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1994 K3500 extended cab dually

Oh I forgot about the fan. I was warching my gauge intently while driving today and the fan was reliably coming on at 184 and kicking out at 176. This is too low in my opinion and certainly didn’t help fuel mileage, though I don’t know how much it hurt it. I have adjusted the controller and the highest I saw the coolant temp was 188 and the fan didn’t come on, so I don’t know what temp it will come on now, but without the fan coming on my temps were staying between 180 and 188 on their own with it being 87 degrees out.

Another cool observation was when going down the highway at 75mph, the fan would cool the temp down even with air being shoved through the grill/radiator at that speed. Pretty cool. Thanks Les for doing the homework on that setup!!
 
ak diesel driver said:
Not exactly sure where mine is set at but for average driving down the road it doesn't come on. I only really notice it when I'm towing. Gotten to the point I never really look at my temp much anymore. Almost surprises me when it comes on.
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Yeah that sounds like how it should be set. These are the first real miles I’ve put on the truck so I’m still dialing stuff in. I found some more transmission tuning adjustments to make after today’s driving as well.
 
I'm completely envious of y'all's fuel mileage...I'd give anything to get 13-15 to the gallon...I sit at 10mpg no matter what...out of curiosity how did it do with braking?? Any trouble slowing it down on the hills?
 
Stoney said:
I'm completely envious of y'all's fuel mileage...I'd give anything to get 13-15 to the gallon...I sit at 10mpg no matter what...out of curiosity how did it do with braking?? Any trouble slowing it down on the hills?
Click to expand...
No problems braking, but the trailer also has good brakes on it. During my test pull last week, I jabbed the brakes hard and the tires on the truck started howling so they are definitely working well.
 
After we checked out of the campground on Tuesday, we dropped the trailer off to an RV frig repair place not far from the campground. They had the coil replaced and the frig was working on Wednesday. So last night (Thursday) after work, I drove down to pick the trailer up. I got 15 minutes in to the return drive home and the trans quit. I had cruise control set and the engine started revving up. I looked at the trans controller and it was flashing various codes at me. After trying to give it throttle a couple times to see if it had anything at all I threw it in neutral and coasted as far as I could. I just crested a hill and pulled over....unfortunately I scrubbed speed faster than I realized and didn't get it quite as far off the road as I would have liked.

Stuck1.jpg

I shut it off, looked up the trouble codes and then started the truck again. Nothing. The codes weren't very helpful. Then I could smell it - trans fluid. I looked under the truck and saw a red puddle. It was all over next to the trans. One of my new, effing expensive, looks cool but now I'm questioning if I did the right thing, AN hoses. EFF!! So I called a couple tow companies until I found one that could help me. They threw the truck on a rollback and the guy brought his personal truck to hook up to the trailer.

Stuck2.jpg

The shop my brother works for has a sister shop nearby so I had it towed there. That's still 40 minutes from home. My girlfriend drove down to pick me up. I got the Envoy loaded up and brought the trailer home with it. So dumb I have to keep using the Envoy to haul heavy loads home. Luckily it was cool out and I didn't have to worry about heat killing something in the Envoy again.

I'm going to get stuff together to patch the hose with some barbed fittings and regular transmission cooler hose, but now I feel I'm at a crossroads for a permanent repair. I used all this braided AN hose because it not only looked cool, but it should have held up for a really long time. However, it obviously didn't and now I'm realizing that if I get stranded, I'm SOL for doing a roadside repair. So maybe it's not the best choice for this application after all. Maybe I need to stick to off-the-shelf AT hose and barbed fittings? Maybe I need to make some hard lines for the trans? Maybe I messed up the hose when installing the fitting and I need to try it again and hold my tongue in my mouth a different way? I looked up the order and I see I used Vibrant hose and Russell fittings (just chosen based on cost and availability at Summit).......maybe there's some incompatibly issue there I'm not aware of? Maybe Vibrant hose sucks? So many questions and I'm not sure which route to go. I think I need to give Summit a call to see what they think and maybe even Vibrant. I just don't know what route I'm going to go, but I'm feeling pretty bad at the moment. I did all the work on this truck, and spent extra money to put all this new stuff on it so I wouldn't have problems.....and then what happens? The work I did failed and it wouldn't have failed if I had just kept it stock. I'm not a happy camper at the moment, that's for sure. What a kick in the ballz...... Oh and now I'm also hoping the trans isn't screwed. I had Schaeffer's All Trans Supreme in it, so I'm hoping that saved the trans. And oh yeah.....gallons of expensive ATF under the truck and on the road now as well. And a $250 tow bill. What an expensive venture.
 
At the state. The only hose we would use was Aeroquip steel braid in most cases and the reinforced with fiber hose for fuel and lower pressure situations.
I think the Aeroquip lower pressure fabric reinforced hose is good to like 150 PSI IIRC. May have been less or more.
Never seen much for failures with that hose.
 
Sorry to hear this.
I wrote off A&N fittings long ago. Ot the sizing system for fittings- but the look fancy stuff. It all gets its roots in racing where saving 1/4 oz here and 1/8 oz there adds up to win or loss and price be damned. And if fittings crack and need replacement after 1 days race, so what?

yes steel lines where ever possible- and thicker the better imo. Add 250lbs to the vehicle and so what if it makes it more reliable.
where hoses are used- I really wish all hoses could be done with yellow iron type hydraulic hose. If they could do some 1000 psi, uv and alcohol proof clear fuel line- that would be tops! Other than than all hydraulic would be my dream, where the hose outlasts the truck.

Think this through- yes it is possible you made a mistake on assembly, but you are a VERY meticulous guy, so how many others would have had same or more fail. These fail on people often enough that I am no longer into them at all. Even when the hose connections stay strong the thinner body fittings crack from vibration. The million dollar off road trucks that run them, replace them annually. People think - the run the baja 1000, mint 400, etc so it will last on my truck. Nope- they have a short life beat up hard.

I don’t wanna see you have to replace a bunch of stuff, but definitely don’t want to see a repeat of this thread either.

I hope the vacation was at least good. Supposed to be fun stuff, geez.

Kinda reminds me of the line my wife said I should uit saying:
“Other than Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?”
 
I feel for you my friend. I have had similar situations happen. Not much worse than when you feel like you have double checked everything and installed good parts just to have a failure.

Was it braided stainless hose you were using?

I have used Summit and Jegs brand braided hoses and ends for a long time and haven't had failures. I guess you will have to get a closer look to see how it failed before you decide on what to do with the lines.

Braided lines and screw together fittings are far superior to barbs and clamps.


EDIT:

I guess I have never considered vibration fatigue on these fittings like Will mentioned. I have had them for several years on cars, but these are seasonal cars and are not driven very often. I doubt you had a vibration fatigue issue this soon. Makes me question the few fittings that I have used on my truck for the fuel.
 
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ak diesel driver said:
Man o man that's gotta suck. Hopefully it all works out for you in the end
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Thanks. This has definitely left a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth, that's for sure. Definitely a learning experience and I guess I can be thankful I was relatively close to home when it decided to dole out a lesson.

Will L. said:
Sorry to hear this.
I wrote off A&N fittings long ago. Ot the sizing system for fittings- but the look fancy stuff. It all gets its roots in racing where saving 1/4 oz here and 1/8 oz there adds up to win or loss and price be damned. And if fittings crack and need replacement after 1 days race, so what?

yes steel lines where ever possible- and thicker the better imo. Add 250lbs to the vehicle and so what if it makes it more reliable.
where hoses are used- I really wish all hoses could be done with yellow iron type hydraulic hose. If they could do some 1000 psi, uv and alcohol proof clear fuel line- that would be tops! Other than than all hydraulic would be my dream, where the hose outlasts the truck.

Think this through- yes it is possible you made a mistake on assembly, but you are a VERY meticulous guy, so how many others would have had same or more fail. These fail on people often enough that I am no longer into them at all. Even when the hose connections stay strong the thinner body fittings crack from vibration. The million dollar off road trucks that run them, replace them annually. People think - the run the baja 1000, mint 400, etc so it will last on my truck. Nope- they have a short life beat up hard.

I don’t wanna see you have to replace a bunch of stuff, but definitely don’t want to see a repeat of this thread either.

I hope the vacation was at least good. Supposed to be fun stuff, geez.

Kinda reminds me of the line my wife said I should uit saying:
“Other than Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?”
Click to expand...

This makes sense. I was definitely caught up in the "ooh-aah" of the hose and fittings, and not to mention that hose is easier to run than hard lines. As of now, I feel like I'm ok to keep what I've done for the fuel lines since that's lower pressure, but these thoughts may come back to bite me. I agree that heavy wall steel lines would be a permanent solution.....well until my climate kills them, but they're also harder to work with. I'm thinking about using more of that nickel-copper tubing that I've been using for brake lines. It's really nice to work with and seems to have a good track record.

Duvall said:
I feel for you my friend. I have had similar situations happen. Not much worse than when you feel like you have double checked everything and installed good parts just to have a failure.

Was it braided stainless hose you were using?

I have used Summit and Jegs brand braided hoses and ends for a long time and haven't had failures. I guess you will have to get a closer look to see how it failed before you decide on what to do with the lines.

Braided lines and screw together fittings are far superior to barbs and clamps.


EDIT:

I guess I have never considered vibration fatigue on these fittings like Will mentioned. I have had them for several years on cars, but these are seasonal cars and are not driven very often. I doubt you had a vibration fatigue issue this soon. Makes me question the few fittings that I have used on my truck for the fuel.
Click to expand...

Yep, I felt pretty low last night. I'm lucky in that Kelli is very understanding and caring, but I felt like a piece of crap calling her to bail me out and also interrupting our plans for the evening. I did all this work so I wouldn't have this scenario and then the work I did CAUSED the scenario!! How do I explain that???

All of the hose I used was nylon braided. I used a couple different brands on the truck based on cost and availability at Summit - I used Summit brand, Russell and Vibrant in various locations.

It's good to hear your experiences. Like I said in the response to Will, I feel like I'm ok to keep what I did in the fuel system......and I'll likely replicate it on other trucks, but I don't think I'll do this again for a transmission. I'm also scrapping the plans I had for doing remote oil filters with it and also an engine oil cooler. Time to rethink it. If I have a failure in the fuel system I'll certainly report back.
 
Good info, thanks guys. I went to the SUR&R page today and they talked about using ni-copp in an ATF application. I also asked @Rockabillyrat if he had ever used it on an automatic trans and he said he had, so it seems compatible with that application. At the moment ni-copp seems like the number one solution for a replacement, though I’ve been thinking about the connections at the remote cooler more - there are definitely space constraints there and accessibility issues…..perhaps some quality hydraulic hoses at that location will make sense. I’m still playing around with solutions in my mind.
 
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