Sunday drive for fuel

No picture on this one.  Barry and I took the bus out again for a leisurely drive down I-75 S to Berea, again, to get some fuel and eat lunch.  Once again the bus ran fine and the trip was without incident.  We both had chili and grilled cheese sandwich for lunch at the Union 76 truck stop on us21.  Really nice people there and the food is good.  I bought $98 and change of diesel for $4.12/gl.  Going back home I noticed that the Love's had it for $4.08 cash price but for what I bought the .04/gal only added about a buck to the total.

I did notice some air leaks today that I need to track down and fix but nothing serious.

No pic for today.  I decided it was cool enough to take the bus out again.  This time I went out by myself and just drove around downtown Lexington practicing my turns.  All totaled I only went approximately 19 miles according to the GPS but that took about an hour including air up time and parking on return.  Once again, the bus ran fine and I did ok with my turns.  I would like to get them a little tighter though but that will come with more practice.

The weather finally turned cool enough for Barry and I to take the bus out for a drive.  Other than the drive to Georgetown and back for repairs over the winter, this has been it's only trip in almost a year.  Most would not call this a trip as we only drove from Lexington to Berea and back.  We stopped at a small independent truck stop at exit 78 for some fuel and lunch. I bought $80 dollars and at $3.91/gal that only netted me 20.4 gallons.  I am not sure how low is too low for this tank so that still keeps me around 1/3 tank.  Lunch was good.  Barry had fish and two sides and I had a BLT and two sides with tea.  The trip there and back was approximately 77 miles.  The bus appears to have used an excessive amount of fuel, but I think my methodology of dipping the tank is not quite right.  I certainly need to perfect this a bit.  Having the bus lean one way or another makes a big difference in fuel level when measuring.  Most guys report that they get close to 7 MPG in these MCI's of this age and configuration so I hope to at least get the same.  

Any time the bus sits for a long time I start from the rear just in case anything goes wrong.  I am glad I did, because when I first started her up the governor hung and she tried to wind up too fast, so I immediately grabbed the fuel shut off and pulled the rack down.  I did that several times and worked the throttle before the governor loosened up and took control correctly.  After that she was fine.  Just goes to show that these beasts don't like to sit a long time.  Other than that, she ran great to Berea and back with absolutely no problems.  This was also my first chance to really get the feel of the steering since I had all the front end work done in Georgetown over the winter. It still required work to keep in a lane but it is markedly better than before.  All in all I was pleased.  Barry and I plan on taking the bus out every week or two if possible for small runs.  At some point I'd like to drive down to the Tn state line and back, but we'll see.

Finally coming home.  Yesterday my friend Bob Weir and I drove from Lexington to Georgetown to the Bluegrass International garage to pick up the bus.  I took it there back in November, so it has been gone for
6 months, almost to the day.  They did a lot of work... most was mentioned in a previous post.  The bus ran fine on the drive back to Lexington and I could tell an improvement in the steering but it still has quite a bit of play in the wheel.  They replaced all the major steering components except the slave cylinder and steering gear box.  It is still work to keep it in a lane properly at highway speeds, but better than it was before.  I am glad to have it back and with lots of luck and money, maybe I can get to work on the inside some this summer.

Picture of the bus going down I-75 South from Georgetown to Lexington, taken by Bob from the trailing car.





Me backing the bus in the lot where I keep the bus.

My last post was in November when I drove the bus to Bluegrass International Trucks & Buses for repairs.  They have had the bus finished for about three weeks now.  Today I was finally able to get a corrected invoice from them so I could settle up.   The original estimate was for $5700 and change for all the work.  However the initial bill came in MUCH higher than that... almost three times.  However the service manager wrote down enough of the labor to make it more reasonable.  Still over the estimate by $2300.   Looking back at all the work they did, I knew they could not stick to the original estimate.  While the final bill of $8027 is hard to swallow, I do feel it is more reasonable.

I knew early on that they were having a really rough time in the R&R.  Some of these components had probably never been removed in over 30 years of service, so beating out, pulling out, heating, and drilling out was the norm in almost every instance.  James the mechanic that did almost all the work, said that nothing was coming apart easy.  So that told me that the labor hours were going to end up much more than normal.  Ok enough of that.

The breakdown is:  

$1593 to replace all inner and outer drive studs, remove drums and the complete brake assemblies on both drive axles, check bearings, brakes, and all related components.

$2530 to replace two slack adjusters complete, 2 s-cams, all cam bushings and 1 DD3 brake actuator, and 1 brake line from relay to can, and replace wheel seals on both drive axles.

$1866 to replace both king pins from front axles, replace drag link and tie rod .  Replace wheel seals and adjust brakes.

$960 to replace bearing assembly complete on street side tag axle, and replace seals on curb tag.

I still have a power steering leakage at the quick connect fittings in the engine room I want them to look at before I pick up the bus.  They also made me aware that I will need new axles and bearing on both drive wheels at some point before I start to do a lot of driving as they are worn, however I elected to not do that just right now.  The bearing are not spinning yet.  Axle surgeons will probably be the guys to actually do that work.

With a little luck maybe I can finally make the trip to Fred Hobe's in Florida to change out the steering gearbox and steering wheel assembly in early summer.  At any rate, right now she is much more road worthy than before.  Now it's all about credit card payments on all this.