OH BOY OH BOY OH BOY OH BOY PD4501 now mine

I am glad someone posted to this thread which popped it up into the active category as I was not on the forum when it originated. What a great old bus!

My dad was a Greyhound driver from 1953-1983 and I used to go to work with him when I was a kid. We never knew what model bus he would be driving when we left the house for the station. I was always thrilled to see a Scenic Cruiser sitting at the gate.

Good luck with your project. It is more than I could ever tackle.

Lots and lots of info about the PD4501. Just did a google search. Click here.

I can vaguely remember seeing these as a kid on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

Thanks for sharing and hope to see some progress photos in the coming months.

We worked all summer getting the little things done so that we could move the Second bus home. We had to build an independent light system rather than depend on the factory system. Also had to repair some of the air system for the warning light and the front leveler. Once we had the bus ready it took a little while to get our crew all lined up. Finally the day arrived and we took off. The trip itself was fairly uneventful. We did get a little video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=0_Y3nx4FygY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=cCe0lnIVrVY

OK,
So thinking that one bus was not enough, I bought a second scenicruiser and I will relay that story elsewhere. But it got me inspired to get back to work on 149. One issue that I knew we had was a locked up brake on the tag axle.

First step, remove the rearmost wheels on the driver's side. One of the inner stud/nuts was rounded off so I went to get a new one and luckily I took the old one with me because the parts store wanted to sell me a left hand thread when the one I took off was right hand thread. After some discussion, I got one like I had, and then went back to the bus. Folks in the know suggested that I should check all the wheels on the bus because the left side should have left hand threads. Sure enough, someone has swapped all of the rear hubs on the bus side for side. so now I have to switch them back.


As for the brake issue, I had a little difficulty removing the straight slot screws that hold the brake drum to the hub because someone had previously dimpled the snot out of them, presumably to keep them from coming loose. After braking one impact driver bit, I headed for the local tool supply store to get the big boy set of straight bits. After some generous whacks I got the screws out but I will not be putting the messed up ones back in. I hope to find replacements that are torx or something.

With the brake drum off I found that the rear brake pad was missing, except for a few pieces that had jammed between the drum and some of the brake hardware. Rivets are all gone too. Just a bare shoe. The front pad appeared to be new but was coated in goo that resembled roofing tar. That same goo also covers virtually everything else on that side of the axle.

I thought I would check the inside of the hub and started to remove the cover bolts but the first one I touched fell out in my hand the second I turned it with a wrench. It had been glued in place with RTV because the bolt was broken inside the hub. (crap) Most of the rest of the bolts were stripped or just hanging on by a thread or two. Looks like I will be investing in some machine work before I get this issue resolved. Since I will be working on a similar issue on the other bus very soon I decided to leave the hub problem for another day.

Sorry for the delay, The work on the buss has been slow going cause of a couple of deaths in the family and a whole bunch of work on a new project. We ended up with property that we are getting set up to park our camper or trailer or what ever. Anyhow, the bus has substantial rust damage in the back and I have been SLOWLY working on removing the old rusted out stuff so I can weld back new stuff. I have also started rebuilding the rear suspension but I have to make all the parts cause they are not available any more. I have learned how to pour my own polyurethane bushings, but one piece is still stuck to the buss and I have been reluctant to just cut it off. Hope to have more work done this year, but there never seems to be enough time.

What happened to all the updates????

Bummer.

I think he scraped it..no news since april 2013..

just wonderin' how the project is coming along

Just as a interesting note, the Google Doodle for today celebrates Raymond Loewy, an industrial designer born 11/5/1893. He was responsible for many well known logos and designs, including the Greyhound Scenicruiser :)