Well my wife had our first baby, has healed up & was able to go with me to pick up our Thomas Transit Liner from the mechanic yesterday after they had it for over a month! WOOHOO!
When we picked it up from having maintanance & service done we noticed the main door opens but will not close. The owner of the shop said it is probably a bad solenoid that is causing the problem. The door is air actuated & has a joy stick on the dash to operate it. Does anyone have experience fixing these doors? I am not familiar with the sytem at all and am wondering where to start to troubleshoot it. Where would the solenoid be located? Any help is greatly appreciated!
Jonathan
Hey thanks Smitty, she is wonderful! I guess for the time being I can just bungie it shut like I did for the ride home.
How does one learn how to do repairs like this on Thomas busses? I guess they are either factory trained or maybe just from trial & error experience
Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: near flint michigan Posts: 2,657 Re: Help - Air powered door.to problem solve why your door isn't working, you need to follow the air lines from the cylinders that operate the door (probably from above the door) and follow the air lines back to see where they go.
try disconnecting a line or two from the air cylinder at the door. when you turn the controller to close the door, air should come out of one of the lines. when you turn the controller to open the door, air should come out the other line. If air is coming out of the line when you tell the door to close, you just need to follow the air line back, and re-do the same test at every component the air line is connected to ie: flow control valve, pressure regulator etc.
you could start from the opposite end. dissconect the air lines coming out of the door controller, then make sure air is coming out of the appropriate ports when you turn to door to open/close. You could hook the lines up backwards to see if the will open when you tell it to close and vise versa.
all of these things should help with problem solving. you may find you have a bad controller. or perhaps air is coming out of the controller, but another component is plugged. or somehow a pressure regulator is not turned up to enough pressure.
the other option is to make sure air is able to escape from the cylinders as well. when one side of a cylinder is pressurized, air has to be able to escape out the other port. this is probably handled by your fance door controller.