About Fun Fleet Bus #6514
Some Specs
#6514
Vin: TDH-4519-1392
Built October 1966 for Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, Boston, MA
Second generation
96 inches wide/35 feet long, double door
6V71 Detroit/Allison VH-7 transmission
45 seats, extra wide rear door (Canadian Style) plastic seats
Added to Fun Fleet
This bus was purchased from a private bus owner. I have been known for looking for unusual fishbowls. Well this one hit the target. I bought it from a private party and drove it back to California, but it decided it didn't want to go all the way. It gave up just west of Fort Worth. I had it towed to my mechanic friend in Weatherford, Texas.
I came back to repair it and found they had removed the driveline. The truck driver had rice for brains and insisted the axle needed to be removed; he didn't get that far in school. So I put the driveline back in and the bus had developed a stripped blower shaft. I repaired all of that in his yard all while a tornado was passing over; I'd never saw it rain sideways. Anyway, got it running and headed west.
About a hundred miles out, it decided to run in first gear only. So I replaced the governor and that solved that problem. Then it decided to run hot. This happens to transit buses a lot when they get on the road. Problem is it never shows up in local transit use, but on the highway the fan just goes too slow. So with my many "Loren tricks", I ran an oil line from the rear oil gauge to where the Verna Thern valve is in the back of the torus fan. I removed the valve and inserted the oil line to boost the oil pressure in the fan assembly. It works. Now the fan turns at full speed and no overheating. When we got the bus back to Perris, all these things were corrected.
When and Where Did it Go?
Fun Fleet Bus #6514 was later sold for scrap.