It took four years- but I found the problem!

Now it's mid February. Because the engine's been hard to start in the cold, the oil was changed to 5W40 pure synthetic- and now it turns over really strong in the morning. With 15W40 it needed ether to help it start at fifteen degrees or lower. Now it turns over faster and always starts right away.

Tonight I'm miffed again at one of this tractor's GOOFY previous owners. For more than four years I've been cleaning up a butchered wiring system. Someone thought it was cool to hang chicken lights all over the exterior. You know those cheap blue clip on wiring connectors? You know the ones, you wrap it around a wire that you want to connect to- put a second wire in the thing and crush it with pliers- then it snaps shut. Well, they ARE NOT for exterior use. Every light socket on this wagon has damaged wires right next to the plug. Not four or six inches back, but butted right up against the plug. So to repair some fool's damage I had to buy all new pigtails and graft them in. Those pigtails are expensive little suckers..

Every marker light, every turn signal, both headlights and even the backup light on the rear of the frame were chewed up by those cheap clip on connectors. (Just when I thought all of the damage was repaired more shows up when lights mysteriously blink out).

If you don't know this yet, roadspray is penetrating fluid. It's oils, water, salts and detergents all mixed up- and it has no surface tension. So when it finds a seam, a crack, a hole or an exposed wire in an electrical system, it goes right inside the wire to start corroding the copper. Tonight some wires just fell apart in my hands because the corrosion ate completely through them- because some fool had used those stupid blue wire connectors again where they didn't belong.

Simplicity and Minimalism are beautiful concepts. The marker lights behind the cab were so butchered that they had to be replaced and they cost almost $80.00 apiece. WHAT ?? EIGHTY dollars for a cheap plastic light, a bulb, socket, plug and a few inches of wiring. The lights on the back of the cab are from the factory, (Freightliner built it that way) but they're not required to be there. I think the tractor looks better without them, so now they're history. Good riddance.

Oh- almost forgot- the dashboard's falling apart. Literally. You might think there are metal brackets behind the dash holding it together- but the brackets are plastic. At 800,000 miles the brackets have vibrated and cracked completely in half in several places, now nothing holds the dashboard up but the brake valve. (And the bracket holding the brake valve up is broken too). There's nothing holding the dashboard trim on and it's been falling off onto the floor several times a day.

This might be the first time I've said this on TTR, but Freightliner's Columbia platform was designed and built to fail. If I could rebuild it properly it would just be a Marmon.

 

Done that before- it's my theory that we all need something in our life to irritate us just enough to keep us rolling. Take away the source of the irritation and we curl up and die of boredom..

My old FLD was a rolling junkyard- but it had a million hard miles on it. (This latest truck WAS BUILT THAT WAY)

 

I ran out of Grote electrical grease recently- and can't find it anywhere. FRLT parts guy says "You're not supposed to put grease in there, it'll start a fire".

The wire sheathing is brittle already-and this is only a 2005 model. This spring I'm going to start something new. All the new grafts were filled with red Hi-Temp silicone before they were crimped, they're getting dipped in Plasti-Dip. And I'm thinking some stainless brackets would support the dash better- Keep forgetting to post pics (that's what I bought the camera for)- will have to load up the camera and illustrate the posts. Thanks for ideas, I'll take 'em all. Two or more heads are better than one!