Made it.......barely!
Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2013 7:41 am
Some of you may have been following the misadventures of us moving my restored Silverside from Vancouver, WA to Mill Spring, NC. The purpose of the trip is to install a new engine and transmission (6L71TA, DDEC II) at Russell Diesel Service. I bought the core engine and complete power pack from my friend Dan Holter in Minnesota several months ago and had it shipped down to Gene Russell. He owns a Silverside and has repowered his with the same unit, a real Silverside guru and great guy (and a lifetime rebuilder of 2 strokes). We are also installing power steering and maybe a new high speed differential out of a 4104.
Anyway, it has been an adventure getting it here but we arrived yesterday, a day later than planned due to a near disaster. About 90 miles out the bus caught on fire. Motoring down the freeway I noticed smoke at the right rear and thought I lost a rear wheel bearing. Pulled over quickly and flames and smoke were pouring out of the transmission door louvers. Now, I usually carry both a 10# and 20# extinguisher, but left the big one home due to the bus being packed full. By the time I got the bay open and got back there to fight the fire it was starting to go pretty good. Coming from the parking brake drum, which of course had been oily from a leaky trans output seal. Knowing I only had the one extinguisher I just used short bursts trying to save all I had on the 10 pounder. Kathy got the important stuff out of the bus and started bringing me some water from the sink. Got it out just as the last of the chemical was used up. Burned up one of my new beautiful wiring harness sections but luckily only got to chassis stuff and not house wiring. While all this was going on I noticed a small fire in the median about 1/4 mile back. After the tear down, what happened was that a chunk of old, brittle brake lining broke off and became lodged between the drum and shoes and then got red hot, igniting the oil, then moving on to the wiring above it. Part of the lining flew off into the median. Just wet grass, no issue there, just smoke. After evaluating things, the starting circuit still worked, so I backed the brake clear off, started her up and with cops and fire truck escorting made it up to the next exit where I spent a couple hours fixing up some temporary wiring and testing things and removing the entire parking brake assy. The cabin had a lot of smoke in the back end so we spent the night in a hotel while it aired out, then came on in to Gene's yesterday without further problems. Enough excitement for one day, yup. The old girl wanted to let me know that she wasn't going to give up her old powerplant without a fight I guess, lol.
This was seconds away from being a total loss. I urge all of you to think about what YOU would do, and have a plan. We talk about it frequently, and have a plan, but seconds count. I will never again travel without all my extinguishers. I know a lot of you travel with just one little 5 pounder. One of the problems with a Silverside is that you have to crank open the bay doors with a baggage crank, and that takes more time, but have your extinguishers readily available.
Now on to the next chapter of the rehab. Saw my new engine and heard it run (it's in a donor bus for prefitting). What a nice unit. You can see it at the Blytheville, AR vintage bus rally in April.
To be continued......
Anyway, it has been an adventure getting it here but we arrived yesterday, a day later than planned due to a near disaster. About 90 miles out the bus caught on fire. Motoring down the freeway I noticed smoke at the right rear and thought I lost a rear wheel bearing. Pulled over quickly and flames and smoke were pouring out of the transmission door louvers. Now, I usually carry both a 10# and 20# extinguisher, but left the big one home due to the bus being packed full. By the time I got the bay open and got back there to fight the fire it was starting to go pretty good. Coming from the parking brake drum, which of course had been oily from a leaky trans output seal. Knowing I only had the one extinguisher I just used short bursts trying to save all I had on the 10 pounder. Kathy got the important stuff out of the bus and started bringing me some water from the sink. Got it out just as the last of the chemical was used up. Burned up one of my new beautiful wiring harness sections but luckily only got to chassis stuff and not house wiring. While all this was going on I noticed a small fire in the median about 1/4 mile back. After the tear down, what happened was that a chunk of old, brittle brake lining broke off and became lodged between the drum and shoes and then got red hot, igniting the oil, then moving on to the wiring above it. Part of the lining flew off into the median. Just wet grass, no issue there, just smoke. After evaluating things, the starting circuit still worked, so I backed the brake clear off, started her up and with cops and fire truck escorting made it up to the next exit where I spent a couple hours fixing up some temporary wiring and testing things and removing the entire parking brake assy. The cabin had a lot of smoke in the back end so we spent the night in a hotel while it aired out, then came on in to Gene's yesterday without further problems. Enough excitement for one day, yup. The old girl wanted to let me know that she wasn't going to give up her old powerplant without a fight I guess, lol.
This was seconds away from being a total loss. I urge all of you to think about what YOU would do, and have a plan. We talk about it frequently, and have a plan, but seconds count. I will never again travel without all my extinguishers. I know a lot of you travel with just one little 5 pounder. One of the problems with a Silverside is that you have to crank open the bay doors with a baggage crank, and that takes more time, but have your extinguishers readily available.
Now on to the next chapter of the rehab. Saw my new engine and heard it run (it's in a donor bus for prefitting). What a nice unit. You can see it at the Blytheville, AR vintage bus rally in April.
To be continued......