Dirty deeds done dirty cheap

Birch was sending an IR compressor to auction and one of the ones we were keeping had a bent axle. What management decided to do was swap the axle of the good one we were selling with the bad axle on the unit we were keeping. My job was to put the good axle on the unit we were keeping. The only catch was it was all the way in the back of the yard with no axle on it...yay. I ended up rigging the compressor with a reach lift and some lifting straps with the proper weight rating. Once I got it in the air I installed the axles and tightened the bolts just enough to be able to tow it to the shop. Once I got there I too out the bolts, cleaned them up with a wire wheel, and lined up the axle with the witness marks of the previous axle. That means I'm assuming the axle before was flush, plumb, square and where it needed to be. I was going to take some measurements and see if it was true, but was told that it was good enough and I was splitting hairs. Bolts were torqued with a torque wrench to 240 ft lbs.

Another job that is somewhat unsavory is mast hoses on an industrial forklift. The key is to marking all of your hoses, pulleys, and tensioners. That way you know how to route the new hoses when you install them. What happens is you rip all that stuff off and when you go to put it back together you go uhhhhhhh how did this go again? It just saves you time and prevents a headache. Doosan also likes to put the head of the bolts for their hose tensioners so that you have to line it up and then feed the bolt through the back side where you can't see.

40hr

530hr

Cooling system on Gehl RS5

I ended up working on a reach-lift that I found several problems when I performed my inspection. The line coming off the hydraulic pump was leaking so that had to be replaced with a high pressure hose. Those are always more difficult to maneuver then a regular hydraulic hose, and make getting the fitting started much more time consuming.

It also had a transmission leak running down the side of the bell housing. I washed and and ran it to identify the leak and it turned out to be one of the two plugs on top of the transmission. I changed the o-ring and it stopped leaking.

The third problem was that the coolant gauge never read the engine temperature getting above 120 F no matter how long you ran it. I popped the panel off for the gauge and it had good power and ground. Next I checked the signal wire for the coolant temperature sender which is a thermistor. It was measuring about 8.5 volts at the gauge and the sender. This brought me to the conclusion that the gauge is faulty.

40hr
490hr

Trail king brakes

I ended up working on a 3 axle super tilt trailer that originally came in for hubs to be serviced. Upon inspection the brake shoes and drums were very worn and needed to be replaced. Usually the entire backing plate is replaced because it's usually cheaper in the long run. My coworker did the bearings for the new hubs and the backing plates. It's just five bolts that hold it on to the axle. They're magnetic brakes so all of the wiring had to be spliced. Instead of trying to solder the wires and get the copper to tin with the solder I just used connectors with solder built in. It's much faster and a lot less hassle using them instead of solder and heat shrink. 

There was a pin for the leaf spring that was no longer taking grease and the press fit zerk fitting snapped in the process. I ended up drilling out the fitting and tapping a new hole for a different fitting to be used. I blew out all the metal pieces with an air blower, installed the fitting, and made it take grease with an air powered grease gun. Otherwise it was take the pin out which is not something I wanted to do if I could avoid it. The trick was taking my time and getting the tap perfectly straight for nice threads because if I made a mistake then I was hosed.

After that it was install the drums, put the tires back on with a bar, and torque the lug nuts. 

450hr

Motor swap for a Dodge Ram with a 4.7 V8

A friend of mine who works for Portal Way automotive asked for my help with a motor swap. It's a Dodge Ram with a 4.7 V8 so it's a fairly large engine automotive wise. There is also a lot more components to remove or disconnect then if it was on a piece of heavy equipment. We began by draining all the fluid out of the radiator, engine, and transmission. Disconnected all the plugs and the ones that were most difficult were the plugs for the the fuel injectors and the coil packs because they're really hard to get to and the plastic is brittle and frail. Also all of the plugs have these annoying tabs that lock the plug and they must be lifted out of the way before you can disconnect them. We removed the radiator, alternator, belt, hood, transmission cooler, oil cooler lines, and just strapped the ac compressor and components to the side with straps.

Second step was removing the drive shaft and transmission because it's just easier to swap the motor with the dowels on the bell housing out of the way. Of course we had to first unbolt the flywheel of the engine from the plate connecting it to the torque converter. Cool thing I learned about torque converters is when you reinstall them you have to first get the splines inside the drive hub to line up with the transmission input shaft and then get the drive flats on the hub to lock into place by turning the impeller until it pops in. Otherwise you destroy it and you'll be purchasing a new one and possibly a transmission.

We removed the Engine Mounts from the chassis after we got it hooked up to the cherry picker with a load leveling attachment. After that we removed the engine and struggle some getting it out. They have the engine tucked so far back in the engine compartment that a good portion of it it under the fire wall. It wouldn't surprise me if it's recommended to remove the cab first to make it easier. Next update will be installation of the new engine and we might have to take the cab off to get it back in.

50 (40 for work 10 for motor swap)
450

Night Light Pro I series troubleshooting

I received a light tower off the repair line with a complaint that a service light goes out intermittently. There are four service lights on this piece of equipment. Each light has it's own capacitor, step-up transformer, and bulb. It shares a breaker switch with one other light, and there are a number of places a problem can occur. I began troubleshooting at the capacitors with my meter and they all had the proper voltage except when the light would go out obviously. I tested them by changing the wiring for the service lights to different capacitors to see if the problem would follow to a different service light. When it didn't I troubleshooted the step-up transformers and they all were reading the proper voltage output. I continued by switching those transformers to different capacitors to see if the problem would follow thereby telling me if I had a transformer problem or something else going on.

It didn't follow to another service light telling me the capacitors and transformers were working fine. Next I checked the generator output at the breaker switches to see if I possibly had a bad winding in the generator. Both breaker switches had a steady 124 volts coming out of the generator and it didn't drop suddenly which would be an indicator for a generator issue. I shook all the wiring harnesses up to the service lights to see if maybe I had a short to ground somewhere but I couldn't induce a problem. I removed the light bar by the service lights because often times someone doesn't reassemble them properly and wires get rubbed through and ground to the frame.

Didn't find anything so I continued troubleshooting by switching service light wiring at the light bar with grounds from different service lights to see if I had a problem in the wiring from the light bar to the actual service light. Problem didn't follow so I knew the grounds were good. Keep in mind the very first thing I did was check power and ground at the service light elbow right before the service light.

This brought me to the conclusion that the problem was somewhere between the elbow and the actual light bulb itself. I had either a bad light fixture or a bad bulb itself. I switched the bulbs in the service lights to see if the problem followed to a different light. It did and all this dummy had to do was change the friggin light bulb...ugh.

So from now on when I have an intermittent problem with a service light I learned to swap the bulbs around..after checking power and ground at the load of course. One must go to the load as a wise man once said.

40hr
400hr

Service light wiring in light bar. Power, ground, neutral.

Capacitors on the left and transformers on the right.

Breaker switches

Elbow at service light

Light bar disassembled

Big Bertha

I was tasked with performing the 1000hr service on Big Bertha. She's the oldest piece of gear that Birch Equipment owns. She hadn't actually hadn't ran 1000 hours yet but the last person to do it didn't do it properly and water got into the hydraulic tank.

There's no easy drain plug to get to on this tank so I ended up just using a pump to get it out and then cleaning the inside of the tank by hand. It was fairly messy work. The problem from last time was that the previous mechanic didn't glean the gasket area on the tank or the oil filter housing or the lid. Just slapped it together. Eco-Terra is not cheap and that is a fairly large tank.

When it came time to reassemble I made sure that every mating surface was clean down to the machine marks and that black silicone was used as a sealant. You have to treat it as an engine oil pan gasket because essentially that's what it is.

40hr
360hr



40

TCM Forklift

Had a complaint from a yard rep that this forklift was squealing during braking. Took it for a test drive to try and find out if it was also out of adjustment or had air in the system as well. Pedal was firm and it held when you tried to drive. I had the rep drive it while I watched and I noticed that tire on the right side didn't stop when the drive hit the brakes.

I pulled it into the shop and used wood with a steel plate over it to jack up the forklift with the mast. Pulled off the tires,drums, and hub assemblies to get to the brakes. The reason the were squealing was the brake shoes had completely disintegrated and were lying in a pile of rubble inside the drum. One of the wheel cylinders squirted out brake fluid when I pulled back the boot. Bearings and races were still serviceable. This unit had thousands of hours on it and who know when the last time the brakes were even inspected. I'm sure part of a 1000 hour service to to inspect the shoes, hardware, wheel cylinder, bearings etc.

40hr
320hr

Other side that actually still had shoes lol

Komatsu 25

I recieved a forklift that someone else was working on. They said that it was blowing fuses and that the mast was locking out after it was washed. I originally thought I was chasing a short to ground since it was blowing fuses. I was looking for where a wire was rubbed through and grounding to the frame but found none. I checked all the fuses with a meter and they were good, but the mast spool was still locked out. All the relays were clicking and working. I took a step back and started over since I couldn't replicate the alleged electrical problem.

There are two solenoids on the machine:
One for lift and the other one for tilt. I tore off all the panels to get to the solenoids. I switched the pigtails for them to see if the problem followed to the tilt cylinder. That way I would know if it was electrical or hydraulic. The problem didn't folllow it so I knew it was the solenoid. To verify I put power to the solenoid and it didn't click like it should. Bad lift solenoid.

40hr
280hr

Simple things and not so simple things

The simple task was changing track pads for an excavator. As usual I used the bucket as a jack, and turned the track so I could get at the shoes that needed to be replaced. I was unable to get the bolts of with a 1" gun so I ended up using a torch to heat up the nut and then quickly remove the bolt. After the shoes were removed I was careful to clean the mounting surface on the chain and the bottom side of the track pad.

The not so simple thing was a no start compressor that has been having the issue on and off for a while now. Several mechanics have worked on this and it has a brand new alternator, battery etc. When I cranked it over it sounded like it was starting under compression but it was hard to tell. It also cranked but not very strongly.

The first thing I did was remove the unloader valve and I ended up finding a pretty sizeable groove in it and when you moved it with your fingers it seemed to stick. I sanded down the groove with very fine emory cloth, and reassembled it.

40hr
240hr