fuel hose that goes to the carb. When it starts to falter release the fuel pressure.
This most times will wash any debris off the float needle and seat.

Good Luck
Tcash
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porky79
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 30, 2016 11:34 pm    Post subject: Re: Almost have a Bus -- My Story Reply with quote

busdaddy wrote:
worry about the scratches and rips later.


I second the motion !
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 01, 2016 9:29 am    Post subject: Re: Almost have a Bus -- My Story Reply with quote

Great Bus. Great Story. Great Community.

I love this place Smile
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mechanicjay
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 01, 2016 8:43 pm    Post subject: Re: Almost have a Bus -- My Story Reply with quote

They let us go from work early today so I was able to put a few hours in on the Bus.

1) Removed a bundle of rotten wires that were cut off at the engine compartment and at the nose of the cab.

2) Ran a tach signal wire forward to the tachometer in the dash. I was pleased to find that it works.

3) Managed to remove the Driver's seat which was pretty well rusted in place. Added a pop-rivet to the lever for the slider, so that works. Cleaned and greased the track. PB Blastered the hell out of the seat back adjuster and managed to get that working. The Driver's seat is now fully adjustable, such as it is.

4) Added 1/2 quart of oil, need another 1/2 quart.

5) topped up the brake fluid, the Res. was scary low.
Now for the bad.

1) Checked the fuel leak at the left carb. Put a screwdriver to the screws on the top plate and got about a 1/2 turn each without much pressure. Decided to check the right carb, 1/2 the screws in the top plate were very lose (could tighten with finger) and one was missing. Oddly this one is not leaking. I wiped them down ran it for a bit and the left is still seeping. I tried the pinch it off trick above to no avail. I think it's time for a quick and dirty rebuild on these carbs.

2) I tried to find the oil leak. Aside from it coming from everywhere, it looks like maybe the bottom front corner of the right side valve cover gasket is leaking. (I just scored a $1.00 set of gaskets on close-out from RockAuto)

The majority of the leak looks like it's coming down from the oil cooler area. The is what I was able to tell by popping the bottom cooling tins off. I didn't have time to pop the top tin to get a better look at the oil cooler.

3) Found a nice hole in the muffler/tailpipe which explains some of the noise.

4) I messed around with the Rock-N-Roll bed only to find that the new floor that the previous owner put in is going to be the next thing to come out. The Bed frame is bolted to a plywood floor, which is not secure to the floor of the Bus. This ultimately means that the seat isn't actually secure to the vehicle. Also, due to the floor lift, the whole thing comes forward too far, causing the seat back to fall down....not an effective bed Smile
EDIT: Or is it a Z-bed? Or is it a Riviera specific version of these things?

5) I tried to check the timing, but there are really no numbers left on the timing scale, and I was only able to find one timing mark on the fan. This showed a static timing of 8ish degrees ATDC, which pretty much means its the wrong mark. This requires further investigation.
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mechanicjay
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 01, 2016 10:21 pm    Post subject: Re: Almost have a Bus -- My Story Reply with quote

Oh yeah, the other thing, the engine number starts EA. So definitely not originally a bus motor as suspected.

The other major thing I noted, is that the upper left engien/trans bolt (the one by the engine number stamp) is missig.

Does anyone have a reference handy for size and thread pitch for that bad boy?
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 01, 2016 11:00 pm    Post subject: Re: Almost have a Bus -- My Story Reply with quote

http://www.jerseylooker.com/FicheDump/LateBaywindow/020-00-1-064.jpg
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mechanicjay
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 01, 2016 11:54 pm    Post subject: Re: Almost have a Bus -- My Story Reply with quote

Tcash wrote:
http://www.jerseylooker.com/FicheDump/LateBaywindow/020-00-1-064.jpg


Awesome! Thank you!
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PostPosted: Sat Jul 02, 2016 4:00 pm    Post subject: Re: Almost have a Bus -- My Story Reply with quote

Great looking bus...your kids will have a ton of fun and so will you! Maybe I will see ya around when we're up and cruising.
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 03, 2016 1:39 pm    Post subject: Re: Almost have a Bus -- My Story Reply with quote

Congrats! Post some pics when you get a chance.
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