Even premium parts still have its quality issues. Fan clutch redo on a Freightliner M2 Cummins ISB 6.7L. Serial# needed for warranty claim. First replacement clutch was not disengaging with the air actuation off so it would squeal with the engine running and the resistance of the fan dragging on the clutch. Second replacement clutch going in.
What are you working on today?
- Thread starter Amkeer
- Start date
They're big as a building! There was nothing that big on my 15L Cummins ISX!
I'm married to this unit for the next 3 years, Anything I can do to prolong it's life is what I'm going to do. These bypasses can stick closed & overheat the unit even without debris.
It takes me around 18 hours to rebuild 6L80/6L90 after a converter failure, Most parts are washed 3 times & the Valve Body & TECHM is washed 6-7 times.
All bushings are replaced as the aluminum & iron get embedded in them, I'd bet less than 2% of all 6L80/6L90 rebuilds get 100% new bushings!.....Including GM remans.
I have the unit stacked & started on the Valve Body......
Interested in how you like the Pads. I've got them on my radar to replace the front pads on the Ranger that I'm not super pleased with.Gave the trailer a first wash of the season. Scrubbed and washed the entire roof too, and cleaned out all the gutters. Soaked the awning in some simple green and scrubbed that too, it works great to pull stains off the underside
Also had to change out the awning retract/extend motor. Was binding up internally. Thankfully can be found cheap online .
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Also changed out the brakes on my truck for the first long tow of the season. Was going to go with OEM but no dealer had them in stock locally and I was in a pinch for time. So opted for the power stop Z36 heavy duty tow setup. So far so good. It was actually a little cheaper than OEM. Ford gets 181$ each for rotors and 89$ for pads with my 25% discount
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Took a look at my 2008 Mercury Grand Marquis that had a brake problem on my brother’s last trip back. He reported a brake dragging and the wheel being very hot to the touch. Also said it was down on fuel mileage so he figured it was a sticky caliper.
Took the wheel off the left side, where he said it was hot. Nothing unusual. I was able to move the caliper on the slide pins and I was also able to compress the piston when I took it off. In fact, it was no problem at all, unlike one that might stick and drag. Parking brake shoes were intact.
I put my new rotor on after retracting the parking brake shoes a couple of turns. I installed a new caliper since I had them, with an eye to reconditioning the original.
Right side? I found the issue. The parking brake shoes had failed and pieces of friction material had jammed up the mechanism. The axle bearing seal is weeping and enough gear oil got in to contaminate the assembly, causing the friction material to break apart. Job got more involved now.
Not having the replacement parts for that, I cleaned out the broken parts, cleaned out the assembly and reassembled the right side with my new caliper, rotor and pads. The leak is small, so it should be ok to wait until I get new parts in on order.
My fix for this is to replace both axle shafts, bearing and seals, differential cover, and parking brakes. I’m pricing out parts via RockAuto now. Seeing as the rear shocks are factory originals with 205k miles on them, I’m inclined to swap those out as well. They are very easy to access (unlike on older Panther platform cars) so I’ll likely do those too.
The leak is small and confined to the parking brake rotor hat so it should not affect my new pads (the old ones had a lot of material left and were unaffected but the rotor was coated inside). I drove the car to bed the pads and rotors (Bendix FleetMetlok pads and coated rotors) and it was perfect. But this repair is on my list.
Took the wheel off the left side, where he said it was hot. Nothing unusual. I was able to move the caliper on the slide pins and I was also able to compress the piston when I took it off. In fact, it was no problem at all, unlike one that might stick and drag. Parking brake shoes were intact.
I put my new rotor on after retracting the parking brake shoes a couple of turns. I installed a new caliper since I had them, with an eye to reconditioning the original.
Right side? I found the issue. The parking brake shoes had failed and pieces of friction material had jammed up the mechanism. The axle bearing seal is weeping and enough gear oil got in to contaminate the assembly, causing the friction material to break apart. Job got more involved now.
Not having the replacement parts for that, I cleaned out the broken parts, cleaned out the assembly and reassembled the right side with my new caliper, rotor and pads. The leak is small, so it should be ok to wait until I get new parts in on order.
My fix for this is to replace both axle shafts, bearing and seals, differential cover, and parking brakes. I’m pricing out parts via RockAuto now. Seeing as the rear shocks are factory originals with 205k miles on them, I’m inclined to swap those out as well. They are very easy to access (unlike on older Panther platform cars) so I’ll likely do those too.
The leak is small and confined to the parking brake rotor hat so it should not affect my new pads (the old ones had a lot of material left and were unaffected but the rotor was coated inside). I drove the car to bed the pads and rotors (Bendix FleetMetlok pads and coated rotors) and it was perfect. But this repair is on my list.
So far so good. Towed 200 miles so far with them. They have good bite with no fade with no noise. But i really haven’t been hard on them yet. Use the engine brake in conjunction with brakes, Letting the pads break in for a bit before I am really hard on them (if necessary).
I think this is the Achilles Heel of DIH parking brakes. I always have this irrational fear that a relatively insignificant tiny shoe is gonna jam up and destroy a new (and often expensive, at least on 3/4t+ trucks) rotor, wheel bearing and possibly more.Took a look at my 2008 Mercury Grand Marquis that had a brake problem on my brother’s last trip back. He reported a brake dragging and the wheel being very hot to the touch. Also said it was down on fuel mileage so he figured it was a sticky caliper.
Took the wheel off the left side, where he said it was hot. Nothing unusual. I was able to move the caliper on the slide pins and I was also able to compress the piston when I took it off. In fact, it was no problem at all, unlike one that might stick and drag. Parking brake shoes were intact.
I put my new rotor on after retracting the parking brake shoes a couple of turns. I installed a new caliper since I had them, with an eye to reconditioning the original.
Right side? I found the issue. The parking brake shoes had failed and pieces of friction material had jammed up the mechanism. The axle bearing seal is weeping and enough gear oil got in to contaminate the assembly, causing the friction material to break apart. Job got more involved now.
Not having the replacement parts for that, I cleaned out the broken parts, cleaned out the assembly and reassembled the right side with my new caliper, rotor and pads. The leak is small, so it should be ok to wait until I get new parts in on order.
My fix for this is to replace both axle shafts, bearing and seals, differential cover, and parking brakes. I’m pricing out parts via RockAuto now. Seeing as the rear shocks are factory originals with 205k miles on them, I’m inclined to swap those out as well. They are very easy to access (unlike on older Panther platform cars) so I’ll likely do those too.
The leak is small and confined to the parking brake rotor hat so it should not affect my new pads (the old ones had a lot of material left and were unaffected but the rotor was coated inside). I drove the car to bed the pads and rotors (Bendix FleetMetlok pads and coated rotors) and it was perfect. But this repair is on my list.
I also feel like a lot of these DIH setups were just phoned in as far as design.
Q: "Does it work as a parking brake?"
A: "Meh, kinda sorta, mostly."
Q: "Is it durable and reliable?"
A: "Who cares, it's just a parking brake."
"Good point, let's run with it."
With this car and how it’s used, the parking brake is seldom applied. I’m still going to replace the set and look at the cables.
This car was out of the salty goodness we experienced in winters for a lot of its life, given the lack of corrosion on its 16 year old frame vs my nephew’s 2010 Crown Vic (replaced many rusted out items on that one).
Being that it is in solid shape, I’m going to push this car, with proper maintenance, to as many miles as it will go.
And I agree that these mini drum brakes are not great, but I’ve also worked with the PITA parking brake calipers that need to be screwed back in and fight every turn (Chrysler minivans, my Mini, etc.), so pick your poison.
Day 2: got the temporary deck built and tidied up. This will serve until the patio gets poured (it's easy to take back down) and then we'll figure out what kind of permanent solution we want.
We were able to save 90% of the wood from the old deck and tons of the screws, so the cost so far has been nil.
Yea, engine braking is just about the only thing I wish I had a bigger (or diesel) engine for. My truck just doesn't have it. It tries its butt off but there's just hardly any resistance even if it drops 5 gears.
So I just have to make sure the trailer and truck brakes are tip-top, and I'm not particularly thrilled with the OEM pads.
Had to pull the blower motor from the Silverado today. When I pulled the cabin filter yesterday, I knocked a bunch of stiff elm leaves down there. It sounded like a Cessna taking off. The job is really easy, it’s just hard to get to everything! Took forever to get the 5 - 7mm bolts out of the kick panel. Lots of curse words were said, but I finally got it done.
That was one of the things I loved on my KW. On the third setting it was almost like dropping an anchor. A Level 1 inspector accused me of lying when I told him I hadn't replaced the brakes. But I just followed well back and used the engine brake when possible.
@ctechbob , I replaced the oem pads quite early on my 2.7l F150. I tried Hawk LTS which had far better bite and pedal feel, but they dusted bad and they dusted clay-red. I am not too concerned about a spotless vehicle, but these were bad. Moved to the element3. The element3 has had great performance hot and cold and pedal feel - transformed the truck. I’ve heard that Raybestos has changed to a different mfr for these pads, and later installations on other cars haven’t been as great. But you might get lucky if you put a set on the ranger. They are not expensive. If those didn’t cut it, I might try the Akeobono ASP pads (their GG rated performance line). They don’t quite have the pedal feel as the element3 - they feel a little like pine wood under your foot, but they do stop equivalently to the E3.
It’s preventative maintenance.
The bearing uses the axle shaft surface as a race so it wears. Repair bearings are sold which move the bearing to a less worn part of the shaft, but I’ve had those fail soon enough after that I’ll just put new shafts in instead.
The cost isn’t a huge one on these cars so I’ll just do it up right the first time.
Same effort to be fair, but it is a high probability I won’t have to do it again in this car’s lifetime.
Slept in late this morning due to storms and the fire radio keeping me up until 5am or so. Planned to put the floor mats and sill plate back in the little Mack after removing them to clean under. I ended up finding some minor rust scale so I wire wheeled it and brushed on some old bed liner I had from a project in 2021. The truck was dead when I went out and after a jump start I discovered the alternator had bit the dust. Drove two hours round trip to get a replacement and got that fixed. I put in a genuine Leece Neville. I prefer a Diamond Gard or Delco if going pad mount but this truck uses an SAE-J180 mount and Leece is what I’ve had good service out of.
My ozone generator arrived today from Amazon and I ran it once for 15 minutes in the cab, let it sit for an hour and ran it another 30 minutes. After another hour rest I opened the doors to find the mouse urine odor nearly gone. It would make your eyes water prior to that. I’m a believer now.
Also painted the other cab wing and got it reinstalled plus put on two stainless mudflap hangers and a new set of mudflaps but didn’t get pics of those. This truck has its first revenue work this week so I’m trying to finish all the details.
My ozone generator arrived today from Amazon and I ran it once for 15 minutes in the cab, let it sit for an hour and ran it another 30 minutes. After another hour rest I opened the doors to find the mouse urine odor nearly gone. It would make your eyes water prior to that. I’m a believer now.
Also painted the other cab wing and got it reinstalled plus put on two stainless mudflap hangers and a new set of mudflaps but didn’t get pics of those. This truck has its first revenue work this week so I’m trying to finish all the details.
Tomei Type D install on the FL5 Type R.
Decided to change the two filters on the Sentra CVT today. Everything went smooth except the pan keeps leaking afterwards. I’ve changed filters and pans 100+ times and never had an issue before? I tried the gasket that came with the new filter and the original gasket. I got tired of wasting fluid and laying on my back. I topped it off and had my daughter take to my future son in law’s work where they have a lift. I’ll let him figure it out tomorrow! Like Kenny Rogers said, “you got to know when to hold em, know when to fold em”! Plus it’s like 100 here today too lol.
