C. I. T. (Central Illinois Truck)

Mahomet, IL

62 deg. clear, no wind

Forecast = Sunny. Highs in the upper 80s. South winds 10 to 15 mph.

My engine started right up yesterday morning so that Jim could drive me over to Central Illinois Truck to have my starting problem checked out. It wasn't far over there, (just North of Champaign), so it only took us about 20 minutes to get there.

My appointment was for 10:00 and by about 10:15, Jim was driving me around to the rear of the building and pulling me into an empty bay. Once I was in the bay, my engine was shut off and would not start again.

C I T is a pretty big place with lots of big trucks setting around and being worked on. As you can see by the photos below, they work on all sizes of trucks and RVs.

Their main thing though, is to work on the big rigs.

In this photo, you can see me in the 3rd bay between a Fed X truck and a school bus.

My mechanic's name was Josh and he was quite good at troubleshooting electrical problems. After an initial test, he determined that a starter relay was not sending the proper current to the starter, so he proceeded to try to locate the relay. The relay was located way back in my engine compartment and once it was found, it was a fairly easy job to replace it.

The old relay had a connection that looked like it had gotten hot, and after Josh installed the new one, my engine started right up. . . . . . . . . . . For about 5 times and then it wouldn't start again!!! : (

So. . . . . Josh crawled back under me again and got way up beside my engine where he could check out some of the wiring. After about an hour, and after much searching, he found a place on a large wiring harness, (with about 20 wires in it), where it had rubbed on a bracket worn through the jacket and worn the insulation on 4 different wires!!

You see, at some time, someone had worked on me and neglected to fasten the wiring harness back to the bracket and so the harness was free to move around and rub on the bracket and wear the insulation off of the wires. In fact one of the wires itself, was worn almost all the way through!!

In the above photo, you can see the harness running along side of my engine. The harness was worn through at a point way at the other end of my engine. (A real tough place to get to).

Josh got the wires repaired, put a cover on the harness and secured it with wire ties so that this couldn't happen again.

And, I'm glad to announce that my engine has started every time since then!!!! ; )

Yahoo!!!!!!!!

Because Jim and Linda didn't know just where we would be and when, they had the new desk and recliner for me shipped to R & S yesterday. This morning we'll be heading over there and they will help bring the furniture inside of me. Then, if everything goes well, we'll head back to Rantoul and get settled in for the holiday weekend.

Did you know that June is "National Rose Month"?