STRAYCAT’S DOGGONE BLOG

Life Day 21398: Good News, Bad News

February 11, 2006 on 10:31 am | In On The Road |

On Thursday, the 9th, at about 2030, I was finally brought into the shop, 25 hours after arriving at the Lathrop Terminal and reporting to the Service Desk. I dragged the MMM out of the truck and put them in the “canine calaboose” along with their food & water expecting a long seige due to the nature of my vehicular maladys. I was paged 1 1/2 later telling me to report to the Service Desk. There, I was informed that the Transmission Oil Cooler was leaking, and that the Detroit engine representative who works out of the Swift Shop would have to do the work on the “coughing” problem. I was told to check in with the day shift supervisor at 0700. So far, none of this is news. I pulled the truck out of the shop, retrieved the MMM and went to bed.
On the 10th, I reported to the Service Desk promptly at 0700. I was told that the Detroit representative had not yet arrived, and that they were just ordering my Transmission Oil Cooler. I checked again in about an hour, and was told that my transmission oil cooler was on order, but wouldn’t be there until tomorrow midday. The Detroit ‘guy’ was at a dental appointment and wouldn’t be in for another 2 hours. About 1100, the Detroit guy came out and conferred with me. It was decided that a road test was in order. Back to the calaboose for the MMM. He connected his ‘computer’, I connected to a loaded trailer so, as near as possible, to simulate the actual driving conditions, and off we went. All I managed to accomplish was one little huccup, not an actual cough, in 1/2 hour of driving, but it was enough for the Detroit ‘guy’ to determine that the “O” rings on the fuel injectors were weak and allowing the combustion gasses to escape at the moment of combustion causing the ‘cough’. Back to the shop for another conference. The Detroit mechanic was ’swamped’ and couldn’t squeeze me in today. Replacing the “O” rings is about a 6 hour job, and he has 2 other trucks ahead of me, both needing new cam shafts. Calls were made to both of the Detroit shops in the area, San Leandro and Sacremento. Both were equally as busy and couldn’t complete the job today. The Freightliner dealership was also called with the same result. Detroit shops do not work weekends, so Monday is the earliest I can expect to have the work done.
Good news: The problem has maybe, probably, hopefully, finally been diagnosed.
Bad news: It’ll be Monday before anything will be done.
Today, the 11th, I checked with the Service Desk about the Transmission Oil Cooler. They said it would be in about noon. No surprise. After a nice, long, hot shower and a good stroll with the BCC, I was paged by the shop. I put the doggies in the Canine calaboose again.

This time they had company, at least for a while.

The culprit, or more accurately, the culprit’s replacement.
It took about 1 1/2 hours to change the Oil Cooler and service the Transmission. Then I gathered up the mutts, fueled, and drove to the Flying J in Ripon, CA (via Wally World in Manteca) to wait out the seige.