Electrical Issues When Starting
Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2018 4:23 pm
Hello forum.
Newbie here but love this forum. I've had my '75 Silver Eagle for about a year now. I believe it's a model 05?? I don't think the model 10 was introduced until 1980? I purchased it from a musician in Nashville in December of 2016. He purchased it from a Church Gospel group in North Carolina. It's my understanding the bus was converted to a 6 bunk Entertainer in 1993. I had some issues getting it home to Indianapolis (alternator belts broke and left me stranded in Louisville for the night) but I got it home safely. Over the last year I've put on new tires (drive, tag & steer), replaced the Pitman Arm (I had about 1/2 a turn of play in the steering wheel at highway speeds), replaced the starter and batteries (Napa 8D x 2) and various other small projects. I've made several fairly short (less than 1000 miles round trip) road trips with no issues. The power plant is a DD 8V71N with a 4 speed Spicer transmission. I've put a new dash in, but the original odometer reads 267,581 miles. Mechanically things appear to be sound. I plan on overhauling the interior and electrical system starting this year.
The issue I'm having is electrical. Apparently the plug was bad on the 50 AMP shore power cable. I had a power surge when i started a quartz heater and the whole bus went dark. I replaced the plug and have power back to the bus, however, when I try and start the bus it just clicks at the front electrical panel. I have a turn-key ignition (Master Switch if I'm not mistaken) with a push button start. When I turn the key, I have full power to headlights, marker and clearance lights but when I push the start button all the lights go out and I get the clicking sound from the electrical panel inside the bus where the light switches and key are. I am able to restore everything back to normal if I pull the cables from the battery terminals and reconnect them. The starter is less than a year old, The batteries are roughly a year old and were working fine until the incident with the quartz heater. I do have a trickle charger running to the starter batteries and they are charged showing 12.6 V with a multimeter.
Any help would be much appreciated! I've attached pics of the bus.
Thanks,
Greg
Newbie here but love this forum. I've had my '75 Silver Eagle for about a year now. I believe it's a model 05?? I don't think the model 10 was introduced until 1980? I purchased it from a musician in Nashville in December of 2016. He purchased it from a Church Gospel group in North Carolina. It's my understanding the bus was converted to a 6 bunk Entertainer in 1993. I had some issues getting it home to Indianapolis (alternator belts broke and left me stranded in Louisville for the night) but I got it home safely. Over the last year I've put on new tires (drive, tag & steer), replaced the Pitman Arm (I had about 1/2 a turn of play in the steering wheel at highway speeds), replaced the starter and batteries (Napa 8D x 2) and various other small projects. I've made several fairly short (less than 1000 miles round trip) road trips with no issues. The power plant is a DD 8V71N with a 4 speed Spicer transmission. I've put a new dash in, but the original odometer reads 267,581 miles. Mechanically things appear to be sound. I plan on overhauling the interior and electrical system starting this year.
The issue I'm having is electrical. Apparently the plug was bad on the 50 AMP shore power cable. I had a power surge when i started a quartz heater and the whole bus went dark. I replaced the plug and have power back to the bus, however, when I try and start the bus it just clicks at the front electrical panel. I have a turn-key ignition (Master Switch if I'm not mistaken) with a push button start. When I turn the key, I have full power to headlights, marker and clearance lights but when I push the start button all the lights go out and I get the clicking sound from the electrical panel inside the bus where the light switches and key are. I am able to restore everything back to normal if I pull the cables from the battery terminals and reconnect them. The starter is less than a year old, The batteries are roughly a year old and were working fine until the incident with the quartz heater. I do have a trickle charger running to the starter batteries and they are charged showing 12.6 V with a multimeter.
Any help would be much appreciated! I've attached pics of the bus.
Thanks,
Greg