Helping Waterloo out with an inframe ...

[Waterloo]

My Summer vacation, I got up...

Well, looked like rain yesterday, but it didn't. Let's see, I did some painting and scraping and cleaning and some painting. Rawze came out and found a bad cab to chassis ground, I'm going blind. We repaired that, Rawze donated some 4 AWG cable and two ends and soldered a new one up for me. Thanks Rawze. ;-)

After that, I started on the intake side, finished putting the brackets on for the harness, and air compressor line, little stuff. I spent more time cleaning and wiping things down than anything. Went around to the exhaust side and installed the thermostat housing to the head. Cleaned all of that up and painted. I need a couple of more cases of brake cleaner, need to head up to Peterbilt for more.

New exhaust manifold will be here Tuesday, so not much to do on the exhaust side until that arrives. Still plenty to do.

This is a pretty overwhelming job for a guy that has never done this kind of thing. Being outdoors is not helping matters either, the weather is always a factor. And then trying to keep the weather out of everything adds many more steps to the process, especially cleaning of the parts. I'm not bellyaching, just stating the facts.

The best part to all of this is learning this motor, and having Rawze eyeball all of the things I have missed, and there is plenty, which has been a real eyeopener in regards to how I care for this truck.

Rawze has shown me things that quite frankly, I have totally missed, like that bad ground. The little things that could lead to disaster down the road. There are so many things on these new trucks to go wrong. And it really sucks that I have lost my driveway and garage, which adds even more stress to keeping this bucket of bolts running. Will it run for two weeks, one, maybe three before it goes down again? Will there be any monies for the next blow up? Hopefully, and I believe, these ongoing issues will end right here at Rawze's house, I know I have had enough.

One thing I will suggest, if you are not a mechanic, which you should be to own one of these EPA monstrosities, is to put a second set of eyeballs on your truck. Someone that knows what to look for, and let them make an assessment. These trucks are overwhelming enough with all of their known issues, a second set of eyes will not hurt. It is hard enough just to keep up with the continual repairs and or breakdowns, that second set of eyes could be the difference between a tow bill and a successful week. Just my .02