Our lowboy driver was running down the road and upon smelling smoke looked down at his feet to see smoke coming out of the area of the fuse box. He got to the side of the road and as soon as he stopped and hit the parking brake did he see flame and the black smoke of burning wire insulation start to come out from the dash. He was able to put it out with the use of the cab fire extinguisher and with some extra help from a convenient GA Dept of Public Safety officer who just happened to have been sitting nearby watching the trucks heading to the off ramp to the Richie Brothers auction yard. We didn't lose the truck, but the cab harness is toast from the fuse box up to and past the steering column. It also got the airlines in the area too. I am having a hell of a time trying to find a replacement harness or even a part number/s for the harness. Does anyone have any knowledge or access to a parts book for searching what the part number would be for the cab harness? I have seen harnesses on Vander Haag's site but they are all from 2000-year model trucks with 3406E motors in them. Here is our truck info: Peterbilt 378 Day Cab Year: 1994 VIN: 1XP-FPBEX-7-RN351607 Engine: Cat 3406B 4CK17007 (The truck shipped with a 3406C originally) Trans: RTLO-18918B
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Good news was no damage to the engine compartment harness.
Good luck. That is going to be a miserable fix.
Boy you sure run some antique stuff. You don't have a pecker wreck dealer in Georgia ? I would beat the driver for putting out the fire. Bad Bob
Good grief. Yeah, because a check for $10k (MAYBE) is going to buy a replacement truck. What a ridiculous comment.
Any used harness will be tough to find-sellers like to keep useable cabs complete. Any used complete cab will run $4,500 and up. Possibly find one in a totaled cab, and at 33 years old most of those have been picked clean. But here is a number for Hagerman Truck Salvage, they have a lot of Pete parts. 1-541-922-6455
111
There are no $10k 3406b '94 pete's by me. You need to double that figure- and at that its going to need work. Just saw a 2016 day cab western star for sale right beside a 20 year older pete and they were the same $$$. (around $60,000) By me- the burnt remnants are worth 10-20k. Its a crazy world right now. I like truck shop's idea of finding a cab.
If he can find a distribution box and dash harness it's actually not too bad of a job. I had a 94 T600 that was wrecked and bought a T800 cab and hood. I set both on the shop floor side by side, left the switches plugged in stripped the harness and HVAC from the 600-stripped the dash of the T800 and moved all 600 components to the 800 cab in 17 hours. Basically turned a T600 into a T800 and added about $10,000 to the value by making it into a 800. Insurance paid for it. Bought the 800 cab and hood for $5,000.
I once helped a guy rebuild the harness in a JCB backhoe from scratch, with a lot of bulk wire, a bucket of connectors, a wiring diagram and whole lot of time ... We fiddled with that machine all summer, in between other work
I was being sarcastic. What I was trying to say is what the insurance check would be ($10k) will not come close to buying a replacement. Hence my comment on how stupid it was to suggest he should have let it burn. I will stop here.
I figured you were, everything is so stupid expensive right now. I'd hate to think of the labor bill if he has to pay someone else to do it. Here's a guy parting a 1992 in Kansas. I know that's a long way from you, but if you need help getting the parts, holler out, I've got to head that way sometime for some other things. Log into Facebook Log into Facebook to start sharing and connecting with your friends, family, and people you know. www.facebook.com
I’ve been looking at cabs and that would appear to be the best route to go. This would be a faster fix I think than trying to pull apart cables etc. At least that the best I can tell at the moment. I’m going to call the dealer tomorrow and see if they’ll get me a part number to start working with. That and a call to the insurance company to see what they say about it. What makes this incident so painful is that this truck is what we’ve needed since I got here (~4 years). Double frame, third axle and two speed rear ends (when needed). It’s a true heavy haul setup. That and we’ve put some money into the truck with rebuilding the axles, clutch, transmission and a handful of other items like a new driver seat, muffler and other small things that make the truck nice to run. This has been a rough spring for equipment in our company if you’ve seen some of my other posts. We’ll get through it, but man these break downs hurt. They take up too much money and time trying to solve/resolve.
Better luck!
Nothing in that wiring setup gives me any confidence that the same thing wouldn't happen again. The whole deal looks like spaghetti strung through trees. The chances of short circuits with poorly laid out and poorly-secured harnesses is huge. We lose a heap of trucks every year around here with major fires caused by short circuits, and they're usually a total loss. And the worst offenders are the units with a high level of electronics, and a high level of emission control equipment. So much so, guys are buying old trucks from the 1990's and rebuilding them from the ground up, they are generally so much more reliable. But I'd be going through the harness on any replacement cab you buy and ensuring the wiring is properly secured at regular intervals, and that pinch points are avoided or the wiring is properly protected at those points.
With that kind of investment, it would certainly be worth putting back together. Double frame, 3406b two speed rear 18speeds aren't just around everywhere.
Two speed rears? Were they pulling superloads?
Were pretty common out here at one time, a lot of dumps and loggers had them easier on the drive train.
Fire started at the fuse/distribution box. It's not uncommon to remove a bad relay for lighting and find the plastic is melted around the four spade connection and on the other end find the connection at the toggle switch has been hot too. Especially 1987 through 98. A true Pete issue given age, dirt and moisture.
I have a 90's 377 cab that should be the same except of the l10 engine part. Of course I'm in Kansas but let me know what I can do to help
Have you looked into maybe your insurance will pay for the repair? I replaced the cab harness on a 95 Kenworth for an electrical fire. It was a plow truck so there were quite a few extra switches and such. It was around 40 hours work plus the harness. Also see if a Peterbilt dealer will contact the factory and see if they will build you a new harness.
I have a call into the insurance company and got sent to a different dept. because they want to know what caused the fire. My guess is they're getting ready to argue on why they don't have to pay. I called the dealer this morning to get a part number and they were helpful. But the harness that matches this truck is going to be near $6,000. I had not thought about asking for a new one to be made. Might be worth a shot. This truck shipped with a 3406C and we have a B in it now. Might be an opportunity to get a harness made that suits the B series instead of the C series for the truck so we can have all the gauges and the jake break again.
Not sure. Best I can tell is that this truck came from some one pulling hills and/or heavy loads all the time. The paint job on it reminded me of my power plant days when we hired out Bigge for heavy haul to bring in the harps and other heavy components on the steam side of the plant. Maybe it was once one of theirs.
Well for background the A/C randomly quit about 1 week before this happened. Had been working fine and then nothing. Maybe we had a fault and that then grew into this disaster.
I like your description. We thought that was what we were getting here; simple reliable old truck. Everything was working well on the truck electrically, so we never really considered there was a potential fault waiting to happen. As I continue the search for a cab this will play a big role in evaluation of the purchase.
Would anyone know what year and potentially other series Peterbilt day cabs will work with my truck? I have no idea what's actually usable for swap over.
Here is the interesting fact about Peterbilt. The last 359's were built in early 87, 1987 was first year for the later semi flat dash. The 359 prior had the corvette dash with the circuit breakers mounted in the left side of dash. The corvette dash had very little issues with harness and breakers. When Pete moved the fuse panel to the floor is when electrical issues began to appear. Pete also had a high amp breaker panel in the left kick panel, those were known to rot. Mud, water, chemicals tracked in caused a lot of problems with the later cab.
Assuming it has a flat dash, any of the 379's will work short or long hood. The 377 will also work. As long as of the same time period.
I was told the 377 just has high cab mounts over the 379 and a different hood obviously.
You can try this place. He buys a lot of 3406 trucks, as he has a customer for all the engines he can get. Robert Ullom Used Truck Parts - Largest Supplier Of Used Truck And Trailer Parts In Kansas and Nebraska Largest Supplier Of Used Truck And Trailer Parts In Kansas and Nebraska www.robertullomusedtruckpart.com
Pulled off the fuse panel to see what it looked like and here is the damage. Looks like there may have been a hard short from the main cable putting power to the panel as all of the fuses were blown. May have just a likely been the cable insulation melting off and them making contact with the others near by but this was an idea floated to me. So far I've managed to find a good cab in Idaho and 1 here in Atlanta that match up really close to our truck. They're both very reasonably priced. the search continues....
Just finished a call with Peterbilt of Atlanta and he was able to do some digging. Apparently, the serial number of this engine we have in the truck now is not a 3406B it is a 3406C. He said that some folks would take the pump off and remove the electronic governor and replace with a manual governor. The truck I am looking at in Idaho also shipped with a 3406 C and looks nearly identical to my truck from the photos of the engine harness setup and plugs. Might be onto something here... Here are photos of my pump. I think this pump retrofitted back to manual governor? It looks that way to me given there is a rod going back to the pedal.
Yup. Looks like a driveline socket on the floor. It was real common to convert a 4CK to a manual pump and advance. Who has the cab in Idaho? Holst?
Just so I'm on the same page with you, you agree that I've got a manual governor, or I need to go look for the hole in the floorboard you describe? Yes Holst is who has the cab and its in great shape.
Yes that's a manual injection pump. About a 95% chance it was Holst.
Holst? PEEC?
Personally I wouldn't waste my time putting a 30 year old wiring harness into the truck. Just asking for endless electrical problems. I'd either go new or junk the truck.
There's only one main salvage yard in Idaho that advertises nationally-Holst.
He's looking at replacing the entire cab, dismantlers won't part out a cab or sell in many cases the harness from one only on rare occasions. Pete won't custom build a harness back that many years. I don't know any manufactures that do. About the only thing they continue to supply is a distribution box/fuse panel. It's one of the issues that can happen running older equipment to stay away from emissions.
Still, its a lateral move in my mind. Swapping an old cab for an old cab.
Either that or spend 65,000 for another that's old. Although Kenworth Pasco has a vocational setting on the lot 2022 for $235,000
Corrosion from people installing windshields with no sealant corrodes out most older pete fuseboxes. Done a lot of burnt wiring harness replacements on older 379s, usually in the engine compartment though. Just did a 2022 389 cab harness that burn out from driver installed chicken lights rammed into the hot side of the fuseboard. I know you phoned the dealer already but cab harness pn is 16-06274. It was shipped with a PEEC 4CK24317 at 425hp. I would rather bite the 6g and put a dash harness in it. The harness will have a couple jumpers and extra circuits plugged in that arent part of the main harness so make sure to match both of them up when it is on the floor. Attached the harness drawing, schematic, and fuse panel repair parts if you wanna get creative.
That's interesting-I called Pete in Pasco with a vin from 92--No can do I was told.
How much are cabs looking to be?
For a cab harness part number or serial number of the motor it shipped with? Should be able to find both even going back to the 80s. Cab harness may not actually be available on a older one.
I called back to Pete with that number-It is available-{Cab Harness my cost $3,813.00 only one available in Louisiana}. I'm surprised-but I don't think they wanted to look it up or knew how the first time I called with a vin number, wouldn't be the first time. That price is a fleet price from my old job, so it's higher than that plus that didn't include a fuse panel.
As you are well aware most parts people these days are sub standard. Some of them just dont care at all. Attached is some pics from the microfiche of an 82 pete. Still able to look it up, most of the part numbers still work.
Not to get off thread--I talked to the old outside parts sale rep yesterday also. Pete is still showing numbers in most cases but as parts are sold for trucks this age only a limited amount are being being built to replace. Built/made as ordered for a price.
It's nice to even have that, not so much with old Fords, as in my old L9000 . . .
I spent some more time on the phone with Peterbilt today and I am being told that there are 2 other harnesses in the cab that I may need. One is the PEEC Relay Harness and is part number 19-06205 the other is the Cab Engine Harness that is part number 16-06204. I also called Fitzgerald Peterbilt thinking that maybe someone who was deep into their now defunct glider kit business might be able to help me sort this out. Sadley, no was the answer. But the man on the other end of the line was very helpful. He gave me some hope that we might be able to plug and play with new harnesses. Mainly he said that because the 3406B and C were so common its unlikely that there were many cables that would have been abandoned or removed. He also said that the PDC comes with the cab main harness (part: 16-06274) so if I can locate the other 2 or at least the cab engine harness I just might get by without having to swap cabs. I'm still on the hunt, along with everything else that's going on wrench wise in the company so bear with me....
Thank you for clarifying I am all mechanical now. This helped me have a little more direction in understanding what I was looking at with the engine cabling that pulled back and tied off. It must have been what went to the old fuel pump governor. Yes, it was Holst I was looking at the cab with. Oddly enough I am flying to Idaho this weekend with my family to visit my wife's mother and father. They live near Bellevue ID. Probably not in the cards for a trip over there if I want to stay married very long.
This is my and the mechanic's we hire out to main concern. I don't necessarily disagree with you in principle on the repair either. We'll still have an old truck. However, my name isn't on the side of the pickup trucks and the owner has a serious case of hoarder syndrome or whatever it is that makes a man hold onto things too long.... If you've seen some of my older posts our outfit runs a lot of older "well-loved" equipment most of which was well worn out "in" when we bought it.... Lots of good times I can assure you. But for what it's worth, this is/was a good truck. We did put some money into it to get it up to being a solid old truck that would do what we asked of it minus the headaches of the newer trucks with emissions control equipment etc. at a about 25% of the investment of a new truck (assuming a $235K buy in). Thats where the owner is hung up. He does not want to outlay the big money for new, nor the lesser amount, but still substantial money, for a newer but still used truck like a 2015-2018. These can still run north of $130K when setup for heavy haul and aren't over 5-600K miles and need work to rear ends or other major components. Maybe I can pull a rabbit out of the hat and come up with something using everyone's input and some more searching around the nation. That or the insurance company comes through and makes a decent offer to total it. Then maybe the owner will decide to go newer... Time and a few more lucky breaks will tell.
You are correct, everyone I have called has told me they'd happily sell the cab minus the doors but that is the limit to what they are willing to pull out or sell individually. And yes the risk with the older equipment, as I am now very well familiarized with, is parts availability.
From $3000 to $6000 depending on the shape they're in.
THANK YOU FOR SENDING THIS! This is great. The diagrams I got were not as broad ranging as these to show locations like these diagrams nor did they show the 1 line diagram for point to point tracing. If we do go the route of buying a cab and running that route this will be very useful.
There is only 1 in the US. Its probably gotten more hits in the last week than the last 2 years. The price I got for it was $5,564 before taxes and shipping. I was told that it would come with the PDC. If not then that is another hard one to find. 16-06204 & 16-06205 are not available anywhere best I can find. Scrap yard or bust on those items.
I've been holding off on this, but you might try { www.mawkindustries.com }. For possibly building/ making the other harnesses. It's going to be a yes or no. Mawk is one of the few {very few} that custom build harnesses for converting from a manual IP engine to electronic. They build harnesses for Pete, Kenworth and Freightliner. Just as expensive as OEM, but good quality. They built a harness for a 1986 359 XTHD that had 3408 from factory that I helped install a 6TS 550 hp 3406 some years ago. IIRC the guy you talk to there is named Ed, can be moody from one day to the next. Located in Arizona.
I'll sell you my cab with doors for 1k lol I am serious btw
I can rebuild some of the simpler harnesses if there's enough left of them to copy Most of the parts are off the shelf. Packard 56 connectors, dill blox for the PDC like pushbroom shared Not sure how it compares but my '89 379 lists main cab harness as 16-05171. Cummins engine but I assumed that the cab harness was pretty universal. They put wires for everything then only used what were needed If you want a copy of my build sheet let me know
If it was me I would want to know for sure why it happened in the first place? Over load? Movement of wires in the harness?
So the insurance company has finally and I mean just as of Friday given us a settlement offer. They’ve thrown out $36,000 for the truck. Does this sound reasonable to you? We have put in a new clutch, rebuilt the transmission and rebuilt the rear ends, new tires on the front and first drive axle, plus $5k in misc. repairs and needed updates for DOT compliance. All in we’re about $40k in this truck including it’s purchase. I’m torn between fighting it or accepting it and moving on. We did buy a nice used 2004 Pete 379 with only ~240,000 miles (30,000 frame hrs. Mostly idle) that we’ve just started using so we could battle it out. I’m just not sure I want the headache of it. It took me 2.5 months nearly to get a fair settlement out of my 2020 F250 when some kids on the way to their school pulled out in front of me and I T-boned them first week of March. That was a fiasco and a half. This would likely be worse because the truck is so old when trying to argue up the value of the truck. What do you think, slug it out with the insurance co or take the money and move on with the new rig?
A little late to the party here, but I have a similarly speced truck for our lowboy tractor. Was originally built for a gentleman by the name of Pete Dancer as a logging truck in Oregon, according to the plate on the glove box door. 89 378 with tag axle, B model, had a 15818 with. 86 od when I bought it, which we have swapped for a newer 18 with .73. 2 speed rears as well. It does everything we need it do do!
Can you take the settlement and buy the truck back?
Go on Truck paper and find 4-5 trucks close to your specs and age and give the insurance man those numbers. I bet they are priced more than $36,000. Also you could go on ritchie bros, and purplewave, and get auction sold prices for similar models. Those two sources should get you a pretty good idea of real prices.
One of the big issues with older trucks when insurance is involved. Will never equal out in most cases with inflated prices of trucks. On a average 36K would be about right. Take the money, I doubt they will budge, maybe but I doubt it. Most of the trucks for sale spec'd like that one are in poor condition at $50,000 asking price, need another $20,000 in repairs just due to age, that's why those are for sale. There really are no rubies.
It's not a Peterbilt, but when my 1970s $1700 travel trailer was wrecked while parked, by a passing car, the other person's insurance company went to some lengths to show their valuation by listing similar models for sale as comps, as if the pile was actually worth much. They offered about what I was hoping to get, so I took it. I agree that showing some actual comps of your own from actual sales where money changed hands seems fair. But no idea how that will play out. They made you an offer. Now they will have to pay it, or come up if you can somehow make them. I don't think there is anything to lose by arguing here.
I would guess you could only go up with the only negative is losing time, so if you have the time go for it.
My insurance broker told me this many years ago, and I've never forgotten it. The secret word in insurance contracts is - "indemnify". Now, the full definition of "indemnify" is not to just provide compensation for insured loss - it is a legal term that means you will end up, no worse off - and no better off - than the position you were in, before the insurance claim event. On that basis, you are rightfully entitled to ask your insurance company to replace your fire-damaged Peterbilt with a completely identical unit, in exactly the same mechanical condition, as your rig. If they're unwilling to go to this trouble, then inform them that $36K will not replace your rig with an identical unit, in precisely the same condition. And from that position, you should be able to negotiate a higher level of payout. I have advised others in similar positions, and they ended up with better payouts. Remember, you are negotiating with your insurance company over the claim, and negotiation always involves starting offers and finishing offers.