There's a distinction between gear change and lock-up when
there's an abrupt drop in rpm.
For the latter, I know some buses tend to lock-up too early and
this means it has to lock-up again. It should be a faulty
setting.
For the former, the pitch of the engine will be entirely different
(though it may sound minimal to most people) when it's at second
gear, and the rpm drop is actually not as abrupt as a faulty
lock-up.
Maybe you can give me the regos next time then I'll visit the
buses. (:
Honestly I can't tell much from that clip....not to say that the
quality sucked, but I have to be there to experience it haha.
Initially I thought that for such VOs the lock-up is too early.
But now I think back, these buses are closer to the Lance, MKIV etc
etc than 9208K. These buses change to 2nd at fairly low rpm, then
attempt to pull through 2nd at even lower rpms and then struggle to
proceed to lock-up at 2nd. Obviously there's a reason why the VOs
are usually made to lock-up at 1st and at fairly high rpms, because
half the time you get a kick in your butt when the bus switches
back to 1st.
In that clip however, I have no inkling of where's the lock-up,
so honestly I can't say much about it. If you're looking for the
above mentioned buses, I would say it is more likely to occur in
the batch 3 types. Some I remember include 9630Z, 9638C. Light
pressure on the pedal would induce that effect on these buses.
If the lock-up is early, I would expect a pause and a slight rpm
drop. But for these VOs, the rpm drop is a little steep, and the
pause is shorter than what I would expect for a lock-up. Lock-up
takes longer and more jerky. And what I thought was transition to
2nd for these buses should actually be the lock-up. The change is
more obvious and the drop in rpm is less.
And no wonder too.....a quick check on the gear ratios showed
that the difference between 1st and 2nd are the greatest amongst
the gears. Which proved all the more that these buses were actually
changing from 1st to 2nd rather than locking-up.
