Well, I went out and bought a bus, like I needed another hole in my head. Honestly, can't say why I got the stupid thing except the price was very good.
Overall, it seems in pretty good condition except for about 3 main problems.
The first one I'm tackling is the transmission, shifting issues.
I drove it about 30 miles to get it home, about half the time in second and half the time in 3rd, never OD.
One big hill I went over was second all the way up, then coming down went into neutral and then finally caught back up on its own and went to 3rd.
I've had transmission issues with 2 of my other trucks, so I'm fairly familiar with them.
I put a shift lever sensor on, forget the proper name offhand, took it up the road a couple of miles, shifted great! Even got OD with no issues.
On the way back I decided to see if it would kick down like it should, nailed the pedal down, kicked down fine, but then it went back to acting stupid again. Same thing, no 3rd and acts like neutral when you let off the pedal.
So far there hasn't been any codes either.
I'm wondering if it's the throttle sensor since it was fine until I nailed the pedal down, what's your thoughts on it?
Also got to fix the alternator, overcharging. Had to disconnect it from the alternator to get it home, unplugging the regulator had no effect, someone has done something to the wiring, got to locate a diagram for that.
And lastly, I've got to nail down the smoking, it's diesel, strong smell. I'm kind of suspecting an injector. Smokes heavily for a few minutes after starting, takes a few minutes for the engine to idle right too, like it's skipping on a cylinder, fine after it quits skipping. It has been sitting a couple of years.
Any thoughts on any of these things? Thanks

 

how do you know the tranny didn't throw code, does the OD Cancel Lamp work ?

IF it's been sitting for a few years I would be thinking about doing a return line kit, new filter filled with Diesel Kleen... run it for 30 seconfd or so and let it sit over night then give it a good drive and see if that clears up the suspected Injector Issue.

I assume we are talking a Pre-1994.5 IDI engine and not a DI 7.3

 

The light does work and I put a reader on it, code 10 and 11, normal.

As far as what you said about all the fuel issues, I did exactly that before driving it home and it sit for a few days before putting the sensor on and driving it again, but yea, I'm thinking about running it some more before I tackle the injectors.
Yea, it's an idi non turbo, same as my 93 van and 90 f250.
Perhaps I should add I have no idea about the tach sensor, it's the same as my 93 f 59, there is no tach, so I don't know if it works or not.
I was just reading back over your post, no, I didn't do it exactly like that, I put the diesel kleen in the tank instead. Hmm, maybe I should take the filter back off and try it your way.

 

ya the diesel Kleein in the filter is basically the same as the old ATF in the filter trick... I find it works just as well as ATF

IF the Tach sensor was not working then I would think for sure it would give you Code 14 you could un-plug it and verify that easy enough.
Code 11/111 is Pass I don't know code 10 but I do know if the tranny is in HLOS Mode then the PCM will not output service codes.

I would for sure do good visual inspection of the Tranny wiring as that is where you find most of the issues.

not all code readers are created equal either... I use the old MT2500 Red Brick and I know the Innova 3145 work on our trucks other aftermarket scanners I can't personally say with the exception of the OTC Monitor 2000 <<== I know personally it works.

'course test light or analog meter always good

 

Yea, I was thinking it might be a good idea to go ahead and take all the connectors apart, clean them up and grease them. I'll try to do that this weekend, too much rain right now.
I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this bus yet. Maybe sell it or even considered converting it to a camper. You need a good, used church bus?

 

naw I'm good ... this is my Bus .....

 

Sweet! I had thought about one of those for the 250 before. I don't see too many of those like I used to.
The 250 was/is another project vehicle of mine, I've got a thread about it here.
I'm ending up going deeper than I ever planned with that truck, it's been in the shop for over a month getting some interior work and a new paint job.
I'm not sure if I'll have too much in that truck or not, seen ads for about $15,000 for some, but is it really worth that much?

 

well, they really aren't worth much unless you have a buyer, BUT then again who can afford 50K on a new vehicle every few years..

I'm retired My home is paid for all my vehicles are paid for and have paid for themselves over the years.

That Camper is an old 76 Huntsman 15 footer, fully self contained I spent several years doing a complete refit on it so she is in pristine fully functional condition, but it ain't worth more than a few hundred Unless you have a buyer that just really wants it.

She's seen a lot of Miles
I don't have to worry too much about new fangled electronics leaving me stranded or stupid stuff like Death Wobble that we seem to be seeing a lot of in the newer vehicles

 

OK, finally got back on this thing today. Went ahead and got new batteries first, got tired of swapping the ones out of the step van.
Greased up my connectors on the transmission, took it for a spin, shifted fine, until I kicked it down again, back to being stupid.
Thinking it's related to the throttle I decided to change the throttle position sensor. Not easy to get to on this thing. Took her for another spin, kicked it down 2 or 3 times, each time worked perfectly afterwards, so believe the problem is solved. I never did have any codes.
The smoking is much, much better. Don't think I'll do anything about that at this time, just run it awhile first and see what happens.
So, last major issue is the alternator, figure what they screwed up on the wiring, there's several wires that's been tied together at the plug for the regulator, just got to locate a diagram.
Things are looking up.

 

well, that is easy enough .... here ya go ....

 

Perfect! Appreciate it, that'll be a big help. Probably be next weekend before I get back on it with work and going to be raining again about all week, think it'll clear up for the weekend.
About to run it up to the store and put some more diesel in and some more diesel kleen.
I'm just not sure about the injectors yet, just about to flip to 300,000, wonder if they've ever been changed.