Eagles International Forum

Everywhere.......&...... Anywhere. We Are Running From The Fires.. Kansas, Michigan And Then I Hope Texas (Gotta Pickup Some Carpet From Sonny)..And Then On To California Also I Got To Run Threw And Pester Clifford..

I Will Post In The General Section Soon.... I Dont Want To Highjack Mannys Thread.

Thanks For Asking.

10-4

MrBreeze

Mr. Breeze, sorry for my delayed response. My main pc has been down the past week...

I feel your pain and think you must be right about it being "Front End Rebuild Season." Hopefully mine will be done this week. Haven't been able to work on it steady. I'll post some pics of what's been done so far. Notice the worn out bearings that go in the steering arms. No wonder I didn't have a good turning radius. All that is being replaced. When it's all done it should be like when it came out of the factory (maybe better). I'm also installing all new brake drums, and will then get the bus aligned. Can't wait to get it on the road and feel the difference...I won't know what to do!

POST # 43

New Brake Drums (Model 15)


Steering Arm Driver's Side


Worn-out Bearings from Steering Arm Driver's Side


New Steering Arm


New Parts for Front End


Long (?) arm that goes across from side to side
Notice its shape, it's completely worn out


Old A Frame


New A Frame w/new torsilastic bushing


Cleaned out and ready for paint and new parts

POST # 44

Completed FRONT END REBUILD w/updated Model 15 Brakes

Well, just about got this big job wrapped up. Whole front end has been rebuilt and brakes have been updated to the Model 15 brakes. Everything went great and fits like a charm. Test drove the bus and the steering was 100% better and the braking was amazing! Only thing left to do now is allignment. Had an appointment to have that done Friday afternoon, but had a little bump in that plan. Went to start up the bus but noticed there was a problem building up air. Had this problem once before back in January and thought maybe the cold weather was a contributing factor. The governor was apparently stuck and wouldn't allow the air to build up, but when the same thing happened Friday in 90 degree weather...I figured it wasn't the weather that was the problem. Anyway, went to NAPA and got a new governor (very inexpensive). It wasn't hard to change at all and now I'll know what to do if this happens again in fact I plan to keep an extra one on hand. You'll see me going in through the old battery door (no batteries in there now and no tray). I was reaching all the way across to the governor to swap it out (guess it helps being skinny) only two bolts hold it in place. While I was in there I removed the power steering pump because it had a leak (needed a new gasket). In case you are wondering why I didn't go in from the top to change the governor, that would have meant removing the bolted bed frame, and tearing up the carpet and padding (no thank you). After the allignment I want to paint the whole front end.



















Using 18" Push Rods instead of the original 15:






New air governor

Manny, thanks so much for the details and great pictures!!!!

It sounds like all you needed to do to convert from 05 to 15 brakes was to put on new shoes and drums. Is it really that simple?

I assume you used the bronze bushings. Did you do the reaming, or have it done?

It looks like you have manual slack adjusters. I think the conversion to auto-slack is pretty easy and may be worth putting on the to-do list.

Jim

Jim,
You have to change the whole C arm, not just the shoes and drums. Every part you see painted gray came off a Model 15 Eagle. There are no Model 05 brake parts left on my Eagle. The Model 05 had 4" brake pads, this Model 15 has 5" pads. Also this Model 15 was 96" wide. I probably wouldn't have done this conversion now but there happened to be a donor bus available and since I was doing the front end anyway I figured it would be a good time to do it.

I assume you meant brass bushings - Yes.

Maybe others who have done this can chime in here...

Hey Manny, I want to have my front end done someday and need power steering done as well. What would be a Ballpark number for cost of doing this? I could do myself but don't have a place so it would have be done in a shop..Any ideas of what it would cost. I believe all of my bushings are good along with bearings. Mine wanders while driving but when stopped it seems to be maybe 2 inches of movement in steering wheel.

Nick, I've got about $2,400. in parts, that's not including the brake upgrade. I tried to seek out the best prices, too. I bought things in stages as I had the money. If you can do the work yourself you'll save on the labor. I wasn't able to do the whole thing myself.

As far as the power steering, I couldn't honestly tell you because it had already been done in my Eagle BUT, they had the wrong pump in there so I switched to the correct pump. I found a used one and then had it rebuilt which cost me $250. I have done some research and the Vickers Power Steering Pump runs around $800 new.

It's great to see you back on this board. I like what you've done with your Eagle.

Post # 45

Third Brake Light

We went on a day trip out of town for a family function and on the way back we stopped at the 75 Chrome Shop in Wildwood, FL. I was checking the LED lights and noticed one that would make a really good third brake light. Now that I'm towing our Kia, I thought this would make braking more noticible. It was pretty easy to install.

Before installation


LED Light mounted


Chrome Piece Added

Post # 46
Driving Lessons

I've been wanting to give my wife some lessons on how to drive the bus and it just so happens that where we store our Eagle there is a big, empty fenced-in parking lot. Well, last Saturday was the day and she did a pretty good job.This doesn't mean she's ready to hit the road, but I thought she needs to know what to do in case of an emergency.

Here I am showing her the controls


Here she is at the wheel


Here she's getting the big picture and checking her mirrors


Eagle Bus Driver Trainee


Notice the tire tracks in this picture

She got just a little too close to our Kia
Which prompted a discussion on making WIDE right turns and using your mirrors

Here are a couple of videos.
(Sorry about the quality, next time I'll bring a better camera)
Click on the pics