Eagles International Forum

A friend and fellow bus nut (Ewen Steele aka Buswarrior) posted a link to a great YouTube video on the BNO forum:  YouTube Video Link

His reason for posting that link was to remind folks to make sure that the axles on your bus are pulled before the bus is towed.  The other option is to pull the driveshaft.  Failure to disconnect the driveline can cause damage to a bus manual transmission as shown in the video.  I also suspect that an automatic transmission could be damaged as well.

In addition, I have read several times that towing some manual shift cars/trucks can result in the same problem.  Several years ago I tore into one of my manual transmission and I think I recall that the splash lubrication was not good in the neutral gear/towed position.

Jim

Even pulling the axles can cause damage to other parts,I have a MCI 9 here both hubs and axle spindles are shot from towing it 800 miles,the drivers plastic bags stuffed in hubs he lost all the grease in the hubs and kept on trucking. It was supposed to on a low boy  the young man paid for it was a bad choice to tow one 800 miles .I have had 3 adjusters and all 3 declined the claim some adjusters are dumb as a box of rocks they have no idea that the axles transfers the grease to the hub

Clifford, good point about loosing enough lube so that the full floating bearings aren't lubricated.

One time when I had to have the bus towed, the tow truck driver could not get the axles to "spring" loose even with a very big sledge hammer.  He had to crawl underneath and remove the driveshaft.

Once I got the bus in my shop I spent a large amount of time with a big hammer (hammer is listed as part of the process in the manual) and just about beat the hub to death.  The studs that hold the axle on have nuts that drive in cones on each stud that fit in recesses in the axle hub.  It turns out that my bus (and I suspect lots of other Eagles) had split cones that really locked themselves in the axle.  I replaced all of the split cones with solid cones (no split) and then tested the removal of the axles again and they "sprung" right out.  Just an FYI

JIm