Signature 600 ISX Cummins engine brake calamity.

I'm doing my due diligence here by posting a picture of the reimbursement check I received 11-27-16 from Cummins for all that nonsense I went through.

Despite all the nonsense, the lack of knowledge/experience at a Cummins training facility, the mistakes made therein, and the fact that I got home after all that and found the problem myself (a broken ground wire, not Jake wiring harness, solenoids and/or bad ECM like they were trying to say,) I am still pretty impressed that they had the courtesy of returning my emails, phone calls and actually admitting fault altogether, and acknowledging it by reimbursing me for the extra troubles after the fact. I have several buddies with Cats that are currently going through similar issues with things ranging from faulty work to warranty wars, and they are NOT getting much help at all from the big yellow motor people. Cat just isn't very trucker friendly since 2010.

Here's the check from Cummins as I said I'd post...

Can't really say anything negative towards them for doing this...they could have told me to go pound sand just as easy.

But this is the way it is nowadays. You hope to get optimal service at these shop prices...and it's a real crap shoot anymore. Feel sorry for the many individuals that aren't the least bit mechanically inclined that have to hope for the best...
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ISX update;

I had another issue the past week with loss of power, loping idle and fluttering while under load when full power pulling. Just kept falling on it's nose and now and again would "cough" like I shut the ignition off for a millisecond, but never frequent enough to determine a cause.

Yesterday I put my thinking cap on and started at the batteries. Traced the ECM wire and found it was chafing on the battery hold down bolt. Cut/spliced/shrink tubed it...now it's back to 100% normal.

It's all about voltage, (or the lack thereof,) with these mills.

 

Thanks. Just takes a little common sense and in all reality, some years behind us to get to this point.

But I guess I don't have to worry about any more issues with this one; yesterday I had a wreck and it's all over I think.




This WAS a nice car.

I was just cruising up Interstate 91 in Holyoke, Massachusetts yesterday around 2:45 p.m. minding my own business, an hour away from home. Went to preload a load of oil scheduled for Monday (today) delivery, thinking I could beat the storm that's now here and everything would be wonderful. Not so much.

In the right hand travel lane doing what I always do, when suddenly in my mirror is this blue BMW doing what I'd estimate at least 90 mph or more. On his tail was another one, a red BMW and they appeared to be drag racing, the red one was drafting like a NASCAR car inches from the blue one's rear bumper.

The blue one drifts over in front of me now, as if to get in front of me which would have been fine at his speed, but the only problem was he never stopped drifting to the right, and in slow motion as if watching TV I watched him drift into the guard rail doing 90 mph, SLAMS into it almost head on...and of course gets ejected backwards into yours truly. I'm loaded with fuel oil, and I was attentive enough to try and move to the left lane to avoid him, but the timing wasn't on my side. I swerved and it was a bad scene for a moment as I was on the brakes hard and trying to swerve, then thought I'd better not be a hero and leave the shoulder into the median or I'm going to be on my side in the ditch. Sooo, I braced for the impact, tried to aim towards more of the end of the vehicle as I could to prevent a total broadside hit, and next thing it was KA BANG!...I slammed into that thing at 65 mph and shot him back over to the guard rail again and parts and pieces were flying everywhere.

I didn't have much steering, so I drifted to the shoulder about 100 yards up from the scene. I was shaken of course, but mainly pissed. First thought was to go back there and pound that stupid foreigner and throw him over the bank...but rational thinking took over and I realized if I did that I had no escape vehicle. My steer axle was touching the right side battery box. I was all done.

After gathering my thoughts, I started the walk back there, expecting to find a casualty. Motorists were there immediately, then another wreck developed over on the southbound side from a rubbernecker slamming his brakes on and getting run into. It was a busy scene at that point.

I got to the car and they were working on one passenger that got out of the passenger side of the car and ended up in the drivers side rear seat...they probably had him sit back down as he was leaking pretty good. The driver, a middle eastern-looking yuppie dude was standing outside, seemingly unharmed and not really all that shaken despite the fact that he almost killed his passenger with his stupidity. So much for your new BMW. The dealership sticker was still in the side window...brand spanking new car.

To my good fortune, 2 motorists were directly behind me and witnessed the entire thing and they gave the troopers the real story, and I was immediately cleared of any fault whatsoever. That's unusual these days. Typically the truck is at fault.

The DOT officer was a class act to me, he treated me with respect and dignity and did his job well, and that went great. All I have to do today now is decipher all of this. I'm out of business (with that one anyways,) and have to deal with all of the insurance and adjusters and all the rest of the whirlwind of this. No income equals hard times on the horizon. I hope I can get compensation for downtime.

Sooo, there we have it folks. That's just how quickly it happens, when you least expect it. Thanks to idiotic, low life non-caring individuals such as that jerk, another working man has to sit here today and deal with all of the repercussions of not having a truck to make a living with now. At least nobody got seriously hurt. One leaker, nothing seemed to be broken. Judging by the looks of that Beemer though, it makes you wonder how, huh?