hi all

[mike757]

hi, i am a new bluebird owner and happened upon this site, like to say hi to everyone,, so hi !! . i have a 1980 fc 33 with 39000 miles. looks and runs great, love it so far. i have a question about an air leak i have . on the back of the right side air tanks is a valve looking device , what is it ? air leaks from it also grey looking oil sludge drips from it , can i replace it or rebuild it or just clean it , i was told it was a pop off valve that was sticking. not sure? one other question << when at a camp site with only 30 amp service i need to plug in 2, 30 amp cords, or i only get half of my breaker box powered, is there a splitter for this or do i just use the half of the box that has the battery charger on it, so i can use my 12 volt lighting? kinda confused when i only have one 30 amp service..

[iamflagman]

Originally Posted by mike757

hi, i am a new bluebird owner and happened upon this site, like to say hi to everyone,, so hi !! . i have a 1980 fc 33 with 39000 miles. looks and runs great, love it so far. i have a question about an air leak i have . on the back of the right side air tanks is a valve looking device , what is it ? air leaks from it also grey looking oil sludge drips from it , can i replace it or rebuild it or just clean it , i was told it was a pop off valve that was sticking. not sure? one other question << when at a camp site with only 30 amp service i need to plug in 2, 30 amp cords, or i only get half of my breaker box powered, is there a splitter for this or do i just use the half of the box that has the battery charger on it, so i can use my 12 volt lighting? kinda confused when i only have one 30 amp service..

Hi Mike,

We are glad that you found us and hopefully we can help you out, be sure to make up a signature so that it will be automatically added to each of your posts, this will greatly help us with getting information to you and there also may be another forum member close to you that can help guide you through some of the fixes, you can find out how to do this by going to PLEASE ADD YOUR SIGNATURE

It sounds like you may have a lot of moisture accumulation in that tank, as it and the other air tanks may not have been drained in quite some time and that valve may be the manual drain valve. I replaced the manual drain valves with ones that have lanyards attached to them, so that I would not have to crawl under my 'Bird to drain the air tanks, which is not the safest thing to do. If you decide to drain the tanks of moisture and gunk, make sure that the air bags are deflated and that you have some type of support under under the 'Bird. You will have to make sure that there is sufficient air in the tanks before you manually turn the drains, usually a quarter of a turn and be aware that by the sounds of it, what will blow out of the drain will be very messy and will come out with great force behind it.

Here is a good troubleshooting guide that you can find on the forum at HALDEX AIR BRAKE TROUBLESHOOTING GUIDE.pdf and this one from the New York state CDL test guide will explain more about the drains. Daily Testing & Inspecting Your Air Brake System and since you haven't already had enough material to read check out this one too Air Bakes System . Your 'Bird may not be equipped with an air dryer, which can be added to the system also, or if it has one it may need to be rebuilt. We have a of this information for your use right here on the forum under
Wanderlodge Owners Group > Mechanic's Corner Tires, Brakes and Suspensions

I use what is sometimes referred to as a DOG BONE adapter to attach my 50 amp electrical cord to a 30 amp campground receptacle.

http://www.tweetys.com/ProductImages...58404_silo.jpg

It splits the 30 amp so that it will power both sides of your breaker panel and they are available at most RV supply store and I have even seen them in the rv section of the automotive department at Wal mart, or you can purchase them online from places like http://www.tweetys.com/index.asp?Pag...OD&ProdID=7648

You will have to keep in mind that you will have to be more careful about power management when you use this, as it will not give you enough power on each leg to use everything, just look on your breaker panel and see what is locate on each side, to give you an idea of what you can use. I normally use my center roof airconditioner, the water heater and the battery charger and it seems to handle that load with no problem, however I have modified my 'Bird to operate the TV's, Satellite dish and receiver, two 14 inch fans and the microwave off of the inverter which is powered by eight Trojan golf cart batteries, the fans help to circulate the cold air.

Check out these posts by our forum members cheater precautions?? they can be found under Electrical

You may also get some tips to use by checking out my photo website at;
VISIT THE FINN'S INN EXPRESS REMODELING ADVENTURE AND TECH. TIPS
http://www.pbase.com/image/24977457

[Bill Pape]

Hi Mike 757,

You may be missing the 50amp, four conductor hook-up cable.

Are you referring to the air dryer pop-off valve???
Or the drain valves at the bottom of all the air tanks as John describes.

[mike757]

bill would the air dryer pop off valve be located on the tank itself? if so than thats it , that is what i was told it was...when a mechanic looked at it and was checking the leak out for me but i am not sure, the valve is connected to the end of the tank, in the center and looks like it is connected to the tank by a 1/4 x 1 inch inch pipe threaded piece of pipe.. the other tank has a drain on the bottom of it for moisture, i have drained it before.,,,,,i think i have this right,,,, my 50 amp cord 220v has only 3 prongs on it looks just like all my 30 amp cords, i need an adapter to go from 3 prong 220v to 4 prong 220v so i can use the parks 50 amp service, or maby i dont really have a 50amp 220v cord ...??? but someone marked it with a marker 220v, so it confuses me, also on a 1980 it has the 3 pronged push in and twist female receptical on the bus 2 marked yellow 30amp and one marked red 50amp

[Bill Pape]

Mike,

Not sure about a 1980, air system or the shore power electrical hook-up.

But you probably have atleast three air pressure tanks, each with an air purge valve on the bottom, these are used to occationally dump any moisture.

If the 1980 has an air dryer, www.bendix.com has lots of info.

the dryer may look something like this;

http://www.bendix.com/en-us/products...s/default.aspx

NAPA or any truck parts store has dryer replacements or dryer rebuild kits.
It sounds like the spitter valve is leaking. I would suggest replacing the dryer or a complete rebuild , replacing the valve, desiccant and associated parts.

It sounds like you have two Yellow 30 amp hook ups, one for each leg.
Needed is the Red 50 amp, four prong cord to power both legs direct from a 50 amp pedestal.

Can someone with an early 80's model verify this information ???

[Randy Dupree]

just replace that leaking purge valve with a petcock valve,or a lanyard operated drain valve,available at any truck parts place or NAPA.
the purge valve you have is a great idea,too bad they leak!

and Bill is right,the 2 recepts that are yellow are for 30 amp cords.the red one is for a heavy 50 amp cord with a 4 prong male end.
but,if you have a red (marked with red tape) cord with a 3 prong male end,it will give you power on both legs in your coach,just not 50amps,you will be able to run most of the coach,just not 3 ac units etc.
its a bit confusing,but i really liked the way BB did all of that,and remember,when BB did that wiring deal there were very few campgrounds with 50amp service.
Randy

[Crit Bliss]

No air dryer on the 1980, thats a "spitter valve" just take it apart, four bolts, let the tank drain till it stops, and either clean up the parts, put it back together, and air up, or get a new one, I think NAPA has them. Mine leaked at first but cleaning it worked fine. This tank is called the "wet tank" and that valve is how the moister/oil residue gets out of the tank either by the air pressure dropping very low, or by the operator physically opening it kind of like a tire valve daily. when you remove it, it will probably drain or drip for a while if it has not been done in a while. Good luck with the new coach!

[BCRoamer]

Mike:

In the RV world I don't know of any power cord that is 22v - 3 prong. Most of your coaches run on so called 50 amp service, which is in fact 2 50 amp legs for a total of 100 amp of service at 120 volts. This is a very similiar situation to a normal home. Your electrical panel will have a right and left side which is two different "hot" leads. You then have a common and a ground. In most cases if you measure across the two hot leads your meter will read 220 volts. In many parks the feed is 460 volts - 3 phase so in most cases the "hot" leads will be from 2 of the 3 phases.

I'd suggest you be very careful before hooking up anything other than the 50 amp or 30 amp cables that came with your coach. It helps a lot to just take a voltmeter and check readings across all combinations of leads.

[Dieselbird01]

Originally Posted by BCRoamer

Mike:

In the RV world I don't know of any power cord that is 22v - 3 prong. Most of your coaches run on so called 50 amp service, which is in fact 2 50 amp legs for a total of 100 amp of service at 120 volts. This is a very similiar situation to a normal home. Your electrical panel will have a right and left side which is two different "hot" leads. You then have a common and a ground. In most cases if you measure across the two hot leads your meter will read 220 volts. In many parks the feed is 460 volts - 3 phase so in most cases the "hot" leads will be from 2 of the 3 phases.

I'd suggest you be very careful before hooking up anything other than the 50 amp or 30 amp cables that came with your coach. It helps a lot to just take a voltmeter and check readings across all combinations of leads.

Hi Lance,

Just so no one gets the wrong idea about 460 volt -3 phase power, I wanted to point out that on typical wye connected 3 phase 460 volt power the voltage between any two phases is 460 volts and the voltage from any one of the phases to ground is 277 volts. If a park has a feed of 460 volt 3 phase power they have to step it down to 220 volts with a transformer.

[mike757]

thank you all so much for the info, i am going to clean the valve tomorrow and follow up with you all,what i have been doing at the camps is using a adapter in the 50 amp service and a regular 30amp cord in the 30 amp service and pluging both cords into the 2 30amp yellow sockets in my bus ,the camps i went to i have asked for 50amp service and the se3rvice post at the site had both 30 and 50 amp plugs,,, it has been working good but i don't know enough about this and am afraid of running into a park that only has 30amp service,, then i am out of luck....