In “breaking down” on the side of the road, a friend who i was visiting took a look underneath the bus as I shifted through the gears. First, second, third, fourth … No response, it was as if the rig was in neutral.
It was determined at this point that the rear differential had gone out, which launched a 10-day side-of-the-road conundrum as I tried to determine the best course of action. My current bank balance of zero dollars was certainly no-where close to the presumed 5k repair estimate.
The closest town (Cheyenne, Wyoming) was approximately 13 miles east and there happened to be a salvage yard 5 miles east of there. I called to see if they might have any old school buses and the gentleman working said he wasn’t sure. He knew they had one recently but didn’t know if they’d already smashed it. “Come on down and take a look!”
I loaded up my pack and bicycled in and across town to the scrap yard. Though the school bus had indeed been smashed, I did stumble across an old 70s era Chevy C60 Dump Truck which I’ve been told might be a similar chassis to mine.
Looking at the rear differential of the C60 I noticed a lot of similarities, enough so that I snapped a handful of photographs and sent them to my skoolie/mechanic friends for their opinions on whether or not it would fit. One was pretty sure it would work, there other was busy and could return my call in about half an hour.
Half an hour passed and I had not heard back. It being early afternoon and with a 20 mile bicycle ride West back to “base” I hit the road.
Along the way my phone starts ringing and I pull over and dismount to answer. After briefly summarizing the dilemma at hand regarding the rear differential and walking him through the pictures of the proposed “new” rear axle from the C60, he was pretty sure i lucked out and that the salvage-yard fix could fit. There was only one question though …
In reviewing the photos I’d sent, he noticed the C60’s rear differential was a 2-speed and asked if my rear-end was a 2-speed. I responded that indeed, my rear-end was a 2-speed.
“Oh, really?” He sounded surprised. Having only helped with a couple mechanical questions I’ve had remotely, he had never actually seen the bus and did not think I had a 2-speed.
“Tell ya what …” he said, “I didn’t know you had a 2-speed. There’s a chance, maybe, that your rear differential is not the actual problem and that you’re just stuck in between the two speeds in ‘No Man’s Land” which would mean that no power from the transmission is being sent through the axle.
Bingo. Almost immediately after he said this I was sure this was the case. Every mechanically-inclined human I had spoken to regarding what had happened indicated that when a rear differential goes out, it’s an “un-godly” sound and very traumatic. This was not the case in my situation, I had simply lost power when I went to down-shift for an upcoming grade and came to a nice rolling stop partially off the side of the road.
Furthermore … When I purchased this bus originally, the button on the control switch for the rear axle (mounted to the shifter) was taped in the “down” position. I was told by the seller that the bus had two speeds, but that they had lodged it into the higher gear because the low gears were so slow they never used them. Not sure the latter half of that statement is true but … Either way, I’ve only ever operated Betty in the higher of the two rear gears.
Awesome. I now have my work cut out for me. I got back on my bike, stopped at a grocery store to buy a couple apples, tortillas and peanut butter for lunch and began pedaling west, hitch-hiking the final 8 miles as a headwind had picked up and I was probably not going to make it back before dark.
I hooked the motor up to my solar battery bank to bench-test it. The lever in the motor, when given 12 volts, moved back and forth depending on which of the two positive leads I provided the juice to. Okay, awesome. Step 1 complete, motor operational.
Now, what the heck controls that thing? I followed the wiring from the push/pull Axle Control Switch under the steering wheel where the rat’s nest of wiring is bundled. All the wiring to the switch was cut and/or heavily corroded, especially the harness attached to the push/pull switch itself.
I began stripping back the wiring of the harness but the casing on the wires just kept falling apart no matter how far back I went. I kept stripping back until I found a ‘potentially safe’ amount of wire to work with and sodered together an ad-hoc set of leftover wire to re-create the configuration of the original switch. The ad-hoc wiring was definitely of a smaller gauge so I knew this wasn’t going to be a long-term solution, but all i needed to do, really, was send 12 volts to that motor in the back to push the lever into one of the two gears.
By now it was well into the night and i called it, waking up in the morning to inspect my work, re-mount the Axle Control Motor in the back and test for continuity in the ad-hoc wiring. All seemed good.
I started up the rig, sent power through the control switch, heard a little noise and in starting to let up the clutch the bus moved forward effortlessly. Holy smokes! She lives!
Having never driven this bus in the lower of the two rear-end gears, this was a total trip. From a stop I have always started forward in 1st Gear of the transmission, but High Gear in the axle. Therefore, I’ve always basically started in 5th gear.
This new lower gear was a whole new game! In approaching the hill I had originally down-shifted to ascend prior to breaking down, I shifted into 2nd (actual 2nd, not ‘6th’) and swear i could have accelerated up the incline. Okay, maybe that’s a stretch with my little 350 but …
Any who – it looks like we’re operational again. The “official” parts needed for the control switch have arrived and I’ll be getting those installed to replace the original jerry-rigging. Hoping to do some preventative maintenance over the coming days/weeks (Rear Pinion Seal / Axle Oil Flush, Timing, Carb clean maybe?) but it appears we’re good to go.
One of the things I truly believe is that everything happens for a reason.
What is crazy to think about is that the guy who eventually diagnosed and trouble-shot the “No Man’s Land” solution is a person who converts school buses for a living who’s number I was given by a woman who I met by complete happenstance at a Dog Park in Erie, Colorado.
I have never actually met this man in person and had I not been at that dog park, on that day, in that town, at that exact time with my pooch, and if a kind-hearted woman had not introduced herself to me and began a conversation I would most likely still be living “on the road” (literally) somewhere in Wyoming.
Crazy, huh? Everything happens for reason.
