Week #7
Week #7 was a week of life with no work on the bus. With a fun surprise trip over the weekend, and serving with Meals on Wheels during the week, time just didn’t allow for it! It’s definitely going to be a balance between working on the conversion and living life with 3 girls in all sorts of activities (soccer and camping season are just weeks away)
Week #8 – Let there be light!
In the first week we had switched out the red and yellow school bus flashers. This week it is time to re-purpose those lights to use them in a non-school bus function. The yellow lights on front and back will become additional blinkers. The red lights in the back will become additional brake lights. The now two white lights up front will become spotlights on a separate switch.
Step #1
First step was trying to figure out if a school bus actually has hazard lights so we can plug into them, or if we need to install a hazard light solenoid. Maybe this a strange query, but logic would dictate that when a school bus is stopped in an emergency, the driver will just switch on the flashers we all know about. Those would then act as hazard lights. Which is why I never bothered to look for a hazard lights button when we drove back from Calexico. Ever since we got home, I have been searching for it though….
In the end, after reading many skoolie.com posts, I figure it has to be somewhere on the steering column. Unfortunately, no-one ever posted where exactly they eventually found it. As a result, I checked every half inch of the steering assembly. And still find nothing…
The discovery
While lying under the steering wheel, thinking how to solve the mystery of mysteries, I see a little half inch black square just behind the window wiper controls. Lo and behold, when I rubbed it down with my finger, the black grime came off. There was the little red button! I pressed on it. Even though it does not light up like the ones in a car do, I heard the solenoid start clicking!! I got out of the bus and looked at the front lights and yes, the hazard lights have been found! It’s these little things of joy that want me to run to the store and buy a superman suit!!
In case someone else runs into this issue: the picture, now with a clean red button, shows you where to find it. It is not visible from the driver’s seat, and you don’t really feel the hump if you slide your hand behind the wiper controls.
Step #2
Step two, find the most direct route to connect the top blinkers to the bottom blinkers. This proved to be fairly easy since there is a nice cove on both sides of the windshield where the wires can be run straight down to the bottom blinker. Had to drill one hole through the front dashboard and voila, the wires come out in the right place.
I first used wire clips from the kids’ science kit to make the connection to ensure the wires were installed correctly. If you connect the blue and red wires of the yellow light fixtures opposite of their normal connection, you get blinkers instead of flashers. (who knew!) And blinkers are what we want. Connecting blue to red and red to blue did the trick. Of course, the wires I used to run down from the top to bottom are taken from the stack of previously removed wires, so they have a different color all together.
Add a few wire connectors, clean it up with some electrical tape, test, and success! (The only way to see them at work in this blog is by sliding the picture back and forth; lit – not lit – lit – not lit – lit – not lit)
Back lights – Blinkers
Here I needed assistance from our happy helpers. Installing the blinkers as I did before was not an issue. R helped by pressing the button while I connected the wire clips to the light to make sure they become blinkers.
Rear Brake lights
Next, we moved to the brake lights. R turned the key up front to the active position and I started the engine from the back. N stood next to the front door to relay messages to R over the noise of the engine and let her either press or release the brake pedal. She felt very important giving R instructions…
R pressed the brake while I moved the wire clips around until the top lights are working properly. Wire clips were replaced by connectors, added some tape and tie raps (or cable ties if you want to give it the American-English name) and the back was done as well.
Step #3
Last but not least, we have the front white lights. Those were connected separately and put on a dome switch inside the cabin. After all, DOT does not allow for bright white lights up top with the vehicle in motion. All the wiring for these lights was left in place during the stripping, so it is a matter of reconnecting some loose wires and a little bit of cleanup. Ensuring all works properly, we started the bus once last time and went home for the day.
Weekend Work
The plan was to bring the bus home after soccer on Saturday morning. We were going to spend the weekend scrubbing down the inside of the bus. The flooring is starting to show signs of rust, so we need to get that coated soon.
However, as Proverbs 16:9 states “We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps”. When Ivo tried to start the bus on Saturday, only two days after the last light-rewiring and last start….. there was again nothing but silence. Deep sigh and tremendous frustration. After several failed attempts, we agreed the batteries need to be checked.
Autozone confirmed that both batteries have bad cells. Ivo picked up two new batteries for $350 and went to install them. Ensuring all is properly connected, he turns the key….and nothing again!!! After messing around for over an hour, checking all connections, the batteries are brought home and put on the charger. We proceed to clean more bus windows instead, that way we get at least something done…
Overall….
Good progress on the lights, but more frustration in the end. Let’s see what next week brings….