on my 1st gen 4x4 5spd and 1000mi past the 3yr/36k warranty!

Just jumped onto the interstate in NC heading to MT with my wife's Isuzu on a tow dolly. Had a 9' slide-in camper as well. Ten minutes into the trip, the whole truck dies and goes dark...pulled off the road right under an underpass (beginning of first sign of luck as it was pouring out). Tow driver shows up half hour later after really friendly cop calls him. He says the dolly has to come off and so I back the Isuzu off the dolly and hook the dolly to the Isuzu. He starts to remove the bolts for the rear driveshaft and I say "just kick the transfer into neutral". He futzes with the lever (you know what I'm talking about...) and says, 'you do it, I'm not sure where it should be". I wiggled it into N but NOT, it was actually in 4L!! He lifts the front wheels and moves off with us directly behind. The truck/camper kinda did a couple of small hops but didn't think much of it.

He pulls into the Dodge dealer about a mile to the next offramp and drops it and it kinda did a couple of hops again (it was 9pm on a Friday). We slept in the camper overnight and woke to the bustling Saturday morning sales activity (and NO service!). One of the sales guys says that he'll call their expert Dodge/Cummins techs to help me figure out why everything is just dead. Instead, the guy comes in on his day off. He shows up in fifteen minutes and pops the hood and within about two minutes says he found the problem...the 12v wire to the fuel solenoid/fuel heater chaffed on the cruise control bracket and blew the fusible link. He says, "no problem, fifteen minute fix". He has me turn the key to unlock the steering and he jumps the solenoid directly to the battery and uses a screwdriver to arc the starter. Fired right up...and then the fun really began. The noise from the transmission was like marbles in a trash can! He says go ahead and drive it around and put it into a bay. It actually moved under its own power. Now he's scratching his head and obviously, so am I???

Turns out when you are towed in 4L, the rear wheels will spin the back half of the transmission at twice the normal rate (he only hit about 45mph while towing). Normally that's not bad, but when the front (input) side is not throwing oil, it grenades, literally!

He pulled the PTO cover off the transmission side and pulled out handfulls of parts. This is one week before Christmas.

We hang out until Monday and talk with the service writer and the tech. They ordered a new Getrag from Atlanta and it was set to arrive Tuesday evening. Now I find out I'm "just" outa warranty and this will cost a ton for a new Getrag. They're saying go after the tow driver (they don't know if was me who ****ed up) for reimbursement. I had just quit my job and thought coming back to NC for small claims would be a real treat! When I finally come to, they decide to cancel the order. Now the tech gets really involved and makes some calls to somebody like a district manager and convinces the guy that my rig is pristine and in really good shape and owned by a caring owner!!
They agree to look for parts to fix the unit rather than replace the whole thing and if parts aren't available, they're replace the whole box. After about an hour of parts shopping, they decided to re-order the new box from Atlanta...now due in NC on Wednesday evening! The tech puts me on the phone with the district guy and he tell me that this is not a warranty repair as it is technically expired, rather it is "company goodwill". I thanked him as you can imagine and couldn't get over the hospitality and willingness to work with me.

We kill more time and I help unload the brand new Getrag Wednesday evening after closing time with the same really, really cool tech. He pops the new unit back in within forty-five minutes and has already made the electrical repair. I jump in and we take it around for a twenty minute test ride and all is well.

After thanking the tech once again (and slipping him a Ben Franklin), we were off....made it to MT Christmas eve.

They didn't charge me a cent, not even for the tow. All I ended up paying was a hotel room for a few days and some cash to the tech (he wouldn't accept it unless I insisted, much).

Needless to say, I've been a loyal customer since and still remember this interesting week back in '94.

Merry Christmas!

 

wow...thats impressive customer service. The world certainly needs more people with that kind of attitude. Mucho kudos to them (and to you too for taking care of the tech who helped)!

 

Well I can add to this one today.

https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...d.php?t=180428

$40 fitting broken off with all of 12 ft/lbs of pressure.

 

I was running pits for a friend in a desert race a few years back, with a "parts" bike in the back of the truck.
Near the end of the race, all the spare filters except the one in the parts bike had been used(it was super dusty).
After pulling that filter, we stuffed a plastic bag in the airbox and put the cover back on.
A few days after the race, someone tried to start the parts bike, and they were really determined.
Eventually, it started and we were watching bits of black plastic flying out of the silencer and laughing when we discovered what it was. It was a four stroke too
THe bike never seemed to care either.

 

This doesn't have to do with my truck. I am retiming my 91 VW Jetta Diesel, without a timing gauge, and I leave the pump gear pin in. I go get in and try to crank it up, only to hear loud shrieking from under the hood. Get the pin hammered out of the hole. Go to try and crank it again and still loud shrieking. Can't turn the motor over by hand. Pull the starter of and sure enough the starter is SHOT. Only cost me 90 bucks, but that is 90 bucks I could have put into the truck. I still have to drive 310 miles to go fix the VW.

 

Tried to replace a seemingly bad starter in my father's Ford conversion van. Like a nipple-noggin, I forgot to disconnect the battery. While I was turning off the positive nut, the wrench came into contact with the metal fuel line and burned a hole through it with gasoline pouring out. After the sudden chill of realizing I just about burned all the hair off of my head, I disconnected the battery and ran to the store for some metal-putty. Sealed up the hole with the putty, and the van has run flawlessly with no leaks. Cost = $7 putty 5$ new underwear.

 

Havent had any on this truck (knock on wood) but on my 97 Cherokee I was putting the oil filter on and right next to that is the fuel sensor relay (I think thats what it was called, it was sent the info to you fuel gauge). Taking off the oil filter I somehow managed to break the relay off. This was right before a 250 mile trip down to Charleston, SC too. I wound up driving to SC with my gauge reading Empty the whole time, then got a new part at Advance when I was down there. My fat hand wound up costing me $80. Which was alot of money since I was a boot PFC at the time making 1500 a month.

I had a 79 RamCharger and I put a new 318 block into it. Took me about two months to do it since I was using the shop I worked after closing time. I finally got it all finished up and took it out for road miles. I got about five miles from the shop and it started smoking all over the place. I pulled over and popped the hood, found coolant all over the place. I had replaced the engine mounts when I put in the new block, and apparently the coolant hoses and my fan were having a real estate disagreement and the fan won. It sliced my hoses to hell. So, I had to get the truck towed back and spend another week fixing that problem before she was finally roadworthy.

 

The reason why I shouldn't park my oversized behemoth head-in in my assigned parking spot...yeah, totally hit the column while I was backing out. The passenger mirror actually fell out and hit the ground, but I managed to get it back in its holder. Ain't it purty?



Although my favorite was the domino caused by the dealer. Week after I buy my '00 CTD, she won't start. Take her back to the dealer. They install a new starter. Couple months later, I find out they cheated on the install. How did I find out? Well, I ran out of gas. Flat bed gets me to a station and I fill up the tank. She won't start. The flat bed driver starts poking around under the hood. Come to find out, the dealer only put in two out of the three bolts, and one of them was the wrong size. So technically, my starter was held in by one bolt! ????!??!?!!?! Then, of course, when they (flat bed driver and service tech at the station) were priming her, they forget about the fuel pump and I let them know that they're dumping my newly-acquired fuel all over the ground.

Little while later, my CSP sensor is pulling up a code on the OBDII. Take her in and find out that during the time the starter was installed incorrectly, it somehow managed to fuse the wires to the sensor together...

And the leaking oil that the dealer claimed they fixed...yup, whole new front end courtesy my checking account. Although I'm still working on replacing the steering box...rest of the steering is good to go, and I have a new vacuum pump courtesy Midas (the tech claims he was checking out the new hoses and accidentally broke the pump...the owner doesn't believe him and told me so haha).

LOL you guys are making me glad I'm not married! j/k

 

Does marriage count.

 

It hasn't happened yet but I'm waiting for the day that I unhitch my gooseneck and forget to drop the tailgate.

 

MAn, I DIDN'T want to hear that... my brother-n-law and father-n-law are borrowing my truck to move horses today thru Saturday morning. !!!!.. If I end up with a "canoed" tailgate, I'm gonna hount you for the rest of your life for jinxing me!!!.. hahahahaha...

 

Rebuilt an engine, 5.7 diesel no less, because of a broken crankshaft. Had the injection pump rebuilt ($400), but didn't replace the fuel cutoff solenoid. So I take off out of town, thank god it was Billings. Get there, engine dies. Turns out it was the solenoid. In the mean time dad suggests zip tying the governor. Well at the time thought was something else. I managed to get her shutdown in time. I call a diesel shop up and they had one, $70 installed. Get it in, back to normal. Month later take off out of town, engine starts smoking, and hear a snap along with a rattle, crankshaft broke again. Get it tore down and everything but the crank and oil pump was good. Get another in and take off. Well it starts ******* out and takes everything it has to go 10 mph. I realized I should have done a better job cleaning all the metal and other contamination out. A hard lesson learned for not doing a thorough job and $2000 later.

 

Last Feb on Lake Fork, forgot to trim the engine up on the boat, drug it on the ramp for about five feet, couldnt hear it dragging had the heater blowing in the cab, bent the lower end scag and prop, $1600 worth of embarrasment.

 

I loaded my saddle into the back of a trailer one time in a hurry I just opened the door and threw it in then shut the door the trailer had butterfly gates and one side came unlatched and I threw my $4000 saddle out going down the highway. I had no idea I drove on to the pasture we were gatherin and went to the trailer the door was open and the saddle was gone. That was my sickest most desperate moment. I had saved for the saddle for several months and when I bought it I should have really spent the money else where and now it was lost. I was sick I went back the way I came and there it was laying in the ditch it was still dark or someone would have seen it and picked it up.

 

Had a loaded large tool box in a van and closed the rear doors, and took off quickly and out the back doors went the tool box and all of my tools all over a major intersection. Dodging traffic picking up my tools makes you realize just how crappy people drive, and the value of checking the doors for proper
latching.