Holy crap I didn’t realize how long it’s been since I posted on my thread!! Where has the time gone?!?!
Got a good one for y’all. Friends of mine own a dirt pit. They have a well used 320C Cat to load with. Always been a hard starter. They sold it a few years back and ended up buying it back for the dirt pit. They decided to put some $$ into it, offered me the work which I politely declined as I didn’t have time. They hauled it to Cat for a new monitor, stepper motor and cables plus addressing the hard start. It always took a snort of ether but once it started it ran great. No blow by, good power, no oil consumption etc. This will be important.....
Cat does the monitor, stepper and proceeds to diagnose hard start. Come back to them after a compression test and say she’s wore smooth out and needs a new motor. They pass out and when they come back to conscious they call me. My first question was what were the numbers.....???
Once I saw those numbers I said bull f’n $hit. We all know it wouldn’t run at all with those numbers. I asked if they looked into fuel system, checked blow by etc etc. Nope they condemned this engine on compression test alone. I told them load that sucker up I want to lay my hands on it.
Upon getting the rig I pulled the CW and gave it a bath. First thing I noticed was the top of the motor was FILTHY. No way a tech had been there. Even Pigpen would have blown the big chunks off. Once in the shop I pull injectors, sealing washers have been in there a long time.....various hardware doesn’t appear to have been touched in many hours let alone a day or two ago.
I call my injection shop connections and ask for a junk injector to build a compression tester. Meanwhile I send them all six injectors for inspection and any necessary repairs. He quickly calls and says they’re junk and he suspects pump is too.
I run my test and all six holes hit around 340 psi. Hmmmm. Injectors come back, I stick them in and give it a whirl. It still won’t bust off but we suspected the pump anyway. It comes off, gets rebuilt. Cam was junk as were plungers and barrels.
I throw on the new pump, don’t even bleed the injectors just hit the key and it starts before I can even let off. Of course she’s running WFO because the stepper calibration was for the old pump and now it’s waaaay off. I get that sorted and feel like I’ve got them by the short hairs on this deal.
Monday morning we meet with Cat. Lots of guys looking for somebody to pass blame to. Tech isn’t in the meeting which didn’t surprise me as I feel like they were not being honest with us and he’d have outed them. Heated debate ensues for an hour. They assure us they’ll figure it out and get back to us.
About 3:00 we get a call. Hey guys! We figured it out!! Our compression tester had a faulty hose. Are you kidding me? I believe I added a few adjectives when I said that. A 20+ year tech didn’t notice the hose pissing air and on top of that didn’t add 2+2 realizing that it wouldn’t run at all with those numbers. What the actual ****!
This is Cat. I’ve always operated under the assumption that if anybody was going to do things right it was them. They tried or accidentally tried to cornhole my friends for $30,000 due to a bad compression tester hose?!?!
I did have a rather heated debate with one of the guys at the injection shop. When the motor was warm the idle really loped, way more pronounced that the old Detroit’s would do when somebody monkeyed with the buffer spring. After chatting with Miller I called the injection shop and inquired about adjusting the buffer. Said inquiry resulted in an argument about how that machine controls the pump. Once I beat into his head how it worked he explained where the adjustment was. 1-3/4 turns and it runs like a Singer sewing machine and starts if you just look at the key.
I can not believe how Cat has handled this. If a shade tree hack like myself can figure this out why didn’t they? And if they did know the truth and tried this BS then I have lost all faith in our local establishment.
Rant over lol.