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I’ve Never Seen a Front Suspension Like This
I decided to find the local Allison shop while here in Anchorage. Pacific Power is both the Allison and Detroit Diesel rep here in AK as well as parts of WA and OR. After driving the mountain roads and Alaskan Highway I wanted to get my transmission retarder reprogrammed. When I activate the Jake the transmission downshifts to 4th gear, I wanted it to down shift to 5th. That was an easy program change that could not have taken 10 minutes.
I also wanted the chassis lubed. Driving the Alaskan Highway really puts the suspension through a workout. The tech crawled under the bus and said, “I’ve never seen a suspension set-up like this before”. He said the lower ball joints were totally missing the grease boots and the joints were dry. I didn’t question him, but kind of doubt his findings. I’ve never seen a grease boot totally gone and the likelihood that is the case on both right and left sides is even more remote. Anyway, he crawled around under the coach and was able to grease all but the drive shaft area fittings. He couldn’t squeeze over to the drive shaft and didn’t have a pit or lift. He didn’t see any major issues under there but suggested I get the ball joints replaced when I get back to the lower 48. The lesson learned or confirmed here is that even though there are many Prevosts on the road, getting service in some areas may still be a challenge. I asked if there was anyone that serviced buses and the answer was not really surprise. He said the bus companies service their own up here. BTW, every commercial bus I’ve seen so far has been a MCI.
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4 Replies
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IF we’re thinking about the same thing, the boots on mine are shot also, but it’s not a traditional lubed ball joint but rather a type of rubber bushing much like an inner upper a-arm bushing on a car. Prevost wanted to change the entire a-arm (they had plenty) even though a repair kit is made (not in stock at the time). I elected to wait for the bushing to fail…as I recall, there was no lube fitting on the joint.
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Do not take this as an abolute, but on my latest coach which I am still learning I can not yet find a grease fitting for the lower “ball joint”, but there is one on the upper and it faces outward so a person looking from below will not see it.
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I could see the lower one and could not find a zerk or bolt were a zerk could be installed. I wasn’t about to crawl under the coach to check the upper. I’m a bit surprise that the entire boot on both side could be totally gone. Not the smallest piece of boot could be seen. Prevost just changed all the bags before we took off and didn’t catch this. I know they weren’t asked to check this, but they weren’t asked to checked the rear axle seal that they discovered was leaking.
Those are some massive rods, I suspect replacing them would be a bit pricey. Joel, do you recall the price?
Thanks,
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As I recall, it was a bit pricey, but the point is that if all you have in that joint is a rubber/metal bushing, there’s really almost no point in a protective dust boot.
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