I know most of us on this forum is deeply attached to his cruiser, so I thought I bring into the attention of the community my latest experience with ATEB.
My injection pump needed a rebuild, no major symptoms yet but I wanted to get it fixed before it gets serious.
I drove my HDJ81 to John back in November 2016, to get the injection pump replaced. He installed me one of his refurbished pumps. After this the cruiser was stalling every time I hit a stoplight. The engine wouldn’t fire up unless I was holding my foot on the gas pedal. I took it back to him, he told me that he forgot something in the pump during the assembly. After this change the car didn’t stall at stop lights anymore but I still had issues firing up the engine. I was assured that it will work just fine at higher elevations where I live, which turned out to be false.
Couple of days later on a highway the truck started to accelerate by itself and went out of control. Tachometer was in red, no way I could stop it with the brakes. Turning the ignition off didn’t help either. There was heavy smoke everywhere to the extent that the HWY traffic had to stop. I put it in neutral, quickly got out of the truck and watched it for another 2 minutes until the engine finally stopped screaming and died. Coolant was boiling and leaking. Fuel was leaking from the pump.
After this the pump has been replaced 4 times and the truck still wasn’t working properly. Flickering RPM gauge, rough ride, jerking at various RPMs and eventually (10km-400km) fuel was leaking into the oil sump each time. After the second time I was told that the same aftermarket seals were used both times and likely that is what caused the issue. That wasn’t pleasant to hear. The third time I was told that the pump is a modified one and no one ever tried anything like it. That was pretty scary to hear. He insisted that the pump is ok and the rough ride is coming from the injectors, so I sent him my injectors to get it checked at Fred Holmes. I paid for the injector redone, Installed the new injectors but the problems didn’t go away. After this I asked him to send me my original pump back with the intention to take it to another shop. I was assured me that everything will be ok this time, all the components are new and it was tested thoroughly.
I have installed the pump and it was indeed better than the previous three. Still flickering RPM gauge at Idle and rough ride around 1300rpm but considerably better. After 300km the oil level went again 2 inches over the F mark. This was the point when I said enough is enough and I sent my injection pump and injectors to Okanagan Diesel for a second opinion. They rebuilt my pump and recalibrated the injectors. This was the note on their invoice:
Fuel injection pump: “Incorrect and makeshift parts used in assembly"
Injectors: “Pre-Lift and Pressure variance incorrect on all injectors”
After 10 months of nightmare finally my truck is working again. No rough ride, oil level is stable so far. (4000km+)
Since all my communication was with John and I have never seen an invoice from Fred Holmes, I don’t know whether the injectors indeed were redone by Fred Holmes or not.
Needless to say it was a pretty horrifying and stressful experience. This truck was my daily drive and it wasn’t drivable for 10 months. I spent over $5000 and countless of hours on this and associated issues. Now I just can hope that the engine didn’t suffer any damage that is yet to surface.
Oszkar
My injection pump needed a rebuild, no major symptoms yet but I wanted to get it fixed before it gets serious.
I drove my HDJ81 to John back in November 2016, to get the injection pump replaced. He installed me one of his refurbished pumps. After this the cruiser was stalling every time I hit a stoplight. The engine wouldn’t fire up unless I was holding my foot on the gas pedal. I took it back to him, he told me that he forgot something in the pump during the assembly. After this change the car didn’t stall at stop lights anymore but I still had issues firing up the engine. I was assured that it will work just fine at higher elevations where I live, which turned out to be false.
Couple of days later on a highway the truck started to accelerate by itself and went out of control. Tachometer was in red, no way I could stop it with the brakes. Turning the ignition off didn’t help either. There was heavy smoke everywhere to the extent that the HWY traffic had to stop. I put it in neutral, quickly got out of the truck and watched it for another 2 minutes until the engine finally stopped screaming and died. Coolant was boiling and leaking. Fuel was leaking from the pump.
After this the pump has been replaced 4 times and the truck still wasn’t working properly. Flickering RPM gauge, rough ride, jerking at various RPMs and eventually (10km-400km) fuel was leaking into the oil sump each time. After the second time I was told that the same aftermarket seals were used both times and likely that is what caused the issue. That wasn’t pleasant to hear. The third time I was told that the pump is a modified one and no one ever tried anything like it. That was pretty scary to hear. He insisted that the pump is ok and the rough ride is coming from the injectors, so I sent him my injectors to get it checked at Fred Holmes. I paid for the injector redone, Installed the new injectors but the problems didn’t go away. After this I asked him to send me my original pump back with the intention to take it to another shop. I was assured me that everything will be ok this time, all the components are new and it was tested thoroughly.
I have installed the pump and it was indeed better than the previous three. Still flickering RPM gauge at Idle and rough ride around 1300rpm but considerably better. After 300km the oil level went again 2 inches over the F mark. This was the point when I said enough is enough and I sent my injection pump and injectors to Okanagan Diesel for a second opinion. They rebuilt my pump and recalibrated the injectors. This was the note on their invoice:
Fuel injection pump: “Incorrect and makeshift parts used in assembly"
Injectors: “Pre-Lift and Pressure variance incorrect on all injectors”
After 10 months of nightmare finally my truck is working again. No rough ride, oil level is stable so far. (4000km+)
Since all my communication was with John and I have never seen an invoice from Fred Holmes, I don’t know whether the injectors indeed were redone by Fred Holmes or not.
Needless to say it was a pretty horrifying and stressful experience. This truck was my daily drive and it wasn’t drivable for 10 months. I spent over $5000 and countless of hours on this and associated issues. Now I just can hope that the engine didn’t suffer any damage that is yet to surface.
Oszkar
Last edited:
