The beauty of modern electronics?

You truck mechanics probably know all about this already but my son and I are still in the learning stages when it comes to newer truck electronics.

Son just bought a 05 9200 International truck to pull the feed trailer with. It has an IXM Cummins ( I think, it's the new M11, if that's what it is)and everything is electronic. It already had the switches on the dash for the PTO and the air hose going to where the PTO should be so he thought it'd be an easy job to switch the PTO and wet kit from the old truck to this one. He changed it over just fine, but when the PTO is engaged and he's unloading feed the engine acts like it gives up and bogs down. And if he pushes in on the clutch to make a small position adjustment, the PTO is programmed to kick out. So after a call to a mechanic he found out the PTO 'switch' needs to be turned on in the truck's computer or ECM.

Stopped at his favorite IH dealer, they put their laptop on it, but they couldn't get through to the ECM. Next day he went to a truck shop that specializes in IH and they found out the old GPS connections were still plugged in. The GPS connections were unplugged, he got into the ECM and found out it needs a PASSWORD, GRRR. He's gonna call the dealer he bought it from (150 miles away) to see if he can get some information. If not, it's a 150 mile trip to Sioux Falls, and a day's lost income, to have the computer flashed and re-programmed. Gone are the good old days when we could just crank a screw. After wrenching on many new computerized combines, Im a true believer that more hours are lost on newer machines due to electrical/computer problems than hours lost on mechanical failures. Jim

That's ISM, not IXM! Too close to bed time.

Got the same thing on the new cars too. Put a hardtop on a Jeep Wrangler, had to tune the computer on to tell it it now had a rear wiper, and the computer didn't want to listen. We must be real close, is about 170 miles up to Sioux Falls.

Do you think manufactures insisted on paying for development, tooling and production of new control systems?
Maybe we should blame those who voted Demoncrat- abundant and empowered the EPA and CAFE?

I enthusiastically agree with your last statement. Its really frustrating fighting electrical gremlins. Call the service department and see if they can walk me through it. Atleast we have cellphones to call from the cab with...as long as you have signal : (

2011 Freightliner, after a stop the flashers would not go off, one headlight would not turn off. I parked it at the dealer, and by morning it needed two batteries and everything has work fine since.(four months ago)

More opportunity for B&D to sell manuals.

On my F150 supercrew the cruise control will "turn Off" if you use the turn signal "right or left" when it has a burned out bulb "front or rear".

" Im a true believer that more hours are lost on newer machines due to electrical/computer problems than hours lost on mechanical failures."


Couldn't have said it better myself. But, we need to learn to live with it. I try to understand the newer stuff, but constantly discover I am 10 years behind.

But some big companies love the fact that these trucks now have computers.

You can get a higher rear end to increase fuel mileage but limit how fast the truck will run with the computer.
You can make the engine shut it self off if you let it idle over a set time.
You can force the driver to progressive shift.
Just to name a few.

As a equipment mechanic who has worked on evetything from 50 year old machiens to ones made only three or four years ago, all I can say is you hit the nail on the head. A post below talks about learning to live with it. While that's true right now, we also need to let our government, the dealers, and everyone else involved that we are tired of all the BS, and that they need to simplify. The problem is all the bells and whistles are great, and 'everyone' loves bells and whistles......until the bells quit ringing, and the whistles stop tooting....Then 'everyone' raises all sorts of he11 and fusses about how all of the things that they thought they wanted, that makes their life so cushy, is now costing them out the a$$ to repair between parts, labor, downtime, etc, etc, etc.

In the end people are going to have to learn to decide which they want more. Do they want a machine that's simple and reliable, or one that does everything from keeping their butt warm to blowing a cool breeze on them while isolating them completely from evething outside, and beyond that doing pretty much everything but wiping their a$$. Once they decide that and let the Mfgs, and our governmental nannys know that we ruleand this is what we want, things just might start to turn around. Until that time.......we just have to contiune to live with all of the overly engineered, overly complex designs being engineered into equipment to do even the most simple tasks such as turning on a light........It's gotten to te point tha Rube Goldburg's zany designs have nothing on the designs of eqipment today.

My 77 3/4 ton chevy pick up was my best truck until the road salt got it.New water pump 30 bucks.New master cylinder 18 bucks.It had 250,000 miles when I parked it.8 ply tires.Big 5 speed transmission with a pto option if you needed it.No polution junk.It liked new mufflers and tail pipes.My 96 Ford is a wimp with lots of junk accessories I dont need.A friend bought a Ford pickup in the early 70s with just a heater in it for 2400 bucks.

yep the computer has solved all the problems lol all you need is anybody who knows something about it, the peterbilt i drive is kind of like that some little thing often , which requires a trip to the dealer and his laptop to fix, instead of being rolled inthe company shop and fixed, when i started driving my first ride had no ac, no power steering 275 horsepower,[ supercharged], weak brakes, and 2 sticks, wonder how many driving today could even run that one, oh yeah, and that little mirror out on the end of the hood looking at the top of the stack

Just got a call from him. He said he called the dealer he bought it from and told him the story. The dealer got huffy and told my son the previous owner was supposed to have taken the password off and opened up the top speed. My son told him it will cost $400 to have the ECM flashed and the dealer said I KNOW THAT, meaning he has been involved with this situation too many times. I think the dealer will foot the bill for having the ECM changed. He seems to be a square shooter.

As far as the PTO goes, my son changed gears in the PTO to reduce the speed and now it works fine. The engine sits there at 1000 RPM's while he's unloading so the 300 ft/lb PTO setting in the ECM is OK. He still has to get the 65 mPH top speed removed and he's going to have the horsepower upped from the 350 it's set at now to ??? Today in this wind he can't rardly maintain 55. Like everything that's newer today, only certain people with the right equipment can work on this stuff and where we live those people seem to be far away. He really likes the truck over all. It's smooth, quiet and has a 19" shorter wheelbase so he gets around the hog sites easier. Jim

Several years ago we were cutting wheat with our IH 181 18' header, and the neighbor had a new combine with a 32' header. He said he would have his 160 acrea out in a day, and we thought we might be 3 days. He made two rounds and was still setting there with a computer chip out for the whole week. We always had old stuff, but it was always moving.

I knew some day the two of us could find something we could agree on!



Dave

We've got engines now that make piles of power without smoke thanks to computers, and if I recall correctly, it was a nnalert administration that created the epa.

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