![Surprised :o](./images/smilies/icon_e_surprised.gif)
Several of us stayed over for a day or two after the rally. Yesterday most of us were leaving. I had the bus started and noticed that Bob Gilbert seemed to be having a problem. I went over and he could not get the brakes to release. Bob, Jack Bernritter, Dave Kellas and I worked as a team to diagnose the problem. We concluded that one of the DD3 cans has blown a diaphragm. We knew that there was no hope of getting parts locally.
Bob had recently purchased 3030 spring cans in hopes of doing the conversion before the trip. He had them with him.
I made some calls to Sonnie and Clifford and confirmed that we had a handle on the problem and that we could do the conversion with the parts on the bus (did not have to purchase any special valves). Thanks for the help guys!!!
Bolting the cans in place was not all that big of a deal. Getting the parking brakes system to work was a real challenge. Bob's bus has a relay valve for the service brakes and a relay valve for the parking brakes (no interconnection like the QR1 on later buses). That probably made the job easier.
I used a manifold I use to charge extinguishers to trouble shoot the system as we began to connect parts. Between Bob and I, we had all the fittings we needed (he had to modify some compression ferrules that he found at a repair shop, but that was the only parts we had to find).
We were able to trace the parking brake relay valve signal line to the front service area in the compartment by the driver. We then played with the parking brake valve lines until we found one that supplied system air when the valve was in the released position. We had to plug a couple of ports where we removed the lines, but after all was said and done, we made it work.
Bob will have some work to do when he gets home, but the system is functional. We kept in contact with him and met up several times today. After about 300 miles, the system was working well.
Only took four people a whole day to do the job
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif)
Jim