Preventative Maintenance

First off there are hundreds of vehicles on the roads including tractor trailers.

And general maintenance is important for all of them. Not only does it save money in the long term, it makes everything safer for everyone on the road.

Everyone has a different idea of what PM means to them. There is the guy who doesnt take care of his equipment till it breaks, then there are the diligent owners and fleets that every service interval come in and have everything inspected to make sure it is safe and running right.

I myself have worked in a shop with their own check list for their fleet of rental cars and trucks. The sheet was the same regardless of what came in but it had all the points that one would pay attention to, if it was a moving truck, it had one set of extra points to check, and if it was a flat bed another set of points to check so everything would be checked no matter what came in.


On a semi truck, it would be different and much more detailed because of the strict regulations for them. if one thing is out of whack on one, then it would be considered out of service and parked on the side of the road at the scales.

A few examples of an out of service truck done on the Peterbuilt


Pic not shown, but caging screw in one of the air cans for the brakes is broken.

 This is down to the belts in the passenger side tire on the drop axle

 An deformed bushing for a strut and shock absorber

 A frying hood catch

 Leaking power steering pump

And though not on the Pete, it is on the Freight liner and it is missing its slack adjuster on the first set of tandems


All of these things can be spotted and taken care of easily before they get to the point of the truck being parked at the scale waiting for a mechanic to come out.

And all this is done as your greasing the fittings underneath, always making notes to yourself on what is normal and what isn't


To me PM is a requirement, it makes any piece of equipment last longer and run better. it might cost more up front but it is worth it in the long run and in the big picture.

Hydraulics Continued..

This weekend I went to the logging show in Sequim WA.  And there for operators to use where a CAT mini excavator and a Link Belt excavator.  I got a chance to use the Link Belt one, and they had a little thing set up to pick up a watch and a ball and move them to a bucket and then move the bucket to a different platform that where perched on traffic cones

Hydralics

Yesterday was the first time ever for me on a pice of hydralic equipment aside from forklifts at my previous internship.

We are renting a bobcat mini excavator and learning the hydralic system in it as well as getting some stick time in on it. My first time on one wasnt to bad, just have to take it slow and not be jerky with the controles.

I say i can stack a few tires up with it now.

Intro to Hydraulics

Starting last week we began hydraulics and learning the different fittings and how to measure them.

also going through the Cat Basics for hydraulics and watching the lethal strike video.

The video is very informative and drives home safety in the work place.

SPQ13 Electrical boards

Been doing the electrical boards in class. done a majority of them and have gotten close to all of them right.

playing with highlighters and coloring in our maps surely does help, hope that the new students recognise this as the way not to get lost with electrical.
looking at an electrical schematic has diffrent colors writen and abriviated in them. and they might have numbers on them.

In the schools freightliner the large electrical pannal in the cab all the wires in it are white. but they are numbered.

If one can take a schematic and draw in the colors and look at the numbers on the paper then one should be able to follow the wires in the truck even though they are not colored.

working on the horn for the 92 dodge and i did notice something with the wireing diagrams.
If your useing "Alldata" the wireing diagram will look diffrent than if you use "Mitchal Ondemand"

They both will tell you the same thing but the way they are drawn up can be confusing if your going between one and the other. Even though if you color it in like we are told then it helps some but still can be confusing.

Take your time stick with one diagram and use your matco, snapon, or walmart highlighters or cryons.

and remember, never hook the red wire to the green wire.

SPQ13

Greetings again.

Start of the spring 2013 quarter and jumping right into electrical Fun Fun

Cylinder heads, Gen Sets and Batteries Oh My

Over the past few weeks I have gotten my 300 hours completed

Ontop of that I have been put on diffrent projects other than just turbos as well.

I helped install a Northern Lights gen set on a 50 foot sailboat. And then,  helping pull cylinder heads off of a tour boat and then helped install a dozen 130 pound batteries into an 80 foot sail boat

Pics and Hours Update

As of Friday the 25th of January I have about 200 hours.

the last couple weeks have been hectic. A management change in the turbo shop and we are still reorganizing stuff that has been left there for probably 4 year s or so.  Then about a week ago an IHI turbo came in with a pretty ugly compressor wheel.

It would seem like a nut or something landed in the housing and ground against the vanes  before finally going though the turbo and into what ever was beyond it.  The inner cooler  the intake and into the cylinders, we all know that metal had to go some where.

Update with Hours

To date since the end of school in December my hours i have worked is 120

I have worked on probably 30 turbos in the three weeks i have been working there and last week took apart 5 Volvo Penta Superchargers.

I have learned quite a bit in taking apart, cleaning and reassembling the turbos and super chargers.

Wish i had pics to show off some but i will get some soon

starting my new internship

Started my internship with Hatton Marine on monday, the first day i worked i didnt work on a turbo like i thought i was. but painting some pipes.

i have some pictures of it here as well. the second day i worked on a john deere turbo, sand blasting the casing and such, taking the measurements for the bearings and shaft

Wrapping up Cat3516

Myself and Brennin have been hard at work putting the cylinder of the Cat 3516 back together, first was the liner giving us trouble for some reason, Jeff told us to use a neighboring liner because the ring on ours was cracked and broken off from some one else before us re installing it improperly. Then the piston was a bit easier but we had a hard time getting the connecting rod connected to the crank but we where able to do it and its all good. now just to put the injector and rocker arms back in and finishing it up.

Friday i played a little with flaring tools and all i could get was a single flare. every time i tryed a double flare, i wound up with a single flare or one that was off center.

More practice today and tomorrow on that.

Cant wait to start my internship with Hatton marine on the 10th.

Cummins IXS

Took the valve cover off and adjusted the valves on the #4 cylinder with Brennin surprisingly the tolerances for that engine where greater than the cummins Bseries that i worked on earlier. where the valves in the B series had to be .010 of an inch plus or minis .001 inch where the ISX could be anywhere between .014 to .020 of an inch.

Finding fault codes on the ISX was a little tricky because it wouldn't talk to the Modis scan tool but we had the laptop with Cumins Insite loaded on it and got several.

the one i chose was Fault Code #2367

Reason.  Engine Brake actuator driver 2 circuit voltage above normal or shorted to a high source.

Open circuit or high voltage detected at the engine Brake solenoid #2 signal circuit

Effect.
Engine brakes on cylinders #2 and #3 can be on all the time OR can NOT be activated .

day 33 -37

Day 33
1. Cooling, The answer i got from the document Jeff had us read was that the larger the radiator the cooler you can make the engine. you dont want to make an engine run too cool and you dont want it to run to hot, so you have to have the right size.

2. Detonation. When the fuel begins to burn, it will provide power. (duh) But if detonation happens too soon or to late, it will have an advers effect on your power if it happens to late, and can harm your engien if it happens to soon (pinging)

3. Contamination. Besides the recomended matenence intervals, could an oil change be determened?
By how often the engine runs. how long it runs and its duty cycle. most off shore applications and in boats, its commen that regardless how much the boat goes out that the owners will have the oil changed once a year.

4. Combustion air flow requirments. finishing the statement "Combstion airflow requirements will vary depending on the specific engine model and rateing. spicific air flow data for caterpillar engines is given in both..."  Volumetric and mass flow. at staderd reffernce conditions.

Day 34

1.The FCA is the Fuel Control Assembly and it regulates the fuel to the injectors.

2. High Preasure Fuel Warning

WARNING:

HIGH-PRESSURE FUEL LINES DELIVER DIESEL FUEL UNDER EXTREME PRESSURE FROM THE INJECTION PUMP TO THE FUEL INJECTORS. THIS MAY BE AS HIGH AS 23,200 PSI (1600 BAR). USE EXTREME CAUTION WHEN INSPECTING FOR HIGH-PRESSURE FUEL LEAKS. FUEL UNDER THIS AMOUNT OF PRESSURE CAN PENETRATE SKIN CAUSING PERSONAL INJURY OR DEATH. INSPECT FOR HIGH-PRESSURE FUEL LEAKS WITH A SHEET OF CARDBOARD. WEAR SAFETY GOGGLES AND ADEQUATE PROTECTIVE CLOTHING WHEN SERVICING FUEL SYSTEM

3. There are 2 Intake heaters for the Dodge 3500.

4. Vehical throws an Open code for all 6 injectors. meaning that more than likely the harness got torn off or disconected some how. the chance of all six going out at once and needing new injectors is slim. another possobility is the cam shaft position sensor is bad but did not show on this truck so that is still good.but if it did have a code then that could be why the truck is not starting.

5. Making the horn blow and wipers work with the scan tool is called "Bi-Differencal control"

Day 35

1. Scanning the Freightliner for codes came up with a barmetric preasure code that was shorted high.

2.(pic next) seeing the humps on the scope then seeing the longer one let me know that the longer signal was TDC for cylender #1

Day37

1. the 9 functions of oil. Lube, preasure wear control. cleaning, protection, cooloing, sealing, shock dampening, hydrolic action.

2.6 oil contaminits. Combustion biproduct, acid varnish, abrasives, fuel, coolent, soot, and enviermental contaminnts.

3. the 9 sets of data that must be included in oil analysis
Engine modle and Sn#
Miles/Hours of oil use
Miles/Hours since new or rebuild
Oil Used
Date Sample was colected
Engine Application
Amount of oil added since previous oil change
Any recent engine matenince
Analysis of new oil

4. The two methods to take an oil sample are, to use a small vacuum pump and draw a sample from the dipstick, or take some as its draining from the sump at an oil change.

5. ? Odd wording Jeff

6. I learned that the diffrent types of contamination wil lead to diffrent failers and exesive wear on certen parts depending on what type of contamination you have in your oil.

7. EC 

The signifigence to "The 11th Hour of the 11th Day of the 11th Month"

Is when most major hostilitys ended during WW1 on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month with the German singing of The Armistice

International MaxForce

Over the week myself and Brennin where using the computer on the International outside. 

Seeing the different things that the computer is able to see and tell you was interesting.  and using the software to fill out the Hard Start No Start sheet and the performance diagnostics sheet. 

one test we had to warm up the coolant in the engine and to do that we did a high idle which for that truck the limit was just after 2600 rpm after that the truck would shake and not like it. then what surprised me was some of the tests from the computer would make the truck do different things on its own.

we hit the run test button and the truck behind us reved up and did its own thing.

Electronics

A few days ago Jeff handed us each a sensor off of a piece of equipment, and i happened to get a differential  pressure sensor with a high and low side.

i was able to hook up the leads. power ground and a signal lead. hooking my multi meter inline with the signal wire and ground. i was able to get a base reading of around .25 of a volt for ambient air pressure.

Blowing into the highside i was able to get it up to 4.1 volts out of the 5 volt system i was hooked into. and droped down to .015 of a volt on the low side.

measurements for 5.9 B series Cummins

After taking the engine apart and inspecting we had diffrent tests and measurments to take to make sure the engine was still in good order.

we found that it was in pretty good order, with a few minor things that needed .

--------------------------

Cylinder head deck flatness. 

Minimum out of flatness 0.003 inches. and when measured 0.004 inches

Valve depth min 0.039 inches, max 0.060 inches. 

Intake 0.044 inches

Exhaust 0.050 inches

Piston pin was round all the way around with 1.5749 inches. and needing to be replaced because it was at the max 

the cylinder bore was round and with in limits

other notes we found the oil pump had flakes of metal in it and whernt from the pump itself. cleaned it up and re installed

Seawater pump. rusty but no signs of pitting or leaking seals 

rocker lever pedestal #2, 5 and 6 

centering opening in the oil channel, mashed up, concluding where metal in oil pump came from.

Lethal strike Video

Watched the Lethal Strike Video and wow.

Pressurized oil or fluid squirting out (in the case of the movie 3000 psi) will really screw up your day.

If not treated correctly and taken care of immediately after it happens then the results are grim.

Cummins 5.9 B series

Today me and Daniel started to take apart a Cummins 5.9 Marine Diesel.

Started by draining the oil that was still left in the pan and began to take the valve covers off and the front cover  to get to the front gear train. once we could see that we could figure out how to get top dead center (TDC) for the first cylinder and measure the valve lash on the rocker arms and valves.

Attached are about 50 pictures of what we have so far.