Blog Archives

19/3/2013

Friends Of The East Kent (FotEK).

Don't forget, if you're interested in East Kent buses and the East Kent fleet there is ONLY one place you need to go, Friends of the East Kent. Set up by former employees of the company in 1999 this long established group owns two former East Kent AEC buses, a Regent and a rarer Bridgemaster. A further Regent is owned by members of FotEK which they also use. Come and visit the original and the best - Friends of the East Kent! Find them in our links page.

17/3/2013

Nuw's interior work starts.

As most of the work on 5137 was completed by Paul today, I decided to commence the overhaul of Nuw the Titan's interior. Her LT panels will become Stagecoach blue and eventually all her LT seating will be swapped for Stagecoach trimmed seats making her interior all rather blue but clean looking. This will go well with the exterior when done, as she will don the traditional Devon General livery and the older Devon General vehicles had blue interiors. Nuw's interior will be completed with a mix of paint and sticky vinyl.

7/3/2013

5137 update.

One thing we did notice last month when we tested 5137 was her reluctance to go into 3rd and 4th gears. They engaged but slipped really badly- to the point where no forward motion could be made. As with anything to do with VR gearboxes, this was a little alarming and after checking the levels I decided it must be a fault with the EP box. The EP (Electro Pneumatic) box controls the gears. Basically the electric signals from the gear selector at the front enter this little box of tricks and opens a corresponding air valve allowing the gear to operate - that's a very basic description! Taking the top off of 5137's EP box we discovered that both 3rd and 4th gear were operating together at the same time. Somewhere inside there must've been a short circuit or crossed wire. The easiest thing was to replace the troublesome box so it could be looked at and get the bus driving well again. On Monday 4th March, Paul and myself started work on 5137. Whilst Paul attended to the hazard lights and a sticky solenoid at the front, I removed 5137's EP box and replaced it with the one from 7681. Unfortunately we have had to cannibalize 7681 quite a bit as of late but she will be put back together once her leaky bottom has been sorted out. Paul and myself managed to limp 5137 back into her parking spot. The next day we returned and Paul completed the work on the EP box by rewiring the boxes loom from the unit under the back seat. Normally this isn't necessary but 5137's electrics weren't the best we'd seen. Paul has also started working on the rear lights, the wiring for which is also a bit beyond it's best.

YOUR CART

Friends Of The East Kent (FotEK).

Nuw's interior work starts.

5137 update.

Click here for the archive news pages dating back to 2008.

Jake

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