School Bus Garage Photos

I've been taking photos in our school bus garage since 2005 and didn't want them to go to waste so here is a short video with RANDOM pics. There's everything from instant snow chains to engine repair.




 2005...I remember it well, we still had mechanical diesel engines in the fleet. They were semi-retired as spare buses and just this year we are auctioning off our last mechanical engine equipped units (Cat 3116 models). The 3116 Cat gave us pretty good service but nothing stellar to speak of.

 I believe there were 4 engine rebuilds because of the exhaust valve dropping at a very bad moment. Usually the high heat pulling full load would cause the mishap. It was a lot of work since the block was solid without removable piston liners. The entire engine had to be removed from the chassis, stripped down and rebuilt from scratch. The rebuilt head ran about 1500 dollars Canadian, if the cylinder wall was scored then the block was sent to a machine shop which MUST know the repair steps when boring and re-sleeving these engines.

There is a special jig to be used to secure the block so it doesn't warp during the re-bore. It adds up to about 5K labor and parts. This of course is far less than buying a long block. The top end on the 3116 was the weakest part of the engine so valve adjustment is crucial. The engine operating temperature is a factor as well so they need TLC or they start to heat up over 200 degrees.

The engine fan in the pusher school buses were transversely mounted so it was hard to keep the temperature down especially in warmer months. We disabled the shutters (opened permanently) and installed an over riding dash switch to turn the engine fan on full which took some horsepower out of the engine. In the video you'll see the coolant sensor that runs the hydraulic fan solenoid.

When you unhook the sensor wire the fan runs full on. The dash switch we installed for the driver just caused a break in the circuit. It should also be mentioned that the cooling system also had to cool the transmission oil which could get up to 200 degrees. The radiator mounted sideways at the back of the bus had a hard time cooling especially when the bus was in 3rd gear with a full load climbing a hill in 80 degree weather. Thanks for viewing this post and I hope you liked the video.

Mechanic Troubleshooting Tales & A Blast From The Past.

When I was a 2nd year apprentice Mechanic in the late 70s I left the mining world and got a job up north at a busy truck shop, the oil patch was booming and Mechanic jobs were easy to find (even for rookies like me). The shop rate was $27/HR and I was pulling in $10/HR. If there was one mechanical problem I resisted (no pun intended)  the most it was electrical faults.

I'll never forget a White Western Star that came in and it had positive ground, you had to reverse your train of thought when it came to thinking through the circuitry. Anyways, back then series parallel switches were very common (12 volts running voltage and 24 volts cranking voltage). You just had to remember how the wiring went back together while the customer was standing there looking at his watch.

Through all that experience up to now and hundreds of shorts, no starts and charging system problems I've come to one conclusion.

Keep it simple and don't over-think the problem. If wiring continuity is disturbed with resistance, short or open circuit you're going to have trouble.  

SIDEBAR: If you ever have one or more circuits either not working or operating sporadically with relays or solenoids clicking on and off, there is a very good chance you have the blue stuff (corrosion) making a home in the connector or inside a module. It's happened to our equipment many times. The environment will take down anything that exposes itself!

If you look at an electrical system and think too broad you'll lose yourself. Think of the fault and the circuit, nothing else. A human friendly wiring diagram is most essential!

Here is a perfect example of a wire that had rubbed through the insulation. Oxygen goes to work fast on this exposure. Luckily this problem was obvious to the human eye and not nestled inside a connector or module.  One other method we use is grab the wiring harness while the fault is active and shake the hell out of it. Sometimes this works to fish out a problem. A short might all of a sudden quit or an open circuit might reconnect while you're at a certain point at the harness or at a connection point.

As Mechanics we can learn and adapt as we go through our training and experiences. Get your hands dirty and you'll get more tuned into any kind of mechanical problem.

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The School Transportation News Vlog

Editor's Note: The STN Vlog covers recent news concerning the school bus industry. The topics discussed are interesting and informative. I've placed the home page link below for STN. The mechanic information I get off their site is priceless with new technology on green energy and the latest mechanical engineering plus research and development. Below are more details on what will be covered in the Vlog below.

*School Transportation News Editor Ryan Gray goes into detail on NTSB's recent release of its investigation report on the March 12 crash of a motor coach in New York City.

*GK Design's fresh concept for a next-generation school bus.

*He also discusses the showing of the documentary La Camioneta at the Central American Resource Center where STN spoke with Arturo Zepeda, Community Organizer, and Juan Carlos Lopez, Immigrant Day Laborer.

*Lastly he talks about the viral video of New York school bus monitor Karen Klein, who was verbally assaulted by a group of students on the bus.



If you want to know more about school transportation news go to http://stnonline.com and check out their site. You will find a lot of extremely useful info on the latest technology and innovations along with special reports on what's going on in the school bus transportation industry.

The Turbo Encabulator

The Mechanical background behind the Turbo Encabulator: Rockwell International decided to get into the heavy duty automatic transmission business. They were getting ready to tape their first introductory video. As a warm up, the company rep who was acting as the presenter, began what has become a legend within the training industry. In fact, he should have won an academy award for his stellar performance rattling off the non-existent mechanic terms.

Now remember to keep in mind, this is strictly off the cuff, the turbo encabulator information has not been written down. Nothing he says is actually true. He had NO script! The mechanic lingo here doesn't make sense but sounds familiar. I use as a joke the terms 'filber flange' and 'grapple grommet' when explaining a problem to catch someone off guard.

This was simply meant as a rehearsal for the camera, lighting and stage crew to check their equipment. So it's all total meaningless drivel that he made up as he goes along, right off the top of his head. The Turbo Encabulator just might work out... :)

I found 2 different mechanic terms 'entabulator' and 'encabulator' since the latter was found more frequently online I stuck with that one. Not that it's crucial to be exact with the term :)

Note: Thanks to newsletter subscriber Tristan for sending me the video.