Tag Archives: truck

Track Sprinter: checking high-pressure pump

20 January 2015 David Leave a comment

The number 1 suspected cause of the alternator failures, according to the Sprinter People I’ve queried, is a leaking high pressure fuel pump. So, even though I’m not identifying a clear indicator of a problem, it just seemed prudent to take the time to investigate it while everything else was apart.

There were a lot of steps not shown to get to this point. They all seem pretty straight forward, so I’ve skipped ahead to the part where I actually remove the pump.

There are three E10 torx head bolts that secure the pump to the engine block. Two are fairly easy to access and are located on the upper half of the pump assembly.

Here is one of the bolts being removed.

The next bolt is located to the left, about mid-pump, very close to the connector you see removed in this photo.

Here is a slightly better angle showing where the bolt is located.

There are two electrical plugs that need to be removed. The one on the right slides out forward. The one on the left slides upwards. The left one is a bit of a pain to removed. I used some channel lock pliers to get an even pressure on the rear clips and gently wiggle it upwards until it came off. Take your time, breaking more parts while doing a repair is not a good plan.

Plugs disconnected and ready to move onto the last steps. NOTE: The high pressure outlet has already been disconnected (top of pump). You can see the threads of the connector at top of photo. To removed these I needed an 18mm open wrench to hold the lower fitting in the pump, and a 14mm flare nut wrench to remove the coupling on the high pressure line feeding the injectors. That’s an important step. You won’t be able to remove the pump with them connected. What I didn’t remove when I was working on mine (maybe a bad choice) were the two lower pressure feed and return lines about mid-pump on the right (not seen here).

Last of the three bolts is bottom center. As much as I’d like to do as little removal of parts as possible, I don’t really see a practical way to get at this bolt without removing the fan blades from the clutch. You just have to do it. I found the 3 bolts on the fan to be 5mm HEX socket (not torx). They were torqued pretty tight. They are a normal right-hand thread, nothing tricky there.

And what did I find on the back of the pump? 2 of the 6 bolts had completely backed out. You can also see that there is diesel fuel on the back of the pump. This matches up with the failure mode described by others, and is the smoking gun (along with the turbo resonator) that I believe was killing my alternators.

All 6 bolts were thread-locked with blue and re-torqued, and pump re-installed.

With the pump re-installed, next step is to re-install the alternator, turbo resonator, intake charge system and get a volt meter installed for diagnostics.

Progress is being made!

automotive, Trucking

Track Truck: conversion back underway

18 January 2015 David Leave a comment

While waiting for repair parts, and researching the possible causes for the alternator deaths… I brought over The Boy to help out with some cleanup and conversion prep.

The original flooring was actually in very good shape, other than the poor paint job applied by a previous owner. I set the boy to scrubbing it down with a high-tech degreaser and a lower tech broom. Some of the old loose paint easily came up but the rest seemed adequately adhered for the next step of the project; new flooring.

The rubber flooring I planned to use came in rolls from China, so they had been in that state for a long time. To ease installation when that phase comes around they were unrolled flat and stacked under the plywood floor. Then I found some stuff to stack on top of it to make sure they were reasonably flat.

Back to the headlights… as you can see, the still need a lot of work. This is the 2nd of the pair. Again, it will be treated with sanding and polishing.

The other light is sufficiently refurbished for my needs, and was set aside during the previous day’s efforts. It doesn’t look too bad. But still not perfect. Note: I actually did one more round of this before re-installing them in the van.

Back to the interior work. Getting the road noise levels down is an important part of this projects. If I plan to do long distance treking in this, I don’t want to be yelling all day, or fatigued from the noise. I did test it with an DB meter and the average level was 85db on a highway.

Here the poor-man’s Dynomat is being installed over the wheel wells. This asphalt roof repairing product is reported to have similar sound deadening properties as the vastly more expensive Dynomat. A small roll of this is available at the local hardware box for about $16.

Using a heat gun makes short work of complex curves. Easy-peasy. It’s just a little time consuming to cut the stuff, and press it into place.

The first (and eventually failed) effort to attach the rubber to the wood. In this first round I used a Liquid Nails product. The specs looked good; very low VOCs; water cleanup… what’s not to love?

Placing pressure on the mats then maintaining with some stuff laying around the shop so that it bonds nicely to the floor. At least that was the plan I executed.

Shifting gears a little bit, I removed the Turbo Resonator and examined it on my operating room quality work area. I have a separate write-up on this. In the end I determined that the part was failing and likely contributor to the alternator death syndrome.

Back to the interior. With some help from The Boy we finished covering the wheel wells. The aluminum backed roofing seal didn’t fully cover the wells, so a less expensive product (Jiffy Seal) without the aluminum backing was acquired to complete the product. The Jiffy Seal was then covered with aluminum tape to maintain the same “look”.

One done with the wheel wells, I popped back onto the internet to look at possible causes for the failure, the most ominous of which is a possible failure in the High Pressure injector pump (large black assembly on the right).

It does not look like a fun thing to remove and look for problems. I’m generally of the mind that if it’s not clearly broken or in need of refurbishing, I don’t want to mess with it. Some more investigation is underway.

Below and to the left of the pump is the turbo charger. The intake hose as been removed and the high-pressure cold-side routing, which includes the turbo resonator has also been removed. Both the resonator and the pump are above the alternator and could possible cause it to fail should they leak fuel or high-pressure intake gasses.

High pressure pump in close up. The black part is the front block, which bolts to a larger raw aluminum block with the drive assembly. It’s said that the pump can leak between the two plates if the bolts that hold it together, internally, begin to loosen. This is a known issue with the 2004-2006 model year.

Next effort will be to consider removal of the high pressure pump. At least the front end is mostly stripped down and access will not be horribly difficult.

automotive, Trucking

Track Truck: Diagnosing the illness

17 January 2015 David Leave a comment

While doing some research on the problem and waiting for parts, I decided to pull out the headlamps to work on them.
Removed from the truck, they are easier to work on.

One diagnostic task, is to look for unusual current loads in the system. First stop was the headlamps, looking for evidence that some clown hat put in 100w bulbs or some other nonsense. What I found was just that sort of… nonsense. Luckily they didn’t over-watt the lamps, but at some point someone put in those inane blue headlamps (but they looks so cool.. no!). I didn’t detect this because the blue one was burned out. All the better. A pair of 55w H7 replacements will be procured.

With the lamps out, I’m going to do some sanding and polishing on them to return some of the original clarity. Right now, they are much better after that first attempt, but they are not where I want them to be.

Some sanding with 800, 1500 and 2000 grit wet-sand, then a light polish with Mequires… they don’t look too bad. But I know they can be better.

To fully diagnose the electrical gremlins that are plaguing me, getting unrestricted access to all the grounds and the glow plug relay pack, goes a long way. So.. I started to take apart the front bodywork.

Neat Sprinter tidbit… this is the air intake (other side does not have this vent). This is a true cold-air intake. Air box is right there behind the headlamp (or where it would normally reside). Also, it’s possible to get at the grounds behind and under the headlamp with those parts out of the way.

After re-checking and cleaning all the ground table locations, and there are plenty, I focused on the glow plug relay. Typically the relay itself does not fair hideously, but what more commonly happens is a glow plug (or 5) will short out, causing a heavy drain (more than 20A) on the electrical system. 5 glow plugs shorted out is over 100A of current and would easily kill the 90A stock alternator.

Based on information obtained from the various Sprinter forums, I fabricated (term used loosely) a jumper cable that can be used to test glow plugs for a shorted condition.

Because the simplest place to test it from the glow plug relay harness, I unplued the 5 wire connector (1 for each GP).

On one end of the wire is a spade connector that is screwed to the battery. I didn’t want to have to mess with holding both ends of the wire. On the other end, I crimped on a small finish nail. This is useful when testing the glow plugs from the glow plug harness.

Poking the wire into each of these connectors here, I was able to determine that none of the 5 glow plugs are exhibiting the signs of a short. When I bought the vehicle the owner assured me the glow plugs had all be replaced in the last 2 years. It seems very likely that was a truthy statement. All good in this arena. But that also means I must continue to look for the cause of my woes.

Since the bumper on this thing was in pretty bad cosmetic shape, I decided to remove it too for a little refurbishing at some point down the road.

This little LED light really came in handy when working on things under the beast. Takes 3 C-cells and provides a pretty good amount of light, even if they LEDs are not the wide angle type. It was much easier than the conventional flashlights (due to built-in stand) and not hot and tangly like an old-school drop light (I really do have a heavy dislike for them).

To keep the new battery charged up while I sorted out this mess, I re-purposed one of the 25′ charging cables from the MV Agusta, added the charging lugs to the Sprinter’s battery, and plugged it into this gem I picked up last month. Love having the computerized 1.25 AMP computer controlled charger.

With the Glow Plugs eliminated as the likely cause of my troubles.. the next step is more drastic… checking the turbo system and fuel system components. Good times ahead.

automotive, Trucking

Sprinter: Getting parts, and getting towed

13 January 2015 David Leave a comment

Absolutely a day of ups and downs… so.. let’s start off where the day did.

Having just finished putting the truck back together again, it was time for a really good test drive. This time I picked Hwy 17. A 16 miles windy trek over the 1,814ft. Patchen Pass in the Santa Cruz Mountains (the epicenter of the 1989 World Series Earth Quake, mistakenly associated with San Francisco, 40+ miles to the North).

The old dog handled the mountain with ease. Passing slower vehicles on the steep climb was a non-event. Considering the type of vehicle, it handled the curves quite confidently.

Once in San Jose, first top was Club Auto Sport, where my trainer Isaac has his facility (Fit for Speed). Had a great workout, then headed out into the sun to start running some errands while in The Valley.

First stop was Harbor Freight to check out the finest in Chinese manufactured crap for American consumption.

The truck will need a set of wheel chocks, and these were on sale for $40 each, so I grabbed a pair. Don’t know much about them, but hopefully they are not complete crap.

Also needed was some rubber flooring for the back. The original plan (as you might have seen in the previous post) was to carpet all 14′ of the van. After some discussion with some other track junkies I know, a change of specification to rubber flooring was made. This stuff was not very expensive, so I picked up 4 rolls (enough to cover 6′ x 8′) of the stuff on the left ($38 total).

Next up are some ramps. These on the left are 8′ long and rated at 500 lb each. Nothing I own weighs more than that, and made in steel, they seemed stout enough for my purposes. A pair is $72, and that fits the budget nicely.

Ramps, rubber and sundries loaded up and ready for the next stop. However I spent so much time in Harbor Frieght, I needed to get rolling back home to complete some software projects. So.. heading to the dealer for a spare key and the RV shop to look for lighting, will have to wait.

And waiting I would be doing. A lot of it as a matter of fact. Not far out of Los Gatos I began to lose power, followed quickly by a batter light and a vivid reminder of my breakdown on Hwy 1. Recalling how suddenly, and with little warning it died last time, I found the first decent turnoff on the little mountain highway I could find, shut it down and… just felt pretty damn deflated.

Having just a few days before upgraded my insurance policy on the van to something called “Full Roadside Coverage” I ran up my insurance company and for the first time in my 50 years of life, tried out Road Side Assistance.

Very long day/story short.. they dispatched a flat bed heavy-duty tow rig from Santa Cruz, and said that the distance to back to town (about 22 miles) was ALL COVERED. I asked the operator if I could get it towed to my personal shop, and she said I’m covered for up to 26 miles, the distance to the nearest Mercedes Dealership that can service the rig. Excellent (considering I’m getting towed).

The tow truck driver was a nice enough guy. We talked cars and trucks all the way back through the hellish commute traffic (It was 3:00PM by the time we started rolling up the hill). As stated, they transported me all the way to my West Side garage, we unloaded and I put the van way for the next round of repairs.. :/

Unloaded all my stuff from the back….

Then unpacked the ramps to give check out the length and angle.

The deck height on the sprinter is 2′ 3″… which.. is pretty darn low for a vehicle capable of carrying 5000 lb. of cargo. I might have liked to have 10′ ramps, I’m not 100% sure I’m strong enough to reliably get the bike into the truck solo… (perhaps a winch is in my future?). But I’m going to go with these for now. The ramps also have holes in the sides and top that I could use to bring them together and make a nice solid platform for getting two bikes up into the truck, walking along side them.

There is a lot more experimentation to do, but for now.. I have to do some research and figure out WHY this things seems to be eating alternators like a kid loose in a candy shop after hours. Something just aint Right.

automotive, Santa Cruz, Trucking

Track Truck – repairs done, now the mods start.

11 January 2015 David Leave a comment

With the required repairs to make it run complete, now the work on mods to get it from a former runner of illegal immigrants, to functional (if not nice) micro toy-hauler can begin.

Flooring

After doing some research at the San Jose International Car Show, I’m now more convinced the flooring found in the van is a factory original. As such, I’ve decided to re-use it.

Next to the flooring are two rolls of recycled industrial No-VOC carpets (6’x9′) that are enough to carpet the floor of the van, probably all the way to the firewall if I decided to go that far with it.

Audio / Communications

Having used the existing stereo briefly, I quickly found it’s navigation horribly complicated and it’s general performance underwhelming. Plus, it has a CD player in it.. might as well have an 8-track too. So that was removed, and a new (and very INexpensive Kenwood head with built-in Blutooth, and both Apple and Android music interface capabilities.

Having found the unit jammed in there fairly tightly, I ended up going a little medieval on the dash:

Having pulled all these parts off ended up making it MUCH simpler to route the Blutooth microphone (required for drivers making phone calls here in Nanny-State Kalifornica). I also noticed that the framework under the dash was painted a bright yellow, not at all like the read the rest of the van is painted.

Instructions for mounting the microphone were not at all clear, in fact there was only a single small diagram showing it mounted on top of the steering column. Huh? Screw that I said.. and ripped the left side A pillar cover off and mounted the microphone up at the top of the window, pointing at the driver. I hope that was not a big mistake. I’m sure I’ll test this soon and find out!

Running wires down the A-pillar and through the dash was easy enough, but getting from the lower section of the dash up to the top was not exactly obvious. Using a tool not at all designed for the job, often makes things simpler. 🙂 Here I used it to fish the microphone wire up and over the pedal box and long another wire loom, eventually appearing under the HVAC environmental controls.

One there, the wrong tool was once again used to fish the wire up to the top section of the dash (removing the cover around the dash vents makes like a lot easier). Viola… easy as cake.

Not being a fan of rattles, and especially in the dash area, the wire loom was tightly bundled, and once inserted into the dash, the head unit’s rear section was zip-tied to the dash structure as seen. Probably should have used grey or black wraps but…. I’m going to call this a design test.. yeah, that’s the ticket.. This radio is much tighter in the dash that the other install, and that’s OK by me.

Decal Removal

This is nearly complete. There are patches of left over adhesive I need to remove, but the nasty and ugly decals (save a couple that I just might leave) are GONE!! Thank you Magic Eraser!!

More Interior Cleanup

With some help from the family, we removed A LOT of USPS shipping tape stuck to the ceiling of the truck. Purpose? WHO KNOWS!??! but it was all over the place and Debby just couldn’t stand it.

So while she was busy peeling the tape, A.J. and I unscrewed all of the interior panels and removed them from the van. Once able to inspect the the bodywork from the inside, I’m even more convinced that a diamond in the rough is what I have here. No signs of rust or any type of body work / repairs. If it wasn’t so loud, I’d be tempted to just leave the interior just like this!

iPhone Integration

One of the features of the head unit, is iPhone (and Android) integration. This I wanted to test out. Thankfully it just worked. One press of the button to change input to USB, about 60 seconds to sync with the phone and store it’s ID, and bang.. music starts playing.

Here I have WAZE up and running on the screen while the music app drops the bass.

That was enough for one day… many more days of work on this to come.

automotive, Trucking, YouTube

Track Truck LIVES – Alternator replacement completed

9 January 2015 David Leave a comment

This really shows it all:

The work was not difficult, but it was a little time consuming to get to the upper most rear bolt, and also to remove the turbo resonator. To do so actually required a 1/4″ spanner wrench to operate on the small E8 TORX head bolts.

To properly address the repair, intake tract has to be removed from the passenger (right) side of the engine. Here you see the parts removed, which include the intake hose, turbo resonator and output hose to intercooler, along with the heat shield.

Here is the intake hose and turbo resonator that were removed.

Replacement rebuilt alternator, ready to install!

Close up of the “fiddly bolts” you will encounter doing this work. The larger of the two (there are 4 of these to deal with) use and E12 TORX Socket (seen below the bolt). The smaller of them (there are 2 of these) use an E6 TORX socket, however a 1/4″ wrench works better due to the confined space.

A little closer picture of the turbo sands intake hoses.

To easily move the belt tensioner, I found it simplest to just disconnect this hose at the intake (don’t lose the locking clip!), making the turning of the socket wrench on tensioner stud much less of a hassle.

Intake tract and post-intercooler high-pressure hose.

Another part of the system that can fail, are the high-AMP fuses that are located in a black box next to the battery. Here is that box.

Location of high-AMP fuses for T1N Dodge Sprinter

Inside the high-AMP box are a set of specialty fuses. It’s generally reported that the dealership is the only source of these fuses, and they are not commonly stocked, so it might be a good idea to order a few ahead of time “just in case” as this is not an rare failure point.

Grounds are also an issue on these trucks. This is a main body ground, located right above the battery. In this photo the negative ground is still disconnected from the Alternator replacement service.

Chassis groun; one of the many possible causes of a failing electrical system.

Another of the highly suspect grounds can be found (again on the driver side) down at the engine mount, and connecting back to the chassis. Both of these grounding points should be carefully examined.

Engine ground strap; one of the various possible causes of Dodge Sprinter electrical maladies.

automotive, Trucking

Track Truck – first repair attempts

8 January 2015 David Leave a comment

At the beginning of the week, the new truck broke down outside of town. After some fighting we got it back to the garage for diagnostics.

Once running again after purchasing a new battery charger and hours of fiddling, it was clear the battery was junk.

Testing battery and charging system performance.

It looked like a cheapo battery, and it had no date indicators on it to clue me in to it’s age. Regardless…

Once a new battery was obtained, it was then possible to truly test the remainder of the charging system, namely the alternator.

Having started up the van easily with the new battery, checking voltage across the terminals showed that the rest of the charging system was in failure. This could have killed the battery during our repeated jump-starts to get it back home. Might have just been cheaper to tow it (note to self).

Lack of charging can be result of multiple issues other than a bad alternator in the Sprinters. The most common culprit are bad grounds. There are several on the driver (left in USA) side of the engine room that need to be checked.

main chassis ground just above the battery negative terminal
engine main ground on the left side engine mount, connected to the frame rail in the same area
control system and accessory points below the battery near the headlamp

Having checked all those and cleaned them for good measure, the next easy win is checking the alternator fuse. On the sprinter there is a large plastic block bolted to the battery cable lead connector. From that block runs several high-amp wires (red) and one very large black wire, which heads to the alternator (this is the main charging feed). Inside this block there are plastic fuses of various amperage, high amperage, including a 200A fuse on the charging system side. This fuse is next checked for continuity to ensure that it is not open, and thus causing the charging system to fail.

Having inspected that, and seeing that it is in tact, the next avenue of investigation is the alternator itself.

Following the acquisition of some TORX Sockets (female, not male), sizes E12 and E6 where required, and about 1 hour of pulling parts to access top and bottom of the alternator, the item was removed.

Turbo charger as seen from top in Dodge 3500 Sprinter (intake and outflow piping removed).

Dodge 3500 Sprinter intake and turbo outflow parts

Tomorrow I will be picking up a rebuilt alternator for around $210. Hopefully that brings the fun-van back to life!

automotive, Motorcycles, Trucking, YouTube

Sprinter 3500 Track Project – Day 3

4 January 2015 David Leave a comment

Another day, another pile of pictures. Today was more of a ‘get things done’ day than the rest. Here is how things are looking:

Removing the flooring

Having already removed the rear 8′ section, to find that the van’s floor already has sound damping material laid out upon it. Awesome! 😀 This means a lot less expense in re-doing the floor, since that won’t have to be done.

It was quite a mess under the flooring, so some multi-purpose cleaner and brush were put to work cleaning things up.

Starting the application of the sound deadening material to the wheel wells. First sections were easy enough, the sides, not so easy though.

In the following image, you can see the channels where passenger seat brackets would bolt to the floor. A cargo van this is, obviously those parts are not in place. They are on my list of things to do when converting this to my version of a Toy Hauler.

Next up was a mounting system for a navigation solution. I was shown this cool system at a local car audio shop, so I bought 3 (one for each car)!

I’m not ready to pony up for dedicated GPS, and I had this Android table with celluare LTE that cost me 99cents… and it was just looking for a good home. Now it will have one.

Below is what the mount looks like. Just a magnetic pad with a rubber fact to keep the device from moving around too much.

For now, the Android phablet thingy will be powered from a 12v lighter adapter. When I get a new head unit installed with USB power, this cable will be hard-wired into the dash, or some other more suitable solution. As is, it’s within reach, has power, and is ready to nav!

Adding one of the little steel plates by my iPhone, it too can serve as navigation, audio source, entertainment, whatever need be. This is the coolest product for using mobile devices in a car that I’ve seen yet!

automotive, Motorcycles, Track Bike Project, travel, Trucking

Sprinter 3500 Track Project – Day 2

3 January 2015 David 1 Comment

If it fit’s you must use it!

Barely, but it does fit. Now to paraphrase Quinn “You’re going to need a bigger garage.”. It would seem so… or external storage lot (there are a few around).

Bought this fancy Magic Eraser thing to try and remove the plethora of hideous graphics on the van. It was $14 at the local auto parts store, I bought both of the ones they had. Sorry, didn’t take a photo of it, yet.

After a few hours of grinding off decals from the driver’s door.. it’s looking just a tiny bit better!

Taking a break from vinyl / decal / sticker removal, I started to measure out the interior of the van for how things are might fit. First was measuring off the back doors to see how far the track bikes will intrude into the cargo area (7′ 6″ minimum). The black line is where it will likely end.

Van has a cargo floor with several anchor points. Good for hauling gear, bad for adding a 2nd seat row as I’m currently planning.

With a lot of 10 year old halogen lighted vehicles, the plastic lenses age, yellow and during into little more than a diffuser. Not good for night time driving. A kit was “On Sale” at a chain auto parts store (I later saw it for the exact same product at another locally owned parts store for the same daily price).

About an hour of sanding on both lights and polishing netted a decent result. I think I need to spend more time working on these lights, it’s still not a like-new effect.

Much more work to be done to bring this thing back to a more presentable condition.

automotive, Track Bike Project, Trucking

Sprinter 3500 Track Project- Day 1

2 January 2015 David Leave a comment

It’s January 1, 2015. Not only is it a new day, and a new year, but a new project.

It’s Project Track Truck. Prepping for the next season of track days begins now, with the end of a 3 month search for the desired track vehicle. After much deliberation, waffling, searching (including writing software to find these elusive beasts at less than insane prices), missing out deals…. I finally (think) I have it.

A 2004 Dodge Sprinter 3500 Long WB, High Roof, Extended Box. Yeap, it’s as big as big and heavy duty as they came in 2004.

With a GVW Rating of 9990 lb., this is just a couple of happy meals shy of a commercial vehicle. Powered by a 154 HP, 5-cylinder diesel engine (yes, it’s forced induction by way of turbocharger). It’s no sports car, and it’s also not very pretty. In fact, I believe the first words out of the Mrs. mouth were: “Holy crap, that thing is ugly. Have you lost your mind?”

Perhaps… but it’s my mind to lose (I think), and this is how I plan to do it.

Cleaning it up

Later in the day, I assembled a crack cleaning crew, consisting of myself and my 12 y.o. son. We embarked upon a clean-up effort to remove the gruesome letting from the van.

After nearly 4 hours of labor, a trip to the hardware store, and some failed ideas.. we were able to mostly clean up the passenger door and the two rear doors.

It might not seem like much, but it was some progress, and even though I might still shudder when visible in daylight, for now, at the moment, at night… with poor lighting.. it almost looks OK.

David DeMartini actual

Tag Archives: truck

Track Sprinter: checking high-pressure pump

Track Truck: conversion back underway

Track Truck: Diagnosing the illness

Sprinter: Getting parts, and getting towed

Track Truck – repairs done, now the mods start.

Flooring

Audio / Communications

Decal Removal

More Interior Cleanup

iPhone Integration

Track Truck LIVES – Alternator replacement completed

Track Truck – first repair attempts

Sprinter 3500 Track Project – Day 3

Removing the flooring

Sprinter 3500 Track Project – Day 2

If it fit’s you must use it!

Sprinter 3500 Track Project- Day 1

Cleaning it up

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