I’ve been working on a project to bring Fiber To The Home out in Perth Ontario, actually putting the fiber up on the poles and trenching underground and whatnot… Today didn’t go so well:
<Chris> hey
<Myke> Oh Hai
<Chris> how did perth go today
<Myke> Ben called to wake me up at 10 to 8
<Myke> Met at Sheridan at 8:30
<Myke> grabbed brekky, showed him your fantastic wall which looks awesome.
<Myke> hit Canadian Tire & Home Hardware for some heatshrink tubing
<Myke> went out to Sheridan
<Myke> Fired up the truck
<Myke> Put the outriggers down
<Myke> and the bucket/boom wouldn’t move.
<Myke> … neither would the outriggers
<Myke> No lights on the control panel for the PTO/Accessory system
<Myke> Found a blown/broken circuit breaker
<Myke> went back to CTC to get a replacement
<Myke> that didn’t work
<Myke> Found another blown/broken circuit breaker
<Myke> went back to CTC to get a replacement
<Myke> Found another blown fuse
<Myke> went back to CTC to get a replacement
<Myke> Still wouldn’t work
<Myke> Found another blown/broken circuit breaker
<Myke> went back to CTC to get a replacement, but they didn’t have any
<Myke> went to Evan’s work (trucking company) but the one they had didn’t fit
<Myke> went to a junkyard, they didn’t have anything that would fit, but helped us build a rig to hack/test
<Chris> thats a lot
<Myke> … still no luck with the truck
<Chris> sounds like
<Myke> Finally gave up
<Chris> the electrical is shot
<Myke> Called a 24/7 truck guy
<Myke> He couldn’t find the problem, just confirmed everything I’d found
<Myke> He hotwired the control for the PTO
<Myke> so we got it running, raised the outriggers
<Myke> and called it a day for the truck
<Chris> What time
<Chris> was that at ?
<Myke> then we finished installing & splicing the MultiLink StarFighter for $CUSTOMER
<Myke> and called it a day at about 1915.
<Chris> the electrical is gone on the truck
<Myke> We sent the truck off at around 6
<Myke> huh?
<Myke> Please don’t insult my 6 hours of diagnosing by jumping to a conclusion over MSN.
<Myke> actually, it was close to 8 hours of working on that truck today.
<Chris> Hopefully there wont be a hydraulics issues also
<Myke> Stop assuming
<Myke> it’s annoying.
<Myke> The hydraulics are fine
<Myke> it looks like the accessory relay isn’t being triggered
<Chris> how many fusses went ?
<Myke> the question is if it’s blown or if whatever controls it is shot.
<Myke> 1 fuse blew, and we smoked the lightbar controller as result or as cause of it
<Myke> 1 breaker was completely broken
<Myke> 1 breaker was for the air-conditioner… there _is_ no air-conditioner
<Myke> 1 breaker is for the cigarette lighter, which we didn’t think there was one anywhere, but I did eventually find it
<Myke> so we likely replaced a bunch of breakers for things that weren’t getting used.
<Myke> the electrical is not “gone” on the truck
<Myke> the alt is fine, all the regular, Ford F750 part of the truck works perfectly fine
<Chris> what was the end result ?
<Myke> It’s the Accessories that aren’t being triggered
<Myke> the end result is that I’m going to go to Ben’s house this week and rewire the entire accessory system.
<Myke> It’ll probably take me 2-3 days.
<Chris> for the truck ?
<Myke> 1.5-2 days of reverse engineering
<Chris> do you know how to do that ?
<Myke> 1 day of work
<Myke> hell, you know how to do it
<Myke> it’s not HARD, just tedious
<Myke> there’s only a few things you need to know beyond basic Electrical theory
<Chris> well ist not an old Chevy
<Chris> i would think it was a little more involved in this vehicle
<Myke> it’s an old ford
<Myke> it doesn’t have a computer
<Myke> and I don’t need to touch the original wiring, except to interface the accessories
<Myke> everything else is aftermarket
<Myke> ie: not OEM
<Chris> i hope it works out for you
<Myke> I’m not really looking forward to it right now, just because I’m so tired and annoyed
<Myke> but
<Myke> it could’ve been worse
<Myke> hell – I could’ve been up IN the bucket when it blew
<Myke> instead, it happened just BEFORE I did.
<Chris> thats good too
<Myke> You know me
<Myke> I’ll want to do it up all nice and pretty.
<Myke> frankly, there’s no point in Ben paying some mechanic $110/hr to do this
<Myke> The tough part right now is that we don’t know the root cause.
<Myke> And BTW: the first breaker wasn’t broken, it was just corroded on the terminals, it tested okay once I checked it again.
<Chris> what did the on site mechanic actually do ?
<Chris> reroute the wiring
<Chris> ?
<Myke> checked my diagnosis, traced things (which I didn’t do very much of)
<Myke> no
<Myke> he hotwired the Accessories/PTO control panel
<Chris> got it
<Myke> because we checked and the Hydraulic Pump Clutch (which hangs off the PTO) seems to be fine
<Myke> hence why I know hydraulics isn’t the problem
<Chris> isn’t there a backup system or something to get the hydraulics and the feet up in case of this type of problem ?
<Myke> nope
<Myke> at least
<Myke> if there is, it wasn’t apparent.
<Myke> There’s emergency controls for the boom
<Myke> not for the outriggers.
<Chris> that was it
<Myke> Oh Hai
<Chris> how did perth go today
<Myke> Ben called to wake me up at 10 to 8
<Myke> Met at Sheridan at 8:30
<Myke> grabbed brekky, showed him your fantastic wall which looks awesome.
<Myke> hit Canadian Tire & Home Hardware for some heatshrink tubing
<Myke> went out to Sheridan
<Myke> Fired up the truck
<Myke> Put the outriggers down
<Myke> and the bucket/boom wouldn’t move.
<Myke> … neither would the outriggers
<Myke> No lights on the control panel for the PTO/Accessory system
<Myke> Found a blown/broken circuit breaker
<Myke> went back to CTC to get a replacement
<Myke> that didn’t work
<Myke> Found another blown/broken circuit breaker
<Myke> went back to CTC to get a replacement
<Myke> Found another blown fuse
<Myke> went back to CTC to get a replacement
<Myke> Still wouldn’t work
<Myke> Found another blown/broken circuit breaker
<Myke> went back to CTC to get a replacement, but they didn’t have any
<Myke> went to Evan’s work (trucking company) but the one they had didn’t fit
<Myke> went to a junkyard, they didn’t have anything that would fit, but helped us build a rig to hack/test
<Chris> thats a lot
<Myke> … still no luck with the truck
<Chris> sounds like
<Myke> Finally gave up
<Chris> the electrical is shot
<Myke> Called a 24/7 truck guy
<Myke> He couldn’t find the problem, just confirmed everything I’d found
<Myke> He hotwired the control for the PTO
<Myke> so we got it running, raised the outriggers
<Myke> and called it a day for the truck
<Chris> What time
<Chris> was that at ?
<Myke> then we finished installing & splicing the MultiLink StarFighter for $CUSTOMER
<Myke> and called it a day at about 1915.
<Chris> the electrical is gone on the truck
<Myke> We sent the truck off at around 6
<Myke> huh?
<Myke> Please don’t insult my 6 hours of diagnosing by jumping to a conclusion over MSN.
<Myke> actually, it was close to 8 hours of working on that truck today.
<Chris> Hopefully there wont be a hydraulics issues also
<Myke> Stop assuming
<Myke> it’s annoying.
<Myke> The hydraulics are fine
<Myke> it looks like the accessory relay isn’t being triggered
<Chris> how many fusses went ?
<Myke> the question is if it’s blown or if whatever controls it is shot.
<Myke> 1 fuse blew, and we smoked the lightbar controller as result or as cause of it
<Myke> 1 breaker was completely broken
<Myke> 1 breaker was for the air-conditioner… there _is_ no air-conditioner
<Myke> 1 breaker is for the cigarette lighter, which we didn’t think there was one anywhere, but I did eventually find it
<Myke> so we likely replaced a bunch of breakers for things that weren’t getting used.
<Myke> the electrical is not “gone” on the truck
<Myke> the alt is fine, all the regular, Ford F750 part of the truck works perfectly fine
<Chris> what was the end result ?
<Myke> It’s the Accessories that aren’t being triggered
<Myke> the end result is that I’m going to go to Ben’s house this week and rewire the entire accessory system.
<Myke> It’ll probably take me 2-3 days.
<Chris> for the truck ?
<Myke> 1.5-2 days of reverse engineering
<Chris> do you know how to do that ?
<Myke> 1 day of work
<Myke> hell, you know how to do it
<Myke> it’s not HARD, just tedious
<Myke> there’s only a few things you need to know beyond basic Electrical theory
<Chris> well ist not an old Chevy
<Chris> i would think it was a little more involved in this vehicle
<Myke> it’s an old ford
<Myke> it doesn’t have a computer
<Myke> and I don’t need to touch the original wiring, except to interface the accessories
<Myke> everything else is aftermarket
<Myke> ie: not OEM
<Chris> i hope it works out for you
<Myke> I’m not really looking forward to it right now, just because I’m so tired and annoyed
<Myke> but
<Myke> it could’ve been worse
<Myke> hell – I could’ve been up IN the bucket when it blew
<Myke> instead, it happened just BEFORE I did.
<Chris> thats good too
<Myke> You know me
<Myke> I’ll want to do it up all nice and pretty.
<Myke> frankly, there’s no point in Ben paying some mechanic $110/hr to do this
<Myke> The tough part right now is that we don’t know the root cause.
<Myke> And BTW: the first breaker wasn’t broken, it was just corroded on the terminals, it tested okay once I checked it again.
<Chris> what did the on site mechanic actually do ?
<Chris> reroute the wiring
<Chris> ?
<Myke> checked my diagnosis, traced things (which I didn’t do very much of)
<Myke> no
<Myke> he hotwired the Accessories/PTO control panel
<Chris> got it
<Myke> because we checked and the Hydraulic Pump Clutch (which hangs off the PTO) seems to be fine
<Myke> hence why I know hydraulics isn’t the problem
<Chris> isn’t there a backup system or something to get the hydraulics and the feet up in case of this type of problem ?
<Myke> nope
<Myke> at least
<Myke> if there is, it wasn’t apparent.
<Myke> There’s emergency controls for the boom
<Myke> not for the outriggers.
<Chris> that was it
Here’s the truck on a happier day:
Like a really big Tonka truck!