Brad Clayton

Just read page 28 and reminded me of a "turning a blind eye" incident. '02 7.3l with a cracked block. Truck is modified to the gills. Called the hotline for prior approval and the first question out of the guys mouth is what size tires are on it? I swear the guy had a crystal ball or something, cause the truck had 35's or bigger can't remember now. Then he wants to know the other mods. ends up telling me if I can short block it for the cost cap then nothing will be said. Wow... guy got his truck fixed for $100.

Quote: It just amazes me that we are asked to do more paperwork Speaking of, have you seen the new end of oasis reports? we are now required to fill out radio forms instead of parts.

I think it's a trip when you're out in public with you're uniform on (which I am always in, it seems) and anyone near you will start a conversation about an auto repair story. I here them most of the time while standing in lines to pay for things, the conversations almost never involve me but are loud enough that ease dropping requires no effort. I find the power of suggestion absolutely amazing.

Normally when I do fuel filters I will change the top filter and suck out the fuel before replaceing the filter, then do the bottom filter. While replacing a noisy fuel pump the other day I noticed the top filter housing was empty when I went to replace the secondaary filter, not needing to remove the excess fuel. Unlike the 6.4 these units don't seem to be affected by the air brought on by removing a fuel line. Only takes a second to remove the supply line from the manifold while underneath to allow for the bowl to empty just enough to make room for the second filter. This is only helpful if finding a tool to reomve fluid is unhandy.

Update with fix. Tech working on truck removed ckp sensor and looked in hole while turning motor and found a bent tooth. He raised engine and dropped pan down and trie to straighten the tooth (the motor had shifted in the crate while being shipped). Redrove and still no good. Called hotline and they said the slightest knick in the trigger wheel can cause issues. The only way to get the wheel is to get a crank and they said replacing the crank could cause bedplate issues. Which is why the truck is in the shop in the first place. So hotline said put another short block in it. This advice was followed and truck is done and on the road. Another hard lesson to look replacement parts over really well.

I used to avoid customers like the plague. Now that I have some years on me, that postion has changed. We have a rash of new customers coming thru buying used 6.0 liters and I have gone out of my way to talk to them about care and feeding of their new beast. It's pretty neat to here the positive feedback from them. Quick story on overselling: anyone ever heard of Lane Construction? They're one of the biggest outfits in the northeast. They came down to South Carolina to widen about 20 miles of I-85. It was considered a small side project for them. They must have a gagillion dollars worth of equipment. They pop into our dealer with a foremans truck that needs some attention, our dealer was at the last exit of the 2 to 3 lane expansion project. Unfortunatly the truck is dispatched to one of our "pay the farm off on one customer" techs. He does is usuall gouging routine and not one person that touched the ro had the presence of mind to head off the coming disaster. They approved the work, then paided the bill and never stepped foot in the dealer again. There are about 7 dealers in a 45 mile radius of that area and someone willing to use some common sense on fixing what a vehicle needs and can get by with or without picked up their business. As far as the project went, they finished it ahead of schedule and under budget, saving lots of lives in the process. That stretch of I-85 around mile marker 19 was dangerous. It was said that your chances of making it thru alive were around 80%, if raining 50% if raining and at night "slim to none".

Anyone had a coil spring 4x4 apart yet? The spindle bearing has been moved to the 4x4 hub and not in the bearing assy anymore. Very time and cost saving on everyones part to service now. We get a lot of spindle bearing failures up here, and most of the time it's no big deal because the ball joints are due also, but now instead of the customer paying a ton to have them serviced it can be done at a regular interval reasonably. I've tried both of Keiths methods, number 2 when it had a dually adapter bolted on to keep rotor in place. But I agree with what is said here, it's nice to get everything apart and give the customer thier moneys worth. Even if you work at a snails pace you won't lose time.

It's amazing how just a little effort put forth can head off disasters... putting a floor mat in a brand new car in for first service, putting the oil change reminder on windshield or resetting the oil life message, not letting a car get out of the shop with low tire pressure when in for service, you know the little things that should be done without any effort and should be common place, but if they fall to the wayside problems start to arise. Another big one is resetting radio stations to customers original presets. Customer appreciation and expectations stem from the basics and without that you can't go forward with the relationship.

It's not hard for engineers to come up with those torque specs./techniques with engine on stand, but out in the trenches it's a diferent world.

I was doing a little searching for a sync problem and found these posts, doesn't look good for tech working on truck. It's a late '04 in which he just installed a short block for a bed plate sealing problem. Truck ran fine before but now the rpm pid is erratic the truck stumbles while driving and the sync pid toggles yes to no. Anyone had this happen on replacement engines?

Alright, I had a chance to regain my composure after a long day. I was thinking about my original post and I kinda posted without thinking clearly and am setting things straight now. I replaced the questionable turbo and took some time to tear the old one down, finding this bolt had backed out into the turbine wheel and the entire turbo was not able to turn. I guess a nut and bolt torque check would be advisable on future cleanings.

Had one get me good today. 06 with no mgp. Cleaned turbo and egr and installed exhaust manifold gaskets for a p0299 two days ago. Customer comes back and says his turbo stopped working this morning, 23,000 miles on it. Checked the usual stuff, took control of the turbo and watched the pids, turbo made noise and the ebp_a changed accordingly but no boost. Checked air filter ok, checked map and signal hose which I cleaned previously ok. Swapped map sensor with a downed truck (we got 'em stacked up like cord wood around here) no change. Smoked intake for blown intercooler even though there was no noise or evidence of a leak, ok. Called hotline and told them my mgp started reading (barely) after pressurizing the map sensor to see if it was reading. I had confused the truck so bad it wouldn't hardly move and set a lot of correlation codes, cleared them and I was back to square one, no mgp. I was dead set on a pcm not inferring the numbers had some serious tunnel vision set on, was getting ready to swap pcms. Another tech comes over and says "shouldn't you get something if that turbo is turning?" I stared engine with air filter off and bingo the compressor wheel wasn't turning. The shaft had snapped, never had one break on me and completely went around a very basic check. I mean come on it's an '06 with 23,000 on it, what's the chances? Oh well, lesson learned.

Excellent repair, definitely one I will keep in the back of my mind on future possible air in the fuel system problems. How much hair did you have left after that job?

Nice, I'll know if they let ya, from the shock wave felt all the way here.

Had one doing same thing, ambulance. A/c worked intermittently also, after tech replaced PCM, with no change replaced harness and cured it. You could actually grab the harness near the PCM and give a good tug when in no start mode and it would start. Bad part was after getting the harness out (tough job) a week later the egr cooler went out, and it had to be torn down again. Not sure if this helps but ours hasn't been back been about a year now.

The fluid was done. My wife bought the rig a '97 with 125,000 on it with out my knowledge. I just came home one day and there it was in the yard. So I did not get to check it out before it was ours. Couple of weeks later the noise showed up and I thought it was in the trans and I actually pulled the trans. I found out real quick it wasn't, but it gave me a chance to freshen up the clutches and seals. Like I said my t-case was pretty rough and my wife wanted her "new" rig back so I just swapped it out. The truck has 200,000 on it and it's mine now (wife got a new rig so I got her hand me down) and it still purrs like a kitten. I wouldn't think twice about driving it across country today if I had to. These t-cases get a lot of abuse, I actually lock into 4x4 anytime conditions allow. It cuts out alot of wear and tear on the clutches.

Noise is in your t-case most likely. I own one and it did same thing. Tore t-case down and found problem with planet assy/sun gear on input shaft moving in and out. Mine was too far gone to fix so I put a unit in it.

I find it amazing how quick the aftermarket jumped on this powertrain. Google "6.4l" and the choices are endless for power adders. I was told by Ford a while back that this vehicle would be unchippable. I guess they were being optomistic.

Holy crap, you took the words right out of my mouth!! That sums it up completely, and nothing else can put it any straighter. I like it, and I would fire that post off immediately, to wake the guy up. I personally don't see why he's interested in any warranty problems, him and his buddy obviously have enough money to burn if they purposely destroyed a couple of thousand dollars worth of parts on a brand new truck.

The reason I worded my post the way I did is because the fellow is trying to be sneaky about his mods. He should just man up and put the aftermarket parts on then take his chances with the dealer when something breaks. I for one am very understanding and forgiving on a case by case basis with modded trucks. But if some guy is gonna lie to me and say "hey take a look it's all stock" (when it's not), makes it tough to be in the guy's corner.

There is an old saying "loose lips sink ships", well I think that guys boat is sunk. Anybody with a computer now knows the history on his truck, it would not be hard for him to find himself black listed from warranty repairs.

I can't believe all the tards that are congradulating the guy.

one thing we did when we made a cancel box was to make the harness extra long, this allowed you to pull another 7.3l powered truck beside the broken one and actually run the host truck off the donors electronics, super fast and easy way to tell if it is base engine or electical problem. OF course nowadays it's hard to find two 7.3 liters in the same area, but still worth while to extend the harness. The ford box has a harness that is about 3 inches long, and cost about a grand.

Back in '99, an F-250 came to the shop with a terrible vibration. The truck was brand new and the owner had driven a 1000 miles or so. This thing would rattle change off the dashboard at a stop light. With a quick call to the hotline we find out that 2 engines had been shipped from Navistar with unbalanced crankshafts. We had one and who knows who got the other. A crankshaft was ordered and installed. Truck comes back with an oil leak at the pan. Now I am seeing the truck for the first time. I pull the engine and reseal the pan, the original job did not quite take. Guy is on his way again. At 11,000 miles truck comes back and has an oil pressure fluctuation problem. I get the truck again and knowing these oil senders aren't the most reliable source I'm thinking a cluster problem. It was a wierd problem because you get run the truck hard and it would be ok, then shut it off and come back to it and the gage would bounce all over the place. To be on the safe side I checked the oil pressure with a master gage and had 20-30 psi cold/fast idle at oil resovoir. Being low I called hotline and they said check it at the fitting down near the oil filter. I did and had 60 psi. Oh boy, 30 up top and 60 down low, where is the oil going? Hotline says pull the valve covers and looked for a broken lifter causing oil pressure loss, pull trans and check lifter plugs, ect. to no availe. They decide to send help. Well the calvary shows up. Chuck Gregory and Matt Hahn from Navistar stroll into the shop, we shake hands talk about the truck briefly and they get right to work, I mean all business. I handed them tools and watched. They put the top of the truck back together and then proceed to hook up two oil pressure gages one high and one low at the same time. The thought never crossed my mind. Guess what when the pressure was ok at the bottom it was also ok at the top and visa versa. The pressure loss was in the main oil system. If I had done this I could have saved them a trip to South Carolina. But I'm glad they came down, I learned an extreme amount about Power Strokes while they were there for 5 days. We went to lunch everyday and they bought mine. So we pulled the motor out (this 3rd time now) and hook shop air to oil pressure port with pan off, major hissing from number 4 main cap. We removed the cap and the upper bearing is gone. Tech that put the crank in got side track with a string of waiters and forgot all about that lone bearing laying on his bench! The bearing was spinning on start up and would block and unblock the oil passage in the engine block, wild stuff. The owner promptly when to the show room and was given a brand new 2000 model. Believe it or not the owner belonged to a travel club in California and made three trips out pulling a 11,000 lb. fifth wheel since the crank replacement. Anyway these Folks were the best I have had the pleasure of working with. We stayed at the shop til Midnight putting the truck back together with new parts, again they bought me supper. They shared info with me about hush hush stuff at the plant. One topic was the injectors for the 6.0l, another was camless motors they were tinkering with. Keep in mind this was mid 1999. I had some other 7.3's hanging around and they tackled them. They had this wild injector cancel box. I felt like a little kid helping his father fix the car on the weekend, very humbling experience indeed.

I had two guys from International, one being the man himself Mr Chuck Gregory, come down to look at an oil pressure loss. After they found out a main bearing had been left out upon crank replacement, they were pretty upset (more than the customer). These guys take it personally on their level. See the 7.3l power stroke section for the whole story, I'll post is later.