A new Bluebird owner's tale of the first shakedown trip

[Greg Young]

Hi! Introducing ourselves, once again, this time as owners..

This will be a somewhat long post, so you have been warned. And if you decide
to reply, best to trim to annoy the digest readers and dial up users a little
less.

We are Greg and Barbara Young, about to be empty nesters and selling our home in
Escondido near San Diego. We decided to buy a Bluebird to be our new home for a
little while, after doing much research on RV's & bus conversions. We talked
extensively to a few Bluebird owners, including a couple whose birds were on the
market. We finally decided on Dan & Cindy Sunderland's '86 PT-40, heretofore
known as "Happy Camper," and picked it up last Thursday. We bought it from them
because it was meticulously maintained, had the feature set we were looking for,
and they were only 10 miles from our home and we could rely on them for
information. Dan & Cindy spent a half day with us going over the bus and its
operation, and I videotaped every minute...

So we decided to take a shakedown cruise to Arizona to see some friends, do some
business, and determine what we would need to do to the bus to make it ours and
make it work for our first big trip: We have a 3 week trip planned at the end of
August that will take us to an alkali dry lake for a week of dry camping in
60MPH winds at 105 degrees with 40,000 artists and musicians (Burning Man), then
across country to Pennsylvania to a volleyball tournament, and back to San Diego
via Colorado visiting some hot springs. The only things we knew we needed to
do were replace the fuel filter and Racor filter, fix the driver A/C, and get
the front tires replaced. Those tasks could wait until after we got back,
right? I thought, "this is a short trip, the bus has been well maintained,
let's just go." So we threw a few things in, my little household tool kit
(definitely not suitable for a big diesel engine) and took off.

Then the fuel flow problem started.

First breakdown was on I-17 near Phoenix at 6pm Sunday. It had been driving
fine for about half an hour, but stalled shortly after getting on the interstate
in the middle of an Arizona monsoon. Got it off the road, but barely - about 1
foot from the traffic flow, and right at the exit for the state penitentiary.
18 wheelers whizzing by at 70 MPH and a prison make great neighbors. I had the
replacement fuel filters, but no way to get diesel into the filter and Racor
unit to prime them, so no way to get started. Called a tow truck. Called
three,and had three visit. None of them could move us. Finally gave up at 3am
and went to sleep to the gentle rocking of the passing trucks. Cop came and
woke me up at 4am. Got one hour of sleep. At 7:30am found a diesel mechanic who
got the filter elements in, the engine primed, bypassed the apparently sick
Racor filter, and we drove it to his shop Monday morning. He (supposedly)
rebuilt the Racor unit which
he thought was sucking air. Got on the road, and everything seemed fine. Made
it to our destination, pulled into a camp site, and got some overdue sleep.

Next morning the bus started, lurched forward 5 feet and died. Same malady - no
fuel. Got another diesel mechanic to come by - wizened old guy named Andy of
A&A Diesel in Mohave Valley, AZ. Great to work with, and got us going again -
appeared the check valve ball in the Racor was stuck. But he also thought the
return fuel line from the injectors might be siphoning off, and he expected it
to be dead the next morning. We went on our way, and decided to stop at Calico
Ghost Town near Barstow on the way home. Got to the KOA there without incident,
and caught up a little more on sleep.

Next morning the bus started and ran fine. I thought Andy had gotten us
completely fixed. But as we got into Riverside that evening and were stuck in
the endless stop and go traffic in I-215, the bus stalled. I got it up an
offramp, and had just enough air to slide it back off the roadway before the
brake set, else CHP would have had us towed. This time no amount of priming the
filters would work - there was just no fuel coming into the secondary filter
from the fuel pump, which we now think was the problem all along. So, yet
another mechanic (4 hours at $147/hr) hooked us up with a little 12V pump
sucking from our 300 gal tank and pushing a dribble of fuel into the Detroit
8V92. Drove it to Valley Detroit Diesel in Mira Loma where it sits today, and
will for a few days until they can get to it, at whatever astronomical rate they
charge. The good thing is that we feel pretty confident when it comes out of
there we'll know it's working well. I
only wish I could be there to watch the diagnosis and repair - I need to learn
as much as I can about this beast so that I can better maintain it and minimize
our maintenance costs. But alas, the shop is 80 miles from our house.

A discouraging and harrowing tale of a first experience you say? Enough to make
us regret the decision? No, not at all! We love our Bluebird! And we really
believe that Dan & Cindy had no idea that there was an issue - we drove it with
them ourselves, and it had been regularly driven and loved.

Greg Young
'86 PT-40
(yet to be renamed...)