Won't go into gear

The U-Haul is only a couple blocks from Rincon Truck Center here in San Clemente, the only truck repair facility in southern Orange County, but they said they have no one qualified to work on an Autoshift.  So I called my emergency towing service, Continental Car Club, and they set to work on it.  I can't say enough about their service.  I explained exactly what was needed and within 30 minutes they found two dealers who would work on the Eaton.  One was 50 miles away and could take the truck tonight, and the other was 41 miles away and could take the truck
in the morning.  I opted for the closer facility and will call them in the morning to arrange for the tow.  Amanda at CCC called me back at least every 15 minutes to update me with what they had found.  They have all the paperwork waiting for my call and have a class 8 wrecker all set up to take it.  U-Haul hooked onto it with a truck and pulled me into a spot where the truck can sit overnight.  They were very good about it.

At this point I have no idea if it is a sensor problem or a clutch brake problem.  We are camped close to the ocean so it could be a corrosion issue or perhaps one of the local mice or rats has eaten through a wire. Who knows?  All I know is that I have no desire or place to crawl around under the truck to figure it out.  After all, it's only money.......

At 7 AM I called Continental Car Club and spoke with Lana.  I told her I had worked with Adriana last night and that she had left notes about what was needed.  Lana pulled up the info on her screen and went over it with me, and we both emphasized the fact that I needed a heavy duty wrecker. She had a very good grasp of what the truck looked like and what was needed.  She told me she would make the arrangements and call me back. Fifteen minutes later she called and said she had arranged for Blair's Towing out of Lake Forrest (about 20 miles from here) to make the tow. She then said she was somewhat concerned because she had requested a heavy duty rig but the dispatcher said he knew what a Volvo 770 was and that he was sure a medium duty truck could handle us as long as the trailer was not attached.  She said she told him that she would rather have a heavy duty wrecker sent, and was willing to pay for it, but the guy was adamant.  She said that if it didn't work out, they had told her they
would send the heavy duty rig, and that they should arrive about 8:30.

About 9 AM I got a call from Lana asking if they had arrived.  When I told her no she put me on hold to call them, and when she came back on the line she said they said they got held up and promised they would be there by 10.  We repeated that process at 10 and they finally arrived at 10:30.  As soon as I saw the guy drive in I knew we were in trouble.  He had a medium duty GMC, about a 6500.  He took one look at the truck and said "I can't tow that thing!"  He called his dispatcher and told him they needed to send the heavy duty wrecker.  He said "This is an 18
wheeler tractor with the big condo sleeper on it.  We need the big rig."

The driver was nice about it, and apologetic, and said the big wrecker should be there in about an hour.

I called Lana back again and she was livid.  She said "I told them to send the heavy duty rig.  They just wouldn't believe a woman knew what she was talking about!"

About 11:45 the second wrecker from Blair's Towing arrived.  As soon as I saw him I knew this was not going to be a good day.  He was driving a little larger medium duty truck, a GMC 7500.  Just like the first guy, he took one look and said, "I can't tow this thing!"

He knew about the first truck that had been sent out and immediately called his dispatcher to find out what was going on.  Turns out their only heavy duty wrecker had broken down during a tow and was at that very moment being towed in itself.  At least, that's the story he got.  He said he would find me some help.  He made a phone call to City Country Towing and verified that they had a rig available to tow me.  He made sure they knew exactly what my truck was.  They have 3 heavy duty rigs and said they could handle it.  He then called Lana at CCC directly and told
her what had happened.  I could tell from the look on his face and his comments that Lana was giving him an ear full.  When she finally let him get a word in, he told her that he had talked to City Country and that they could handle it.

He soon left, apologizing again, and about 15 minutes later Lana called me back.  She said that City Country had been dispatched and that they should arrive about 1 PM.  She called back at 1 PM to make sure they had arrived and put me on hold to check with them when I told her they were not there yet.  When she came back on the line she said they had been held up and promised her they would be there by 2 PM.  By now she was more upset than I was.  It had become an adventure for me and I wanted to see how it was going to play out.

At 1:30 the wrecker from City Country pulled in.  It had the big tow setup, but it was on a single axle FL 80.  He took one look and said, "I wish they had sent one of the big wreckers!"  But he was confident he could handle it.  It took till about 2:30 to get the drive line dropped, air hooked up, and the truck on the hook.  Off he went toward Carmenita Truck Center in Santa Fe Springs, 41 miles away.  I left a couple minutes later in the car and passed him near Mission Viejo.  The front of his truck was pointed up in the air and my Volvo was bobbing along behind it like
a wobble dog on a dashboard.

I had all the paperwork already filled out by the time he finally arrived. He said the steering was pretty light, but manageable.  I'm glad it was him and not me.

I told Carmenita that I was not in a hurry and that they could take their time with my rig.  I also asked them to replace the steering lock cable as long as it was there.  I understand that is not a fun job.  I finally got out of there at 4 PM and arrived back in San Onofre about 5:30 after fighting rush hour traffic.

While it was a frustrating day, and I am certainly not happy with wrecker company dispatchers,  I did learn something. Lana, Adriana, and all the people at Continental Car Club (through my National Interstate Insurance) were magnificent.  I can't say enough good about them.  They continued to check with me at least every hour until we were finally on our way to Santa Fe Springs.  The night before they had really worked to find a repair facility that was certified to work on Eaton Autoshifts, and had done everything they could to make sure I was taken care of.  As I said, they were more frustrated and angry about the problems I encountered than I was, and everyone there was genuinely pleasant and customer oriented.

During one of the conversations with her I got her to open up a little about their operation. She told me they are located in Oklahoma City.  As I suspected, most all "car clubs" and other road service companies do not do their own dispatching.  They are merely brokers.  There are only about 10 companies in the country who actually do the real dispatching, and there are only 4 main players.  I think she said the company she works for is ACL, (maybe Auto Club Line) but I'm not sure about that.  I'll bet AZTOWBUM knows more about this than I do.  Anyway, she said they service well over 100 different "clubs" or other brokers of  roadside/ towing service.  She would not give me any names, but said I would recognize many of them.

Anyway, now I just wait until I hear what Carmenita finds and what it is going to cost.  The only thing I know for sure is that it won't be cheap.

Sorry this is so long, but I had to share.  No way I was going to keep all this fun to myself.

I can't speak directly on your motor club as I've been on the outside looking in on most Towing operations for way too many years to my liking and will remain so until the end of 2012 due to disablity rules.

I can say I did make a local call to get a quote for moving a 610 less than ten miles to the dealer here in Phoenix and was quoted $95.00.  Folks that's an unheard of rate in todays world for a full underlift Hook and Tow with an actual Heavy Tow unit.  Probably a sign of our current economy.  To compare: a regular tow for a passenger vehicle runs in the $50-60 range plus a mileage charge.

As for Motor Clubs.  It's no difference than playing the insurance game.  Your're betting you'll need them and their acturial folks have figured the percentages in their favor.

Great story by the way.  Reminded me of my experience with a blown tire on the trailer in Tulsa Ok a couple of years ago and my frustrating discussion with the AAA people: "we are authorized to send a tow truck only" but ma'am,  I already have a perfectly good tow vehicle already attached to the trailer I need a tire service truck only.  "Do you want help or not?"  I guess not ma'am, thank you very much and you be sure to have a nice day now, g'bye.

Your company sounds like a wet dream to me by comparison

The truck now has over 642,000 miles on it and I don't know if it has ever had the clutch replaced.  I have noticed some mild clutch chatter lately, and the clutch pedal pressure has always been quite stiff, although sometimes easier than others.  The clutch brake was adjusted just a few months ago and everything has worked fine since.  What I don't understand is why this would happen all of a sudden.  I have had no problems getting the transmission into gear since the clutch brake was adjusted.

It seems I am at their mercy at this point.  Including the hydraulics they have already replaced they estimate the total cost at about $4,200.  That's a huge hit for someone living on SS and some badly depleted 401K income!  Am I being taken to the cleaners or does this sound plausible? What would cause it to fail so completely in one 10 mile trip?

Adding up what you said :
Won't go in gear
Clutch chatter
Had to be adjusted recently
Hard to press
Input shaft won't stop spinning.

Sounds to me like you have a clutch problem. Either the clutch is not releasing at all, or the center plate is broken like I had happen once.
Please let the Truck Pro's here dig into this more tho---I'm just a farmer!

HDTBOB has a thread going on his clutch issues and TrucksaleDave quoted his cost for clutch replacement - Check it out.

In addition to the complete clutch assembly they resurfaced the flywheel, replaced both hydraulic cylinders and the hose assembly, the fork, a couple shafts and the clutch brake.  They also said the rear seal was leaking slightly so that was replaced.  That should probably be done whenever it is opened up.  They also replaced a couple rubber bushings or mounts as he called them.  Of course they also had to reinstall the drive shaft that was removed for the tow.

When I talked to them earlier I really begged for a discount.  I told them I was not in a hurry and that they could squeeze me in whenever they were not working on a customer who needed his truck to make a living.  I also asked for any senior discount, retired guy discount, bald guy discount, or any other discount they could do for me.  I don't know that it helped since the total bill was $3939, but all the items listed show huge discounts from "list" price.  The clutch assembly was $1755.59 list, but they charged me $713.39 for it.  I realize that just about no one pays list, but the total bill was less than they originally quoted, even though they did add a few parts that were not originally planned.

The negative aspect of the repair came when they delivered the truck to me from the parking area. I walked up to it and got really unhappy.  There was grease all over the steps, battery access door, floor and pedals.  I let the delivery guy know how unhappy I was and soon he and the service manager were out there with bottles of cleaner and rags.  They cleaned it up for me pretty well, but it still shouldn't have happened.  When I got home I found my hands were covered with grease from the steering wheel and there was a streak of grease on my shirt sleeve from some yet undetermined location.  It's amazing how easily a repair facility can screw up a simple thing like keeping the customers rig clean.

The only complaint I have when I pick up my Volvo (as I did this week) is that that darn plastic thing covering the seat and the paper floor mat on the floor.

I also get embarrased when the mechanics (Not the service manager) call me Mr. Anderson.
I am with Jack on this one.
Cheers,
Bob