Just received an email from Nate Chase asking where his puller was. I was
embarrassed to have to tell him that it was still on my Kitchen floor packed
in a box, along with 17 others. I had told everyone that I was going to
ship them on the 11th but continued sickness killed that. Did spend the
weekend in Kitchner Ontario Candada with the GMC Heritage Cruisers club, and
28 other coaches. Drove there with the aid of pain killers. Would not have
missed it for the world.
I am now planning on packing the remaining pullers, 39 more for a total of
56 and should ship them wednesday. I have to drive to Utica 30 miles away to
ship them all.
I had a bad kidney stone exploded in the hospital 2 1/2 weeks ago and have
been back sick on and off every since having passed over 100 kidney stones
since than. Only heavy pain killers have kept me going. I apologize that
the puller schedule has been knocked off.
>Nate,
>
>I thought you knew me better than that! I was not sure if you wanted the
>world to know how screwed up your brakes acted for me, I think (looking
>back on it all now) that this is one of those stories that make the hair on
>the back of your head stand up!
>
>Here goes:
>
>Remember when Nelson, my wife & I drove Nates coach to FC to deliver it,
>there was an incident that one was told to people first person. At the
>time it was no joke but level heads and the "no fear" mind set made things
>come out OK.
>
>After nursing Nates new motor a few hundred miles Nelson & I felt like we
>could trust it to get us there we looked for a few creature comforts. The
>cruise control didn't work so I thought I would trouble shoot it on the fly.
>
>I found that the brake was not closing off the dump switch located on the
>brake pedal so while Nelson was driving, I pulled up on the brake and got
>the cruise to engage, woopee!
>
>SOP was to pull up with your foot on the brake pedal and push the cruise on.
>
>This worked fine for 3-400 miles. Nelson was driving and said when he
>pulled up on the pedal it felt weird but thought nothing about it. He went
>to pull into a rest area to swap drivers. He hit the exit ramp and reached
>for the brake and yes, there was none.
>
>The pedal went to the floor & stayed there! We whipped the coach back out
>into traffic and asked my wife to wake me because there were no brakes. I
>unconsciously somehow heard "no brakes" and shot up out of a sound sleep.
>I looked at Nelson and said, "whats happening". He calmly said the brakes
>are gone and continued driving down the road.
>
>Nelson is one of those guys that would go to the store for marsh mellows if
>the air raid sirens went off and nuclear winter was about to become
>reality, very cool!
>
>I felt like data on Star Trek trying to race thoughts of what could be the
>problem and how could I fix it on the fly so we could stop this runaway train!
>
>The pedal had no life at all laying there on the floor board so I grabbed
>it and tried to pump life into its cold body. No resistance or anything!!
>
>I figured I would start at the top so I starting removing the power level
>control panel to access the plunger going into the vacuum booster.
>Remember now that Nate has one of those power master boosters. The cotter
>pin was still in the arm but the arm was pulled out of the master cylinder
>and was hanging straight down.
>
>I looked up and peered out through the windshield to see sparse traffic and
>asked Nelson how it was going. He looked down at me with a smile and said
>he was fine and asked me how I was doing! A very cool man under pressure!
>
>The rod was very rusty and had threads on it. I thought this rod was
>pressed into the master and had no threads and in no way could come out
>like this! I pulled up on the brake pedal and repositioned the rod into
>the back of the brake master. It went back into place and I felt it bottom
>out in its socket.
>
>I pushed down on the pedal with my hand and the brakes worked!! Crisis was
>averted, I told Nelson to not pull up on the brakes, he looked at me and
>said "duh" with his eyes.
>
>We pulled off at the next fuel station and I bent the brake switch stop
>down to where the pedal would not come up that high. Needless to say I
>will not be pulling up on brake pedals without thinking any more!
>
>I guess you would have to be there to get the full impact of rocketing down
>a runway with no parachute but take it from me it was a most unusual
>experience.
>
>Jim Bounds
>----------------------------
>
>
embarrassed to have to tell him that it was still on my Kitchen floor packed
in a box, along with 17 others. I had told everyone that I was going to
ship them on the 11th but continued sickness killed that. Did spend the
weekend in Kitchner Ontario Candada with the GMC Heritage Cruisers club, and
28 other coaches. Drove there with the aid of pain killers. Would not have
missed it for the world.
I am now planning on packing the remaining pullers, 39 more for a total of
56 and should ship them wednesday. I have to drive to Utica 30 miles away to
ship them all.
I had a bad kidney stone exploded in the hospital 2 1/2 weeks ago and have
been back sick on and off every since having passed over 100 kidney stones
since than. Only heavy pain killers have kept me going. I apologize that
the puller schedule has been knocked off.
>Nate,
>
>I thought you knew me better than that! I was not sure if you wanted the
>world to know how screwed up your brakes acted for me, I think (looking
>back on it all now) that this is one of those stories that make the hair on
>the back of your head stand up!
>
>Here goes:
>
>Remember when Nelson, my wife & I drove Nates coach to FC to deliver it,
>there was an incident that one was told to people first person. At the
>time it was no joke but level heads and the "no fear" mind set made things
>come out OK.
>
>After nursing Nates new motor a few hundred miles Nelson & I felt like we
>could trust it to get us there we looked for a few creature comforts. The
>cruise control didn't work so I thought I would trouble shoot it on the fly.
>
>I found that the brake was not closing off the dump switch located on the
>brake pedal so while Nelson was driving, I pulled up on the brake and got
>the cruise to engage, woopee!
>
>SOP was to pull up with your foot on the brake pedal and push the cruise on.
>
>This worked fine for 3-400 miles. Nelson was driving and said when he
>pulled up on the pedal it felt weird but thought nothing about it. He went
>to pull into a rest area to swap drivers. He hit the exit ramp and reached
>for the brake and yes, there was none.
>
>The pedal went to the floor & stayed there! We whipped the coach back out
>into traffic and asked my wife to wake me because there were no brakes. I
>unconsciously somehow heard "no brakes" and shot up out of a sound sleep.
>I looked at Nelson and said, "whats happening". He calmly said the brakes
>are gone and continued driving down the road.
>
>Nelson is one of those guys that would go to the store for marsh mellows if
>the air raid sirens went off and nuclear winter was about to become
>reality, very cool!
>
>I felt like data on Star Trek trying to race thoughts of what could be the
>problem and how could I fix it on the fly so we could stop this runaway train!
>
>The pedal had no life at all laying there on the floor board so I grabbed
>it and tried to pump life into its cold body. No resistance or anything!!
>
>I figured I would start at the top so I starting removing the power level
>control panel to access the plunger going into the vacuum booster.
>Remember now that Nate has one of those power master boosters. The cotter
>pin was still in the arm but the arm was pulled out of the master cylinder
>and was hanging straight down.
>
>I looked up and peered out through the windshield to see sparse traffic and
>asked Nelson how it was going. He looked down at me with a smile and said
>he was fine and asked me how I was doing! A very cool man under pressure!
>
>The rod was very rusty and had threads on it. I thought this rod was
>pressed into the master and had no threads and in no way could come out
>like this! I pulled up on the brake pedal and repositioned the rod into
>the back of the brake master. It went back into place and I felt it bottom
>out in its socket.
>
>I pushed down on the pedal with my hand and the brakes worked!! Crisis was
>averted, I told Nelson to not pull up on the brakes, he looked at me and
>said "duh" with his eyes.
>
>We pulled off at the next fuel station and I bent the brake switch stop
>down to where the pedal would not come up that high. Needless to say I
>will not be pulling up on brake pedals without thinking any more!
>
>I guess you would have to be there to get the full impact of rocketing down
>a runway with no parachute but take it from me it was a most unusual
>experience.
>
>Jim Bounds
>----------------------------
>
>
