[Archived]

Bill remember to remove all your jewelry including your watch before you start, take pic before you start,number everything with tape, you”ll be alright

[Archived]

Bill,

You
have 3 equalizers, but 2 are for the house and 1 for the chassis. Follow the cables so you’re sure witch one is the chassis. Unhook the ground cable after shutting down the chassis disconnect.

You
should have a diagram on the door for the cables, but Darrell gave
good advice with a picture. Be very careful not to short anything
out. When I remove the cables, I make a diagram and number each
position using masking tape, then wire tie them assuring there is no
mix up and wrap with rubber material I have using electrical tape.
Clean the cables good before putting them on the new batteries.

Remember,
you have 12 and 24 volt, wired in series/parallel, so correct cabling
is critical. If you’re not comfortable messing with electrical,
get someone with 24 volt jump capacity and take the bus to have the
work done.

[Archived]

Hi Bill

Unplug and shut off both red battery disconnect switches. Your equalizer ground should be a middle wire, loosen the nut and take it off, it will say ground on it.

Take pictures and make a diagram on paper, I don’t know if yours are in the last curbside door or where but regardless be redundent.

Take the cables off and tape and number them, I use the blue paint tape but don’t touch it to any metal. If you have multiple cables on a post wire tire them together and tape.

When you take the batterys out set them on the floor like they were in the bus, this will help the picture in your mind.

You need the Napa group 31 commercial grade batteries that are sealed, not the AGM’s. They have cold cranking power of about 1100 cold.

The red sealer Napa has that you spray on after you install and connect cables.

You might get a little spark when putting on a cable but don’t get scared, it is normal. Just don’t touch your wrenches on the post and metal at the same time.

Hook your ground up and repower your 2 red switches and check your battery voltage on the dash pro driver and you should see 13 plus volts.

Fire it up.

I see me and Truk jumped in at the same time, you should have enough info to get it done.

Later

bv

[Archived]

Bill

Do you know how to work you battery jump switch on your left panel?

That will get you started,

Later

bv

[Mike]

Yes,

The jump start on the left panel will get you going. It uses the house batteries.

Bob

[AL]

Bernie,

No I must not know how the jump button works. I press it… it lights for a bit but bus doesn’t start. Is there something more to just pressing it?

If I can get it to start I would much rather not mess with this…myself

Bill

[Larry & Diane]

Bill Are you holding the button down while you are starting it

[Corey]

Just tried again and nothing… so something must not be working right with my jump start either 🙁

Thanks for the tip

Bill

[Bernie]

Bill.

Press the switch and hold for a 5 count and continue holding while you turn the key. It should stay iluminated while you hold it in.

Your house batteries are up to snuff and your plugged in?

Later

bv

[Dean]

If that doesn’t work, call me Bill

310-242-7880

[Peter]

Bill, just went through the same thing. I was told to hold my button for 3.5 to 5 min. Bus started right up from being so dead the door lock buttons wouldn’t even light up. Geo.

[Archived]

Bill:

I went through a similar experience in October of last year. Following Jeff Rowe’s instructions, I removed my batteries and replaced them using the procedures at the following link:

http://prevostcommunity.com/forum/threaddetails.asp?Category=Electrical&ThreadID=3436

Good luck! Any questions, please call me: 262-365-9088.

Dick

[Archived]

Bill,

Hope that you get back on the road soon.

Mark

[Archived]

Bill,

I am not familiar with the Marathon system that brings house power over to the chassis side, but I know many owners have used that feature with success which brings some questions to my mind.

Have you measured the battery voltage at the chassis to verify the batteries are dead? If they are not dead, have you measured voltage at the starter solenoid? Based on what you have posted I would start by measuring with the chassis batteries only and I would want to check voltage at the heavy post on the starter solenoid just to make sure you do have power to that point

If the chassis batteries do measure low voltage (you likely have a gauge to tell you chassis battery voltage) then determine the house battery voltage, also on a gauge, but when you use the feature to jump the chassis I would suggest checking to verify voltage at the heavy post on the starter solenoid.

You could have a bad solenoid, a bad ground, or some issue preventing full power from reaching the starter. You could also have a bad starter.

[Archived]

There is a way to check on his gauges on the pro driver if his jump switch is working which I was going to walk him thru but he never called so maybe he got it started.

If memory serves the Marathon book tells you to hold it 10 seconds. There’s a couple thins he can do before having to get under it.

Like Geo said if it was sitting a long time he might have to hold it a long time.

Later

bv

I’m doing an edit here because I just learned something new. I have never had to hold my jump button more than 3 seconds but if the chassis batteries are way down the ignition needs to be turned to the right and then hold the jump button for 10 seconds to join the 2 banks and start.