My friend Bruce Olson called yesterday morning. He had just pulled in to a truck stop fuel island when his accumulator fell to the ground. Unlike my failure, his failure happened at low speed, so his accumulator and solenoid were only scuffed, saving him over $1,000. I coached him on getting his accumulator strapped up so he could leave the fuel island. He then removed the bracket. Instead of breaking at the weld, his broke through the bolt holes holding the bracket to the accumulator!. Also, his coach is a 2006, so much younger than mine. So it is not enough to just inspect the weld. I don't see any alternative than completely removing the bracket, then cleaning and inspecting it carefully.
Brett I'm having difficulty understanding that the accumulator mount bolts pulled thru?
Scott
Quality of the steel is dependent on who and where it's manufactured, lamination and inclusions are rare but happen nevertheless. Case in point BNSF railroads bought rail from offshore, the ball (top) of the rail was breaking off on curves. Manufacturing defect.
Scott, I haven't looked at mine yet so what goes through the 4 holes U-bolts? Could they get loose and wear the nuts through if washers weren't used? Can't remember when Foretravel fixed the bracket weld problem at the factory.
Nice looking weld but its on the wrong side so it will fail. Should have weld both sides.
That was his before he modified it. Reply #23 is the finished product
Older U320 Retarder Bracket Issue (https://www.foreforums.com/index.php?topic=40180.msg398033#msg398033)
There are four bolts through the bracket to hold the accumulator ior in place.
Four bolts into accumulator plate. 1/2 bolts . I could possible see the two larger bellhousing bolt fail , but the four is weird. Hopefully we will end up with a photo.
Oldguy I agree with you. I had actually cut off some of the extra unused plate in those photos of the unprepared bracket
Heres finished photo
Funny - FT had a recall on that years ago. Not sure if they still honor the "campaign", but there was definitely a recall.
Found it in our old receipts circa 2007
Campaign # FC0102 Retarder Accumulator Mounting https://www.foreforums.com/index.php?media/item/retarder-accumulator-bracket-failure.3403/
Would be kinda nice to know what there fix was, I'm really no longer concerned about mine and performed a repair without any damage. 53k miles. Just curious.
Scott
They inspected the bracket, and if there was an issue, it was replaced with a redesigned bracket (new ones had a gusset design, IIRC). FT parts had the redesigned bracket on hand as late as 2012-ish (whenever the first Mineola Grandvention was held).
Sounds like a lot slipped between the cracks. Been a lot of money spent on a recall item. Truly was a pathetic design but hope all will check either way. Costs to much not too. Thanks for finding that out. I had checked recalls when I first was looking at our coach and don't recall that one. Glad mine is behind me.
Scott
I bought my '99 in 2006 and knew the issue. I had FT Service check the bracket for years. They never found anything and never mentioned a recall or available bracket redesign.
Is this the retarder accumulator on a 2003 FT 320?
If so, are the welds in question run longitudinal on the side?
Regards
Klaus
Klaus,
That appears to be your "wet" air tank.
Mike
Klaus. The retarder Accumulator is on the passengers side of the transmission. One big hose in one end and out the other. It should be where mine is, on yours if it has a tag probably just behind the tag wheel.
The bracket has two vertical bolts holding it on to the coach and there are four bolts holding the bracket to the retarder.
The bracket had a weld on one side of the horizontal piece, it should be welded on both sides, many have added one or two gussets as well.
My original retarder bracket issue thread with pictures from 60 days ago.
Older U320 Retarder Bracket Issue (https://www.foreforums.com/index.php?topic=40180.0)
Jack, thank you for your original post. Because of your post I proactively repaired mine and saved a bunch of money. I deviated from FT Repair plate and extended supplemental support brackets too the upper mount bolts Rather than below into space dependent on the strength of the mount plate. No triangulation. Shame FT didn't extend this recall to current owners like you.
Scott
Photo