OMG I Killed Kenny!
I don't suppose my Pee-S-A post went over very well, huh? Only two comments? Geeze... oh well. I hope that if you took the time to read it you got a good chuckle. If not, the perhaps you actually learned a little bit of common courtesy that you will use in the future. Either way, my job in public potty's is done... for now.
Things have been crazy as all hell this week. As some of you may have been aware, Kenny has been misbehaving lately. It started out with small nuances with shifting from the low to high gears, missing a gear here and there. But his problems gradually got worse with each passing day.
Late last week he started something new and completely annoying. Empty or loaded, when it was time to pull up an incline he would throw a tantrum and decide that he didn't want to be in cruise control. "Fine, be that way," I told him. "I'll just stomp on your throttle pedal and show YOU who's boss."
Well he didn't like that very much either. Eventually he started falling out of gear completely, making the speedometer go bonkers, and leaving me out of control until I could force him back into gear in the manual override mode. Our problems were growing and were becoming a problem. We were fighting back and forth for control and neither of us was winning or willing to concede.
Finally we managed to get to one of our company terminals to get looked at. Kenny sat in the shop over night while I enjoyed a nice cozy room at the local hotel. The next morning I returned to find Kenny ready to roll. The mechanic told me what had been done, a speed control sensor has been replaced. "That should do it, you shouldn't have any more trouble," I was assured.
Once we were back on the road things did seem to be going better. Until we got about an hour away from the terminal. Then it started doing everything it had been doing before, all over again.... and all at once.
I had been cruising along at 60 MPH. Then at the first real steep upgrade Kenny started getting all pissy and threw himself out of cruise, out of gear, then decided it was a good idea to "abuse the clutch" getting it too hot and thus causing the transmission to refuse to go into gear at all. It also caused both the check engine and check transmission lights on the dash to become illuminated.
UGH! Bad Kenny!
I coasted over onto the shoulder of the high way and set the brakes. I fumed in the drivers' seat for a few moments after shutting down the engine to let it, and me, cool off. Then I dialed the shop at terminal that I'd just left and asked to speak to the mechanic that had worked on Kenny that morning. I explained what was happening and the response that I received from him made me see red...."Oh man," he said. "I had hoped it was just that sensor but I kinda figured it was the OEM wiring harness that would really need fixed."
Um, really? You just kinda hoped it was the sensor... instead of fixing what you actually thought was the real root of the problem? Gee thanks.
After taking a few deep breaths I asked him if I could continue to drive the truck or if he thought it needed to return to the shop for the harness to be replaced. He assured me that as long as I wasn't using cruise control that things would be okay. He said that I should make a stop at a shop as soon as I could to have the harness replaced.
After ending the call I started Kenny up again and got him into gear and we hit the road again. This time using only the throttle pedal. No cruise... which sucks. But we made it to our delivery destination and then to our next pick up location the following morning with no real trouble. I'd attempted to use the cruise one more time that following morning with success for about an hour, after that he refused to stay in cruise and I throttled it back to the terminal, was was on my route to my next delivery.
Of course, when I got to the shop the mechanic that I had dealt with the day before was not on duty and I had to try to explain it all to another guy. He reviewed what had been done already and tried to make sense of the notes that had been left in the file. He then told me that the harness that was needed to complete the repair was a special order item that takes 3-5 days to arrive once it's ordered. SUPER! UGH.
So I called my manager and explained the situation to him. He and I came up with a plan of action that we thought would be sufficient and efficient for getting the repair done. I would continue to drive Kenny without cruise control for the next week, then instead of going home for three days off, I would drop the truck at our Carlisle PA terminal to be worked on while I took a weeks worth of vacation.
Sounded great to me! So I returned to the shop and informed them of the plan. They went ahead and built a work order for the repair so that when I dropped it at the Carlisle terminal the following week, they would know exactly what needed to be done. And all seemed well with the world.
Then Kenny and I left to continue on our journey to our next delivery destination. The following morning I made delivery and was on my way to my next pick up. Things were going okay, but Kenny was kind of acting up. He seemed to be having a hard time getting into gear a few times here and there and the speedometer kept going bezerk. I crossed my fingers and hoped it was nothing much.
After hooking up to my next loaded trailer, things took a turn for the worse. Kenny had had enough. We made it less than half way out of the drive way of the facility when he threw in the towel and refuse to do anything else. He had popped out of gear as he'd been shifting from third to fourth. There was nothing I could do to get him into anything other than first gear. And even first gear was tough because the transmission was barely producing enough torque to get us to the side of the road and out of the way of the traffic flow.
Instead of calling the shop... this time I called our emergency maintenance crew. They sent a wrecker to tow me to the local Freightliner Dealership to be checked out. That was a whole new adventure, as the folks there weren't the friendliest or the most honest to their waiting customers. I was directed to a drivers lounge to hang out until they could take a look at it. I sat there for 5 hours before they finally pulled Kenny into a bay.
Another two hours went by and not a single soul approached the truck as it sat in the shop bay. Exhausted and irritated I headed down to the office to ask what was up. I was told they'd hooked up the diagnostic machine and it said it was the speed control sensor that was causing the problem.
But, didn't the company shop just replace that? Hmm... odd, huh?
So they told me that they would try to get to fixing it either late that night or early the next morning. They told me about a local hotel that would come and pick me up and return me the next morning. So I called them and enjoyed a nice quiet evening relaxing and watching TV.
The hotel manager took me back to the dealership the next morning around 11am. I figured that should have been plenty of time for the shop to have replaced the sensor and had Kenny ready to roll.
Boy I thought wrong! I had apparently been lied to the night before when they said that they already ran the diagnostic machine on Kenny. They hadn't. I stood in the office for 3 hours waiting for them to finally take care of checking Kenny out. They had to call Eaton, the transmission maker, with the results of the tests to get more comprehensive info. Then they had to take the truck out for a test drive while on the line with Eaton to explain the occurrences as they happened.
5 hours into it, they finally knew what had to be done. The speed control sensor had to replaced. I'd say AGAIN, only when they pulled it out it looked to them as if it were original to the truck. I can only assume that my company mechanic either lied to me or replaced some other sensor in error. I'm going to lean more towards the first option. But I digress....
So the speed control sensor needed replacing and the OEM wiring harness needed replacing. The work itself took less than 30 minutes to complete. The mechanic took Kenny out for a spin once more after he was done replacing the items just to make sure it was fixed.
The whole thing was an irritation but at least Kenny managed to get repaired and is now running like the champ I always knew he was! Plus, now I don't have to waste that week of vacation just so he can sit in a shop where he may or may not even get repaired correctly.
Sadly the whole episode I've just described too most of the week to be completed. I ran very little miles, earned a little breakdown pay and will be reimbursed for the hotel stays. But dang, it was annoying!
Hopefully things will go a little more smoothly between now and next weekend when I go home for my three days off!
Things have been crazy as all hell this week. As some of you may have been aware, Kenny has been misbehaving lately. It started out with small nuances with shifting from the low to high gears, missing a gear here and there. But his problems gradually got worse with each passing day.
Late last week he started something new and completely annoying. Empty or loaded, when it was time to pull up an incline he would throw a tantrum and decide that he didn't want to be in cruise control. "Fine, be that way," I told him. "I'll just stomp on your throttle pedal and show YOU who's boss."
Well he didn't like that very much either. Eventually he started falling out of gear completely, making the speedometer go bonkers, and leaving me out of control until I could force him back into gear in the manual override mode. Our problems were growing and were becoming a problem. We were fighting back and forth for control and neither of us was winning or willing to concede.
Finally we managed to get to one of our company terminals to get looked at. Kenny sat in the shop over night while I enjoyed a nice cozy room at the local hotel. The next morning I returned to find Kenny ready to roll. The mechanic told me what had been done, a speed control sensor has been replaced. "That should do it, you shouldn't have any more trouble," I was assured.
Once we were back on the road things did seem to be going better. Until we got about an hour away from the terminal. Then it started doing everything it had been doing before, all over again.... and all at once.
I had been cruising along at 60 MPH. Then at the first real steep upgrade Kenny started getting all pissy and threw himself out of cruise, out of gear, then decided it was a good idea to "abuse the clutch" getting it too hot and thus causing the transmission to refuse to go into gear at all. It also caused both the check engine and check transmission lights on the dash to become illuminated.
UGH! Bad Kenny!
I coasted over onto the shoulder of the high way and set the brakes. I fumed in the drivers' seat for a few moments after shutting down the engine to let it, and me, cool off. Then I dialed the shop at terminal that I'd just left and asked to speak to the mechanic that had worked on Kenny that morning. I explained what was happening and the response that I received from him made me see red...."Oh man," he said. "I had hoped it was just that sensor but I kinda figured it was the OEM wiring harness that would really need fixed."
Um, really? You just kinda hoped it was the sensor... instead of fixing what you actually thought was the real root of the problem? Gee thanks.
After taking a few deep breaths I asked him if I could continue to drive the truck or if he thought it needed to return to the shop for the harness to be replaced. He assured me that as long as I wasn't using cruise control that things would be okay. He said that I should make a stop at a shop as soon as I could to have the harness replaced.
After ending the call I started Kenny up again and got him into gear and we hit the road again. This time using only the throttle pedal. No cruise... which sucks. But we made it to our delivery destination and then to our next pick up location the following morning with no real trouble. I'd attempted to use the cruise one more time that following morning with success for about an hour, after that he refused to stay in cruise and I throttled it back to the terminal, was was on my route to my next delivery.
Of course, when I got to the shop the mechanic that I had dealt with the day before was not on duty and I had to try to explain it all to another guy. He reviewed what had been done already and tried to make sense of the notes that had been left in the file. He then told me that the harness that was needed to complete the repair was a special order item that takes 3-5 days to arrive once it's ordered. SUPER! UGH.
So I called my manager and explained the situation to him. He and I came up with a plan of action that we thought would be sufficient and efficient for getting the repair done. I would continue to drive Kenny without cruise control for the next week, then instead of going home for three days off, I would drop the truck at our Carlisle PA terminal to be worked on while I took a weeks worth of vacation.
Sounded great to me! So I returned to the shop and informed them of the plan. They went ahead and built a work order for the repair so that when I dropped it at the Carlisle terminal the following week, they would know exactly what needed to be done. And all seemed well with the world.
Then Kenny and I left to continue on our journey to our next delivery destination. The following morning I made delivery and was on my way to my next pick up. Things were going okay, but Kenny was kind of acting up. He seemed to be having a hard time getting into gear a few times here and there and the speedometer kept going bezerk. I crossed my fingers and hoped it was nothing much.
After hooking up to my next loaded trailer, things took a turn for the worse. Kenny had had enough. We made it less than half way out of the drive way of the facility when he threw in the towel and refuse to do anything else. He had popped out of gear as he'd been shifting from third to fourth. There was nothing I could do to get him into anything other than first gear. And even first gear was tough because the transmission was barely producing enough torque to get us to the side of the road and out of the way of the traffic flow.
Instead of calling the shop... this time I called our emergency maintenance crew. They sent a wrecker to tow me to the local Freightliner Dealership to be checked out. That was a whole new adventure, as the folks there weren't the friendliest or the most honest to their waiting customers. I was directed to a drivers lounge to hang out until they could take a look at it. I sat there for 5 hours before they finally pulled Kenny into a bay.
Another two hours went by and not a single soul approached the truck as it sat in the shop bay. Exhausted and irritated I headed down to the office to ask what was up. I was told they'd hooked up the diagnostic machine and it said it was the speed control sensor that was causing the problem.
But, didn't the company shop just replace that? Hmm... odd, huh?
So they told me that they would try to get to fixing it either late that night or early the next morning. They told me about a local hotel that would come and pick me up and return me the next morning. So I called them and enjoyed a nice quiet evening relaxing and watching TV.
The hotel manager took me back to the dealership the next morning around 11am. I figured that should have been plenty of time for the shop to have replaced the sensor and had Kenny ready to roll.
Boy I thought wrong! I had apparently been lied to the night before when they said that they already ran the diagnostic machine on Kenny. They hadn't. I stood in the office for 3 hours waiting for them to finally take care of checking Kenny out. They had to call Eaton, the transmission maker, with the results of the tests to get more comprehensive info. Then they had to take the truck out for a test drive while on the line with Eaton to explain the occurrences as they happened.
5 hours into it, they finally knew what had to be done. The speed control sensor had to replaced. I'd say AGAIN, only when they pulled it out it looked to them as if it were original to the truck. I can only assume that my company mechanic either lied to me or replaced some other sensor in error. I'm going to lean more towards the first option. But I digress....
So the speed control sensor needed replacing and the OEM wiring harness needed replacing. The work itself took less than 30 minutes to complete. The mechanic took Kenny out for a spin once more after he was done replacing the items just to make sure it was fixed.
The whole thing was an irritation but at least Kenny managed to get repaired and is now running like the champ I always knew he was! Plus, now I don't have to waste that week of vacation just so he can sit in a shop where he may or may not even get repaired correctly.
Sadly the whole episode I've just described too most of the week to be completed. I ran very little miles, earned a little breakdown pay and will be reimbursed for the hotel stays. But dang, it was annoying!
Hopefully things will go a little more smoothly between now and next weekend when I go home for my three days off!
Comments
Glad I found your blog- am enjoying your take on life on the road.
I'm an author in Atlanta, working with a journalist and magazine publisher looking for interesting and intriguing long haul drivers to include in a photo essay book about the modern truck driver. I think you would be perfect to include.
Can we talk more about it?
Linda Sands
truckerbook@gmail.com
Don’t be concerned about how many comments you get in regards to what you write about- lots of people still flock to your page and enjoy it but might be too shy to speak! Look at my blog, hardly anyone ever comments but you, but my Mom still says she enjoys it, and that’s enough to keep me writing! :o)
I enjoyed how you killed Kenny, even if it caused you some exasperation with multiple mechanics. It got you writing again, and for that I’m glad! Not to mention, any mechanic I have ever encountered has been exasperated by us drivers, and they deal with a lot of them! I see lot’s of driver appreciation events, maybe we should team up and initiate a mechanic’s appreciation day! That way, they could get the recognition they deserve, and our trucks would get into the shop quicker due to our butt smooching!
Keep doing what you are doing and keep writing about it. I see a publisher has even taken notice of you! Gi-Gi, you’re gonna be famous! I just hope you remember me, and that dinner you promised me you would buy me, when we finally meet out on the road! :o)
Till next time, keep smiling, laughing and having fun!