10 ways to make yourself more attractive to a school bus driver of the opposite sex

Unless you're a mechanophiliac this won't make you more attractive to anybody. It will, however, earn you brownie points in mechanophiac circles. 

The other day I noticed that after resting, my two 12v U1 batteries were down to 11.6v or 18% according to the charge controller. Thus, I ordered a lithium battery. It came from eBay and was no more expensive than if I'd ordered direct from China via AliExpress. The big difference - it came from California and arrived within a week.

The text on the back is clearly Chenglish rather than English and doesn't really merit a photo. While using eBay though I ordered at the same time two convex mirrors to replace the rather worn-out Busboy mirrors at the front of the bus. 

After a few days a big box arrived. Inside was just one mirror, not the two I paid for. Contacting the seller they promised to send the other one then to send a tracking number. Two weeks later nothing had arrived so I gave them a negative review and filed a dispute, giving them the opportunity to send the other mirror. Instead I had a full refund. Thus I now have one mirror which isn't that helpful. On the other hand since it's not really convex enough for my needs, perhaps this was a good thing.

I'd ordered a pair of brake lines from Carolina International. They puzzled for a while over why the recommended lines for my bus were not the usual lines but ordered the one I needed and had the other in stock. A few days later they called and the lines had arrived so I drove across town and picked them up. Not too bad at $68 apiece.

As can be seen from the photo above (which my new AT&T phone couldn't seem to get in focus), the old brake line had blown apart at one of the joins. Oddly enough there are two nuts in the picture - a small 3/8 nut and a larger one. The reason the pipe to the right is thoroughly broken is because the 3/8 nut is severely undersized. That meant that the wrench wouldn't grip it and the corners which were rounded already gave way, leading to the other wrench twisting the pipe until it broke.

That's the broken pipe. That'll have to be replaced before I can connect the loose end of the new pipe. The top end needs to be tightened properly but there's a problem there. When I try to tighten it, it turns the tube which means the tube gets out of line. That is not very helpful.

I mentioned needing to replace the other line but didn't say why. One look at that picture for anybody that knows brakes will tell the story. The pipe leading from the brake booster has been jerry rigged. I do have the correct tube according to the International dealer. I can't fathom how it goes on because it seems a bit on the long side. As I don't know how it should look, I've left it alone for right now.

Meanwhile as it wasn't raining, I made a little insert to go into my battery hangers. It's just angle bracket cut and welded but it should slip nicely into the existing battery hanger and will hold my new lithium battery. Then it's just a simple matter of clamping it down. Before I do that though, I'll probably make a little roof for the battery hanger so that in the event of the battery catching fire, the roof will prevent the flames hitting the underside of the bus floor directly.

It looks like the brake lines might take a week or two to sort out. The battery installation might get done sooner. It will need a protective plate to be made to go over the battery holder though. That shouldn't be too hard. I have some 1/16th steel plate I can bolt to the frame. It's narrow so I might end up having to weld two pieces side-by side.