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I’ve stumbled on a 1994 Champion Bus in a trade that I can’t pass up.
My big problems are going to be-
1- Upfitter wiring. There is a panel above the driver, and it’s not all clearly labeled. The excess of white wires is going to be fun. Mostly, I wish to determine how the saloon door is powered and controlled.
Electrical
2- Ceiling. The roof appears to be a outer roof, covered with spray foam, and then below it there was a internal roof. That’s been removed, so all I see is spray foam and some wiring. I’d love to fix this, but I’m not very creative and don’t know why type of materials where used or how to do it.
1
The roof
3- The saloon door. I have not been able to get this to operate yet. Not even sure how. There are 4 switches added to the dash, Defog, Flasher, one I can’t read, and a momentary DPDT that I believe is open/close but I don’t have any power to the door that I can find.
Saloon door mechanism.
*Sigh*. All this for a vehicle I don’t really need, but hey,
You might want to try to contact Champion and see if they have any manuals or layouts for your bus. If it is all stock from Champion then they should have the builder layout diagrams.
Those relays labeled: HSR, CR and CLR are for the rear AC unit.
HSR is the high speed relay for the rear evaporator blower motor/s
CR is the condenser(side mounted one) fan/s relay
CLR is the compressor clutch relay for the rear AC system.
Look up "Carrier EM1 gen 4 and 5 svc manual.pdf" on the web and hopefully the PDF file is still there. Its the closest manual I found about this setup.
The momentary DPDT switch you have is most likely the for the salon door. You should have battery power and ground to that switch. Your door mech is different than the one I have, but I do see limit switches installed. On my bus, those were bad and I had to bypass them. I am currently building up a keyless entry out of a 99 Mercury Grand Marquis keyless modual and relays. Its on the bench being tested before integrating into the bus. It will be nice to hit the unlock(now open) button and doors open!
All those white wires are probably for bus cab lighting, I see a few white and brown wires in the stripped roof photo.
What engine you have in yours? I have the 7.5L gas engine in my bus
You might want to try to contact Champion and see if they have any manuals or layouts for your bus. If it is all stock from Champion then they should have the builder layout diagrams.
Thanks. It didn’t even occur to me to Google the manufacturer. In my head, it with just a butchered Ford lol
Those relays labeled: HSR, CR and CLR are for the rear AC unit.
HSR is the high speed relay for the rear evaporator blower motor/s
CR is the condenser(side mounted one) fan/s relay
CLR is the compressor clutch relay for the rear AC system.
Look up "Carrier EM1 gen 4 and 5 svc manual.pdf" on the web and hopefully the PDF file is still there. Its the closest manual I found about this setup.
The momentary DPDT switch you have is most likely the for the salon door. You should have battery power and ground to that switch. Your door mech is different than the one I have, but I do see limit switches installed. On my bus, those were bad and I had to bypass them. I am currently building up a keyless entry out of a 99 Mercury Grand Marquis keyless modual and relays. Its on the bench being tested before integrating into the bus. It will be nice to hit the unlock(now open) button and doors open!
All those white wires are probably for bus cab lighting, I see a few white and brown wires in the stripped roof photo.
What engine you have in yours? I have the 7.5L gas engine in my bus
Tonight I decided to be a mechanic again, so I went to storage and grabbed my Power Probe and my PP Circuit Tracer and poked around. I now have a solid idea how everything works. Turns out the DPDT switch is the salon door, it is working, and I appear to ha e a dead motor. So that’s off the list. Also made note of every burnt out bulb I could find.
And I discovered that what I thought was a limit switch for the door is actually a light switch that turns on a exterior lamp as well as a whole harness of ceiling lights.
There is another harness, heavier gauge, that is attached to the muster switch that runs down both sides. I’m guessing brighter lighting? But I’m not sure.
Thanks for the AC stuff, I can’t get my rear fans on, so that may come in handy. I can here the compressor and condenser fire up though. I hope there is a tag someplace telling me how much refridgerant it takes. I’m sure it’s R134 but I’d love it if it was R12. I’d live with a R134 conversion and stick 10lbs of R12 straight back in my tank!
Sadly, this one is a 5.8. It actually drew my attention because I wanted the motor for my Mustang lol.
I’ll do some more circuit tracing tomorow. Found some more wires in the curling, all with a pair of male and female blade terminals (unlike everything else) so I want to find out what they do.
And I’m going to need a source for the door switch in the back and side doors. The one on the back door is rusted solid, and one of the side door ones only turns the light on when it’s half depressed lol.
Im not sure what will come of this project. Mechanically, it’s in pretty good shape, but the body does not seem to have been made to last...
Time for my next trick-
The bus has rear cowling mounted AC. Upon looking at it closer, the AC system is also setup for heat.
The bus has a rear heater that doesn’t blow on the floor. I’m gonna try and extend its hoses all the way up to the heater and make it a dual heat/ac and free up floor space.
I also found a bus with a near identical layout in the junkyard this weekend with seats. I’m gonna grab those today so I can put them in mine. Right now I just have the drivers seat.
So far I’ve knocked the electric off my list, I’ve got everything labeled.
I determined that the AC works, but the fans are siezed. Gonna have to source some blowers.
The saloon door is up and running, and surprisingly fun to play with.
Got 4 new tires on the back last week and got broken in on its first road trip, a friend hauled a few thousand pounds of speakers and gear for a show he was DJing less than 100 miles from home. CEL and ABS lights came on, but nothing serious.
05-19-2018, 02:13 AM
