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Our bus Luna
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sdalcher
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Joined: October 09, 2015
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 20, 2016 1:30 pm    Post subject: Our bus Luna Reply with quote

We bought Luna a few months ago and have enjoyed some short trips as we addressed some needed work. 1974 Sportmobile. Been busy working on all the little things that still needed done. When we bought her she was plagued by several electrical issues that were irksome and finally devoted some time to work on her. I bought an oil temperature sending unit that replaces the dip stick. Really happy with this! Was also missing the 3 rear tin pieces and the seal, found all the pieces plus the seal and installed. Spent 6 hours yesterday chasing down the electrical issues! Hazard lights had never worked, interior lights both cap and camper didn't work, alternator warning light didn't work. Rear defrost did not work as well. Started on the camper overhead light first, disassembled and cleaned connections and it now works. Referenced Bentley book for hazards and was surprised that the cab interior light used the same fuse. Checked the fuse and you guessed it was blown. Replaced fuse and blew immediately. Short! Checked the cab interior light next, it was mangled beyond repair. Had a spare from a 71 bus which was a drop in replacement, except had to change two terminals. Light worked as wired and now the door switches worked to turn the light on, hazards now worked! Yay! Put the light back in the socket and nothing works Sad wth? Pulled it back out and taped all exposed parts and the lip of the recess, and reinstalled. Now everything works! Was grounding out. Thought I would now work on the alternator warning light, referenced Bentley book again. Blue wire from voltage regulator! Guess what? It was disconnected, reconnected, no dice Sad damn, maybe it's the ground in the instrument cluster, maybe it's the bulb... Pulled the socket and looked at the bulb, looks good not obviously blown. Cleaned ground tab and reinstalled, nothing.... Well what now? I'll check the bulb! Pulled the bulb again. Did I mention I'm 6'2" and way 210. I had to sit in passenger seat and lay down in the floor of the drivers side to be able to see and access the socket. Bulb out, still looks good filament intact... Hook it up to test leads and apply power from battery.... Nothing grrr. Head to FLAPS and the guy at the counter says no way we have a bulb that small... Manager calls from the back, "does your bulb have two wires on the tab?" Yep, pulls out a box of ten micro bulbs, very close, I think close enough. $8 for ten, I'll take them. Go home and try it, voila! Now I'm just on a roll and figure, maybe I can figure out what's up with my defroster switch. Reference Bentley again, blue wire with white stripe, back upside down again peering up under the dash, guess what there's a blue wire with a white strip just hanging.... Could it be that easy? Yep, 10 seconds later rear defroster is working! Also changed the oil and filter since I had done so well today. Ordered an electronic ignition module as well, that's a project for another day.

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sdalcher
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Joined: October 09, 2015
Posts: 35

sdalcher is offline 

PostPosted: Mon Jun 20, 2016 1:37 pm    Post subject: Re: Our bus Luna Reply with quote

Couple pics, Luna and my Love Paula with the real princess Claudette.
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sdalcher
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Joined: October 09, 2015
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PostPosted: Wed Jul 20, 2016 8:06 am    Post subject: Re: Our bus Luna Reply with quote

Been a busy couple months for Luna! Last month, I took a full day to fix all the electrical issues: battery warning light didn't work, overhead light didn't work, camping lights didn't work, hazard lights didn't work, warm air blower was missing entirely. All items corrected. Actually wasn't bad. I enjoy troubleshooting electronics mostly linear thinking. Had a little confusion on the warm air blower, busdaddy was able to quickly help with that. I rebuilt the blower motor. When I received it, it would barely turn. Thank goodness, that motors of that era were built to be disassembled. Spent about 30 minutes to tear it down, clean and lube everything and it runs like a top!

Yesterday, I installed an auxiliary battery with a charging relay so that the alternator would charge the aux battery while running but isolate when not. Pretty straightforward installation, spent more time thinking about placement of relay and wire routing than I did actual instal. Going to HCBF next week and will be camping in primitive so I wanted to have plenty of power for the finer things in life; fan for sleeping and coffe maker in morning Wink installed a power inverter off the aux battery, will swap over camping lights and radio later.

Luna has been running a little hot, so I changed the oil to a full synthetic 15W50. Suspect that the timing may be a little off and have spent countless hours trying to figure out how to time the engine. Knox walked me through what I needed over the phone last night, no discernible timing mark on pulley and it had the AC compressor pulley in the way si I couldn't see crank notch either. Pulled pulley, ordered timing scale. Going to pull fan and pulley today to clean up and get ready to install timing scale. Scale should be here in a couple days, so I can set timing and then valves and should be ready!
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