About Fun Fleet Bus #1249

#1249

Vin: SDM-5302-237

Built February 1964 for New York Bus Service, NY

Second Generation

96 inches wide/40 feet long, single door

6V71 Detroit/Allison 4 speed manual transmission

49 seats, single door, reclining seats

This bus would compete the Suburban Style buses, second generation. I purchased this in Hoboken, NJ and drove it back to California. Traveling just west of Ft. Worth, going up a mild hill, I noticed a black puff of smoke out the exhaust; the bus kept running but was slower. Leaving Pecos, TX going up another hill it started smoking badly so I set it out and had a tow truck bring it on to California. This was near the Mexican border and when the tow truck driver picked the bus up, he had to evacuate the homeless living in it. 

When the bus got back home, I discovered a strange thing I had never seen before. When removing the main bearing for inspection, I found one of the bolts that held up the crank was stripped. Apparently, the mechanics realized the problem in New Jersey and simply put it back and let it go that way. Of course, you could not torque this critical bolt down fully, so failure was assured. No one could have ever noticed that. I never had time to replace the engine, and the block would have had to be sent out to have the damage hole retreaded. 

After several years in the Fun Fleet, #1249 was scrapped.