School Bus Archives

School Bus Repairs

School bus repairs in the garage are different every day. The mechanic has to be prepared to diagnose and repair problems in various categories like electrical, air brakes, steering, engines and emissions. I’ve seen problems happen in groups of three and within a tight time frame. This isn’t surprising since every group of buses purchased… Continue reading School Bus Repairs

Using Freightliner Parts Software

There are times I don’t want to phone a dealer partsman and wait for them to take a serial number and look up a part. Having the Accessfreightliner website at your finger tips is a huge advantage to finding part numbers and technical information for all freightliner chassis vehicles. In our case it’s the C2 school… Continue reading Using Freightliner Parts Software

20 Year Anniversary and Mechanic Memories

I thought now would be a good time to celebrate my 20th year as a school bus fleet mechanic. I first thought is “how times have changed” it’s a familiar statement but so true from my perspective. 20 years ago I was working on hard wired diesel engines and buses without any high tech troubleshooting… Continue reading 20 Year Anniversary and Mechanic Memories

School Bus Preventive Maintenance

School bus preventive maintenance let me count the ways. There are many approaches a mechanic can take to looking after the modern day school bus and the old models as well. Technology has changed and so has procedures involved with making sure unexpected failures are held to a minimum. PM steps are small to large… Continue reading School Bus Preventive Maintenance

School Bus Electrical Fault

This is the first time I’ve ever seen a problem like this on an HDX pusher school bus model. The Thomas HDX pusher bus has printed circuit boards that relay all of the supply power to run the lights, heater motors and operating circuits. There are 3 circuit boards in total and troubleshooting requires a… Continue reading School Bus Electrical Fault

The School Bus Mechanic Life

The video shows one of our mechanics grinding away at a rear suspension. This is one of the jobs you may be faced with when you become a commercial transport / school bus fleet mechanic. If you want an interesting job with lots of variety getting into this trade is the way to go. I… Continue reading The School Bus Mechanic Life

School Bus Inspection Manual

CVSE (commercial vehicle safety and enforcement) officers have a serious job. They inspect commercial and fleet vehicles to government standards so there isn’t any junk driving up and down our highways. I’ve see a lot of mickey mouse repairs and scratch my head in disbelief. Why risk death to yourself or innocent people over a… Continue reading School Bus Inspection Manual

Park Brake Not Releasing C2 Bus

This is a 2006 Thomas C2 school bus that had a park brake that would not release. The video shows the AMU air management unit that controls the PB circuit. When releasing the park brake the switch sends a signal to the bulk head module which is the brains of the operation allowing the PB… Continue reading Park Brake Not Releasing C2 Bus

School Bus Module Corrosion

Modules have been part of the mechanical world for many years. The technology has advanced in leaps and bounds with more monitoring and control of multiple circuits reducing wiring, switches and connections. Most school bus modules are sealed from the environment however if moisture and oxygen are allowed to enter it’s inevitable a failure will… Continue reading School Bus Module Corrosion

School Bus Electrical Information

We recently found the problem with the no ignition power on one of our pusher school buses. The details leading up to the solution were documented in a previous post. The circuit board has definitely failed because of a bad diode internally that is allowing battery voltage to ground out. This is a dead short… Continue reading School Bus Electrical Information

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Tag: School Bus