78 Bluebird Caterpillar 3208 resurrection. Abandoned for years.

[@johanordonez6998]

Fantastic video. It’s an amazing feeling to know that you got the beautiful rig going!! Enjoy it to the fullest

[@vrsac242]

With that 50amp adapter you are only running one leg/phase on your electrical panel, you need two 30 amp cords and plug them on opposite sides of the power sources fuse panel with adapters to get all the electrical to work.

[@OGGarrettsGarage]

On my bus there are 2 shore power circuits. One is a split circuit that requires 2-30 Amp 120 volt connections to power up the entire bus, or the 50 Amp 120-240 volt circuit which does everything with one connection. The problem I was having turned out to be the on board chargers were messed up. They were sucking up enormous amounts of power and putting almost nothing to the batteries. Thanks for watching and commenting!

[@brianferguson6278]

Just started to watch this clip, looks great, but I can not believe that you did not check the air filters! before starting! have the MICE eaten through the filters, have you just destroyed an engine that sounds great?? Back to your video now to see what happens, I hope it works out for you?

[@brianferguson6278]

Watched to end, maybe you are lucky, the air filters was in place, it has a metal cage to keep the mice out? The water pump, hoses, belts did not fail as you were on the roof cleaning . From what I have looked at these Bluebird Wander-Lodge buses are some of the best built buses ever built, will be interesting to follow your journey with this project. In appears that you have the upgrade diesel engine, not sure if you have the air suspension ,maybe one year early? WHAT DID YOU PAY FOR THIS GEM! Only down side is the fuel mileage 4-8 range.

[@OGGarrettsGarage]

Hi Brian. Thanks for all the comments. I did a visual inspection of the engine before I bought the bus. I found all of the hoses and belts to be in excellent condition. All of the fluids were clean and fresh looking and at the appropriate levels. The air filter looked brand new plus there was an extra one in the closet. Apparently the gentleman who owned it had it fully serviced before parking it in a vacant lot. He passed away and the bus just sat there for years. I was shocked that it started because I hadn't even put in new batteries. They were completely flat and had been for years. It turns out that the bus needed new tires and some cosmetic issues addressed and was then ready and capable for the road once again. We drove it from Los Angeles to Asheville NC with no mechanical failures. It is a big solid beast. When the wealthy widow decided to sell it, I did the inspection, and looked into the costs involved. I offered her $2500 but encouraged her to try and get more. She spent 6 more weeks trying to sell it for $10,000, then $7000, then finally $5000. None of the prospective buyers could get any of the electrical systems to come on at all. She called me and said she'd take my offer. I paid her and spent a day reading up on all things Bluebird in a big blue plastic box found in the closet. One hand written note described the location of a hidden total kill switch. I turned that on and it came to life. It needs steering work (it feels like worn tie rod ends). Another nice youtuber (Gino's Garage) gave me advice about the wandering Wanderlodge and suggested looking into rear suspension bushings as another possibility. I'm currently still working on getting the new workshop set up and getting moved into our new house, but soon I'll start working on the fleet again and the Bluebird is near the top of my list. More bus videos soon! Thanks for watching.

[@brianferguson6278]

@@OGGarrettsGarage There are tears in my eyes, why do I never find these gems. You and your lovely wife are very lucky with this purchase. I think it is "BUS Grease Monkey ...or something like that that has a channel dealing just with these old buses. They have some videos of suspension work. The only thing that jumped out is safety...these are not car suspension parts. When you work on your bus watch the weights of the items. It takes a lifetime to live, yet a second to die. Maybe you can reach out to these people and do a joint video, they have experience with these old buses and they are not that far away from you.

[@OGGarrettsGarage]

I subscribe to bus grease monkey. He does interesting stuff. I'm aware of the weight issue with working on a 20 ton bus. I'm going to get a new Jack and Jack stands that are up to the challenge. I have a bus sized bay in the new workshop. Can't wait to start wrenching again.

[@CrazyOneToo]

That microwave being on probably overheated the first cord you ran. IDK about the cleaning videos. There are channels on here for nothing but cleaning stuff. Might be worth recording them.