A local single decker had been clanking around our way recently, it got towed away the other weekend at the shopping centre but left half a camshaft and a conrod on the floor! Yes I kept them as souvenirs. 🤭
So glad to see/hear this machine again....hope that engine knocking is rectified, be a damn shame to see her fall by the wayside so early in the season.....nice Vid !
I used to drive VR's at Red bus in devon, You lift off the throttle when changing gear and give it a bit of time to select the gear! No wonder this poor old VR went tits up with the nob head driving it and slamming it in gear at full throttle!
Drivers in Bristol in the 80s never paused between changes either. Many of the transmissions were smooth going through the gears but some lurched violently, especially if the driver actually used 1st to pull off instead of 2nd as normal.
Potteries Motor Traction ran a fleet of VRs and REs in the 70s and early 80s and they had a sticker made to go on the VR periscope that said 'drive with care-new engine fitted' and on one example the driver had crossed out 'engine' and written 'rubber band'.
No wonder the poor thing failed, if Eastern Counties buses caught a driver changing gear like that after the first warning and education to what damage he was doing to the box he would taken off the road and given a duster and sweeping brush to be going on with, what an animal.
Remember a school trip to a canal when I was 9, one of the coaches had an audible knock, which I recognised because dad was a mechanic and had been explaining engine noises to us. Part way down the motorway we started smelling fumes. Had to crowd onto the other bus.
MB area code, Cheshire/Stoke registered originally! sounded like a run bearing at first but it seemed to go off under power and more in time with the drivetrain than engine revs. Leads me to believe it was a driveshaft/axle problem more than engine, coupled with the degree of really loose/chattery axle whine I'd place the fault within the differential?
sounds amazing at the start - there were a few Crosville ones that sounded like that - DVG501 and 523 spring to mind - and there were others which didn't sound as good, I am not mechanically minded enough to know why - but it certainly gave them all character.
I know where this actually is,it's on the road between Talacre and Prestatyn been on that road many times as I used to live there, anyway that bus driver must have been deaf not to hear that engine knocking, being a Gardner it is very unusual for these engines to wear out even after a million miles and I know because I've worked on them, granted his gearchanging could have been better if had just let his foot off the accelerator a little but drivers often don't. The most probable cause of those big-end bearings failing is lack of engine oil in the sump, Gardner engines don't use a lot of oil usually even after big mileages but it would seem someone was a little negligent in not checking the oil level in that vehicle for a considerable length of time but having said that the driver should have stopped that bus when he heard that engine knocking as it was obvious that there was a problem.
He wasn't a driver just an animal, I wouldn't have trusted him to sweep the bus out, it made me cringe watching him drive it , like you say the Gardner is the most robust engine you could ever get.
Ooh...doesnt sound at all well! Best Bristol VR's had Gardner engines and automatic gear boxes so...free from abuse. Cardiff Bus examples come to mind. Speaking of the stickers in the cabs reminding drivers to always pull off in first gear and pause when gear changing...this was prominent when we had the Daimler Fleetlines. Unfortunately some drivers do abuse and it wasn't uncommon to hear Nationals pulling away in 3rd gear towards the end of their lives being semi automatic when everything else was auto.
There were more gardener powered buses built until 1992 when Euro I emissions finally ended the production of gardener powered buses the last ones were usually 6LXCT versions in dominators and olypians.
@kitchy5191 more likely to be the mitre box on VR, particularly after gear changes like that, unfortunately this was the VR's achillies heel,,,,,,they don't take kindly to straight through changes.....also sounds much worse on the over run.....
If fitters are watching they’ll be going ape at those gear changes! Why on earth did they not stop when knocking first started? How to fudge a 6LXB. I wouldn’t want him driving a bus of mine.
We used to have Bristol VR`S in Grimsby when Lincolnshire Road Car was around and we had no bother with any of them only (not clean) mind our VR`S were green 2 special ones I remember: STL88R And NGM177M
I am quite sure that there were Gardner powered buses built after 1988. Stagecoach had lots of late Leyland Olympians with them and I believe that it was on option on the Olypian until it was 'Volvoised' in 1993. GM Buses ten H reg Dennis Dominators had turbocharged Gardner 6LXCTs I think.
Rode those Dennis Dominators plenty of times, loved the smooth gear changes and it was quite nippy on take off.. ahh cutting school to ride around Manchester choosing where to go next, arndale dirty bus station, the cafe's in there, diesel fumed coffee... ah memories
Only about 10 years late to the party, me! Sounded like it was drivetrain related more than engine from the video. Seemed to be worse on the overrun and in right turns than it was under power or on the straight & appeared to be related to road speed more than engine RPM too. Any idea what it turned out to be? I'd be really surprised if it wasn't something to do with a driveshaft/the diff...
Sounds like a big end bearing knocking so before I see the end of the vid I will guess it puts a con rid through the block. Driver should have stopped and shut it down
Gardner engines were still fitted to buses built for export after 1992. Examples include the ERF Trailblazer built for South Africa. There are also the three axle Dennis Dragons that Stagecoach re-imported for use in Manchester which were given 'M' registrations. The Gardner engines were replaced by Cummins L10s to meet 1995 EU emission levels. Gardner still exists and still produces spare parts.
I was maionly going on about home models and some wer emade after for stagecoach Kenya and Malawi and the Dragons did come back to Manchester and work on the Wilmslow Rd services but were re-engined with horrid L10 engines. there's still a spare parts manufacturer for Gardner on Barton Moss not too fat away from the Peel green site where they were once made a long time ago.
He did phone the depot, he was an experienced driver, and the depot told him to bring it out out of service, I know the driver well and I stayed on it with him. It was only a small fault.
I think the VR was a drivers bus, certainly not one for passengers with the shake your fillings out suspension, slippery fake leather seats that were boiling in the summer and freezing in the winter, and those protruding window seals you couldn't lean against!
Driver a pillock, slam changing damages the brake bands in the SCG box, I was taught to drive semi autos properly, with a pause of just over a second in neutral, no lurching gearchanges and protests from the driveline, and that was in a bus that was over 40 years old!
from memory they were all driven like that when in service, no careful gear changes with pausing or anything, always just throwing them from gear to gear & always maxing revs in every gear as well, i guess the drivers simply didn't care & just thrashed them to within an inch of their life
He is not changing the gears properly! What he should of done was whilest he was going out of gear was to count for 3 secs. then whilest go into gear count 3secs again. Thats how my dad drives them and it's a beautiful gear change.
Oh dear the engine sound rough with probable noisy tappets and some loss of power. Hope the gardner engine enthusiasts on Barton moss be able to fix the engine or lose andother bus for a replacemnt 6LXB engine. They will be getting harder to find shortly as the last buses made with them were in 1988 on the GM Buses olympians some amy have lingered on a bit later with re-built buses especailly leyland nationals.
I was just going to say that. Our drivers in Stoke all drove like that. Not too unfomfortable in a VR or RE but in a Leyland National it tended to give us whiplash.
Remember when Leyland Nationals first came into service with United buses in my home town every gear change was lurch forward always driven the same way
If my bus was banging, would keep going. The further away from the depot I am the longer it would take for the mechanic to get to me, therefore longer breakdown napping time
Engine driven to destruction... Big end or main bearing gone there. Driver should have stopped straight away. The gear change leaves a lot to be desired as well... 2nd straight to 3rd without pausing...
MORE than a compressor......compressors DO-NOT function all the time!!! Poor driving (see my comment and James Morgan's comment) It is a semi auto box and needs time between changes otherwise it WILL "over-rev" as it goes between one gear "neutral" and next gear" if the driver is too lazy to lift his foot!!
Driver makes biggest mistake. Changing gears to quickly doesn't help these gearbox's on these buses.They are not ment to be aggressively changed like that. There is ment to be a 2 second pause between gearchanging.🙄🙄🙄🙄
Another bus for the scrapyard I think that engine sounds poorly I’m glad I’m not upstairs that would annoy me 🤷🏻♀️ that bang would frighten me because I don’t like loud noises 👮🏻♀️OMG👮♂️ what year was this when these were running 🏃♂️
