Honestly, I was torquing head bolts on a 15L Cummins last Tuesday and got a weird click at 180 ft-lbs. My first thought was threads stripping, so I backed it out and checked everything three times, found nothing wrong. Turned out my torque wrench was out of calibration by about 15 ft-lbs because I dropped it on the floor a month ago. I've always been the guy who eyeballs things and trusts feel over numbers, but that scare cost me a full afternoon. Now I check my wrenches against a torque tester every 6 months at the local Calibration shop in Fresno. Has anyone else had a tool lie to them at the worst possible moment?
I used to swear by buying rebuilt injectors online, but after seeing a yard with 60+ take-out pumps all tagged with mileages, I grabbed a 2019 Cummins set for $300 and they've been flawless for 4 months. Anyone else had better luck with salvage parts than remanufactured ones?
Picked up a digital torque wrench at a farm auction for $50 and it was reading 20 ft lbs off by the third use. Calibrated it twice and it kept drifting, so I went back to my old beam style that's been dropped a hundred times and it's spot on every time. Anyone else had luck with those cheap electronic ones or am I just buyin junk?
Had a truck in last Tuesday with a miss that turned out to be a cracked crush washer on the #4 injector return line, not the injector itself. Guy before me reused the washer from the last rebuild and it cost the owner 2 hours of diag time. How many of you just toss these or actually replace them every single time?
Last Tuesday a driver rolled in complaining about a wobble that showed up after he hit a pothole near Flagstaff. I torqued the axle nut to the book spec at 300 ft-lbs, but he just laughed and said "that's for a dry nut, this one's got grease on it." Turns out he was right, the manual wanted a correction for lubricated threads that I never noticed in 14 years. Now I check the fine print on every torque spec before I spin anything. Anyone else ever get a correction from someone who doesn't even own a torque wrench?
Back in '09, a retired fleet mechanic named Ray said stop chasing fault codes and listen for the miss at idle, then pointed at a cracked injector line on a 3406B I'd been fighting for two days. He was spot on, saved me from swapping a whole pump for $1,800. Anyone else ever had a senior guy save your butt with advice that went against the scan tool?
Finally did my first injector replacement on my 7.3 at 280k miles, just going off torque specs I found on a forum. Took about 4 hours one Saturday, way slower than the videos but I pulled the valve covers carefully and labeled every connector. Six months later I've put 12k miles on it and the fuel economy is up from 13 to 15.5 mpg, plus the cold start knock is totally gone. Has anyone else gotten away with skipping the factory procedure on these older Powerstrokes, or did I just get lucky?
Swapped a fuel rail on a 1998 Ford F-650 with a 3126 last Thursday. The number 4 injector was stuck so bad I tried a slide hammer, torch, and even a chisel around the body. None of it worked because the copper washer had welded to the bore from a tiny coolant leak. Once I soaked it in PB Blaster overnight, it came out in about 10 minutes with a steady pull. My boss laughed and said I could've saved the whole shift if I'd just checked the coolant level first. Anyone else ever had a seized injector that wasn't actually the injector's fault?
Stopped for fuel at the Pilot off I-80 outside Omaha and overheard some guy telling his buddy that diesel shops are all crooks who just swap parts and call it fixed. Twenty minutes later he's in the lot trying to tie down a pallet with a ratchet strap he clearly had no clue how to use. I just watched for a bit, then walked over and showed him the release catch, didn't even charge him for the lesson. Made me wonder, how many of these same guys blame us for stuff they simply don't understand? Anyone else get that where a customer's own mistake shows up as a bad review later?
I was going through my old logbooks last Sunday, adding up all the jobs I've done since I started turning wrenches in 2009. The number came to 10,030 hours, which is basically five solid years of my life under hoods and chassis. What surprised me is I never noticed the moment I stopped being the new guy, it just sort of crept up. Has anyone else ever tallied their total time in the shop and had it hit a number that felt unreal? What was yours?
Tbh I stopped at that Petro off I-10 last week on a breakdown call and their wash bay actually had solvent that wasn't sludge. I've been to five other stations this month where the parts washer filters were shot and left everything greasy. This one had fresh fluid and even a rack for soaking injector tips, which saved me 40 minutes on a seized pump job. Ngl it made me wonder why more places don't keep that simple thing up to snuff. You guys ever find a random shop or truck stop that just gets maintenance right, and do you tell other drivers about it? Has anyone else hit that same location and got lucky on a busy Friday?
My F-550 with the 6.0 wouldn't fire after replacing the HPOP, and I chased electrical gremlins for 72 hours in the shop before a buddy pointed at the ICP sensor pigtail. The harness had rubbed through on the bracket, grounding out the signal and making the computer think pressure was fine, so it never commanded an injection event. Anyone else spent a whole weekend on something that ended up being a wire and two zip ties?
I was always a soapy water and flashlight guy, figured those electronic sniffers were overpriced gimmicks. Shop foreman in Dallas convinced me to borrow his TIF unit and I found a pinhole in an air brake line behind the frame rail in about 5 minutes. Woulda taken me an hour of pulling panels and spraying everything. Anyone else had a fancy tool they hated on until it actually proved its worth? What was the job?
Had a Freightliner in my shop last Tuesday, driver complaining about soft pedal after a few hard stops. I chased it for two days. Replaced the compressor governor, checked the slack adjusters, bled everything twice. Finally on the third morning I noticed the purge valve on the air dryer was weeping just a little when I shut the engine off. Rebuilt the dryer cartridge for 80 bucks and the air system holds like new. Turns out a worn dryer can let moisture push past the check valve and that little bit of air bleed adds up over time. The driver said he'd been feeling it for weeks but thought it was normal in the cold. Anyone else ever had an air dryer cause a brake pressure complaint that other guys blamed on the compressor?
Last Tuesday at the parts counter in Tulsa, this older tech mentioned he cracks the fuel rail bleeder screw for 2 seconds before cranking a cold 6.7 after a filter change. I gave it a shot on a 2015 F-250 that was hard starting and it fired up on the first turn, no cranking spells. Turns out the air gets trapped above the filter housing and just sitting there priming doesn't always push it out. Anyone else do this on the Powerstroke, or do you just rely on the electric pump to handle it?
My old 7.3 Powerstroke always had a little knock on cold starts, especially during those January mornings here in Montana. I ran the same 15w40 conventional oil for years because that is what the previous owner used and I figured why mess with what works. Last month I finally did an oil analysis and the wear metals were high, so I swapped to a full synthetic 5w40 and changed the filter. The cold start knock is basically gone and my oil pressure comes up way faster, which makes sense now that I think about the flow characteristics. I also noticed the engine idles smoother and I am not burning through as much oil between changes. Has anyone else made this switch on a high mileage engine and seen a difference in startup noise? I am curious if this is just placebo or if the thinner cold viscosity really is doing the work.
Had a set of reman injectors put in my 6.0 Powerstroke back in March from a shop over in Spokane. On the 305th mile, number 8 injector just gave up and dumped raw fuel into the cylinder. Had to pull the heads and clean everything out, it was a mess. Anyone else had bad luck with reman injectors from certain places?
Got a call from a buddy last month about a rough running 6.7 Cummins in his '14 Ram. I'd helped him reseal the head gasket a few years back and he said it started leaking again. I pulled out my service manual for the first time in forever and realized I'd been starting from the middle and going clockwise instead of the actual star pattern. No wonder that job came back. Took me 3 hours to redo it, but it's been holding pressure now for weeks. Anyone else ever follow an old timer's shortcut that turned out to be dead wrong?
My old injectors were tired. Cranking took forever. Smoked like a freight train. Pulled them after 200k miles and put in a set of reman 160cc injectors. Truck starts instantly now and the power band is way smoother. Any of you guys see that big a change just from injectors?
Was running a combine for a buddy when it started knocking real bad around 3pm on a Saturday. Tore into it at the field edge and found the cup cracked clean through, dumping fuel into the coolant. No shop nearby so I used a puller kit I had in my truck and swapped it with a spare cup I keep around for emergencies (guy I learned from always said bring extras, guess he was right). Got it back together by dark and she ran smooth. You all carry any weird spare parts for field repairs or am I just paranoid?
Was hauling a reefer load through a whiteout when the turbo let go and filled the cab with oil smoke. Had to limp 30 miles to a truck stop in Rawlins and rebuild it in the parking lot. Anyone else carry a spare turbo kit for emergency roadside repairs?
So back in June I was rebuilding a 2006 F-250 6.0 for a buddy. Needed a whole clutch setup and the budget was tight. I stood there in the parts store staring at a $450 Luk kit versus a $180 no-name one from the back shelf. Told myself it's just a farm truck that hauls hay bales, how bad could it be? Well after about 2 months of light driving it started vibrating real bad. Last week on I-80 near mile marker 145 the flywheel just let go with a bang you could hear from space. Pieces of it lodged in the bellhousing. Took me 10 hours to pull the trans and clean it all out. Had to buy a new flywheel anyway plus all new bolts. Probably cost me double in the end. Anyone else get burned by a parts gamble like this?
Was getting surging under load and threw two different boost sensors at it before I finally pressure tested the intake and heard that hiss anyone else ever waste half a day on something that simple?
I was digging through my old toolbox last month and found my first pop tester from 1989 and it got me wondering when did we stop trusting our ears and start trusting computers for everything?
I was out in western Nebraska last month doing a head gasket on a Cummins ISX and kept feeling like the bolts were going in too easy. Checked my wrench against a buddy's calibrated one and turns out it was reading way low after I dropped it off a trailer. Anyone else ever had a tool throw off a whole repair without even knowing?