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Jim Hicks

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Everything posted by Jim Hicks

  1. Thanks all. Daryl, I will give him a call and walk him through my scenario. Verny I appreciate your advice as well. Regarding the fuel line, I am aware of the fittings you mention. I have done work there before. I will take a look at the configuration. I like your suggestion on the grounds as well. I will visit all six of those grounds.
  2. Good Question Darryl, It has Volvos VED12 in it. That is where i understand the complexities come in if converting to a manual. Evidently converting the Cummins to a manual, has more predictable outcomes in resolving ECM communication settings. Doing it with a VED12 appears to generate communications issues that can be difficult to overcome.
  3. I NEED YOUR HELP AGAIN GENTS. This problem is still there. I got so frustrated, I parked it in the barn and moved to other projects. I need to get this resolved. Let me give you the update. I replaced the Power Interface Module (PIM) and triple checked all of the connections and crimps. I replaced the XY shifter with a genuine Eaton Remanufactured XY shifter, and replaced all sensors with genuine Eaton sensors. Replaced the wiring harness with an Eaton wiring harness. (Everything is new except items inside the shift tower, the shift tower harness, and the Transmission ECM.). Batteries are around 14V while running and north of 13V when idle. All wiring connections are clean. Last summer we made the run from Houston to San Antonio (3 hours) and back over a week end after replacing most of these components and had no issues. That is when I last updated. Shortly after that we loaded up the Harley and left for South Dakota. I made it 15 miles from the house when the first problem appeared. (Same symptom as before). Running at highway speed under no real load to speak of it stumbled and downshifted to 9th. I pulled over, reset the truck by cycling it off then on and proceeded on our trip. Before long it happens again. Over the course of the next 40 miles it got progressively worse. Eventually I turned around and headed home. We made it part way home before I ultimately had to get it towed. The symptoms were all the same as explained before. It would not stay in gear. Initially near the top, but ultimately even in lower gears. I checked for active codes, and it had none. Once I got it home I pulled the floor pan and double checked everything. This is the point where I replaced the sensors. Until this point they had not been replaced. (By the way I did the Troubleshooting on the existing speed sensor, and it passed. I replaced it anyway. I the connected the trailer, and took it for a test drive on some farm to market roads around here. I tried to stay close to the house, but let it stretch its legs. Around 45 minutes into the test drive, problem comes back. Same symptoms. I limped home. Another symptom that it has exhibited, and I have not explained before is tied to fuel delivery. It’s kind of hard to explain but here goes. If I am running in 10th gear and it stumbles and downshifts, I essentially have two options. Pull over immediately, reset the ECM and take off again. Or I can try to hold speed in ninth. If I try to hold speed it will slowly reduce in RPM over a period of minutes, sometimes seconds. Essentially it is not responsive to the throttle. You have to hold the throttle to the floor and simply watch it decelerated. If you try this for a few miles, it behaves almost as if the fuel pump is not providing enough fuel. Ultimately it behaves as if it is starving for fuel. The only way to recover is to pull over and reset. Except resetting is no longer enough, the fuel rack needs to be reprinted as well. It essentially pulls all of the fuel from the fuel rack. This typically involves siphoning fuel from the tanks, repriming the DAVCO, venting the fuel rack, rolling the engine over and manually keeping the DAVCO topped off to provide prime. While doing this i do not recommend having the wife hold tools while getting Diesel fuel on the wife’s clothing. The last part ultimately leads to a disgruntled wife. (At least both times we attempted this it did.) If i look through all of the old “Inactive codes” I do have one code that can lead ultimately lead to a bad ECM. I cant remember it specifically, and I would need to go back to my notes. I think it might have been either “35” or “67”. In either case, it stated “Do not replace ECM unless the code is active. As I stated I have not had any active codes all year. I am using all of the inactive codes I wrote down over a year ago when this all started. There are no active codes today. Ultimately I decided I would do one of two things. 1). Take it to “Chalks Trucks / Transmmissions” here in Houston and tell him to fix it, or find someone to help me figure out how to make it a manual. Keep in mind that “Chalks”. Is an Eaton authorized transmission shop, and is one of the few Eaton Authorized Remanufacturing centers in the US, according to what I understand. I called Chalks and ask if I pull the existing ECM, can they bench test it for me. They say no, that they “Just replace parts”. Naturally that doesn’t set well, so I am hesitating to pay a wrecker to tow it to them to “Replace parts” I started looking into what it takes to convert to a manual, and learn that process is fraught with pitfalls. If a $1500 ECM fixes the problem, I am not opposed to just replacing it and getting my rig back. The issue is that the troubleshooting guide is not pointing me that direction, and I don’t want to “Easter Egg” this by throwing more parts at it only to find I misdiagnosed the issue. For those of you who have some opinions on this I would love to discuss with you on the phone. If you know any experts on the Gen 1 Autoshift, I would love to talk with them on the phone. Thanks for listening, I look forward to your feedback. Please feel free to text me at 713-899-3346, I would love to dialog with you on what I should do next.
  4. I want to close the loop on this topic. I also want to offer my sincere thanks to Bill, Rocky, Rick, Darryl, Parrformance, and GreenPete for the dialog and advice. So when I last left you guys I had concluded that my “EBay XY” I had procured was suspect. Did a little research and based on the reman paint scheme and associated documentation determined that the reman was remanufactured by Weller. Well now....we have a Weller distributor here in Houston and I got to thinking..... Did some more research and found that there are those that view Weller’s remains to be “Less than Ideal” and that they show a “High failure rate”. Hmmmmm, well that’s good to know. I could always go up there and plead my case for a replacement. In the back of my head I can see Bill slowly shaking his head in disapproval. Eventually I bite the bullet and take Bills advice. I get my money back from EBay and start shopping for an “Eaton Fuller” reman. I find what I need and four short days later its delivered by a masked man in a FedEx truck claiming it is “Fragile and Heavy”, please sign here! Well I am like a kid in a candy store. I take my fragile cargo to my shop and open my package. Looks Great! Pull out the software kit with the gasket, a little dielectric grease pack and three, uh I mean one detent spring. What? Inventory list says I get three detent springs. Hmmmmm. Look again. Detent pack has QC76 inventory stamp on it. Well now, look and look and I only have one new spring. I debate reusing the old detent springs that have 650,000 Milles on them. I also ponder if QC76 sleeps well at night. After all its only a spring right? Grrrrrrrrr. I make the hike up to the house, call my provider and explain the dilemma. Young lady takes notes and agrees to call me back. Meanwhile I keep thinking what can a few old springs hurt, right? Then I ponder how much fun it is to remove the seats, doghouse, floor, and how much I love the Houston humidity. Common sense prevails, I will wait on the young lady. I refocus my efforts on the exhaust and spend the day installing my new exhaust. Young lady never returns my call, and I go to my 9-5 on Monday. She calls me Monday and tells me, “I have good news for you Mr. Hicks!” uhhh, ok? “Yes sir, I have discussed your situation with our technical department, and they agree with you, you should have three springs!” For some reason, I found this amusing rather than frustrating, so I play along. “That’s great, what do we do now?” “Well sir, since we do not have any software kits in stock, we would like to offer you a refund equivalent to the cost of the software kit”. Well now, I was afraid of that. I take the refund and start shopping for a kit. I had already called the local Volvo dealer in Houston on Saturday. Gent looks the part up, advises me, that “Yessir, that is $39.99 and we don’t stock it. As a matter of fact we have “NEVER” sold one of those here at Houston Volvo. What? Never? “No sir, NEVER”. If Iwere you I would call Chalks or Weller, they are both local and may have it. Since it was Saturday, I wait until Monday when they both open. After the young lady and I talked Monday I call Chalks. They are, after all an authorized Eaton Fuller Reman shop, and only a few miles from my work. Chalks guy tells me, “No luck he needs to order from the factory.” I get one but it has to come from the factory. (Fast Forward a week......). New software kit shows up. I open it up and am happy to see the QC inspector was someone other than 76. (No offense 76, but you cost me a week). Long story short, I put her all back together and calibrate the XY, everything looks good. REAL GOOD. So now here is my dilemma, Do I just hop on the milk crate with the floor pan removed and take her for a test spin? Do I drag the trailer, so I have a load? Or do I put the entire shooting match together first. When I was troubleshooting in Dallas, I did the milk crate test drive and convinced myself it was good before putting all of the interference back in. (We all know how that ended). Being a gambler, I said lets put her together and give her a spin. So I put the floor, doghouse, seats, etc in. Everything! Now at least on my test drive I have a seatbelt. So last week after work about dusk, I grab my cell phone, tell the wife, If I am not beck in two hours, take 35 to Angleton looking for me, I am going for a spin. Off I go. I navigate through the grand metropolis of Alvin, no issues. Get on 35 and set cruise to 60. No issues. Play with cruise up and down to 70. No issues, all is well. An hour later I make it home and she is shifting fine. Next task, test her under load. That brings me to today. This weekend we attempted to make the Journey to Texas hill country. With the Smart loaded and dragging the 20K trailer we ease the beast out of the shop. Two very large and very excited dogs and one apprehensive wife in the cab and off we go. After all, we are approaching 100 degrees days down here in South Texas, what could possibly go wrong?We navigate Houston Traffic, get onto the beltway, swing around the south side and make our way to the Energy Corridor on I-10. On I-10 I am sharing 8 lanes westbound with oh so many of my dear Housltonians and we are merging, shifting, braking, navigating, so far so good. We blow through Katy, and head west young man! A few hours later as we approach San Antonio, we meander North into the Texas Hill country. Red lights, merging traffic, windy two lane hill country highways. Constantly shifting and engine braking to maintain safe speeds. Shortly after that we arrive in Canyon Lake. Now folks, let me tell you that is a test drive. Our “Attempt” to make a test drive to Texas Hill country was successful. She shifted like butter and ran smooth all the way. I am confident we are back to 100%. With the Reman XY (and three new detent springs :))., the OEM replacement harness and the new OEM PIM, this thing is rock solid. Thanks all!
  5. Well, yesterday was the big day for Footloose. Got in a new P.I.M, new wiring harness, and reman XY. I put everything in yesterday morning. Everything went in easily enough. Once complete I made up all of the battery connections and went through the calibration procedure in the manual. Waited the designated amount of time, and no start. The starter wouldn’t roll. Hmmmmm. Pull the active codes. Got code 71. Well I am feeling good about that, as I couldn’t get any codes before this all started. I go to the T/S guide and start chasing code 71. Says it’s either a bad PIM or bad XY. Hmmmm. Follow the procedure to verify the PIM and the PIM passes the test with flying colors. Next step, pull the xy and verify no issues. Hmmm. Ok. I disconnect power again, remove and inspect. All is well. The worms turn freely,etc. (The motor on the longitudinal axis of the truck is warm to the touch.). I say what the hell, let me try my old XY to ensure I didn’t jack the wiring up. I put in the old XY and reconnect power. All is well, it goes through the calibration fine, shift indicator shows “N” rather than the ”-“ I was seeing with the REMAN, truck starts, shifts, etc. I turn off the Truck and feel the motors on the old XY and they are both cool to the touch. So I scratch my head and debate if possibly the dog was out of alignment on the Reman. Pull the power, pull the old XY, and set the two shifters side by side on the table. (And yes, they are the same model and same part #). Once I have them setting there I rotate the worms on the X and the Y of the Reman to get the identical dog placement and alignment on it as on my old XY. Install the Reman, power it up. I run the Calibration. Wait the allotted time. Try to start the truck. Same indications, the gear position reflects “-“ and the starter wont roll. Feel both motors on the XY and the same motor is hot again. So at the ends of the day I put the old XY in and moved the truck around the shop so I could do more exhaust work. I am convinced the motor on the Reman XY is weak, shorted, or bad. I am working with the E-bay seller of the Reman for a refund and in the market for another Reman XY. Any Ideas? Am I missing anything? Thanks guys. Jim
  6. Ok, i have had the chance to do a little more research. I haven’t looked at the truck again as I am at work. I’m gonna look again when I get home tonight. It looks like Parrformance, Rick and BillR all all refering to what I think Eaton is calling the P.I.M or Power Interface module. For my 2001 VNL610 this is part #4301645 or K-3281. It is around $300 bucks. Looks like this image I am attaching. IS THIS WHAT YOU ALL ARE REFERRING TO REGARDING THE POWER SUPPLY? Based on the image and the name of the component i think this is what you are all referring to./. The round rings are presumable the positIve and negative terminals for the battery. The plugs presumably are to the battery ECM. If so, I am going to visit those rings and replace them correctly like Parrformance mentioned. I may end up simply replacing the entire shooting match for $300. The wiring harness for the transmission I have gone through with a fine tuned comb. Cleaned all connections, repaired chafed insulation, repaired chaffed wire, etc. Everything has dielectric grease on it now. (All of that did not fix it). The harness for my truck is Part # K-3352 which replaced part 691439 and 691301. This part looks to be $528. I need to do more research, but there does not appear to be an abundance of sources. If the PIM goes straight from the battery to the ECM then it would be easy enough to replace without removing the doghouse. As for the main transmission harness, I suppose that could be done as well, but having worked on it with the doghouse and floor pan out, I know it would be much easier to do with the floor pan out. Since I have all of that out now I may just replace the whole setup. First thing I am off to do is find the ring connectors Parrformance illustrated and see what they look like. If anyone has any more affordable sources for these two wiring harnesses please let me know. Thanks.
  7. Thanks for the feedback guys. Battery voltage is good, just North of 13 volts without the engine running, and 14 while running. All batteries are less than 12 month old, and from the same lot. GreenPete, I did clean each one, used contact cleaner, brushed what I could and used dielectric while we were in DFW. I will do that again though, never know if I missed one. Parrformance, I will replace the connectors in question and clean all of those fuse holders as well. Thanks for the ideas. I spent the afternoon ripping out the rotten exhaust and am pricing parts to order for that as well. Once I replace the exhaust I can retest the Tranny. I saw and old thread where BillR Mentioned Eaton had advised a new harness for similar issues. For what appears to be $150 for an OEM harness I may pull the trigger on that as well.
  8. Good afternoon Gents, I am looking for some ideas here in troubleshooting my Gen 1 Autoshift. This three pedal Gen 1 Autoshift is on my 2001 VNL610. I have downloaded the troubleshooting guide for the Tranny, and used the procedure to get Active as well as Inactive codes. Unfortunately it is not throwing any codes. All of the problems I am having are in the upper gears. Primarily in 9 and 10. When traveling in rolling hills the truck was shifting in and out of 8/9/10 based on load and rpm as normal. Eventually it would hang up and not upshift. Downshifted fine but would not come back up. Eventually I pulled over, reset the ECM and would go again. Limped into DFW where my BIL and I took the floor pan and doghouse out to get a look. Cleaned up all of the connections Tidied up the wiring, and drove it a few miles bobtail and put it through its paces. We could not recreate the symptoms! We then put the doghouse and interior back together, I hooked up to the trailer and headed south to Houston. (Loaded this time, no bobtail). We made it about 20 miles before the symptoms came back. Only worse. Rather than downshifting it would essentially timeout in a high gear. Once it timed out, the transmission would essentially drop out as if in neutral. The only way it regain shifting was to stop the truck and reset the ecm by cycling the key. (Cycling the key and waiting). Once reset it will take off and shift again, until it holds the gear long enough to time out. I was able to figure out that by manually shifting (With the buttons) every 60 seconds the tranny would stay in gear. We made the remainder of the trip to home by shifting back and forth from gear 9 to 10 on one minute intervals. Any ideas? I am. Thinking that if the ECM has interlocks where all parameters have to fall within spec, and it has a timeout or dropout feature, something may be providing an imput the ECM doesn’t like? Yet it has no codes.
  9. Flyguy, the most recent thread on this is found at http://www.rvnetwork.com/index.php?showtopic=108536 Remember the resource guide is always a good reference for Rally Info as well. You may want to build a shortcut for the resource guide.
  10. Sitting at the Tampa Show in the "Newmar Kountry Klub" (Campsite "477")section alongside no other than "SIberNut". Funny thing is we pulled in under less than ideal circumstances and have not had a chance to talk with Ron yet. We orchestrated our arrival in flawless fashion I must say. I was (and am) fighting a killer flu. I broke camp predawn in Orlando while fighting the flu and made my way toward Tampa, caught Ron on the phone to find he had a restless night as well fighting the truckstops and whatnot. Once the rendezvous was determined he simply moved to the shoulder of the onramp and waited a short time for our arrival. As I approached his exit, I called and let him know, he merged into heavy traffic at highway speed and we fell in behind like a good little lemming. Ten minutes later we arrive at the fairgrounds about 0815 AM in the rain yesterday. We parked, setup camp, and I spent the day in the fetal position fighting the flu. Hopefully we can enjoy Ron's company today without contaminating him. See you all at the show!
  11. Good to hear it was uneventful Rod. I would imagine it will take a few days to decompress. Enjoy.
  12. Jeff, keep us in mind while in FL. We will be in Blackwater State Park (Near Pensacola) from Jan through Mar with the exception of the Tampa show, which we are going to. If our paths dont cross there we will see you at the ECR.
  13. Jim, that extra month in the Dakota's will make you enjoy Arizona all the more. It was a pleasure meeting you this summer when MLC came up for Sturgis. We will see you next summer. Have a great winter!
  14. Mike, I gotta say I love your handle. I spent 30 years in Submarines. I never did a tour in Groton though. Who knows we may have crossed paths one way or another. I am glad to see you left your lurker status. Hopefully we cross paths in the future.
  15. Pulled into Central Florida two days ago. We will spend most of the winter here, bouncing around. I have a kitchen remodel planned in our vacation rental for November for any of you that are bored and looking for something to do. It looks like we will be in Augusta Ga for a couple of weeks starting next week as well.
  16. Would love to be there! We are staying put until the rally in Hutch. We look forward to seeing you guys soon. We are planning on the Tampa show this winter though.
  17. beyerjf, welcome to the forum! I look forward to meeting you at the Rally. I know there is a lot I can learn from a Truck Driver with your experience. Jim
  18. We made it out of Livingston. (All registrations and change of address complete). Waited a day due to the storms but swung by Larry Herrins. DW got to meet him, we spent an hour or two discussing some small projects and agreed on the work. What a great experience. I simply love the personal experience and overall feeling when I am at his place. Unfortunately did not get to see Rocky while I was there, but maybe next time. Larry is backed up now with work so we get to come back when things warm up. We Left Larrys and came to my Brother in Laws in Dallas for a few days. Wandered to the little town of Canton yesterday to take the last part of my Driving Test. That was a great experience and Canton DMV comes highly recommended. Now that I have a license I am proclaiming myself a "TEXAN". Since Texas recently waived the 6 month residency requirement for a CWL I think the DW and I will take the requisite class for that tomorrow and apply for the CWL while we are here. Off to Oklahoma City to see Family next week.
  19. Pulled into Gulfport Mississippi SEABEE base for a couple of days on our way to Houston, then Livingston later this week.
  20. Left Crossville TN, making our way to Orlando. Stopped at a gorgeous park in Ft Benning Georgia (Uchee Creek Campground). It looks like we will pull stakes Wednesday morning and make a few more miles toward Orlando.
  21. Looks cold Rick. I met Bill a few days after you left Florida this year. Hopefully I catch you next winter. Jim
  22. Well, I am delighted to make my first post to this thread gang! After a lot of waiting and planning we are finally joining he ranks of the full-timers. Robin and I are finishing business in Hawaii this weekend and flying off island for the last time tomorrow. We arrive in Orlando FL and officially complete the move into the rig on Tuesday the 2nd. We spend a couple of days in Orlando taking care of things, swing through Tallahassee, FL to see the youngest daughter who is a senior at FSU (Go Noles!) and then make our way to Crossville TN on Saturday the 6th for the ECR! After that we are not sure where to, probably will follow the 70 degree mark! We will see you all on the road. Jim and Robin
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