335 naughty again!

335 made it to North Weald bus rally, its first one under my ownership and in its restored original livery (dots excepted!) but only just.....

Just as we came off the M11 to join the A414 for the short drive to the airfield, the power steering failed.

Having found that the power steering pump reservoir was bone dry it was duly topped up with more fluid and the steering "rocked" to bleed the system...........all that actually happened was a massive flood of fluid all over the floor between the rear wheels - we'd found the reason why the reservoir was empty and thus why the power steering had failed.

Given that it will need to be raised in the air to fix the problem pipe, and of course that wasn't practical on the airfield/rally site, the decision was taken to make use of the breakdown cover that I thankfully have in place and get 335 towed back home where the mechanics next door can tackle the latest issue. I'm sure they'll be as glad as I will be one day to see 335 go out on a trip and come back again without actually breaking down - it really has broken down every single time I've taken it out on the road!!

As you can see in the image, she was towed backwards - the reason for doing it this way is that it saves having to remove the half shafts from the the double reduction hubs or disconnecting the prop - this can only be done if the towing lorry has a long enough boom though!

I was already intending to take 302 to the Newbury bus rally on 14th July, though I was gonna consider the possiblity of taking 335 if it behaved for North Weald - this latest incident has definitely made my mind up!!

335 has a lot to prove before I'll trust it to go anywhere........

None to options....

It is the eve of the North Weald rally and I have a choice of two buses to take!

302's nearside body rebuild is complete and the lop sided air suspension issue appears to be resolved.

335 is also up and running again after a new compressor pipe (different part to the one that was replaced at the MOT station) finally allowed the air to build up thus releasing the safety brake. Of course being 335, you fix one issue and another appears - this time failed gaskets between the compressor and water system meant the compressor was filling the water system with air pushing water out through the header tank. The air dryer pack and filter also needed changing - something we already knew from the MOT shenanigans - and this allowed the air system to "unload" once enough air has built up.

Question is, do I trust 335 to make the 80 mile round trip from storage to North weald???!!!!!

I must be mad, but I'm gonna!!........

2 down and one gone

It is the eve of the Clacton rally and unfortunately I don't have a bus to take!!

335 still remains to be fixed (not building up enough air), and although 302's bodywork is still ongoing it too is having air problems in that the right hand side suspension isn't lifting as it should. Maybe its decided to keep 335 company!!

So that's the two down, meaning 317 is the one gone.

317 now has a new owner though will still be parked at the same place as it is now. I'm told the new owner is intending to keep 317 pretty much as she is now which is pleasing to know. The reason I ended up selling after a couple of false starts is that trying to maintain three 'commercial' vehicles was proving to be a bit too much.

The next event is North Weald and I will have one on the road by then!!

Busy weekend & 335 misbehaves again

Its been a very busy weekend for me as I was involved in the running of Yeldham Transport Museum's open day.

The open day itself was very successful with good weather and just over 500 visitors. All of the free bus services were well used, with buses often carrying full loads. I operated 317 on two Braintree station trips, 2 Mystery tour trips and a single short hop into the neighbours at Colne Valley railway.

Notice that I used 317 at Yeldham's open day rather than the planned 335? Well the reason is that 335 continues to misbehave - the latest episode being quite spectacular.

We were part way through the MOT test last Friday morning when the air supply suddenly failed meaning the handbrake couldn't be released. A broken pipe from the compressor was quickly diagnosed however it took 7 hours to rectify the problem mainly owing to the fact that the rear wheels were still on the rolling road part of the MOT bay. The difficulty was that the pipe that needed to be accessed is located behind the nearside rear wheel - with the rear wheels sitting on the rollers, clearance was pretty much  non existent. The solution was to await the arrival of the test station's tow truck (out on a job) and either lift the back end of 335 up with its towing boom or provide low level jacks to jack up 335.

When the tow truck arrived it was established that one of the hydraulic pipes on the boom had started leaking on its last job and so the only remaining option was to manually jack up 335. Once jacked up, the brakes were wound off and 335 was moved forward fully over the pit where the offending pipe could be accessed and replaced. Once the pipe was replaced it took a further 40 minutes to get the air to build up enough to get the handbrake to release.

Following further issues with the air failing to build up properly on the way back home from the MOT station, 335 is now once again failing to build up enough air to release the handbrake thus it wouldn't physically move on Yeldham's open day and thus why the "old faithful" 317 was used instead. Having done some investigative work and ruled out compressor failure (ie, 335 is producing air), the suspected issue is either a failed "air dryer pack", a failed "4 way protection valve" or possibly a failed air filter. I'm reliably informed that the air dryer pack is almost certainly the item at fault.

Given that my finances have taken a battering with 335's surprise equipment failures, and that even if the latest issue is resolved in time, I cannot trust 335 to behave for the next event which is the Clacton rally on 2nd June. As 302 is currently stripped down and awaiting body repairs, I will once again be taking "the old faithful" 317 to Clacton......

335, the naughty one...

Well it was planned to move 335 (the double decker) into the workshop so that she could be lifted up in the air to have her new throttle cable installed, but she's clearly happy where she is as the footbrake valve has now failed meaning she can't build up enough air to release the brakes.

I wonder how many new parts will need to be fitted before we end up with a working bus?!!!

It is still planned to have her fixed and MOT'd in time for the next event (Yeldham Transport Museum open day, 19th May).........

Changing plans

Well I said in the last update that I wasn't going to make a start on 302's bodywork till the 335 (the double decker) was up & running, and that I was taking 302 to the first couple of rallies, implying that I was taking 302 to the London Bus Museums Spring Gathering......

In the end I took the old faithful, 317, to the Spring Gathering.

Reasons were various but mainly due to the state of 302's bodywork. As can be seen below, it is as bad as I suspected in the area between the first passenger window and wheel arch. As we go further back things improve dramatically, though the top box section does need replacing under the 2nd and 3rd windows.

I wasn't intending to make a start on 302 just yet, but much like when you have a piece of wall paper starting to peel off.........you start picking at it and before long its all stripped off.....

As things currently stand this does mean I'm down to having just 317 on the road - work is progressing on 335 though and it is expected to be on the road in time for the next event, the Yeldham Transport Museum open day (19th May 2013).

Sping 2013 update

Firstly I said in my last post that the Dart was sold..........well there's been a change of plan on that front.

Given the ongoing issues with the double decker (throttle cable still remains to be fixed thus still no MOT), and with the work which will be required on the Volvo's bodywork (more on that in a moment), I've decided to keep the Dart as my back up vehicle for the 2013 season.  Also, the original reason for sale was that there wasn't enough space to keep all three vehicles together........well that situation has now changed such that keeping all three is no longer an issue.

So, the Volvo bodywork. It has become apparent that the bodywork, in particular the internal framework, is suffering from rust/corrosion issues. I don't believe it is so bad that it cannot be sorted but it does mean that once I start, well it'll be off the road till its dealt with. As it is currently on the road with a years MOT and six months tax, I'm not going to make a start on stripping down the outer panels until the double decker gets on the road. So to that end I am using it for at least the first couple of bus rallies.

I took 302 to the South East Bus Festival, an add on to the Heritage Show at the Kent County showground in Detling near Maidstone at the beginning of April. Aside from the £200 fuel bill she performed very well indeed - I lost count of the cars we overtook on the M25 and M20 - going uphill too!!

There were a couple of photographers on Detling Hill (A249); I could see why they'd chosen the spot as they were able to park in a layby and capture vehicles going slowly as they struggled up the hill........I had to purposely slow down to give them a chance of a decent image as we were still doing the legal limit of 60mph!!

I came across a couple of people who worked for Harris Bus and would have driven 302 when it was new. Not only did they enjoy a trip down memory lane but they were able to share a few points of interest with myself.....all the more interesting as I joined Harris Bus just after the Volvo's left the fleet and so only experienced them as a teenage passenger.

That's all for now - the next event is the London Bus Museum "spring Gathering" (commonly referred to as "Cobham").