I FIGURED IT OUT!   

it wasn't the bad tie rod that stopped the bus being driven, it was the
messed up shifter!   I wanted to move it out of the garage to use the space
for something else, so i got a friend to help me reattach the shift stick.
  but noooo.  the piece underneath was broken, no can do.   so i had to climb
underneath to shift it into reverse to back it out.  to pull it in again
later i had to manually push the rod into first.   joy.    but it starts
right up.  a little messing with the carb helped,  and im going to put a
mechanical advance distributor on it.
         gotta finish the brakes next week, but in the meantime she's on
hold.

I guess I need a rear bumper tent pole bracket too, so any kind souls with a
spare, please let me know.

:)  clara