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Eaton-Fuller 18 speed Auto-Shift questions


mr. cob

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Howdy All,

Today while driving my truck to a shop to get the oil and all filters changed, the transmission wouldn’t shift into 18th gear and there was a red light flashing on the  shifter. 
 

The transmission shifts up and down through all the gears in and out of reverse but won’t go into high gear.

Does anyone have a clue what the problem could be, I am getting ready to leave for Northern California and then on to Arizona a few days later and this happens.

Thanks for any help or suggestions you can offer.

Dave

Edited by mr. cob

2001 Peterbilt, 379, Known As "Semi-Sane II", towing a 2014 Voltage 3818, 45 foot long toy hauler crammed full of motorcycles of all types.  Visit my photo web site where you will find thousands of photos of my motorcycle wanderings and other aspects of my life, click this link. http://mr-cob.smugmug.com/

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Howdy DM,

 I don’t know, I will look at the build sheet for the truck and see if it is listed.

Dave

2001 Peterbilt, 379, Known As "Semi-Sane II", towing a 2014 Voltage 3818, 45 foot long toy hauler crammed full of motorcycles of all types.  Visit my photo web site where you will find thousands of photos of my motorcycle wanderings and other aspects of my life, click this link. http://mr-cob.smugmug.com/

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2 hours ago, Scrap said:

It's a gen 1.  Follow page 1-4 to see what it doesn't like:

https://wellertruck.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Gen-1-Troubleshooting-Guide.pdf

Howdy Brian,

Thanks, I down loaded that document.  I read page 1-4, and think I understand what its saying.  Tomorrow I'll try to retrieve codes if shows any.

The more I think about this I remember I did have this same exact thing happen shortly after I bought the truck, there is a coolant leak that I for the life of me can't track down, its coming from somewhere on the front, top part of the engine, you can't see it leak when the engine is running but you can see coolant on the top front of the engine after it has been sitting and cooled off usually a day or so after its been run and fully warmed up.  Anyway, I topped off the coolant and everything returned to normal, the engine water temp gauge did NOT show over heating but the coolant level may have set off some sort of sensor that didn't register on the dash.  I will check the coolant level tomorrow first and see if that makes any difference.

This coolant leak is not allowing coolant into the oil, the oil samples show it to be free of coolant, no white smoke from the exhaust, no bubbles in the expansion tank so I am sure the coolant isn't leaking internally and I'll be darned if I can see exactly where it is leaking from on the outside of the engine.

Dave

 

Edited by mr. cob

2001 Peterbilt, 379, Known As "Semi-Sane II", towing a 2014 Voltage 3818, 45 foot long toy hauler crammed full of motorcycles of all types.  Visit my photo web site where you will find thousands of photos of my motorcycle wanderings and other aspects of my life, click this link. http://mr-cob.smugmug.com/

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Silly as it may sound, often that type of leak is a loose hose clamp.  Grab an appropriate socket and check 'em.  Any with a rusty screw, pitch and replace.   I like this stylehttps://www.mcmaster.com/hose-clamps/=d066bd50774e4636a1ea93fc4d505d67k4uoe142 

That said, I only use them in critical applications, like on crop sprayers where pressures are often in the 70 - 90 psi range.  The rest of the time, I cheap out and use worm gear type, but always in full stainless.

KW T-680, POPEMOBILE
Newmar X-Aire, VATICAN
Lots of old motorcycles, Moto Guzzi Griso and Spyder F3 currently in the front row
Young enough to play in the dirt as a retired farmer.
contact me at rickeieio1@comcast.net

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1 hour ago, rickeieio said:

Silly as it may sound, often that type of leak is a loose hose clamp.  Grab an appropriate socket and check 'em.  Any with a rusty screw, pitch and replace.   I like this stylehttps://www.mcmaster.com/hose-clamps/=d066bd50774e4636a1ea93fc4d505d67k4uoe142 

That said, I only use them in critical applications, like on crop sprayers where pressures are often in the 70 - 90 psi range.  The rest of the time, I cheap out and use worm gear type, but always in full stainless.

Howdy Ricky,

I have tightened everything that I can, the way the Cat engine is built its hard to see where things bolt together or where it could be leaking from all I know its frustrating trying to find this leak.

Dave

2001 Peterbilt, 379, Known As "Semi-Sane II", towing a 2014 Voltage 3818, 45 foot long toy hauler crammed full of motorcycles of all types.  Visit my photo web site where you will find thousands of photos of my motorcycle wanderings and other aspects of my life, click this link. http://mr-cob.smugmug.com/

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Howdy Scrap, Brian,

Can you check your messages or call me, thanks.

Dave

2001 Peterbilt, 379, Known As "Semi-Sane II", towing a 2014 Voltage 3818, 45 foot long toy hauler crammed full of motorcycles of all types.  Visit my photo web site where you will find thousands of photos of my motorcycle wanderings and other aspects of my life, click this link. http://mr-cob.smugmug.com/

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8 minutes ago, DesertMiner said:

Any updates?

Howdy DM,

Well its stopped raining, I am going to go outside and start pulling and cleaning battery cables.

Dave

2001 Peterbilt, 379, Known As "Semi-Sane II", towing a 2014 Voltage 3818, 45 foot long toy hauler crammed full of motorcycles of all types.  Visit my photo web site where you will find thousands of photos of my motorcycle wanderings and other aspects of my life, click this link. http://mr-cob.smugmug.com/

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3 hours ago, DesertMiner said:

What led you to the battery cables?

Howdy DM,

My experience is that if a problem can't be fixed with a hammer or the judicious use of explosives its usually electrical in nature. 

After spending a couple of hours in the rain, disconnecting, sanding, cleaning applying dialectic grease and reassembling the battery cables, everything worked as it should. However I am not easily fooled by electricity, I know better then to trust it so I went for a test drive.  Drove for over 20 miles the transmission shifted just as it should went into and out of 18th gear automatically and when I forced the shift by putting the trans in manual mode.  I was HAPPY and then, you guessed it the darn light came back on the trans would not go into 18th gear by itself or when I tried to do it manually.

But, all is not lost as now I could get a code to display by the blinking light the code shown was #46, this according to the troubleshooting manual that Scrap, Brian, gave me the link to says the fault is either in the "splitter solenoid valve or in its wiring harness.  I don't have the knowledge or the test equipment to perform the tests with luck I'll be able to work with Brian this coming weekend to find and fix the problem. 

I am hoping that because cleaning the battery cables seemed to fix the problem it might be dirty connections on the splitter valve itself or on its wiring loom.  The climate here is AWFUL for anything electrical if its not used on a regular basis, the last time I had driven the truck was in July when I towed my trailer down to Chad's home and left it there so he could do the solar install, that was nearly 6 months ago.  That's the longest the truck has ever sat without being driven, as I had both my knees replaced it wasn't until just a short time ago that I was able to drive the truck and that's when I noticed this problem.

Dave

 

2001 Peterbilt, 379, Known As "Semi-Sane II", towing a 2014 Voltage 3818, 45 foot long toy hauler crammed full of motorcycles of all types.  Visit my photo web site where you will find thousands of photos of my motorcycle wanderings and other aspects of my life, click this link. http://mr-cob.smugmug.com/

IMG_4282-600x310.jpg

 

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24 minutes ago, Scrap said:

Stinkin automatics!  OK, we'll see what we can figure out on it.

Howdy Brian,

Thanks for the shopping list, I'll see what I can round up, going to seattle is about the worst thing I can think of, worse then cleaning battery cables in the rain.  Thanks for again coming to my rescue.

Dave

2001 Peterbilt, 379, Known As "Semi-Sane II", towing a 2014 Voltage 3818, 45 foot long toy hauler crammed full of motorcycles of all types.  Visit my photo web site where you will find thousands of photos of my motorcycle wanderings and other aspects of my life, click this link. http://mr-cob.smugmug.com/

IMG_4282-600x310.jpg

 

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4 hours ago, mr. cob said:

But, all is not lost as now I could get a code to display by the blinking light the code shown was #46, this according to the troubleshooting manual that Scrap, Brian, gave me the link to says the fault is either in the "splitter solenoid valve or in its wiring harness.  I don't have the knowledge or the test equipment to perform the tests with luck I'll be able to work with Brian this coming

 

If you haven't replaced the splitter solenoid valve before, it might be good to do that. Mine (10 speed) failed and left me stuck in the low range (1-5 gear) which topped out at 20MPH.

2007 Volvo 780 Volvo D12D, 465hp, 1650 ft/lbs tq., ultrashift

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On 1/2/2020 at 6:51 PM, mr. cob said:

Howdy Brian,

Thanks for the shopping list, I'll see what I can round up, going to seattle is about the worst thing I can think of, worse then cleaning battery cables in the rain.  Thanks for again coming to my rescue.

Dave

Isn’t that the truth about SEATTLE?  Go there almost every day

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Howdy All,

I ordered the parts, Brian picked them up. Today Saturday I am to meet Brian and see if we can fix this problem.

Started the truck this morning NO fault code flashing drove 60 miles to Brian’s shop the transmission worked PERFECTLY shifted into and out of every gear just like it has since the day I bought it two years ago.

So, the plan is to replace the old splitter solenoid with the new one but keep the old one as spare as it does work.  We will pull the electrical cables and clean all the sockets and smear them with dialectic grease before reassembly.  I am 99.9% sure the problem was water contaminated electrical cables, with my knees getting replaced I hadn’t driven the truck for nearly 6 months a long time for everything to get soaked from the awful WET climate I survive in.

If all goes well with the transmission work maybe we will have time to wire my new heated seats.

Dave

Edited by mr. cob

2001 Peterbilt, 379, Known As "Semi-Sane II", towing a 2014 Voltage 3818, 45 foot long toy hauler crammed full of motorcycles of all types.  Visit my photo web site where you will find thousands of photos of my motorcycle wanderings and other aspects of my life, click this link. http://mr-cob.smugmug.com/

IMG_4282-600x310.jpg

 

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Howdy All,

Updating the thread to let you folks know what the problem turned out to be and how it was fixed.

Yesterday I met with Scrap, Brian at the shop and after putting the truck on lifts proceeded to take things apart.  Changed out the splitter solenoid and that was fixed, attempted to install a new air regulator-filter and of course the two bolts holding it to the range solenoid valve body broke off. 😡

So we decided to take the whole range valve assembly off the truck to work on it, after removing the valve assembly we attempted to take off the solenoid, two out of the four bolts holding it on broke.  At that point it was decided to just replace the whole unit and be done with it.

Upon disassembly it was found that the solenoids of the both units were rusted and contaminated by water, lack of gaskets allowed the water to get in, why there were no gaskets installed by who ever last worked on the truck is anyone guess.

The transmission is now working flawlessly.  THANK YOU Brian.

Dave

2001 Peterbilt, 379, Known As "Semi-Sane II", towing a 2014 Voltage 3818, 45 foot long toy hauler crammed full of motorcycles of all types.  Visit my photo web site where you will find thousands of photos of my motorcycle wanderings and other aspects of my life, click this link. http://mr-cob.smugmug.com/

IMG_4282-600x310.jpg

 

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