Exhaust Brake malfunction

[patodonn]

"If it can go wrong, it will"....Murphy

99 Dodge 2500 diesel with a Pac Brake. EGT, Boost and Tran Temp gages.

Love the Pac-Brake. But, after engaging it for a long 6+% downgrade, came time to start back up the hill, turned it "OFF" but it remained engaged. Symptoms were - same noise level, no turbo pressure, high EGT and no power. EGTs went up into the 1000, 1100 range as I tried to get some power out of it. Had to coast off onto the shoulder at idle. Tried to cycle the switch a couple of times, and it finally "released" after a minute or so. Normal operation afterward ( I didn't engage it again).

I didn't have any really steep downgrades remaining, so the service brakes were adequate. Used second gear a couple of times to help keep the speed down.

Called Pac Brake folks and they think it is a bad solenoid which operates the vacuum system of the brake. Taking it to a dealer on Monday for troubleshooting. Should be a fairly easy "fix". We'll see....

Just wanted to let you all know what the symptom was if you encounter the same type of failure.

[noneck]

We had our camping buddies encounter an issue on a supercab (Midsize tractor) with the Cat 7.3 when he was climbing a steep grade. Called me on the CB while I was leaving him in my dust...to tell me he had a problem and wanted us to pull off on shoulder. Did that, waiting, watching in rear view mirror, to see him coming up behind, pulled off to a stop and said over CB ok...I'm all done!
We went out and after much hunting found a bubble hole in a high pressure supply line to his pac-brake solenoid...dumped all his air which on that truck means the air brakes go full on!
Well my cheap-o screw driver stuffed into the line (which only fed the pac-brake solenoid) with some ductape and a spiral clap held it together till we reached our desitnation. Repaired with high pressure coupling from NAPA dealer...good to go home.
Moral of the story....with Super big rigs....come super big problems!