[2BirdDogs]

Well... we made it 130 mile from our house in middle TN on our way to Newell to see Creslie and the team for some service and to explore the Pawhuska area for the week... 
We have the CAT C15 and the power steering went out as we were driving on I-40W... The Lord was looking out for us as the issue happened 1 mile from the next rest area so I was able to limp it (without power assist steering) to the rest area on I40W near Holladay TN - where we are now sitting... I searched the forum and found the thread re: the hydraulic fan issue. I called Newell and Creslie called me back and gave me the part numbers (attached) I will need to have replaced to remedy the issue...  problem is that it being Saturday... the parts cannot even be ordered from CAT until Monday and they are going to have to come from Illinois... so probably 3-5 days if they are even available. 
I met a tow operator that said he can tow us back to my local CAT dealer but it will be Monday...  I am open to any thoughts, advice and definitely prayers for us to get things resolved as smoothly as possible.  
Thanks,
Paul and Angi

[Richard]

If you are sure it is the hydraulic fan motor………you could disconnect the input and output lines, plug them with appropriate male JIC plugs, and drive it instead of towing it to the CAT dealer.

How hard is it to drive without power steering? If driveable, I would do anything to avoid towing.

If you have to have a tow, the only safe way is on a front wheel dolly apparatus. Tell the company the coach is just like a Prevost.

[2BirdDogs]

Thank you Richard... I just sent you a PM. Really appreciate your advice!  
Paul

[ccjohnson]

Have parts shipped next day air. It can be expensive, but it sure saves a lot of time.

[2BirdDogs]

Good point, CCJohnson. I am working with Creslie and the CAT folks to get the parts as soon as possible and will definitely explore the overnight air options if available.  
As an update after talking with Richard and doing some troubleshooting we were actually able to limp the coach to the Camden TN CAT dealer... I have not been able to speak with anyone at the dealership yet but left a voicemail on their general vmail line. They open at 7a on Monday so at least we have the coach here WITHOUT having to tow. I hope they can get to us on Monday and I will be working with Creslie more at that time on parts etc... Creslie has been fantastic and supportive during this entire process. Between him and Richard I am very grateful as this has been a pretty stressful day and they have been very helpful in our time of need. 
I will update once I am able to speak to the CAT folks here. Have a good rest of the weekend.
Paul

[Richard]

Just wanted to add this diagnostic that Paul and I noodled over to help decide what the problem was. There can be a number of reasons that you loose power steering, but the two common ones I know of are the loss of hydraulic pump and failed seals within the hydraulic fan motor. The loss of hydraulic pump is obviously a problem because you no longer have hydraulic pressure for either the steering or the fan. The loss of the seal within the hydraulic fan motor is a bit more tricky. The way the fan motor system is designed allows all the hydraulic pressure to simply go through the motor if the internal seals fail, which in turn robs all pressure from the steering.

So, without any gauges to measure pressure at different points, here is what we did to diagnose the root cause. Paul simply unplugged the solenoid that controls fan speed. If the solenoid is unplugged the fan should default to high speed. If the fan does not go into hurricane mode when this is done, then there is no hydraulic pressure. When Paul did this, the fan did NOT go into high mode.

So the hydraulic pump is suspect. The CAT engines have a known issue with the internal coupling between the pump and the engine. I believe that Newell has sent Paul a kit to repair this coupling.

Just posting for the next owner that may have this issue.

[BusNit]

Thank you for the update Richard! I am truly amazed at your knowledge. Glad Paul didn't have to get a tow. Every bit helps and it got them to a better safer spot.

[2BirdDogs]

Update... The guys at Thompson CAT in Camden, TN got the coach right in first thing this morning and tore down the pump assembly. As Creslie suspected... the gear splines are all but gone and the pump shaft splines are very worn as well.

This is where the team at Newell really shines... Creslie had already contacted Morgan (over the weekend) and asked him to check on the assembly with the pump... so today Morgan located everything, had the bearings pressed onto the gear along with a new pump... and overnighted them all to Camden CAT dealer so we have hopes of being back on the road to Miami and Pawhuska tomorrow afternoon! The Gear alone if sourced by CAT would have taken us 5 days (best case) to get and Morgan will have the whole thing to them in one day!

Attached a few pictures of the gear and pump for reference in case anyone else has this occur in the future with the C15 CAT engine models.

Thanks and hope to see yall back on the road in the next few days.
Paul

[Guy]

Gurus,
It always makes me wonder why parts that are used on HD trucks for many hundreds of thousands of miles, fail early on an rv. Especially a spline .
 Any insights ?

[2BirdDogs]

@"Guy" I thought the same thing... the coach has only 112k miles. Any thoughts from the gurus on how to avoid this type of failure going forward with the new parts?