My AirForce Ambulance Bus.

[BassnTruck]

Guess I will bump my ancient thread.

Still have not converted it into an RV. I did drive it to Florida and back in March though. I had to spend a lot more then I was wanting to going through her mechanically making her reliable. Anything rubber was either done for or was about to be. Changed most of the fluids also. The marker lighting had a short in it somewhere so I just rewired all the exterior lights and replaced them with LEDs.

I am going to copy and paste my posts from another forum.

Besides the headlights I have already installed here are the parts that have currently come in so far.



Battery switch, 10 300amp ANL fuses, a 7way RV receptacle, 6 rolls of 3M Super 33 electrical tape, and 75' of (2 10ga, 1 12ga, and 4 14ga) trailer wire. Still waiting on shipments to arrive.

Had another box show up today. They shorted me one amber. They said it is on the way now.

Most of the lights for the bus and some for my trailer that need replaced and added to. Also adding a brake away to the trailer since it does not have one.



Still waiting on parts to show up. Got some of the new battery wire in and some of the other wire to rewire the marker lights. The power and ground are 00 and the other spools are 14Ga.


Had some more parts show up today. Firewall pass through lugs for power and some stand alone power point lugs.

 

[BassnTruck]

Well I actually started doing a little work today.

Installed the 7" amber LEDs on the front.



Installed the passenger side LED turn signal. I am rewiring the marker lights and not using the chassis as a ground. Had to remove the window to get the new wire pulled.



Here are some photos of the old side turn signal and the new.

 

[BassnTruck]

Had some more parts show up today so far. Lots of split loom, my ANL fuse holders that accept 00 gauge wire, and a pair of mini ANL fuse holders with fuses.


Had another box show up today. Some 4ga wire.


The 00 and 4ga together.


It was just above freezing today but I was out there cranking away on the bus. Mainly just removing all the old power wire. They had it anchored every few inches it seemed and I had to unbolt it at every spot. The cable jacket was as stiff as a rock so they did not use a quality cable. I had to really fight to remove the 0000 wire.

Everything takes four times as long to do when it is cold out it seem in my case. I am pretty upset how long it took to remove some wire, install the new switch, install 2 pass through terminals, and the fuse holder. All the lugs on the end of the wires were fluxed and soldered. Then the lugs were sealed to prevent anything from getting into the wire. I do not plan on doing this job again.

I am not anywhere near done with the wiring but I got the new power and ground runs to the starter. I am waiting on the 4ga lugs to show up to rewire the alternator and the main feed for the power distribution.

I only have three photos from today. I was not really in the position to take a bunch of them today.


Here you can see the battery switch, fuse holder, and one of the power pass through. The other one is just to the right out of the photo.


The back side.

 

[BassnTruck]

This is taking far to long to upload all these photos. I will have to continue this later when I have more time.

 

[BassnTruck]

Got some more work done on the bus. I have the rear marker lights on and semi wired. I have the rear turn, brake, and reverse lights setup on one side. Just need to do the other. I will have two small holes to make a temporary plate so they can be covered. These holes are the old reverse light holes. The old lower running light holes where the reverse lights will now be sitting were larger. You can see the side by side difference.

I removed the rear spot lamp off the back and will be replacing it. The weather was not kind to the old girl. Still waiting on more goodies to show up. The rear corners will need some body work before I repaint the roof. The corners appear to have been bumped slightly so that made it difficult to attach the lights how I wanted. They will be redone after the roof is repaired.


Large order from Fastenal of various sizes of stainless steel bolts, screws, nuts, and washers in tamper resistant torx heads. it does not look like much in the photos but there are many hundreds of pieces. Replacing all the window, light, and other fasteners on the bus. Some are showing their age and not looking all that nice.

Got my 4ga battery lugs, 6-way fuse block, marine battery terminals, marine battery terminal covers, and an 8amp 4-way USB charger port system to keep the goodies up and running.

The side view and rear view camera system came in. Wired it up on the table to test it.

 

[BassnTruck]

Had another part come in. Worked on the bus a little today. It claims 8000 lumens of blind you in the face, let there be light. The orignal spot light, while still working, was all rusted up and showing its age. This light has some switches in the rear to turn it on or tie it into the reverse lights when they come on. Also got the rear camera mounted up. Will get some better photos tomorrow in the light of them finished.


Wires ran.


Had some more parts show up. I ordered 80 feet of new butyl rubber to reseal the windows I have to remove. Did not take a photo of that.

Like I mentioned earlier I was going to build a hitch for the bus. After looking through my metal pile and calling to get prices on stuff I will need it was going to be a wash to just buying one. Now had I built it I would have added a ton of metal to my pile but I did not feel the need to do that right now.

I will have to modify this one and reweld it but it has most of what I need. Which was mainly the drop portion of the hitch to clear my ramp under the rear. It is way to wide for the frame but that will be an easy fix. It is a 20k Class V.

 

[BassnTruck]

Air bags are rotted out and do not hold air. So I started working on that issue.



Got them removed last week and ordered the new ones.

Also ordered some new brake lines as the old ones were really starting to look bad. I did not take a photo of the new ones before I installed them but here are the old ones.



Picked up my 7 22.5" rims from the powder coater today.



UPS showed up with some parts this morning. Rebuild kits for my air wiper motors and one new switch.


Then Fed-Ex showed up this afternoon with this. New bags and shocks all around.

 

[BassnTruck]

Had some stuff pop up today so I only got a few hours to work on the bus. Got the new bags installed and plumbed up. Installed the new rear shocks also. So the rear suspension and brakes are now finished. I went around to the parts stores in town but none of them had enough tire stems for my wheels. Plus they wanted $7 a pop for them. I wound up ordered a set of 10 online for $21. Once they get here I will be able to install the new rear wheels and tires then set her back down.


Tomorrow I think i will get the front shocks mounted. Then see what else I will work on. I still have a bunch of wiring to do. I will see what I feel like working one when I get to it.

 

[BassnTruck]

Weather was **** this morning so I was not out working on the bus. Figured I would rebuild the Sprague M-554 air push wiper motor. Sit at kitchen table and started to pull it apart and everything was going fine. Rebuild the control valve assembly first. Move onto the piston assembly next. Find the plastic pistons have cracks in them.

I could likely put them back together and they would work but I am already balls deep and way to much money into them to not order the new pistons tomorrow. If I get another 27 years out of them I guess we will be good. These motors are pretty expensive to rebuild. Or I just got hosed on the parts.

They seem pretty expensive for just a few bits of plastic and some O-rings. After I order the new pistons and one more control switch I would not be surprised to have the proverbial $350 into this adventure. I am pretty close already.

 

[BassnTruck]

Got some work done today. Got the front shocks installed and changed the diff fluid. Also has some parts come in today. New reflectors and a LED turn signal relay.



Got some more work done and had more parts come in.

74oz of ceramic balance beads and 60' of butyl rubber tape.



Got the new valve stems for the 22.5" rims. Mounted up the 4 rear tires today but I do not have any pictures yet.


Bought a bunch of grease to lube the ole girl up.


Got the plastic piston pieces in so I could finish the rebuild of the wiper motors. I have one completely rebuilt now.

 

[BassnTruck]

Worked on the bus this weekend. Did the very labor and time intensive mid roof markers lights on both sides and the drivers turn signal. Replaced the weather stripping on all the enclosure doors. Had some parts come in but it looks like I only took a picture of the taillight converter for the trailer wiring.

 

[BassnTruck]

Noticed I never mentioned what the rear A/C motor is. It appears it is a Mitsubishi L3E. It looks like peak power is between 14.5 and 20hp. They can spin up to 3600RPM.

Engine type Water cooled
Cylinder arrangement In-line
Number of cylinders 3
Bore x Stroke 76 x 70 mm
Totale displacement 0.952 liter
Type of fuel Diesel fuel (ASTM no. 2-D)
Starting system Electric starting
Lubricating system Dgear pump
Length 465 mm
Width 400 mm
Hight 500 mm
Dry weight engine only 75 kg

 

[BassnTruck]

Cut up the new hitch to start the process of making it fit.

View attachment 584825

Decided to remove the ramp from underneath. I am not putting it back.
View attachment 584826View attachment 584827View attachment 584828View attachment 584829
I did not get as much done today as I wanted. Life has a habit of doing that to me. I got the hitch put in a large band saw and cut down to the correct width I need.
View attachment 584832

Here is a picture of the rear after I got it all pressure washed.

View attachment 584834

Had a few boxes start showing up today.

 

[BassnTruck]

Been busy working on the bus. Not must to see in the form of progress though. Cleaned it and removing little things. Had more parts come in also.

Got the hitch welded up and ready to go. Got the new front tires in and mounted up on the rims. Will have them all installed on the bus next weekend. Putting a bunch of the interior trim back together inside.

The parts delivery included. Two cheap pyros, trans temp gauge, coolant filter with additive, some e-track rings, 20k 2 5/8 ball, seals for my trailer, new silicone intake pipe couplers, 6 gallons of heavy duty truck anti freeze, and an air brake to electric trailer brake controller. Picked up a cheap RV door. Not really what I wanted but it was the cheapest one I could find.

 

[BassnTruck]

It is cold today and we are supposed to get some snow soon. So I stayed inside and built the new wiring harness for the rear lights. It is a 50' 16 wire harness of varying gauges. This will power all the rear lights, the trailer plug, and the rear camera.

It is all in 3/4" split loom and then wrapped with 3M super 33+ electrical tape.


It has been snowing on and off over the last few days. No snow today so I have to get out there and do something. After all, it is only 15 and feels like 0. I have most of the stuff done that I can do on the inside right now. The vast majority I have left is outside. I have a heater in it that keeps it nice and warm.

I never bought it for the rear doors and ramps but they have come in handy a number of times. The doors need rebuilt at some point because they are a little tweaked from a previous driver backing into something. Nothing major, but you can tell they are not square.

I plan on keeping the paint scheme. I like blue and have no issue on how it looks, besides needing resprayed. I will see if I can get that done this summer if I can find the time. I have to get the roof done this summer as it is really showing its age.

Funny thing is my parents were on their way back from Florida earlier this month and passed a bus on the side of the road that they said looked just like mine. It greatly confused them and they called me to ask if I took the bus to MO and am I broken down on the side of 70. I told them it was not me. There are other ones out there but they will be hard to find.

The one my parents saw makes 6 that I know were/are in existence.


Been working on this like crazy. Have not had much time to take any pictures yet. Drove her today and got her nice and hot. Got the wet stacking issue solved. Parked it this afternoon out front. Went back out to start her up and the bendix in the starter let go. Got a new one coming tomorrow morning.

 

[BassnTruck]

Time for an update. I got it finished enough to make a 3,000+ mile trip in it across the country. The traveling part of the trip was pretty uneventful. I did learn a lot about the ole girl along the way though. I ran her across the scales empty right before I loaded up and left, 20,750lbs is what she tipped at. Loaded up and ready to roll I know I was over 30,000lbs with the trailer and suburban in tow.

This 210hp DT466 does not like inclines of any sort. I was scrubbing speed on every hill I hit. I crawled up the mountain pass around 20mph. I got the dual pyros, trans temp, and boost gauge installed right before we rolled out. The trans temp and the coolent temp near matched each other the whole trip. Usually hovering around 185f. The pyros were pretty close to each other. They were very cheap units so I am thinking that could account for the small difference between them.

I could swap the probes and know for sure but I am not going to do that right now. I was between 700-1000f depending on the conditions. The most the boost gauge ever read was 14psi and was usually closer to 12psi. I was blowing enough soot under big loads to blacken a nice spot on the trailer and suburban. Nothing that would impress the bro's though. I know she could use a bit more air into her. I think a bigger turbo, aftercooler, and turning the pump up would net much better results.

It took 30 hours to make a trip I can usually make in 20 if I speed slightly. if I could not drop so much speed on every hill I know I could knock a nice chunk of time off that. We averaged 7.3MPG on this excursion there and back. We were trying to cruise around 55-60mph, which it would do fine until we hit a hill and had to drop the hammer. You could tell with the hammer down that last little bit it was pumping more fuel then it could burn and was being wasteful. So we tried to stay just off that for economy.

She rode and drove well enough. Minus all the huge missing chunks of pavement around and in Nashville, the ride was really smooth and comfortable. She really needs a retarder going down those mountain passes. She made it down fine, but it would be a lot less stressful with one.

I am still trying to get stuff put away and cleaned up from the trip. Once I get some time I think I might have a picture or 2 from the trip of the bus.

 

[BassnTruck]

New 22.5 shoes and no two piece wheels.


My air distribution block. Quite a mess but it feeds a bunch of stuff. I threw an air horn on there last minute. Could not find a good way to mount it so zip ties it was.


Here is the hitch mounted up. She worked great towing 10K.


Loaded up, just about ready to leave.

 

[BassnTruck]

Picture of the air ride seat I put in.



Some of the crew hanging out on the trip.


Proof it made it, we do not have palm trees in Kansas.


And that is where she is right now.

I need a better turbo and turn up the fuel before the next trip.

 

[BnaditCorps]

ancient thread is ancient cliche

 

[wreckerman893]

Still a bad ast bus.

I drove a short flat faces bus when I was stationed at Fort Benning in the 80's when I was a young goldbricking SP4. It was a sham artist's dream job. I drove a few hours in the morning. Took a nap. Took the ammo humpers to lunch and back to the ammo dump, took my after lunch nap and then did my afternoon run.

When I was in Korea they had Daewoo buses that could be configured to carry litters in case the North attacked. They were pretty cool buses. OD green with the big red crosses on the front, back, sides and roof.