here are 4 things an engine needs to run, compression, air, electrical, and gas.. since I assume you don't have a compression gauge and it was running, that most likely can be eliminated. so now your gas ,air and electrical. now, to check gas, just look down the carb, which is located in the center of the engine on top and have someone push the gas pedal down several times, it should squirt gas each time, if none then check your gas. now this is assuming you have one the older buses and is a gas engine. a newer bus has no carb and uses injectors. so having a carb, and that being checked, and you have gas, then your down to electrical. so if you don't have any tools you could check it, but even if it was bad, you'd have to get a mechanic to fix it, as to direct you into pulling a distributor apart, might be beyound your abilities. but if you don't have any tools and want to see if you have any spark and can be checked, but let me warn you, it bites! it's harmless, but it can be done with your bare hand if you want. just take off one of the spark plug wires from any of the spark plugs, and hold it while some one in the bus cranks it over no more than 2 times, and if you feel a little shock and you may or may not drop the plug wire, then you are getting fire or in this case electrical spark. that is one way to check it. this won't kill you or anything like that (unless you have a pacemaker) it just bites you like having a bee sting. so anyway, hope that helps.

Return the uhaul and rent a van. You cant drive people around in a uhaul. If you get in a wreck with kids in the back of a uhaul, you are opening yourself up to HUGE liability. Then call a local mechanic and explain your problem to them. Maybe they can come to you or you will have to tow the bus to them. There is no way this is going to be cheap, just be prepared for that.

If you have no idea what the problem is you do not have the technical knowledge to fix it either. This is going to mean calling a garage and getting a trained mechanic to sort it out.

Call a mechanic or garage and get them to check it out. Contact the church to see if they can have someone bring you another vehicle - it is their responsibility, not yours, to provide road-worthy transportation.

The bus is simply out of gas.

The bus ran well for the most part on the 3 hour drive, except for a little shudder here and there. I really don't know much mechanically. I got the kids to the hotel, but when the time came to drive them to the conference, the bus stalled in front of the hotel and I could NOT get it to start up again. It would crank hard like it was trying really hard to fire up, but it just would NOT catch. We ended up having to rent a uhaul to drive the poor kids to the conference for tonight. It is a 3 day conference and I can't help but feel embarrassed and responsible for not being able to start our bus. The others arent really that mechanical either. Can someone please give me some tips? We all need help I just really need it to start for the kids today...