10 years--Gettin' back on the horse!

Yeah... that and a few other words.

I am now typing out the continuation of this ordeal from the heated comfort of my RUNNING truck—albeit a running truck WITHOUT a driveshaft! But I'll get to that in a minute, LMAO.

Like Paul Harvey says, "And now, the rest of the story..."

So, there we are, sitting on the side of the highway—dead wrecker with a dead tractor-trailer hooked to it. A phone call and a few minutes later, another wrecker shows up. He backs up in front of us and I thought, "Hmm, is he gonna hook the whole thing at once?" Yep, he sure was—with a logging chain!

OMFG... wrecker driver #2 gets out and attaches a chain to wrecker #1, then proceeds to get behind the wheel of wrecker #1, while driver #1 takes over the pulling duties in wrecker #2. Confused yet? I know I am just typing that crap out, lol!

We made it about half way around the clover-leaf on a blind corner when the chain came unhooked and wrecker #2, with driver #1, kept on going!!! Now we were sitting on the ramp, on a blind corner, with a dead wrecker and a dead tractor-trailer... Near-death experience number two! I could just picture a fully loaded truck, coming off the highway and smashing into the back of my trailer.

Driver #2 got on the phone with driver #1 and told him to get his azzz back there pronto! And so it was...

Many moons, and near-death experiences, later, my truck and the two wreckers are sitting safely in a truckstop parking lot.

[In a TV announcer voice] But wait, that's not all! Now how much would you pay?

Just when I thought the ordeal would end, and I'd be able to go to sleep, they couldn't get my truck off wrecker #1. Why? Well I'm glad you asked! You see, driveshafts take a lot of abuse, and when they finally come free, they are PISSED. This driveshaft was no exception... it was so freakin mad when it came loose that it decided to take out all the hydraulic lines under the wrecker. Yep, wrecker #1 was pouring out hydraulic fluid like the Exxon Valdez.

So now we had two wreckers, a dead tractor-trailer and another service truck on the way with bottle jacks and multiple bags of Oil-Dri.

[In a TV announcer voice] But wait, that's not all! Now how much would you pay?

Now we come to this morning...

I'm under the hood looking at things and talking to our chief mechanic. He said that it most likely wasn't the accessory drive shaft or the fuel filter wouldn't have been dry. He wanted me to hook up a jumper wire to the fuel solenoid and see if I could get it to run that way.

I was in the process of doing that when another driver came over and offered a can of ether. I pulled the air-cleaner and he sprayed ether until it ran.

VROOOOM!! It's ALIVE!!!! It's ALIVE

And it continued to run. AWESOME!!!

[In a TV announcer voice] But wait, that's not all! Now how much would you pay?

That's when the other driver pipes up and says, "I see you lost your driveshaft."

Whaaaaa? WTF?!?! Please tell me it isn't so.

And so it was...

Yes sir, one end of my driveshaft was laying on the ground and the bolts and caps were gone. Like any rational person, I theorized that the mechanic must not have been paid or something, and came like a thief in the night to steal my driveshaft bolts.

RING RING.... "911, what is your emergency?"

Me (pissed beyond belief): "Someone stole my driveshaft... er... parts off my truck!"

911 Operator: "Huh? Where are you at sir?"

Me: "I'm at the Slip-In truckstop in front of the Walmart" (and in my mind: "send out the troops 'cause someone is gonna die for this")

Meanwhile, the cop shows up and starts to take a report while I have our maintenance guy on the phone... who informs me that they have to remove the driveshaft in order to tow it... that they probably just forgot to hook it back up in all the excitement.

Yep, sure enough, the bolts and caps are sitting beside my drivers seat. And as soon as I'm done soaking up some coffee and some heat, I'll venture outside in the blowing crappy rain to hook it back up.

I'm just hoping a piano doesn't fall outta the sky... wish me luck.

 

I'm here in Carnesville, GA and the driveshaft is still attached. I stopped shortly after I put it back on to check the bolts. Go figure, the heads are 12 point 12mm metric and all I had in that size was a wrench. So... had to do the old "breaker wrench" trick and double them up to increase the leverage. I'll feel better though to get it back to the shop and put a torque wrench on them.

When our shop guy pulled the codes, there were like a half a dozen for everything under the sun. Oil... boost... water temp... TPS...

He said they have been having problems on some of the Internationals with the N14's, chafing the wiring harness on the engine block. I pulled on the harness along its length to move it away from the block. Then I let the engine (and myself) get good and warm before I chanced removing the jumper wire to the fuel solenoid. It's been running ever since.

I'm gonna have to dig up a schematic for this engine and keep it with me. I'm pretty well versed at automotive electrical but have zero knowledge of how these things are wired. And even though I went to Ohio Diesel Tech to learn how to work on big trucks, that was waaaay back in the day—they didn't have computers then.

 

Yep, my first truck had a hand throttle... two windshields... independent air-operated wipers... spring suspension... cab jack... hmmm... what else? No air conditioning... no heat... the defroster was a roll of paper towels I kept on the doghouse to wipe the windshield with.

But ya know what? Every time I see an old Freightshaker COE, I think, "Man I sure would like to take that for a spin... just for old times sake."

 

Not-at-friggin-home Sunday March 1, 2009

It's days like this that further solidify my atheism!

 

"Running" is a relative term. I'm stuck in Hogansville, GA in a #### blizzard that just started the minute I pulled off the highway. The truck is running like crap again... idles, but dies when you try to get up to speed.

I filled the fuel tanks all the way full to see if maybe it was sucking air from a busted pickup tube. Still runs like crap.

I'd change the fuel filter, but I used up the last pair of dry clothes I had with me, to put fuel in the truck. It's not supposed to stop snowing until after 6pm... I guess I ain't making it home this week... and might not even make the #### delivery tomorrow morning.