Clutch problems for NBC minis
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• National Bus Company's fleet of minibuses has shown alarmingly high rates of clutch wear, NBC director of Engineering Rodney Hawkins told delegates at BUS '86 last week.
Clutch life in heavy situations is put at between 16,090 and 19,000kms in "heavy" operations. Average life for the manual gearbox is around 56.000kms and this is an area in which NBC would like to see some improvements.
Depsite that, operating costs are proving less than with fullsize buses even though minibuses have fairly short main unit lives. On its Mark One Transit vehicles with the 2.41itre York diesel power unit, engine replacements or overhauls have been needed every 65,000kms. The newer 2.5Di engine lasts around twice as long.
NBC has large numbers of Ford Transit 190D 16-seaters and Mercedes-Benz 1,608D 20seaters in service around the country.
The vehicles are expected to last between four and six years depending on the operation. During this time they will cover between 321,000 and 560,000kms each.