My brother bought a 1990 International 3700 School Bus for $500. CDN, that's about $1.38 USD
It has a NA 7.3 IDI. It has been sitting in storage for over 5 years. The tires were crap. Three of them weren't even seated on the beads. We brought the rear tires from another skoolie he has.
Truck loaded up to go:
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The original plan was to just put the tires on and have it towed back to the farm, but we brought a couple of batteries with us to see if we could start it.
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We were told it was driven to the storage yard, so we were hopeful. The batteries weren't all that great, so I figured I would disconnect the Glow Plug Relay and just give it a shot of ether. Well, I broke the relay trying to disconnect it. Doh! Oh well, mission accomplished. With only one battery hooked up, the engine didn't turn over fast enough to start. With two it did. A little sniff of ether and it fired right up.
The diesel gods are smiling upon us.
The engine is running in this shot:
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I drove it forward with 3 flat tires to make it accessible to change the tires. 4 tire swaps later, and an aggravating time with Alberta registrys...fast forward 2 hours...we are ready to leave. My brother drove the bus. It's about an hour drive.
The bus worked flawlessly. Signal lights worked. Brake lights worked. Even the brakes worked.
A shot of the bro securely fastening the battery. Just before he left:
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He made it no problem. The bus was able to do 100 km/ 62mph. It slowed down on the hills tho. It needs a turbo.
The only casualty was my 3/4" breaker bar. It's supposed to be able to take 800 ft. lbs. Piece of crap.
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We made it. Win!