Can M35A3's runaway?

F18hornetM · Aug 21, 2011

midcounty said:
A couple of years ago there was a similar accident in Berlin MD. A utility contracting crew was changing a pole after a storm. When they augered the hole they hit a gas main. One of the trucks ran away and the engine blew, igniting the gas leak. Luckily nobody was hurt, but they did loose a couple trucks and had to change their pants I'm sure.

I had forgot about that, we had a line crew nearby there too, wasnt one of our trucks though...phew!!! And i cant remember the details, but sounds familar for sure.
I cant remember the contractor, or the condition of the equipment, but as you now some have complete junk for equipment. Not all, but some sure are. Ive worked on some "out of town" crews trucks after storms, mutual assistance crews, and you could see through the floor on one of them, and came all the way from maine.

F18hornetM · Aug 21, 2011

WillWagner said:
Most fleets have guys that change bulbs. FedEx, UPS, USF/Yellow come to mind. When a turbo fails, these guys just slam another turbo on the unit, nevermind the aftermath of the failed turbo.

Some fleets maybe, But i have seen just as crappy work come from the truck dealers as well. Dealers and fleets techs are just like doctors, you have techs from the front of the class and techs from the back, same as doctors...some are first and some are last...luck of the draw who works on your stuff.
The fleet i work for views maintenance/repairs as a high priority, Safety is huge and maintenance is part of that. We do all our own work "in-house" except for painting. We also do our own warranty work on several brands of equipment as well. Times have changed in the mechanic field if you can't use a lap top, and have good diagnostic skills, no need to apply.
I would think UPS would put a high priority on maintenance. Guess not. We have goals around unit avaliablity, and we run right around 98% available,and thats on 450 pieces maintained out of my shop. The fleet I work for has around 2500 units and the other shops maintain a similar average as well.

F18hornetM · Aug 21, 2011

Hope i didnt jinx myself by saying i never saw one run away, and we have one do it this week....Ill let you know if one does.. ;-)

CatMan · Aug 21, 2011

M35A3 Runaway

The correct term is an engine "overspeed". Mechanics and equipment operators "run away" but the engine stays were it is and "overspeeds".

Cat Man

midcounty · Aug 21, 2011

F18hornetM said:
I had forgot about that, we had a line crew nearby there too, wasnt one of our trucks though...phew!!! And i cant remember the details, but sounds familar for sure.
I cant remember the contractor, or the condition of the equipment, but as you now some have complete junk for equipment. Not all, but some sure are. Ive worked on some "out of town" crews trucks after storms, mutual assistance crews, and you could see through the floor on one of them, and came all the way from maine.

I believe it was a C.W. Wright or Asplundh crew. I my memory serves me right, the truck that actually ran away was a newer truck. I remember an investigator saying that if they had left the ignition switch on, the truck may have shut off. I don't know if that particular truck had a butterfly system in the intake or not. They had another truck running that they managed to get shut down. Thankfully nobody was in the bucket when the gas ignited. I saw pictures of the flames from the leak, and it was incredible.

F18hornetM · Aug 21, 2011

Maybe was CW wright, dont think asplundh as i think they were setting a pole, not sure. I cant remember the details but I'll ask the lead from our crew that was there right after. curious now. What ever the cause, not pretty for sure.
hope i never see one "over speed" and the crew "runaway" LOL

spicergear · Aug 21, 2011

I was on a commercial fishing dock some years back with a friend of the family when we heard a diesel start spooling up. I thought it was odd to have it (what I thought) was against the governor at the dock then the boat owner came walking down the dock right as a mechanic came running out of the boat saying it was running away and going to blow. The owner ran onto the boat and disappeared. About 20 or so seconds later the engine started slowing down. The owner stuffed the intake full of rags to kill the air. That mechanic lost that job...but the owner saved his engine!

John S-B · Aug 21, 2011

I did have a situation with a gas engine once. I was plowing with my '45 Farmall M at full throttle, and all of a sudden the engine started to race way higher than it had ever run before. I quickly hit the ignition switch and it stopped. Luckily I reacted quickly and no damage was done. I did a little checking and what happend was that the governor linkage had a pin that wore out and broke so there was nothing to limit engine speed. If it had been doing something like running and auger or a belt powered machine where I didn't have to actually be in the seat, the engine probably would have come apart.

lonegunman · Aug 22, 2011

I've heard the runaway story associated with Detroit diesels but not much else. Is this another one of those, "I'm really jealous of guys who buy an A3 so I gotta talk untrue smack", threads? :?:

Simply switching the power On/Off switch to "off" kills the engine. If not, there is a "fuel shut off" switch as well. That being said, I spent seventeen years in power production and never saw anything "runaway". We had everything from air-cooled Onan to KTA-38 Cummins.

dittle · Aug 22, 2011

lonegunman said:
I've heard the runaway story associated with Detroit diesels but not much else. Is this another one of those, "I'm really jealous of guys who buy an A3 so I gotta talk untrue smack", threads?
QUOTE]

Why are you so obsessed with the possibility of someone saying anything remotely negative about your beloved A3? If I'm not mistaken the OP was either looking to buy or has bought an A3 and asked a generic question if it was possible for the CAT to overspeed. Long answer short is yes. If the engine starts sucking oil in through the turbo it can overspeed and shutting the power switch off isn't going to stop it.

spicergear · Aug 22, 2011

A neighbor had a gas engine on a Polaris atv, and older 2 stroke 250, get so hot that it didn't need ignition. Key off and kept running, kill switch off and kept running, spark plug wire pulled...and kept running. Only thing that finally killed it was revving it up real high then killing ignition and it finally stalled as the rpms dropped down past where it could sustain itself.

Didn't someone on here say that if they had a deuce engine with a limp when they were stationed, a trick that some guys would do was to put a gas soaked rag in the intake and fire it up? Then engine would spool up and blow and a whole new power pack was installed then. That's an overspeed condition for sure!

F18hornetM · Aug 22, 2011

midcounty said:
I believe it was a C.W. Wright or Asplundh crew. I my memory serves me right, the truck that actually ran away was a newer truck. I remember an investigator saying that if they had left the ignition switch on, the truck may have shut off. I don't know if that particular truck had a butterfly system in the intake or not. They had another truck running that they managed to get shut down. Thankfully nobody was in the bucket when the gas ignited. I saw pictures of the flames from the leak, and it was incredible.

Talked with a lineman that was there right after, It was right after a big storm, and it was a Utility lines truck, and it was almost new. He said the crew told him, they shut it off, and then it sounded like it was doing 8 million rpm. Up till then they hadnt noticed they had hit a gas line with the auger. So, yeah it seems to have ran away from the gas leak, blew up and caused the big fireball. Ruined a perfectly good truck and probably several pairs of underwear.

scottc · Aug 22, 2011

Just had a Kubota run away this weekend at an equipment auction, she was wide open. Tried the mechanical shut off and throttle on the pump, no response. Had to cut the fuel line. I had heard of this, but Saturday was the first time I had ever seen it.

spicergear · Aug 22, 2011

If they run away on oil, cutting the fuel doesn't work. I would shut the pump then immediately go for the intake that WILL bring them down.

chicklin · Aug 22, 2011

scottc said:
Just had a Kubota run away this weekend at an equipment auction, she was wide open. Tried the mechanical shut off and throttle on the pump, no response. Had to cut the fuel line. I had heard of this, but Saturday was the first time I had ever seen it.

What was the cause?

Westech · Aug 22, 2011

Do any of you have price Albert in a can? ... Better let him out!

Westech · Aug 22, 2011

Is your refrigerator running? .....Better go catch it !

1 Patriot-of-many · Oct 15, 2011

I was thinking about this the other day. If you had a runaway, could you disharge the fire exstinguisher in the intake and stop the engine?

Makes sense to me. It's available(presuming you replace the missing one) and easy to employ.

nk14zp · Oct 15, 2011

1 Patriot-of-many said:
I was thinking about this the other day. If you had a runaway, could you disharge the fire exstinguisher in the intake and stop the engine?

Makes sense to me. It's available(presuming you replace the missing one) and easy to employ.

Yes but it would be best if it was a CO2 not dry chemical.

Stan Leschert · Oct 16, 2011

The CO2 bottle was a common solution to the Detroits on our coastal fishing boats. Pillows just got eaten, and in those crappy engine rooms, there just wasn't room to use a hard intake stopper. By the time that an engine grenaded, they were way past rebuild anyways, and my buddies had to fork out $$$ and repower ... finally!

Can M35A3's runaway?

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