That Scania!!!!

I just realised that I forgot to mention in my previous post - the Scania K92 that I purchased with another with the idea of putting it on TV plates - well yeah it seemed like a good idea at the time. It was a 1986 bus - so youngish, much younger than the Leopards and the mk2 were by a good 5 years, also it sat 49 people, better than the 43 offered by something from the STA - however it had a CAG transmission, basically the grand dad of all the computer aided transmissions that are in most long haul trucks as well as coaches was a let down......

We were thinking it was an OK buy, we brought it down from Brisbane in mid 2009, it performed well on the highway, then we thought, lets take it around Sydney at peak hour - so the rego was still current, there was a club meeting on, we took it through the city it along with the other two (at the time) were then based at Terrey Hills - in what turned out to be one of the last 'outings' from there, after then, as things turned out, we started clearing out and moving to Oakville.
The CAG transmission turned out to be quite a handful in CBD traffic (try it out properly!) so the decision was taken to sell it ASAP - that turned into 4 years

The bus was 897 GRA, purchased from Agnes Water Bus Lines based in Agnes Water Queensland (up near Seventeen Seventy)  in August 2009, before that it was in NSW based in  operated by Roachcoach of Ulladulla, the Sussex Inlet services were later bought out by Sussex Inlet Bus Service registered as MO 4916 - they sold it to Queensland. Before that the bus was with Busways and came as part of the takeover of Peninsula Bus Lines of Umina and was regsitered MO 0581 - ultimately it was built for Brisbane Water Coaches in 1986 - there were quite a few K92 Scanias built for operations on the Central Coast, a fair proportion originally having CAG transmissions, some converted to ZF automatics early on - some later, some sold off ultimately by Busways early on - others being converted to ZF transmissions and remaining in service with Busways for many years to come - indeed there are still three in service with them

Nevertheless the bus went with me from Terrey Hills to Oakville - in hindsight it should have stayed at Terrey Hills and sold out of there!
Here are some pics of the first clean I gave it

 


Indeed the bus in the background is a former Busways B10M, also Central Coast based

The Scania turned out to be somewhat of an epic - first the power steering pump fails. The partner in the bus sources an aftermarket new one - one slight problem, Scania had two series of engines, with different cogs for the power steering pump, we had the older, so ended up having to get a new cog off Scania - ok gets fixed, then on a test drive, fuel lines get clogged with salastic - seems someone had done a dodgy fix to the fuel pick up and it had worked for a while, but now had come undone. So it was iffy as to if it would start.....

Then we had the wet summer of 2010/11, one fine day (although it had been raining so there was mud in the yard) the Scania was being moved out of the way when it ended up in a soft spot - and yeah...... it sank into it, it took months and months for the area to dry out in that time I had sourced a new pick up off a K92 that was being scrapped in Wollongong (thanks to Mr Shareabirthday!) and after that replaced the part, then once the tow truck was back online and the ground had dried out, we got it out

The bumper was rather 'decorative' and one side needed to be cut off with a gas axe the bolts were that rusty.

Anyway she had a quick clean up and was sold to a gentleman from Echuca who operates an earthmoving and harvesting business - he has Scania trucks with the same engine - will use it for a while, ultimately he has a spare set of mechanicals for his trucks

Phil Bugby

The Scania all cleaned up before sale