Preventive Maintenance

[BrianE]

At 14 years and 115K miles I figured it was about time for some preventive inspection and upgrades. Thanks to Prevost's excellent Maintenance Manual and the very helpful articles posted primarily by Jon and Mango Mike, the job was easy, a little dirty but hey, the accumulated oil and grease kept it from rusting. The job was aided by the fact that I've got a nice place to work, a reasonable set of tools, a set of air/oil jacks and 1" impact wrench from Harbor Freight, and a great assistant. Thanks again to Mikes site and various posts for the tool tips. Jon's new stands would have been nice but the blocks I borrowed from Petervs worked just fine. Would recommend the project to anyone who has a decent place to work on their bus and who doesn't mind getting their hands dirty (disposable gloves and coveralls are almost a necessity).

Included in the project were removing the wheels for ease of access, a good cleaning and inspection of brakes and suspension, and the replacement of all the flexible brake hoses, brake chambers, shocks and airbags. After the work was completed it was dead simple to do a good soap bottle/ultrasonic leak check of air lines, couplings, and Norgren valves with the wheels off.

Inside the bus we removed the electric Cadet and Wabasto heaters for cleaning and inspection. The Webasto heater motors were all badly worn and have been replaced along with their respective heater hoses. In some ways this was a worse job than the heavy external stuff.

By the way, the tidy floor, daily tool pickup and numerous other nasty chores were done by Beverly who actually enjoys helping in the bus barn and who now knows the difference between a quick release valve and a leveling valve. She ain't bad behind the wheel either.

[MangoMike]

Brian,

I posted your pix for the Mango's kitchen team saying that I wanted our floors to look as good. Nice job.

mm

[dalej]

Looks fun Brian, wished we could do that at a rally, it's a very good way to see what's going on under one's bus.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Brian,

Outstanding job. As more guys do this even more guys will realize how much work we can easily do on our coaches and how enjoyable it is having the confidence of knowing what is under the bus and what makes it tick.

Do you agree with our 1 to 1.5 hours per air bag estimate?

Did you replace the front air bags by modifying the front plumbing a little?

If it is not too late, look up at the two copper pipes on the driver's side that run tight to the underside of the floor towards the front. Where they go into the bulkhead in front of the drive axle are two short sections of rubber hose connecting the copper pipes to the forward copper pipes. Those rubber hoses do not age well. If your project includes changing coolant, I would urge you to replace those rubber hose sections, plus any others you can find throughout the entire coach. That is the least satisfying project I have done, and it took about a day to find, remove and replace them all on my old coach, but they are as critical as the work you completed. I had an on road failure of a hose section, and Joe recently had a split hose both due to age.

[rfoster]

Brian: WOW. We, --no make that I need a class from Beverly on how to keep my floor that clean when working on the bus. I am impressed.

[tdelorme]

That is a real nice floor in your bus barn, Brian. Will you share with us what the finish is. I was going to use concrete stain on mine, but I sure like the looks of yours.
Another quick question. The little doors between the drive and tag. Do you use yours? My latches are just about worn out and no matter how much adjusting I do they still pop open every now and then. I'm thinking I'll just turn the latch sideways and keep them closed but if there is a good fix I sure would like to know. Thanks

[Joe Cannarozzi]

Ted ours flips up, the hindge is at the top, so I guess there are a couple different types. It is for storage for the waste hose, a piece of 4in. white PVC is behind ours.

[JIM CHALOUPKA]

Sure looks nice there Brian, all neatly laid out as though for a TV how to show.
It looks like there are a couple large Snapon tool boxes reflected in the SS.

[Jerry Winchester]

I scooted down to Birdland Coach here in Houston today and who's coach was there getting some preventive maintenance?

Yep, the Loc Ness Millennium.

A group of smartly attired service technicians were on the roof removing the awning so they could install some strategically placed drain holes.

Loc, this one is a little jagged, but I think it will drain okay......

2074

Brian,

Way nice job on your rig. How about some more pics?

[Joe Cannarozzi]

Jerry where did you get that picture? What numbskull would have done something like that:o

P.S. I got more, lots more:eek:

[Jerry Winchester]

Camera phone ;)

[truk4u]

Nice job Brian, I know you have your A & P and probably AI by the looks of the job!;)

[Jon Wehrenberg]

I want to see his log book entries to make sure that bus was properly signed off before he headed to Sevierville.

I'm not going to let anybody see my garage floor after seeing Brian's.

[garyde]

Very nice Brian. Looks like a 10000 particle clean room floor. I can just see you in your White jump suit and clean room slippers.
I did a project years ago in a 30000 sq ft building where the tenant was developing solar panel arrays for the space station. Their floor was just like yours.

[BrianE]

Thanks to all for the kind words. Jon, you've got a way of asking the right (wrong) questions. The front bags were done by Prevost DFW and the quality of their work is the main reason I did the rest myself. Will modify the front airbag lines at a future date. And yes, an hour per bag is about right after the first one. I checked the coolant lines and agree they need to be watched. Draining down the coolant is not planned at this time. By the way will the webasto heaters eventually bleed themselves or will I need to bleed each unit? Bleeding looks like it might be messier than the initial removal of the heaters and lines.

Roger, Beverly kicks me out of the shop when she cleans up. My guess is she'd deny being a mechanics helper in front of the other girls.

Ted, the floor is painted with PPG Aquapon 35. I've used it on several hangar and shop floors. It's very tough stuff. Send me a PM or we can start a new thread if there is interest. http://buyat.ppg.com/ppgaf/hpctint.htm. And yes, I use the slinky hose compartments and I lube the latches with WD40 frequently. Liberty should be able to supply or quote a source for replacement latches.

Tom, AI comes right after AH, which is a prerequisite. Peter is an IA however. :rolleyes:

[dreamchasers]

I certainly do agree with you statement of DFW quality of work and the incentive of doing the work yourself. I had repairs done at Prevost DFW (I was there a week!) several weeks ago and will be returning Monday to have several issues re-repaired (dash A/C, drive wheel seal, hydraulic hose replacement issue.) With us living in Livingston, Texas, that makes for a 200 plus mile return trip to Fort Worth for re-repairs. So the experience I have thus far with DFW is below expectations.

On a positive note, I am very, very impressed with you shop/bus barn. I think most of us can only dream of having such clean place to work on our coaches. I am working on getting Lee involved in the coach maintenance. So far the jury is undecided on her prospects of being an assistant mechanic, but she does looks in very stylish when driving the coach (I guess that is why the truckers wave at her when she drives by?)

Hector

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Brian et al....I will open a new thread to discuss refilling the cooling system.

[Kevin Erion]

Brian,
On my 99 Marathon each Webasco radiator had it's own bleeder. Marathon attached a plastic tube that you put into a gallon bottle and see the air escape. I would recommend bleeding them, I don't think the air has any chance of escaping.