1 of these a week and I'll be living on easy street! Customer called last week on this Pettibone saying "Im positive we are going to need a new hydraulic pump." "Well, whats it doing?" I say. He tells me that after it warms up the hydraulics get weak, they chatter like hell, and the steering gets hard. I reply "How do you know the hydraulic pump is the problem? Has anyone checked the fluid level? Has anyone checked the pressures?" The level in the tank was checked he said. Got rid of their maintenance people over a year ago. He is still insisting on a new pump.........so I tell him that a new pump for that machine is a tandem assembly that is over $12K. His reply was "HOLY F%^$!!!" ......in which I replied "Don't you think I should come check this out before you by a pump that may not even fix the problem?" He asks me how much that would cost (2 hour drive 1 way to their facility)....I said roughly $1K and he agrees. So I get there and the first thing I do is hook my gauges up. I start off with testing the main pressure at idle in all functions which is right in spec at 2100 psi. I then go to half throttle and do the same thing, then notice the functions start to cavitate on a higher demand. I check the suction hoses to find the clamps a bit loose but it makes no difference. So I go to check the hydraulic tank sight glass on the other side of the machine.......... Well, its not in the glass, but it could be just below it.....right? So I call the main guy there and tell him to meet me at the machine. He shows up and I show him the sight glass being empty. *NOTE* Dammit! I know better than to take a customers word for checking things.....MY DAM FAULT!! I explain that the symptoms are classic air intrusion or lack of oil........and that I needed to top off the hydraulic tank to eliminate a lack of oil problem. He believes I'm not on the right track but reluctantly agrees. I pull the machine in to their "shop" and 15 minutes + 35 gallons later the tank is at the proper level. I then check the operation and pressures, everything is perfect. LOL.....so he calls the operator over and tells him that the fluid level was too low and that was what the issue was. The operator tells him that he opened the hydraulic tank cap and could see oil inside. ......yeah, thats oil on top of the tank baffle, not the level. So basically......I drove 4 hours to pump 35 gallons of the customers hydraulic oil, using their own pump, to make this repair. Did I feel sorry for them.........yeah kinda. Did I reflect that sorrow in my bill......HELL NO! Cost them $1300 but at least thats better than $12K + labor!
And you didn’t have to get after a parts department
Bonus...!!
Win! Hey you really tried to help over the phone. You hinted strongly. They did not double check as in two heads are better than one.
I thought you were going to say they took the temperature reading as the oil level.
I thought so too.
I used to feel sorry for the customer in those situations, but now I don't. This is why you get paid to do what you do. If it were easy then women and children be would doing it.
You got their trust now. You will be the first to be called. Just smile when you send the bill and stay pleasant. It looks like this cow will put out lots of milk in the near future.
How many people would have taken the pump off, sprayed a couple cans of brakleen and rattle canned painted it overhauled, at a bargain of $8500.00, because you know a guy good on this stuff and are really trying to help them out. More than a few. They should appreciate your honesty.
Someday I will be able to tell you some stories and name some people and companies. It does happen all the time.
You're lucky. The usual scenario is that you get within half a mile of the gate and they phone you to tell you not to bother coming because they found the problem.
Been there, I just bit my tongue, everything I had to say started with **** or retard, then I was gonna go right into the lack of greasing and probably bean an operator upside the head with a prybar as an example.
Had this happen more than once. Seen this too........at dealers also
Then there was the time I got called to another one of the quarries in the company about an hour and a half away with report of problem in engine one drill rig. Was told it was making strange/bad noises. When I got there the plant mechanic was busy with some other emergency and he said "see what you can figure out with the drill!" After the basics like checking for parts sticking out the side and fluid levels I hit the starter on the 8V-71 Detroit and it fired right up. After a short run to get air pressure up on the drill rig it settled to it's normal idle speed. Good oil pressure, normal looking exhaust, water temp around 180ºF after a short run, sounded to me like a normal 2-stroke Detroit! Stood around listening and watching gauges. After maybe half an hour Sam, the plant mechanic comes over and asks me what I found. I said is it doing it now? He said no, thought you had fixed it! Don't recall ever having a problem with that machine again!
There has been instances that the operator insisted that there was a problem with the machine. I learned that instead of telling them I can't find a problem. Depending on what the problem is I would connect the laptop and pretend that I am adjusting parameters and calibrations. Or pretend to make adjustments on some component. I never get anymore complaints afterwards. As long as the operator thinks I did something they are happy.
Will that work with a 215 Cat also?
I've baffled many with BS. "You are just getting to be a better operator and now you are faster than the machine."
Then occasionally you get the operator and actually knows what he's listening to, and they still send a mechanic out to kick a dead horse. I was working a little housing development and they had a water truck with a 3208. One day it spun a bearing. That piece of junk engine was barking like a seal! We shut it off right away before it poked something through the side. No, somebody else had to come and hear it. Two different somebodies Luckily it did not toss parts and crawled up onto the lowboy.
I enjoy coming to hear dead 3208's, just for fun, yep she burnt, next!
The only engine people love to hate more than a 3208 is a 8.2 Detroit. Or possibly a 555 Cummins.
That's the trifecta of dumpster fire engines lol.
you could SEE the dampener and belts slow down as it barked across the tough spot, LOL.
I've got a 3208 in a big yard forklift that makes big ball bearings in a cement mixer sound good, they're gonna run it till the whole engine exits the vehicle then do something about it seems the be the current plan. To the little POS's credit the thing still runs the lift just fine even though its probably always 5 seconds from complete destruction.