Is that a Spicer 13 speed?
It's an Eaton.
I've left this thread silent for the past month or so, so I'll give an update.
On December 30th, I went and picked up my 1988 Kenworth K100. I noticed a few issues with it, but nothing significant. 94k miles since new! Really, it drove pretty well and most things worked on it. Ran great, albeit pretty anemic. So, on the road I went.
About 100 miles later, the right side of the 3rd axle locked up going down the highway. So I pulled over and it was locked up pretty well. Called the guy I dealt with for buying the truck and he suggested I rock it back and forth and it would break loose. It did after a few tries, and then down the road I went.
I got off the highway about 10 miles later and, coming around a corner, I then found the truck wasn't accelerating when I hit the gas, the engine just revved up. Look in my rear view mirror and that same right 3rd axle side was rolling down the road behind me. I stopped the truck in a position where the wheels would hit the back of the truck, which they did. This could have been really, really bad, going through someone's house, hitting a person, or going through an intersection and causing a big wreck.
At this point, obviously I wasn't going much further. Called a semi truck repair facility who sent their wrecker (a Freightliner) and towed me to their shop, not far away. Really nice guys. Here's where the story gets interesting.
First off, there were no remnants of the outer wheel bearing found. The inner bearing after a good amount of checking was found to be the WRONG BEARING. There was about 1/4" between the spindle and the inner race. So, what happened as far as we could tell was that they put the wrong inner bearing on the truck and then that twisting load caused the outer bearing to explode. When that happened, the wheel shifted outwards and locked up. We saw evidence of this where the brake drum had cut into the brake shoes on that wheel (which were otherwise almost new). That wheel was also having a sticking brake issue, which was almost ceratinly related to that.
Even more interesting, you'd think this sort of misalignment would have been noticed by all sorts of differential fluid everywhere. Not so! Because... the differential was empty. Yep. Empty. Bone dry. The truck had recently been serviced by the school, and they screwed it up big time.
The shop went to a lot of effort to find the RIGHT bearings, and put it back together. While doing so I asked "Did you get the inner bearing? I didn't see it go in." "Yep, it's in already." "Ok." Filled it up, and off I went.
About 70 miles later, I ended up going into a weigh station (Missouri). When the officer stood up and looked out the window in shock, I figured that was a bad sign. So I get pulled over to the inspection area. Differential fluid all over that same wheel. Great. The officer I dealt with was actually very nice and helpful. By this point it was about 10 PM, so I was done for the day. I got the number of another truck repair guy, and a state trooper gave me a ride to a motel in the next town.
Next morning, the repair guy picked me up and we went back to the truck. Got it all apart and... no inner wheel bearing. Sigh...
After all that work to find the right bearing, clean it up, etc... they didn't put it in. But the shop owned up to the mistake and didn't argue about towing the truck back to their shop, while I got a ride home.
The truck is still at that shop, but we decided to resolve the situation by me getting a severely discounted back-half job, which will add an air ride suspension and get aluminum wheels on the back axles. At least, that's the plan. They haven't yet gotten a back half candidate. They've been good on communication and I haven't pushed them since it's not something I need, and I know their job is to keep truckers truckin', as it should be. But if it goes on too much longer, I'll just have them put it back together as-is and bring it home.
Quite an adventure, but it's a fun thing to drive. Needs more boost and more fuel...
