How do you guys run your PM schedules?

[threewhd]

I work as a fleet mechanic and we have a set 6 month/5000 mile schedule for PM. If you go through the manuals it gets pretty darn involved and sometimes a bit over kill for a vehicle that will only travel 2000-4000 miles a year. Mine will be a 3rd vehicle for the family. So what are you guys doing for a 6 month or yearly PM schedule if you do?

I was thinking fuel filters and a good look over at 6 months. Then at the yearly PM, oil change, other fluid changes as needed, wheels off, brake drums off, bearings greased and a thorough go around on the truck from front to back.

This sound about right?

 

[FloridaAKM]

I go thru my PMs on the oil & fuel filter changes once a year, the wheel bearings as needed as time dictates. I don't drive that much, greasing all the grease fittings is a quarterly deal. Your mileage may vary. Now doing pretrip PM's, every time as I don't want to do work on the side of the highway to get home.

You sound like you have most of the work scheduled as needed/required.....

 

[Captaincarrier]

Beware of "The Waddington Effect"

 

[quickfarms]

Pretrip before every run.

Full DOT inspection and brake adjustment once a year or before every major trip. Check all fluids.

This is for a truck that was just restored and everything was serviced, rebuilt, overhauled or replaced.

Also full inspection after any water crossing.

Civilian vehicles are serviced yearly or every 5,000 miles.

Known design issues or problems are checked more frequently

 

[clinto]

A lot of this depends on how you use the truck. If all you're doing is trips to Home Depot and parades, then you can radically decrease the frequency of things like hub service. But if you're in the mud and water, or crawling rocks, that changes things. Any time you're in mud or water that's hub deep (or more) you should pull the drums and inspect for contaminated bearings. Same goes for the gear oil. Severe off-roading also calls for more frequent greasings and dogbone inspections.

My personal regimen, with a truck seeing very limited off-road use and less than a thousand miles a year is as follows:

Complete hub service-pulling all the drums off and inspecting bearings and seals and wheel cylinders, etc. Every 2-3 years. Honestly, this schedule has been driven more than anything else by the short life of the front axle boots.



Oil change and fuel filters once a year. Squirt-truck has been having his oil analyzed in his M54A2 and it is lasting several years and he is putting more miles on his truck than I am so my schedule may be overdoing it. YMMV.


Zerk greasing twice a year. This is driven more than anything else by the fact that the truck has 8 u-joints spinning at all times and I don't want one to fail 200 miles from home.

Coolant and brake system flush every 2-3 years.

Once a year, I take a couple hours to very slowly go over the entire truck. All the things that can go wrong with older vehicles-brittle plastic fuel lines, rotting radiator and heater hoses, pinion seal leaks, loose driveshaft bolts, broken parking brake springs (a common issue), parking brake shoes wearing out, drive belts with cracks, radiator leaks, frayed wiring, copper air lines that rub against items, etc. You literally want to put eyeballs on every component of the vehicle. Crawl under it and start at the back and work your way u to the front. Stick your head under the dash.

With what I've described above, I've been able to keep my truck(s) in a condition that has allowed them to be mission ready more or less nonstop. There are unexpected failures, of course: When the injection pump seals wore out and allowed it to leak diesel into the crankcase. Or an axle seal failure. These are things that no amount of inspections can catch.

 

[rustystud]

A lot of this depends on how you use the truck. If all you're doing is trips to Home Depot and parades, then you can radically decrease the frequency of things like hub service. But if you're in the mud and water, or crawling rocks, that changes things. Any time you're in mud or water that's hub deep (or more) you should pull the drums and inspect for contaminated bearings. Same goes for the gear oil. Severe off-roading also calls for more frequent greasings and dogbone inspections.

My personal regimen, with a truck seeing very limited off-road use and less than a thousand miles a year is as follows:

Complete hub service-pulling all the drums off and inspecting bearings and seals and wheel cylinders, etc. Every 2-3 years. Honestly, this schedule has been driven more than anything else by the short life of the front axle boots.

View attachment 567985View attachment 567984View attachment 567983View attachment 567982View attachment 567981View attachment 567980View attachment 567979View attachment 567978View attachment 567986View attachment 567975View attachment 567976View attachment 567977

Oil change and fuel filters once a year. Squirt-truck has been having his oil analyzed in his M54A2 and it is lasting several years and he is putting more miles on his truck than I am so my schedule may be overdoing it. YMMV.


Zerk greasing twice a year. This is driven more than anything else by the fact that the truck has 8 u-joints spinning at all times and I don't want one to fail 200 miles from home.

Coolant and brake system flush every 2-3 years.

Once a year, I take a couple hours to very slowly go over the entire truck. All the things that can go wrong with older vehicles-brittle plastic fuel lines, rotting radiator and heater hoses, pinion seal leaks, loose driveshaft bolts, broken parking brake springs (a common issue), parking brake shoes wearing out, drive belts with cracks, radiator leaks, frayed wiring, copper air lines that rub against items, etc. You literally want to put eyeballs on every component of the vehicle. Crawl under it and start at the back and work your way u to the front. Stick your head under the dash.

With what I've described above, I've been able to keep my truck(s) in a condition that has allowed them to be mission ready more or less nonstop. There are unexpected failures, of course: When the injection pump seals wore out and allowed it to leak diesel into the crankcase. Or an axle seal failure. These are things that no amount of inspections can catch.

This is really close to my maintenance regimen. I don't totally drain the brake fluid though. I basically bleed out the brakes making sure any water that could collect in the lowest places gets pushed out. I will go through a quart of fluid doing this. I also replace all the gear oils every 4 to 5 years. I use a synthetic 90w in the axles and a 50w in the transmission and transfer case. This is more for getting rid of the condensation that builds up in the oil as the gear oil itself doesn't break down that fast. Since I don't drive that much anymore I don't get the gear train good and hot to burn off all the condensation and in time it will mix with the gear oil causing a icky mess. I plan on replacing my drivers seat with a more comfortable one so I can drive further then I do now.

 

[gungearz]

I haven't done a PM on mine in 2 years... of course I only drive it 200 to 500 miles a year.... although, I will start it up about once a month and let it idle for about 20 minutes.... give it a good look over a day or two when u know your going to take it out, then do whatever needs to be done...

2 years and about 1000 miles or so, my engine oil still looks like honey..

My company leases our trucks from Ryder... they PM our trucks every 10,000 miles, regardless of date... but I do at least put on a thousand miles a week driving local only...

I figured that every 200 hours on the hour meter is about 10,000 miles...
That's what I'm going by...

Oh, btw... before I changed my oil. it was written on the oil filter that the last time it was changed before I did it was in 1988... not sure if that holds true or not but it does only have 250 hours on the motor and the gauge was changed when the multifuel engine was put in...

 

[Jeepsinker]

I daily drive mine. Bear in mind I went through almost everything when I got the truck. Now I pack my hubs once a year or when they start leaking, whichever comes first. Change oil every 3-5000 miles depending on who has rotella on sale and when. Inspect belts and hoses every time you change the oil. Coolant flush every year if you are running the green stuff, maybe more if you are using extended life coolant, which I am. Change coolant filter every 100 operating hours, if you have one installed. Gear oils should be changed once a year, or at approximately 20k miles under heavy use like towing or if you live in a really hot or really hilly area.
Check brakes before each trip, the fluid level that is. Look under for leaks on the insides of wheels.
You should keep extra park brake shoes and springs on hand. They fail as often or more often than front axle boots.

 

[nchittendon]

Great info guys. Keep it up!

 

[cranetruck]

Not on a regular basis, but I keep a complete log of everything and anything I do to my 757, even things like airing up tires, fuel tank level, odometer, zerks that were lubed etc from the time the truck arrived in the yard back in '06. A photo of the dash/instrument panel after a trip or engine run is very useful in diagnosing potential problems, too.

 

[rustystud]

I like the idea of taking pictures of the dash while the engine is still running. Just like the modern engine diagnostic computers use a "snapshot" for future reference. Your literally taking a "snapshot" !

 

[cranetruck]

I like the idea of taking pictures of the dash while the engine is still running. Just like the modern engine diagnostic computers use a "snapshot" for future reference. Your literally taking a "snapshot" !

Yes, and I added some instruments too, note the transmission temp (top left) and the dual EGT gauge. The front half of the engine exhaust manifold is always a little cooler, egt-wise...

 

[rustystud]

So that temp gauge is installed on your manual transmission ? What kind of temperatures are you getting when driving like say the hiway ?

 

[daytonatrbo]

I still need to do the "I just bought it and I don't know the service history" service.

That make come as more of a trickle than a flood as I only drive the truck very little.

 

[cranetruck]

So that temp gauge is installed on your manual transmission ? What kind of temperatures are you getting when driving like say the hiway ?

No, TX200-6 Allison automatic, original on the xm757... max temperature noted after a 50-mile highway trip is about 185 °F. Ambient temp that day was about 75 degrees.



The 3 gauges on top were added by yours truly.

 

[daytonatrbo]

How much did the dual EGT run you?

 

[rustystud]

No, TX200-6 Allison automatic, original on the xm757... max temperature noted after a 50-mile highway trip is about 185 °F. Ambient temp that day was about 75 degrees.

View attachment 568624

The 3 gauges on top were added by yours truly.

View attachment 568633

OK, that makes more sense, though I have seen people put temperature gauges on the axles.

 

[cranetruck]

How much did the dual EGT run you?

Purchased in 2008, about $175, thermocouples an additional $35/ea or so. This is the model, by Hewitt Industries:

 

[Blackbear]

Thanks to all this has been a helpful post. As I do my pm, I wanted to check my dash lights, I think there are three by the gauges, anyone know what bulb to use to replace them? I take it they screw off, ish.

 

[Valence]

Every spring I check and air-up all the tires. I have the stock 9.00x20 NDTs, so 50 PSI in the rear, I now run 60 PSI in the front, and then max out the spare at 65 PSI. I change my oil and filters in the spring on the even numbered years. I'll probably incorporate changing the coolant filter at the same time now that I have one.

I then drain the air tanks every-day after driving it.

That's the only scheduled maintenance I've got for the truck. I do, however, do the pre-trip walk around checking brake fluid level, checking for other leaks, ensuring cargo cover is secured and I haven't left any tools sitting on the truck, and etc. I should incorporate checking the oil and coolant level as part of my pre-trip, but I get lazy as I only see a few drops here and there (I realize that doesn't mean something ELSE isn't going wrong...).

This past year I did drain and replace the gear oil in all 3 differentials, transmission, and transfer case, repack all bearings, replace all seals, new front boots, and rebuilt all wheel (brake) cylinders and adjust the brakes. At my usage I'll have to see how frequent of an endeavor that turns out to be. I think next time I'm going to get an electric pump to re-fill the differentials, transmission, and transfer case - that should make things far less awkward and difficult for me.

This is the 5th year I've owned my deuce and I've put ~1300 miles on it in total. I need to drive it more and I'm feeling a bit more confident after all that big service work has been done.