Colin in Canton
Posted: Wed Oct 16, 2013 2:56 pm
Colin stopped last night for what I thought was going to be "just" a social visit on his way from Pennsylvania to southwestern Ohio. He arrived a little before 5:00PM and of course the first order of business after saying hello was to finally meet Chloe, the unassuming and pretty little workhorse that has gracefully endured the many hardships of the itinerary.
The next thing I knew, I was in the passenger seat of my own bus while Colin was gathering data about its uneven rear braking problem (viewtopic.php?f=44&t=10988), warming the brakes by driving with his left foot firmly on the brake pedal while maintaning speed with his right, then frightening an unsuspecting runner with the sudden lockup of the left rear wheel and the ensuing slew! After returning to my home, it went something like this....
Colin: "How quickly do you think you can have the rear drums removed from this bus?"
Don: "Uh, maybe half an hour? 20 minutes?"
Colin: "I say we do it in 10 minutes"
Sure enough, within a few minutes the drums were laying on the driveway as we tried to assess differences between them and the original drums I had previously removed. In the end we chose to reuse the current drums, but switch sides to see if the problem moved with them. Then we found that the return spring was not properly installed on the driver's side shoes and were soon up to our eyeballs in brake dust reinstalling the shoes with the now corrected spring in place but minus the parking brake bar. "Hey, I'm just a consultant!" Colin said as he worked two screwdrivers patiently trying to coerce the spring-loaded shoes back around the hub while I tried to direct the light from my crappy work light to the right place.
A test drive showed hopeful improvement; stay tuned to the thread for further updates. The drive also took us to a local watering hole for dinner and a thoroughly enjoyable conversation - all I was really looking for from this visit!
By around 9:00, Colin and Chloe were on their way - heading southwest to Richmond, Indiana to avoid today's continuous rain in Ohio before heading back east again for his appointment with Muthashabubu tomorrow.
What a blessing this man is!
The next thing I knew, I was in the passenger seat of my own bus while Colin was gathering data about its uneven rear braking problem (viewtopic.php?f=44&t=10988), warming the brakes by driving with his left foot firmly on the brake pedal while maintaning speed with his right, then frightening an unsuspecting runner with the sudden lockup of the left rear wheel and the ensuing slew! After returning to my home, it went something like this....
Colin: "How quickly do you think you can have the rear drums removed from this bus?"
Don: "Uh, maybe half an hour? 20 minutes?"
Colin: "I say we do it in 10 minutes"
Sure enough, within a few minutes the drums were laying on the driveway as we tried to assess differences between them and the original drums I had previously removed. In the end we chose to reuse the current drums, but switch sides to see if the problem moved with them. Then we found that the return spring was not properly installed on the driver's side shoes and were soon up to our eyeballs in brake dust reinstalling the shoes with the now corrected spring in place but minus the parking brake bar. "Hey, I'm just a consultant!" Colin said as he worked two screwdrivers patiently trying to coerce the spring-loaded shoes back around the hub while I tried to direct the light from my crappy work light to the right place.
A test drive showed hopeful improvement; stay tuned to the thread for further updates. The drive also took us to a local watering hole for dinner and a thoroughly enjoyable conversation - all I was really looking for from this visit!
By around 9:00, Colin and Chloe were on their way - heading southwest to Richmond, Indiana to avoid today's continuous rain in Ohio before heading back east again for his appointment with Muthashabubu tomorrow.
What a blessing this man is!