Bruce Amacker

OK, I'm stumped. I upgraded to 96.05, renewed my license and now it won't connect. I've rebooted a dozen times, ran my AV, disabled my AV, run CCleaner, MalwareBytes, Defraggler, and cleaned the hard drive. Machine is a Win7 Asus netbook which has worked perfectly until now. I've never had this problem before. Any tips? I'm teaching this week and it needs to work...... Thanks! Captures: After pic 4 I have to kill IDS with Task Manager, as it won't let me out.

Teaching keeps me really busy most of the year but winters are usually slow. The last two winters I restored an old VW bus, here's the Cliff Notes version: I did all the mud and paint myself and it's turned out great, especially since I'm not a bodyman. 200+ hours of mig welding, I kept a tally and have 1008 hours total in the restoration. The only thing I didn't do was the upholstery and headliner. I have 3000+ miles on it now and go to shows out of state as well as local. For the full novel version go here, but pack a lunch- it's 37 pages: http://leakoil.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=2888

Slightly off topic but worth mentioning anyway- I'm running Win7 on my tower and recently upgraded to a solid state hard drive- wow, what a difference! Access time is super quick, which means things happen really fast, bootup time is about 15 seconds from off. Waiting for programs to open is a thing of the past. The solid state drive is tiny- the size of a PCMCIA card or thick credit card, a 500GB drive was $350. I suggest this upgrade highly. Win7 64 bit, Intel Corei3-4130 4.3ghz, 16gb Ram

I've used exhaust pipe many times to fab filler necks with success, but one thing- most/all RTV is not rated for fuel immersion.

Well, that explains a lot.

I'd probably also check the reductant injector for leaking/flow test like in the WSM/IDS. Some other vehicles (Dodge Cummins, maybe?) have an ammonia sensor in addition to the other sensors, I'm not sure what it's used for but to prevent odor might be the idea.

If that's a normal Speedi-Sleeve (and it appears to be), there is a groove built into the sleeves just inboard of the 90* bend. It's made so you take a pair of pliers or dikes, grab the lip and it separates, allowing you to peel it off leaving only the band of fresh metal and not the 90* lip. It appears he did not remove the lip, which is optional. I used hundreds of these on heavy trucks for harmonics, tranny seals, hub seals, etc. We stocked about 10 popular numbers when I had the shop. Many you can order by size, like CR 99250 would be a shaft size of 2.500" or something like that. The good ones are expensive ($20-30) because they are machined on a lathe and you can tell it. The cheap ones ($5) for common apps like SBC harmonic balancers are just stamped steel and not nearly the quality. I love those things.

Those should not have made it past the service advisor and cashier if they were doing their job. Ditto. In 25 years I never did a performance diag as a wait. An LOF, yes, headlight bulb, yes, anything that requires a scan tool, no f'ing way. If you get lucky and find it in 20 minutes the cust will scream if you bill him the normal 1-2 hours for a diag.

If you have a towmotor at your shop that would be even better, as you could go 15-18' high with racking. I may have pics of my old shop somewhere. We kept the oil tanks, compressor, and even the A/C machine 3/4 of the year on the racking.

Line the edges of your shop area with 30" pallet racking that straddles the tool boxes and everything else. Put a layer of shelving on the pallet racking about 6 1/2 or 7' up and put your seldom used tools, equipment, tires and BS up there. It keeps the floor uncluttered and gives you MUCH more usable work space. In non-toolbox areas (like in the left of your picture) put a layer of shelving 36" up and it makes for a really heavy duty workbench. You have LOTS of available space in the photos above, you just have to make it usable.

Taught at NYPD again this week, and they're shooting for a new low (average MPH). 2014 6.7, 756 miles, 270 hours, Change Oil message, average MPH 2.8. That's the worst one I've seen yet. They ignore the messages, management reduced the service interval from 5000 miles to 4000 miles, at that number it means they do an LOF at about 1500 engine hours (should be 200 hours). The techs know this and sneak in extra LOFs whenever they can. Gee, I wonder why they lose so many engines......

Sorry, the IH info doesn't cover that axle.

Listing a year or VIN would help, and being that truck is probably built by IH, look on the axle beam for an ID tag for what the mfr and weight rating is. With this info I might be able to look it up. MD/HD stuff is all built from mfr components, so looking up a torque spec like you're used to on auto/LD doesn't apply. You HAVE to have the spec sheet or ID to get any info, including parts. You can have five 2010 IH 4400 trucks lined up with 5 different front axle codes, so kingpins, brake stuff, torques would all be different, but all five might look identical at first glance. Good Luck!

If it starts on the left bank but not the rt, you have a leak in the right bank. Pull the VC and run it and see if anything leaks abnormal. Look for oil in fuel at the FF (center o-ring leaking on injector will cause oil in fuel), or pull the FP plug at the left head by the turbo and take a sample there, or tap FP at that plug and see if it jumps up when you power brake it or run the IPR command up (indicating HP oil leaking into the fuel rail from a center o-ring leaking on an injector). 7.3 gen 2s don't return fuel to the tank from the heads so color sampling is tougher at the FF. Or, air test the right head at the hose inlet (1/2 NF thread, use a Weatherhead 7897, AKA 5/16" inverted male, you'll need a gasket for the bottom) and see if it holds pressure. It sounds like your problem is in the right head. If this doesn't pan out, put a LPOP gauge on the plug in the top of the reservoir (or the side of the block) and go for a ride to verify LPOP isn't falling off from gunk in the pickup screen under load (seen it, especially if someone changed the pan). Verify your ICPV is dropping off and use that over ICP in ANY HP problem on ANY HEUI engine. 7.3s have been known to substitute a known good number in ICP when it drops off, but ICPV will always be more honest. Good Luck, call me if you need help. 440-846-3885

I'm a believer in waiting quite a while before trying a new OS. I've been Windoze' B tester too many times........

In Europe M/T are the norm, I have friends there who have never driven an A/T and say the only people who have them over there are the handicapped. In some countries the traffic lights there go red-yellow-green to give you advance warning to go from N to 1 as the light is turning. And 35-50% of cars are diesel as well as almost all small trucks/vans. "sigh"

You know about "short sticking" to check the oil the second time, right? There's a TSB on it. We all get our ass kicked once in a while by something easy......

Didn't the 03-04 combustion chamber change, which is what made the pistons different? Are the heads the same? I know the GPs are different.

Hey Guys: I'm doing a custom class for an insurance company regarding component failures that would/could be covered by a comprehensive insurance policy. I have plenty of pictures in these categories: Contaminated fuel systems- rust, water, etc. Cooling systems (EGR coolers damaged from low coolant, wrong coolant/lack of maintenance corrosion, cavitation, etc) Air induction failures I am short in a couple of categories: DEF contamination (both directions- DEF/Fuel and Fuel/DEF) Failures from chips/programmers (bottom end, driveline) Algae contamination pictures would also be welcome Split injector tips from air intrusion Anything else that "could" be claimed by an insurance policy. The Ins co. is getting a lot of claims filed that are borderline- possible sabotage, cross-fueling, contaminations, impact/accident related claims that are questionable (like "the accident shook up dirt in the tank causing my injectors to fail", "someone sabotaged my air filter causing my engine to be dusted", etc) and similar stories. If you have a real case studies involving insurance claims I'd be willing to look at those, too. Any pictures I use I'm happy to pay $20 each for. Pics shot with a camera rather than a phone are preferred but I'll look at anything. Thank You! PS Happy Mother's Day to all of you Mothers! My direct email is bamacker@aol.com

How many hours?

I thought they took the website down when the VCM2 came out. Here's the site, the install link is still down: http://www.motorcraftservice.com/vdirs/wds/diagnosticsites/GOBDii/usen/ When I got my VCM2 I e-mailed IDS tech support to ask them about why/whether the generic OBD portion didn't work. They responded that there was no such thing. I sent them the link.......

This topic comes up here regularly and I agree it's not just dealerships, it's independents as well making it an industry wide problem. I can tell you plenty of true horror stories about both. I think much of it is due to a tech shortage where inexperienced guys are thrown into jobs that they should not be doing. On the indy side, 95% of them won't go to training, won't use the factory scan tools, and shotgun parts to fix problems. On the dealer side, they have the tools and training but the flat rate system has things so skewed that politics many times overrides what needs to be done. I have stated many times to friends and family that most shops (OE and indy) I wouldn't take my car to.

+1 This also releases the dealer from liability claims as this could have trouble written all over it. Someone didn't spec out the proper truck, someone else modified it to "work"......etc...... Have fun!

Ditto on above sentiments, and the owner will stab you in the back over it: "The f'ing mechanic at the dealer unplugged the sensor", which could even lead to legal action against the dealer. Did you have him sign a paper requesting the sensor be unplugged? Our legal world is ridiculous and court rulings are always biased towards the consumer and against the merchant. If he got a load of wet fuel, lost his injectors (and maybe an engine), took you to court, your dealer would be fixing it for free. I have two close friends that are attorneys, and they will agree that there are too many fucking lawyers in this world. Watch your back and CYA, 'cause nobody else will.