This'll be a long one.

Well, many things have happened since I last posted, I left the job at Utility after much frustration with the management. I just have to shake my head at some people... Anyway, I had a few job offers at the time and eventually took a position with a farm in Mount Vernon. I'm not sure what my job title would be exactly but I am responsible for repairs and maintenance for Lass & Lad farms, Puget Sound Veterinary Group, and also the Albion Group which is located in Eastern Washington.

It's a salary position (and the salary is very good), there is a retirement match, and a bonus tied to crop production. I've known the owner for a very long time, he does a good job of putting people in positions that "fit" persay, and the people in company are all good and decent people. As I have learned at previous employers (ahem... Utility) these are very important things.

The newer shop in Mount Vernon is 2 bays and heated, it's setup pretty well but I need to work on the security and update some shop tools. Lots of work to do before it's setup the way I want. On the East side I have a brand new pole barn with concrete floor but I'm limited by tooling and there's basically no parts availability for anything within a few hours drive. Because of that my CDL is becoming useful, major repairs I can just load on the drop deck and haul back to the home shop to work on.

I've been working on center pivots lately, welding galvanized pipe 12 ft in the air with a stick machine is not the easiest welding I have ever done. Supposedly they bought a second pivot that will need to be hauled in and setup, I'm not sure when that is happening though.

My equipment hauling setup, 53' drop deck and a 2005 International 9400i, I have a fair amount of seat time in this truck already... Had to haul our Kubota back over to Scholtens for a warranty repair, lost 3 teeth on a constant mesh drive gear and they're not really sure why, last I heard they were leaning towards a manufacturing defect in the gear.

I hauled back the rear section of a Kuhn rotary rake on that trip, someone left out a roll pin last time they rebuilt the track and rollers, bad things proceeded to happen. As I am learning everything German is cheap to buy parts for...

I need to have a discussion with our equipment operators about checking gearbox temps while they're running... I suspect this is going to be another someone didn't put it together correctly, we'll see when I get it hauled back over and torn down. I would have loved to see the thermal image of this while it was running.

They spent thousands of dollars to get the A/C fixed last year and it hasn't worked since, I of course took the truck over to the East side and was a little grouchy that I didn't have air conditioning. It took about 3 minutes to find the problem. It amazes me the things that some shops will miss.

Nothing to see here... None of the lights worked, I can't imagine why...

My most recent project is setting up a sprayer, no pictures of that but it's been an interesting project. Had to go through and re plumb chemical lines, fix hydraulic leaks, replace wheels that were the wrong offset, etc... I need to wire the new console/flow rate controller and GPS but the wire harness didn't get shipped with the console so now I'm waiting on that.

Attention to detail among other things

As of recently I am now working for Utility Trailer Sales of WA on the reefer side of the shop (they are a Carrier Transicold dealer), I'm in the Auburn location for now and will hopefully be moving to the Mount Vernon store in a few months.

We're installing hybrid multi temp units right now and my project has been doing the front part of the installation (wiring, lots of wiring). I did work on the A/C in a bus one night too, seized fan motor, dirty condensing unit, leaks etc...

It's been an interesting 1st couple of weeks, I'm not sure what I think yet but I'll try and take some pictures and update as I go. The service manager and another tech have both commented that they like my attention to detail on the installs. They're talking some training this spring and then a 6 week Carrier class after the 1st year so we shall see.

Drop axle install part 2

Axle mounted in place while drilling the frame and brackets, because of axle spacing requirements I had to remove the fairing brackets to mount the axle. Those will go back on after some modifications to clear the tires and bracket flange

I installed all of the control valves and air lines required to operate the axle lift and brakes, also installed an air switch under the dash to lock out the drop axle unless there is a trailer connected. Wired in a relay that is controlled by the body control module, the relay provides the ground signal to controller through the air switch and raises the axle when the transmission is shifted into reverse. The shop foreman worked with Navistar to write a program to control the drop axle which I then programmed to the body controller.

Finished up today painting, mounting the fenders, the steps, and toolbox etc...

Drop axle install part 1

I'm installing a drop axle on a brand new 2016 International for our leasing department, started working on it yesterday afternoon. So far I have the air solenoid installed, plumbed in a pressure protected air supply to the control valve, mounted the control valve, pulled off the steps and side fairing supports, and fabricated a bracket for the pressure regulator and gauge.

I'm a little out of practice at welding aluminum but the bracket turned out alright when I was done. This is what the regulator, pressure gauge, and trailer 7 pin connector will be mounted to.

Mounted in place with regulator and gauge installed, still need to run air lines to the control valve. More to follow in a later post...

Recent projects

Went on a call out to jump start one of Puget Sound Energy's trucks at their yard, they've been having problems with the truck as it is their backup truck and sits for long periods of time. Didn't take long to figure out the battery tender wasn't working, although that didn't matter as the extension cord wasn't plugged into the wall outlet anyway...

The batteries were only a month old though so even without a functioning battery tender they should not have been that low. Checked the parasitic draw and it was well over the acceptable range of 50 mA. Tracked the draw back to the customer's laptop dock which is hardwired to the batteries.

The dock only accounted for ~ .2 amps though. I had to do a voltage drop test across a couple fuses to find the remainder. My meter actually picked up the drop in auto range which surprised me being as small of a draw as it was. Followed the wire harness up from the fuse and back to the printer installed in the cab. I'm not sure why the company that installed them didn't put them on a switched power source or the auxiliary battery for the truck body.

Did some warranty work on a reman ISX here this last week, the center section exhaust manifold gasket was leaking. Nightshift tore it apart and found that the center section was warped, I installed the new exhaust manifold and the turbo that the customer wanted replaced and paid for themselves.

Interesting things to come?

So I caught a bug and was off work this last week, come in to work today and find out the service manager quit on Saturday. I'm not sure how this is going to shake out... It's too bad really, I liked working for Jeff.

This is from some time back but I don't think I ever posted it, driver put 70 gallons of gasoline in a truck with a DD13 Detroit. He filled up in Burlington and made it to about Lake Samish.

A little bit of a voltage drop happened here, enough to let the smoke out of the connector. This is the sleeper A/C wiring, you can see the burn mark on the insulation pad, could have burned the truck down. The fuse did not blow...

Something I learned this summer, air disk brakes make changing a wheel seal at the Bow hill scales into a lot more work. Caliper bracket bolts that get torqued to around 400 ft-lbs don't just come right out.

Also, I think the engineers that designed the Kenworth T2000 must have all been fired and gone to work for Navistar... The A/C system wiring is well, not good. There are 3 connectors at the dash controls, they are all the same connector, they are not labeled, the wire numbering is not the same as the diagram, the connectors are not directional so they can be plugged in upside down. They will act very very strange when plugged in upside down... It's just a nightmare to troubleshoot if someone doesn't put it together right. The first time me and another tech spent hours trying to figure out what was going on. The second time I caught on to it a little quicker, I may make diagram of how it is supposed to be if I work on another one.

ABS codes and more

Something interesting I learned this past week. With a Bendix ABS system a sensor open code will self clear, however a sensor short to ground code will stay active regardless of the detected condition after the code sets initially.

One week I had two '07 DT466's with the exact same issue in the shop, cylinder #2 high to low side open fault, low power, and smoke on acceleration. Pulled the valve cover and found that the injector connector was not plugged in fully, I suspect it was never fully latched and eventually the latch fatigued allowing the connector to back out. Now on the second truck when I plugged the #2 injector in a partial miss started on cylinder #6, cutout the injector on #6 and it responded but the rpm drop was not as much as the other cylinders. Fuel delivery pressure was 1 psi below spec, pulled the filter and found metal shavings in the housing. Replaced the lift pump and the problem was resolved.

Went out on a road call to a farm recently, an automated transmission locked into neutral. Plugged in with Eaton Service Ranger and it had an active electronic clutch actuator communication fault, I cleared the fault after checking power and ground to the actuator. I was able to drive the truck about 1/2 a mile before it set a mechanical system not responding fault for the ECA and shifted itself back into neutral. After having the truck towed back to the shop I finished the troubleshooting and we ended up replacing the ECA.

Rebuilt the pump on a water tanker for one of our customers.