"Stuck" in Ohio - Workhorse W22 stalls going into gear
Short summary: Our MH is on a Workhorse W22 chassis. It stalls going into gear but engine idles and runs fine. After some time it will stay in D without stalling. Looking to get to a repair shop on Monday
We're one week into a 2 week family roadtrip and this issue pops up yesterday. Coach is a 2011 Tiffin Allegro 35QBA. It is on the WH W22 chassis with the GM 8.1L engine and I think it's the Allison 1000MH trans (6 speed).
We arrived here at the Streetsboro KOA and were idling in the entrance line, I went into the office to check in and then went back to the coach to pull forward. Foot on brake, release parking brake, into D, stall. Then the brake pedal makes this funky buzzing noise (looking later I think this had something to do with a brake booster if the engine loses power).
Tried reverse, and same stall. Engine restarts fine each time and will idle and rev fine in Park.
I disconnected the toad and then sat there dead in the entrance line for awhile trying to figure things out(people could get around me).
I thought the parking brake was sticking (I think on the WH it actually immobilises the driveshaft). But even with that the torque converter should slip and allow me to be in gear with the brake on but still running. After some fooling around I realized I could keep in in D for about a second or two (where initially it would just stall).
I got the park staff to hold the gate open and I started the coach up and got to my site by bumping from N to D and back again. Actually, it was about 1000ft to get to the site, and halfway there since I wasn't holding anyone up anymore I tried just stopping in D with my foot on the brake and it didn't stall. I drove the rest of the way to our site in D up a gentle hill, using a little gas to keep about 5pmh and no stalling. Didn't stall in Reverse either while backing into the site. It pretty much drove normal once I got moving.
I'm stumped. I have no dash lights (I'm expecting a check engine or check trans light, or any number of the warning indicators I've just read about in the owners manual like "range inhibited" or something like that). I have a ScanGuage 2 and it tells me no codes found.
The time from the issue arose to when I finally got to the site was about 2 hours. I wonder if a sensor didn't like idling and the heat generated (on the way to the KOA it was a slow drive through Peninsula and Hudson) but it wasn't an especially hot day, not like the 100deg we left behind in SC. But a clue is that it allowed me to stay in D longer and longer until at the very end when it seemed to "go away".
During this time I was on the phone twice with an Allison service center (WW Williams) near Cleveland and the service guy was stumped too at the lack of dash error lights. We had planned to leave Sunday but I got our site for another day so we could try to get somewhere Monday to look at it. I had half a mind to drive it to the Allison service center (45 minutes) but I think I'm going to try Good Sam ERS monday and see where they'll tow me. Although I'll admit I'm batting about 50/50 on my satisfaction level with GS ERS.
My hunch is that something is telling the torque converter to lock at idle, which is like dumping the clutch on a manual trans car - instant stall. Guessing that a bad sensor can cause this, but don't know which one. I thought there may be a VSS on the rear diff to tell the trans what the speed is, but if that's going bad I was expecting a code to be thrown.
I'll update with what we do Monday. If anyone knows about the shops in this area I'm all ears.
We're one week into a 2 week family roadtrip and this issue pops up yesterday. Coach is a 2011 Tiffin Allegro 35QBA. It is on the WH W22 chassis with the GM 8.1L engine and I think it's the Allison 1000MH trans (6 speed).
We arrived here at the Streetsboro KOA and were idling in the entrance line, I went into the office to check in and then went back to the coach to pull forward. Foot on brake, release parking brake, into D, stall. Then the brake pedal makes this funky buzzing noise (looking later I think this had something to do with a brake booster if the engine loses power).
Tried reverse, and same stall. Engine restarts fine each time and will idle and rev fine in Park.
I disconnected the toad and then sat there dead in the entrance line for awhile trying to figure things out(people could get around me).
I thought the parking brake was sticking (I think on the WH it actually immobilises the driveshaft). But even with that the torque converter should slip and allow me to be in gear with the brake on but still running. After some fooling around I realized I could keep in in D for about a second or two (where initially it would just stall).
I got the park staff to hold the gate open and I started the coach up and got to my site by bumping from N to D and back again. Actually, it was about 1000ft to get to the site, and halfway there since I wasn't holding anyone up anymore I tried just stopping in D with my foot on the brake and it didn't stall. I drove the rest of the way to our site in D up a gentle hill, using a little gas to keep about 5pmh and no stalling. Didn't stall in Reverse either while backing into the site. It pretty much drove normal once I got moving.
I'm stumped. I have no dash lights (I'm expecting a check engine or check trans light, or any number of the warning indicators I've just read about in the owners manual like "range inhibited" or something like that). I have a ScanGuage 2 and it tells me no codes found.
The time from the issue arose to when I finally got to the site was about 2 hours. I wonder if a sensor didn't like idling and the heat generated (on the way to the KOA it was a slow drive through Peninsula and Hudson) but it wasn't an especially hot day, not like the 100deg we left behind in SC. But a clue is that it allowed me to stay in D longer and longer until at the very end when it seemed to "go away".
During this time I was on the phone twice with an Allison service center (WW Williams) near Cleveland and the service guy was stumped too at the lack of dash error lights. We had planned to leave Sunday but I got our site for another day so we could try to get somewhere Monday to look at it. I had half a mind to drive it to the Allison service center (45 minutes) but I think I'm going to try Good Sam ERS monday and see where they'll tow me. Although I'll admit I'm batting about 50/50 on my satisfaction level with GS ERS.
My hunch is that something is telling the torque converter to lock at idle, which is like dumping the clutch on a manual trans car - instant stall. Guessing that a bad sensor can cause this, but don't know which one. I thought there may be a VSS on the rear diff to tell the trans what the speed is, but if that's going bad I was expecting a code to be thrown.
I'll update with what we do Monday. If anyone knows about the shops in this area I'm all ears.
