The Odd Small Part

April 2021 Update

Fast forwarding now to April 2021 for this next chapter. December, January, February and March were extremely quiet for the project as there wasn’t much that required my immediate attention with 1130, except for my repair kit for the Williams WM-642F air throttle control assembly finally arriving in the mail in January after a very long wait due to the postal services being swamped during COVID-19 Christmas season. I rebuilt the assembly using the kit, and on a warm day in late January, I went out to the bus for the first time in 2021 to install it. I then topped up the engine coolant and power steering fluid, connected the batteries and fired up the engine for its first run of the new year. I was pleased to see that the engine still ran as nicely as ever and the freshly rebuilt air throttle now worked like a charm.

Several weeks later in March, I went to a newly discovered donor bus with Peter to scavenge a few small but very important parts for 1130: The plastic brackets for the roof hatches, one of which had gotten destroyed back in October when 1130’s aft roof hatch blew off in the wind as I was driving it. I collected all four brackets from the donor bus to take home as spares, though unfortunately nothing else from that bus aside from the brackets was useful for 1130. I later went down to 1130 to install the missing bracket on the aft roof hatch. It sure felt nice to have that hatch finally secured and working properly after all these months.

As the weather started getting warmer in April and I started making more trips to the bus again, I chipped away at several known problems that I had set aside previously, including the sticking Stop Lights which I took care of by replacing the Primary, Secondary, and Parking stop light switches with brand new ones. I also replaced the primary fuel filter which had been leaking up until now, the driver’s side front marker light bulb and covering which had gotten smashed up by hail last summer, and the lightbulb for one of the driver’s side directional lamps which was 1130’s final exterior light that needed fixing.

Unfortunately yet another minor issue popped up during this time; the pneumatic Windshield Washer control valve started severely leaking air when in the closed position. Turns out the valve was completely toast at this point. I couldn’t find an exact replacement for this valve so I ended up ordering a windshield washer valve from an M939 military truck to use in 1130. This new valve is identical in operation and is actually more durable than the original one, the only differences being that I had to drill the mounting hole in the bus’s dashboard a little bigger so I could mount the valve, and the operator’s handle is different.