Repairs in Fort Saint John BC

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We spent last night at a rest area on the Alaska Highway about 30 miles west of Fort St. John BC. We cruised into Ft. St. John about 9:00 AM and saw the Inland Kenworth facility on the right. This is the Cummins service facility that we knew had the part I needed. I first drove past the facility, thinking, shoot, they won't have time to look at us either, as was the case in Whitehorse. But Dorcas said "What do we have to lose?" So I u-turned back to the shop.

There are actually two divisions here. One services over-the-road trucks and the other services heavy machinery and equipment. The truck service manager said they didn't work on motor homes. It apparently distresses the truckers when there are motor homes in the bays. He did hook us up to his diagnostic PC, and he confirmed what we already knew: bad Engine Speed Sensor. He said maybe the guys next door in the equipment division could work on it. Sure enough Derek said he could look at it right now. He did another computer diagnostic test which showed the same results. Bad engine speed sensor. We had had 255 events of lost engine RPM signal. There are actually two identical sensors; one is identified as the Engine Speed Sensor and the other is the Engine Position Sensor. They are identical parts, mounted side-by-side on the crankcase and perform similar functions. Apparently they also send redundant engine speed signals to the ECM, which is why the engine was still running. Normally, it is a simple job to replace the part; it is usually very accessible and an easy bolt-on. Kinda like a spark plug. But nothing is easy on a motor home. The frame rails obscured access, and there was other equipment in the way too. Derek could not even see the part, much less access it. He agreed to do the repair, but could not accurately estimate how long it would take until he started taking parts off. He guessed at least three hours, probably more, at $130/hour. OUCH! Well, we were a million miles from home, we were already in the bay, the part was available, he had time to it and we had the day to spare. We were probably operating on borrowed time anyway, so we bit the bullet and authorized the work. Derek suggested that since one sensor was bad, we might want to consider replacing the other while he was in there. What's another $50? Let's go all in!

Since we had some time to kill, we decided to drive on over to Dawson Creek, "Mile 0" on the Alaska Highway. It was 50 miles away and on our route, but we could save some time by going on over there and see the sights, rather than stopping again later. Dawson Creek was a major hub during the building of the Alaska Highway. The town is the western terminus of the Northern Alberta Railways and was used to bring equipment for the construction of the highway. There is a very nice museum there depicting the building of the highway. More than any other museum or exhibit we saw it showed the hardships and suffering the highway workers endured.



We visited the "Mile 0" marker in town one block south of the actual Alaska Highway. It is ironic that we first passed Mile 0 on our way home and almost 2 1/2 months after first entering Alaska. On our way back to Fort Saint John we detoured onto an original section of the historic Alaska Highway and crossed the historic wooden timber bridge over the Kiskatinaw River. The bridge was built on a curve to conform with the crossing of the gorge. It is the last remaining original timber bridge on the Alaska Highway.




We arrived back at Inland Kenworth about 3:30 and Derek was still under the coach. I was dismayed to see my starter motor on the floor and all my engine coolant and hydraulic fluid in buckets. YIKES! Derek had replaced the sensors and was putting everything back together. Since the hydraulic system had been drained I asked him to replace a hydraulic hose which I had previously observed to show signs of cracking. In order to access the sensors he had to remove the starter, the hydraulic pumps and the air compressor. The compressor is water cooled, meaning the coolant had to be drained. I was lucky that he was very careful with the fluids. He had steam-cleaned his buckets and kept the buckets covered while doing the work. He was able to recover all these fluids. This was good, because I had spent almost $300 to replace these fluids in May. Derek finished up by 5:30. I was fortunate that he only charged me for 5 hours of labor. He had tested the other working sensor that he had replaced, and it was out of spec and appeared to be failing as well. It was a good thing we stopped.