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Lubing the chassis – fun on a rainy day
Finally built some ramps, drove the bus on it, supported it with 22 ton jack stands and started lubing the chassis. With Jon’s instructions on where to look for the grease fittings, things went well. Tomorrow, I’ll double check the differential level and then move to the front.
Nice to be able to give the bus a good inspection from below. Much to my surprise the air bags looked like new. They must have been replaced some time ago.
Any specific issues I should be aware of lubing the IFS front axle? Jon’s directions are for the solid axle.
Gerald
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9 Replies
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Nice ramps. Is the little trolley in the first pic so you can put them under the wheels and spin the bus round like they do in car body shops? :))
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Gerald,
If you look at the IFS you will see a significant number of grease fittings. Prevost shows them on their lubrication illustration although it is difficult to see them. Form me it is easier to just get under the bus, and look for them. If it moves and is part of the steering, chances are it needs grease.
Here is the link: https://secureus5.volvo.com/technicalpublications/pdf/pa1151-24.pdf
One thing I do that you might consider. I support the chassis, then I raise each wheel slightly off the floor so I can try to wobble it both side to side, plus up and down. I am looking for any slop in the linkages or ball joints. For the first time in 25 years I found my LH tie rod had slop at both ends so I replaced it. The RH was OK. It was the first time I ever had to replace anything relating to the steer axle on any of my coaches. It’s a little extra work but in this case I was glad I have been doing that.
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Haven’t used ramps yet. I raise bus to max height with air suspension, place jack stands and release air from suspension. This allows me adequate access room and its easy to raise wheels with a floor jack as they are no longer supporting bus. I can then check for foreign objects in tires and looseness, etc. Incidentally, just had alignment and all tie rods replaced @ 190K.
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Gerald,
Could you post pictures and build details on your ramps, please?
Davy
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Davy,
the ramps are constructed out of 6 sheets of 1 inch laminated plywood (factory seconds @ $18 each). Cut into 1 foot wide strips. Glued and screwed together with 2 inch screws alternating locations for each layer. I used six layers going from 8 feet on the bottom to 5 1/2 feet on top in 6 inch increments. I use all four ramps for the rear to support the duals and the tag. They are heavy, thus the dolly.
Jon, thanks for the tips on lubing the IFS.
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Did the front axle (IFS) yesterday. Lots and lots of old grease everywhere. I removed the excess grease as best I could and applied just a small amount of fresh grease. Pretty messy.
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Some place in that bus barn is the refreshment center.
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That’s the problem with shops using air grease guns with no regard to blowing the boots apart and it seems like they think more is better.
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Gerald, it sounds like you did it just right. As Tom points out a lot of lube guys hust keep pumping grease until it pops out of the rubber boots, eventually damaging them. And nobody will inspect a coach like you will because they are just getting paid to pump grease, not look for issues.
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