Beautiful Fan Belt

[lewpopp]

Today was the day I chose to install my new banded Gates fan belt. Thanks to Orren for the help. No I did it all by myself but Orren got it for me at a real nice price. Thanks again. What a nice shiney beautiful thing.

Tuesday I take the coach to a truck garage and look for a leak. I know when you hear air leaking in the rear without the brake on, it means the chamber is leaking. Mine is leaking or hissing all the time. This guy knows his business,so I've been told, so I guess I'll have him do some other things. Perhaps change the tranny fluid and the coolant.

A good inspection under there wouldn't hurt. I'm due for some good luck.

Lew

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Lew, If you hear air leaking only when the parking brake is released it is a leak in the parking brake diaphragm. If you apply the parking brake and the air leak goes away, that confirms it.

If you hear the air leak when the parking brake has been applied the leak is not related to anything in the braking system.

[Joe Cannarozzi]

Mabye you will get lucky and it will be just the air line feeding it.

Either way a reletivly inexpensive repair.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Lew,

Just to give you a heads up, if it is a bad brake chamber diaphragm, on the drive the brakes are a 30-36, and the last time I bought them they were about $110. One hour to replace.

Almost nobody has them in stock so before you pay a guy to get under there, and then have to pay him again when the brake chamber is available you can do the research yourself by listening and locating the leak. Then all you have to do is get the brake chamber. You will hear the noise right behind the wheels.

It could be a hose as Joe suggests, but my guess is that it is not.

Prevost wants over $300 for the chambers so if that is the problem get them locally.

[lewpopp]

Hey guys, thanks for the heads up. I had both brake chambers changed prior to this incident. I hear the leak when the brake is on so I would assume it is some fitting or something else. I was fortunate enough to have a friend in the truck parts house and he sold it to me wholesale. I don'r know off hand what it cost but I'll look it up. I'm sure it is more now.

As for the leveling valve, are they only available thru Prevost. If I can recall correctly, they replaced the front and got it from the same house.

I listen as well as I can to you guys and I absorb very slowly, but when I do it hands on, I seldom forget. I expect I will be on my back on this visit, which isn't bad.

Received my new fuel filter header/strainer today and will install that tomorrow. That's no big deal.

Lew

[BrianE]

Hi Lew,

If you still have the leans, that's a place to start. If you don't have the leans, raise the tag and see that it still doesn't lean. As to a source for Norgren valves go to: http://www.norgren.com/usa/distlocator/distlocatormainUSA.asp to locate a distributor near you. Sounds like you (or your designated creeper-crawler) have some under the bus soap bottle work to do before you need to worry about ordering valves. Good luck. :)

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Lew it is tough to diagnose problems this way, but as I understand what you are saying...you hear air leaking when the parking brake is on. If I understood that correctly, the leak is not coming from the braking system.

Unstated is whether the coach leans or settles down. An aux air system leak (which this sounds like) can occur, depleting the aux system, but without causing the leans. Ditto with your primary system It could be a failed valve, fitting or hose.

As Brian points out there are ways to better isolate leak sources. What is needed is information. It will be cheaper to focus on the right area yourself than to have someone not familiar with these buses learn on your nickel. Having said that however, if you can hear air escaping it does help point to the problem, but bear in mind that air escaping from a specific Norgren valve does not necessarily mean that particular valve is defective.