Transmission Trouble at UCC: A Diesel Community Rescue

An Editorial Build Update from the UCC Parking Lot

With bigger power comes bigger responsibility—or something like that. Today we’re checking up on our editorial build—Stock to Not! We’ve been traveling and driving this truck as much as possible before we sacrifice our summer cruising ability to tear this unit down for the SEMA show.

On our way to the Ultimate Callout Challenge, about 75 miles from Indianapolis (a lot closer to there than I am to home), my transmission started making a humming noise when it was decelerating and was shifting insanely hard into overdrive. I did what anyone would do—just write it off and finish the last of an 8-hour drive to one of the best diesel-catered events in the country!

Showing up to an event thinking the worst has happened to your truck is not the best feeling. After we arrived, we jacked the truck up and went through the driveline. There were no problems with any loose U-joints or suspension components, so we went for another test drive. The humming turned to a grinding after another hard pull in overdrive, and upon backing the truck up into the Liberty Forged booth, we found out that reverse had turned into a second neutral in our built 47RH. This was obviously not ideal.

Thanks to some quick thinking and a few phone calls, we were able to link up with Myer Stump from Power Driven Diesel and Josh McCormack with W.O.T. Motorsports (or as I know him in the scene, @justacommonrail24v on IG). These guys kindly took the time while mustering up a winning performance for the Ultimate Callout Challenge to help me get my hurt transmission diagnosed and hopefully fixed if parts and time were available.

After borrowing a friend’s trailer so we didn’t have to trust a few jack stands in a parking lot, our good friend David from Cold Front Diesel helped me get the hurt unit out of the truck and over to the experts.

Unfortunately, we had more than just a couple of problems and a lot of metal and clutch material in the pan and all through my cooler. But with the help of the diesel community, we got all of the parts to get this unit back together AT THE SHOW. Myer took the time to go through and find the issues that were happening in my overdrive housing and determined what needed to be fixed to get me home. He ended up basically building me a brand new transmission with an extra build kit they brought for the competition, as well as some extra new goodies I was missing to continue to give me more longevity at our higher power range as well.

I want to thank Josh and Myer for going out of their way to help someone they didn’t know before this past weekend. These two, all the other racers, and other individuals who had a thousand other things to do this weekend were willing to help no matter what problems were at hand—without batting an eye. You all are building a community everyone should want to be a part of. It was an eye-opening experience for me.

It was great meeting you all, and I can’t wait to document more of this side of the Diesel World in the future.