A few pictures from work. Year old magnum 305 pulling a scraper pulled down off the pile and broke in two!
A couple more. We unhooked the loaded pan and built plates for the frame. Then I pulled out the driveline that separated, fixed a couple bad splines, put it back in so we could start it and release the brakes and drag it onto the lowbed
I am betting that warrenty means nothing in this Case.
no pun intended? the service manager's exact words were "holy s%$^!!! how did you do that?"
Yair . . . I am pretty sure this is not a one off. I believe a New Zealand operator had similar issues with Case . . .perhaps even on this forum a few years back. Best of luck with it. Cheers.
Oooh, bad pun. Don't try to deny it, you capitalized "Case". A farmer near here had a brand new Magnum, less than 100 hrs on it. He found a little soft spot and buried it above the hubs. They brought in a mid-sized hoe and hooked to the front end, when they pulled on it, they broke it in half just like that, except that they pulled it into 2 pieces. It went back to the dealer, who said there would be no help from them or CNH. He involved a lawyer, and 2 weeks later, he had a brand new one, one size larger. I'll have to ask if CNH helped, his insurance ate it, or he did.
I saw the exact same thing in south Dakota on the farm I pheasant hunt on this fall... pulling a air seeder when it happened.. the owner has went "GREEN" again!!! I hadn't saw/heard of any problems then, but round here its mainly green machines a few blue.. he told me it just wasn't his tractor he has saw this same break in at least 4 tractors on other farms since..( none completely broke in two but getting ready to) stay on them they know there is a problem please keep us updated
I have pictures of one going through Austin and it was parked side ways on the trailer. Rear axle in front and front in the rear. Apparently you are not the first to have this happen.
Sometimes castings are NOT the way to go.....
Quick update, his insurance totaled the few month old tractor and paid for it, CNH did nothing, he went back to the same dealer and got another one. I believe that if it'd been me, I'da bought a Deere.
Here's a couple pics from a while back. Had to change the belt for bull rock on our screen. Normally I would hook the new belt to the old belt where It splices together but it was a one piece belt. A little south Texas engineering saved me a lot of sweat
I had a feeling that Duct Tape was going to appear.
Red Green would even be proud of that duct tape job. Looks like it made the job a bit easier.
I'll take that as a compliment. The operator and I had a good laugh when I pulled out the duct tape but it worked really well. Hey if the ladies don't find you handsome, at least they'll find you handy !
I wonder if the front duals had something to do with that... Seems like the 4-5 of these I've seen they were the higher hp tractors in the line with front duals. Just thinking out loud...
They sent the tractor back to the dealership. The last I heard the bill was at 25k and counting
Here's a couple pics from an idler wheel I did a while back
they stopped making 305s in 2011, so don't see how it can only be a year old
not sure. I assumed it was new. the owners have only had it a year and its got less than 2000 hours on it. maybe they bought it with super low hours.:beatsme
to be honest high horse US farm tractors only clock on average 400/500 hrs a year so it would be in line with being a 4 year old machine.
Started this thread a long time ago and never kept up on it. Figured I’d resurrect it with some work pictures. First is replacing some bearings in a grapple rotator on a cat skidder.
John Deere 440b lost oil pressure. Owner caught it quickly.
Feed chain drive motor on a Peterson chipper. Thing actually was still working but was acting up. Removed the case drain and found the sparklies.
Wow, death and destruction all around!
That’s what keeps me in business!
Peterson chipper. Developed a severe leak on the oil pan. Luckily we were able to do it indoors. Didn’t have enough ceiling height to swing the engine out so I just lifted it, removed the pan, replaced the gasket and sat it back down. The last pic is how we refilled the cooling system.
This is how my day started. Can’t tell but that’s a pretty steep hill. I was following the operator into his machine when he spun out in front of me. I stopped and started sliding back down the hill. The ditch was more preferable than the bog at the bottom of the hill. My next truck will have a locking rear diff and room for tire chains.
And a locker in the front too. (Air or electric locking) I dislike wheels that do not contribute to forward motion.
I’m pretty sure a front differential is out of my budget. I’m heavy enough that I could go a lot of places if I just had a locker. My last truck at the dealership had a rear locker but it would automatically release at 15 mph. I’d get a small glimmer of hope of getting out when I’d hear the air release the locker and that’s where I’d be.
Very cool pics, keep them coming.
We had a first gen Honda Pilot with similar behavior. It was AWD up to about 35 MPH, then it would morph on out to FWD. I cursed this a few times.
I had a Honda that was like that i used on the farm. If you got the wheel spinning on take off it would be there but if you took of easy and didnt make it spin it would go about any were.Just backwareds of any thing i had ever driven.
Someday me and this delimber will come to an understanding. Until then we’ll keep butting heads. Rear grab arms quit working. Operator started working on it. Another guy on the job told him to hurry up. He got mad and quit. That’s when I get the call. Chased a pile of hack job wiring repairs from the last 20? Years. Long story short, an electric cooling fan for the hydraulics seized up shorting out a breaker. The same breaker powers the electric switches on the joysticks and all the lights which have been all tied together with inline fuses. Left the fan unplugged since it’s cold as a mofo out, replaced the fried breaker and fixed a bunch of **** poor connections (wires twisted together) to get it going. When pro pac builds a delimber they tie the electrical power in however they feel like it so there is no schematic to go by. And almost no two machines are built alike.
<posted phone number on back of truck in the men’s room at the truck stop
Road service is $150 for the first hour, plus mileage. The lot lizards are probably cheaper? I've never asked...
well that would probably make for a more interesting conversation than the ones I usually get. “We’re concerned that your vehicles extended warranty is about to expire “
Nothing too exciting here. Operator called and asked if I’d come up and replace some missing track pad bolts. He had about 40 bolts. I used them up and sent him back for another 100. Used up most of them replacing the missing bolts and bolts that wouldn’t tighten up. She’s due for an undercarriage. Also rotated the saw teeth and added a Sirius radio while he was running for parts.
What does the rubber on top of the buncher boom do? Somewhat keep the smaller wood debri from building up in the boom?
Keeps the ferns from growing out too long and obstructing the view.
Keeps sticks from getting under the hoses and removing them against their will
On today’s episode we’ll discuss why engine oil is good and if you have a severe leak sometimes it’s best to park it and wait for parts rather than run it. This is a Perkins in an asv skid steer. About half the oil pan bolts fell out and created a massive leak. I pulled the engine this morning to reseal it and found lots of sparklies in the oil.
That looks like some expensive loose bolts…you gotta love that mentality, "just run it,we will just check the oil more often" how often is "more often " when it normally never gets checked???
Being an ASV with a Perkins who in the hell would pay rebuild it?
my largest customer. I wanted to put a reman in it. Customer only wanted to put a piston in it. The compromise ended up being an aftermarket engine kit. The mentality is that if we fix it and get another year out of it then we’re another year ahead. It’s not how I like to do things and I’m not proud to put my name on it but they never question my bills and if it only lasts 8 months they won’t be looking for a free rebuild out of me.
Would have let them know up front and PERSONAL that to patch it will be noted on the bill where I would not warranty ANY of it should they choose to go this route, IN WRITING, done it in the past and would repeat that in a heartbeat today.
I told the owner and I’ll put it on the invoice. This isn’t the first time I’ve done something like this for them. I will say that this customer takes some gambles that I wouldn’t, but they never complain if they gamble and lose.
One in a thousand, have had to argue receipts of the past even with said notes on them with what I considered Good Customers.
They are a very good customer and are also my largest customer. I have had weeks where I work for them 10+ hours a day and then go try to do a small job for another customer afterwards. It’s been joked that I should just change the patch on my uniform to their logo.
Sounds as my days with Mississippi Lime Quarries, until that fateful day were bought out and management directions changed.
Is that a polite way of saying "A bunch of know betters and penny pinchers took over"
Well I flew down to Virginia Friday and bought this. Bought it from the same dealer that I bought my last truck from. Being used it came with no warranty other than the salesman’s word that he’d make sure it made it back to Maine. Made it to Harrisburg PA when I lost 6th gear. Found a freightliner shop 12 miles from me. Made it within a mile when I lost everything but 5th. Had to ride the snot out of the clutch and roll a stop sign but I got it there. From there I rented a car and drove home. Shop will assess the damage on Monday and let me know how much it’s gonna cost. Called the salesman and he said he’d get with the owner on Monday and see what they would do. I hope they’ve got an ounce of integrity and cover the cost of the transmission. Either way it should be done this week and then I’m headed back the 600 miles to get it. good times I tell ya!
Looks should be a good machine once trans is back up.
It’s very clean for a 2008. Definitely not perfect or new but I’ve outgrown my Ford and this should be a decent step up.
Used equipment woes. I bought my backhoe in 2014, old, used, private seller that I knew. I had run it, and I knew they had just finished a trench job with it with no issues. Within 40 operating hours it crapped the main hydraulic pump. Crap happens, just sucks when it happens right after you purchase it. Hope the salesmans word is worth something for you MikeL. It sure looks like a nice truck.
Mike that's a nice look truck. Sucks about the trans, how much did the shop guestimate the repair was going to be?
Sure looks nice Mike, Cat or Cummins? And did you get your rear axle locker? I don't see 4x4 under that front axle...
just got an email quote for $2490 to “remove and inspect transmission” . Umm NO. I called the shop manager and asked why. “It takes 8 hours to remove and inspect this transmission”. To which I replied “ I spent a chunk of my career as a truck mechanic. Any tech worth his paycheck should have it on the ground in 2 hours and I’m pretty sure she’s roached. How much for a reman” . “Oh, Uh, let me recheck that quote for you and I’ll let you know”
8.3 Cummins. Eaton 6 speed and yes, I got the locking rear end. No 4x4. 10k crane, hydraulic compressor, air ride, and it has a waste oil tank with a pump to fill and evacuate it. It’s an old nortrax truck. The seller picks these up and puts on a coat of shine and resells them. 180k miles which is half of what I’ve got on my Ford. My business is small but growing so hopefully after this hurdle things wil smooth out. Baby steps...
I usually ball park figure any labor charge at $1,000 a day. So they are saying it will take two and half days just to find out what is wrong? On the other side of that he is saying 8 hours of work is worth $2,500? So they are charging $312.50 per hour? They must figure you as a fleet truck driver who doesn't know any better. I love it when a knowledgable person can throw foam on their gas fire.
The quote was $323 for initial diagnosis, $1615 for removal and inspection, $161.50 for performance test/verification test? ***?, $200 for misc parts and lube, $53.30 for EPA fee, $137.97 for tax. Grand total of $2490.77. Don’t know why we need a performance test, and oil fee for an inspection. The only thing I agreed to was the $323 to pull it in, drain oil, and remove pto and take a peek inside. Supposed to be $161/hr for labor. The service manager I talked to yesterday seemed very reasonable compared to the yahoo who’s trying to pull this over on me. If need be I could go back and put on a clinic on how to remove a 6 speed Eaton from a kenworth. 1. Remove driveline. 2. Unbolt hydraulic pump and swing out of the way. 3. Unbolt shifter tower and unplug sensors. 4. Unhook linkage. 5. Remove bell housing bolts. 6.Slide transmission out.
Some Service Writer/Foreskins fail to understand many bringing in equipment have a better idea how they work and How TO work on them that they do.
mike . what town in va did you pick this up from?
Ringgold. Right beside Danville
interesting. i think i saw that truck or one just like it at chatham the other day
I would have traveled that way. Left ringgold around 4 pm and headed up rt 29 towards Lynchburg. The dealer called me with a quote of $9600 to replace the transmission with a reman and put a clutch in. It looks like we found a broker to get it moved home for $1600 and the place I bought it is going to pay for the clutch and transmission and I will install it. At least that way it’s in my possession and I’m not at the mercy of the stealership.
I’m glad I’m not in Pennsylvania today. Stealership sent me a final invoice for $791.55. $726.75 to tow truck in shop, drain oil, and get transmission info. $19.99 EPA fee, and $44.81 for tax. Doesn’t tell me amount of hours, hourly rate, nothing. Tech’s notes say that they had trouble towing in due to tow strap repeatedly breaking. Apparently I’m getting charged for them not having a decent tow strap. The only thing I approved was 2 hours of diagnostic time.
If I read the story right, you already had it at the dealership? So the $726 is to pull it into the building, from out in their yard?
That’s right. I called and asked why so much. I was told it was because they had a lot of trouble towing it into the shop. 4.5 hrs at @161.50 to tow truck into shop, drain oil, note that oil had metal filings in it, (duh) and get transmission model number. They must prey on broken down truckers with no options. If I treated my customers this way I’d be out of business.
I’ve got a trucker buddy with a low bed trailer who is going to do some measuring but it looks like we’re going to leave next Friday night and go pick it up. The broker deal has also gone to pot.
No surprise there. The salesman can say what he wants, the paperwork on the bill of sale is what matters, and it probably doesn't say anything about making a trip to maine. Sorry for your issues, I hate being broke down away from home. I don't know how the guys that run 10-15 trucks over the road can handle the breakdowns out in the middle of nowhere. It would drive me up a wall. We're usually pretty close to home, so we can drag our issues home with us. At least you have someone lined up to haul it home, and you'll know its fixed right. Going to try to fix what you've got, or just slide in a reman?
I’m going to slide in a reman and a new clutch. I never learned how to rebuild truck transmissions and I’d like to get it rolling so it can make me some money. Ya know I don’t believe the seller knew about the problem. I think that fate just dealt me a s@%$ sandwich and I’ve got to choke it down and move forward. The broker is making every known excuse before he’ll put the job out. Today I heard that the cab antenna may be too tall. I told him to let the first overpass adjust the height. It sure will be good to get it home and in my possession. Maybe I can go back to sleeping good at night and not thinking about everything else that could go wrong. My wife gave me some melatonin the last couple nights. Good night Irene!
Any way this is what I bought. Looks good even if it doesn’t move!
Damn fine looking truck Mike. Once you get it home and back on the road I think that rig is going to make you a buck or 2. If it weren't for the mileage charge between Maine and Alabama I'd put you on call for repairs.
Put in a 10 speed!
mike .I`ve got a good 6spd fuller here that was in a gmc behind a turboed 3208 if you might be interested I`ll get some # off it and post em
Petepilot, The transmission I’ve got that’s failed is a FSO8406A
mike . what i have is an fs6106a less torque rating than yours possibly different shaft sizes also. took a couple pics. but my phone cam.is shot
Hey I'm over by scranton pa I'll throw clutch and transmission in it and my tools and I'll test drive it for a year so you know it's ready to go no charge lol
Haha! You almost had me until I saw the test drive for a year! You don’t need a good used F-750 do you?
Thank you for the offer petepilot but I think I’m going to get another transmission with the same torque rating. I’ve got a truck salvage yard near me that has a transmission and differential rebuild shop with a pretty good reputation. Said they had one for about the same price as the larger reman company I was going to use but with a better reputation.
that's fine .you need to go back with what you had or better. what part of Maine are you in ? we have a crew working on the 95 bridge at the nh-me.border .
theres also camerotta truck pts in conn. i have dealt with them from time to time
I’m about 3 hours north of there, up near Bangor. Camerota can get me the transmission for $3250. I’ve seen their products go both ways. Years ago I swapped an aisin transmission in a dodge 5500. First one leaked oil from the front seal immediately, second one showed up with a broken electrical plug from strapping it down, 3rd one lasted a week and disintegrated, and the 4th was good.
I don't think so me and my brother both want 14' with big cabinets like your new one good looking setup
I don’t blame you. The Ford has been a good rig and still has a year left on the engine warranty but it’s packed tight and I’m ready to move into a 14’ body. What are you running for a truck?
rusty old pete I'll get a pic
wow . I bought parts only from them never tried any of their remans. maybe i got lucky
Homeward bound. Left home at 6 pm and rolled into the stealer at 4. Quick nap in the truck and got a tow truck to load it on trailer. Height was not an issue like the shop told us it was. More lies. Glad to put them in my rear view mirror
guessing you have a replacement lined up ?
That's great. Side drop trailer makes height issues less. Did you have to wood block a little, to get the rear bumper to clear going up on the trailer? Either way, it will be nice to have it home. At least you have your other truck yet, so you aren't dead in the water.
I had my new-to-me T300 shop truck on the lowboy because of the transmission when I first got it too. When I picked it up in Idaho I looked it over and one thing I noticed and mentioned was the pto was leaking. It had been sitting for a while so the seller pulled it in the shop to have his guys go over it while we did the paperwork. We were in a hurry to beat a snow storm so I didn't pay attention to what all got done. I drove it 500 miles home and put it in our shop for a month while we got it all fixed up like I wanted. I assumed they checked the tranny oil level in Idaho but wanted to double check it, never did. A week after I put it on the road the tranny locked up about 100 miles from home, when I pulled the plug I got dust. Doh!
It took a little blocking and a little head scratching. It’s a snug fit but we’re finally moving in the right direction. Tomorrow I’m going to remove old transmission, clutch, and flywheel. Don’t have a replacement yet. Need to know input shaft size. Hope to collect it all this week and put it together next Saturday
So I posted the picture of the truck on Instagram. The service manager of my local nortrax who is a friend saw the picture. Apparently he sold the truck to a guy in Ohio a year ago who sold it to legend truck sales in Virginia who sold it to me and I brought it back within 30 miles of where it started. I can’t make this stuff up. The good news is that I know have some history on the truck.
Helluva day today. I have a customer with an old Samsung 210 that he uses on his hunting property. Fuel cap doesn’t seal and lets water in the tank. Drained the tank, removed the bottom and cleaned out the gunk as best I could. Fresh fuel and filters, an oil change , and he wanted me to run it to make sure it was ready for this weekend. Ran good for 10 minutes when I looked over my shoulder and saw flames. At this point I should describe this machine. Most of the covers are missing, it has no working key switch, etc. he has a push button starter and a shut off cable in the pump area. Right where the fire was. I jumped off and grabbed an extinguisher from my truck. Put out the fire and it flared back up. Tried to stall the machine but the push button shorted out so every time it shut off the starter would fire it back up. Tried to push the shut off and burned my hand badly.Yanked the ground wire off the battery then I was able to stall it and get the fire out. At that point the oil soaked insulation was smoldering. Peeled all that out but didn’t dare leave the machine until I knew the fire wouldn’t restart. The only cold thing I could find for the hand was a water bottle rolling around on my floorboard. Working is gonna be a bitch until this heals. Note to self- time to update the first aid kit.
The muffler has some good sized rust holes in it. I’m thinking it maybe had a mouse nest in it which ignited once it warmed up. 90% of the damage is in the pump area. I’m going to repair the wires but wait for him to be around to fire it up.
ouch! that's enough excitement for one day.
Ouch! What a day...
Dang Mike that looks painful. Yeah that's way too much drama. Look at it this way he might have burned that thing to the ground had gone up on him.
OWIEEE!! Can say have been in similar, but still hate to see it happen Again.
It definitely would have burned flat on him. There are no fire extinguishers around. My hand is a little tender today but the big challenge is going to be keeping it clean
That's the big problem with a burn, keeping it clean enough that it won't get infected. Sorry about the hand, the healing is going to take a while and hurt.
I’ve been wearing nitrile gloves today which I hate. The hand is staying clean but sweating and I don’t think that’s helping any. Back at the machine now trying to Mickey Mouse the already Mickey Moused wiring. The worst part is that it got the wires going to the pumps and I’m sure that wiring diagrams are going to be tough to get. Samsung SE210LC-2. Serial number FBY1305. Can anyone help?
Get some Colloidal Silver (CS - usually found at health food store or made at home with a CS generator) and keep that hand moistened with it to speed the healing. Pharmacies also have a Silver Sulfadiazine Cream USP for burns but you might need a script to get ahold of that stuff. I've had really good luck using CS for speeding up the healing process on cuts and burns. It also works well burning the head fog off that comes with Lyme Disease. I've had bad cuts and skin removals that should take 6 weeks to heal be sealed & healed within 3 weeks. My ex, whom had studies to be an MD, was fascinated at the speed of healing when I used that stuff. I would be glad to drop some off to you but we won't be headed to Downeast until later June if I get up there this year. "Another day in Paradise"......yep, black fly season coming your way real soon once you get through with mud season! I've been through that part of "Paradise" way too many times. I do NOT miss those little b**tards. At least they don't stay around as long as the mosquitos do up there.
Haha! The black flies are awake today! I’ve got some silver sulfadiazine cream to put on it but I left it home this morning. What part of Downeast do you go?
Joy, joy. I've lost a lot of blood to those things when I lived in MA. They were miserable to deal with. Thankfully, we don't have them in my part of TN. Even the mosquitos are not as bad down here. My second wife is from Harrington. We usually stay at the family camp on the coast when we go up there. I usually spend most of my time doing homeowner projects to make the place better while we visit and try to eat as much fish as I can. Her home made pizza and beer is pretty good too!
I may have drank some beer in the greater Harrington area and have worked over there several times. I’ve got a piece of ground a couple hours north of there in forest city. It’s where we go to fish, drink, and hide from civilization.
try to stay vigilant with the sulfadiazine had a second degree burn on my foot after rolling away from a paver. Changed it twice a day and you see could new growth every time I changed the dressing
So I’ve had an opportunity presented to me and maybe you guys can help. From 2103-2015 I worked in south Texas as a field mechanic for a construction company. We built roads and pads in the oil field. We ended up going home due to some family stuff but always said we’d like to move back. We went to Texas in February and looked around some and I was in contact with my old employer but we didn’t have any real plans to move back yet. He called me a couple weeks ago and offered me a job. We talked some and I explained that I had just bought another service truck, etc. “no problem. I’ll hire you and your truck” so the talks have continued. My wife and I are very interested. We’ve gotten to the money part of the negotiations. He is willing to put me on salary like I was before and give me a monthly check for my truck. I know how much I want for a salary but I’m not sure how to price the truck. I’ll have health insurance through him and won’t need to carry liability insurance plus he’ll pay for fuel. I need to figure out how much I need to cover my truck payment, insurance, maintenance, repairs, and enough to be able to replace the truck in a few years, plus I’m sure there are things I’m forgetting. How do I figure these numbers? Am I missing anything? We are trying to close a deal in the next month and my goal is to be there for September. I’ve got to liquidate a bunch of stuff, sell a house, etc, etc.
Costs of fuel & liability insurance already covered so down to full coverage insurance for thefts lost work time and damage then own maintenance and replacement funds. As to maintenance as costs are expanding rapidly how can one determine a value target that is now moving? Expense per mile or hours of use figures need to be visited, has to include a percentage figure to cover replacement in say a four year plan, look to current machine costs against four years ago as a base figure of % rise in that expense. May want to buffer with a figure to add specialized tooling as changes occur as seems diagnostics electronics are an annual to biannual expense now. May well be worth a trip to a accountant that deals with similar clientele
Have him buy a truck for you to use ? Park yours in case something goes bad. It gives you a lot of independence. Or maybe sell him your truck ?? Life would be simpler in some ways.
Mike first gather all the expenses you have for your truck: Payment Insurance Fuel Taxes, fees, yearly inspection, etc Tags Maintenance Tires Etc. Once you get that monthly number add at least 20-30% for your overhead and profit on the truck. There is no reason to run your truck for cost, you need to make money on it as well. What kind of agreement will you have? Will it exclude you working for other clients on your off time? If your truck needs another trans who pays for it? What you describe sounds interesting for both you and the company. Interested to see how it works out. Good Luck!
Sounds like a good way to get back to texas, if that's where you really want to be. Locked in job, and he adds in for your truck, makes a lot of the other things easier. I'd want enough from him for the truck, so that the truck is paid for in two years, plus your operating expenses. Whatever # that works out as. That or he just pays you for what you're into the truck for right now, plus 10%. Personally, I've been to texas a few times, and I haven't left anything there that I would need to go back for, but I'd be all in for Maine!! I hope it works out for you.
He has an F-550 service truck but I can’t get all my stuff in it and still be legal weight. He is actually expanding and will have a west Texas division and a south Texas division. I’d be in charge of the south Texas division. He is looking for a lube tech to run the 550 and will put a lube skid in it. The lube tech will handle pm’s, hydraulic hoses, etc. I’d handle a/c, some welding, major component failures, etc. I think the thing I like about having my own truck is that I keep a sense of independence. I told him how much I was charging an hour here in maine and he didn’t seem too concerned about that number. I like the idea that we can show up and I can go to work. It takes some pressure off. CM, those are the figures I need to calculate. He wouldn’t care if I did side work but I’m looking for a salary large enough so I don’t need to work nights or weekends. I’m assuming if I needed another transmission it would be my responsibility. Maybe to some point I will sell him the truck or he’ll just buy me a truck and I’ll just be an employee but since I just bought this truck, this seems to be our starting point. I’ll be running a ton of miles so I’m guessing in 2 years I’ll be looking to upgrade. Last time I worked for him I was running 60k+ miles a year. Crane operator, maine is a great place to visit but it’s hard to make a living. Taxes vs wages put us in near poverty levels and to be honest I’m sick of the winter’s here. I’ve got a piece of property near the Canadian border that I will keep and the plan is to build a place there eventually. My plan is to retire at 60 and spend summers there and winters in Texas.
Or as I like to call winters in Texas. Almost summer.
Looking much better without the ridiculous riser under the crane. Put a reman transmission in it yesterday. Seems to go good but still dealing with slight clutch slippage when I’m in high gear and step hard on the throttle.
That's not a good thing. Hard to believe that is the right set of clutch parts. As to the job: I think that owning the truck and tools is KISS. My truck, my tools, make a proper deal for the use of them. I have a company truck and a mix of my personal tools and company tools on it. Being in your position would be more comfortable IMO. I would keep it that way personally. The fuel thing is a convenience. Getting under his liability umbrella is a must.
When I took out the flywheel it had some bad looking spots on it. I’m thinking that they turned it down far enough that maybe my clutch bolts are just a touch too long and I’m not clamping the clutch tight enough to the flywheel. I don’t remember the bolt holes going all the way through. It’s funny. My road is a pretty good uphill pull out to the main drag and it won’t slip there. It’s only in 5th and 6th gear and only if I floor it. If I drive it normal it won’t do it.
I do believe it’s the right clutch. 3 truck shops came up with the same part number
Very odd it would slip in higher gears.
My experience is a new clutch will slip a little in high gear when romped on until it gets broke in a little. It usually seems like it takes less then 20 miles to get it to hook up, how many miles have you run it?
We have a truck like it at work its very high geared with the same trans.I put a clutch in it before the presser plate was castiron all i could get was a stamped steel. The driver called and said it slipped on the first hill. He isnt easy to read. Its been maybe 4 years and its steal working.
I doubt I have 20 miles on it yet. It’s not registered so I’ve just been cruising around the back roads here. I got a trucker buddy who claims that it’s normal and will come out of it. I’ve done a ton of clutches and have only had one complaint of slipping and it came out of it within a day. Time will tell
Don't fix that clutch the way that I did on a motorcycle when I was a teenager! Cash and parts were tight when I owned the Hodaka Combat Wombat back in high school. I was always inventive so I did what any aspiring mechanic/engineer would think to do - add grit to the worn out clutch disks of that worn out piece of junk so I could keep on riding. I placed a large magnet behind the bench grinder, grabbed a pair of vise grips and proceeded to grind down a number of 16p steel nails for the grit. I superglued that powdered metal to the clutch disks after a thorough cleaning with carb cleaner. My fix worked great but it took a couple months of riding to get the clutch to finally fully release. I sold it before the rest of my "fixins" wore off the plates. Trust me, I know better than that these days. Fix it right the first time or don't mess with it at all. Here's to hoping that the parts seat in just fine. Just like brake pads and rotors, a little wear in will make it all better.
"Combat Wombat" and "Road Toad" LOL.
CM's hit list is a good starting point. I'll always have my own rig, not that it really matters cause I doubt I'll go back to working for someone else but that's a different story. It's really nice if something happens to have your own rig and stuff and be working tomorrow or same day.
JLarson, that’s one of the things I like about this offer. While technically I’ll be an employee I will have a ton of independence. He’s setting up a program where the operator will file a complaint and I would get a notification on my phone or tablet and make my schedule accordingly.
It’s been a grapple skidder kind of week. Repacked a bunch of cylinders and did blade bushings on the Deere and rebuilt the grapple rotator on the cat.
I think that last one might be slightly outside of the wear limits, maybe just use a heavier grade of grease?
Started loading the kenworth yesterday afternoon and worked on it all day today. Hope to finish it up tomorrow. I’m not a hoarder, I’m an enthusiast!
Aye, you'll still get on a job one day and not have that one socket... bugger.
good luck finding anything when ur done
good luck finding anything when ur done
I actually tried to keep it organized as similar as I could to the Ford but I’m already scratching my head and I’m. It done yet. It’s hard to believe I had so much stuffed in the Ford. I went from a 11’ body to a 14’ and I’m a bit more spread out but I don’t have as much extra room as I thought I would.
Well the kenworth is loaded and running. The clutch will still slip a little if I stomp on the throttle. Plugged into it today and found out it’s set at 360 hp and 1000 ft lbs of torque. From what I’ve found, my clutch is rated for 860 ft lbs of torque. It’s fine if I drive it like an adult should. Dead man switch in the crane controller failed today. Robbed one from my fords controller to get me going and ordered a new one. Anyone on here that has an IMT service body should definitely check out QT equipment out of Akron OH. These guys stock a ton of parts and any order over $100 has free shipping and most items my orders show up within 2 days. Top notch service. Can’t say enough good things about this outfit.
The Kenworth is looking good. You need to attach a mounting point to the end of the crane for the umbrella so you can position it over were you are working when you do not need the crane, especially if you make it back down here to Texas!
Thanks. I actually have a mounting point for an umbrella on my Ford. Thanks for the reminder to move it over! Just when I think I’ve got it all moved over I find some little thing I fabbed up that I don’t want to leave behind
I think if I carried every socket I've got I'd need another truck or maybe a lil socket trailer lol. I keep finding special ones in drawers in the garage and wondering what I have that one for, they just keep showing up. Also the umbrella holder is a must, I just got a new umbrella for this summer here
I’d be curious to see some of the umbrella holders you guys have. Mine is pretty basic
I have one on the crane and one on the back of one of the truck up on a box so it cover the tailgate and vises but I can still use the crane off the pass side and to the rear to a degree with a 9 footer. I keep a few 10x10 pop ups in our job trailer too, they get a lot of use in the summer.
Interesting day today. The excavator that caught fire on me last month still isn’t running. Parts are pretty much obsolete and i haven’t found anything in a scrap year. All I need is an air intake house to the filter housing and a short section of harness to go the solenoid that strokes up the pump. Customer called me in a huff today and wanted me to file a claim on my insurance. Umm no. Then he wanted me to cover the cost of the repair because I was in the operator seat when it caught fire. He asked me to dig a hole with it and make sure it was ready to work his food plot when it caught fire. The muffler has fist sized holes in it and I think maybe it had a mouse nest inside and that’s what started the fire. Typically I don’t test run much equipment because the operator is usually with me. This machine is a 1995 and is mickey moused together. Things got a little heated on the phone. He’s trying to make it sound like it’s a new machine. At this point I’m thinking I’ll just wire in a switch to stroke up the pump and forget about the air hose. So I’m asking honest opinions- should I be on the hook for the repair or is this guy just trying to get money out of me for his piece of junk?
I'm not so sure on the ethics questions but I think that you were doing as he instructed so my opinion is that the ball is in his court. You did not make the mouse nest and it's his responsibility to keep up with maintenance of the machine - not having a reliable muffler is his lack of responsibility. You were instructed by him to start and test operate the machine. You did not install flammables that caused the fire, did you? Then I don't see how it could be your fault that the fire caught from the effects of a pyromaniac rodent. As far as fixing the intake, you can try a custom parts selection at http://www.siliconeintakes.com/ I needed new intake parts for my Menzi Muck and I was able to put together something better and cheaper than the factory tubing from the air cleaner to the turbo intake. They even offer different pretty colors for those fashion conscious mechanics.
LOL, **** that guy would be my response too. He told me that he might be working his food plot with a different kinda hoe, one made by Ames hehe. Between my hose place, truck parts and exhaust place we can usually field engineer something for old intakes, especially on some old ass POS.
I’m going down tomorrow and try to finish it up. As long as it starts, runs, pumps stroke up, and all functions work I’m shutting it down and cutting ties with him. It won’t last long. He’s too cheap to replace the fuel cap which is letting rain get in the fuel tank. That’s how this whole mess started. The more I think about it the more I feel like he’s just trying to bully me to put a claim on my insurance and get money out of me to replace his junk equipment. I’ve never taken well to being bullied.
What a crazy story! Sorry you’re dealing with that. When done, maybe give him invoice for work done and “recommendations/deficiencies found” (like the loose fuel cap, etc)...maybe he couldn’t come after you for something else? Don’t know if that would cover you if push came to shove.
I would get it running and then give him the key with a hammer. When he asks what the hammer is for. Tell him to take that hammer and pound that key up his ass. And that you will no longer work on his junk. You did nothing to start that fire. And he doesn't have a leg to stand on to try and get money from you. In fact I would tell him to make a claim on his insurance for the burn you received saving his p.o.s. And for wages lost because of the injury that happened on his property. Texas looking better yet?
Being self employed for as long as I have, I’ve dealt with a few hard asses. If I was in the wrong I’ve always taken care of the issue. If they elected to not repair something that caused issues, or ignored my recommendations that caused issues then that’s on them. It’s one thing to treat a customer right......it’s another thing to have a customer try to force you to do them right. It’s really a no win scenario. If you fix it the customer will own you as long as you work for them. If you don’t you may lose them as a customer altogether. If the equipment is expected to operate efficiently with the issues you are stating about the condition of the equipment, and the owner being a cheap ass, .....I don’t see that there is a choice. If it were me, IDE tell the dude I’m done with him.....and not look back.
Consider the actions of the tow truck driver that pulled a car out of a ditch. When the car owner refused to pay for the tow. The tow truck driver released the car from his rig to roll back into the ditch. You may be faced with the same show. Take your parts, wire, and leave the excavator as is.
Went to the machine and fixed it up. Had my dad come over for an extra set of eyes just in case... got it running with few issues, checked operation and moved it about 50 feet. Called the owner and set it on speaker so my dad could hear. It was like Jekyll and Hyde. This guy was as nice as could be and asked about putting a muffler on it so there wasn’t any other fires, etc,etc. I took my dad’s advice and just stayed calm about the whole deal rather than starting a pissing match. He even told me to figure up his bill and he’d be over next week to pay me when he gets home (works in Wisconsin). I’m actually leaving for vacation the same day that he gets back so I won’t see him. I was flabbergasted to say the least. I avoided committing to fix anything else. I’m done with the guy but I want to stay somewhat civil until he gets back and runs it to try and avoid being accused of anything else being wrong. I took a few videos of the machine before and after to cover my ass. There is too many good customers out there to bother with the bad ones. Yes Paul, Texas is looking mighty good.
We will be glad to have you. No shortage of broken machinery here that’s for sure.
Thanks. you know, Mainers will call you a flatlander or remind everyone that you’re from away if you weren’t born here and they’re generally not that welcome of people from “away”. When I was living in Texas I was repeatedly told “welcome to Texas, we hope you love it as much as we do” and I’d only been there about 2 weeks before I was asked how it felt to be a Texan. That’s a big reason we’d like to come back. The people are top notch!
On another note- could someone help me figure out why this skid steer won’t start after severely overheating and then giving it a shot of ether after cycling the glow plugs?
I'd read your other post Mike and I was worried you were going to have a lot of trouble, I'm glad you got it patched up.
Well that's cooked!
A good friend of mine (Jim M) did a lot of work on a Bucyrus Erie crane. The owner refused to pay the bill which included the time, and the parts Jim had purchased. Jim went back when he knew the owner wasn't going to be there and removed the new swing frictions. I think he may still have them.
It can only be one of 3 possibilities...... 1. He got a huge check in the bank and is relieved. 2. Jesus changed his life overnight. 3. He got laid.
I’m still pretty new at the self employment game (2 yrs) but I can tell you that I prefer my commercial customers. Much less hassle and I always get paid.
OMGosh Vetech !! You have to have the absolute best creative mind on this entire forum. Thanks for another HUGE laugh again !
Just remember the 3 b’s... I didn’t build it I didn’t buy it I didn’t break it.
Did you let him know there was a witness on the phone call?
I did not. I just dialed his number and hit the speaker button. I wanted a witness in case he started talking like he did the other day.
Maine is a one party consent state. You can record a conversation you are a party to. see here for details and other states. https://recordinglaw.com/united-states-recording-laws/one-party-consent-states/
Interesting. When he was having his bad spell I wondered if he was recording. I told him it would have burned flat had he been running it and his response was “that’s speculation. You don’t know that” I replied “you don’t have a fire extinguisher on this machine” “you don’t know what I do or don’t have. it may not have burned if I was running it” was his response.
I hope your kicking him to the curb.
I am. As far as I’m concerned we’re done.
Yeah I'm not a fan of working for individuals. All of our customers are contractors or utilities and some industrial contracts. And if they're cheapos I'll kick them too lol
This morning’s project. Cat 525c skidder. Auto lock on the grapple would cause hoses to pulsate. Found a broken spring in the floofinator valve. (Don’t remember what cat calls it) equalizer valve? It basically makes the grapple tongs open and close equally.
Ran into something today that is worth some conversation. Customer has a deere 644E that just gets used around the yard when needed. I’m told it has gone through many starters in its life span. I put on a deere reman back in April and it’s already toast. The bendix will engage but the starter won’t turn. From what I’m told this is the failure on all of the starters. Ive got system voltage on the big stud and none on the exciter wire unless I turn the key. What is killing these starters? What am I missing? Has anyone else run into this issue?
Has anyone ever checked to see if solenoid was sticking {low voltage} and starters motored.
Has anything electrical been added? Like a c.b. radio, fan, lighting or anything like that. I ask because one time many years ago my dad paid someone to install a c.b. radio in his service truck. Afterwards we were leaving for North Carolina to do a job. When we left that morning my dad made the comment that he thought the throw out bearing might be failing. We stopped in Tennessee and had lunch and when we got back to the truck the starter failed. We were able to get it pushed started and went to the local starter shop. After installing the new starter we could hear that throw out bearing noise again. I turned off the newly installed c.b. radio to get a better listen and then the noise went away. Turn the radio back on and the noise came back. Turned out that the guy who installed the radio tapped into random wires under the dash. One of those wires was on the starter relay and when you turned on the radio it engage the starter.
The only thing I’ve done is check voltage at the exciter wire which showed zero with my power probe (I know that’s not precise). It would be easy enough to check the solenoid
It may have a cb in it. Most of their stuff does. I’ll have to give that a look.
That's why I asked if that starter had motored. Normally if engaged too long the field case discolors. But there usually is a dead give away when a starter stays engaged the volt/amp meter will peg the negative side. When starting a diesel in cold conditions I watch the volts first then oil pressure.
ahh yes the floofinator valve, or as dear old dad would call it "Ohh that's a good one"
Here’s how my week started. “Hey my head gasket is leaking coolant.” Well here’s why. Me- “ we should probably get the head checked” them- “there’s no time. I need my loader” well guess what. It’s still got a tiny leak where the head bolt was broken. “Oh well, we’ll fix it right next time”
If you don't have time to fix it right the first time then how do you find the time to do it again. It makes you want to tell them that the next time the labor will be tenfold.
A year ago I rebuilt a C7 in a skidder. Cylinder walls on 2 cylinders were scored. I did it but was clear that it didn’t have a warranty. Got a call Friday that it was pushing oil out the dipstick tube. Pulled out the engine Tuesday without seeing it run. Tore it down and found- nothing. The only problems I found were some premature wear on the connecting rod bearings from being run low on oil. Maintenance is not as important to them as it should be. Then I find out afterwards that the newbie operator ran it low on oil, parked it on a hill when he checked it and added 6 gallons. (Holds 7) apparently it pushed oil until it found a happy place. Most expensive oil change it ever had. I billed 28 hours for the job.
It should be expensive to be dumb.
I do some jobs that I’m not proud to put my name on. I give them my honest opinion of how to fix it correctly but in the end it’s up to them and they are paying the bill.
It is.
I guess that I shouldn't judge too much. I have the benefit of living in a state that doesn't any real seasons to speak of. Around here ice is the only thing that will stop progress and we rarely get that. So in retrospect I can see patching something just to make a good season out of it.
This is why we carry Copper kote. Spray both sides of the head gasket whoa baby almost as good as decking the head. Just don't answer the phone if they remember to want to fix it right. Bob
Dumb people are to dumb to realize how expensive it is to be dumb, it's a true vicious cycle lol
Ignorance either costs or hurts... Sometimes both at the same time.
Most often both at same time. Patched machines depended upon to get jobs completed failing at most inopportune moments while defined in the worst conditions and nastiest weather.
How did anything you do contribute to the fire? Unless you are one of those crazy people who self-immolate, I can’t see how it’s your issue. When someone makes unreasonable demands in a negotiation, I respond “How am I supposed to do that?” I then shut up. For 15 minutes if necessary. That forces him to negotiate with himself without you saying a word. And as long as he keeps coming back with unreasonable demands, I repeat.
His argument was that my ass was in the seat so therefore it was my fault. If he was running it the fire never would have happened. Funny thing is I haven’t heard a word from him since I told him it was running. I’m fine with it. If working for free is the cost to never deal with him again I’m okay with that. Good riddance.
I’d like to nominate myself for dumb a** of the day. Put a turbo on this buncher yesterday morning. Had a razor blade scraper to remove the return line gasket. When I picked up my tools I didn’t see it. Operator called me about 10 minutes after I left and told me it was overheating. Weird. I returned to find that the razor blade vibrated just right and fell down on the belt, shredding the belt therefore the water pump wasn’t turning. DOH!!!
Oh shizzle!! Surgeon forgot to count his sponges LOL! A bunch of us run TDI VW's, and one of my friends had a belt failure on his '12 common rail. The serpentine belt shredded just right, and got under the timing belt. Super OUCH! Now I look at serpentine belts differently
WHOOPSIE!! Bet we ALL have screwed up as that at some point.
Could have been much worse than just a belt. That's just typical rushing to get **** done and on to the next job stuff.
Isn't it amazing how if you wanted that razor blade to do that, you never could have arranged that, but thanks to Murphy, it happened just fine.
Do you typically have to disassemble fan blades, or radiator shrouds, or similar in order to replace belts? I'd like to replace mine, but my fan blade is surrounded by plastic shrouds that encase the radiator.
I did some engine work on an old cummins 855. It ran like crap. I'm like *** is going on . So I floored it and out flies a shop rag on fire. OOPS!
It varys with different tractors. But one thing they all have in common is that the hydraulic pump coupler has to be split. That can sometimes be very time consuming. Because some need to have the hydraulic pump moved away from the pump drive.
I work in aerospace industry FOD foreign object debris is taken extremely serious. Space craft or airplanes you cannot have loose objects flying around. I dropped a washer in a 16 layer perforated foil insulating blanket. I spent 4 hours but finally found it. All your tools and hardware must be accounted for before you finish you job.
Sometimes google is the bomb on a belt change. Some guy figured a workaround that took him hours and hours to come up with, and gives it to you. 2 hour job -= 10 minutes. My TDI beetle the alternator is a bumper cover and all sorts of fun, but the googlepath shows how to bend this just right and VIOLA! Out pops the Baby! Heater core on my 2nd gen dodge was like that. No need for a complete dashectomy, roped it back, cut the pipes and out it came. Get the napa heater core with swivel pipes and it went right back.
How's the new truck?
you are absolutely right.
It’s been pretty good. I had to replace some spring pins and bushings, air bags, leveling valves, etc, to get rid of a bunch of rattles and make it sit right but I’m happy with it. Typical used truck stuff.
Had to remove a broken main boom pin today. The first half came out good. The second half- not so much. Actually had to drive the pin the wrong direction and when it hit the hydraulic tank I had to cut it off…with a sawzall. You know how many blades it takes to cut off a 2” pin with a sawzall? 18. Going back Monday to lift up the boom, replace the boom bushings and install a new pin.
Cannot imagine the stress load on that.
We had to cut a 2 1/8" stainless mixer driveshaft in a tank that someone got the prop stuck on a while back. They wouldn't let us torch or grind so I was like what about a sawzall, the plant ok'ed that one, I bet we killed $200 or more worth of those carbide thick metal blades lol
Now that takes dedication on that pin.
Good thing you were able to get it with only 1 cut....
18 blades? Did you bend a bunch of them or just wear out the teeth? I'm sure that was a hardened pin and difficult to cut but I can't help but wonder if your cutting speed was maybe too high or not enough proper cutting fluid to go through that many blades. Maybe the pin was of a material that I have never had any experience with and was super tough. My machining skills are rather limited but I have found that slower is better with a portable bandsaw or sawzall when cutting steels. Heat on the blade must be kept to a minimum so no excessive speeds and no excessive feed force. I've also noted a difference in selection of cutting fluids and ease/speed of cut - not all oils are equal in cutting applications. What about blade quality? Lenox blades are not cheap but they last a long time in comparison to imports. Lots of factors in reciprocating blade wear and lifespan. I'm just thinking out loud here and think that maybe I see a problem that has a solution. I have blades that have cut through several 2"-3" rounds that are still going strong. Good quality blades should last a lot longer than what you experienced on that pin. Of course working in such conditions make it a bear to deal with and maybe lots of bent/wasted blades. I'm just curious to know and always interested in learning more.
Oil, cutting oil and keep blade cool lasts a LONG time.
Helpful if you have a helper to feed oil onto the blade as it cuts. Even more helpful if he can hold the sawzall while you give instruction and feed the oil instead.
Looks to me like a field job and you don't get a lot of options while you are on site. Probably not many wrenches carry it and not many stores are located out in the woods. Looks to me like plenty of perseverance was cheaper than having to pull all kinds of stuff off the machine and it being down for multiple days. Good Job!
I used to thread pipe in the field a lot but partner does that now, but I kept the cutting oil on my truck because I never took it off. Comes in handy for all sorts of things, chiefly drilling things.
I used exactly zero cutting oil. I bent 3 blades and wore out the rest. They were Lenox blades. I ran the sawzall wide open and leaned as hard as I could on it. The sawzall got hot enough that I put a rag between my hand and the tool. I probably did everything wrong according to the book but after spending hours getting it that far I’d had enough messing around. We were in the woods with limited options and to be honest I was just glad that I was able to cut it off. I actually thought the sawzall would barely scratch it. The cost of the blades is nothing compared to the cost of the machine being down. Once I cut it off I pounded the rest of the pin back into the center of the boom because I was afraid I’d need to cut it again. Crude? Absolutely. But when it absolutely positively needs to be fixed in the woods, I do what I gotta do.
How many spare blades do you normally carry and how many were left when done? My fear would be running out of blades before the cut was done.
I had a package with 20 blades in it. That part was just luck. I almost never need a sawzall. I typically keep a bunch of cut off wheels for my grinder but due to fire dangers I couldn’t use anything that would make a spark.
I keep a stash of 12" blades too cause they've gotten us out of a pinch before on the road.
It’s been a minute since I posted anything here. Went over to my buddies this afternoon. He wanted to pressure test his trucks cooling system. He blew a coolant hose yesterday and it’s been pushing coolant from the overflow. Couldn’t find a leak but it built pressure quick after starting and it just pukes coolant if we start it with no cap on.This was less than 2 minutes at 1500 rpm’s. We bypassed the compressor checked the precooler to make sure but no such luck. 500k since the last rebuild on this C15 acert. Looking like it’s time again.
That's the test I did on a few older engines. Worked a lot better than the dye test for compression in the coolant.
I would have used the combustion gas tester but the coolant was pushing so hard I didn’t figure I’d get an accurate read.
When you shut the motor off did the cooling system maintain pressure ? Bob
It did maintain pressure. Did I miss something?
Just a thought from the past. Kinda weird to have a one way compression leak. Some trucks had an air operated heater water control valve that if it leaked it would blow water out of the radiator. Bob
The truck is a 2007 peterbilt 379 so no air operated heater valve. Your post got me thinking. I guess I’ve never paid much attention to the thought of a one way compression leak. Way back when I worked at a truck dealership we would use the pressure tester and if it built pressure quickly we’d rule out the compressor and then off with her head! I did see one time a guy was pushing coolant and had an overhaul done. Continued to push coolant. That’s when someone noticed the weep hole on the water pump was plugged.
Not really directly related to this problem but figure it might help some here. Many years back had a coolant leak getting into the oil of a V16-71 Detroit. Yes I bet everyone says injector tube orings, NOPE! Checked all 16 not a drop. Dropped pan to see if I could spot where on the engine the water was going while putting 15 psi pressure into radiator. Not a sign of a drip. Believe I also had pulled engine oil coolers and tested them with no leaks. Well end of day and they didn't want me to work overtime so I went home for the night. Next morning walk into shop to see a large puddle of coolant. What the heck? Now could see drips coming from under engine near front cover. Like Mike's engine turns out this one had a plugged weep hole and a bad water pump seal that for some reason only leaked when no pressure on it but as soon as you put pressure on the cooling system to look for leaks it stopped leaking!
They swell up when warm and retract when they are cooled off. I helped a young up and coming wrench on one of those this summer.
I guess I may be confused but how would a plugged witness hole put 15 PSI in a cooling system? Bob
I would guess... without any air in the system, a small volume could build pressure quickly. Sorta like a skid steer attachment in the Sun, builds hose pressure to prevent connecting to the machine.
Your kidding right? Bob
I have never had that problem, but actually never had to deal too much with quick connects on hydraulics. I can see that if say you had a cylinder bottomed out and disconnected the couplers on a cold day then came back a day latter in the afternoon with the sun beating down on the cylinder it could build up a good amount of pressure.
That happens when I eat radishes.
Nope ... try it yourself.. Water & oil are essentially incompressible
Apparently you don't understand what a witness hole is Or how a water pump works. Bob
Started tearing into my buddies truck today. A platinum kit for a cat was 8-9 weeks out. A long block was 2-3 days out. Considerable more money but when he’s done he’ll have a nice rig. Now here’s where I’m going to start complaining. All the rockers and vva’s are installed, and marked with a paint marker so they’ve been torqued. I have to swap the injectors from the old engine. So that means I have to remove all rockers and vva housings. ***? Engine also comes without a new oil pump. Why? Nobody in their right mind is reusing an old pump on a brand new engine. We have to swap all the filter housings, oil cooler, thermostat, on and on. Not one single o-ring or gasket included so he’s placed another large order just to get enough parts to continue.
Stopped at a customers farm on the way home to put a shut off solenoid on a case loader. Found this beauty sitting in the shop. I wanted to swap my labor on the loader for it but couldn’t make a deal.
You act like this is an oversight instead of a design
I don’t know why I’m surprised but in my head the engine should come with everything necessary to complete the job even if it’s more money. Common sense is not so common I guess.
Not in the parts department, it's actually strictly forbidden. Lol
Pretty normal on a long block. Years back Engines didn't come with jakes-it was a option. When I worked for a shop in Seattle years ago, it was the distributor for Pacbrake. We would trade out weeks and one of us would go to Kenworth plant and install up to 6 sets of jakes in a night on B model Cats. I know I installed my fair share, or so it seemed. Now it's just standard that jakes come on new engines. Long blocks normally don't include the outer accessories, other wise it would be a complete assembly.
Tied up the engine swap today. It took two of us 35 hours start to finish. Removed engine and transmission, swapped over all parts, new clutch, flywheel turned, new turbos, etc. Of course that had a few extra parts runs included. Truck runs excellent like it should. Test drove it and lo and behold the alternator quit on us. Thinking it maybe got hit with the pressure washer before we started. Now I got a few smaller jobs to do and next Monday I’ll start overhauling a C18 in a Peterson chipper.
How many hours on the C-18? I have heard they only make it about 5 or 6000 hours in a chipper. We work with an outfit that has 3 Morbark chippers, 2 have C-18s and 1 has a k series Cummins. The Cummins was recently overhauled with unknown hours on it, both Cats are approaching 6000. They just bought a brand new complete engine for 60,000 dollars to have a spare on hand for when one goes.
I'd say it probably depends to a large extent on how much fuel has gone through it in those hours. Just a thought. Wouldn't it be cheaper to overhaul the engines before they break.?
If they fail at 5-6,000 hours how about, if down time is a major factor, how about swapping in that new engine at say 4,500 hours and overhaul it for the next 4,500 exchange time? That way they could schedule the work at a convenient time.
That is their plan, the downtime isn't worth the money saved in overhauling the motor. The question is when to swap.
Chipper has 6000 hours on it.
So the core on the c15 got turned in today. They called him and told him if he didn’t return and remove the fuel transfer pump off the front of the engine that they wouldn’t accept the core. 2 freaking bolts!
Well I’m ******* deep in the C18. Dropped a liner, wiped out the head gasket. Dry fit the liners and my protrusion was way off. Had to send the block to New Hampshire as cat had nobody in maine to cut the counter bores. Operator took it down this morning, dropped it off and toured around while it was being done. Guy cutting bores called him and said there were marks on the liners. Apparently when I checked protrusion the washers on the bolts left light marks on the liners and he said they were now not any good. I haven’t seen them yet but new liners and a new spacer plate were ordered. So cat gurus what did I do wrong? Back in my truck days we did a pile of C15 overhauls. I installed the spacer plate gasket and spacer plate, dropped liners in without seals, put 6 short bolts in and torqued down to 300 ft lbs. then I measured protrusion. The only thing I can think of is over torquing the bolts or I needed 2 washers on each bolt to not leave a mark on the liner. My memory isn’t great anymore but this is how I remember setting them up. What say you?
I not a guru but never heard or seen of anyone doing it that way. Bob
In use a piece of 5/8" x 3" flat bar across the top and only torque 100.
If I understand correctly, you torqued the spacer plate to 300 and not something pressing on the liners? Most of the stuff I did was on counterbored blocks and I only did one block with a spacer plate. On the counterbored blocks I used a strong back and only torqued it to hold down the liner at 50 pounds. I have seen the dealer guys use washers but again torqued it to 50 if they used a torque wrench at all. With a cleaned liner and block deck I wouldn't think you would need any more than that. I'm also a little fuzzy about a washer being able to crush a liner ring.
I torqued the spacer plate with bolts and washers which press the edge of the liner and the spacer plate down. The idea is that the torque is spread across the spacer plate and liner somewhat equally. The 300 ft lb torque was to be equal to head bolt torque.
How do you do it?
I don't torque to full spec and if I put washers on the liners I use L9's with the rounded edge down to satisfy my OCD.
I actually used the Fiber Washers CAT Specifies in the assembly manual under conventional flats to set the liners prior to height check.
If it's a Series 60-I use a depth mic and check each counter bore in four areas and record, then I measure each liner flange, mark it and install in the counter bore that it would fit best.
Well I finished the c18. Runs good. Hopefully they get more than 3000 hrs out of it like the last time. Apparently this chipper has 6000 hrs on it and this is the second rebuild. Today I replaced the head rotate bearing on an 822c. Never done one before but it’s pretty straightforward.
As Cats C series do not recess the liners in the deck they call it Liner Projection
They use the spacer to create a phony above deck counter bore. One time I did find two spacer shims stuck together in the gasket set, stuck together when stamped-add an extra .009 and you have a leaker.
That must have been a Friday gasket set, qc clocked out a half day lol.
My question about the two shims in one gasket set-When did cat start giving away parts.
I wouldn't say too much more about it, a follow up invoice may arrive.
They wouldn't get paid.
Had an interesting job today. Cat 525c with a C7. No heat in cab. One of the 2 blower motors didn’t work and needed thermostats. Operator also said he had a radiator leak. Both t-stats were stuck open. Replaced them, started the engine and almost immediately you could see coolant coming from the radiator area. Looking closer it was a straight stream of coolant coming from the overflow. Shut it down and cap had a pile of pressure. Well obviously we’ve got some compression being pushed into the coolant. They needed the machine so I opted to try running it without t-stats. Pulled off the top radiator hose without draining it and it was still pushing bubbles. Took out the t-stats and it stopped pushing coolant out the overflow. I’ll tear into it next week.
That resembles a 7-11 Slurpee.
You are taking a big chance running that engine without the regulators installed. Bet the bubbles was air bleeding from heater. If you over fill that radiator it will dump coolant shortly after start up. The service book calls to replace regulators at 2000 hours or 2 years. Bob
What's the difference between stuck wide open and no regulators.
Not sure of the C7 cooling system but there are some systems that if the regulators are out the coolant can circulate through the engine via the by-pass pipe and not go to the radiator. Guess it depends on the configuration of the T-stat housing and the type T-stat. I know on some of the Cat engines I worked on the by-pass pipe was almost as big as the return pipe to the radiator.
Interesting. Learned something new on HEF. Imagine that! Even without regulators I’ve still got an issue pushing coolant immediately after startup. Machine has almost 25k hrs and I’m not sure of the history but they get run hard and not maintained like they should. Should be back at the shop on Tuesday and off with her head to have a look see.
Some Cummins engines run the bypass thermostat as well. It is not just a plate and spring that opens up when the temperature hits a certain point. There is a rod and another plate that physically routes coolant between the radiator and the block.
No kidding.
Always a good idea to give the water pipes a quick once over, if it looks a little hinky I won't run one with out a stat or stats.
It is a 525C wheeled skidder. No air compressor.
Just for fun tighten all the hose clamps up and start it again. Bob
will that take care of the engine pushing coolant or just get rid of the bubbles from the picture?
Most radiators will take 30 psi before it splits.
Changed a track drive motor seal and welded up a broken link today while we wait for a new set of chains. Tried out my new umbrella from pipeliners cloud today. Pretty nice.
https://www.farms.com/service-truck-magazine/2022/jan-feb/#16 Got a little press this month. Page 16-17. HEF also got some attention right in the front page.
I'm interested in learning more about making dry ice. What is that tool? And where do you get one?
Nice write up!
Next time a little armor all on the tires. Very nice set up.
There was a lengthy discussion a while back about making dry ice. A Google search for a Dry Ice Maker will reveal a lot of gizmos for making it.
Nice write-up about you Mike ! Congratulations. That tool heater you created is quite ingenious !
Simplest tool is a pillow case and a CO2 extinguisher. Discharge the extinguisher into the pillow case... and you'll have dry ice. There are specific rigs to do this but the principle is the same. Expanding gas absorbs heat, When there's no more heat, dry ice forms. This might be useful in the woods, but dry ice is less than two bucks a pound locally. I didn't find dry ice to be great with a bushing I did. Starting was a help but still had to drive it home.
I agree. Regarding the networking article. To me (and possibly everyone else in this world who doesn't use it) I think it's a shame that everyone quoted in the article was of the "I use Facebook to network" mentaility.......
Congratulations on the positive publicity. I'm impressed by the article and photos on you and your business plus the magazine as well. I'll look into subscribing.
I can’t remember where I saw it. Maybe Instagram? I’ve been trying to find the picture of it so I can duplicate
Thanks!
Thanks for all the kind words. John, service truck magazine has a free subscription I believe. Nige, I spent a very short time on Facebook. I deleted it because it’s just not my thing but there are dozens and dozens of mechanic and repair groups. Tons of info but I despise seeing the vast majority of the population opening up Facebook as soon as they stop whatever they’re doing just to find out that Suzy is having a sad day and bob had a turkey sandwich for lunch. Tinkerer, I actually didn’t build the body heater, the truck came with it. It’s an option on most service bodies these days. The biggest problem I have is that it warms everything up during the day and then when it cools everything is covered in condensation and turns anything that isn’t chrome into rust.
Couldn't agree more Mike. Deleted my FB account over a year ago, never looked back and don't miss a thing.
It's said that you cannot miss what you never had, but I sure as **** don't miss Facebook........... Exactly the reason why I never bothered.
Dropped my own FB account well beyond two years now.
I use Facebook to support my hobbies. It’s a valuable way to connect with fellow hobby enthusiasts to problem solve and share info.
Good for you.
My daughter showed me how her Facebook worked when she first got on it years ago. I remember seeing some chick that had posted a pic of herself just getting out of the shower ( and stated "getting out of the shower" with her pic) and was in a towel wrapped around her. The first response to her post was from some stranger I guess......it said, "You misspelled ocean." I immediately knew it wasn't my cup of tea.
Article is a thumbs up. Only have Facebook for marketplace. Haven't seen many good repair groups on it but haven't looked much either.
Here’s something interesting. I was asked to look at a Hyundai forklift with a kubota engine. I was told it had been severely overheated several times and was pushing coolant out the exhaust. I don’t normally work on anything like this but it’s my largest customer so I agreed. They wanted the head removed so I did so without looking to much at it. Didn’t find anything wrong with the head gasket and machine shop couldn’t find a crack in the head. Noticed that I did have oil in the coolant. Reassembled engine with a new oil cooler. Noticed the oil filter was painted the same color as the engine. Hmmm. Changed engine oil and got it running. 6620 hrs on machine and I performed the first oil change! Within 2 hours it was filling the base with coolant. Removed engine and pulled oil pan. Whatever the coating is that kubota put on the inside of the pan had come loose and got sucked up into the pickup tube. This doesn’t explain the coolant getting into the base ( I believe we’ve got a crack in the block somewhere) but this definitely a first for me. Customer wanted to replace the pickup tube and put it back in to see what happens. I finally convinced him that between the lack of an oil change, plugged up tube, and mixing of coolant and oil that it’s time to just buy a reman.
Real odd-Carrier refrigeration units are powered by Kubota. We've had over 500 Kubota powered Carriers in the last 20 years. None of those ever had a valve cover off some with 20,000 plus hrs. Out of those only two had injector pump issues. Never had one with internal engine issues.
I take care of a lot of generators with Kubota, same story. Although I do take the valve covers off every 5,000 to do a clearance adjustment, there is seldom much to adjust in there though. I have seen a couple with thousands on the factory fill but never 6,000. Oil will rival a Detroit when it gets that old, blacken every crevice in your knuckle for weeks.
Our refer units are serviced under Kubota's prescribed 1000 hr intervals. I can't really say none have had the valve cover off. I checked five or six engines-valve lash was in spec at 8,000 hrs. I've talked to Carrier mechanics about valve adjustments-it was don't worry about it.
Yeah, I would not worry about it either, but it is nice to look inside there once in a while to see how things are going. But I take care of individual customers whose generator is a big chunk to them also.
When those engines don't start which is very seldom, it's never engine related. Always starter circuit related. A big chunk to us is a frozen load that went hot. $50 to $70.000 worth. Only two in 19 years, that's why we run Carrier units. Plus all have live data with gps trackers, so we get a alarm list on the first fail to start.
If only they could just make truck engines that work like that.
I've replaced a few overheated botas. The little ones don't take kindly to overheat. Nice thing is you can always find a motor to scavenge, skids, light towers, zero turns lol
That Kubota engine has 6600 hours with never an oil change and looks like that inside? Looks brand new from here. Joe H
It’s spring break up here or as we refer to it- mud season. This is the year of the skidder for me. First pic is the front axle out of a CAT 525D. It’s been banging for a while. So long that it started breaking off fittings for the axle lock. Ended up replacing the whole center section. The next pic is putting a rear axle back in a 525C. I put a wheel seal in the front and the rear of this skidder. Also put new bushings in the front axle oscillation.We sent the boom out for line boring and I also need to split it to replace the center pins. Once this one is gone another 525C is coming in with a front axle also breaking fittings off. Not much in the way of preventative maintenance here.
Just a bunch of little stuff on this log yard crane. Weather is getting nice but the mud was still ankle deep.
How can you stand yourself making all that income off no maintenance dopes like that!!!! Actually pretty ugly failures.
Double hit
That shop fix looks much nicer than that yard fix. Are all log yards required to be mudholes? Or is it just the ones that I've been to?
Any I have ever visited were stinky mud holes(rotting bark and organics).
Log yards are like stock yards. All that stink is the smell of money!
Log yards have two conditions. Slop hole or dust bowl. Nothing in between
I take care of 3 log yards. I was in one the other day where I had to lock in the rear end and almost didn’t make it in. The Volvo loader was dragging the counterweights in places but they all pay good and quickly!
$10 for a 2x4 at HD & Lowes, they can afford it. Joe H
The mill yards are also like the stock yards in that the biggest share of profits made from the process are taken at the back end. Middle men and retailers probably get more money out than the logger and mill.
So I got a chance to get back and look at the kubota engine out of the forklift. I capped off the upper and lower coolant hose ports and put shop air into the heater hose port. Immediately I heard air leaking. I thought it was coming up around the pushrods but on close inspection I found a pin hole in the frost plug. Back when I originally removed the head, we sent it to a machine shop to be checked for cracks. How exactly do they check? It seems like they should have found this?
Likely inspected Dry, Magnaflux and then Okie Dokie sent back.
He told me on the phone that he had pressure checked it with no leaks and I should look elsewhere for my problem. Did he just half ass it or could he have pressure checked it some other way?
The way I was told they pressure check things like this is to get some complicated rig that plugs off all the deck holes and other holes with rubber faced metal plates clamped down. Then pressure with air, and soap check. So if they were soap checking the deck face and looking for the usual cracking areas, they may have missed a freeze plug. That's what I hope anyway.
I have used this machine shop a fair amount and have never had trouble. I can see how it would be easy to miss. Even I have made a mistake a time or two. But don’t tell anyone!
The shops where I have worked at that did engine rebuilding all had one of those engine head test rigs. Even if they sent heads out for machining, they didn't trust the machine shops. When I was working on engines, I always had new plugs installed anyway.
IMO if you use them regularly you should follow up and let them know what you found, especially as they had pronounced it "leak free" when they tested it. If they are anything like a professional outfit they ought not to get bent out of shape by feedback, positive or negative.
My take after working automotive machine for six years, years ago. There are universal block and cylinder head fixtures/block off plates that cover several applications, but only so many. For instance Cummins has fixtures for block/cylinder head testing plus there is after market machine shop tool suppliers. Problem is some of those fixtures are damned expensive, if it's a mid level shop they are more than likely going to invest in tools for the most common engines that cross there shop. Big shops like B & G Seattle who invest $500,000 in a CNC Rottler that performs a line bore, cuts counter bores in one fell swoop in one hour, will have all the PT equipment needed for testing heads and blocks. And by the way B & G is one of only a few that has the ability to micro polish cylinder decks on Cat 3412 and up for a perfect seal on gasket mating surfaces.
I agree! Take the bad plug to them and show it to them. I would wonder if maybe when they tested for leaks there was a gob of something plugging the hole. I know finding the leak screwed up the project but if you don't give them a hard time on it they might give you a break on the next job you send them.
Feed back is what improves a shop and it's staff. There is such a thing as " Blinded by Experience..." Person testing the head likely never had a leak at the freeze plug and was only looking at the usual spots. There's even a Harvard research paper on the phenomena. https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/19052348/16-015.pdf?sequence=1
So I tried to take your advice and let the machine shop know about the frost plug. The machinist has moved on to another job and nobody seemed to care. Oh well. On another note, was talking with a customer of mine today. A guy who I have a not so good history with had gotten into the independent mechanic game. He saw one of my customer’s last week and asked who was doing his work. Customer said I was. Mechanic asked my rate, customer told him, and mechanic tried to undercut me by $50/hr to steal him away. Customer replied “ no, I think I’m all set” I haven’t stopped smiling all day!
And these guys will be the first casualties when the world tilts sideways. He's probably hurting for work, and to try and steal customers is a chickensh!t move on his part. Make sure that customer gets a little *extra* if you can. Great customers like that are a treasure.
I’m very fortunate to have good customers. I have 2-3 who keep me busy and a handful of others who fill in the rest of my time. I try to always remember the guys who got me going and to return the favor. One hand washes the other.
If there is any one that uses alot of plugs i have 3 or 4 five gallon buckets full. A buddy bought some drawer units that were full of them.
That's awesome, anyone who would try to undercut another mechanic..that he knows he is your customer, says it all. He probably will not be independent for long! What I have found is its all about your reputation and your relationship with your customers. I am also blessed with great loyal customers. Thanks for sharing.
Well I haven’t added much to this thread lately but I’ve been plenty busy. Seems like I’ve had a run of fuel suction leaks. Latest one is on a timberpro tl725b. Fuel tank is in the carbody and runs through the rotary manifold to the engine. 2 lift pumps, 3 fuel filters, etc. a real treat. Stalls intermittently like once a week yada yada. Long story but the rotary manifold leaks hydraulic and we’re starting to suspect that’s where we’re sucking air. Seems like for every job I complete I get 3 more added to the list. I know I should never complain about having enough work but it’s becoming overwhelming. I’ve stopped taking new customers because I can’t keep up with what I already have. How do you guys handle the overload? Anyway, enough rambling.
Was always Feast to Famine for me, get all caught up once in awhile and sit awaiting phone to ring. Economic hits would burst then fall back then nearly stop altogether then as time wore on Back to living on Coffee Smokes and Candybars, no time for anything else.
Check the tank for floaters those machines have that intermittent fuel blockage problem. Bob
We did that. I removed the screen from the pickup line in the tank. 99.9% clean. So it has an electric lift pump in the trunk of the carbody with the first filter. Then it pushes fuel through the rotary into the next filter. Then it goes through miles of lines in typical cummins fashion and through the 3rd filter and into the high pressure pump. The first filter always stays full. The second and sometimes third will be empty. Weird thing is that when it stalls I crack the bleeder on the second filter head and the electric lift pump will fill it up immediately and then I can bleed air out of the top of the high pressure pump and boom we’re running again.
I'm in the same boat, I can't take on any new customers or work. 1 job at the customers site, turns into 3 jobs. It screws up all the scheduling I had planned out. It's a great problem to have! I have just been up front with potential new customers, and let them know im 1 month or better on being able to maybe get to them. I answer every call or atleast call them back. People appreciate that, that way they can plan accordingly. I also tell them, I will touch base with them if something falls through or if I have to wait extended time on parts. Most people understand, some will wait or move on. Your only one person, and there's only so many hours in a day! Good luck and be safe out there!
From the sounds of it your air leak is between the first and second filter.
Before if i had alot to do i would work more hours than i should until i got a point were it wasnt so overwhelming. It wasnt good for my health but it worked. The worst thing about mechanic work for me was parts. I cant amagine having a service truck and being on my own i dont have the nerve for it any more. I would find the problem maybe tear it apart then order the parts and figure out if i should tear something else down. I have slowed down on so scrap hauling but i went and looked at a cleanup job and may look at another this week end. If i got a bigger trailer i could make the scrap go faster but its going to cost me.
Scheduling??? I gave up on scheduling months ago. I'm just a firefighter now. A few years ago I came up with the mantra "One call wrecks it all!!" Weds night got a call around 5pm. Mack dump truck w/ MP8 engine blew a fan belt. Went and looked at it..........still smoking hot. Belt ripped the wires out of the ELECTRIC FAN CLUTCH (those smart engineers at work again). Called local Mack dealer.........no fan clutch........NO FAN BELTS!! Seems they are being bought by Ballard truck at the END OF JULY...maybe. This deal has been going on for 2 years now. So they aren't ordering or replenishing stock.......just ordering as they need it. Called Ballard, yup, they got em. In Mass.........close at 7pm. The guy across the street (big spread and acreage) had come over to see what was going on, offered us a beer, and a place to park the truck. Took him up on the latter, declined the former (no beer). Dropped driver off at shop, the owner (freind and customer for years and years now) was busy with little league (he's got 2 boys HEAVY into sports). Off I went with 6mpg parts chaser. Got belts, clutch, etc.........got home 9pm. 0600 up and out the door, threw the belt on, went to shop, picked up driver, brought him back to truck for him to drive to shop. NOW in Macks infinite wisdom, they decided to do 4 updates on this fine electric clutch. This variation needs a completely different bracket for the eeeee lectric clutch. Spent an hour trying to figure out how the wires were supposed to be supported with the old bracket........got one of the other trucks to swing into the shop to look at 1.) how the wiring should go 2.) what the bracket should look like (other one got fold, bent, and mutilated......she needed some tin work and straightening). Called Mack...........oh yea, there is a TBI. Email it please. First email didn't come through. Called again........different guy.....he looks it up (more pain). Email it please........I'll wait on the phone with you until it arrives. It shows up..........do you have these parts??? NO!!! Back to MA I go. So from 0600 to 1900 I got a fan clustch done, fan and AC belt put on, AND I got a fan belt on another truck. I look back at days like that and wonder what the hell is wrong with me??? I only got that done?? ALL DAY?? REALLY?? I do keep the my buddy appraised.........he gets it. He's worked side by side with me into the wee hours of the morning getting crap done.........or try to get stuff done. I have a customer that has a dozer that needs to have the sprockets changed. We might be going on a month now since I got the sprockets in. I don't have time. My wife forbids me (well.......emergencies are ok......I guess) from working weekends now. She has work for me HERE!!LOL No............no new customers. Thankfully, like you; my existing customers understand. If their down, I come running. Scheduled services will be done when time allows. I'm also a commercial diver. Tomorrow I have 2 moorings to move. I've cut back a ton on that as well. Used to be hot and heavy spring, summer, and fall fixing equipment, popping props off, the occassional welding job or cutting a cable out of a prop. Feast or famine...............
One of my deals is i am a Hour and half from a city all most 40 minutes from any parts. So even the close parts were half a day trip for me then i spent hours on the phone trying to find stuff. One of the last deals i did this was when i was working by the hour at a company was find a new seat for a truck. I had a good 4hours phone time and trying to find one time. How does a guy charge for that?
Part of it is Time Management Doug, if the time involved is a burden then the objective is not a value to the client. Older machines are obsolescing so fast, scrappers are dumping what you or I would consider cash cows as Scrap Values hit highs for them, watched in disbelief as a local HD Truck yard EMPTIED in five days all hauled to scrap as made them good money quickly that they needed to survive with, they are now back to refilling the yard with newer stuff but if no demand will scrap all those as well. Have a few older guys ask my opinions on OLD worn slick and tired machines they just feel cannot part with, IHC Grain Trucks, GM Grain and small dump Trucks as to from where to get parts as cannot find decent pieces. All boils down to what are willing to deal with to keep something as original as bought or do not wish to replace even as ALL machines will eventually die out to the scrappers claw.
Time is money................my biggest bane is looking up and sourcing parts. The Mack with the fan belt that destroyed the clutch. I was sitting in the office at the desk (this is a shop that is 'unmanned' during the day, everyone is out working.........the adminastrative office is at the owners fathers house in the basement........admin assistant there 4 days a week). So the owner stopped by real quick to grab something and he walked in........."Taking a break?? Milking the job??" (He said this jokingly...........he and I have always joked with each other that "We need a parts looker upper....." as we both sit working our phones or laptop trying to source parts). I was waiting on the email from the dealer for the parts bracket.........because I guess they got my email wrong the first time. In January..........truck need cups and injectors...........extended crank when it was hot. Owner decided he wanted to send the truck to the dealer to have it done. Said I had bigger fish to fry on the heavier equipment. Dealer said it would take a day to do. I scheduled the appointment. When I scheduled the appointment I asked specifcally if they had the kits in stock and price. They had 4 kits on the shelf. They were booking 4 weeks out for work. The day of the service appointment was the first day of Febuary vacation for the schools. I was going skiing with the family. I finished up some stuff for him on Saturday. Sent text reminding him of appointment on Monday...........went skiing. Monday morning after coming home I get a text.......'How was skiing?? You still up in Maine??"...........I replied "Skiing was great!! Wish I was still there"..........the phone rang 2 seconds later. The dealer took the truck apart, pulled the cups, but didn't have a cup and injector kit in stock...........and there were none to be had. They found the cups but then couldn't source the injectors. I picked up the injectors, brought them to injector shop an hour away (their swamped with work too) to be tested.......then went home and spent 2 days working the phone and internet sourcing the injectors FOR THE DEALER. We just need to remember..........our time is valuable............if we spent 4 hours on the phone and internet sourcing parts..........thats time away from our family's and our other endeavors. I charge for that time. Whether its sitting at home at the desk or sitting in the cab of the truck with the laptop looking up parts........same same. Its billable hours. Most of my customers don't want me running for parts..............I get that. Most of the times I can get away with having someone else go. Instructions are..........Call me when you get there...........Take a picture of the parts and send it to me............Do not leave until we verify the parts are correct. A few times that has proved priceless..........."Nope, not the right parts........those are wrong". And sometimes I insist on getting the parts myself. When I explain that I need to look at something, or there are a few options.......only one is right, is cheaper for you to pay me to sit and wait if the parts are wrong while your guy (or girl) goes back to get the right parts?? Doesn't seem right, but it is right........you need to charge for your time.......there can be alot of time spent looking for parts. The difference between you and the dealer is you care (at least I do......and I'm sure we all care).
I look at time as risk. If I'm on the road on your behalf, I'm at risk of something happening to me while I'm trying to help you. I have to pay extra for insurance to cover my risk of being on the road so I'm billing you for that risk. Let's say you hire a lawyer to solve a problem for you and they have to dig through lots of law books for background to try to help you. It's the same issue when looking for parts or studying a service manual and I'm going to bill you for that time.
I don't spend a lot of time looking for parts, I have a good dealer parts man that does that. It's his job not mine. It's same as the boss wanting me to change out a refrigerator in a truck sleeper. {No hell no-I'm a mechanic not a maytag repairmen, But I will install it for the same price the dealer will charge-because I have to work in a filthy sleeper.
Your very lucky i could have saved a bunch of time and got more work done.I did get parts form one place that had one very good parts guy and 2 others that were pretty good but they were way over worked and had more than they could handle. The older guy retired and they didnt replace him realy over loading every one else.
Real nice to only work on one type and brand of machine that allows that.
Actually, I work on several different brands. We own Peterbilt's, Kenworth's and Freightliners, trailers Utility, Vanguard, Great Dane. Carrier and Thermo King. And not a damn one is the same. Running a shop-requires more time spent on the floor and less on the phone. The other is find the correct parts vendors and stay with them, the bigger the account the parts counter has a tendency of taking care of those accounts.
Most of us don't have that luxury. A huge percentage of the jobs in my lifetime are the first and last times I've had to do them. You also have the luxury of an employer who allows you to set up and use your own suppliers. I do jobs where the customer keeps whining about price then wants me to call around. I say sure, it's your money until you pay me for my time.
I only have five outlets for parts and two for tires. There not my parts suppliers, the companies. I constantly keep an eye on expenses, it's not my money his money it's part of the job. As far as whining goes this boss whines like all others and even better than most. Last year he took a week long trip to Florida to the National Business Owners Whining Convention. He came back with a whole new bag of things to whine about, and received the award for Top National Whiner .
...............but when I do, I only look up the finest parts in world!!" The Most Interesting Parts Man in the World Sorry..........couldn't resist
Good one, but I'm not a parts man nor was I hired to be one.
NO........not implying that. Its just what popped into my head when I read that first line. The synapses were firing........... Pictured the Most Interesting Man in the World with dinner jacket and ascot smoking a cigar..........I don't often look parts up, but when I do...........LOL
I am stealing this. Just need to figure out how to photoshop a different face onto it
Todays project. Cat 924h. Transmission leak that can’t be seen with a mirror or a boroscope. All that is seen is a drip and a puddle overnight. Step#1. Remove cab. Step#2 replace a boss o-ring on a loose fitting that couldn’t be reached with the cab intact. Step#3 put it back together. Good times I tell ya!
Not sure about the little guys but the bigger loaders were notorious for losing an o ring between trans and torque housings. Recommend to pull eng trans together then split on ground but if you are creative enough you can get trans out by itself. Have probably done a dozen of them so far. Same deal though. 40 hrs labor for $6 parts
And people think trucks are bad to work on.
Trucks are just repetitive. Big iron is always interesting.
Not this day and age, you can't find two trucks built back to back built the same!
It's all in the option list.
I can't believe Cat would build something that bad, where you need to take the cab off to work on hoses, pipes and fittings! As bad as a JCB wheel loader, where you have to take the cab off to replace hyd pumps!! I owned a Bedford forward control truck once, and the cab was fixed (non-tilting), and it was the worst ever truck to work on - particularly replacing something like a radiator. Then one day, I was talking to an old mechanic, and he told me he did his apprenticeship on Bedford trucks. When I complained about the lack of accessibility to the engine and radiator, he said.... "You know there's only 4 bolts holding the cab on, don't you? - and all the wiring has block connector plugs for cab removal? - and the steering column is easily unbolted? You simply undo the 4 cab bolts, unclip all the wiring plugs, unbolt the steering column fabric coupler, unhook the heater hoses, disconnect the accelerator, unscrew the gearknob and take off the gearshift boot - wind the door windows down - place a long length of timber through the door window openings (with a telephone book each end for door frame protection) - hook 2 slings, one each end over the length of timber, and lift the cab right off! It takes all of 20 mins to do that, and you have unfettered access to everything under the cab!!" I said to him, "Thanks Joe, it sure would have been nice to know all that, 3 years ago!!"
didn't know that either OZ, I worked on TK and KM Bedford many years ago,used to remove passenger seat,cut an access hole and replace the water pump. Don't know where I would find telephone books nowadays lol
We had Beford KMs as service trucks on the opencast coal mines many years back. I never worked on them but it was a regular sight to see one in the workshop with the cab off, so I can only assume that more than one fitter on our job sites knew "the trick" of making space to work on anything in & around the engine area.
One of my customers has a 930M loader. One of the loader functions stopped working. The wiring harness for the loader functions runs between the pivot point of the frame. A hydraulic hose was put in the way of wiring harness. Like a bending a paperclip back and forth..........a bunch of those 16-18ga wires broke. The wires are sheethed in a 1 wire hydruaulic hose. A couple hours to find where the problem was. Gingerly split the hose with cut off wheel, splice wires back together. Oooohh, and the wire were broken inside the insulator sheeth. Needed to do pull test on each wire........about 24 wires in there. CAT wanted $4k for a new wiring harness, which was a week out............and this was in the middle of a snow storm. I've spliced it 3 times so far. Always in the middle of a snow storm...........not nice and sunny and warm. So this past winter I ordered a new wiring harness............just told the owner "We're buying one." (He's good like that............doesn't fight back when I put my foot down) Had CAT email me the instructions to put it in................STEP 1) REMOVE THE CAB I emailled those over to the owner............he called me and said "Are they kidding?? Remove the cab to put a wiring harness in??!!" They want the cab removed so you can drill and tap 2 blind holes on top of the pivot point on the frame..............I welded a couple of studs. And the bolts are to hold a piece of sheet metal bracket for the new wiring harness. MIKE L...........my heart goes out to you!!LOL Remove cab, replace O ring, put the cab back on................how hard can it be?? See.........easy, peazy!! (heavy on the sarcasm)
Whats a telephone book?? LOL (direct quote from my 15 year old daughter) Remember when the telephone book was your only source for finding a distributor of parts and supplies. Paper catalogs were gold. Hey, I need to run to the pay phone and hunt down this thing............who's got change?? I need quarters, nickels and dimes. The 10' cord on the handset was awesome because it reached ALL THE WAY ACROSS THE ROOM............but was most likely tangled in knots and needed to be untwirled to get the knots out!! Try explaining that to the kids..............no you tube (Just you tube it!! It will show ya), no google, no finding the distributor across the country, finding their website, and see their stock and offerings...........Back when the MEN were men!!LOL
Yeah but when the distributor has a couple of 8s and a 0 in their phone number you wind up calling someone else because it would take too long to dial.
Speed dial was when you forced the rotary phone back to start so you could dial the next digit quicker. Push button was a luzury because it cost more on the bill to have push button instead of rotary dial!! Am I showing my age?? I still want to be that indestructable kid who can do anything, anytime, anywhere.....work all day, party all night, then try to work the next day........without repercussions to mind and body.
I always kept my ash tray full of change and always cleaned up shaved before a trip in case i had to hitch hike. If the truck was realy sketchy i would make sure i stopped to eat or had exrtra food with me its alot easyer to dream up a fix along the high way if your not starving.
Bringing back memories..........LOL. People see a hitchhiker now, they jump on their cell phone and call the cops........much easier to rat someone out who just needs a ride with a cell phone than stop and give them a ride.
Years ago hitchhikers walked with their back to traffic and their left thumb out. They were walking with a purpose to show they were going to get there one way or the other, if you gave one a ride that was fine and if he had to walk that was fine too. Nowadays they sit in a wide, shady spot and do not move a muscle until someone picks them up.
I remember the good old days of hitchhiking. I had a '66 mustang and I picked up one college student at one exit, then spotted two more and put all the backpacks in the trunk and hauled 3 young guys to Central Washington state college. They did not know each other when we started out but they did when we got there. It was about 2 miles out of my way to drop them at the dorm. I had a kayak that lived on top of the Datsun pickup for the month of July. I'd drive up the Yakima Canyon to the top and put in, float the river, and then hitchhike back to the truck. I did not wait at all for a ride in those days. That same attitude carries over to the folks at the boat landing who watched my kayak while I went for the truck.
Have not had a need to hitchhike since the late 70s, let my ride get a little too far down a bad track of maintenance and it laid down. Raining, nasty day but had rain coat, was within a few blocks where needed to go to get help and a car Stopped, said thanks and left them go on, figured was my penance for the day to walk wet.
In 1980, me and another guy had to fly to Juneau, Alaska on a Sunday just before the 4th of July on Friday to do warranty work on an H90 Hough logger. Flew out to the logging camp on Monday and got right to work. The transmission oil looked like that aluminum colored anti seize so we figured that either the transmission or the torque converter had a bearing or something missing. There was no way to remove the transmission with the cab on and there was nothing that could be used to remove the cab. Removed the seat, floor mat and then cut a hole in the floor above the trans. Made an eye bolt with a grade 8 bolt and a hard washer. Removed the window frames on both sides of the cab and strung a chain over the top of the cab and found a come along in the shop. Had the gear box on the floor in a few hours. My partner went though the box while I removed and went through the converter. Found the issue in the converter where a spacer was missing. Dumped out cans of flat washers for something close, used a chain saw file to get the hole size right and then back together it all went. Rubber mat hid the hole in the floor. Machine was running Wednesday night and we were on a plane on Thursday morning before the 4th on Friday. Back then the Alaska flights served wine free and all those loggers coming home for the 4th made for a little bit of a wild ride. Not sure who was tougher, the loggers or the flight attendants.
Had to drop the transmission out of a H400 years back. We were lucky because the quarry where our shop was located had several 3 foot blocks of concrete they used to keep stock piles separated. So all we had to do was line up some of them by the back ramp to the shop wide enough for the tires to sit on. Tow dead loader out on the blocks and using truck crane lowered transmission on to a steel plate laying it down on it side so it would slide out the back of the machine. Kind of looked like it was getting help giving birth! Reverse to get back in once rebuilt!
That brought back memories .. 40 years ago, I bought this dialer out of pocket. It's been in a closet the last 35 years since office phones had speed dialing built in. Just dug it from the recycle bin for this photo. I still like the dialer better. Each number has a button. And each contractor or supplier had a name beside the button. It saved lots of time & effort back then. Today, there's no place to hook it to. No house phone anymore, just cell phones with voice dialing. Technology marches on ... for better or worse.
Believe it or not, we still have a Hardwire Phone, have a OLD Princess Handset phone we use in power failures when the Cell crap does not work either.
I used to work as a mechanic for an electric utility before I retired. I was often sent to out of the way places to fix broken trucks and machinery. One day I had to make a trip to Masset on the island of Haida Gwaii to repair damaged hydraulic lines on a digger derrick. I made the 90 mile drive to Prince Rupert and loaded my gear and tools and oil on a De Havilland Beaver then made the flight to Haida Gwaii. It took a couple hours to replace the steel lines and top up the hydraulic system. I had a couple hours to kill before my flight home so I walked around and explored the town. I was walking back to the seaplane base and I decided to sit down on the "Hitchhiking Bench" to rest for a few minutes. A red car went by then stopped and turned around and then turned around again and stopped right in front of me. The window rolled down and this gorgeous woman asked me "Do you need a ride I'm going to Port Clements?". I told her no I'm waiting for the sea plane to take me home. She looked very disappointed. I can't imagine anywhere else in Canada where a woman would feel safe picking up a male hitchhiker.
We have a copper wired landline too. 911 calls ............if we ever need too and power outages..........like the fire extinguisher and smoke alarm.....just in case. My daughter has a rotary dial princess phone in her room she found in the house. She thinks its quite the novelity. Shows all her friends when they are over. AND explains how it works.......I get a kick out that. You have to spin the dial??? To dial???!!!! They are/were 'upgrading' the lines to fiber optic. Problem is, you need to have a fiber converter, that takes a battery, and needs to be charged, so its plugged into an AC outlet in your house. Guy in a pickup showed up one day w/ Granite State telephone on the side to inform me it was happening.........Nope, don't want it.......all set.......thanks. A month later, bucket truck in the driveway stringing fiber to the house. Told the guy.......I realize your only doing what the work ticket says............but I've told them I don't want fiber, leave my copper line, and don't touch the house please. It's hanging on the last pole on the property before the house. Remember when they were running out of phone numbers and needed to add area codes because everyone had a house phone, phone number for their modem, and a phone number for their fax machine??? Phone companies never saw the cell phones taking over!!
My copper line has some kind of midpoint conversion to fiber not far from the house. When the power goes out, it only stays up for about a day. After that we are pretty well isolated. About 50% of the time the phone co brings a genset to keep the fiber converter going, but the other 50% they don't seem to bother. Ah, progress.
The old days-A pocket full of quarters looking for a empty booth in a bank of phones along one wall at a truck stop. Clip board with paper and pen, all the pages had been ripped out of the phone books just the jacket hanging there. A call or two to dispatch and a raft of calls to shippers. Restaurant booths with phones everywhere you looked in a truck stop there were phones. Now days a driver looks like a cyborg with the phone crud stuck to his head. And more wrecks as a result.
I've got a Wilson cell signal booster in my work truck, pickup truck, on the house, and at the camp in Maine. Got into them working in Boston when we had Nextels (RIP). For some odd reason, you go to certain spots in Boston........no nextel signal. Put that in my truck...........BOOM........strong signal (no idea why crap signal in the middle of the city........and it seemed only on the jobsites). I'd come out and find a bunch of guys hanging around the cab of my truck with there phones up against their ears............bye, I'm leaving.........wait, let me finish my call!! Was out on a job..........no service on the phone........needed to download software for ECM. Put cellphone on tip of boom of crane. Straight up 30 ft..........picked up signal, was able to download pretty well.....I was dubious about whether it would work. Figured I might be shinnying up the boom to get the phone to connect to the computer............I was honestly shocked and pleasantly suprised.
The Mob in Boston was jamming the signal to keep construction sites busy.
I have Wilson boosters as well but it is the kind you shove the phone in. Does not help anyone else in the area. It is very important to have a plan that allows you to connect your laptop once in a while. It has saved my bacon a time or two to be able to download something in the field.
I honestly forget which boosters I have. On the work truck, I have antenna mounted outside the cab, the box is behind the passengers seat, and the inside antenna is stuck to the overhead by the sun visor. I like them, they work pretty good in my opinion. The one up at the camp has been changed out a few times. Had a 1x repeater, then 3g came along.......I upgraded, 4g came along.......upgraded, etc. I have the antenna mounted up a 100' pine tree. Needed that when I first put the antenna up there 20 years ago?? Now......you walk up the logging road 200ft and you've got 4 bars of 4g..........walk back into the camp........1 bar 4g or 3g. The metal roof MIGHT have something to do with it. Turn repeater/booster on.......5 bars. Antenna has been taken out a few times by lightning........fun times putting tree spikes on, toolbelt on hip, and off we go to change antenna. The crane idea was just an inspirational epithany..........in the woods, everything out........crap road to drive on. Shot in the dark and it worked. Would love to have seen how many bar signal I had. Didn't care.......it worked, and I was out!!
I screwed up this summer because of fiber optics. The farm is on a road that is about 2 miles long and we are the only people living on it there is 1 other house but its falling down been over 20 years scents any one lived there. I was moving stuff around in the drive and parked my IH winch truck out on the road in the grass just like i had done for over 20 years. When i got done and was going to move it back in the drive i thought i would drive it to the old house and turn around and come back just like i have done for over 20 years. The poles were standing up almost all the way but i had made the trip with them up hundreds of times with out a problem and had been very care full to make sure every thing was ok checking once in a while to make sure nothing had changed and every time i checked i thought i was good and i didnt realy need to check. I headed up the road almost to the old house when all of the sudden i was almost thrown out of the seat the truck did a nose dive on its left front corner and felt like it was going over it spun out right duals were in the air spinning before i could clutch it. My first thought was i had left the winch in gear and buckled the frame in half i had a heavy load shift one time and the frame bent behind the cab sending the cab to the ground on anther truck but i looked at the winch controls and it wasnt in gear. My next thought was power line but i looked out the window and i was way past the pole. I looked up at the trucks poles and yes i had hooked a line. I thought what should i do . I wasnt going to jump out of the cab after looking i was along ways from were the lines crossed at a 45 to the road maybe i could back up but the duals in the air just spun i put on the brakes and got enough power to the other tires it backed up and was on the ground agin but i was hooked buy then i realised it wasnt the power lines it was the cable to put the fiber on and i was over 20 feet from the power lines they had ran it to the dead end of the line and not put the fiber on it. I finly let the poles down and got unhooked . I needed to call the power company and tell them what i did so the line could be pulled back up but couldnt find my phone i went to the house called and wondered what i would need to do to make this right i had screwed up was going to take the blame for it also i needed to call a truck that was coming to get something so he wouldnt maybe get in to the line but he had come in the other way and was already there. After i got the truck loaded i went back up the road and the line was back up i never heard anything about it.
I wonder what height they put the wire at, is my first thought. I know for a fact they don't pay attention to height restrictions in peoples driveways..........at least at my house they don't. Had the cable company come back and move the cable higher..............that was a fight. First couple of calls to ask them to move it higher, ignored. Disconnected the wire from house (unscrewed) and then called for an outage...........they came right away..........funny that. Nice that you escaped unscathed!!
I hooked a telephone wire in a driveway once, too low. Called phone co and they came and put it back at exactly the same height.
Telephone lines around here have been allowed to sag A LOT, most road crossings went to Underground a long time ago where once clear came back up and reattached to existing overhead, guess was cheaper. Bruss Cutters for Power company came thru, seemingly ignoring the phone lines of separate poles, a couple trees got hacked and died that later fell on phone lines broke pole insulators, significant damage. NOBODY is taking responsibility, so a group of neighbors has started class action for those that lost phone and internet service, talk is a replacement of all the overhead to underground will commence this year and phone service is paying for some customers to receive a lower value dish internet for time being. We are not affected.
We have phone lines sagging onto the ground in many places. The brush cutters just skip any place where a line is hanging low enough that they could touch a car roof. When a storm hits and trees fall, it might take more that a week for the phone company to show up after the power company has already fixed the power lines. It's probably a big reason so many have jumped to cell phones for their houses.
I was digging up gas station contamination on Rainier Ave on the first Light rail project, and in that first day I saw a dump truck come through the intersection and take down the traffic signal with a raised box, a truck burned up across the street, and then a 40 yard end dump pulled off Rainier to get turned around, and he hooked the traffic signal interconnect cable for SDOT. It was a big fat cable like a cable TV main. He hooked it, then grabbed another gear and pulled down the OTHER traffic light pole in the same intersection. This was on the corner I was working on. In retrospect I should have gone home that area was jinxed. None of these were my trucks.
Around here any low hanging or high hanging pole wires on the edges of town don't last long. There's a certain crop duster that sees to that. Truly has been known on several occasions come in for a reload dragging wire.
HOLY CRAP!!! That guy is leading a charmed life!! Rabbits foot in each pocket?? 4 leaf clovers around his neck?? WOW!!! Ughh........puck factor 15
To his credit he has crashed three planes.
Wow...........and walked away unscathed?? So my last accident...........a year ago?? ..........after decades of no accidents or tickets. Backing the 'Nickel and Dime Express' (2001 F250 w/ wooden flatbed and just rusting out...........but, damn.......starts everytime, so simple to work on, realiable)...........looking in the mirror to see where the dog was (knowing full well she'd get out of the way and really didn't have to worry)............I swear I just touched the right rear corner of my wifes 2018 expedition. Tail light came popping off, the frigg'in aluminum foil they make the quarter panels out of crumpled and split. The wooden bed just touched it right where the tail light meets the quarter panel. Just moving the truck in the driveway.............New LED tail light $1200, quarter panel was $4-5k...........something obscene. The Nickel and Dime Express is registered to the company...........I submitted a claim. Embarrassing..........humbling............boy, was my wife pissed!!!LOL And the dog just wanted to go for a ride and was oblivous to the whole ordeal!!
Well I wouldn't say unscathed, he has scar tissue from burns. Nice guy just fly's a little goofy. My shop is located at the airport on the east end approach, so I see a lot of things.
Pictures...........must.........get...........pictures!!LOL
I have camera, but it only takes photos of antique trucks. If aimed at other objects it stops working.
I bet it was high enough my poles are tall i cant remember how long they are. I went outside and measured poles are 16' and were they are hooked on the truck its almost 4'to the ground but they i dont evey stand them strait up but maybe more than a 45 degrees. They are not standing up right now I would stand them back up but i have the carb off cleaning it. I wish i could get by with shorter poles but alot of times 2 more feet would be great. I fear that when i get in my nineties i will jump in it and try to drive to town with the poles up.
I bet it works just fine on scantily clad good looking women!!! Just a guess........ Scantlily clad good looking women in antique trucks I know it would work!!!
I'm too tired and that's too much trouble at 66.
See........your camera works just fine!!!
What truck
Shouldn't your occupation now read 'Retired'??
Maybe Not
Sooooo close.............yet, so far..............Juuuuusssstttt a bit outside!!
I don't know about that expression she's wearing. Looks like she's thinking of biting someone. I had that truck I think, 55 Ford? Mine was orange but not that orange. Joe H
What Truck May be retired, Aint Dead, YET!
That's high maintenance, besides I already had a Elvira look-a-like, that was enough and still got her to some extent.
He needs to buy a lottery ticket!! Lol
By sound of it, that luck has passed by!!
Two were just fender benders.
BTW Old gold Pickup appears Dodge, expanse of door open and squareness of cab to rounded door.
you were always looking at the truck.
I am in agreement with TS, HIGH Maintenance, sweet to look at but not enough wallet to feed that Zoo. What Truck
Not enough patience for it. No way I could come home from work and have to deal with something like that every day.
Man oh man it was a Monday! First stop was a lumber mill with an old Michigan loader that has a problem with the bucket lifting. Pumps were growly so I pulled the return filter. Bingo. I’ve seen this on Volvos before. Filter comes unglued and goes through the pump. Pump is obsolete. Customer chose to replace the filter and run it. You know, just in case it self heals. Good enough. Adios. Back in the truck. 100 miles later at another lumber mill. Prentice crane had the stabilizer bar on the rotary manifold fall off and twist up some hoses. Removed the broken bolts, fixed the hoses, and head for the house. KABOOM! Peel off a rear tire. Should’ve seen the cars behind me. Shuckin and jivin all over the place! Limp it to the tire shop 15 miles away and replace 2 rear tires. Thought I’d be helpful and pick up the rear of my truck with the stabilizers so they didn’t have to jack it up. Blew a hose on my truck and sprayed oil all over their shop. 2 tires mounted and it’s time to go home. 12.5 hours later and I didn’t profit one penny after tires, hose, and fuel. Just another day in paradise!
Can't put a like on that type of day. Takes someone special to go to work the next day after that.
It’s frustrating but I try not to let it bother me much. It’s going to happen from time to time. I run the winter deep tread pattern on the rear for traction in the woods and this one only had 7k miles on it. The inside tires always wear funny on my service trucks so I opted to replace them as a pair and keep the other one for a spare which reminds me I need to finish the spare tire rack.
That resembled my morning, and both our names are Mike. I think I'll be Ralph tomorrow.
They misspelled goodyear on that tire.
Sorry about your misfortune. Goodride ? Lol. Sum Ding Wong with that tire. These chinaman tire brands and names are getting out of hand. As for me, I like my LingLong trailer tires. Linglong last long time.
What size do those come in?
My kind of day. Got sanding done, that was good, then went to hell in a hurry. Brought up bank account as do nearly every Monday(Paranoid), several auto draws left and without my Input from my Retirement account. Supposed to Deposit 15th of month somehow got delayed so overdraft but bank knows it is coming. So off to second bank in Washington MO, where we put Savings (Better interest and AWAY from us so do not tap) move enough to cover next auto draws and head to Wally World for wife needs (Shopping), get done headed home she notes a wild expense on Receipt $146 for a loaf of bread. Had appointment so get stuff out of car, load her old UNUSED Treadmill and Skin up RT RR Corner of car in process, $1000 deductible so will be ALL Ours. Deliver to her friend and head to Wally world, manager pulls up register camera, at time of receipt and yes, a loaf of bread NOT on the receipt was scanned, as a Electric Impact Wrench, Credited to account and back home. Loss of three or so gallons of gas and probably $1k in body work for her Free Giveaway.
Life in the fast lane.
the dump truck has ironman steers on it. At least they are fresh-ish.
The Les Schwab store in Juneau installed a set of China double coin 11r 22.5 trailer tires on the steer axle of one of my tankers. Terminal Manager was oblivious. Couple months passed before I noticed the discrepancy. I laughed, then gave Schwab an ear full.
Been hot for Maine this week. Into the 90s and humid. Been getting my moneys worth out of the umbrella I got from pipeliners cloud and my Milwaukee M18 fan. Well worth the $.
I honestly love those late nights with lights going and in the middle of nowhere. No phones ringing or operators standing over your shoulder. Just me and a machine. Peaceful...
And all the peckerwoods in the white pickups have gone home. Bob
I suppose the late nights wouldn't have been so bad if I hadn't already worked a long day and was two hundred miles from home and the weather wasn't so hot/cold, rainy/snowy and the wind blowing 35 to 50 and crap falling out of the trees till the whole tree came down.
No different that being out in the elements all day long. I generally get started later in the morning than most but will work well into the night when I'm alone. Other than a machine down my customers appreciate the fact that they can run all day and let me come in in the afternoon to get things done. There is also a lot less of a chance of a certain govt agency showing up in the evening to a mine site
Those PipelinersCloud umbrellas are slick. Have not ran across those. Thanks for sharing, Mike. Think I need the tailgater model.
I love those Pipeliner umbrella's!! You should watch the video on their website. Shows a gale blowing through where their working, camera pans to a guy holding onta a patio umbrella thats folded over and inside out for dear life, pans back to a truck with the pipeliner umbrella..........good video. I have not purchased as of yet...............that's on the list. I have one of our old patio umbrellas since it seems the wGife insists on getting a new one every year. My buddy and I have been discussing those the past couple of weeks. I think I'm going to bite the bullet with him and buy one. The 24" electric fan has been running alot too!! Umbrella on craine, fan on the hook!! Amazing what that breeze does to tkeep you cool. I'm REALLY thinking about mounting a 55G barrel of water in the back and setting up mister on the fan...............now that would be kick ass!!! We northerners are too adept at dealing with the heat.........better at the cold, snow, and ice............me thinks.................Right Mike??!! PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT!!!! NO MATTER HOW TEMPTING IT MAY BE................DON'T USE YOUR SMART PHONE AS A WHEEL CHOCK!! Doesn't end well for the phone. I had left my phone on the front right tire of a dump truck on Thursday. Forgot about it............needed to roll the truck back a few feet. Didn't even start it.......just release the brakes and rolled it back. SQUISH!!! Inititially I thought it would be great......no phone calls, no texts.........needed to look up hose number for a skid steer..........no hot spot for laptop. Couldn't call out to get to parts dept. Then started thinking about it......all the texts and pics I had on there, all the apps I need to recover. So the old phone was a Galaxy S10+ w/ 1 TB of memory and an SD card slot. Biggest phone you can get from Verizon is on 512GB..................and that's the top of line $1400 phone. The new phones don't have SD card slots anymore. Looking on Verizon online w/ my account............if I traded in a working phone.......my Galaxy S10+......Verizon would give me $89 for it towards a new phone. The insurance company charged me $249 dedutible for my replacement S10+ that Verizon says is only worth $89 towards a $1400 phone. New S10+ showed up yesterday.............SD card and old phone at the Phone ER. Have to get it Monday and stuff the SD card in. That is a life saver right there.....SD card.
Came in from yard work to sit in front of AC, cool down, drink another gallon of ice water, and re read my post I wrote at noon...............DAMN!!! I made a ton of misspellings and grammatical errors!! I'll be blaming the HEAT and HUMIDITY on that!! I told ya...........I don't do well with the heat. Spent Friday working in the cab of a 972H. You know its HOT when you get out of the cab and it seems so mucher cooler outside that you get goose bumps on your skin........when, in fact; the outside air temp was 90+F. Now...........changing into swim suit and going for a swim in the pool with the dogs. Black fur coat, no perspiration other than panting?? Hmmm, maybe we don't have it so bad??? LOL
Just busted outside air temp of 102 here. Just out picking up trash blowing across yard, rough to breath.
Really does any of that matter, I've yet to find a perfect human.
You have never met me hahaha
So hard to be humble...........I'm doing the best that I can............LOL Just added that to my favorites on my playlist!! Thank you for broadening my musical experiences!!
Looks like you'll catch a break on Monday..............79F and showers...........Bundle up out there!! Hypothermia is a killer!!
My wife loves when I play this song lol.
Bahahaha...literally laughed out loud!
I will just be glad is below 90!!
Finally got the duetz finished for the manlift. Installed it this morning. Now before I tell the rest of my story I’ll tell you the failure. It is an oil cooled 4 cylinder engine. Head gasket failed and was dumping oil into the exhaust. I drained it as best I could before starting it. It didn’t turn over 3 times before it fired… and went right to wide open oh s*** high rpm’s. Hit the E-stop. Nope. It ain’t happening. Unplugged the shut off solenoid. No. Now this old girl is screaming and burning out all the oil in the muffler. Rolling coal! I’m hiding behind my truck wait for the block to ventilate. a guy that stopped by backs his truck up so the connecting rod doesn’t clean out his grill when it comes loose. It is glorious. And horrifying. Now we’re 2+ minutes in. And she’s just roaring. This old girl doesn’t have an ounce of quit in her. I’ve got to do something. Finally I grab my extended handle cutting pliers (because the extra 3” handle will keep me safe ) and cut the fuel line. It takes another 30 seconds to run itself out of fuel. All told it probably ran 3 minutes at I’m guessing 2500 rpm’s. Somehow when I put on the shut off solenoid I forced the rack as far open as it would go. Corrected my mistake and started it back up. Purred like a kitten. How long will it last? Who knows but in a manlift it’s either at low idle or maybe 1500 rpm’s. I screwed up. It could have been much worse. I’m telling on myself because even though HEF believes I’m perfect and I’ll admit that I’m close to perfect but not quite there. Yet.
That's ok it happens to the best, just don't show us a photo of your shorts.
Just another day in paradise!!
Nicely written story. I’m glad to read the happy ending.
I've seen duetz in old light towers keep running forever after some pretty heavy abuse.
Nice job Mike!!! Thank you for sharing. Takes a BIG man to share his misfortunes with his peers. Loud engine running away..........try one thing, that doesn't work.........Holy Crap!! Now what do I do!!...........How were your hands at the end of it?? A little tremor going through them?? I can relate.........been there a few times........not fun. But, to your credit; you kept your brain engine going and engaged!! Thank you again for sharing.
Has always been a place to situate a crescent hammer or Rigid hammer in my tools kits to knock off a fuel fitting on tge old runaway driptroits, might become handy here too!
Hands were steady. Stomach not so much. Honestly at one point we were just waiting for it to explode. When it didn’t I figured I had to do something and that was my chance to save it. If you don’t screw up once in a while you’re either not doing much or are just a good liar.
The mantra on the tug was "Tugboating!! It's a contact sport!! 99% shear boredom, 1% SHEAR TERROR!!" (Ocean going boat.......didn't stick to the rivers and streams) After we got through one of those HOLY CRAP!! DID THAT JUST HAPPEN?? moments we used stick our hands out and compare who had the biggest tremor or not.LOL After reading your post, that's what I thought of of..........Stick your hand out, lets see!!LOL
We don't need no stinking umbrella!!LOL My umbrella........
Well I’ve got an update. Wife and I flew to Texas over the weekend. As many of you know we’ve been working towards moving there for a while now. We met with a realtor who showed us several homes. We made an offer on a place outside of Lufkin which is the logging capital of Texas and the offer was accepted! Now the work begins. Got a home to sell in maine plus figure out the move, and then I’ve got to promote my business in Texas. Willmake for a busy and interesting few months.
Isn't that where all the tape measures are made?
Not sure. I know there are several wood mills in the area
Congrats! You'll be close enough to the Gulf to enjoy fresh seafood and low country bayou cooking - some fine BBQ as well. Real BBQ not somebody grilling in their backyard.
Good for you Mike L. Change is never a bad thing. At least its not Dallas. And just incase you need prepared, here's last weeks weather- highs of 97,99,97,100,100, and 100. Just so you know....
Thank you! We’re pretty excited. We lived in uvalde for 2 years when I worked in the oilfield. We liked it but it wasn’t the perfect fit. We’ve toured around Texas a couple times looking for a place that filled our needs and it looks like we found it.
Funny thing is that it was the same temp in maine this weekend as it was in Lufkin, Texas. I’m no stranger to the heat but I’m pretty tired of the cold.
The added benefit is the humidity matches the temps as well!
Dealing with that here, 95 outside, with humidity feels like 103, currently 84%. Almost need a spoon to get Air thinned enough to breathe.
DM we've been in the high 90's with the humidity only trailing the temp by a few digits. According to the forecast we're going to cool off somewhat next week but will have rain.
Mike, Good for you!!! Sorry to hear your leaving Maine. I bet your customers are gonna be alot sadder when you tell them. I'd say drag some 40-60kw gensets down with you. Keep one for yourself and sell of the others. From what I've read about the Texas electric grid, it doesn't sound like its in good shape. Ya know............I was going offer for you to borrow my track press, but since your bailing out now............well!!!LOL DMiller.............the humidity is STUPID here too!! Was thinking the same thing just now when I was messing with the truck. Air so think you can cut it............and this is after T storms!! T shirt just STUCK to your skin, sweat dripping all over the glasses.........and that's just standing still!! The poor dog has her tongue dragging on the ground while she's walking around with a black fur coat on that she can't take off!!
I’m not looking forward to the humidity. Hope to land there by late fall, early winter so I can acclimate to the summers again. It took me a while to get used to the heat last time we were here. I just have to remember to move slow, drink plenty of water, and use my umbrella and fan as much as possible.
You can still loan me the track press, it’ll just be harder to return!
Where were you born and raised?? Maine?? Friday......working on a loader...........in shorts + T shirt.......sweat sticking to me, dust and dirt sticking to my skin, glasses covered in sweat and dust. Thoughts running through my head..............one more month until September!!! In the winter I can always layer up or take clothes off............crap like this?? People get upset when you peel off your T shirt and shorts when that's all you've got left to take off. I'll take winter, thank you. This heat is freaking reee dic u lous!!
Right now the humidity is 10% here.
SEND IT HERE PLEASE!!!
I was born here and spent most of my life here. I used to love winter but about 3 years ago my body just said “nope. No more.” My wife doesn’t like the cold either. So a couple years ago we started looking around for an area that fit our needs and wants. We narrowed it down to east Texas and started looking at homes. Now here we are. Something that seemed to take forever is now rolling like a freight train. It’s gonna be an interesting few months
Well humidity today is 58% and tomorrow they are calling for 79% here! Hoping to get a short ride in on bikes this morning only 20% chance of rain till mid afternoon!
Your moving South and my wife and I keep kicking around moving up to Maine when we end up being empty nesters. She was born and raised in the house we live in, her sister lives out behind us. Between our property and her sisters, we have 50 acres. My wife and I own 20+, which is really nice. NO NEIGHBORS close by..............and those we do we have, are awesome!! So when push comes to shove.............I really doubt she's going to want to move.LOL I'll just have to have my MAN CAMP put together my way up there. Air thick w/ humidity this morning.............ick!! Today is going to be light duty day for me...........I decided. Going out to a couple of fire stations and just poke. I can't walk into a fire station without finding at least half a dozen things that need attention............meanwhile, they just drive em like they stole em. Ignorance is bliss. And this just in................the AC in a 336 isn't cold enough. End of last week it was "It will be fine, don't worry about it." The machine is an hour away now. Last week it was 20 minutes away. Soooo...........if your going to be pairing down your tools to make the move easier...........well, keep me in mind please. Do you take 3rd party out of state checks???LOL
Well the house is going to happen. Inspection is good, financing is good, and we is good. My home will be on the market this week and we will head south once it sells. Spent the day trying to get ahead on anything the home inspector will find when we have a buyer. 2 trips to the dump, one trip to goodwill, and one trip to holmz depot today.
NICE JOB MIKE!!! Best of luck with the move. We finally got NICE COOL WEATHER instead of sweating it out!!! I think it was Weds night, AC's running in upstairs and down.........came out to light the grill and it was cooler and (what seemed) drier outside than it was inside. Ran inside, shut the AC's down, threw the windows open, turned the fans on!!! I was so HAPPY!! 66F as I type.............so nice!!!
https://c.tenor.com/dmCAjCfp6wkAAAAd/here-we-go-bye.gif Mike with service truck heading SOUTH!! (i wanted to post the GIF I found..........just not smart enough for that)
That's great news Mike. Hope your home sells quickly. The worst 5 months of my life was owning two houses at the same time, but I'm a worrier. Going to get all your stuff in a couple U haul's? I moved to missouri in a pair of the single axle trucks, but I think I'll leave in a small pine box, because nothing else will hold all my stuff. They can disburse it all here.
Mike when I sell a house I usually leave a couple big problems for the home inspector to find. It gets them all excited and they don't seem to look as hard for stupid stuff after that. If you don't leave something they keep looking until they find some thing. Good luck with the sale.
Don’t know exactly how we’re moving yet. One option is to rent a big u-haul truck and have my dad drive it and then fly him home. Option 2 is that a trucker buddy hauls it down in his 53’ reefer and then he finds a backhaul to Maine. Oarwhat that’s a pretty good idea. I’m just hoping he doesn’t find anything too expensive. I’m no bob vila! On a side note when I was a kid my dad worked construction and we moved a fair amount. I see your from buffalo and when I was 6-7 we lived on grand island for a year. Not too far away.
Sitting on my boat looking at Grand Island as we speak. Don't take everything the home inspector says as the truth. I proven them wrong many times. Just because a furnace is old doesn't mean it has a cracked heat exchanger. I've had two try that. Had a HVAC guy inspect them for a service call instead of replacement. Good luck with the sale.
This home inspector stuff always seemed a bit out of place to me. All that I've met came from places other than the building industries, there are no laws governing them in this state, there is no qualifying agency, no tests of product knowledge and no recourse when one of them is wrong about something that can cost the seller dearly. The contracts I've seen have hold harmless agreements that make suing them impossible. Yet every lending institution now requires one of these incompetents to pass judgement on the assets of another. It's a worse situation than a residential appraiser who has to be licensed, cannot dodge liability, has to carry professional insurance and who is prohibited from hold harmless agreements. Go figure?
Best wishes with the move, appreciate your help. How are you going to break the news to your customers?
I was just on another thread about PVC conduit turning brown in the sun, the HI types were making stuff up about wires overheating and arcing, while some of the couplings on the same run of conduit looked good as new, but they just don't have the experience to know that sun might destroy PVC like that.
Word spreads like wildfire so yesterday morning I hit it head on and rode around letting them know what my plan was and that I’d still be around until my current home sells. Some of them I dreaded telling because I also consider them friends but everyone took it well. If I were in their shoes I’d want as much notice as possible.
Sometimes when you are a nice guy and give notice, they know they won't need you anymore and don't pay invoices.
Hopefully that’s not the case. What I told them was that I was leaving once my home sold. What they heard was I’m leaving very soon so bury me in work.
My customers do the same when they or I go on vacation. "Can you get this, this, and this done before you leave or do this, this, and this before I get back"
So back in June I got a letter from my liability insurance underwriter regarding NON RENEWAL. Reason: NO MARKET AVAILABLE. I called me insurance agent the next day. He assured me he was on it. Fast forward to yesterday.........called insurance agent and asked what the disposition was........Uhhhhh......haven't found a carrier yet (I think he forgot). My policy expires on Sunday 8/21. ***!!! Now I had been calling my insurance agent back in July and filled out additional insurance forms to find another carrier. I had also called a few other insurance agents and came up with ZERO. My problem (this is my belief) is that I also service fire trucks as well as heavy equipment. Nobody wants (or it seems) that liability. So today has been spent at home, on the phone, making calls, replying to email for additional info. I am soooo pissed off right now its not funny!! I had talked to this particular insurance company (its the owner I'm dealing with) and asked him about replacement value instead of salvage value for the service trucks...........he didn't know what I was talking about............I should have started digging right then and there. Anyway..........my day. Going on vaca next week so no work...........I'm sure I'll be hunting for insurance while on vaca. The joys of being your own boss!! IT'S GREAT!!
I don't know how your state laws are concerning the recovery of insurance claims but all that I know of use what is called "Actual Cash Value" and the policy will define that. It usually means cost new less depreciation. The other method of valuing a loss is "Market Value" or what it would cost to replace your asset with "like kind, quality and quantity." In my state the law prescribes the procedure. Find a comparable vehicle offered for sale within a 25 mile radius and make adjustments for measurable differences. There is no provision anywhere that I know of for using an agreed value policy in a commercial insurance policy. Agreed value policies are usually done for high end collectible cars and has many limitations attached in the policy. Type of storage and its location and number miles driven are the big issues on those policies. All this is a pain so most of us just figure a wreck will be a write off and only get a large liability policy with an umbrella on top. Good Luck!
Thanks John, I appreciate the info. Replacement value is cost of new truck, minus depreciation for years in service and mileage. Actual cash value is cost paid for truck, minus depreciation for years and in service and mileage. Then we can get into market value, salveage value, and however else they want to try and save their money that you've paid in. So instead of getting a check for $55k (what I paid for the truck) minus the 5 years and 160k miles, the insurance company would base it off a new 2023 Peterbilt with Maintainer body and then depreciate it from there. Less ouch but higher premiums. Never have had a claim in the 15 years I've been doing this. Frustrating!!
Here in Buffalo,NY it's almost impossible to get snowplowing insurance. No companys want to write it. The premiums guys are paying are incredible. Too many slip and falls getting paid huge payouts.
So customers of a business slip and fall and then sue the snow removal company for "poor performance"? I was always under the impression those events were covered under the property owners insurance. Guess the property insurers have decided its easier to go after the maintance guys. What's going to happen when nobody will push snow any more?
It may be time to visit a lawyer instead. Have Monkey, LLC (or other legal entity) become your employer. You still own the truck, but lease it to Monkey, LLC. You sell all your tools to the LLC on a note. You are now an employee of a company with few assets. Any profits at the end of the year are paid to the owners of the LLC. An awful lot of big firms do it that way. Is it legal? If done correctly. Is it ethical? As far as I'm concerned its not great but if it keeps you in business providing clients honest services its good.
I guess I'm confused, are you having troubles just insuring your truck, or is this your insurance as a business covering your general liability? If you haven't been a LLC or S or C corp, I can see you having trouble getting insurance. You need to do what terex herder suggests, incorporate. Its going to be more paperwork, but it will limit your personal liability.
Here in wonderful New York State everyone gets sued. Contractor, property owner, Renter of property and anyone else they can think of. Judges used to dismiss the case if contractor could show they were onsite plowing or had salted. Now I've heard from a few fellow contractors the judge says that's not good enough. This person got hurt and it's YOUR fault. So insurance companies have to pay out big bucks.
Here in Washington State there is mandatory state insurance for employees. When employees are covered by the State L&I they give up their right to sue for on the job injury. We don't get a lot of snow plowing on the west side of the state because it just rains 98% of time in the populated areas. I know on the east side where there sometimes is a lot of snow, the issue is damage to cars parked in the streets.
I have heard about the snow plowing insurance dilemma from some of my customers. The insurance is exorbanent. The plow rates for the towns are miniscule. If you have a state route, you need to have your truck set up and ready to go at the state shed in October or November. They pay out a monthly stipend, but the snow storms are dwindling so your not getting the $125-150/hr consistently anymore. On top of that, the corrosion from the salt, you need to have GPS and a monitor for the salt spreading you put down..........these are provided by the state and they put it in.........still a pain in the ass. Then you can be out for days on end. Always fun!! I have a few customers who run plow trucks...........always used ex state trucks that they picked up for a bahgin!! So I'm an LLC.............if I hire myself out to be an employee, then slip and fall while climbing up into the back of the truck, I could call Dewey, Screwem, and Howe and sue the company for millions??!!! Man...........why didn't I think of this before!!! GENIUS!!!LOL
Yes, but you have to throw your boss under the bus to do it. Ok if you don't like your boss much, but thats a subject for a different level of help than is found on HEF.
I disagree. It would be very entertaining to help him if that’s the level of insanity he’s on.
Same here it's the shotgun lawsuit approach sue every company with an insurance policy involved and collet a little from all of them. I think the insurance companies don't mind it much as they can spread liability around. As far as the LLC discussion goes no way in hell I would operate a business that wasn't at least an LLC for liability protection. LLC's are pass through entities as far as taxation goes so nothing changes for an individual.
I’ve been chasing a stalling issue on a timberpro Feller buncher most of the summer now. Started out running itself out of fuel once a day and we chased it and tried a bunch of stuff, the last being a new high pressure fuel pump. Now it still stalls but doesn’t run out of fuel. He’s been getting some can bus and voltage codes that pop up and go away without storing the codes and it bogs down several times before stalling. It will fire right back up but will continue to bog unless he lets it sit for 10 minutes or so. Then it will fire up and run fine. Damndest thing I’ve ever seen. Anyway, I remembered a couple summers ago we chased a charging issue and found a broken 100 amp mega fuse in an electrical panel. Just for ***** and giggles I looked in the panel today. Found another mega fuse that powers the cab. And I could wig it. Removed it and split off the plastic case and found this. Could this be my issue? Could it be that simple?
Yep could be. Especially if fuel pump in trunk run off of that fuse. If fuel pump in trunk doesn’t run will have bogging issues
I would bet money on it. A heavy equipment mechanic neighbor of mine is always telling me how sensitive JD grounds are. Caused me a lot of issues with a bad ground and low power on a 4045 until it was remedied. I could see that fuse there getting hot and moving just enough to cause a voltage drop, especially with all of the vibration in these forestry machines.
Get a high-powered magnifying glass and look at the broken ends of the fuse. If you see evidence of arcing, then you know it was broken when carrying current. Clean break... As you in broke it when opening the case ... But from the photo... there's a bit of black and discoloration on the ends...
I don’t know if you’ve followed along with this thread but the fuel pump in the trunk has been an issue off and on for a while
I was thinking the same thing. Almost acting like an automatic breaker
Good luck on both sale and move Mike L, should be quite the adventure to come.
I think you found it Mike!!! Nice find!! Intermittent electrical issues are SO MUCH FUN!!! It's funny how some customers get it and are understanding............and other customers expect you to have the answer to their problem before you show up!! And, boy; does it get frustrating when you think you've nailed the problem and then get the phone call......"It's doing it again!!!". I carry a headlight with me so I can throw that onto the circuit in question for a load. To many times the multimeter lies to me........13V open circuit, throw a load on it and goes down to little to nothing. Sometimes the boss is ok, other times he's an idiot...........LOL. (I reference myself since I am my boss) I'm sure we've all had that internal conversation with ourselves.........."You idiot!! Why the hell did you go and do that?? Why didn't you do it the other way?? Man, you are stupid!!! And I decided to become a mechanic because .............??" LOL
Monkey, if you don’t already have one check out the electronic specialties load pro. It’s a set of leads for your meter that allows you to load the circuit to check voltage drop. That and my power probe are my go to tools for electrical issues.
Operator texted me and said he went from 9 am yesterday to 3 pm today without stalling. And then it stalled. I’m going back tomorrow to seek what that fuse looks like. Maybe I’ve got a wire grounding out and cooking that fuse.
If you have an amp probe check that fuse wire and see how many amps it's pulling. Is the bottom transfer pump on that circuit? Bad Bob
I’ve got an amp clamp. I’m not sure if the bottom lift pump is on the same circuit.
Oh my!!! New toys/tools!! ORDERED!!! I've got the power probe, the extension cord for the power probe, and the wire tracer that came with it. I don't really like the reciever that came with the power probe. And the amp clamp for the fluke mutlimeter along with a generous amount of extra leads for the multi meter (I made those myself........ordered 100ft of red and black silicone lead and put my own ends on them........ohmed out for verification of quality connections). I hadn't heard about the load pro.............THANK YOU MIKE!! LOL.......LOVE YOUR TOILET PAPER!! I think it would be too much Ouch for me!!LOL I carry a roll in a ziplock bag...........part of the Oh **** kit!! 3 MRE's, case of water, flares, fire extinguishers scattered through out truck, and my 1st in bag for a first aid kit.......plus a whole bunch of other stuff. I'm supposed to be on vacation this week. Went out monday morning for a no start/ no run excavator...........batteries were junk, one of the cases was split too. "Hey, while your there can you do a quick service on the machine??" Long story short...........didn't get home until 3pm......started at 7am. Walk in the door and figured everybody would chafing at the bit to get underway. My wife says to me she made the executive decision that we weren't going. Supposed to rain all week up North. I was fine with that..........stay cation and work around the house. Did a dive job today pulling a prop. Tomorrow I'll dive into the wood boiler and start getting that squared away for winter............and the kid starts school on Monday!! Man.........summer is gone!!
Load Pro home page: https://www.esitest.com/180.html Load pro YouTube video demo: Just in case anyone else is interested.......... Thanks again for sharing this, Mike!! I appreciate it. I know a few of my buddies will be interested as well...........buh-bye headlight!!
It won't let me edit the above page......... So the load pro #180 is for 12V systems. They have another one, the #185 that is rated 12-48V's. https://www.esitest.com/185.html I just modified my order for the 185. Not sure if the 180 would go 'poof' or not on a 24V system. Mike...........is this the one you have?? The 185?? Answers from Amazon: This is in reference to the model #180............so I guess the 180 does 24v DC as well. Question: Does it work for 24v systems like heavy equipment? Answer: Yes. On a 12V system the load is approx. .5A. On a 24V system the load is approx. 1A. Both loads are sufficient to expose excessive resistance.....it's ohms law, the voltage will drop. By Steve White Manufacturer on December 19, 2018 I wouldn’t think so it would not put a big enough load on a 24v circuit By keith on December 16, 2018 Yes By rick delaura on December 17, 2018 Yes it does. By William on December 17, 2018 yes it does By Randy Gould on December 16, 2018 Yes it does. By William on December 17, 2018 yes it does By Randy Gould on December 16, 2018 Collapse all answers
Let me preface this post with...........I'm not spamming, selling, or promoting this product. Just sharing the info I received with you guys. When Mike asked if I had ever used one of these or had one.......I said NO. Never heard of the beast. Now, looking at the product, looking at YouTube videos.......its one of those................"MAN!! WHERE HAS THIS BEEN!!" I could have been using this instead of juggling a headlight!! I just spent some time on the phone with Jason at Electronic Specialities. He's very well informed and a pleasure to speak with........guess he does all their tech support. So the difference between the 185 and the 180 is the resistor inside the unit. The 180: designed for up to 28.5V dc has a 25 Ohm resistor that puts a .5A load on the circuit @12 V The 185: designed for up to 50V dc has a 50 Ohm resistor that puts a .25A load on the circuit @ 12 V I asked if he had seen many returns on the 180 due to them being used on 24 V systems............he said no. Said they seem to work just as well on the 24V systems as the 185. The reason they developed the 185 was people requesting those who are in the HVAC field.......that was his guess, since they have alot of those in the HVAC field. I asked about using back probe pins with the Load Pro. They have banana plug adapters that screw onto the end of the tips. Those are item # 180-5. They also have a kit with the different adapters and the 180 (12V) Load Pro. It is kit #187 (link below) https://www.esitest.com/187.html Pic of Load Pro 180 w/ threaded ends https://www.esitest.com/180.html (scroll down the page and when you hover or click on the image above, it enlarges for a better shot of the threaded ends) You can see the threads better on the link for the pic.
So if I am reading correctly you can only apply a 1/4 Amp load or 1/2 Amp load with this tool? A headlight will draw more than that
V=I*R (Ohms law) V=volts I=current (amps) R=resistance (ohms) I = V R = 12 volt 25 ohm = 0.48 ampere (A) Yup............your correct. 1/2A load for 12V system. 1/4Amp load for 24V systems. You could get a rheostat or potentiometer so you could have an adjustable load?? We should ask Mike how he likes his. Get a report from him on whether he has run into any pitfalls. Edit: A 55w lightbulb @12V will pull 4.58A and 2.62 ohms of load...........if I did my guzintahs correctly.
I purchased a load pro awhile back and it’s still in the package. You have all inspired me to start using it instead of the 4011 bulb.
I don't know............based on what 1466IH said, I think our 4011 bulbs aren't going away. At least mine will stay in the truck for a while. 1/2 A isn't much of a litmus test (on a 12V system).........goes down to 1/4 A on a 24V system.........bump that up to 28V running voltage.....load goes down more, less amps.
I bought a load pro this winter and so far the load has been enough to find problems, but none of these have been watt circuits.
As I remember, a 60 watt house type light bulb is 8 ohms. It might be easier to handle than a big 'ol headlight ! We're just talking about a resistor to create a load. Or even better a ceramic resistor... lots to choose from and durable in the field.
Volts x Amps= watts............I have no idea how this formula has stuck with me through the years, but it did. I've been playing with DC since I was 10 years old?? Used to buy the electronic kits from Radio Shack. Built a TV jammer back in high school...........ya know, BC.......before cable/ before cellphones......when you only had 3 or 4 channels that came in clear if it was a nice day. Watts / volts=amps I was thinking along the same lines.........variable resistor or potentionometer. A few years ago, I bought a surplus fluke ossiloscope. Always wanted one but never bit the bullet. Kind of fun looking at the wave forms. My freightliner blower motor runs off pulse width modulation.......plugged into that and dialed in the frequency and watch the square wave on the different speeds. Good for looking at the generator wave forms as well. The sine waves. Just fun to play with......so much to learn.........ohhh so much.
At least I'm not the only one. There is soooo much out there to learn it is incredible. There just is not enough hours in a day... Maybe when I retire...
No..........your not the only one!!LOL And retention of what I learned years ago...............use it or lose it!!LOL I'd really like to get into 3D printing. I think that would be really fun and cool!! I'm ok on a lathe or milling machine. Robotics, hydraulics, programming, circuit design........Lions, Tigers, and Bears!! Oh my!! I have an old tach/ dwell meter..........don't ask me how it works or how to use it.......I forget.LOL Every now and again the timing light gets pulled out. I still remember how to use that!! LOL I think one of the many skills that I appreciate most was learning to sew when I was a kid. My mother taught me how to use her sewing machine. I took great delight in making up different bags for what not and suchs. Working on a tugboat learned how to fix heavy canvas covers with a needle palm(edit: its called a sail palm...you use it to push the needle through the heavy canvas), sail needles, and waxed thread. Kinda tough to run out to the seamstress when your underway to, say Venezuala. I bought a heavier duty home sewing machine in my 20's. My wife (back when we were dating) just about fell over when she saw my sewing machine. She couldn't believe that the big tough guy who got in the mud every day doing construction would be found dead sewing. Them double kneed Carharts aint cheap ya know!!LOL Used to make up equipment cases and tool wraps. The commercial ones fell apart too quickly, plus fixing what you had. I've got a SailRite walking foot machine now. Wrench wrap stiching fell apart?? Zzzzzzzz on the sewing machine.....done. Need a new welder cover?? An hour or 2........done!!LOL
There is a guy at the business park where we all work who does industrial sewing as his business. Seems to be pretty busy from what I can tell. Sews big heavy curtains and such, probably things I don't even know about.
Just so handy to have an industrial sewing machine...........like having a welding machine. I need to weld that bracket back on.......or tack up a box for the side of the truck. Diving I used to make all sorts of different things. Not enough lift bags to pick whatever off the bottom?? I'd whip up a lift bag or 2 real quick. Beat waiting for the commercial one to be shipped, which probably wasn't in stock. My lift bags were just down and dirty, quick, lets get the job done. Usually only got used 1 time then forgotten about. I won't get into dump truck covers............LOL.........I have pulled out the needle palm for some stitching that fell apart. That raised some eyebrows.........all pays the same rate though!! I want to be rich, so I can retire, and then dabble............like Jay Leno and his toys.
I'm am only in my early 30's and for as long as I can remember I have always told myself that if I ever won the lottery I would buy a little piece of ground in the middle of nowhere and have a shop the size of a Costco and just build and tinker every day. There would not be a tool or machine made that I wouldn't have at least one of.
RIGHT ON BROTHER!!!! When my wife and I were dating, she had to go on a business trip to California. I went with her. Big aviation buff. First day we got there it was beautiful. The rest of the week, it rained. I toured every avaiation museum they had.........there were alot. One of my dreams has been to own a helicopter. In my 20's I was taking rotor lessons on Robinson helicopters. Here's my description of a Robinson..........recycled coke can with a lawn mower engine that you fly in.........Lycoming air cooled engine for power.......really thin aluminum skin. Anyway, the Robinson facility was about 40 minutes away from the hotel. Figured this out a day or 2 before we supposed to leave. Called down there and asked about a tour. I had missed them.......they were only on say Monday, tues, and weds........it was Thursday or Friday. I pleaded my case and some dept head volunteered to give me a tour. I was more intruiged with the production facilities than I was with the aircraft........EDM's, huge water jets (which were new at the time), hydro forming for the fuselage frames. The guy giving the tour showed me how to run the water jet and we cut some stuff. I was like a kid in a candy store!! That was the highlight of my trip to Cali. So lucky this guy volunteered to give me a tour.........and he could tell how much I was into it. Oh yeah.......he took me up in a helicopter for about 45 minutes.....maybe he thought I might buy one of those money pits. You think a boat is bad?? Yeah baby!! I want a shop like that!!
I have always enjoyed crazy, oddball stuff. I don't travel much but but it has always amazed me just how much different stuff there is out there. The internet and YouTube have really opened my eyes the last few years. I really like a lot of AVE's older stuff where he would get into electronics and chemistry and crazy stuff. Plus he is pretty entertaining to listen to.
I have always liked flying also. Have been in several planes and helicopters but I have always wanted to ride with one of the helicopter guys around here that spray fungicide on crops.
Electronic specialties load pro. Another tool that would have been soo helpful when I was working. We're side tracking Mike's post. Any luck with the house sale?
MIKE!!!! What'd you find out about your electrical problem??!!! Inquiring minds want to know!! What news, good fellow; on the move and the house sale?? Pppsssstttt...........his customers buried him in work.......he doesn't have time to sell the house, pack, and move.LOL
I have alot of junk . I have 3 sewing machines a walking foot a boot machine and a regular sawing machine . I also have 4 lathes a mill ,shaper universal tool grinder and several welders. But i dont have time to do alot. I was driving around a small town and spoted a small power hammer out side a building. I stopped to see if it was for sale. The shop was owned by a older guy he showed me around . He had about every thing you would want in a machine shop and he also had several sewing machines. He told me he would sell the shop before long i ask what it was worth he said around $100.000.00. I didnt have every thing i do now if i could i would have tryed to buy him out.
What part of MO is this? I am near STL lol
It’s been a long week. Between Thursday and Monday the house got shown 11 times and we got 4 offers. Accepted the one over asking price and we’re now under contract. Back to the Feller buncher. Went back to bogging down and stalling. Only code coming up was low rail pressure. Hooked insite to it and watched my rail pressure. Seemed fine until I shut off the machine. It slowly dropped from 12000 to 220. And then back up to 290. And bounced back and forth but never below 220. Left there last night not sure what to do. Woke up early and went back before the operator got there. Plugged back in and it still read 220-290 after being shut off for 10 hrs. So I unplugged it and it read 12000. The same as commanded rail pressure. So I removed it and plugged it in. Engine not running and sensor hanging it read 220-290. Hmmm. Dug deep into a drawer of engine parts and found a used sensor. No idea where it came from. Put it in and it read 7 psi. Operator showed up and it has run from 6:30 am to 3:30 pm so far without an issue so we’ll see. I’ve been convinced I had it fixed several times and then it kicks me right in the nuts. BTW all the good threads get derailed now and again. That’s when things get interesting.
Well..........if you hadn't of brought up Load Pro, I never would know about it. So thank you again for that!! We got some lively discussion regarding that as well. Well...........now your under contract. When do you have to release to buyer?? Guess the clocks really ticking now. Amazing what we hold onto knowing..........just knowing........that we may need it or parts off it again. IT'S NOT JUNK!!! IT'S ALL GOOD STUFF!!LOL Sounds like I'm arguing with my wife................YOU need to clean up your crap!! Get rid of all that crap!! You have too much crap!!.............But Sweetem's, its not crap..........it's all good stuff!! And you can't even SEE the shop from the house!! OOooohhh, just knowing its there drives me nuts!!LOL Mike.........sorry.........just asking for clarification on what you did. You unplugged the rail pressure sensor?? And it showed commanded pressure?? 12000 psi?? Then you removed sensor and it with it removed, still showed 220-290 psi (pretty sure of this one). Chasing intermittent problems is never fun. You think you've got it..........ran great for you........give the customer the THUMBS UP and IT SHOULD BE ALL SET only to get the dreaded phone call or text...............IT'S DOING IT AGAIN!! Hopefully these guys understand and are patient. Some of them aren't. At least you beat out the T storms!!! Ohhh, that's right..........you've got your brollie, don't cha govenor??!!LOL
Monkey that’s exactly what I did. Operator just texted me and told me he made it the whole day without a hiccup. My experience with the load pro has been pretty good. I’ve never worried too much about the actual load it put in the circuit. If I suspected a bad wire I just put the probe on the wires and hit the button. It’s not 100% foolproof but it is another tool in the toolbox. We’re just starting to get the thunderstorms now.
fix heavy canvas covers with a needle palm(edit: its called a sail palm...you use it to push the needle through the heavy canvas) Things you learn on here, I never stopped to think that such things existed as a sail palm. I went and looked it up, looks perfect. For years I've been using a beer bottle lid with a bit of blue tack to hold it in the right spot near my thumb, which turns out to be exactly where sailmakers have put it for hundreds of years. Brilliant
John, The sail palm 'cup' has indents in them a little smaller than golf ball divets to cup the needle. Makes more secure and gives better grip when your pushing the needle through that canvas. I bet you've had the needle slip inside that bottle cap more than a few times!! Nice thinking outside the BOX on that one!!! Does the needle ever get poked through the bottle cap?? Just curious. I'll take some pictures later today of my sail palm and post them if your interested. Don't ask me who made it........I've had mine for well over 30 years now. These discussions and revelations of new tools always make me wonder what I'm missing on other posts. I just don't have the time to peruse them all................now if I were RICH and RETIRED............
It was slow going but I used a forceps like a surgeon.
As promised.........sail palm Shot of the dimples Not made for my big hands.......might have shrunk in the past 20-30 years. It never fit right even when new
My kit...........I have also been known to throw a few quick sutures into myself (mostly) and 1 or 2 of my past fellow crew mates. That was after the super glue wouldn't hold. Dose the wound up with some lidocaine, a few shots of lidocaine surrounding the area...........painless. I think its worse if they watch. Me........didn't bother me suturing myself up........but it's really hard doing it 1 handed!! LOL The waxed thread wasn't used on wounds. I used a lighter gauge dacron thread and smaller needles. Sail palm, upholstery/ sail needles, and waxed thread. Sail needle assortment Waxed thread.........the wax makes is easier for the thread to be pulled through the material. The thread is nylon
I can see where that would give confidence to really push on the needle. Nice one
The cups for pushing are maybe ceramic?? Very hard material of something. And yes, it gives you alot of confidence when using most of weight to push that needle through. I had tried using vise grips before..........if the vise grips twisted, the needles broke. If the vise grips slipped, you most likely got a needle in the hand. This was one of those "OH MY GOD!!! LOOK AT THIS!!! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE??!!" Edit: John, I had forgotten all about the plastic seal inside the bottle cap until you mentioned it. I can see how that would held hold the needle, plus the indent that is probably made pushing the needle through. Nice thinking outside the box!!
MIKE!!! GOTTA THANK YOU AGAIN FOR THE TIP ON THE LOAD PRO!!! All quiet on the Mike front?? Started out this morning welding out back. Got a text about a dozer leaking hydraulic. Packed up, headed out. "Hey, while your there.......turn the AC on and the belt squeals. Plus its not really that cold in the cab.........." Dealt with the hydraulic line that had rotted out. Tightened AC belt..........power on, AC on.........only heard 1 fan turning upstairs. Climbed up onto scorching roof and took guard off (Where's my umbrella?? Owww, need something under my knees!! This is HOT!!) Sure enough.....one fan turning. Pulled out my load pro for its first use!! 2 fans, 2 relays, one wire harness with a 4 pin connector up top. Showing 10.63V's Hit the button, voltage goes away!! Checked both sides. Only 1 side is good. Swap plugs in relays. Fault follows 1 circuit. Fan on right is bad. Bad bearings, runs slow. Check power at plug for both circuits......same......1 good circuit, 1 bad. Knees cooking!! Down to the fuse panel we go!! EZ ID FUSE......the kind that lights up an LED when fuse blows. The fuse is blown but I was getting phantom power from the LED when no load present. When I was up on the roof, I gotta admit..........I WAS LOVING THIS THING!!! Old way........power was there. I would have been up and down a few times.........light bulb probably up on roof too..........and running out of room. When I pulled the fuse and saw EZ ID LED.........I said "AHA!! Theres where my phantom power was coming from!!" New fan tomorrow at the bargain price of $410!! I use a camera case to carry mulitmeter, amp clamp, extra leads, clips, probes, etc. Spent 15 minutes trying to figure out where to stuff the Load Pro!! Ultimately, just need to order a bigger bag. Very handy bag with lots of pockets and storage......fyi. Just figured I'd share............I was pretty happy at how quick that went. Thanks again MIke!! Hope your not too stressed out about the move and everything is going well!!
Fluke also makes a meter the same style and size that has its own Lo-Z function built in. Not sure if the Load Pro does more than that.
Phew! It’s been a busy week. Took last week off to guide bear hunters in northern Maine. Something I’ve been doing for almost 20 years. Left bear camp on Friday and drove to our camp in forest city maine where we went fishing all weekend. Returned home Monday in time for the guy to show up and buy my boat, then my uncle came over to buy the riding lawnmower. Back to work today while planning the closing of the new home for Thursday and got the inspection back from the buyers of my current house. Now making a list of things the buyer wants fixed before the closing on October 20. The next couple weekends will be jam packed with all kinds of projects.
Here’s the weekly update. I’ve got 2 weeks worth of work left up here. I’m done September 30. Gonna take a week off and look over the kenworth, do a little hunting, and get ready for the long ride. Close on our house around October 10th and hit the road. In the meantime my old employer from the last time I lived in Texas caught word that we were moving back. He reached out and told me he had expanded into east Texas and has a clay mine there and he could sure use me up there which is good news. I’m not sure if he’s just looking to be a customer of mine or he wants to set me up as a resident tech. We’ll talk once it gets closer. It’s an opportunity I definitely need to explore. I do like working in the woods but this guy is a heavy hitter and I’d be a fool not to hear what he has in mind.
What does one mine clay for?
Urns and pots.
More than that and more than one type. Cement has clay in it, women’s make up has clay in it, bentonite is a clay used to seal pond leaks, pottery, fullers earth filtration, about fifty other uses. A mined clay pile
As I have dealt with that will let you know, gets on everything, sticks to anything, dry is a powder wet is a slurry, worse than basic dirt, twice as slimy, always, ALWAYS wearing at machines.
Making bricks.
Can be rock like, dirt like, consistency varies with types. Red has Alkali in it, white or gray can be caustic
Hard on Shoes, tires, undercarriage, tools and clothes.
Above all the technical-and everything you wanted to know about clay. Really it's just a cheap sticky filler in most cases-just like potato's and cereal.
What about blue clay ? I run into it when digging post holes around here, my neighbor the waterwell driller (now deceased) said it is in certain area's close to Lake Erie, and that it means a whole different kind of water well.
Blue Clay here is Hydraulic Clay, expand and contracts with moisture content. LOADS of it in Warren Couty MO, sad to watch homes get built over it as will not ever stop moving with Wet/Dry cycles. Next door to last home prior to this one was a empty lot, contractor came in to dig foundation hole and hit Blue Clay, dug twelve feet below footer line not ever did he get out of it so filled 12' with 2" Minus and they built. As we moved, that home was on second owner, was only 10 years old and could not keep sheetrock seams from splitting.
Back in Boston (Bahstan) we did a few land fill remediations (the original dump.........not a transfer station like now). A couple of these old dumps/ landfills were right next to schools...........which always amazed me. Anyway...........we dug down to where the landfill started and then lined it clay (not sure what kind of clay .......blue or grey........didn't really care at the time). I guess the idea was to prevent the ground water from being contanemaited with run off. Then it got capped with clay and methane wells installed with a vent system. The main one that I remember was the West Roxbury landfill. This was right next to the high school and the football field was on the edge of the landfill. They got a new football field when we finished. This was during the Big Dig.......guess it was just a way of getting rid of digging spoils. We ran into a bunch of clay during the Big Dig. The biggest dump site was spectacle island. Modern Continental, who I worked for; barged the tunnel spoils out to Spectacle Island. This was just any of the tunnel spoils. Not just clay. So, fun fact............the company that had the Spectacle Island contract had a couple of D10 dozers out there with JET ENGINES mounted on the back. This was an attempt to accelerate the drying out process of the tunnel spoils once they were spread.........must of had something to do with the specs in the contract. You could hear those engines miles away when they spooled them up.........ultimately, the idea really didn't work out. Anyway...........that's my experience with clay. Hmmmm...........old dumps. So the dumps used to literally burn the trash. You back up to the edge of a pit and just chuck your trash into it. At night (and sometimes during the day).......the bears would pick through les garbage foraging for food. Used to take girl friends "Wanna go see some bears??" Or maybe take them to the beach to go watch the submarine races............LOL. The thing I most remember about clay..............it sticks to everything, slippery as hell, makes a mess of clothes, almost impossible to wash down the decks and get clean, and turned your boots into anchors.
I thought it was for making money.....
When pays well enough!!
Local long time brick plant digs deep for clay. When the Cat scraper can't climb out of the hole anymore they start a new hole. Satellite shows 3 big old pits filled with water and a much larger working pit.
Just leave the old scraper in the old hole? Joe H
They did that back in the day when they closed down coal mines here
Environuts would go nuts if stalls gets a tow out
Another use for white clay, is for the manufacture of lipstick. It has to be pure white. A lot of that clay was mined in east Texas, near Athens. In fact, when I was the manager of mining operations for a large brick company, some of the land surrounding our east Texas pits was still owned/leased by some company that made lipstick. Where in east Texas are you thinking about working in mining? I may have worked there, or near there. Jeff
I've had to dig blue clay out of freestalls for dairy cows, might as well go dig up a parking lot. Doesn't make for a fun day. Ed
My synapses 'clicked' when I read your post about lipstick!!! My favorite lipstick is NLGI #2 in red..........sometimes when I'm going GOTH its the Blue!! LOL Clay gets used in grease too!! I don't know why I didn't think of that before............getting old sucks!! LOL Thickener Once you have selected the base oil that best fits your business needs, the next step is to select a thickener. The thickener acts like a sponge, absorbing and holding the lubricating grease together. It also gives the completed mix its structure, which can range from semifluid to firm. There are three basic types of thickeners - simple metal soaps, complex metal soaps, and non-soaps. Simple metallic soaps can be made of components such as, lithium, and calcium. This soap is best known for its water resistance, although it has difficulty handling extreme temperature environments. While simple metallic soaps are a great standard, complex metallic soaps are gaining popularity. Complex soaps are made by reacting multiple components, giving them a higher dropping point and lower oil separation rate. This allows the mix to withstand extreme temperatures. Non-soap thickeners are commonly made of silica or clay and can have great performance abilities in unfavorable environments. https://www.mystiklubes.com/Articles/Grease/GettingStartedWithGrease.jsp Another Jeff
As a matter of fact one of the mines is in Athens. Another is in Henderson and a 3rd is over by Shreveport. I spoke with him the other day. They are mining clay for bricks. I don’t know much more than that. He wants to be a customer which will work well for me. T minus 15 days to go!
Atill likely a Great Move Mike, tons of well wishes and good luck from here.
He is probably contract mining for Red River Brick, part of the General Shale operations. They now have plants in Athens and Henderson, Tx. I think General Shale has taken over as the largest brick company in the USA. Back when I was mining clay, Acme Brick was the largest US brick company. We had 21 plants at the time. Jeff
ACME, AP Green, are several others that were around here.
It is a shame that AP Green is no longer in business. AP Green had a big operation in Mexico, Mo. as I recall. They were big time into the refractory brick business. In fact, most of the refractory brick companies have merged, or closed up. Fewer steel mills=less need for refractory brick.
Glass works, Steel mills, even other brick plants used refractory brick,
Yes, but the demand is waaaay down from the "old days". Thus, few refractory brick manufacturers remain. The same is true for clay tile plants. Clay tile was a big business. Now, only a few companies make it anymore, and the few plants remaining are not very large. Jeff
DAL Tile is one client here, buys Red and White clays, red has alkali in it where cleans the kilns when being kilned. Sand Plant across from Hermann ships 2-4 Barge loads roughly every three months. Harbison Walker in Vandalia MO is still in business.
Yes, Dal Tile is a big operation, I have seen a couple of their plants. I think they have all their clay contract mined, but not completely sure about that. H-W is a big operation. I think they bought out some of the other refractory companies that could not survive. We used to buy refractory brick and other refractory products from them, for lining our brick kilns. Jeff
99% of the clay that the DAL site in Muskogee OK receives is from around here. HW has a fairly large facility runs 24/7 in Vandalia MO, clay is still mined up there.
@Mike L Do you regret asking yet?
Nah. It makes for good conversations and I’m learning something new
We’ve made it as far as Tuscaloosa. It’s been smooth sailing so far. Put signs in the truck door that say “in transit, not for hire. Pulled into a weigh station today. Scaled out at 29k pounds and sent on my way. He must’ve been satisfied with the signs. With a little luck we’ll be at the new home tomorrow afternoon.
Great news Mike. Drive safe.
Safe Passage Mike.
Watch those roads ahead of you. Louisiana and Texas have some really rough pavement surfaces. Be careful and have a safe trip on into Texas. Jeff
Hello?? Mike's Moving Service?? I'd like to get a quote please..................LOL Thanks for taking the time to share an update.........you must be beat!!! And maybe a little excited to get there!! I wish you let me know when you were coming down 95.............I would have made a banner up and stood on an over pass by the Hampton tolls saying "GOOD LUCK MIKE!!" LOL You gotta post a pic of the caravan Mr Mike Clampett (aka Beverly Hillbillies) Fair winds and gentle following sea's, brother!!
We’ll we made it here about 12:30 Friday afternoon. The only hiccup was a 3/8” coolant hose going to my egr cooler popped. I smelled the coolant and got off the highway and into an empty parking lot. Only lost a couple gallons of coolant. Very happy that I only had one minor problem. Spent the weekend getting settled. Had to go buy a fridge, couch, lawnmower, groceries, etc,etc. we brought the bare minimum of stuff and the moving truck should be here Friday. going to spend this week getting all my business stuff in order and hopefully meet some prospective customers. Thanks for all the well wishes!
Did you bring the snowblower ?......
Absolutely not! I even gave away my old snow shovel!
How did you find prospective customers?
That might be premature. You know, we had a big snow and big freeze throughout Texas, the winter before last. Jeff
some from social media and some from joining the Texas logging council. Also my ex boss from when I lived in south Texas years ago now has a clay mine north of me. Once I get my liability insurance here I’ll get out in the road and stop at shops or any logging operations I see. We’ve had logging trucks going down my road and I can hear a Feller buncher saw from my backyard. The girl at the bank this morning gave me the number of a friend of hers who does dirt work. I think with the current shortage of mechanics I’ll be busy in no time.
We were here for it. We came down to start looking around and visited with friends in San Antonio. The night before we left it snowed 2” and we were stuck in the hotel for 5 more days waiting to get out. We found a target that was open and stocked up on anything we could cook in our rooms microwave. And beer. Lots and lots of beer.
Should have brought it with you...Hang it up in the front yard from a tree, to ward off snow.....Sort of like a scarecrow....Or VooDoo doll....
I'd have brought the blower and waited till the next storm and sold it for max profit lol
When I lived in Atlanta, I had the only snow shovel on the cul-de-sac . Every snow fall, it made the round through all the neighbors.
Well you passed right by me on I-20. Good deal on making it safely.
AWESOME!!! Wish I had thought of that retort!!
WAIT!!! 2" INCHES OF SNOW...........and you were STUCK@ Le Hotel??? Said the guy from Maine................Not believing it..........no way!!!LOL And I KNOW when you were a kid you were probably sporting a 2 wheel drive pickup (one wheel drive open dif), straight 6 w/ 3 on the tree and learned to rip that puppy with almost bald tires through 6" of snow uphill w/ switch backs!! LOL (Why yes!! I did have a 3 on the tree........thank you for asking!!) I also have the distinct pleasure of having gone skiing on I95 for quite a few miles during a few snow storms!!LOL Snow banks make the best jumps..........alcohol numbs the pain after a fall. I don't think you were really stuck.................bet everybody VOLUNTOLD you the "Hey Mike!! We need more beer!! Mind running out for us since your the only one who knows how to drive in the snow??"LOL Glad you made it safely!!! You got a barn at your new place?? Something to put your truck in or work out of?? Just curious..........
Nope. It’s a true story. We had a rental convertible Mustang and Texas doesn’t own my equipment to remove snow. People drove on it and packed it down, turning it into ice. Then on top of that they have massive power outages. Our hotel luckily had a generator. ( maybe they all do). So between icy roads and not knowing where or even if we could get gas or food on the road, we stayed put. And no I didn’t have an old 2wd pickup. I always had a 4wd Toyota With as big a tire as I could cram under it. I actually never drove a 3 on the tree until I was almost 40. I don’t have a shop big enough for the kenworth. I’ve got a 20x29 shop with a carport on the front and a 20’ overhang on the back.
You've got to know Texas drivers. Its far better to stay away from the roads. If the speedometer isn't on the topside of 80 the accelerator is floored. Conditions don't matter. I was in Texas the year of the big ice storm that almost cancelled the Super Bowel in Dallas. I think they generated a years work for all the body shops during the morning rush hour alone.
Texas drivers are gonna have to be patient with me. The old kw has 4.88 gears and only goes about 72 mph maxed out. Spent most of the week getting my liability insurance going and trying to get out and shake hands and hand out business cards. Haven’t gotten work yet but I’m confident it will happen soon. Mat have an engine swap on a tub grinder next week. I’ve been anti Facebook forever but am toying with the idea of a business page and building a website through google domains. Need to get my name out there without burning a tank of fuel every day.
Facebook is basically the go to place anymore. But it and Craigslist always attract price shoppers. I'm sure you are better than I am at this but when I was in Idaho, there used to be a table at the local cafe all the local old boy business owners would grab some coffee and a bite. That was the place to advertise or look for work, 8 businesses that knew pretty much everyone else including the neighboring states. All it took was a round of coffee. Unless you needed a job then they'd buy you breakfast a lot of times.
Loml used faceplant advertising for her cafe, cheap and the results were obvious at the cash register. Doesn't use them now as the business has grown, sure did help in the beginning. Ed
Put a link to this thread on FB, good as any web site you're gonna cobble up on your own. Joe H
A buddy of mine works on bucket trucks in town. He ended up going to Florida right after the hurricane. He and I were chatting on the phone when he was driving down.........I had called to have do a crane inspection for me. He said he gets alot of work from Linked In...............I was kinda suprised. Thats' where he picked up all of the work in FLA. Prompted me to join Linked In but I honestly haven't done anything with it...............nor have I inquired of my buddy how he found the FLA work. I guess people do searches in Linked In to find people providing services. I'll ask him........ Might be something to look into.
I’ve got a LinkedIn but really haven’t figured out how to make it work for me. If you learn something please pass it along. As much as I’ve hated in it for many years Facebook has gotten me more interest than anything. It certainly has a better return than burning diesel every day trying to meet people.
[QUOTE="Mike L, post: 1084138, It certainly has a better return than burning diesel every day trying to meet people.[/QUOTE] So that economical fuel sipper getting 4-6 mpg on the expensive stuff isn't the best run around vehicle?? How much is diesel down there?? $5.99 for 9/10ths of a gallon (who the **** came up with that idea anyway??!!) I'll ask my buddy what he does and how it works for him.
Ohh, that's not going to fly with texas traffic. You're going to need some 3.55's to keep up down there. I do hope it picks up for you, I think once you get going, you'll be fine. What happened with the "buddy" hook up you had down there?
guy was actually my old employer. Not sure what happened. We were in contact up until I was ready to go and then he disappeared. I’m going to try and reach him today. He’s got a bunch of stuff going on so maybe he just forgot.
You went too far south man
My stepdaughter lives in Oklahoma. She wanted us to move there but I said no way. Oklahoma isn’t big enough for me and vetech63 to share!
On another note. I did reach my old employer today. He’ll be sending me a subcontractor packet to fill out. And then in a whim I stopped at the local barko dealer. Asked if they hired subcontractors. “Not usually because we don’t want them stealing our customers”. (Fair enough). I then told them I was the barko man back in my dealership days and they hired me to swap an engine in their shop on a barko 930 mulcher starting tomorrow.
That's great I bet it feels good to have something to do
sure does. I’m sick and tired of riding around burning diesel just trying to make some connections
Do you have some kind of agreement down on paper for the single job or are you trusting them based on your conversation?
It was done on a handshake.
So that economical fuel sipper getting 4-6 mpg on the expensive stuff isn't the best run around vehicle?? How much is diesel down there?? $5.99 for 9/10ths of a gallon (who the ***k came up with that idea anyway??!!) I'll ask my buddy what he does and how it works for him.[/QUOTE] just saw this. I bought diesel this morning for $4.69.
I think someone does not understand that pricing of fuel is based at the 1/10 of a cent or 1/1000 of a dollar. It is never sold by 9/10 of a gallon. Gas price wars (maybe back in the 50's or earlier) had sellers undercutting their competition by 1/10 of a cent when that amount of money actually meant something. This is how my father explained the situation to me. He owned a couple service stations and worked at many through his youth prior to purchasing his first. It was a good place for my mechanical head to grow up. It also taught me that I hate dealing with the general public.
Tha's a $1.30 cheaper than up here!!! And thank you for reminding me.............I'll go call my buddy while I'm firing up the grill for dinner. On another note..............went in to work this morning finish installing a valve block and run some hydraulic hoses for an angle plow. Sent a text asking for the truck to moved into the shop. Got there........truck still sitting outside.......no problem. Fire truck up to build up air...........the old man comes running right out.."I'll get it!! Sorry, got busy........." No problem. He gets in truck after shaking my hand, pat on back about how good of a job I've done.........and moves it into shop. I go to work, in and out of cab, etc. A couple hours later, he shows up with a mask on........"I tested positive for COVID. Been sick as dog all weekend.............so has my son (with whom I was dealing with on Friday). My first thought was...........Are you ******* kidding me?? You didn't think to mention this BEFORE you shook my hand, patted me on the back, and breathed all over me?? Had a dive job for this afternoon...........nice day for it. Called my partner at noon.............your call buddy, here's what's going down.......He's going to Grenada with girlfriend later this week. Dive didn't happen..............later next week when he gets back........and I don't get sick. Just when you think all this crap is behind us..........NOPE!!
YOU are correct sir!!! No comprendo, compadre................I'll have to educate myself tonight...............TO THE GRILL I GO, BY THE QUEEN'S COMMAND!!
I worked at a gas station (among other jobs) through high school and college. I have ALWAYS assumed that the 9/10ths were gallons.......not tenths. 54 years I've thought that.............so thank you for educating me. Always learning, everyday........... Link to article regarding history of gas price fractions. https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/14/energy/why-gas-prices-fraction-of-a-cent/index.html The gas station was in Hingham, ma off Rt. 3 going to Cape Cod............met some veeerrrryyyy interesting people. One lady yelled at me because I couldn't give her directions to somewhere 6 towns away.............LIT INTO ME!!! Another guy pulled up in a truck that was burning oil.......full serve gas station......had me fill the gas and check the oil........shut off after $2...........nothing on the dip stick. Added 4qts (took the standard 5 quarts in that engine)...........he then asked if the truck could make it to Washington, DC ( I told him I don't think I'd try it........burning a crap load of oil)..........how much oil will it take to get to Washington, DC??? It was interesting. Learned alot there. All the skills a young boy should learn........lock picking, slim jimming, hot wiring (that's a whole new skill now), ripping cars apart and fixing them........all the skills a college student needs. It was only later in life..........mid 40's that I learned to hate people and that most of them are useless.LOL
After returned from Ft Knox went back to work at a local station as I went thru classes at trade school. Used my taught skills as owner would allow and got three raises in ten months. His also was Full Service where Only he and the older men worked the pump islands and dealt with customers. Owner was always growling about malcontents and overly demanding people but worked into his seventies at the station.
I can't believe I forgot this one last night..............older lady came into the station and wanted to have the summer air taken out of the tires and winter air put in............straight face, dead serious. I was taught to respect my elders............and boy, was I confused. Had NO IDEA how to handle this. Went and got the manager, Dave (awesome guy.......I think that's why I stayed so long)........before I burst out laughing. I told him what she wanted. He said "I'll take care of this." He was being polite and sincere when he said that to me. Went out, greeted the lady, motioned for me to open the bay door, drove the car in, put it up on the lift, checked the tire pressure, made a show of putting the air hose on, backed it out..........more pleasantries........"Have a good day, mam'm." She pulled out some cash, he refused........no charge. He came in and said that's how you gain a customer. She was back having her car serviced until I finished college. Dave was a gentleman..........learned alot from him too!! My brother and I had gotten our hands on some old snow guns from a ski mountain. They were updating their snow making equipment to newer more efficient stuff. One cold winters day............hadn't had any snow yet...........I brought a gun in and a 185 cfm compressor. This was on a Sunday. Hooked up to the fire hydrant, fired up the compressor, set the gun up on the corner of the building and started making snow in front of the bays. After about 10 hours of my shift I had a nice snow drift in front of the bay doors and pretty frosted windows. Packed up and headed home. Showed up at 3pm for my shift Monday...............There's Dave......Big grin on his face.........."We got a snow storm yesterday??" He was more curious how I did it.............very funny. Wish I had been there when he pulled up in the morning.
That’s a great story! Let’s face it, all the work “we” do really isn’t life or death stuff, there’s no reason it can’t be enjoyed by having a lot of laughs along the way. Truth be told, if you’re miserable doing what you do, you shouldn’t be doing it.
I used to work for a Kenworth dealership. They used to let customers in the shop to watch us work. There was a bit of theft. Never tools mostly shop supplies and such. The company charged 8 3/4% shop supplies on top of the hourly labor rate. Glass cleaner was something I could not keep on my work bench. It was always being taken. One morning I was tasked with the job of installing two new windshields in a Freightliner cab-over that had just come out of the paint booth. Using a step ladder I sprayed the windshield gasket down with glass cleaner and carefully using a plastic window stick got the first windshield in place. Glass cleaner is the best lube I have found for installing windshields. When I went to get the can of glass cleaner to install the second windshield it was gone someone had taken it. I went to the parts window and got another can and sprayed the gasket down again and installed the second windshield. I needed to spray the gasket down again to install the lock strip but the second can had dissapeared as well. So I go to the window again for a third can. This time I took a razor knife and removed the label from the can. I installed the lock strip and cleaned the windshield and backed the truck out of the bay. I was cleaning up and I noticed I had a can of spray contact cement on my bench as well. I used it to glue the foam rubber that was always falling off the inside of the Kenworth hoods. The can was exactly the same size as the glass cleaner can so I took the label from the glass cleaner out of the garbage and sprayed it down with glue and applied it to the glue can and left it on my bench. Sure enough the next day its gone. Whoever took it brought it back as it seemed to disappear and reappear on different benches in the shop. There was a glass shop next door and we would get them to do some of the more difficult jobs. One day their glazier was installing a windshield in a Ford Louisville. when he was done he spotted a can of glass cleaner on a bench where he was working. He grabbed it and sprayed the windshield he had just installed with it then when he tried to wipe it clean the paper towel stuck to the glass. He was not impressed. Another time the service manager came out into the shop, he took his glasses off and looked at them and then took a can of glass cleaner off one of the benches and tried to clean his glasses with it. He was very pizzed!! Every time I had new can of glass cleaner I would swap the label with something else After that I could keep a can of glass cleaner on my tool box or bench and nobody ever took it again.
Mekanik.........that's awesome!!LOL Needed that chuckle first thing in the morning!! Worked on tugboats out of college. Adventure and life at sea is for me (also a young mans game) Worked my way up to chief engineer and held a captains license. I would work on some projects in the galley sometimes. Quick, get it done types of things when we were trying to get under way at the start of the trip or return. The tools would end up getting piled up on a counter by the port side hatch to be dealt with later. The cook, John 'Squeaky'; would give me **** about getting the tools out of his kitchen. Sometimes I would procrastinate..............Squeaky was a great guy and a really good cook. One day I started my watch............into the galley for coffee, exchange pleasantries, talk to the 2nd engineer whom I was relieving about anything that occurred, then headed into the engine room. I descended the ladder to the lower deck of the engine room, with coffee in hand...........being careful not to spill the life giving nectar.............AND THERE ON THE BIG WORK BENCH.......WHAT DO I BEHOLD??? Most of the pots, pans, collanders, and other asundry cooking containers piled up and taking over the work bench.............with a note that I needed to wash every pot and pan before I put them away. I was laughing so loud, I guess the whole boat heard me. Squeaky had filled in the rest of the boat what he was going to do so they knew what I was laughing about. Point taken!!! No more tools in the galley!!! LOL Tugboating!! Its a contact sport!! 99% sheer boredom, 1% sheer terror!!!
Back when sealed beam headlights were the norm we used to sell a lot of XtraVision and Silverstar headlights. They put out a bit more light and whiter light than regular halogen headlight. They didn't last as long but most people felt the trade-off was worth it. Some ran the replaceable bulb halogen headlights but in the winter with the amount of gravel they put on the road headlights had a short life expectancy. One day I brought a truck in the shop and had four new headlights and the headlight aiming tool on the bench. I Left for lunch and when I returned all four headlights were gone. Someone had taken them. I went and got another four headlights and proceeded to install and aim them. After I was done I took two of the headlights I replaced that could pass for new cleaned them and put them in the boxes from the headlights I just installed. I made sure at least one of the filaments was burnt out by feeding them twenty four volts from the battery booster cart. From that day every time I replaced a headlight if the old one was not damaged I would make sure it at least one filament was burnt out and put in the box and carefully glue the box shut then leave it lying around the shop. They would always dissapear after a while. One day this guy comes in the shop looking for advice on why he had electrical problems with his headlights. He was an occasional customer that did most of his own work. I told him how to clean the plugs without damaging them and make sure he was using the ground in the headlight plug for his test light not the bumper. The next day he shows up with the truck and I get the job of troubleshooting the light problem. It had two of four on high beam and one of two on low. Someone had made a new wiring harness from the plug on the firewall forward and did a real nice job. I removed all four lights and tested the plugs and my test light said the headlights should work so I got four new lights and with them hanging from the harness I turned them on and all of them worked properly on high and low beam. So now the customer is a bit more than confused. I told him obviously the new lights he put in were no good. I finished the headlight install and aimed them and sent him on his way. I went into the parts room to get something for my next job and he was in the parts room arguing with one of the parts guys. I heard the parts guy say to him "If you can show me an invoice where you bought those lights from us I will give you your money back". I noticed after a couple months no one was taking the headlights that I was leaving out in the shop anymore.
Peterbilt encapsulated windshield-Sil-Glyde on the gasket or any other glass. A blacksmith in my old home town had some stuff disappear when a certain person would visit just before coffee and doughnut time in the mornings. The forge does a wonderful job of putting a little heat on things.
Holy smokes! Been helping out a local dealer with a couple jobs. Today I was asked to look at a cat 6.6 in a prentice crane. Had a noise and low oil pressure. Motor was just rebuilt. Engine had zero oil pressure and it sounded like someone was on the inside with a ball peen hammer trying to get out. Yanked the engine and dropped the pan. Pine needles in the base and a sliver of metal in the pickup tube.removed the oil pump which had been sealed with red silicone. Gobs of red silicone. Rotated the engine and found #2 connecting rod was loose. Hadn’t spun the bearing yet. everything felt gritty. Took apart the oil pump and it was smoked. Started tearing off the head. Not one rocker had any lash. Found 3 bent pushrods. Removed the rockers and found one of the valves had lost its keepers and the bridge was jammed into the spring. Pulled the head and found the piston had slapped the valve that was messed up and another piston had metal chunks jammed into the top of the piston. I don’t know where that metal came from. Removed all the pistons and #3 and 4 were waaayyy too tight. Damaged the heads of the external torx bolts trying to get them out. The whole thing is pretty much smoked. $28k for a reman. I don’t know how much it will cost to repair this one but they want to fix it. Tomorrow I’m finishing the tear down and sending the block, head , and crank to the machine shop. The story is that it had a ticking noise before the rebuild. a shop did the rebuild and it left sounding worse than it came in and now they won’t answer the phone.
Local shop did all this including leaving pine needles in the pan?
That’s what I was told.
Suddenly gone fishing.
They'll be back after Christmas, taking the holidays off. Been working too much.
You better read through Vtech's thread, you're headed the same way. You getting their shop rate or your rate? And find out if the machine shop is the same one that did the bore for the too tight pistons. Joe H
Interesting job yesterday into today. New customer called. Deere 437ex knuckleboom crane. Said it needs an injector, can you do it? Sure. Drive 100 miles south of here. We find the crane is turned around backwards with logs still in the grapple up off the ground. Operator isn’t there. Try to crank it and it will smoke but no fire. Plug into it and it had several vgt codes. Check the vgt linkage and it’s stuck. Remove the exhaust and the turbo is stuck but I can get it freed up. Tried to crank it and it bound up tight. Hmm. Think we’re beyond an injector. Turn it with an engine barring tool and it will bind up. Rotate it backwards and it goes almost 360 and binds. Well, it needs to come out. Tier 4 engine and it is in the top 2 worst engines I ever pulled. Layers of government garbage just to get to the engine. I’ve never seen so many sensors on one engine in my life. Pull it out, haul it home. This morning I take it apart and found this. At least I had my number one helper with me today.
Went to Deere this afternoon to see about parts. $22k for parts plus my labor or $41k for a reman! $41k for a Deere 6068? ***?!?! Granted it is a 2018 which is a 24 valve common rail engine but holy Moses on a rocket powered pogo stick!!!
That's almost cheap.
Sucks to be the one to tell the client. Glad I no longer have that to do.
Good old deere, I have to break the same news to a customer about a 750 tow behind compressor, ran it on gas for a couple hours, it took issue with that treatment.
Damn!
Seems like JD are aiming at a get-rich-quick scheme with their current parts pricing. Picked up a couple of new front fenders for a JD Gator at an auction (for $18! ) - then I find out they're US$360 EACH in the States, and AU$722 locally! Holy Moses! For a chunk of molded plastic?? Of course, you do get a couple of warning decals included in the deal!
What's happening down there in Texas? Too busy to share your adventures? Joe H
Work is picking up for me. Spent almost 2 days chasing a broken ecm wire in a prentice Feller buncher this week. Not very picture worthy. Got 3 engines in pieces and I’m waiting for the machine shop on 2 of them and the third is a mess but the owner has spent over a week trying to save a nickel on parts, including looking at a cylinder head that’s been through a fire. My warranty is going to be very short on that job and I’m going to be very clear about that before I start rebuilding it. I know that margins are tight in the logging industry but it never pays to half ass an engine job.
Good you're busy, waiting on machine shops to f something up not so good. They have a knack for it. Joe H
"chasing a broken ecm wire"... Where did you start? I wish I had a better grasp on fault finding electrical gremlins, as my wife's car has done only 200 miles between ECU repairs, third time now this year, must be a dodgy wire or component somewhere causing ECU to fail but it's getting expensive trying to find answer. Good work fixing the Prentice.
Basically I had a crank no start condition. Checked my fuses and then plugged cat et into it but didn’t have any connection. The customer had already talked with the dealer and he told them these machines were noted for a chaffed harness by the axle. We checked out power at the ecm and had our 4 battery power wires and 5 grounds but no key switch power to the ecm. Removed the harness thinking that the dealer was right and found nothing wrong. Had continuity through the harness. Experience has taught me that one strand of wire can give you continuity so I stripped open the harness and found nothing wrong. Backed up further and found a broken wire inside the insulation not too far from the fuse panel. Hindsight being what it is I should have chased it from the fuse panel to the ecm but I made the mistake of listening the the dealer rather than just starting from the beginning.
Thanks for details. How did you actually find the location of the break when it was showing continuity, did you pull hard on each end of the wire first to open up the break? Or strip the wires insulation all the way back? Cheers.
I found I had voltage coming out of the fuse panel but it wasn’t getting to the bulkhead connector on the cab. I opened up the harness and did a visual check and then started wiggling the wire until I found it
Bet that was a "ah-haa " moment.
I like "Ah Haa" moments!!
Big relief, uplifting of spirits. At last, we can fix this thing!
I was pretty relieved. I really don’t like those needle in a haystack jobs. Somebody described it this way. An engine failure may take 5 minutes to diagnose and days to repair. An electrical failure may take 2 days to find and 3 minutes to fix.
That is a NO warranty job....providing that they are dictating what you use for parts, especially used stuff.
Would mark with a SHARPY ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY except for assembly labor issues on repairs as those. Will pay for my own screw ups NOT a demand to reuse junk.
That was Dan Sullivan in the electrical troubleshooting book.
While we're on the subject of books, are there some good training manuals/books for learning to diagnose electrical and hydraulic system issues that you guys would recommend? I'm always looking to expand my skillset and I know I'm weak on the electrical side of things. I've never had the exposure, and as equipment gets more and more dependent on electrical components, having some knowledge of troubleshooting would be helpful.
Have had little advanced training or access to for the Digital side of things, I learned the hard way on early Cadillacs with their own ideas of Electronic(Early style CanBus). Then picked up on such iat the Nuke in diagnostics of the electronic control systems we were changing out from Analog to.
In the late 1980's I went part time to the local college and took the basic electronics course. I got half way through the basic course when the instructors both retired and they could not find anyone to replace them. I still learned a lot that is of value for what I work on today. There is a lot of good information on this web page: https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/textbook/
I've heard good things about the Dan Sullivan book, and like you, I'm not great with electrical. I can handle 12 and 24, and on and off, but a lot of the new stuff is into canbus and when I get into boards I'm a little lost. This is the book they are talking about, and I just ordered one, with the tester, figuring I could read it in my spare time, and give it to my young mechanic. At $80 it only has to save me on one repair to pay for itself. https://www.amazon.com/Electronic-S...mzn1.fos.006c50ae-5d4c-4777-9bc0-4513d670b6bc
What I found funny with the Digital Era, the best diagnostics tool was and remains a Analog Oscilloscope. Instantaneous read out unlike the buffered electronic counterparts, reads the square wave as to reference voltage and time duration whether or not stable and consistent.
I picked this up off a government disposal site for $121 delivered to my door. I have used it a few times it was well worth the money. I was even able to find the manuals for it on line. I suspect it was several thousand dollars new in the mid 1980s.
I lug around analog CRT oscopes too. I am still waiting for somebody to show me a hand held battery powered version that does what I want and that I can afford. Some of the Chinese stuff maybe, but just not sure yet. I too enjoy the instantaneous response of the good ole CRT.
I will honor my work until it starts. Once she blows smoke it’s all over.
Exactly right
that is a great book and it’s well worth the price. I still look at it from time to time. Electrical is not my strongest area so I’m always looking to get better at it
I would say that electrical is definitely my strongest area and I thought the book was great. Really solidified all the ideas I have developed over the years (because nobody seemed good at teaching it) and taught me some new things, and also helps me teach it, if anyone will sit still long enough to listen.
I’ve never had anyone actually sit down with me and teach me to read schematics. I’ve read his book and watched countless YouTube videos trying to learn it. I still struggle but I muddle through it.
My old scope was a Allentronic!!! Came off an old Ignition analyzer.
I learned auto electric, electrician electric, and electronics as a pre-teenager and spent a lot of time in radio communications. Even so, working with equipment, there are at least half a dozen different types of schematics I am faced with. Americans, Japanese, English and Europeans all have their own way of doing things. There are schematics, which help troubleshoot power and signal flow, and then there are wiring diagrams, which show how the harnesses are connected. The best are ones where they don't even bother showing the wires at all, but just show the various modules and components as boxes, with short wires coming out of them, and then it's up to you to stare at the page until you fine where the other end of said wire magically appears again. I have lugged scopes onto various jobs, but seldom has it told me anything of value. CANBUS can generally be t/s by a DC voltmeter, but like all things you have to learn how it behaves normally before you can know for sure the difference between normal and broken.
I'm trusting that all of you guys know what you're talking about with this book and probe. Thanks for posting the link so I could spend my cash that much faster. I'm sure it will be a good, informative read and a time saver in the future. Nothing but good information on this forum from a lot of knowledgeable people willing to share it.
You must have bought the last one as they're unavailable now
I suspect the book alone is still available, maybe that is just with the probe
Yes, just that link. I have purchased the book on eBay
Must be an England thing, says 4 avail. now. Or maybe they only restock 4 at a time to get people to feel urgency about ordering.
The loadpro is stupid handy for finding mostly broken wires. The book that comes with it is very good for explaining the basics but building to advanced things at the same time. His videos are also good.
I'm hoping its a sheer time saver- in that your equipment will never break and you'll never need to trouble shoot. Just like carrying chains and a snow shovel in the truck. IF you have it with you- you won't need it.
And while we're spending your money, I've heard the powerprobe is a handy tool also, and one I don't own. Yet. There's a couple different versions, fit for any price range. https://www.amazon.com/Power-Probe-III-Case-Acc/dp/B005MVB3S0
I bought a power probe IV with circuit tracer last year. I haven't used it many times, but it's easily paid for itself already. Doesn't take much at $120/hr shop rate for somebody smarter than me. Only bad thing I can say is I have never been able to get everything back in the case. It now lives in a packout box with foam insert with my multimeter and loadpro.
I’m a huge power probe fan. Had one most of my career.
What exactly does it do?
It hooks to your battery or alternator and will run on 12-36 volt. If you touch the probe to a connector or pin it will read voltage or ground. Then it had a switch and if you push it forward it will send power out the probe and backwards will give it ground. It also has a short pigtail which will check continuity or give you and external ground to power say a lightbulb or if you need a power and ground source. It will do more but that’s the basics. Very handy.
Wow - that's an antique! I'm surprised the capacitors are still good. I have used a Fluke 123 for 20+ years. Rugged and easy to use but the screen is finally stating to give up. The cheapest equivalent form Fluke is ~$2k but there there are options starting at a couple hundred up to $9k+ depending on what ones needs and expectations are. Just last month was working with the new guy and I told him he needed to use an o-scope. He responded "O what?" ISZ
I love my power probe. You can do the same work with a set of test leads, multimeter and test light but it combines all 3 and is much more convenient. The little lights don't suck for seeing what you are doing either. I recommend the extension cord if you are working on trucks also.
Went on a call today for an 848H crank, no start. I got out of the truck and saw welding rod stubs on the ground and fresh patches on the grapple. “What’s going on here”? I asked. “ we welded on it and now it won’t start” “ did you unhook the batteries”. Nope. I did my due diligence and tested all my wires but she cooked the ecm. They had a junked out 748H so we robbed the ecm and it fired right up and ran good. Until we moved it. Started throwing transmission codes. Called my buddy at Deere and he explained the 848 runs a torque converter trans and the 748 doesn’t. Well that explains that. Sent the customer with both ecm’s to the dealer to get the correct software installed. I’m admittedly not a Deere guru but I’m sure getting an education on them down here.
While I've seen lots of warnings, your case is the first documented cooked ecm from welding I've seen. Could you find out where the welding ground was hooked relative to where they welded? I've welded lots of times without disconnecting the batteries. Usually it happens when I get in a hurry after I fixed the equipment and hooked the batteries back up and then decide I want to weld a little more. But unhooked or not, I always run the ground about as close to the arc as practical.
Trailer-Landing gear repair involved welding-cooked the mother board in the Carrier refrigeration unit.
This will cause the {never had that happen} to start removing cables. Good for posting this Mike L.
volvo dealer in colorado cooked most of the computers in a new loader jump starting it so that's a new one to add to the list of fears in winter haha.
I’ve seen tons of stuff welded on without disconnecting the batteries that never had a problem but I don’t have that kind of luck. I’ve always disconnected them just because that’s what I was taught. I didn’t even look for the ground clamp location. When I worked on ponsse equipment they had a very specific procedure in a specific sequence to unhook several things before welding. Then you had to reconnect everything in the opposite order of unhooking them.
How did they do that? I boosted many a Volvo with no issues.
Almost surely they hooked it up backwards. Electronic boxes don't like reverse polarity. But the guy who hooked it up backwards will never admit it. Sometimes the equipment ground looks reddish and the hot looks blackish, which is why I always, always look at the markings on top of the battery first. Fortunately I got to learn that hard lesson back in the days of points ignition, nothing was damaged other than a post and a jumper clamp.
Years ago I was installing the engine I just rebuilt a NTA-400 Cummins in a 1970's Pacific P9. I some how got the battery cables backwards at the starter reversing the polarity. The engine fired up and ran and every thing worked except the alternator and the AM/FM Cassette deck. I could not imagine the damage a mistake like that would do to a new truck.
In a Freightliner Cascadia with 12 modular controllers-dead zone.
The trouble is jump starting is frequently done in austere conditions. Dark of night with wind and snow, while blocking the road. Makes people not double check what they are doing. No problem so bad you can't make it worse.
I see most of my jump starting issues after the operator or job foreman have tried to boost a piece of equipment using another. Having a mix of 12V and 24V equipment on site and people with no knowledge of how they connect to one another is not friendly to batteries/alternators or ECMs. Usually when I get a call asking how to jump a 12V machine with a 24V machine, the damage has already been done and I know where to head next.
I'd guess reversed polarity or maybe everything was keyed on and got a good spark? Delivery driver at work suggested they carry jump boxes so they can pick up dead equipment. Most of these guys can;t figure out how to start a machine normally how are thye going to remove the covers, jump it properly, and then move the equipment. Last week we had so many no start issues and it had nothing to do with the equipment.
When I worked at Yellow Freight we had a service truck (old Ford city truck) with a compressor and a " hot start " generator that would make up to like 18 volts for jumping dead trucks. Didn't see any cooked ecm's but did witness several "incidents" where some ding dong tried to jump shorted or frozen batteries and blew them clear out of the box, covered in acid running around like a chicken on fire. The ends of the cables were quite arc marked from hooking them backwards. oops. The best option on that beast was a piece of 16inch channel mounted to the front, you could get behind a set of doubles square up to the ICC bumper and push start anything as long as it had enough power for ecm. Didn't work too well for all the new automatics they were buying right before I pulled the plug. Oh and yes I'm a battery disconnecter too, just the way I was learned.
Well I got roped into an engine swap on a D6T with a C9. The details of the failure were a little murky but the last guy who touched it installed the injectors with a hammer. It had been sitting for 3-4 years. So like a fool I dove in. Pulled the engine and left the torque converter. Swapped it all over and installed a new long block. Got it all installed (holy smokes that took forever). Short wiring harness to the electric fuel lift pump was missing and fuel lines strewn about. Figured all that out and ran a jumper wire to the lift pump. Hooked up car et and cranked it. I built oil pressure and got tons of fuel smoke but no fire. Too much fuel smoke really. It would pop once in a while but won’t run. Talked to an old cat guy who said I should see around 8 volts to the heui pump. I’ve got nothing out of the ecm going to the pump. We sent out the ecm to be tested but I’m not convinced that’s my issue. So I’ve got some questions. How many volts should be going to the heui pump and does it vary? I haven’t put in the injector trim codes yet. I didn’t think that would prevent it from running? With no voltage does the pump go full stroke? I’ve got cat et and sis. I can stumble my way around but I struggle to find what I need. I’m contemplating starting a cat sis thread and hopefully the cat gurus on here would chime in and we’d all learn something.
If you're getting tons of fuel smoke and no fire that doesn't immediately suggest an electronic issue. Normally if the electronics won't come out to play there is no smoke at all. If you have ET get communication with the engine ECM, go into the Configuration screen and watch 2 parameters - Desired Injection Actuation Pressure and Actual IAP. They may be titled a bit different to that but I'm sure you'll be able to find them. Electronics do not activate to fire the injectors until Actual IAP equals or exceeds Desired IAP. Did the long block have injectors in it.? What is the injector Part Number.? While you're at it need the machine S/N as well. Got any Active Diagnostic Codes or Events.?
The long block didn’t have injectors in it and the injector harness is new. I’ll have to get back to you on the part numbers. The serial is an sly? I can get that as well. It did have a couple codes. 172-3 intake manifold air temp sensor voltage above normal. 269-4 sensor power supply voltage below normal 1589-3 turbo air inlet pressure voltage above normal 1785-3 intake manifold pressure sensor voltage above normal. I didn’t think any of these would prevent it from starting except the 269-4. I wasn’t sure about that one.
As I’m learning this thing has been hacked on and was a bit cannablized and I’m sure I’ll never get the whole story.
Dumb question but a bit out of time?
Always a possibility I suppose. The DJY prefix might be enough on its own. Hopefully there is only one P/N of injector for the whole range. The fly in the ointment might just be the long block. I hope it’s the correct Arrangement Number to coincide with what was the original engine S/N……. There must be a million different arrangements of C-9.
Pulling a D6T engine is the worst. IDE rather be tortured
After seeing some of the ‘stuff’ you guys are dealing with on these new and improved, so easily maintainable machines, so very glad got out of the business!
Yep and I often think back to the days a complete wiring diagram for a Cat 966C would fit on a 51/2 by 8 1/5 inch page at the back of the parts book. And you could do an in chassis rebuild on a 3306 and only sheet metal removed was a hood held on with maybe four bolts, unless it had a belly pan then a few more bolts to drop that!
Hold on a minute............. DJY-prefix is listed as a D6N. Definitely need Serial & Arrgt Numbers, the more the merrier. Machine, engine, anything else you can lay your hands on. Plus obviously the installed injector P/N.
Nige I though he wrote SLY prefix?
He did ....... But SLY is a G3516E genset engine. Same question as above. Also need to know if the tractor is fitted with Product Link because the 269-4 Diagnostic Code may be related to that system. Either way it does not appear that 269-4 will prevent the engine from starting.
I saw the timing marks and they were lined up. The heui pump doesn’t have marks and I’ve always just put them in.
So it is an SKL00370 s.n. Not sly. The injector part numbers are 20R 8063 and the old engine serial number was THX12309. I don’t have the arrangement number in front of me. Would I be able to find that on et or sis since I was plugged into it?
This is the first dozer engine I’ve ever changed. So far I’ve got 66 hours into it not including my travel time.
20R8063 Reman njector P/N tallies with machine S/No and original engine Arrgt Number for THX12309 (301-5768 Arrgt). OEM injector P/N is 387-9434 although when the engine was built back in 2007 the injectors were 266-4446. I assume the ECM from the original engine was used on the long block. What flash file Part Number does it have installed.?
Not sure Nige. Can that be found on sis?
You’ll have to connect to ET and check out the software part number that is in the engine ECM. It should be on the first screen that loads up when you get connected.
Screen will look like this
And in the example above the flash file is actually referred to as the "Personality Module", so 3111901-00 would be the equivalent to the P/N you are looking for. When you find it post up the P/N and also the Release Date.
Ok. I won’t be back at the machine for a few days. I’ll report then. I appreciate the help. I work on so many different manufacturers that it’s hard to be proficient in all the computer programs.
No worries Mike, we can get you 100% proficient on cat ET.
Ah, missed the part about you doing the rebuild. Coworker just got stuck on a very old dozer project the owners friend had helped "overhaul" and my coworker had to break it to the guy it was better to start over than chase problems. Thought you were in a similar situation.
I didn’t do the overhaul. The engine was from cat and the front cover wasn’t on it so I saw the timing marks there
Some of those high pressure pumps have to be timed. This one doesn’t - I checked.
I didn’t know that. I’ve done a few and have never seen a timing mark.
Around minute 5:16 is a sample screen of what Nige was speaking about with ET parameters. Don't know if it'll help but I know I do better with pictures.
Okay so here is the latest on the D6T. Apparently my customer has some pull with the cat dealer a state over. They loaned us a test ecm. I put it on, hit the key, and she fired right up. So now a new ecm is ordered and will hopefully be here next week. So then we got thinking. When I was putting the engine in there was a pile of fuel in the muffler. I turned it upside down and dumped it out. The last people who worked on it thought it needed Injectors and then proceeded to install them with a hammer, then couldn’t get it to run. When I was trying to start it with the faulty ecm it was smoking excessively. I think the last guys misdiagnosed a bad ecm, threw injectors in it, and then cranked it which filled the cylinders with raw fuel and hydrolocked it, causing internal damage. Thoughts? Now here is my cat et/sis question of the day. When I plug into a machine and it has codes, where do I find the description of what sets the code and how to diagnose it?
On some of the menus, you can click on the code number and it will take you to a summary explanation of the code. Any more than that and I think you need the book.
I’ve seen that on Deere and cummins but for some reason I didn’t think cat did the same thing. Maybe I clicked in the wrong place.
If you click the troubleshoot link in ET it should take you to the manual in SIS but so far that has never worked even once for me. It always takes me to the SIS home page. What I do is for a code 3761-4 search for the first part of the code 3761 then look for the dash number and that should provide all the troubelshooting trees. I like leaving the previous windows and open new windows can be a pain to find the previous reference.
JohnC is correct. Sometimes, but not always, in ET if you highlight the Diagnostic Code you can right click and it takes you to a troubleshooting procedure. Do you have online access to SIS.? The great thing about SIS2.0 is that you can open it in multiple windows, even using different Serial Numbers, and dive off in different directions without affecting whatever other windows you have open. A suggestion. Find Special Instruction REHS0126 and create a pdf copy. I think it's about 200 pages now. That can provide your "Bible" for Diagnostic and Event Codes.
I’m not sure if I have online access and I have the old version of sis. Not 2.0.
Even if you have offline SIS and it's the old version REHS0126 should still be there in some form or other. The only question will be the Change Level, the numbers after the dash in other words. See if you can find it in your version of SIS and post back what change level you find. I think in my history files the oldest one I have is from about 20 years ago, version 03 IIRC.
so here’s my latest cat conundrum. 3412e. S.n. Bdt03561. unit is in a diamond z tub grinder. Crank no start. No codes. Checked the low pressure fuel syste. Plenty of fuel. Injection actuation psi needs to be 700-900 and within 200 psi of requested pressure. The pressure sensor reads 250 at all times, even removed and hanging in the atmosphere. The only time it changes is if I unplug it, I get a voltage high code. I replaced the sensor with no change. I have a couple questions. First, if I only read 250 psi then am I correct in thinking the ecm won’t energize the iap control valve to allow the injectors to fire? Secondly I’m thinking I have a wire issue going to the sensor. It is a 3 wire sensor. #167-1709. Where in sis do I find the testing procedure for the sensor? I didn’t have much time today to work on it but my next plan of attack is to put a gauge in the pressure port to see what actuation pressure I actually have and to chase the wiring.
Actual & Desired IAP are on consecutive lines of the screen IIRC If Actual IAP does not reach Desired IAP (or preferably exceed it) during cranking the ECM will not send the command to light the fires and therefore no smoke from the chimley...... I dunno if the latest versions of ET have it but there used to be a row of "Status Flag" boxes at the bottom of the screen. When a HEUI engine was stopped one of the boxes had an "Injection Disabled" message in it. You could watch the Actual IAP coming up during cranking and as soon as it passed the Desired IAP the Injection Disabled message would disappear, followed a split second later by a cloud of black smoke........ You won't get any Diagnostic Codes for Actual IAP failing to exceed Desired IAP during cranking. I used to like to see a HEUI cranking at something close to 200 RPM on the starter. Another thought. Check the Part # of the installed software and of the injectors and post back. It won't be the first one I've come across where the software P/N and that of the injectors didn't correspond. For an IAP sensor testing procedure try looking in the Troubleshooting section for CID0164 FMI03 (Engine Sensor Open/Short Circuit - Test). Also look for "Injection Actuation Pressure Control Valve Circuit - Test".
Here's another thought/question. What's the back story on the engine.? Did it start OK cold then got harder & harder to start hot until one day it wouldn't start at all, even when cold, OR......... was it running and just quit like someone turned off the key.? If the latter then my suspicion would be that the drive to the HEUI pump has let go. They were somewhat famous for that back in the day.
The back story was that it just quit. When you say the heui drive let go you mean like if I removed it the pump would be visibly broken or just doesn’t work anymore?
There is a splined drive coupling on the input side of the pump. If you slide the pump back a bit it ought to be possible to inspect the spline condition. A failed coupling will be immediately obvious because the splines will have disappeared, more on the female side than the pump shaft IIRC. I'm not saying the problem might not be electronic, but the way you say the engine stopped the first thing that sprung to mind was that drive coupling. They hang on to the splines until the last moment then simply let go.
Oh, and another thing. The coupler arrowed on the RH illustration runs on two bushings. If either or both of them gets signifcant wear it can take out the splines quickly. Look at 180-6644 DRIVE GP-UNIT INJ HYD PUMP on SIS.
I can’t explain it but I’ll report it. I went back today and worked on the engine. I checked My wiring to the sensor and it all checked out. I remover the sensor and put a test fitting in to check what my actual iap pressure was. With the sensor out and unplugged the iap pressure was well over 3000. Hmm. I plugged in the sensor and and tried again. This time it read around 900. thought it was weird so I did it again to make sure I hadn’t finally lost my mind and it did the same. so I reinstalled the sensor and put the pressure fitting in the other head. I hit the key and I’ll be damned it started and ran. ET still read that I had 250 psi with the engine off but it did read pressure while it was running. All I can think is that i may have a broken wire somewhere and with all my screwing around I made a contact somehow. We’ll see What happens. The tub needs a pile of work and the customer just wanted to see if I could get it running.
This has happened to me more than I care to admit. It can be really rewarding to find the broken copper, hidden by the intact insulation. Driver's door harness from the door to the body, broken at the bend......
I've seen cases before where sensors designed to read quite high pressures, like the IAP which IIRC is designed for pressures up to 10k psi, can be wildly inaccurate at the low end of the scale because it's outside their designed "comfort zone". A particular P/N of pressure sensor on mining equipment autolube system springs to mind but there were others as well. Could never get them to read zero or anywhere close to it when there was no pressure in the line. Apologies for steering you wrong regarding the pump drive but when you said the engine just quit it was the first thought that sprung into my head.
On all HEUI pressure sensors I’ve come in contact with, lowest psi it will read is 256 psi. I think the book says such somewhere.
No sweat Nige, I appreciate all the help you give the whole forum on a daily basis. I always know that when I’ve got a cat question you’ll chime in with a wealth of knowledge.
Are steering wheel holders getting dumber? Is that even possible? A manager from one of our customers phoned and said they were having a truck towed to our shop there is something wrong with the engine. Its a late 2000's Navistar 4000 series with a Maxxfarce 7 the small V8. The tow truck driver told me he had to start it to move it to hook up the tow truck. He said "Its really loud". I had the tow truck driver back the truck into the shop. I slid under the truck and from the engine back everything is black covered in carbon. Poking around I found the tube that connects the right exhaust manifold to the turbo had broken off at the manifold creating a major exhaust leak. The bolts in the back of the manifold were seized and I managed to break one so I said F-It a new manifold. While under the truck I noticed there was a leak from the firewall on the driver's side. The sniff test identified it as brake fluid. The right door and fender and fuel tank were also black with carbon so this didn't just happen. The cab stunk of exhaust. I took a paper towel and wiped the inside of the windshield and it was covered in black. I'm wondering if the driver was poisoned by the exhaust and died so they had to have it towed. I found the pre-trip book in the cab and the driver never made any entries about the exhaust leak or the brake fluid leak. He did note that there were a couple chips in the windshield and the windshield washer was not working. I wonder why the windshield washer doesn't work? The truck has Meritor Wabco full pressure brakes and the fluid was leaking from the switch at the bottom of the master cylinder at the mounting flange. I believe the brake light switch. So the master cylinder seals are likely the culprit. There was a four litre container of brake fluid in the cab that was half full. so I suspect it had been leaking for a while. Here in Canada any brake fluid leak put the truck out of service. We share the roads with thses people. A scary thought.
The expression "If brains were dynamite they wouldn't have enough to blow the wax out of their ears" springs to mind.........
Or blow their nose!
Well I’m in Valdosta, Georgia doing an inspection on a timberpro tl745d for one of my old customers from Maine. They wanted someone they trusted to look at it so I threw out a price and they bit. I’ve never done this before but it’s worked out pretty well. Maybe another service to offer? Oh and I’m going to toot my own horn. Today marks 4 years of self employment. Toot toot!!!
toot toot! That's great you've been able to make it work. 20% new businesses fail in the first two years - 45% in the first five.
Congrats, Mike. Good to hear. I like hearing your stories. I’m just starting my 4th year of self employment.
No good pictures but I figured I’d update the thread. New customer called me yesterday and said he had a tigercat loader with no hydraulics. He replaced the pilot pump and pilot solenoid but still had nothing. I figured it was just the armrest switch or something simple. Drove 87 miles one way to let him know that it was low on hydraulic oil. Like 35 gallons low. I’m sure his new pilot pump is going to have a short life. Another new guy called me yesterday afternoon. Lost the pump drive coupler in a barko loader. I said sure I’ll do it but it will be a couple days. Nope. He wanted it done yesterday. I’m not exaggerating. Said he’d find someone else. I mean for the love of Nancy! did he think I was at home watching the days of our lives? I don’t even know him and he expected me to drop what I was doing and run for him. Good luck to ya buddy!
I try not to get too bent out of shape with the guys who want it "yesterday". My phone number was available last thursday and they could have called then, instead of today. Some guys- everything is a emergency. I try to be straight with shops on if I'm in a hurry or not. If I have a driveline that needs fixed- and I'm on the side of the road, that's a whole different thing than if its in the shop or in a parking lot that I don't have to get it out of. Not everything is a emergency.
Tell that to my ex wife, would ya? Joe H
I don’t get too worked up about these guys but one thing I’ve noticed down here in Texas is that everyone complains about a lack of mechanics but nobody has any patience. Heat index is well over 100 every day and I’ve still got some thick yankee blood in me. I’m not killing myself for anyone. Another thing I’ve noticed is that people aren’t shy about asking for free info. Had a guy call me last week on a cat 320 with some weird hydraulic issue. Someone else couldn’t diagnose it and he wanted to know how I was going to fix it. I told him the truth. I’d start from square one. I have no idea what the other guy had or hadn’t done. He didn’t like that answer And said he’d keep looking. works for me. I don’t need customers like that. Too many good ones to bother with the bad ones.
You evidently couldn't tell her, what makes you think I can?
Mike L ... Fast is Expensive. Fedex created an industry out of that. He wants Fast. You determine how Expensive. I get backhoe parts from my local Deere dealer. It's a hobby machine so I wait on regular parts delivery for no shipping charges. Yet, dealer can expedite parts in a few hours for a (to me) a very high shipping price. A cheap price if a multi million dollar project is halted for a part.
What does a guy like that want? Maybe he would have liked it better if you told him it needed the pump for 20k . . .
He wanted free answers and I’m fresh out of them. His first question was how much I charged and his second question was how are you going to fix it? Even if I knew what was wrong I wouldn’t just tell him. thats a quick way to put myself out of business.
When I first started my business I put an ad in the yellow pages. After awhile it became obvious who called from the ad, first questions was "How much to.........." One year of that and never again. Word of mouth is all it takes, and actually it seemed the bigger ads were from thieves. Bigger the ad the worse they were. Joe H
I’ve been in Texas since October of last year and I’m already weeding out the slow pay no pay customers. I’ve got a handful of good customers and I’m more than willing to offer suggestions if I‘m too busy to get to them in a reasonable amount of time.
Years ago a guy that ran the local radiator shop said to me--{You know that guy so-&-so? Mike he was in here last week just giving you hell, said you called him a son of a bitch. I told him if Mike said your a son of a bitch then I guess your a son of a bitch. He got real pi$$ed and drove off, Thanks Mike for opening the door so I could get rid of that------ son of a bitch. Like I've said before--40% of the public are dishonest-that's why there's a law firm on every other corner downtown. Wouldn't need so many if people were honest, when starting a business the first thing to acquire is a lawyer. When some newbie customer asks how your going to fix it, what's the price and how long/ fast can you get it done. Just say give me a second--{I'll look that repair, price and time up on Youtube and get back to you in a hour}. If they want free info tell them to come to HEF and we'll run them up the flag pole, this place gives it away at absolutely no cost. Irony.
Those types have been around forever, buy used tires and complain when fail, buy used cars or trucks expecting new responses and have fits when fail as do no maintenance. Try to squeeze mechanics to help them with information, loaned tooling, ideas how to patch junk to make it around the block one more time. Have come to see them within minutes of a conversation start. Are a number of those here trying to press me for information I will not give up. They also offer to pay me for help or to hire me to fix their junk where locals have shut them off for no pay slow pay problems. Pretty sad state for them but not my problem. Two have been after me to rebuild their old engines, throw a price and they balk only to return over and over asking if could cut some slack. Answer is and been NO.
If i have some one ask how much am i giving for scrap iron i tell them i am not interested . They could be hard to get along with but if someone ask about me hauling some then i am more interested. Scrap iron and junk is a byproduct of some other thing that was done to make money it should almost never be counted in when the profit is figured out.
I have the free information people everyday, the company I work for has invested an inordinate amount of money into diagnostic/parts/maintenance equipment for both the engineers and parts sales sides of the business. People have the brass tacks to call us, that have never used our company before and ask you to read off what a fault code is... what it does.....where it's situated... and what the part number is.... oh wait would you like me to get my tools out and fit it as well! Part numbers are now only supplied as reference numbers for our own use later if they do actually buy the part. We even have people call wanting advice on how to fit something they have bought, when you ask where they bought said part from because you can't see a sale of that part to them..... you really want to say why don't you call the people you bought it from and ask them how to fit it? We are seriously considering a tech help charge so if you want help/ diagnostic /fitting/ torque specs etc there is a basic fee of £X, which if you have or do buy the part associated is either waved or credited
Free info--Just call Cummins and ask for torque spec's--crickets.
Stopped into the tigercat dealer today. Saw some 3/4” drive 5/8” hex impact sockets on the wall. They fit the Allen head bolts that hold on Feller buncher saw disks. I said I’d take one. He rang me up and looked a little puzzled. “Hang on let me check that again. Huh, you sure you want it?” $129.99. Made by grey pneumatic. Umm, I think I’ll pass. “Don’t blame you”. I left and looked it up on Amazon. $43.69. Now I don’t mind someone making a dollar off me. That’s how the world goes around. But wow! They are mighty proud of it. Probably buy a snap-on socket cheaper.
I wonder.
Was it listed as a genuine Tigercat part?
No. It was a grey pneumatic 3920F.
I thought it may have been an OEM part and why the ridiculous price.
But never assume Snap-On is the hero here.....
Honestly the grey pneumatic socket I bought looks way more stout than the snap on. I’ve got grey pneumatic up to 4.5” and I’ve been very happy with them. Snap-on doesn’t make the best of everything but in some areas they can’t be beat.
Pulled a 6068 out of a 648L2 this morning. It was seized up. I figured it dropped a valve and smacked a piston. Nope. #1 and #5 had spun bearings that ate the crank. #2 and #4 had spun bearings that cooked themselves to the crankshaft. I’ve never seen that many in one engine. Mains looked good not that it matters. Machine has 9000 hrs on it. Nothing looks oil deprived. Thoughts from the brain trust? I drove it last week after putting a new brake accumulator on it. It sounded fine with no knocking.
Gonna throw one speculation, clearance on at least one if not both spun rod bearings, allowed to overwhelm the locater tabs, adhered from contact friction, failed, next up drop in oil Volume & pressure there while not enough to give up mains starved the remaining rods. Will most likely see starvation damage beginning on 3&6. Pump feeds main gallery to main bearings and in some instances a direct feed to cam, from mains feed thru drillings to rods.
If only you had stayed in Maine. This is all your fault:
The way they’re acting, it’s never been this hot in July before. Unprecedented
Heat index, probably a higher number than actual thermometer.
New way to twist a plot when real numbers do no longer work.
There isn't much else in the news, apparently . . .
Kind of like windchill temps.
It’s plenty hot down here and the humidity won’t quit. sweated through my first shirt by 7:30 yesterday morning. Maine is sounding mighty fine.
Mike L might want to rethink where he's at. Here's the current weather report from Downeast Maine: 100%+ humidity for the past 3 weeks. Temps 50s-60s along the coast and up to 80's further inland. 3 WEEKS of the same view EVERY SINGLE day. We get to see the island out there past the small dead tree for a few hours at a time when the fog is repeeled..... for a while...but it's been guaranteed to come back in thick this year. We don't dare stray far in the boat without a GPS or depth finder. The only good thing is the plentiful amount of mushrooms we've been able to find. Chanterels taste great on homemade pizzas!
50-60 degrees sounds great. I haven’t seen below 80 in over a week. I think I’d like to be a snowbird. Maine from may through thanksgiving and then Texas the rest of the time. Are those the mushrooms that will teleport you to another dimension?
You're thinking of "Magic Shrooms" !!!
Sounds like you have some knowledge about the subject, DMiller!
Psilociben (sp?) are the "magic mushrooms" that are somewhat poisonous with psychodelic properties. Not for me. I'm taking my time learning which edibles are easy to identify and pleasant to eat. Just Oysters and Chantereles picked and consumed so far. Still looking for Chicken of the Woods to try out. You certainly want to avoid the Destroying Angel that provides a death sentence if ingested. Foraging gets me out with the wife into the woods to find what we can. Our area near camp has a great selection of Chantereles so we know where to go next year for free, tasty eats. I'm really not looking forward to returning to the heat and humidity but it's been a nice break up here.
Ugh. I am getting tired of this FL ****. It is actually cooler this week than last, but the humidity makes that 'real feel' nasty, 108 and 109?
Typical St Louis style heat
Current Conditions Diboll, TX. https://weather.com/weather/today/l...=current-condition-updated-card - Shared Link
Heat index here was 112° Thursday and 114° Friday
Could be -11 with a -36 windchill and blowing mini ice bullets outside…..I’ll take heat over cold any day.
you can put on clothes and start a fire.... We are effed in the heat, nothing to do
I’ve worked at -27 and at 109. Didn’t like either.
-31 with 20mph wind is my coldest. Running tow calls in an International flatbed. That was a long night . . .
always prefer cold, there is only so much clothing you can remove before criminal proceedings take place
here we go again:
Almost as bad as Can Entries at power at the Nuke, Good day in Dead of Winter, 114 on Ground floor, average across building was 118 to 120, 15-20 minute stay times.
I always assumed Real Feel was just a nu-term for heat index, but those numbers don't match up. This is how the National Weather Service calculates it:
I don't know, probably just more sensationalism by mainstream media. It does feel that hot though!
The difference between "Real Feel" and "Heat Index" is that the first one is a commercialized measure used by weather channels & TV stations that may incorporate other factors in addition to temp/humidity (such as wind speed and the effects of solar radiation) to produce a temperature reading that the human body might feel as a result of all those factors combined. The second is a calculation based solely on actual air temperature and relative humidity (dew point). I would imagine that in summer the RF temperature would always be higher than the calculated HI temperature. This was a public service announcement.........
I wish they’d just lie and say the real feel was 68 everyday. Maybe I could trick my brain into believing it while I sweat through my boxers.
All of the sudden, the NWS is taking ground temps instead of air temps, two meters above the earth like they always have. Something is,.....
My old friend Harold Hall lived in Bullhead City, AZ for many years. He was adamant about the weather forecast this time of year. "Lying bastards.....If they told the truth, NO ONE would show up.....
Walked out barefoot on concrete walk and drive this morning, really warm to the touch kinda felt good, step off in yard nice and cool, evidence of Urban Heat Sink.
What’s urban heat sink?
Texas
That explains it perfectly.
Pretty Well!!!
Nothing new about the heat I've seen it 104 in Phoenix at 4am 121 daytime & that was 50 yrs. Ago
heat island - Google Search
No thank you very much.
I enjoy how people here in Phoenix are always surprised its hot in the summer.
Dad's sis, my Aunt and her Hubby lived in Phoenix, summers terribly hot but dry so their asthma (And My Own) was not so severe, the Santa Anna Winds and dust storms were also horrible along with memories of 115-120 degree temps in the 1960s, absolutely nothing new there just sensationalizing for the "Cause".
Worked on an ocean going tug back in my 20's. Was down in the Gulf of Mexico. T storms, lightning bolts bigger than buildings hitting around us (they seemed wider than buildings anyway). I'm up in the pilot house watching this going on (I was Chef Engineer at the time). My comment was "I realize we're on an infinite ground (since we were the tallest piece of steal sticking into the sky) and the current should pass down the mast, into the hull, and then out into the water..............but yah know what?? I'm going to go hide in the basement on my wooden chair. GOOD LUCK and let me know when it's over....."
Thursday before labor day. I was up in Maine getting groceries so I could labor on my camp. The basement had been flooded out in June or July monsoons. Hot water heater, water pump, and furnace destroyed by the 4ft of water that flooded the basement. I got a call from one of the companies I work for.......an E250 rock truck had been running loads when suddenly it started BANGING. They wanted to know how soon I could get there........I told them Tuesday morning. I was 5 hours away. I got there Tuesday morning around 6am.........this is what I found. #1 cylinder intake valve push rod bent, valve wouldn't move......the rest of them moved w/ a bit of leverage with pry bar. Engine was/ is a certified CAT REMAN long block. Had 196H running time on it. Was bought 1 year 4 months ago. CAT only gives a 1 year warranty on their engines.......this is a 3306 engine. A 3406 engine on road engine gets a 100k mile warranty and a 3 years time frame. ***!!! No warranty provided. Now the good stuff!!! Pulled the head Friday.......... Every single valve had been hitting the pistons. THE PISTONS HAD BEEN PUT IN 180 OUT. Meeting with CAT this week.
Wow!!
That is a straight-out full warranty replacement, right there, with no quibbles!! Plus, I'd be asking for compensation for an unnecessary engine R&R!! What a bunch of morons, who can't even get piston orientation correct!! Where do they get these people?? 40-50 years ago, when you got a Cat serviceman, you got a guy you could worship for his level of skills and training and knowledge!
Cat complete cylinder packs-I always slide the piston to bottom of liner to check wrist pin snap rings. In X amount of years I've found one that the snap ring wasn't totally in lock groove-it only takes one. Nothing is shocking anymore.
My dad bought a Case 1080B excavator in the spring of 1997....... supposedly had a rebuilt engine. Put approximately 100 hours on it and spun a rod bearing. Upon disassembly, discovered 4 of the 6 pistons were 180 out, and the rod bearing that spun along with one other had loose bolts...... The dealer that sold it to my dad said get it fixed, and send us the bill. We found a running engine in a dismantled machine, and built that sucker like brand new, everything but the crank and fuel pump was replaced. $14k back in 1997, that engine ran like a Swiss watch for 8000 hours.
Sometimes you just have to do it your self.
They're not called "assemblers" for nothing........ Basically anyone who can pass a drug test and turn up on time day after day.
When i was in votec we had to do On the job training for 2 weeks . The teacher liked me i went to a engine machine shop i liked that alot but 3 friends got sent to a rebuild place. They told me never buy anything from a rebuilder.
Cherokee-was one. Small block and big block chevy engines-when oil pressure gets low the front rod journal is the last to get oil so it's normally the crankpin with spun rod bearings. It was standard practice for them to weld cranks. If it failed the reply was {engine oil system was not properly primed causing bearing failure}. Zero warranty.
And both those are somewhat negotiable.
HEY!!! That's me!! I usually am a DIS-ASSEMBLER. Ummm...........drugs..........where is caeffine on that scale?? Lots of caeffine...lots.
Buddy of mine has a boat with a 351 in it. This started last year. Was getting water in the engine oil. He took it to a boat/ snowmobile place (found this out much later...........boat/snowmobile....LOL). They automatically did head gaskets. I asked him if they pressure tested it first.............he called them and asked.........they said pressure testing is just for cooling systems (Uh ohhh). He takes it out this spring......VOILA!! Water in the oil again. Takes it back to the same shop. They tell him he needs a new engine. He tells me they ordered a Jasper engine. My comment to him was...........WHY AM I FINDING OUT ABOUT THIS AFTER ALL THIS GOES DOWN??!! ARE YOU A GLUTTON FOR PUNISHMENT AND JUST LOVE THE ABUSE AND TORMENT?? I then filled him in on Jasper...........sure enough, engine shows up (end of June??)..........the boat/ snowmobile shop puts the old oil pan on the core going back, wrong oil pan on the ...ehhhh-hmmm.......rebuilt engine. Oh, wrong dipstick tube.....or something. Dipstick showed way over full on the oil. Takes boat out.............VOILA!!.........water in the oil again. Family has vaca plans for 4th of july with a boat. He finds a half decent used boat for $10k, buys it and has been using it since. He is still going back and forth with Jasper and the Boat/Snowmobile shop. So in all honesty............who puts together or does a half decent job rebuilding engines?? I've heard that NAPA has a decent rebuild engine source............is this true?? Just trying to get some info in case I need to steer someone for a rebuilt engine.
Jasper owns Weller reman since 2016. Napa for years in the PNW was using Cherokee/Tam, and Tam was a national rebuilder for Ford. There are I suppose some decent rebuilders out there, best bet is to find a local custom rebuilder, and those are hard to find. * I wouldn't touch a Tam engine.
Thanks for that. Do you think Tam has different standards they held to by Ford compared to putting an engine together for some other company?? Or is it one size fits all?? Hard to keep track of who's buying who. Cummins bought Jake brake last year or the year before as one example.
Cummins has always had their thumb on the pulse of Jacobs and Holset. * I worked a very short time for a ford dealer in the late 89 repairing 6.9-7.3's. A 66 notch back mustang came in that had just had a 170/200 six replaced it took a dump it was a TAM. So under warranty another was ordered-I noticed something odd about the area where water pump is bolted to block. I took a can of carb clean washed that area, the block was a junk core they rebuilt. It had been cracked/broken in that spot-Tam brazed it back then hand filed it, slapped paint on it put on pallet out the door it went. junk. It didn't run all that great either and this was the second engine.
That includes CEO's.
I'd like to get paid as a CEO turning wrenches for myself...............Mike will back me up on that.........Right Mike??!!! I've got an 08 F350 Lariat dually out back w/ 6.4L. I managed to get 280k out of her before bad things happened...........head gasket. It was either 2016 or 2018.........I asked the Ford dealer where I have my account how much for a running complete engine...........$13k at the time. Hind sight............wonderful hind sight. I deleted the engine around 100k. I had sent an oil sample in one time........never seen so many warnings on an oil sample before. Fuel dilution, low viscosity, high chrome, high iron, etc, etc. Looking at new Rams w/ the cummins...........always been a ford guy. Looking under the hood of 6.7 Ford compared to the Cummins..............yeah, I'll go Dodge thank you very much!! Makes me want to puke looking under the hood of a Ford now. However............$75 to $100k for a truck?? My mother...........who is now 80...........bought a new Subaru a few years ago. She called me up and told me she just paid for a new car what my parents had paid for the house back in '67. That will always stick with me.
I agree. Presented with the evidence of all 6 pistons installed the wrong way round there is no way they can refuse warranty. Thing is that it’s no skin off the local dealer’s nose because Cat Reman will be ultimately carrying that warranty, not them. Completely agree that R&I labour should be included in the claim and be prepared to negotiate on that. They might offer 50%. Again remember that the dealer is just the “agent” who has no skin in the game for the final bill. @OzDozer - the problem is that engine was not assembled by a mechanic, serviceman, fitter, or whatever you want to call them. It was put together by someone who probably has little or no mechanical knowledge blindly following a set of instructions on a computer screen.
While playing video games on that Computer or their Phone whilst assembling.
You buddy need to have the exhaust risers checked out. They leak and put water in the oil.
A buddy told me they installed a rebuilt gas engine in a ford truck coolant ran out the exhaust. They got another something was wrong with it . The next engine a guy delivered it and they tore it apart and reassembled before installing it they didnt have any problems with it.
I wonder how much it would cost to take it to a local hot rod shop and dyno test the engine for a while to see if parts come off, fluids go where they don't belong before spending the time and trouble to install it in its home only to find out it is no good like this.
Odd job putting the bits in backwards, the V on the block matches the V on the piston, I wonder if the rods are fitted to the crank in the right face or to the piston, the cylinder pack thing is something I never understood or would buy, I like to bare fit the liners and check the L.P.H. then fit the seals and install the liners, followed by the piston and rod assembly.
I do the same by the book procedure using old liners, I measure old and new liner flanges so I know with in margin. Series 60's it's a must to measure liner flange, but I measure any brand engine liners, and depth check counter bores/shims.
One of three I built for locals. You can guess what happens when thermostat malfunctions with water cooled headers. *
WOW!!!!! How many kilo's can you fit in the hull???LOL Nice job on the engine!!! My wife's best friends father lives down the street..........like a 2nd father to my wife. He's been into hot rodding forever. I call him the worlds oldest teenage. He tools around in a '34 purple coupe. Used to take it to the drags all the time. It's had so many different engines in it I can't count. He ended up getting a CAT 416 extend a hoe a few years ago. Heading over today to put the extend hoe back in. He ended up cracking the boom that slides out. It never ends with him..........too bad I can't bill him for all the time I spend on his stuff.
That was another give away..........the V's were facing the back of the engine. I never checked the rods.........good point!!! I just stopped after pulling the head and seeing all the pistons 180 out.
It's a perfect example of a {baby boomer toy}.
Is that your pickup truck in front of the boat?? If it is, it looks like its in nice shape!! (my first truck was a 77 Chevy blazer......had a 76 and 78 parts trucks.........many engines and transmissions........because BIGGER is always better!!! said the teenager/ 20 something year old)
No none of that is mine, neighbors. That chevy-454 with 70,000 miles. It just sets now can't afford to drive it, the hole in the water was sold to someone in Lake Havasu. He finely admitted he's a old boomer trying to relive his twenties and got rid of the costly junk.
Buddy of mine would collect the derelict flat bottoms around here, build stupid high power engines and stiletto props, boats looked like hell where would “Test run” them out on Alton Pool. Worst one he played with, 200 hp designed Merc outboard he had built insane HOT, took two of us on the tie down handles to keep it from sinking in the shallows until he could get it fired off then we let go and he was off to the races!!
Two blade propster.
So my wife's best friends parents live down the street from us. My wifes father passed away when she was 18 or so. So her best friends father sort of became a surogate father to her. I really think Dave is the world's oldest teenager. He has a '34 Ford coupe that he used to drag race. Now he just uses it as a street rod. Tools around in it all the time. He had a speed boat that had a 6 cylinder inboard outboard. The last iteration of that boat........he had put the biggest jet drive into he could fit.......and put a 500 cu in engine in it to drive it. Dave's friend died and his backhoe was being stored at Dave's house.........well, it became his backhoe. He'd take it out, dig out the pond, blow a hose, break this, that, or the other thing and I'd end up down at his house fixing it. He kept tearing up a hose fitting to the bucket curl open side. About once a week I'd get a call from him saying he broke it again..........go down, cut the old one off, press a new one on. The 3rd time he called in 3 weeks the whole sleeve had been sliced open. The first 2 times, the fitting was bent like it had been hit. Looking at the boom, just after where the bucket curl cylinder was........the square tubing was all cracked and broken from him doing bad things with it all the way extended. Pulled the tube out, air arced the crack out, then welded it up. We were putting it together last week.........the grandson was out helping out (Kids and heavy equipment......gotta be out where the action is!! So we were putting the stick into the backhoe using the crane. I had put the remote down on the back bumper to go over and pry, wriggle, prod the extend hoe back into the dipper section. The crane started doing crazy things all by itself!!! Got really spooked when the extend hoe started moving.........
Turns out I forgot to 'child proof' my truck and equipment............... My 'Assitant Diesel Technician' decided I needed help and he'd push the buttons for me!! Note that he is dressed for success.........T shirt and shorts made for the operation!! It was funny after the scary shocking part.
At least headed in right direction, just a TAD overzealous!! Sweet Coupe.
Last year Dave decided he was going to replace the rear tires on the coupe.........but they still had some good meat on them. Well..............you just can't 'WASTE THE RUBBER ON THOSE TIRES'. He did a brake stand in front of the garage doors. I think it lasted 5-10 minutes. I'm at my house.......all you hear is the car revved up, burning rubber..........tires squealing forever. The smoke ended up drifting up to my house 1/4 mile away smelling of burned rubber. Well.........I took ride to see if I could figure out where this emminated from..........I had a pretty good guess. Pulled into Daves driveway..........there he is cleaning the rubber off the door and fenders with acetone..........the garage door, white in color........is COVERED in melted rubber. I think he spent a week cleaning the coupe and the garage door. quote "NEXT TIME I'll do it away from the garage!!"LOL Worlds oldest teenager.......80 years old.
Well... merry Christmas to me. It was time to upgrade and found a clean 2017 ex Carolina cat truck. Actually brought it home before thanksgiving and took some time to shine her up and get it ready. Started working out of it this week.
I wish I was as rich as you guys. I can barely make it into the black every year.
You stick with me, vetech. I’ll show you the way.
Hopefully your wifey won't get jealous when you're holding my hand.
Nah. She might look at us funny but she’s not the jealous type.
LMAO....Thank God! That means we can hug too then.
Sure. I mean it’s almost 2024. People aren’t allowed to judge us just because they don’t understand!
You two gonna need a Room?
Congrats! Nice truck.
Agreed
Thanks. I’m really enjoying the 350hp and the Allison automatic.
I'm surprised you have the old phone number on the door. I would want a local area code and even a local landline exchange number. Not that anyone cares any more.
Get to the important info- does it have A/C? That works? Seriously though, congrats, it looks like a great truck. Even better is that you're busy enough to need it and have the work to pay for it. It had to be hard swapping locations and "starting" again, and not a lot of guys can do that.
It has to be very rewarding to be able to have a nice truck like that and all the tools you need to do your job efficiently. The truck let's potential customers know you're ready to tackle anything that comes up. Many years ago when I set up a welding truck a Tig welder friend of my brother's said having a nice truck is like advertising. If you have a ratty and rusty old truck potential customers may shy away thinking your truck is a reflection of your work. A nice clean truck shows you take pride in your things so you likely take pride in your work as well.
I’ve had that number for almost 20 years. I thought about changing it but the idea of letting everybody know didn’t sound fun
It does. There has definitely been some hurdles down here but I haven’t had trouble being busy.
Would you care to give a tutorial on that Ali arc bumper guard? I’d like to see how it mounts and tilts. Looks like it could be beneficial to us here in the Midwest where a deer could cost you same or more than what that guard costs. That’s a super nice truck, I thought I’d miss the automatic but the 10 speed has been nice, sucks in rush hour traffic though. What model air compressor is on there? Mine is a CAS3560 and it does well but hates cold weather, didn’t know if they’d improved.
I would keep the old one but forward it to a new one. Within a year everybody will figure it out.
Here you go ahart. the Ali arc bumper is pretty simple. Basically remove the factory bumper and braces. the new frame work bolts in between the front spring hangers. Then the bumper itself is bolted to the frame work and those bolts act as pivot pins. the bumper lifts up and is secured with the fancy eyebolt looking things. I wouldn’t want to pull anything with the bumper but it is well built and should deflect any deer or hogs that stand in the way of me getting to work. ali arc has a national account with any paccar dealer and the part number is kw031b.
That's a pretty sweet-looking imitation of a good ol' Aussie bullbar! But we don't bother with those fancy hoops around the headlights, we like all straight-line designs! This is called a FUPs bullbar, Front Underrun Protections, it's designed to stop things you hit from going under. You can bounce decent size steers off these bars, if they're silly enough to step into your path at 100kmh! A lot of Outback Australia is unfenced, and no-one drives at night in this neck of the woods without a decent bar! Dark red-coloured cattle are the worst. They blend in with the red dirt! Truck Wholesalers Australia - 2018 Kenworth T610 IT Sleeper Fuel KIT Rebuild KW $240000+GST T610 IT Sleeper For Sale in Ballarat 2018 Kenworth T610 IT Sleeper Fuel KIT Rebuild KW $240000+GST for sale Ballarat. Review latest price & specifications of Used trucks for sale today at Truck Wholesalers Australia www.truckwholesalersaustralia.com.au
Mike---Not bashing your new truck or that Ali-Arc bumper, but one huge flaw with Ali-Arc. The hinge point--there are no hardened bushings it's just aluminum against a bolt and Ali also didn't use one long enough with unthreaded shank. If it's like all the others I've seen it's threads wearing against aluminum. So if you leave it that way plus don't tighten the sinch bolts in the front with a bar the vibration will eat out the hinge area, and it will be a B!tch locking back each time. A bolt with smooth shank and short on threads. * We had three Ali-Arc bumpers and Herd brand mainly-not impressed with either. The best out there is EFX. * Out of the 90 some crash bumpers we had very few did anything, at $2,500 plus each allot of wasted money in my book. * Well if that's the case someone needs to make use of all that roadkill beef and start roadside BBQ's along the way with 5 gallon buckets of dippin sauce.
On Highway thru Hell they refer to the big bumpers as rabbit bumpers because they mount where the tow pins go leaving no where strong enough to hook to. Several have been ripped right off because there was no other choice. I think if there was a way to mount strong enough tow hooks and still use the bumper would be best way to go. Could maybe beef up the mounts like TS suggested in the process.
It's one reason I don't care for the bumpers. On a Cascadia the ports for tow/recovery hooks is used for the bumper mount/receiver, and those receiver mounts are not forged like the tow hooks--just bend. So what happens is bumpers need to be removed in some cases to use tow hooks--$300 plus removal fee. Now most will say {how often does it get removed?} Only takes one time to be more than enough.
Going off their website, the guard for the T300 is the only one that lists “w/tow hooks” for a KW, making me think I’d have access to my tow receivers. I’ll admit, I don’t hate the look of it.
Ali-Arc mounts totally different than Herd.
All Australian bullbars have a heavy section of steel bolted between the frames with a central tow point, that is supposed to be completely adequate for virtually all towing purposes. However, as the old saying goes, they make bigger and better idiots all the time. In the early 1990's, a local haulage company rolled up to the Northern Goldfields of W.A. to haul a huge excavator away from a finished job. They brought a large platform trailer behind a nearly new V8 Mack to haul the excavator, which was well over 150 tonnes (330,000lbs). For some reason unknown to me, they built a ramp to load the machine onto the trailer - and when they did this, the D10 operator dug a depression in the ground to construct the ramp. As you might expect for guys working hard without thinking - after they loaded up, the Mack couldn't pull the loaded platform trailer out of the depression in the ground, it lost traction. So, with a whole lot more of "not thinking", these clueless but enthusiastic operators hooked the D10 to the central tow point of the Mack to give it the necessary assist out of the hole! Someone stood back and videoed the whole operation, as the D10 walked away with the entire front end out of the Mack! - the bullbar, the front chassis cross-member, tow hitch, radiator and grille assembly all just fell on the ground! - and the Mack and trailer stayed right where they were! The D10 pull simply sheared every rivet and bolt holding every part of the front end on the Mack! I had numerous similar problems with operators doing damage to my machines with clueless chain attachment, when pulling them out of bogs - to the point I had some decals made up, fitted to the windscreen of every vehicle, reading, "THIS VEHICLE IS NOT TO BE CHAINED TO ANY MACHINE FOR TOWING PURPOSES, UNLESS TWO CHAINS ARE ATTACHED EVENLY TO THE FRONT SPRING PERCHES OF BOTH CHASSIS RAILS!" I can recall seeing more than one front axle beam from others trucks, where clueless workers had slung a chain around the centre of the beam, and upon heavy pulling, had bowed the axle beam into a neat curved shape!
On one episode of the show a D9G had to pull a loaded semi in fairly deep snow in the center median between 2 roads. The Cat operator was pretty careful pulling. At first the truck wasn't moving despite the front end lifting a bit. He stopped and discovered the brakes on the trailer weren't releasing. Had he kept pulling he would have pulled the front off the truck. Another episode (same tow guy) 2 D9G's with winches were being used to extract an excavator out of a mud and water filled hole. Some idiot that worked for the contractor was arguing the D9's would pull better driving rather than winching. The tow guy asked if the guy had ever ran a winch Cat... add about 30% (using the winch). From what I could find I think a D9G winch is 45 tons pull. Add a snatch block and that's some serious pulling power. It would be very frustrating being in the tow business and having people thinking they know better telling you how to do your job.
Tell me about it.
In my defense the guy brought a Dodge 5500 to pull out a flipped over Excursion down a 30ft embankment full of small trees and I watched his truck sliding backwards as he tried winching it up so we were charged for his second tow truck to help, before I called him an idiot and asked for a real tow company.
It's like any business---if the one operating is clueless. Rule number 1 never bring a knife to a gun fight, Rule number 2 remember 50% of male subjects know everything and have the ego to go with it, first look it over and bring in the second truck before attempting with the 1st truck.
One thing that helps them know everything is all those stupid TV shows . . .
Or call in real tow company with a bigger truck.
Everybody wants to try and save money, including when getting towed. You don't just call for a 75 ton rotator at $600/hr. There are many situations where the tow company needs to come out and access what's needed. Sometimes a single truck may work and sometimes there are complications where a 2nd or larger truck is needed. The tow company can't see everything over the phone. There are times when maybe the best truck to use is busy on another job.
That's when I got back in and drove off knowing I was the only one in a large radius that had the equipment. Leaving the owner standing there with his thumb in his ***. And what really made it fun is when they started that crap along side the highway with WSP involved for traffic control. I would remind them who wrecked the vehicle and who's insurance it is for getting them out and if they kept up their crap-it's good by, and about that time is when the WSP Smokey says to them {This is my Highway and I want My highway clear-So Shut Your Pie Hole and Do what Mike Says-or you can get acquainted with the back seat in My Patrol Car- -----Got It}. Funny how all of a sudden nice as pie, should have been that way to begin with.
It’s a bittersweet day. Started my business 5 years ago today. And what am I doing? Well I rebuilt a Deere 6068 a couple weeks ago. the blowby was so bad it was pushing oil out of the fill tube. I put new pistons, rings, liners, oil pump, and rod and main bearings in it. Nothing was done to the head besides valve bridges. it ran great with 60 psi of oil pressure. Then it started making noise. I pulled it back out today and it spun 4 connecting rod bearings and the mains look worse than the ones I pulled with 8k hours on them. Crankshaft is ruined. im trying to figure out the failure. the top end looks good. At this point my best guess is that the oil pump failed or I’ve got a blockage somewhere. I’m sure that I’m getting ready to spend a pile of money on a redo but I don’t want it to happen again. thoughts?
Blockage or maybe the oil pump was self destructing? I had the teeth on the oil pump gear sheer off on a Cat 3204 after 16 1/2 hours. Thankfully the shop warranteed it. If the oil pump didn't quit, could the internals have been faulty and wearing metal off?
All the internals including the bearings are new except the crankshaft and that looked good. The fact that the engine had good oil pressure and no noise is throwing me off. It threw a low oil pressure code 1 time but that was 1/10th of an hour before it quit.
On mine I heard a bang and then noticed no oil pressure so shut it off.
#1 oil starvation, if it took all the main rod journals out. Filter should be full of oil pump material {if oil pump failed}.
Filter being first delivery off pump.
Sorry, Mike. That sucks and I know how it feels. From a philosophical view, in 2024, considering the decline in quality of parts, availability, and expense involved, I don’t think it’s feasible for an independent guy to work on engines today and be responsible for the outcome. That doesn’t help you with this problem.
Yes and no to that----was it all JD parts. Somethings can be out of ones control.
Thinking back Mike---what assembly lube did you use? And was there any possible time contamination could have made it's way into the job?
Could a filter be defective and plug?
Looks like severe lack of lubricant . How long did it run from start up til you heard the noise? It wouldn’t surprise me if it was wrong parts somewhere or faulty parts.
It was all Deere parts and I used engine oil for assembly lube because that’s what Deere calls for. i ran it for 2 hours before I turned it over to them and they put another 15 on it. who knows how long it made noise. There is a kid running it and he said it just all of a sudden died but it had to have made noise beforehand. The thing that is eating me is that if the oil pump failed and caused This, Deere will cover the pump but what about everything else? It’s not the owners fault, technically it wouldn’t be my fault, but who is responsible for paying for the parts? I’m guessing I’ll be eating this one.
What are we talking about for parts cost? $5-6,000? Wil the customer live with a used crank? Did the crank just look good? Or did it measure out good? i.e. the crank hadn't been previously ground? Wasn't visible signs of a oil leak- filter/ turbo return gasket/ and it leaked out all the oil? If you had done the motor for me, I'd probably pay for the parts if you would cover the labor? Stuff goes wrong sometimes, and I figure on spending about 4-6,000 every year because someone's screwing up. Guys back into stuff. Equipment gets damaged, etc. . Its just part of it.
Being a mechanic is not easy. The new guy at work was joking and ask what i wanted to be when i growed up i said anything but a mechanic. I fill bad when for anyone that tries to do a good job and has problems.
Deere won't cover anything else....they didn't do the job. Unfortunately, it's the nature of this business. If this happened to me, I would have to bite the bullet and fix it myself covering everything. Being self-employed, the last thing you need is a reputation that you won't correct redos completely. I have been in this type of position many times in the past........how you take care of this is what will build or damage your reputation. If your customer offers to help with the cost.........that's a plus, but don't expect it. Were all 4 rod bearings damaged as much across the 4? Were the mains comparable? If the rod bearings are all toasted the same, and the mains are less...........I would be looking at the rod bearings first. I built a Detroit long ago that had .010 bearings packaged as standard size. I caught it before I ever fired it up...........but mispackaging happens. Also.....numerous times have I gotten wrong parts due to a parts lackie not paying attention to serial number breaks and the parts being different under those breaks. Sorry this happened brother. The good thing is its yours and you can fix it how you want. I'd be looking for good used parts to help keep the cost down. If your customer requires new, have them make up the cost difference.
Rods are last to get oil & will always be roasted more than mains. I've seen mispackaged bearings but never mis-stamped bearings. * To have a mass clearance issue the crank or block would have been machined previously. As far as assembly lube {oil is called for by most all manufactures}. I personally use lube designed for assembly work, for the simple reason of extended cranking on initial startup. Starvation, material covering sump pickup, air entering lube system, oil pump incorrectly assembled/machined, oil filter internal collapse/plugging. * And lastly did this engine use some oil on break-in and oil was added? * As far as installing a used crank and reconditioned rods--that shouldn't matter.
I just built a C12 for a dump truck. I didn’t need to see this lol. I feel for ya man. It happens. I have pondered how I’d handle it if one went sideways. I’m truly torn between my reputation and the lack of parts quality. I did get everything for this through the local KW dealer. I have a good rapport with them and should **** go south parts wise I’m confident they’d do all they can to make it right. Knowing what DMiller went through with my old truck and other past experience I did verify all bearings were same part number etc. I pre-lubed it with pan off to make sure everything was good before I buttoned it up. I’ll do it again before I bust it off the first time which will be today or more likely tomorrow. It was all assembled with the super sticky assembly lube. New cam and bearings, followers, valve bridges etc. This particular engine hadn’t been apart all that long ago based on the look of things other than the #6 cylinder was was damaged by dropped valves. It became an out of frame when I found cam and follower damage. Even without the sick Deere I’d still be on edge a bit after the first fire.
Was close to this on the C15 with Line Bored Block I did not catch, oil pressure was so weak had to find the problem but managed not to destroy anything.
#2 and #6 connecting rod bearings were the worst. None of the mains were spun but all looked like high hour bearings. I went and finished removing the crank this morning. Cut open the filter and found it full of metal. (No surprise) called the parts guy and explained the problem. He told me to bring down the filter, pump, and an oil sample. I did and the parts manager and service manager went over the chain of events. Then came the odd questions. Did you get an oil sample before you rebuilt it? Umm, no. can‘t say I’ve ever done a sample before a rebuild. Did you use John Deere break in oil? No i used rotella 15w40. They looked at each other like they found a loophole. They are supposed to be sending the sample and the pump to Houston so the man behind the curtain can make the call. To be honest I didn’t check the stamping on the bearings. The mains rolled in nicely and the rods fit good and the engine rolled smoothly. not saying this couldn’t be my issue but it had good oil pressure and nothing felt too tight. I’m quite sure that in a day or two someone will call me and tell me that the pump is fine and if I had used super special formulated John Deere break in oil none of this would have happened and they will be happy to sell me some more parts.
as I stated above I didn’t think to check the stamp on the bearings. I’ll check it when I go back. I don’t know if it used any oil on break in. It only ran 17 hours. Operator claims it never made noise but that seems far fetched. I guess at this point it doesn’t matter. Broke is broke. main bearings oil filter
I’m always a little on edge at first start up. This one caught me by surprise. It went together well, started easily, and I ran it for 2 hours before I turned it loose. I’m not the world’s greatest engine builder but Im no rookie either. This is the first one I’ve ever had go sideways. I’m well aware that this failure may be something I overlooked but I would like a definitive answer before I do it again. I really don’t expect any help from the dealer. They’ve made it clear that they aren’t fans of independent guys.
It could be a case where the guy operating it doesn't want to say it made a noise because he doesn't want to be blamed for it. I was lucky that I noticed no oil pressure right after a bang and shut the engine off. Who ever was running the engine in question likely wasn't watching the oil pressure and kept the engine running till destruction not realizing it had no oil pressure. It had to have made some kind of noise even if just a squeal. As far as JD not covering it because you didn't use JD oil, I don't think they can use that as a reason to deny warranty. Do I Have to Use the Manufacturer’s Oil? The Magnusson Moss Warranty Act prevents OEMs from requiring use of branded products to maintain warranties. www.mfaoil.com
Any signs that the operator or company did something to cover a mistake on their end? Does it have a remote filter? What’s it got for a cooler? Was there a failure of an ancillary system that starved it of oil due to a leak somewhere?
The only warranty express or implied is probably just the oil pump that failed or whatever part it was, parts only. So they will not be denying him warranty but not extending any favors either.
Not to get too far off topic here but this story made me recall a problem we had many years ago with a fresh rebuild. Probably on the range of 40 years ago so details are very sketchy to say the least! This was an old Waukesha six cylinder gas engine that was old even back then! Forget all that was done, but it was an out of frame rebuild. Got it together and as we would always do after a rebuild we hooked it to a water barrel and would run for several minutes on the shop floor while watching oil pressure. Then would shut down and reset valves then run for several minutes while checking for as one boss would say "leaks and squeaks" As I said details are sketchy but recall that during the initial couple minutes we shut it down to maybe tighten something or look at a possible leak. Then when we went to start it again it would not crank over! As I recall we found that a main bearing had seized! Only good thing is this must have happend just as we shut the engine down not while it was at high idle! Recall pulling crank somehow without a total tear-down. Took crank and bearings to the shop that did the crank work and had supplied the bearings. Recall they used a press to straighten the crank and just polished the one journal. Reassembled engine with new bearings and engine was just fine for years after powering the truck part of the lattice boom crane. Trying my best to recall if this was the engine that had a failure from driver over-speeding it on a down hill grade. I recall one of the truck cranes that was damaged that way. Driver tried to say it didn't happen but recall finding the Bendix Air compressor had snapped both rods but the big end of the rods were still attached to the compressor's crank and were not seized to it!
No signs of operator error. the operator is about 19 years old and I’m sure he had the radio boppin. No remote filter and the oil cooler is 2 inches from the filter. No other leaks. the engine is a Deere 6068 in a 648L-2 skidder.
Operator probably had ear buds in blasting away. All of the teenagers that have worked on our farm over the last 10 years seem to have them glued into their ears. @Welder Dave while I agree it probably did make a noise, it might not have. The camshaft seized in the head of my truck over the winter while I was driving down the road. I had the radio off as I normally do. Never made a squeal, squeak, nothing. No low oil pressure warning light, Motta. It just shut off as I slowed for a stop sign and wouldn't crank over. On tear down we found the signs of failure.
Just because it's oem new really means nothing, nor does the time involved before it took a dump. For instance a certain N14 Cummins with 150K that lost oil pressure, and deemed oil pump failure. Cummins warranted the mess, only to find out later there had been a issue with a certain lot of pumps {the serial number on pump fell in that window}. Same pump used from 1980 to 1999. * Unfortunately labor will be eaten and only a maybe on some parts.
It ran for a while to cause that much damage so even if no noise the oil pressure gauge should have shown no oil pressure. Maybe the operator was wearing ear muffs or something so didn't notice anything until it was too late? Is it possible the skidder got on too steep of an angle and starved for oil? If the oil pump is deemed to be the problem, I think at least the parts damaged by its failure should be covered on warranty. Sometimes it depends on how big the company is though. A big customer of JD is more likely to get less run around than a small customer with only a few machine's. If there's metal in the filter could be from faulty oil pump components. I remember reading about a part for a BE marine crane failing catastrophically because it was the wrong type of steel. Warranty was limited to just the failed crane and not other damage caused by its collapsing. Hopefully JD takes some responsibility. If it could be proven to be an oil related failure, Shell could be on the hook but that's unlikely. The same goes for the filter but it would be more likely than an oil quality issue. Was it a JD filter?
You said it’s in a skidder they didn’t roll it or get it so far off kilter it wouldn’t pickup did they
Anything is possible. If that happened the odds of getting the truth would be astronomical.
Really--that makes the most sense---4x4, because it would cause a complete starvation not just one journal or two.
There is a good chance they did something like that. I have done a couple rolled on their side insurance repairs. The operator always says they shut it down right away but they will still muck up the rod bearings in a very short time. Usually destroys the crank.
That why I suggested maybe it was on too steep of an angle and the operator didn't want to get blamed so played dumb. Nope, didn't hear anything... it just quit unexpectedly.
Reminds me of a customer with a DD15. Last two oil changes indicated chunks of oil pump suction seals in the oil pan. Hey dude, better fix that. Maybe later, we are too busy. Hey, Coaldust, why is my oil pressure dropping? Dude, your oil pump is broken. You should do the re-seal thing and maybe put a new pump on it. Maybe later. We are too busy and it seems fine now. Hey, Coaldust, it was making a funny noise and now there is a hole in the side of the block. Dude, I’m not the kind of person to say I toad ah so, but I fkn ah’ toad a so. Now, they are pointing fingers at everyone that had ever touched that engine. Once they saw the $60k quote for a swing engine.
60K is pretty close. * I can tell you--a 3406 will run four blocks before lockup when the drain plug falls out.
Interestingly a car came out to my oval track today. An IMCA modified and it blew a hole in the oil pan. The methanol fuel mixed with the oil resembles severely water contaminated oil. They're hoping it just got hydraulic locked or a rod went south but the block and a bunch of other components are salvageable. Another IMCA modified was pretty fast. It was about 650 HP but the track was dry and dusty. The track is a little small for these cars but good for test and tune. He ran gas through it at the end of the day because the alcohol dries everything in the engine out too much. I'm guessing he means gaskets and such. It had a nice sound to it.
Right at the beginning of tourist season with contracts to meet and fuel to deliver. Two months to get a swing engine and who knows how long to get an appointment with someone willing to take on a big job during the busy season. That’s a winter job.
I’m going back to check numbers on the bearings and inspect the machine for signs of a rollover. The longer I think about it the more it isn’t adding up. 4x4 may be onto something.
Mike I seriously doubt you did anything wrong on the work performed. It was either a oil pump/filter failure or something of operator error. It took out the entire crank in one swoop. It wouldn't have run the hours it did otherwise you would have known real quick like.
I guess I know that it’s probably not my fault but this is the first one I’ve had fail and it’s eating at me. I’m thinking way too much about the what ifs and how to prevent it the second time.
Check social media of the young operator, might be a confession & pix there.
That’s a good idea. He most certainly would have posted an upside down skidder on the gram.
Yeah lets get a privet investigator on the trail, gees. Check his shorts for skid marks while there at it.
I was working on a log loader on a logging setting. There were several skidders dragging logs to a landing within view of where I was working. Just before the skidders got to the landing they had to go down a long steep hill with a couple big ruts worn in it from the skidders and logs. As soon as a skidder came over to top of the hill the operator had to keep the throttle wide open to keep the main line tight so the logs did not pass it. The skidders would bounce like crazy with the operator doing his best to keep it under control while bouncing around in the open cab. during the few hours I was there they flopped two skidders on their side. Having worked on skidders a bit and seeing how the ROPS would get bent on a fairly new machine I thought rollovers were just part of the operators day. \
Hey Mike, Any chance they did some welding on the machine between the time when you turned the machine over to them and when it 'blew'?? A poorly placed ground will certainly do wonders to an engine......... Just thinking out loud. And sorry to hear about your troubles. You need to move to NH.
To my knowledge they didn’t weld on this machine but just like everything else that doesn’t add up, I don’t know for sure. One thing I know for sure is that I’ve been in business for 5 years and the year and a half that I’ve been in East Texas has been the toughest. Cold winters in Maine don’t seem so bad…
Sorry dude..........wish I could help. Doesn't take much stray current to mess up an engine's bearings.
Was at a local dealership I help out occasionally today and was telling them about what happened. They recommended a machine shop in Houston that they use and they were making a run down tomorrow morning so I went and got the block and crank to send it down. No guarantee but I don’t have much to lose. I can get up to 20 over bearings. The machine shows zero sign of being tipped over.
Dealer just called and told me that the oil pump was good and they were not going to warranty anything. I’m not surprised. I told them they could keep it because I wasn’t going to use it again.
Called the machine shop to see where they were at. Crankshaft is bent .080. I asked how and he said that it got so hot it warped. they are checking the line bore on the block and sending it back later this week.
You should have seen some major bluing at the crank throws into counterweights.
It did seem a little tight around the thrust bearing When I pulled it. To be honest I was looking more at the rod journals than looking for bluing.
I think the dealer should take some responsibility. Just because the oil pump was good doesn't mean all the other parts were.
Terex mulcher today. Quit down in the woods with the water in fuel light on. Replaced fuel filters. Had to bring out the fuel water separator and clamp it in the vise and use the 48” pipe wrench to loosen it. Fuel gauge read half a tank. Couldn’t get it to prime. Rigged up a fuel can to get it to the truck. Tank had about 2 gallons of water and nothing else in it. Runs way better with fuel in the tank
For a minute there I thought you hired LMM......
Well Mike...........on the bright side..........it doesn't look like its raining!! Don't you love it when you have to take the whole housing off, stick in the vise to get it loose, then hoof it back to machine and re install. Did you have to drill out any broken bolts after you got it off??
I'm curious if the bowl survived with that much force on it. Looks like something else must have required a lot of force as the pipe wrench handle looks bent a little. I like the clevis idea. You could put a come-a-long on it instead of having to use a long snipe. I also like the aluminum. I bought a 48" standard Ridged pipe wrench to get gland nuts off but it's 34lbs. The 60" you almost need a crane or helper as it's 51lbs.
Machine was about 1/4 mile down a road I didn’t dare drive down. Took a wheelbarrow to lug tools and still made about 6 trips. another inch of rain coming tomorrow. At this rate I need a service boat.
It’s a little tweaked from trying to turn a frozen pin.
Doesn't look too tweaked there.
Pretty sure that was before I got done. I don’t think I’ve ever pulled on it with the crane unlike my snap on 3/4” ratchet.
That's one of the methods you have to make sure the MSHA or OSHA inspectors are not around to see. I always kept the pipe extensions and homemade tools out of site just for those reasons!
I've pushed mine with a excavator . . .
Oh My what a savage.
Did you find cause of failure? Just throwing ideas that maybe stuff you already covered. Did you check the oil pressure connector tube and the pickup tube fo4 cracks and pickup tube oring?
Yes. Both the o-ring and oil pressure connector tube were new. I’ll look again at the connector tube when I go back to it. I really don’t have a cause of failure. Everything on the bottom end was starved and the top end looks good. Deere wants just under $10k for parts to fix this block or $13k for a short block.
Have you looked for aftermarket or used?
I haven’t found much used and I’m not sure the customer would want aftermarket. He was adamant about using Deere parts the first time around. I’m open to anything that solves the issue and keeps everyone happy and not bankrupt
Is the mosquito season over with up in Maine yet ?
Nope..........just getting started. Low 60's today........told my wife I could enjoy the whole summer at this temp. Supposed to be mid 80's next week..........I really hate the heat. Mike misses it......the mosquitoes are his friend!!
Is the block ok? I have a good local engine salvage place, and there's a large JD salvage yard in Clinton, Mo.
We got mosquitos down here. Everyone tells how bad they are but they aren’t a fraction of the nuisance that they are in Maine.
The block is okay but they told me the liners were beat up and should be replaced. I’ll see it next week.
Hard to find a good mosquito these days, use to be allot of good ones around.
I’ll mail you some…
Very few insects, decent temps, decent winters, only a volcano now & then around here.
Well.......happy memorial day weekend to everyone. My weekend plans........17 year old daughter is going to prom tonight. Then we have dance recittals saturday and sunday. Monday 3 towns for marching band because the daughter is in marching band. Ohh.....and my mother is coming up for the weekend. Gonna go and start cleaning the guns now.
I think the ones up north have to take off & land at the local airport.....
Got that motor back together?
@Mike L I think he's talking to you. Where dem Mosquitee's at??
Not yet. Don’t know how much it will screw me in the long run but I claimed it on my liability insurance. They finally came out and looked at it. By the time we just get parts, it will cost the same as a short block. No damage on the top end so I can reuse the head. Plus as long as I use the magical Deere break in oil, it will have a Deere warranty. On top of all that we’ve decided to pull the plug down here and head back to the frozen north. It’s been an adventure down here but it isnt working out and we need to make a change.
Good for you. A lot of people are afraid to go out and stretch a little, I've always thought there's no harm in trying something different. Life is a adventure. Hoping to move before hot weather? or just see how the stars align with property etc?
This wasn't an adventure for Mike.......this was a freaking nightmare. Frozen North.......LOL. Gonna be in the 90's next week. Which is kinda funny.......I've got dive work scheduled for next week. Didn't know it was it was gonna be cooking when I scheduled it.
I’ve never been afraid of an adventure. I had an opportunity to put my truck on in a mine in Montana but we opted not to do it. We’ve got a house in maine under contract and our place here is for sale. Probably will leave here late July once we close on the house. Work has been very slow here and I can go to work immediately once I get back up north.
I’ve never been afraid of an adventure. I had an opportunity to put my truck on in a mine in Montana but we opted not to do it. We’ve got a house in maine under contract and our place here is for sale. Probably will leave here late July once we close on the house. Work has been very slow here and I can go to work immediately once I get back up north.
Oops. Double post
Double the fun!!
Exactly my point. I don't think of what mike has done in moving, and then moving back, as a nightmare. I look at it as a "hey lets try this", and if it doesn't work, that's okay. There are lots of things in life that are nightmares, but this isn't one of them. Get a terminal cancer diagnosis, lose a spouse, lose a child, watch 3 guys get injured for life on a jobsite. Moving a couple states and trying something isn't a big deal. Good luck on the move back Mike.
I will however miss the perverse pleasure out of comparing summer maine temps and east texas temps, just to reinforce my opinions of texas...... And on that note, I'm climbing in the truck this morning, and headed for Dallas. Got a one day job (one pick actually) to help a good customer, and I'm not planning on spending any more time there than necessary. You couldn't pay me enough to live there.
I completely agree crane op. My dad worked construction when I was a kid. We moved a bunch of times but always had a camp on a lake in maine for the summertime. Two of the biggest benefits were that I’ve never been scared to try something new and I can make friends anywhere. before the wife and I moved down here we tried to think through every outcome. We came to the conclusion that Maine wasn’t going anywhere and if it didn’t work we could always come home.
We are doing basically the same thing, only in reverse. We retired and moved back to my small hometown in SE Ohio about the time you moved to Texas. Well, the wife really misses the kids and grandkids, so, we are about to move back to north Texas. As soon as we can get the house sold, we are headed back south. I plan on staying inside by the A/C, now that I am retired.
I hate arguing with things!! Just have a little welding to do and I CAN'T MY WELDER TO WORK RIGHT!! FRUSTRATING!! Any hints, tips, or tricks??
Which mine?
You’ve got to turn it on. Better got with the 24 volt selection
Alzada. Got a friend contracted there and they were looking for more mechanics.
How is that economically viable for the customer to hire you to drive over 400 miles each way to do one pick, when there are dozens of crane outfits within 100 miles of Dallas? I get personal relationships and such, but that seems like quite a stretch. I had a guy want me to build a pole barn (fairly small, less than a weeks work) about 180 miles away from where I'm based because he knows me. I talked him out of it due to my excessive costs in travel and lodging, it just didn't make financial sense when other good contractors where significantly closer.
I’m not bringing a crane, just some rigging. He’s got a crane, operator and 4-5 Ironworkers, and we’re going to hang a plane in the ceiling of a building. Think of me more as a technical consultant.
That I understand.
When you get back to the North woods it might be a tad warm this year. We saw 96 degrees over in Ellsworth on Thursday. Somewhere in the 50's here today on the coast of Washington County with a fire to knock off the chill. Maine will get you out of most of the southern heat. I don't think that it ever gets above 80 here on the coast at camp. It's been a dry year so far with very few mosquitos. Beats the heat and humidity of an early TN summer. Today is wet and chilly but the fog has moved off enough to see the island. I won't see fire like this again in TN until November at the earliest. Keeping the chill knocked off today while we wait out the rain.
This weeks forecast. Even an above average maine summer is cooler than this. The next couple months will be interesting. Somewhere around July 20 I’ll road trip to Minnesota to pick up the boat I ordered back in April and haul it to Maine. Then my wife will fly in on the 26th and I’ll pick her up. We will visit with friends for a few days and then we are supposed to close on a house august 1. Then I’m in a friends wedding on the 3rd. Fly back to Texas on the 5th and probably start packing. Then road trip back to Maine and try to get into some sort of normal routine. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
That forecast looks much like what I am escaping for a bit. Out of the cooler and back into the humid oven when the vacation time is over. Can't say as I'm looking forward to the return back to swamp-ass heat.
Why go? Plenty of trees to munch in Hancock county.
You do know that it has been hotter in the east and northeast, than it has been in some parts of Texas? Both temps and humidity here in SE Ohio have been higher, than where we are moving back to in north Texas. I don't think we can win against Mother Nature. Good luck with your move.
It has been hotter but it won’t stay hotter. The climate is only one part of the equation that is sending me back north. What part of north Texas are you headed?
Moving back to Denton, Texas. We lived there 44 years, before moving up here where I grew up. My wife really misses the kids and grandkids though, so back we go.
That’s how it goes. We planned and schemed for a couple years to get to Texas and then it doesn’t work like we plan. Such is life.
So I'm looking at buying a used dodge ram 3500 w/ 31k miles on it. I asked about warranties........for $5200 I can get an 8 year 125k mile warranty, bumper to bumper excluding wear items. During the discussion I asked where I could take this for warranty work.......dealer only?? NOPE.......any ASE certified mechanic. I told the lady that I'm ASE certified.........Master mechanic.....medium/heavy truck. YUP.....you can do your own repairs under the warranty. So brakes, rotors, tires, oil changes, etc aren't covered. One thing that I find odd.........coolant hoses are wear items. Waiting for the full list of exclusions to be emailled. It's got the 12" touch screen for the controls.........there's $2k, if it craps out in 8 years. So .......anybody see anything I'm missing?? I'd be curious about the AC compressor and alternator. Supposedly fully transferable if I sell it. I'd much rather wrench on my own crap than have someone else wrench on it and screw it up. I've seen too much at stealerships. And if I don't want to wrench on it, then off it goes to the stealership. Thoughts??
How will they pay your labor ? Using a flat rate book ?
Don't know yet........ Sent off an email asking about DPF, DEF, and exhaust sensors. They list catalytic converter as excluded. And oddly..........big red flag.........frame and cross members not covered. But a NOX sensor is about $1k each.........and I've replaced a bunch on other trucks.......soooooo. But, yeah, probably a flat rate thing. But honestly.......if the book says 3 hrs, and I take my time and do it in 6 while addressing other things.........I'd do it. And I'm sure they have a cap on labor rate. Its through Zurich insurance............I might have to call them and find out.
Cummins or a gas job?
Cummins. So I called Zurich and spoke with them. So DPF and muffler and covered. Any sensor on the exhaust is covered, as well as the DEF system. They do flat rate.......however you could argue extenuating circumstances. You need to be a licensed repair shop.......guy explained you just need to have been registered as a business in the state. Can't hire Mike L, your neighbor across the street to work on it. No cap on hourly rate. He said some shops in California, Florida, Texas are over $500/hr for their labor rate. This would be BMW, Mercedes, etc. I'm going to spend today doing paperwork and possibly pulling the trigger on this. They want $63k for this truck, plus the $5200 for the warranty. And honestly, I just replaced almost everything on the AC system on my Peterbilt..........new evaporator (old was leaking......green blood leaking out), compressor (shaft seal), expansion block, drier, couple of hoses let go....and final the condenser started leaking this spring.......couldn't pull a vac. Charged system w/ 300psi nitrogen and hunted for bubbles. Figure a NOX sensor is $1k....(on CAT and Petes they are).......touch screen.....who knows. I don't know.........I go back and forth on getting the warranty..........or even the pickup. But I need something.......my 2001 F250 is falling apart with rust.
I never bought the extended warranty until the last SUV we got. Warranty was $2500ish. Right after we got it, the nav display went out, I think it was $1000 or so, AC compressor had a clutch issue, probably close to $1000 with parts and labor to change. Had a broken flex plate due to a front bearing in the transmission pump going out, hate to think what parts/labor/diag bill would have been on that…probably more than $1000. I figure I’ve come out ahead on buying that warranty. Only thing I’d recommend is getting the services done somewhere that will give you a record of service. They say you can change your own oil and not void the warranty but they really hassle you over it if you have an issue related to the powertrain. As long as there’s good coverage and a long term, I’d buy the warranty.
My wife has a 2018 expedition with the Ecoboost engine. The cam phasers are a constant headache on those engines. They rattle like hell when you first start it until it builds oil pressure. To replace the cam phasers the whole front cover needs to come off.........harmonic balancer, water pump, etc. Pain in the ass.........wishing we bought the extended warranty now. Plus a whole bunch of other electronic crap has given out.......the touch pad on the exterior of the door to unlock the car stopped working.........parts on ebay (geniune ford) were $200 or $300.......plus 4H to take door apart and put it back together. USB hubs in the front, that was a module. AC has a leak in it somewhere........slow leak. This uses the new 'slightly flamable' refrigerant 1234 xy.........8ozs of the dupont crap from Autozone is $50!! I've got jugs of 134a that I paid $160 for 30lbers. So I just spent $150 on a 14oz bottle of the 1234xy with the cheesy adapter and a 8 oz bottle of dupont straight stuff. The 14oz bottle has leak stop and other magic crap in it. So now it's blowing nice and cold again. So in 2021, the MSRP on the truck........NEW was $55k. Now they want $64k used w/ 31k miles on it. Having a hard time getting over pulling the trigger on a used truck for $64k, plus the warranty..........but the warranty is definitely a no brainer. Thanks for the reply Ahart. Ohhh, as for the service records........I pull oil and transmission samples and send them out on every vehicle I own. Saved my bacon, personally; a few times. It's definately saved a few customers of mine. So I'll have that to back me up as well.
Hold your fire. My magic 8 ball says as things tighten up the factories will be offering discounts within the year.
New car lots by me are absolutely full of new pickups and cars. The interest hike has put the brakes on new sales. I think discounts are coming also.
Noticed the same thing up here, also huge inventory of excavators/mini-ex’s at the fancy new Deere (Brandt) dealership & Finning (Cat) in Kamloops. A couple of years ago, none to be seen….
There are like 10 new cars/trucks on the GM and Ford lots here. Maybe a California thing.
The lots around here are fairly full. Except for Superdutys. Unless, you want a crazy optioned Platinum or King Ranch. Work pickups are scarce.
We got the extended warranty on the Subaru. So far, used it only the coolant mixing valve( not a $35 thermostat). I would not be without the extended warranty on a new vehicle. Too much is computer controlled and that will be expensive if anything fails.
Not many lots around here, some are packed others the Site Buyers are holding back awaiting to see what the Court does on EPA/General Agencies Regs, and how that will affect new vehicles. Got that from buyer at Ford Washington MO. Their lot next to Empty.
I need or think i need another better vehicle . What i would like to have is a 2wd pickup plain short bed but finding one takes a lot of looking i hate looking . I have a Jeep liberty i like it but it is getting rusty and the trans acts funny It takes a moment to catch when i put it in drive.
Man.......it seems like they've been saying that for the past 2 years. Looking at economic data for the past month......new vehicles went down 0.5%, used vehicles WENT UP 0.6%. Interest rate for personal purchase is 6.9%........now if I want to buy it for the 'company' (Me) and be the personal guaruntor for said loan......well.........have we got a deal for you!! 7.5%-9% MSRP for the vehicle in question back in 2021 was $55k........today the used vehicle w/ 31k miles is $64k not included title and destination fees.............but I'm flying down to pick it up!! Yeah well, the destination fees still stay the same. For another $10k I can buy a brand new pickup.......... Meanwhile..........I've been pricing R134 locally in a 30lb jug.........$350. If I buy 4 pallets of R134 from Lenz refrigerants, I can get them for $180 a jug.........then resell them to my local NAPA or a couple of buddies for markup.
About 3 years ago (I think) I was buying 30 lb jugs of R134 for $115 each or 3 jugs for $105 each. On another note, my short block for the engine debacle finally showed up. I’ll start on that tomorrow.
Hope it all goes well for you Mike!! Any chance it's cooled down in Texas at all?? I think the heat all moved North.........96F today. Supposed to be in the 90's all into next week...........and no rain in sight. I have 3 jugs of 134a with UV dye in the barn. I just talked to Lenz distributing. I can get straight 134 without the dye for about $190/ 30lb jug. With the dye a 30lb jug is $256. A 10lb cylinder of the 1234 is $370. Supposedly the patent Dupont has on this is supposed to expire next year....however, I believe they have overlapping patents and the last one is set to expire in 2029..........so I don't expect the price for the propane refrigerant to drop any time soon. Looking at pricing compared to 2023 and 2024........the price has actually gone down this year. The AIM Act stipulates that there is a 40% decrease for 134A in the manufacture and importing starting 2024-2026. Then it goes to a 60% decrease. I forget when the phase out date is.........but I'm going to stock up now. I figure its a commodity and the price will increase over time.........that's how I'm looking at it. Put it in a container and start selling it next year.
If the used truck is a 2021 and only 10k cheaper than a new one, I really think you would be better off with a new one. New one would be a 2025? so 4 years newer. I'm not in the market for a new truck, but if you are planning on trading in the future, the 4 years newer would make a difference.
Question...........when you guys charge 134 systems.........do you look for the dye already in the can or add dye after ............or screw the dye, who needs that crap?? I ask because it's helped me out more that a few times on machines and, lately; my Peterbilt. See green dye, that's where its leaking. Just curious. $100 more for dye in a 30lb jug is stupid........me thinks.
I've had this arguement with my accountant. I'm a buy and hold kinda guy. I drive them until the wheels fall off, glue the wheels back on, then keep driving them. I take care of my stuff. Just having a really, really, really hard time with spending $60-70k on a pickup that gets used on the weekends.........rest of the week is in my 2017 Peterbilt............bought used in 2022 w/ 140k miles for..............$55k .........10k crane, 2 product tanks, 1 waste oil tank, grease system, air compressor, and a bobcat 250 welding machine (right place, right time, knew the guy). I will never forget my mother calling me a few years ago. She bought a Subaru........."Well, I just paid more for a car than we did to buy the house in 1967." I'll have to give her a call and talk to her about that experience. I just need to get over it and just buy a truck.
Did it today. My a/c in the kw got a little swampy unless I was rolling it down the road. Opened the hood and half my condenser was wet and a little green. Ordered a new one and added half a pound of cold air to get me through to the weekend.
2017 Altima--17,000 miles and original tires--will last us to the end no more supporting Detroit. Houses-mine was built in 49-cost $7,900 then----and it has real wood, no plywood, no chip board. All the exterior walls are first covered in T&G at a 45* angle, racked. The A/C system for this house is 1965 Seaburg Air Ease. Still going keeping the house cool.
Started trying to do this on my phone. Apparently I'm not adept enough or have the patience to do it. So Friday seemed to be NOX sensor day. CAT 336 went down first thing in the morning with an SCR fault, then another 336 went down.........same fault...........then a 966 went down with an SCR fault AND a DEF QUALITY code. Replaced the NOX sensors on the 966, ran AFTERTREATMENT FUNCATIONAL TEST, and all the codes went away .......including DEF QUALITY issue.
The whole point of this was to show you guys a NOX tool set I found. Getting kind of frustrating this morning. Trying new things before coffee sets in.......not working out. Anyway, I've had a couple of NOX sensors strip out on me using a wrench or a socket. Ended up replacing the $400-500 elbow with threaded boss welded into it. Found this setup about a year ago and I love it. You use the air hammer to start the sensors out. They give you 22mm and 24mm sizes, plus male and female taps and dies. I've not had to use the taps yet. This is the 22mm socket. You can see the dies in the back ground. I think I paid $300 for this set last year. My buddy saw this on Friday.......he found it on Amazon for $275 so so. They also make a set of 3 different size punches you can get.......Long, med, and short. I just ordered those Friday night.........those are $150. Would have been nice to have Friday. Anyway.........just figured I'd share this with you guys. It's made my life so much easier doing NOX sensors.........especially where they put some of those friggin things.
Blue arrow is where the NOX sensor is on the 966..........picture just doesn't do it justice of where it is. Closer picture of the NOX sensor with a blue circle around it.
Anyway......the whole point of posting this crap.....I've stripped out the threaded boss on a few NOX sensors and ended up having to replace the $400-500 elbows. The fine engineers who design the locations of where these sensors go make it almost impossible to change. Somebody thought long and hard about this kit. I'm impressed with it and figured I'd share with you guys. So I ended up doing 6 NOX sensors on Friday......then finally got to the cutting edge on the 966 Friday night at 6pm.....LOL.......that was supposed to be happening Friday morning. Found out you only have an hour to edit your posts......after making some changes to the pictures, and then going back and trying to add some text to the posts.
Punch set for NOX socket set. Long, med, and short. Part# LT1910P
Well, I figured I’d throw up an update to the dumpster fire I’ve been calling life. Left Texas with the pickup truck on July 20. Drove to Grand Rapids, MN. test drove and left with my new fishing boat. Drove to Maine. Boat motor decided it would no longer trim up. Jacked around and finally took it to a Yamaha dealer where it is still sitting. They misdiagnosed it once and then found my issue. I hope to pick it up next week. Visited with an old friend who was a major influence on my life who has ALS and only has maybe 6 months to go. Closed on a house in maine on thursday. Got to be a groomsman in a friends wedding last weekend. Good times. My mom and sister were in Maine visiting from Florida. Mom beat breast cancer last year and now it’s returned in her spine and liver. She talks a good talk but I don’t see the end result as being good. Flew back to Texas Monday. Flight was delayed 8 hours due to the tropical storms down south. Got home about midnight. Been packing up and getting ready to leave Friday morning for Maine. Thursday is my anniversary and the wife is staying a while longer hoping the house will sell. barring any issues I’ll be back in maine on Monday and hopefully be working by thursday. If I survive all this, when it’s all over I’m going to have a good old fashioned break down. I think I’ve earned it!
Been meaning to ask how the plan to move was going. Hopefully, when this is ALL OVER and your back in Maine full time, you can take your fishing boat out and relax and enjoy it.......and nothing breaks while your out. Hope your house sells quick for what your asking and the rest of the move goes smoothly. We'll have to get together and meet up sometime this fall after the dust has settled. May the wind be at your back and you have following sea's, brother!!
Well I figured I was overdue for an update. Rolled into Maine on august 12. aug 14 the phone started ringing and I haven’t stopped running since then. Trying to play catch up after the slow year and all the expenses that go with moving. I’ve spent most of my time with the biggest customer I’ve ever had. They are severely behind in repairs which has been a blessing for me. My wife is still in Texas dealing with the other house which we can’t seem to get sold. She will be headed this way next month whether it is sold or not. In my spare time I’ve been trying to get all the small household projects done before the moving truck shows up with the rest of our stuff.
Good for you. All it takes is one buyer for the texas house. I owned 2 houses and 2 house payments for about 5 months, 20 years ago. I was nervous and worried for the whole 5 months that the other house wouldn't sell.
Well the Texas house sold in November. Work has stayed busy and I’ve had a guy sub contracting under me for 2-3 days a week and I’m considering adding an employee in the next few months. 2024 was without a doubt one of the toughest years of my life. I don’t buy into the new year, new me BS but I’m hoping that 2025 is a little less stressful than 2024.
Thanks for the update. Hope you have a great 2025.
Agree, glad ro get the update, have a great year.
My track press showed up today. Looking forward to trying it out.
Waste oil burner I see, don't make the mistake and run while pumping oil into main suction tank. In most cases it aerates the oil and will or can cause lift pump to lose prime or miss fires, unless you do it by gravity flow then no problem. Let set 4 hours before starting.
thanks for the tip. I’ll pass it on to the customer who owns it!
Pretty impressive piece of equipment. Hopefully it pays for itself in short order. It should make track work a lot easier.
Oooh, shiny. Want me to come over and smack it with a sledge and then throw it into the box? Maybe bounce it around in the back of the pickup for a while? Burn a little paint off with a poorly pointed rosebud? Somebody has to scratch it up.
Like a new motorcycle helmet for dirt bikers. You have to throw it on the ground before you use it or it's bad luck. Better if the first scratches aren't when it's on your head.
Come on over. I’ll let you have the honors
First scratch the hardest taken, from there on Meh just a tool!
Yea! My street bike helmet was a few years old and no scratches till last July or was it June?, when I got rear-ended by a car an ramed into back of wife's bike! Guess my luck ran out that day! At least if you are on a dirt bike you might get lucky and hit dirt that is a little softer than the State highway my head hit! That looks like a nice press, need to see some action pictures!
You must have a great woman. That is a ton of shoe money for her just gone! LOL
You know If I had said most of what is about the last 12 replies, especially CO's oh so rasty {I'll hit it with a sledge} it would have been cast off as negatory, you guys been reading your watchtowers?
I’ve got one of the best. We set up a budget and every week we both contribute x amount of dollars to our joint bank account to cover all of our bills and savings, and after that she doesn’t say too much about what I invest into my business.
How flat does it make beer cans ?
How flat do you want them?
Extruded.....
Some spring time maintenance for a timberpro buncher. Removed both track frames to have new rolls and rock guards welded on. We removed the boom, cab, and hydraulic tank to make room for the boom and ears to be line bored.
A little over 65 man hours For me and the welding and line boring got subbed out.
Alright. Pop quiz gentlemen. Volvo L90F. Duetz D6D? Engine. Common rail fuel system. Fought the dreaded 96-1 fuel code for a while. Finally pulled the injectors and had them tested. 3 were bad. Customer decided to do all 6. I installed them, went for a test run. ran great, no smoke, no code. Stopped to talk to an operator. When I restarted it, it made the log yard disappear in gray smoke. Parked it, gave it a look, then tried to restart it. Nope. Engine was hydro locked. Pulled the injectors out and turned it over by the front pulley. #1 and #6 cylinders were full of fuel. Like a quart or more each. Sent those back to the pump shop thinking they got stuck open somehow. They tested fine. I installed them and started it up. I had to run it at high idle for about 5 minutes to get all the fuel burned out of the exhaust and for it to clean up. Runs great. Did some other work and ran it again. Fires right up. no smoke, no skip. What happened? I’m at a loss for an explanation.
could the pressure relief valve on the rail have been stuck shut for that initial run? or worse still, how much do you trust the pump shop, enough for them to admit they had got the injectors wrong?
The relief is fairly new but if it stuck shut then why did it only fill 2 cylinders? The pump shop has a good reputation. I only sent back the 2 suspect injectors and I had marked which cylinders they came out of. The injectors came back to me with my chicken scratch writing.
Intermittent wiring problem in the injection harness? I hope not because those are a bear to diagnose, but that's my only guess.
Injection harness is probably only 3 months old. Possible but not probable.
Well a CR injector is basically a pilot operated spool valve, so it would be easy to see how a fresh rebuild or 2 could get stuck open, and then unstick later. But how would they both do it at the same time? And wouldn't the ECM see low rail pressure from delivering way more fuel than it was expecting to have to pump to maintain rail pressure, and throw all kinds of codes? And I would guess the fuel tank on a loader is mounted way lower than the cylinders, so how could it continue to gravity drain with the engine off? Surely with the engine still running any excess fuel would just get blown out? Are they using a normal common rail system, or something strange?
Parts quality is **** these days
The whole thing baffles me. It didn’t throw any weird codes, it just ,are the log yard disappear in gray smoke and then 2 minutes lat the cylinders were full. The fuel tank is lower than the cylinders. It is a normal common rail system. The only thing i really know is that these injectors are a sumbitch to seat into the head. In my humble opinion the torque spec is way low so I actually tighten the bolts as much as I dare (8mm bolts) and then spike them with a brass punch and tighten again. Then I run it up to operating temp and do it again. Is there any way that it wasn’t seated and somehow pulled a vacuum and sucked fuel into the cylinders? Know it’s far fetched but I’m grasping for an understanding of why it did what it did
It was---one of those very odd coincidence failures that happened on 1 & 6, and more than likely had to do with the rebuilding of both, and you will never know because they will never give it up.
"You can't stand the truth" says Jack.
todays carnage. 3406 that runs a vacuum truck. It ran for a week with only 10 psi of oil pressure. Then for some unknown reason it stopped running. Pulled the engine, removed all pistons and it still wouldn’t turn without a 3 foot bar. Loosened the last main cap to remove the crank and I swear I saw the crank flex. View attachment IMG_9361.jpeg
***! I thought only my neighbor ran his equipment with 10 PSI and an idiot light going off. Then wondering why I tell him his 6.0 motor is junk.
This is my biggest and best customer. they have enough equipment that I almost don’t need any other customers except for the fact that I don’t want all my eggs in one basket. As long as they are in business I’ll never run out of work.
Vetech thought the same. Joe H
This company isnt even trying to hire an equipment mechanic. They have a truck and trailer mechanic and hire me and my employee to cover the equipment. Field and shop repairs. No LMM here.
It makes a huge difference if the people who own and operate the equipment at least try to look after it. Vetech had to deal with the opposite where nobody seemed to give a damn! Fixing legit problems is better than trying to figure out how the equipment didn't blow up 500 hours ago due to abuse and neglect.
My Case VAC tractor only runs 15 psi oil pressure, gauge only goes to 20. That is what the regulator is set at. Also it only runs 1425 RPM or something.
Same position i was in my friend. It can crash at any moment, something I didn't think was possible either. Loyalty only goes as far as the next guy that will do it for less than you can.....and they are out there. Save as much money as you can so you are prepared.
I try and not get too comfortable. While they are good to work for, I try and keep adding as many new customers as I can.
Always had more calling for my hands so did not get too excited of clients taking other routes, until I got greedy and tried to do it all, have them all and burnt out. After the dust settled realized I sold my hands far too cheap is why they were calling me so often. Raising rates may have dumped some but had consistent work even when did raise rates from steady clients but I was late to do that. Burnout is sneaky, keep wits about you.
I’ve been battling the burn out for a while now. When I left Texas and came home to Maine, my wife stayed behind with the dogs while we were trying to sell that house. I was back in maine for all of 36 hours when the phone started ringing. I had 2 mortgages and was flying solo so I just started grinding. Picked up most of my old, good customers and forgot about the mediocre ones. Didn’t take long for the 60-70 hour weeks to wear me down. but- the phone kept ringing. In July I bought a second truck and hired my first employee. So far he has been great and I’m getting a lot of good feedback from customers. I thought that adding him wouldn’t so much end my stress as change it and I would end up wrenching less and dealing more with the day to day stuff. we’re both working 50+ hours a week now but I’m still dealing with the office side of stuff as well. I’d like to get down to 40-45. Most of my burn out comes in the form of fatigue. i sleep like the dead but never feel rested. I guess the big dream would be to grow the business, add more employees, and slowly phase myself out of the truck. My shoulders are shot and i’ll be getting an MRI on them soon but I certainly can’t pull wrenches if surgery is needed. I guess that’s about all the rambling I’ve got for now.
Keep that open mind Mike, and that consideration of expansion, is where I would like to have gone and stopped the wrenching by my late forties to fifties. I could not make it work where you are at least several steps ahead of where I stopped. Expense of a book keeper albeit the wife in your case and a phone answerer to mitigate interruptions to take messages to report at scheduled times of day can assist as far as I could see, just not ever stepped across that line either. My fatigue came/comes from not being able to set it aside as I try to end a day, mind running, racing to configure tomorrow and the work I need to see done not necessarily get done. I sleep in fits still, up all ours of the night, have not needed a alarm clock for ages as brain activity sets me awake at almost fixed interval points. Will probably die fatigued, never ‘rested’.
It looks like you're at a crossroad as I was. I was in the exact same position years ago. 80-hour work weeks and no end in sight, money flowing well, and healthy as a horse. I made the decision that I also needed to expand, thinking that would take some of the workload and stresses down. Well, it didn't........I traded less work time and stress for other problems. I still ended up working the same hours and dealing with other problems I hadn't before. One thing I learned quick.....your employees' issues end up being your issues also. Divorce, deaths in the family, illnesses, tax evasion......the list goes on. It was difficult for me to keep customers happy because I felt like I was always having to dance around some issue with an employee that prevented them from working. Then...........the redo's started. Seemed like it was one after another for months because they couldn't keep their head in the game. Guess who paid for it?.....Yeah, it was me every time. I found myself making excuses to customers trying to keep them happy until I could figure something out. The then next thing you know, you have that 1 guy that is really good at his job. He starts thinking he deserves more pay and benefits. You start feeling like you are held hostage by them...........that sucks bigtime. Now they are never happy until you give in, but the worst is when they find another job because you didn't give in and they leave you hanging without a care in the world. Again........and I can't stress this enough.....THERE IS NO LOYALTY. After 2 years of this crap, I couldn't wait til I was doing it myself again. When I added the numbers together, I lost money. This all was 25 years ago. I decided to keep plugging along on my own.....still 6-7 days a week and minimum 80-hour weeks. Then.....out of nowhere, my (then) wife decided I was gone from home too much. It didn't matter to her that I was in debt up to my eyeballs with a new home, cars, work truck, and all the expenses that go with it. Now.......do I risk our financial future just to appease her? I did everything I could to adjust my schedule and run the business, nothing worked. Less than 6 months later I got handed divorce papers when I walked in late one night from busting my ass trying to keep up with everything. Now, here I am today. Once divorced that almost bankrupted me, my shoulders are also shot and have been the last several years, skin cancer from working in the sun my whole life, and other physical issues from working my ass off in this business for 45+ years. I can no longer do the work I have trained for and done my whole life. I have no other skills to fall back on, and at 62 years old, I'm not considered a good hire even if I could do the work. I'm over-qualified, too old, whatever........... All things considered, you have to decide what is important to you and yours. Don't let your customers' needs direct what is best for you.....thats where I ****** up. I was loyal to my customers to a fault, and I paid dearly for it. Don't put yourself in a position when you are at retirement age wondering "What the hell did I bust my ass for my whole life?" I remember an old saying that rings so true to me today its scary.........."Money makes you comfortable but doesn't make you happy." Take the time to look around you. Do you have what you need? Does your family have what they need? If so, why are you killing yourself?
It's one thing to constantly work in a shop with concreate floor and totally another to work in the wild. Both will thrash you in the end, but every, every mobile repair guy I've seen was thrashed early in career. And because of that, working in the wild--repair rates should always be higher than shop. But it never has been. I know of two guys in separate business doing repair here locally. Both thinking of the expansion deal, funny thing is they are creating in the back of they're minds the very thing they ran from. In most cases becoming the very thing that caused them to go wild cat in the first place. Stress--start a shop and combine employees, book keeper, some parts inventory and so on. Best scenario, stay small-have a brick/mortar business with one employee----you. And get out of the wild. jmo.
I have been working alone since 1997 when I got into the mulching work. I was tired of the headaches and anchors that employees brought along. Life is not all about money. I treasure my freedom more than the money but I still manage to make decent coin through all of it. I think that the hardest part of a business is size. Too small and you don't make enough excess to compensate for the overhead costs for employees. Until you get large enough to have excess labor for fill in, I see lots of businesses taking losses due to the costs associated with employees. For me, working alone improved my bottom line and de-stressed my life. Everyone else's results will vary but this is what has worked for me. There is one guy that helped my build up my truck bed a few years ago who I always considered hiring as he is very trainable as well as reliable. However, what I do is not what he wants to do so it is a moot point. Finding the perfect employee is not something that I have the patience for nor do I wish to be tied down with another anchor in life. As I reach retirement age, I would prefer to sell my business and stay on to train a new owner and continue working at my own pace. If it was all about retirement, I could have quit a couple years ago when I hit the 59.5 age mark for the IRA. I enjoy what I do and I have to stay moving so why quit when the money is good and my health is good enough to not be in pain? My business plan is simple and has minimal stress so I continue to run with it as long as it is still enjoyable. Like I said, this is what works for me. Every individual needs to assess what works best for them and their desires in life. Everyone has different priorities that dictate which path to follow for best preferred results.
I work alone, have purposely avoided partners, employees. (When available my wife runs washplant while I use 210 for tailings/dig—advance pay etc.). “Dont bash into the spraybars sweetie; I am watching lol!”) Not interested in going bigger (the exact opposite of most in this industry). It works for us….low fuel costs/low overhead/accountable to no one. Happy enough with modest income. I do realize this is not always a practical/or efficient way for most to run…
As with today, Went to yard, went to pull truck in shop, derelict in there with a Aftertreatment system fault, so greased it on shop apron, retapped knocked off zerk hole from blowout and replaced that on Trlr RF S Cam housing. Has had a bent out of shape and unforgiving tarp swing bow, someone when I was not using hit it with a Loader or the dumped materials from a loader, finally made time to replace it with one the shop keeps on hand. Replaced a Hyd Tank Insulating washer that squoozed out and reset spring loads all way around on that then washed the big bugger. Two and half hours total, would take the Shop Techs all day where I work better alone.
All good advice guys. It makes for a great discussion. I’m almost 45 and if all goes as planned (yeah right) I’d like to retire at 60. I spent a good part of my 20s as a hunting and fishing guide and I’d like to do some more of that after 60 to keep myself active and moving plus to keep a little income flowing. The grand master pipe dream would be to have something to sell at age 60 to help supplement the retirement. I hear all of the horror stories about employees and I’m sure I’ll experience some of those but I also know that I’d like to not be a cripple if and when I retire. I’ve got a really good thing going and I seem to have some momentum so I’d like to grow from here. At this point I try and keep my big customer running and send my guy to a bunch of the others with him helping me when I’m overwhelmed. It is a constant moving target and I’m learning everyday. I’ve never been anybody’s boss so I try to keep the perspective of -what would I want if I was an employee here. I try to pick up lunch when we work together and I try to get him home at a reasonable hour on Friday. I’d much rather grind out Monday through Thursday and quit a little early on Friday. Anyway, I appreciate everyone’s thoughts and advice so please keep it coming!
I currently rush headlong to 69, beat up, surgeries, finally getting the confirmation body is throwing down the gauntlet and towel same time. Have enjoyed my projects, somewhat enjoy the hauling, HOWEVER, know is time to back down a few notches.
Will note, last 14 years passed like a runaway train. Fat Allis been gone over five, Big Blue has been complete for just coming to three, my old pickup is 26 and my Harley bumping 14. We bought this place in 2011
Employees in general are not really the problem. Sure there are administrative duties in the office but that's part of running a business. The real problem is finding the right people - that's the needle in the haystack part. If you find the right people pay them well, treat them well and try your damndest to make it a business environment people want to work in. Now a days there are all sorts of services and tech that will take some of the business admin stuff off your shoulders. For instance our accountant does our payroll including deducting the employee portion of health insurance and retirement contributions. At the end of the year they send out all the W2's. It's a very small sum for this service and it's worth every penny. Our work week goes from Wed to Wed and they guys have their money direct deposited into their accounts early Friday morning. No running checks around like the old days.
Its always a balancing act with employee's. I'm super thankful for the guys that work for me, I couldn't get the work done without them. I've got a great group of guys working for me right now. That said, I've had to let guys go in the past, who weren't a good fit for what we do. I've also had guys leave for other opportunities. I try to be choosy when I hire, and I can usually tell in the first week or two if someone is going to work out. I'm sure they think the same thing when they start i.e. " lets see how this goes".. They all need a paycheck every week, and I have to come up with a way to make that happen. The more guys there are, the more you have to plan around people not being there or having things going on. Its part of it- people always have stuff.
Very true--especially when it comes to hiring a mechanic, as has been discussed for years on HEF. For some reason the haystack gets bigger it seems.
That haystack is the size of the moon as it is.
Jupiter.
It seems no one wants to work anymore. And get their hands dirty.
Then there's people who'd like to do a certain type of work but aren't cut out for it. They want the money it pays but don't have the right "stuff" to do the job.
Plenty of that to go around the moon a few times.
If I had a dollar from every guy that wanted to be a pipeliner and make the big money I'd be rich!
I do use a payroll company. Costs me $24 a week and they file all the taxes, pay him, w2, etc. all I have to do is email them by Sunday with his hours for the week.
Alright. For conversation purposes let’s talk cooling systems. Working on a cat 320D fm (forestry machine) delimber with a pro pac delimber setup. 30k hours on it. Don’t know the serial or even what the engine is exactly. Overheating issue. Shot it with an infrared camera and found a hot spot in the radiator. We pulled the radiator, took it in to be hot tanked and cleaned inside and out. Returned and installed. Put a new thermostat in for good measure. Ran nice and cool for a day and a half. Then it got hot again. like 220 degrees. Same as before. The odd thing is that it cools very quickly once you stop working it. Will cool to 170 within 5 minutes. The radiator and hydraulic cooler share the same fan. Hydraulics never get hot. Running with the cap off it seems as though it’s circulating well. I’m wondering if maybe the load from tired hydraulics are creating heat. Thoughts? Ideas? Theory’s?
What's the temperature difference between inlet and outlet on the cooler
Not exactly sure. My employee was there today. he gave the cooling system a good flush. It hadn’t overheated in the first 4 hours of running. He flushed it twice and then it took a couple hours before it ran hot.
Have an old Allis Farm tractor runs fine lightly loaded, hammer on it and there is a flaw in the head that allows compression in the coolant creates hot spot heating. Has to be cracked or a cup seal, need to tear it down this winter.
What's the impeller on water pump like, with those hours it could be cavitating even though it seems to be circulating. I've had B models do that, pump and volute were shot.
Not sure but that’s the suggestions I’m looking for. The thing that throws me off is how quickly it cools back down.
First thing I would do is shoot the coolant temp at the outlet at its highest temp and compare to the cab gauge. Maybe the temp sensor is screwed
It will, but after prolonged use the pump can't push enough.
Is the radiator fan electronically controlled.? If it is try pulling the connector on the fan solenoid and check if the fan speeds up. Could really do with a machine S/N to check what cooling system it has. There are multiple flavours of 320D, even of the FM variety.
Today’s debacle. Timberpro TN745D. excessive noise while swinging. Popped the hydraulic motor out and found glitter. Had to bust out the welder to fabricate a socket to access the mounting bolts. I may have muttered a few 4 letter words. Hauled it back to shop where we disassembled it and made a parts list. Called it in just to be told that half of the needed parts are not in North America and Europe was a long shot. Our other option was to buy a complete komatsu swing motor for $17k with zero warranty since it wasn’t being installed in a komatsu. (They are very similar machines). Seriously? I’m all about buying an American made machine but support is a joke. A machine is only as good as the dealer and ours specializes in disappointment. Rant over.
It's gonna get worse before it gets better.
We have more trouble getting timberpro parts than anything else. Tigercat stuff can usually be had within a day and cat/weiler is usually 2-3 days. Don’t buy much Deere stuff but it’s usually reasonably obtainable.
That's awesome, if ya don't have it, make it.
Any outcome on the 320? Weak hydraulic valves can cause the engine to overheat simply because the air goes through the hydraulic cooler first and if that oil is to hot it'll heat the engine up. Had this happen on a 325.
Since the weather cooled down I don’t think it’s been as much of an issue. At least I haven’t heard anything.
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It is sneaky, the bearing is good it is not leaking, and it moves enough water to "look" OK down the hole. I had the extreme failure one time. I worked for a guy in high school who was a good mechanic. He told me about these plastic impellers on AMC that just fell off and laid in the housing. Somehow I retained that info 10 years. My sister was given a really nice 440 Rambler that overheated. She said come get it so I packed a bunch of jugs of water and brought it from Everett down, adding water and cooling it off as I came to Tacoma. Light bulb went off and I pulled the pump and there it sat
Ugly time
Bearings were going bad on this Deere 4045 water pump, I neglected it until got the skid steer home... Plastic impeller then rubbed on housing and snapped off. Gusher of antifreeze at that point...Judging by red rtv looks like changed previously (7400h machine)
That was a definite water pump failure. almost like something jammed the impeller unless the bearing puked and impeller grabbed side. Make sure no parts are hiding in a hose. Simon C
Fairly common failure on the Deere pumps
Have you checked boost? They'll overheat under load and recover as soon as the load is taken off if the wastegate actuator has failed in some way. You'll see boost is over spec if this is the case
I was back on the cat 320 delimber today to replace a radiator. Removed the leaky one, put the new one in and noticed that the serpentine belt was split and paper thin. Ordered a new one but this thing had to run so we started it and was letting it warm up when the belt vaporized into almost nothing. Operator dug around and found an old used one. While I was changing it I found the overheating culprit. 4 out of five wires to the fan were ripped apart. Put the belt on, repaired the wires and sent him to work. Watched it run for a bit and when he stopped he said he had an engine oil leak. Apparently one of the belt strands got behind the damper and wiped out the front main seal. The good news is that it stayed running cool (even though it was a balmy 12 degrees with a stiff wind). Bad news is that the radiator is coming back out tomorrow to access the front main seal and the swing motor is coming out tomorrow to access have a new shaft seal installed.
Good that you found the broken wires but I think you would have found them just changing the belt. Was an expensive lesson for them. Not only in repairs but downtime. The belt was staring at you saying, change me I'm on my last legs.
Going to look at a 7.1 cat in a astec crusher wednesday. E.s.n. Is 88102770 Complaint is codes and engine idled down on its own and won’t rev back up. I looked at this machine a couple weeks ago and we couldn’t recreate the issue. Codes are as followed 1235 fmi 9 which was abnormal update rate 5246 fmi 15 after treatment scr operator inducement severity high 5246 fmi 16 after treatment scr operator inducement severity moderate I am not a cat guru so bear with me. The fact that the codes say operator inducement makes me think that the operator is maybe refusing to let it regen? I don’t work on much tier 4 stuff anymore and I’m a bit behind. Can anyone help clarify what these codes mean? secondly, as I’m always trying to improve, where in sis can I find the description and causes of codes? I feel like I’ve found it before but for the life of me I can’t find anything.
From what I know that’s not exactly the case. If I get time tomorrow I’ll have a look but it will be mid-to-late afternoon before I can get online.
Thank you, sir
Mike, see the attached. I'm surprised it doesn't have an E1389 of some sort as well as the 5246-X Codes. My first thought is that the 1235-9 could be the root cause of the problem, or I may be way off base. It might also pay you to study M0087039 attached which applies to all 881-prefix C7.1 Industrial Engines.
I wonder who came up with the term "Operator Inducement" for an emissions fault derate? An opaque term for "Fix me, Damit"
I guess they liked that term better than "punishment". It induces the operator to do something rather than fix it next week.
Continuous forced regens is very common, especially in a truck.
And Still occurring weekly on most yards.
Couple weeks ago I was back at the 320 to do the front main seal. Removed the radiator and had the truck running with the Pto engaged because it was about-10. Pto got real loud and I lost hydraulic function. Had to call my other truck in to help me stow the crane as it was stood up and extended out about 12’. He got there and we had it lowered down and was trying to rotate it in place. Had to remove the worm gear to get it to swing. It got away from us and smashed the front of my welder. Finally got it put away. pto And pump spline had stripped out. Made an appointment to get it repaired. Called the day prior to find out they forgot to order my parts. Finally got it in and they thought it would take a day. It took two. Picked it up last Tuesday evening. $3400. it worked for 20 minutes and quit again. We were lucky to stow it with no damage This time. Took it back Thursday and they told me that coincidentally the Pto solenoid failed. $280. (I’m not a big believer of coincidence). Took it home and worked Friday but didn’t use the Pto. This morning I decided to get the winch cable wound back up. No Pto. Again. I’m pretty much out of patience. Tomorrow I’ve got to leave around 3 so I can go take care of a small job and get back to the Pto non repair shop for 6 when they open. I’m going to try and be nice but the amount of money for parts and the amount of downtime for me is getting out of hand. There. My rant is over.
Sorry to hear of such a bad experience. I fail to trust most repair shops and that is why I do everything that I can to repair my own stuff. Your experience remind me of the body shop that "repaired" my '99 F550 after hitting a downed tree in the fog. They knew I needed that service truck ASAP. After 2.5 months I got it back. It blew the intake hose off of the turbo on the way home and I had a list of 35 items that they failed to correctly address. They washed nearly $2k off of the bill just to get rid of me at that point. They thought I knew nothing about work quality.
It reminds me of a dealership that a contractor I was bulilding engines for got charged $6000 for the dealers fault. I phoned and asked to talk to service manager about it. After asking him a couple technical questions, he was in a rabbit hole and agreed to send a e-mail to company I was working for that stated that they were cancelling the invoice. The owner of the company I was working for came the next day to tell me I could represent them any time on the phone as it was the second time I had phoned on their behalf an voided an invoice. The dealer is always right until proven otherwise. Simon C
Hey Simon, pretty good write up in service truck magazine this month!
I met a guy with a sevice truck that had his truck inside a dealership with engine torn apart for 3.5 months, and he could not do a thing about it as it was a warranty repair. He said it hurt him bad with regards to all his customers. It had an International engine in it and he was warning me. Simon C
Fortunately I have a Cummins (actually a paccar px9). Only reason I farmed put this Pto repair was that I was told there were internal clutches in my Pto because it has an Allison. Otherwise I would have done it.
Congrats on the article! Just went and found it.
Maybe you or someone else could put up a link to Simon's artical?
I never posted anything on service truck manual. I think Mike L was laughing at the experience I had with the dealership that the company I worked for was being invoiced by. Simon C
Service Truck Magazine | Dec 2025 Service Truck Magazine – Online Issue. Stay up to date with the latest technologies, trends, and important news in the service truck industry at ServiceTruckMagazine.com www.farms.com
Is that the same Simon?
Different simon. I think the article is about @simonsrplant
Then there is the villain in Under Dog--Simon Bar Sinister.
Showed up his morning before they opened. Guy was plowing snow out of the driveway. He walked up and said “now what” not really a great way to start the conversation. I put the truck in their shop and the wife picked me up. Called about 3 pm and they had only started on it because “we needed the snow to melt off so the tech wouldn’t get wet” ***!!! Said they wiggled the plug and the Pto came on but hydraulic function was very slow so they were looking into that. That was my issue last Wednesday when I dropped it off. They told me the solenoid had gone bad and once they replaced it they had run the stabilizers up and down for an hour and had no issues. Obviously I didn’t need the $280 solenoid. They are keeping it another day and will take the pump back apart to see if something went wrong when they rebuilt it. I’m sure that tomorow the story will be something different and they’ll want to sell me a new flux capacitor.
My mistake. So many Simon’s…
I should have figured that out. In my defense, it's been a long week and it's only Monday.
Lately everyday is a Monday
It's a holiday, everyone should have been home surfing HEF from their easy chair all day today.
Nah All Saturdays except Sunday!! Retired!
Holiday . . . Lol . . . You a banker or government employee?
Neither, just sarcastic. I did sit down on the couch around 8:30 for dinner though
My wife got today off as a holiday and she works for an insurance company. Kids had it off too, though theirs was snow induced.
I forgot it was a holiday and tried to go to the bank. Then I realized what was going on when there were no cars in the parking lot.
Got the call mid day that my truck was ready. Guy admitted he messed up the clutch in my Pto so he installed a brand new Pto At no additional cost to me. The downtime is frustrating but I feel that I was treated fairly. Back to work!
That's what happens when someone rushes a job and doesn't follow a checklist or isn't paying attention. It's a lot less expensive to take an extra hour or so to check everything is done right than to have do it over. In his case it was even more expensive because they had to install a new PTO. Hopefully it's trouble free now.
Well, I ran the crane steady yesterday and today with no issues. Hopefully I can forget about it for a long time.
Had an oddball issue today. Cat 525D grapple skidder. Serial number gkp00520. 7.1 acert engine. couple weeks ago I replaced the electric fuel lift pump and it ran fine. Owner said it fell on its face and wouldn’t run the next time he tried to run it. I returned to find that the fuel pump was only getting 2.4 volts. If I jumped it with my power probe to 24 volts it would run great until the next key cycle and then I was back to 2.4 volts. Checked my schematic and it was a straight shot from the ecm to the pump. I back probed the ecm and was only getting 2.4 from the ecm. Talked with cat tech support and we checked all the powers and grounds to the ecm which all checked out. He thinks that a driver is failing in the ecm. I built a jumper wire so we could get it on the lowbed and back to the shop as it is mud season and won’t go back in the woods until June. I’ll admit I’m not real educated on the inner workings of an ecm. My question is- why do I maintain the 24 volts once I jump it with the power probe? I did open the harness and inspect all the wires which were in good shape.
Is the machine too new/nice to run a jumper from a keyed switch?
It’s not too nice in any capacity. And that was one option we discussed.
Some sort of latching relay somewhere maybe. Joe H
No latching relay. Pump is directly under ecm. I removed all of the harness covering and the wires are on 12” from the ecm to the pump.
Not knowing if ECM has any diodes internally, but a weak diode can be energized and will work temporarily in some cases.
Probably a failed solder joint or transistor and the voltage spike arcs it enough to maintain but turning it off it's too much resistance to overcome.
I like that theory. We’ll go with that.
As long as it continues to work as you state, your jumper wire could have a push button switch in it. It would bring the ecm voltage up, but will allow the pump to turn off with the key switch.
Well, it’s my once a year toot my own horn. 7 years ago I took a leap and went out on my own because I couldn’t handle being an employee anymore. Now I’ve got two trucks running and would have a 3rd if I could find the right guy. Not every day is wonderful but I hope I never have to be an employee again. Thanks to all the guys here that have helped me when I’m in over my head. I truly appreciate the resource we call HEF. Cheers, fellas!
Awesome and Congrats! Being a small business isn't for everyone but very rewarding. Best of luck to you on the years going forward!
Congratulations Mike. It's great that you have been able to add another guy. Some people think self employed= no boss. but it really means 300 bosses, because the customer becomes the person who you need to satisfy. Plus you get to do payroll, taxes, billing, insurance, future planning, and a million other things, that aren't really in the travel brochure.
Yep and when the work stops you're unemployed. Always a good motivation to keep going.
Thanks for all the kind words. Everyday is a learning experience.
I never realized how much my role would change once I got an employee. some days I have a phone in my hand more than a wrench.
Most times do NOT miss working for self, are days however.
Cummins 5.9 12 valve in a knuckleboom crane. Bosch VP pump. Back in February it sheared off the shaft of the pump. Didn’t give it much thought. Replaced it with a reman pump and went back to work. Today it sheared another one. Engine is fairly high hour but runs well. What could cause this or is it just a fluke? View attachment IMG_9914.jpeg
Is the pump seized?
The VP pumps were problematic. The Cummins with the VP pump can have a mechanical or electric lift pump. If the lift pump fails the it can cause the injection pump to fail.
Yes--lack of fuel to lubricate IIRC.
We installed a fuel pressure gauge between the lift pump and the vp44, so we could monitor pressure all the time from the lift pump. The lift pumps aren't great that the auto parts stores sell, I bet we've put 3 or 4 on the one truck we have. I like to see around 18 psi on ours, and no less than 12 under throttle. Make sure they aren't regularly running it out of fuel. Here's a good clip on rotor seizure: The next most common MECHANICAL failure is that the rotor seizes in the distributor section of the pump. I should note here that all previous rotary style pumps have had this problem too, to varying degrees. The most common cause and most accepted reason for this failure on rotary pumps is lack of lubrication due to running out of fuel or the possible lower lubricity of the newer low sulphur fuels. In the case of the VP44 it is more common for the rotor to seize in the distributor because the pressures are MUCH higher and therefore mechanical tolerances have to be much smaller. Add the fact that the rotor was not "deburred" enough or correctly during manufacture, and these failures can be easily explained. Under the higher working pressure in the VP44 , the edge of the slot in the rotor deflects and interferes with the distributor. Sooner or later the result is a galling of the two parts and then binding and then seizure. The seizure causes the "Drive Plate" to break and the truck stops running, never to start again until the VP44 is replaced. There is less than a half a thousanth of an inch clearance between the two parts, so it doesn't take much to make the rotor interfere with th
I should also mention - our one truck with a vp44 is sitting on the hill, with a crank/no start, and a code for the vp44. I know that I need to get off my rear and get it fixed, but it's kind of been on the back burner. Engine has always been a good puller, but it's a tire eater, not to mention everything else fails except for the motor on those trucks. I like the 5.9's, I just don't like the Dodge that's wrapped around it. So when you get your vp44 sorted out, come on over and give me a hand.
No. Talked with the fuel shop today and he asked about the condition of the drive gear. Said I didn’t know because it’s hard to see without removing the front cover. He suggested that I replace the gear since it has broken 2 shafts.
The customer happened to have a brand new pump sitting on the shelf so she’s back up and running. Sit tight and I’ll be right over to lend a hand with yours.
Lets see, mileage from frostbite maine to branson, at 4 bucks a mile with a added fuel/gas surcharge....
No hurry, it will probably still be on the hill when it's cold there and warm here. Come by in January.
I replaced the injection pump gear today. Didn’t see any visible damage but I didn’t need a puller to remove it. Popped right off by hand. Maybe the taper was worn and it had a little wobble?