Yesterday I got the details finished up on the bus and test ran it. Admittedly after the difficulty with getting the compressor in, and just having it apart for two things at once it was a little nerve-wracking to start it up. But the engine sounds healthy and the air built up quickly. And, for the first time, it seemed to behave more like air systems I'm used to. Got up to the "higher" pressure of 135 psi or so, purged and cut out, and then maintained something lower (around 110ish) just fine.
I drained the wet tank and it was, well, very wet and had a lot of junk in it. Another issue that had recently started was that the manual fill port for the air system was clogged and I couldn't fill the air port from there. This matters for a few reasons, but I figured that once I got the air system filling from the engine side it might work better. The fill port also has a drain on the bottom of it:
And after the engine was filled, when I opened that drain a good bit of oil came out, as well as some chunks that hit my finger noticeably. A few purges and fills and now it seems to be at least mostly working properly, I'll keep this going a few more tries.
I did a test drive on the bus and it was uneventful, exactly as hoped. I can't say if there is any more power or fuel economy from the overhead adjustment, I'll be able to tell that on my next trip. But the air compressor was definitely working well and properly.
I got home, finished up a few checks and went to go put the bus back in the shop when something bad happened.
As I backed in and over the hump to get in it's common for things to rock around a bit. And then there was a giant hissing sound like an obvious big air leak, coming from behind the refrigerator.
My first and immediate thought was that the fridge itself had popped a refrigerant line and was leaking all of its freon out, because surely there was no air line behind the refrigerator (why would there be one there, after all?) and so with much cursing I started tearing into the fridge, which to remove requires pulling off the doors. A new refrigerator would suck not just because we like this one and it was brand new when we bought the bus (put in at our request) but it also requires removing the windshield to put a fridge in.
And upon getting back there, I realized, there is, in fact an air line, and that was the problem. But the fridge, and specifically the people who put it in, were the cause:
If you look where I'm pointing, that is right at a hole in that air line. The bottom is the supply air, and the top two are supposed to go to a pneumatically operated door (which doesn't work). Diagnostics indicate the solenoid itself is probably the issue as electronics for it seem to be working just fine. The Prevost group has indicated these valves fail.
But how did a hole end up in that air line when the bus rocked? This goes back to the refrigerator.
The installers put a piece of metal on the top for a support that was drilled into the wall:
What you don't see are the two sheetmetal screws that were in there. Two tiny sheetmetal screws for a whole refrigerator. And if you look at the first picture, you can see two distinct types of wood - a 1/4" plywood type where the hole is, and further below a proper thick piece of plywood. The fridge had slid out from its hole before, and that was where those screws ripped out. But they stayed in the metal, and then what clearly happened was that the fridge rocked, and one of those screws knocked that hole in the air line - something that was inevitably going to happen, and it's good that it happened here at home as opposed to on the road where it would be harder to deal with (albeit not impossible).
This is honestly really annoying to me because this is not something out of the ordinary for this shop that did the work, and they somehow thought that 2 tiny sheetmetal screws into 1/4" plywood was sufficient to hold a fridge in place. They also didn't think to relocate that air line which was poorly placed. However, I'm fixing the issue. First, I've added some scrap plywood that is thick enough that it will actually hold the fridge:
I'm relocating those air lines (that's not the permanent setup you see on the right), and I'll be drilling it in with 6 wood screws instead of 2 sheetmetal screws. Slap it and say "That's not going anywhere" and that's done.
And maybe I can replace that solenoid valve and fix my pneumatic door so that it now works.
There's always something to learn...