Had a bad night.

Alright so I had a driver quit and 2 out sick so I am short handed and having to drive the over night. so I got in my truck (my truck, my favorite truck that nobody, I mean nobody is allowed to drive) hacking up a lung because what ever my daughter gave me is kicking my ass and not letting up. I hook up to the trailer and get over to Edgerton OH to load. Leave Edgerton and start heading for Hammond, IN. I make it onto the Toll road and I am flying down it because I am sick and the quicker I get to Hammond the quicker I can go home. Anyways I make it to South Bend and I am doing 74 mph in the hammer lane, i just passed about 10 trucks and had a few more to go when I here a really loud bang from the back, the back wheels (both axles) locked up (like I lost my air pressure and and locked the brakes only not), the ass end starts sliding and the trailer is trying to come around. Just as I was about to push in the clutch to try and get the back wheels rolling when I heard 3 more bangs like gun shots and and the wheels start rolling. I get it over on the side (with out hitting anything, like the $175,000 brand new peterbilt I just passed). I get out with my flashlight and look.

I am missing half my transmission, my drive shaft, there is a hole in what used to be my front diff and inter axle differential is gone. I left transmission and Differential parts scattered along the highway for a mile. I called the state police and woke up my mechanic. the state police said I did a good job of controlling the tractor (I nearly shit my pants because I thought for sure I was going to hit something). My Mechanic shows up and is looking it over.........

This truck just turned a million miles last week. 1 million miles with no mechanical problems. you know what the problem was ..............

this is all therory as far as how it started but we can't think of anything else, and the fact that the actuators for the locking diffs were engaged is rather suspicious.

the air valve that operates the actuator for the locking differentials failed (not the inter axle diff, but the ones in the boxes) and they locked at 74 mph (not supposed to lock them faster than 5mph), causeing me to blow up the front ring and pinion which locked the drive train and stopped the transmission dead which scattered the transmission and blew have the case out of it, causing the drive shaft to fall off.

so know I need 2 new axles, and inter axle diff, and a transmission. going to In-frame the engine for good measure. now I have an excuse to put a 13spd in it and turn the engine up to 525 hp

damn man sorry to hear that, also ive never heard of that hapening before? but you probably have about the same luck i do haha

I am making it sound worse than it is for dramatization but you get the point. a cheap part failed and locked up the whole thing and blew up expensive parts ......... so i still have 3/4 transmission case. still had to spend an hour picking up parts off the road for atleast a mile.

$10,000 for an In-frame overhaul on the engine
$8,000 for a remanned 13spd double OD
$6,000 for a set of used low mileage axles with 3.55's for an international with a hendrix 4 bag semi leaf air ride.


oh yeah ....... still nowhere near as bad as spending sep 10 in the ER and having a tube shoved down my nose and then having surgery at 0530 the next morning ...... atleast my student nurse was hot ...... flat chested but hot ...........

Sorry to hear that, Its like the C-clips on my ranger cheap part but never got around to replacing them, I hate those F#U@King things. I hear you about almost shitting you pants I would have LOL

Holy crap, glad to hear you're ok man.

Damn between your daughter being all legs and your truck breaking, you must be going mad. Only good thing I can say is for your daughter, her "good lucks have to come from somewhere" and for your truck you said it was around 1 million miles, so hopefully it will be ready for another million miles.

yeah, it will go another million, with everything overhauled. I was wrong on the price of the transmission. we dug up a 13spd core so it will only be 5 grand for a remanned 13spd.

just another driver quit. happens in this industry..... industry average of 130% turn over for drivers but thats 2 in a month ....... I only have 13 company trucks. damn number 13 .... need to buy another truck.

after weighing the cost, think I am buying a new truck...... gonna bite the bullet and buy a nearly new one (read making payments, finally and excuse to get rid if that 2005 Vovlo)........ 2006 or 2007 with low mileage, looking at a Kenworth T600 or an international 9900ix with a cummins ISX............ and no locking diffs

the hole in the front diff was from the interlock being blown apart, and we found that the diff fill plug on the front diff was gone, I think it backed out (it was just serviced on friday) and blew all the oil out, what was left of the pinion was discolored like it was run with out oil ....... doesn't explain why the actuators for the lockers where engaged ........ the hole in the transmission was from the OD box being ripped off from the drive shaft seizing at 74 mph. after looking at with it all apart, other than the cases being ripped apart and the front drive axle literally blowing apart the carnage could have been worse. and i could have thrown something through that brand new Peterbilt.

ouch, that sucks.

I know what you are going through cause my dad owns 3 semi's; 1 '00 Freightliner FLD condo (the one he drives), 1 '95 Volvo, and 1 '97 Freightliner FLD.

damn dude how bout you hire me

The Anteater (T600) is a pretty darn good truck. My mother's stepbrother drives and owns a W900. He says that if the t600 was a bit cheaper he'd have it in a heartbeat. Says it's stout and can turn pretty tight to park at stops.

I think the plug was left out and that caused the failure--don't you? I'm not good with coincidences.

Glad you survived it--one moment everything is sweetness and light and the next incidents are jacking you through the roof. I've never driven a semi but it seems to me that with a failure like that you could quickly find yourself outside of your window of control and be wishing for an ejection seat.

Will said:

I think the plug was left out and that caused the failure--don't you? I'm not good with coincidences.

Glad you survived it--one moment everything is sweetness and light and the next incidents are jacking you through the roof. I've never driven a semi but it seems to me that with a failure like that you could quickly find yourself outside of your window of control and be wishing for an ejection seat.

Click to expand...

yah ........ I wanted one last night, and a median lined with mattresses.

....enough said

I can't believe no one else said this yet.....