Clutch nightmare

The Final Chapter
(Let’s hope)

Ok, here we go. The original problem way back when was the clutch brake was worn out. It wanted to grind when going into gear from a stop.

Shop 1 was a shop I’d only used once before but it’s a couple brothers who had done me right the first time and my owner op had good luck with. I got the truck back and it wasn’t fixed at all. Took it back and they said essentially we don’t have time to get to it for a while. Well, I’m not one to waste time so I took it to another shop I knew who got me in and replaced the clutch brake. It was now working fine.

The next day or two when the truck went back into service, #### if the clutch wasnt slipping a little bit. I thought, well looks like we’ll need a clutch to go along with this clutch brake but I want to be sure.

Enter third mechanic. Someone I know who does weekend work and has done a good job giving me feedback in the past. I have him check for adjustment to see if indeed I do need a new clutch or not. His feedback is that yes, it’s out of usable adjustment and you need a new clutch.

Enter 4th shop. And bare with me a little here, this was over a few weeks time as I had a truck open and was just too busy to make it a priority. I schedule some time with my most trusted private shop to have the clutch replaced. They have done them for me before so having had all these let downs, I asked them to handle it. To be honest I’d had a falling out with them over some stupid things about a year prior but I wanted their expertise and a phone call buried the hatchet. See, I don’t have many problems anymore since I run very new equipment, so I’d been able to use mechanic 3 in this story for 95% of little things I’d needed done. In any event, this shop replaces the clutch, and does everything like turning the flywheel and replacing the main seal. I really felt like we would be good to go.

Crap. This mother ####er slips still. I was pretty exasperated at that point and after sending it back once they basically said we did this to perfection and don’t know what’s going on. Everything is spot on. Admittedly, with our past issues and with much frustration I let the ####er sit for about 3 weeks. Finally, I decided I need this thing fixed and ready. I had tried to order backup sensors and Def quality sensors with no luck. With these back orders, and with a couple driver recruitment options coming in, I need to face this head on.

Dealer time: If nobody can figure something out, the only option is to go to the OEM for help. As has been documented here, they decided it needed a new clutch and change to a manual adjust vs auto adjust. They saw some metal in it, etc etc. So, even with maybe 200 or less miles on the “new clutch”, we put another one in.

That is where this whole thread starts up. As you can see, it’s been quite the saga. So, after a new clutch, a couple adjustments, switching to manual adjust, changing the master cylinder, going through 2 servos, a regulator and line, it’s come down to this in the opinion of the service manager...




Like I said they did change the regulator and line but this bolt was unscrewed almost ALL the way out from the pedal going into the piston under the dash, causing all kinds of problems with the regulator and clutch in general. This was noticed and adjusted properly while changing the regulator.

We picked up a couple heavy loads today and all was well. Got the rental returned, and will go about our business Monday. He said he had never saw this before and had no idea why someone would do that. I’m guessing the original shop had something to do with it which is why the clutch started to slip at all. The original clutch I think was fine. The clutch brake has gotten worn out over 300k miles of double clutching while pushing the clutch too far down.

To finish this off, I would like to add some other news for today. I had one more driver then trucks since I have a team. Which is amazing, but... sure enough someone had to ruin the mood by putting their notice in. He met someone and wants local, what are you gonna do? It’s a big loss though for us none the less.

I will leave you with another small treat of fleet ownership and owner op problems in general. Here is a 2021 dry van damaged by a moron. Just another day in the life my friends.... take care.

 

Thanks. I was hoping maybe you had some insight into what actually happened. I feel like this is a situation where I need to take the KW service manager out to lunch and try to learn from the situation. Naturally, I’m frustrated about it but the truth is if I can learn from this experience then I’ll still be money ahead. The situation sucks but moving forward and learning is key. If I can develop relationships along the way it’s only a bonus for me.