Whats your best "Catch"

[Dollytrolley]

While taking care of memory-loss mom-n-law for the last several months the Dollytrolley has been sitting and not getting much love......not good...

 

So it's time to wake up the Dollytrolley and put a few miles on the old jalopy but first it's time to do the 25 hour inspection and lube and oil change and take a peek under the old rig to see how many parts have fallen off.

 

Whilst relaxing under the tranny with the grease gun pumping the u-joint full of grease I turned my head toward the rear of the truck and with the bright LED head lamp I noticed a small black smudge on the bottom of the aluminum cab floor right where the condo heater water lines transition from metal tube into rubber hoses to ell up into the rear cab heater unit under the bunk bed.

 

I crawled back to the rear of the cab and reached up and wiped the smudge and sure enough it was exhaust soot that was hitting the joint right where the coolant lines transitioned from metal to rubber hoses.....just my luck...

 

The weed burner exhaust has a straight shot from the turbo to the back of the cab along the passenger frame rail and the a 90 degree ell with a 1 inch section of flex to another 90 degree ell that turns down to the muffler so the leak was in the too short flex section between the first ell's. I crawled out and fired up the bore scope and put the eyeball-on-a-string between the cab floor and the exhaust and sure enough a very small crack was starting in the corrugation of the short flex section. when the air system is at zero the cab airbags bottom out and the cab is only about 1 1/2 inches above the exhaust section at the rear of the cab, once the air system charges the cab raises and there is plenty of room above the exhaust leak. Unfortunately I tend to be one of those folks that exhaust leaks tend to get larger with age not smaller and so I just fixed the leak.

 

Not a big deal.....yet.....but assuming that the small leak would become a larger exhaust leak about 8 feet behind the turbo it is very conceivable that the large leak could burn through the coolant hoses and then the Dollytrolley would be piddling in along the side of some deserted road 100 miles from Nowhereville-Nevada......

 

So I was somewhat happy to "CATCH" the exhaust leak before it caused a more major coolant leak.

 

So what is your best "CATCH" ? ?

 

Perhaps my very best catch was when I was a child-slave to Grumps when I had to grease and change oil in a bunch of trucks as a kid.....After you grease a bunch of equipment a couple hundred times a kid tends to make a game of how fast you can get the job done.....one snowy day I was in a hurry to get the oil and greasing done and I was scooting around the old Autocar when I grabbed the inside of the passenger front wheel to pull myself up under the axle to grease the kingpins and when I took my hand off the wheel three of my finger tips were bleeding pretty badly. How could I cut three fingers just pulling on the inside of the rim......I looked at the rim and there was a very sharp edged crack about 10 inches long gapped about 1/16 wide where I had grabbed the wheel and the razor-edge of the crack had sliced my fingers. I wrapped my grease rag around my fingers and went to the house and showed Grumps my bleeding fingers and told him about the cracked wheel........Grumps turned white and said show me the crack.....I said "what about my fingers?" he said "Oh hell they'll grow back and you still have a bunch of fingers on the other hand".....so much for "on the job warm-fuzzy-sensitivity training...."

 

When Grumps saw the cracked wheel he turned even whiter......blowing a wheel off the steer axle on logging roads can ruin your day.

 

These days with tubeless tires cracked wheel simply result in a flat tire most of the time but in earlier times heavy trucks had a heavy rubber 'flap" that was placed in the inner rim surface to protect the inner tube from chafing on the wheel surface so a cracked wheel did not result in the air leaking like a tubeless tire wheel combo does today.

 

After I showed Grumps the cracked wheel he let me have a new pair of gloves for my freshly bandaged fingers so I could complete greasing the rest of the equipment.......trucker-love......

 

Grumps alway thought that was a pretty good "catch".......would I have seen the crack without cutting my fingers? Likely not I was in a hurry and not looking around much.....

 

Now as a geezer I move sloooow under the rig so even with less vision I seem to see more because I take the time to look.....

 

Whats your best "CATCH"?

 

Drive on.........(Keep your eyes .....open)

[I'mdonewiththis forum]

Not truck related, but my best "catch" was my wife..........

[runaway parents]

Dido on the wife!!When I bought my truck in Portland and drove it home to Wenatchee. Got to the end of drive way and a small coolant line blew off dumping all the coolant out on the ground. The clip that held it on came off put it back on and it still came off so I put a zipp tie on the clip insure it would not do it again. Don't no if it was a good catch .Guess lucky to make it home. Since then I put zipp ties on all those type connections.

[phoenix2013]

You'll love this.

After my partner and I restored the Stinson (three year process), we didn't have enough. So we bought an insurance wreck, Cessna 150, that was dead stick landed on the beach and flipped over.

Rental and flight instruction plane witch lots of hours, 2,500. Reading the accident report was "entertaining"

This idiot took off from the Plum Island airport in Massachusetts, few miles from the Atlantic ocean, went up to about 5,000 feet with his girlfriend and "demonstrated to her" that the airplane would glide by shutting the engine off. Everything was fine until the he tried to re-start it and it would not restart. I suspect carburetor ice, descending with no heat. To make matters worse he tried "dive it down" to turn the prop over, good luck, just pissed away more precious altitude.

He could see Plum Island but didn't think he could make it so he opted for the beach on the ocean. It didn't take too many feet on the beach before the front wheel dug into the sand and flipped the airplane on it's back.

At that point damage was not too bad. Prop was stationary and sideways and intact since it was not turning. Front wheel went under and since it's a part of the engine mount, engine mount was bad. Windshield broke and the cabin was full of sand. I think that relationship came to an abrupt end then.

Most of the "real damage" was done by the beach going idiots who flipped the airplane back over to "help the couple". 150 is a tin can so they bent the main spars at the roots of the wing and the spars (if you can them that) in the horizontal stabilizers.

So we got the airplane for a short dollar and started fixing it. We didn't have an A&P licence but being a President of the local EAA Chapter I worked with a designated A&P mechanic who kept an eye on all of my members and their projects.

He told us what we could do and how to do it right and what he had to do, did the necessary inspections and signed it off.

So what was the gotcha and it was a BIG ONE.

There was sand all over and inside of the airplane so too remove it we worked through all the inspections holes and panels and got into areas that are typically not inspected, "because there is nothing there to look for" as part of the 100 hours and annuals. With the floor panels removed we were looking way forward of the cabin along the outer skin where the rudder cables take a turn to run towards the back and to the vertical stabilizer.

These apparently are not tensioned with turnbuckles but with springs and have some "looseness" to them. On a 2,500 hours airplane they were quite floppy but that didn't interfere with these controlling the rudder.

The GOTCHA was that in the vicinity was a fuel line running down from the wing tanks an curving along the bottom to go to the fuel valve. The floppy rudder cable had just enough slack so that it would contact the fuel line (aluminum tubing) under vibration and start rubbing on it. The line was not leaking yet but it was worn paper thin in that area and ready to go. There is no shutoff from the wing tank to that point so should it let go the entire content of that tank would be sloshing in the belly under the seats of the pilot and the passenger. I asked the A&Ps at the airport and they said, we never look in there, not part of any inspection procedures on the 150.

We took the fuel line out and sent it off to the FAA with explanations of what we found,and how we found it. Not a word back and talking again with the A&Ps they did not hear afterwards from FAA with regards to inspecting this area on 150s.

 

Perhaps FAA relegated it to the pilots and the "smell test". "If you are flying a 150 and you smell aviation fuel in the cabin.................................................."

[chevy3500]

Not truck related, but my best "catch" was my wife..........

X3

[Jeff.Sloan]

My friend (who is much more experienced than I with HDTs) found two exhaust leaks on my new 630. I found the clutch that was out by almost 1/4" and about to put the release fork into the pressure plate. The coolant was a gallon low when it arrived. My latest catch is the shifter isolation bushing is garbage and needs to be replaced. I was wondering why my hand hits the dashboard every time I shift into 4th . . .

[jkennell]

Golly, us farmers have so many "Whoa, better replace that..." that we tend to forget everything but the last one! Recently, I asked my 18 yo daughter to bring my LGT and follow me (in combine) over to the other field and bring me back. Pulled into the field with the combine, she turns in behind me and comes to a complete stop....and then and only then does the brake pedal go to the floor. "Dad--are the brakes supposed to do this?"

 

After driving home very carefully (small country back roads, no hills, only 2 miles!) I crawl under and find ....EVERY $&@*# brake line on my 10yo GMC is rusted to the point of eminent failure.

 

I ended up jacking up the cab and bed off the frame and putting on a full set of Stainless Steel lines ($60 for the whole set...WTH doesn't the government require these on ALL vehicles...got all the other safety requirements but still use plain steel lines that rust out for the most important safety feature of all...the brakes. Do they all live in AZ?) Took me a couple weeks of evenings but its all back together now. In the process, found where mice had been working on some wiring and got them sealed back up with liquid electric tape and shrouding too.

 

The catch....that this failed in the field while stopped...NOT driving down the road with a loaded trailer....

[Pat & Pete]

We had a similar 'catch' :

 

DW had just returned from a visit to town , which was about 24 miles away , through the foot hills of the Appalachian Mountains - hilly and curvy with very deep ravines .

 

I had to move the Jeep for some reason and as soon as I touched the brake pedal , it went to the floor . A rusted steel line had let go . I asked her if she noticed any variance while she was driving and she said no , none .

[sclord2002]

Actually, my 2, no, 3 best catches on my 06 Volvo 780 ultrashift were happenstances that just somehow worked out in my favor !?!? Number one was when my truck was new to me. I was at the lake, 40 miles from home and a buddy wanted to hear the truck run. Always being willing to make other people happy, I cranked the truck up and it auto reved 3 times.....strange, I thought...it had always auto reved only once on start up ??? I drove home 2 days later and everything was fine with the truck. I got home and parked in the driveway. The next day, I fired up the truck to move it and put the camper in the carport.......It auto reved 3 times again and would not go into gear...any gear....just beeped at me. I called the Eaton help line and told them what had happened. The nice gentleman at Eaton said that it was probably one of 3 things: 1- All the teeth had stripped off the countershaft. 2- Input shaft speed sensor was bad or 3- Transmission harness was bad. I disregarded #1 as I had driven it the previous day and there was no jerking or grinding or other things that I would associate with corn cobbing the countershaft. I troubleshot harness for continuity as best I could and it seemed ok so I jumped on #3 and removed the input shaft sensor in many pieces by using my patented 8 hour removal process, utilizing home made pullers and other implements of destruction and replaced same with a 35 buck volvo part........joy, joy...it worked. Incident #2 occurred when I went for a pre trip drive-about....truck shifted up to gear 5 when I left the house and would not shift higher, neither by itself or manually. Talked to friendly Eaton staff again and they said probably 1 of 2 things: 1-Bad range switch or 2: bad transmission harness. I decided to check harness and found an open wire,,,,new harness was 85 bucks and that fixed the shifting problem. I try to be a good boy but the fact that these 3 things happened at home instead of on the highway, tells me that my guardian angel has been looking after me a lot. Oh, yeah...# 3 was the time that I went out to move the truck the day after driving home from Florida to SC and the #3 axle left outside tire was totally flat with a nail in the tread area. The tire was definitely not flat when I pulled in the driveway the day before...... I think my guardian angel could use a break but I am glad that he is on duty. Be safe, Charlie

[CrazyCooter]

Never caught anything on the truck, but recently found a broken spring bolt on the 5er. It was fine on departure of our campspot Sunday morning, but after the hour drive home I found it while dumping. Felt better finding it before the pretrip getting ready to leave!

 

[rickeieio]

Since brake lines have been mentioned, I'll pile on some more.......

 

Our younger daughter borrowed our van to move some furniture. When she brought it back, she mentioned the brakes seemed soft. Sure enough, the line to the left front wheel was leaking. I decided to just replace both front lines, since I had to disturb the other anyway.

 

As I was bleeding then system, a rear line sprung a leak too. Glad it did it in the shop, rather than on the road.

[rdickinson]

Leaking injector harness.

 

Re the C15OH, the pilot should have been giving it throttle once in a while on decent to prevent carb ice. Did he have carb heat out? We were taught not to shut off the engine but simulate it by pulling out the throttle.

[rickeieio]

Leaking injector harness.Re the C15OH, the pilot should have been giving it throttle once in a while on decent to prevent carb ice. Did he have carb heat out?

See second sentence in post 4.

[rdickinson]

So what am I missing?

 

The injector harness find was in the Volvo and applying throttle while practicing forced approaches was in a 150 or 172 when learning to fly. Carb heat was already applied but still checking for carb icing while throttle was pulled out. I forget the time interval between applying throttle to check.

We were taught not to shut off the engine but simulate engine failure by pulling the throttle back.

[SuiteSuccess]

Learned my lesson in a C182 while doing night IFR training under the hood and doing unusual attitudes. Throttle retarded, stall horn blaring, engine coughed. OAT 75 degrees with 40% humidity. Didn't know I could react that fast, nose down, wings level, carb heat on, clean out britches.

[rickeieio]

So what am I missing?The injector harness find was in the Volvo and applying throttle while practicing forced approaches was in a 150 or 172 when learning to fly. Carb heat was already applied but still checking for carb icing while throttle was pulled out. I forget the time interval between applying throttle to check.We were taught not to shut off the engine but simulate engine failure by pulling the throttle back.

Sorry if I wasn't clear. Henry stated the pilot had turned the engine off,, then it wouldn't restart. Carb can't ice on a dead engine.

 

I've only experienced carb ice once, and it was in a truck. 1949 KB-6 International on a foggy cold morning, many years ago.

[rdickinson]

You are correct, Henry did say the engine had been switched off. Not a good idea. The pilot should have known.

[Ronbo]

Stopped for fuel as a small town fuel stop. As it was pumping I did my standard walk around. Found the left front trailer tire had no tread on it. It still had air in it so my TPMS did not alert me. Had to leave the fuel station and go to a closed business to change the tire. Sure do like my hydraulic leveling jacks. Took longer to unpack the spare than to change the tire.