Matt Saunoras Posted November 19, 2015 Share Posted November 19, 2015 I'll start this one off with the town I work in. Small rural town, everyone knows each other, everyone hates ford diesels. This story involves a local towing company and a local construction company. Both own F-550 6.4 trucks that they purchased off us new back before I even knew what a diesel was. Naturally when I started at this dealer in 09 I was cutting my teeth doing the warranty work on both of these trucks and many others. The tow truck is an 18ft rollback and the construction truck is just an extended cab service body. I have always done the heavy line work on the rollback but the construction company has their own mechanics. Once the warranty is up there is zero chance I'll ever touch their trucks again. That's the way they are, don't get me wrong, they have no issues asking questions and picking my brain about shit but they'd prefer to throw every part under the sun at something rather than have it properly diagnosed. They have a hard on for being as capable as the dealer. The reason is the shop foreman and the lead mechanic are both ex-employees where I work. When my boss bought out the dealer I work for everyone went up in arms and quit to go work down the street. That's where I was brought in, fresh out of asset I had some certs they needed. Fast forward to now there are some hard feelings now that the new building is up and the fact is it's the nicest damn place in the whole town. My GM (ex owner of the dealership) has a bromance with the ex-service manager aka shop foreman for the construction company. Whatever he says is gold. Whatever I say doesn't matter. This construction company is the elite of the elite, they get parts at 10% over cost and basically whatever they want, whenever they want but they don't spend a dime in the service dept. I try like hell to please these guys and have them maybe throw me a truck once in a while but it never happens. And now onto the trucks. I posted before about the 08 F-550 rollback that keeps breaking flexplates. I am convinced it is internal to the engine but only after I stupidly installed a new transmission and rear engine cover thinking there's no way a shortblock with only 50k miles on it, that was fine the whole time, suddenly is blowing the centers out of flexplates. Now what are the odds that the construction company who also owns a 6.4L F-550 is having the same issue?! They are also experiencing repeat flexplate failure in their truck. The kicker is the engine and transmission have both been replaced in the last 7k miles. A quick summary. The 08 F-550 rollback has a 50k mile ESB, reman transmission and breaks flexplates every 200-300 miles starting about 1000 miles ago. I did all the work on it. The ESB is out of warranty by 6 months The 08 F-550 construction truck has a 7k mile 6007 complete engine, reman trans 2k miles ago and breaks flexplates every 2000-3000 miles and has done this since the reman engine was installed. They did all the work on it. The 6007 is in warranty but I have never laid eyes on the truck yet. My GM is in an absolute uproar, mainly about the construction truck. You cannot use logic and reason to talk to this guy because he will verbally beat you into a pulp. That is the way he is and the way he always will be. He's convinced faulty shortblocks are to blame and rather than attempting diagnosis he wants to bypass steps and get the construction company a brand new 6007 and have them install it down at their shop forgoing any labor the service dept could have possibly made. Now mind you I have never seen this truck yet but somehow we have a repair order on it and I have submitted a hotline with all the info he provided me. After that he gets hotline on the phone and in my sheer terror basically screamed at the service engineer the whole time. Then he calls our FSE and ripped him a new one. Then he calls our service rep and does same thing.... This went on over and over until they finally sent an FSE down. At this point I'm ready to pack my bags over a truck I haven't seen since it went out of powertrain. FSE came down here and I was steaming mad at this point. Since the rollback runs and moves we stuck a vibration analyzer on it and verified that there is something wrong internal to the engine. I say it's a bad bearing, he says its a balance issue. Whatever it is it won't be covered by warranty. Fine, I figured that was the case before he came. We know the rollback is an engine issue but what about the construction truck? It's sitting down their yard with a blown out flexplate, can't exactly get a EVA on a non running engine. Well one thing leads to another, my GM sucks off the FSE and gets him to sign off on the construction truck as an engine vibration felt at 1G and blah blah blah everyone agrees the shortblock will be covered under warranty. There's no way these asshat mechanics have the ability to shortblock a 6.4 so my GM goes back into an uproar. They bought a complete engine and they want another one! Some how some fucking way my boss gets involved and gets Ford to sign off on a complete engine replacement under warranty! I offered numerous times to take on the shortblock job and could have easily had it done last week because you know, it's crucial to have this truck back on the road. So the news to me on my desk Monday morning is they're getting the complete.....BUT there's one stipulation. I have to install it. The mechanics at the construction company aren't happy because now I get to see their hackery in first person and cab off a truck that they had no business even attempting the first time. I'm not busy right now thankfully so I've been screwing with this job on and off for a few days now and got the engine out today. Much to my fucking surprise when I yank the engine, swing it over into the light and see a rear cover alignment dowel pin that is very noticeably bent off center. Bent enough to make the bellhousing bolt tight all the way out which I thought was a little weird during removal. What's the one thing that they always tell you to check when you have a flexplate fail? Don't tell me tell that to the mechanics down the road. I honestly don't know what is going to become of all of this mess. My GM pissed off a lot of people at Ford over this engine and if they call it back it's going to be extremely obvious nothing is wrong with it. We shall see. 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Brad Clayton Posted November 19, 2015 Share Posted November 19, 2015 :popcorn: :popcorn: 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Browning Posted November 19, 2015 Share Posted November 19, 2015 Nothing wrong with it? A transmission dowel was bent right? They come with the engine, right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mchan68 Posted November 19, 2015 Share Posted November 19, 2015 :popcorn: :popcorn: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Saunoras Posted November 20, 2015 Author Share Posted November 20, 2015 Nothing wrong with it? A transmission dowel was bent right? They come with the engine, right? Yup a complete engine assembly comes with $13,000 dowel pins. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mchan68 Posted November 20, 2015 Share Posted November 20, 2015 Perhaps I missed it, but did your flexplate eating truck have transmission issues at all? I've only ever ran into ONE such truck I recall with a broken flexplate that got stick handled to me years ago, after being misdiagnosed as a faulty starter (the starter would just free spin when the engine was cranked over with the key). Upon replacing the flexplate on my brief post-repair road test was when I noticed the transmission shifting much harsher and abruptly than I was used to seeing with these trucks, making me wonder if THAT was the root cause of failure. Mine was a 6.0 truck, not that it matters since the 6.4s use the same Torqshift transmissions as the 6.0s. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Saunoras Posted November 20, 2015 Author Share Posted November 20, 2015 Yes the rollback did have shifting issues prior to breaking flexplates and when I tore the whole thing down it had a damaged pump and some burned clutches. Also some fine metal I couldn't pinpoint, possibly from the torque converter. At first I figured it was the harsh shifting that was busting the plates, until it came back. I jammed a known good used plate in it and that's when I really put some miles on the thing, got it hot and noticed the engine knock it was making and that the engine "just didnt feel right". The FSE verified what I had noticed, not only the noise but the vibration also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaron Posted November 22, 2015 Share Posted November 22, 2015 My torqshift shifts almost as hard as my TH400 with fixed line pressure, and I've never broke a flexplate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nelsona19 Posted November 23, 2015 Share Posted November 23, 2015 You probably have the higher nickel content flex plate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Saunoras Posted December 7, 2015 Author Share Posted December 7, 2015 I forgot to mention that...... BIG SURPRISE, we can't get this claim paid. Partially due to the fact that we jumped through so many hoops/skipped the whole process that we didn't get prior approval. I was told by my SM that we did not need it. Oh well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Saunoras Posted December 19, 2015 Author Share Posted December 19, 2015 Still can't get this claim paid. Our service rep, who gave the okay to begin with, basically said...... too bad, so sad. The rollback still sits in our lot. I proposed an idea that since we already have to eat an entire engine (the core is the nearly new 6007 with a bent dowel pin) that we just put it in the rollback and switch the rear cover with the new one they already bought. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forddieseldoctor Posted December 20, 2015 Share Posted December 20, 2015 There you go. Sell it as gently used. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Saunoras Posted February 14, 2016 Author Share Posted February 14, 2016 Okay, and update and resolution to the story. The warranty claim paid for the complete engine assembly. Ford does not want the engine back for inspection, just the core returned to our powertrain dealer. So I pitch the idea to my service manager, lets give the shiny black core to the towing company for their rollback which I couldn't successfully repair. Right away he said no but after he had a chance to think about it he came around. We gave them the core from the construction truck with the instruction to remove their engine, remove their new rear engine cover and install the cover on the core. Then of course they are to return their old engine so we can receive core credit. I printed out everything from the WSM and gave them the rear main seal installer/wear sleeve remover to borrow. It all went off without a hitch. They've had their rollback on the road for over 5000 miles with the construction companies 6007 minus the bent dowel. I really hope this engine lasts them, if anyone deserves it they do. btw my GM is still an asshole Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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