Recall Spartan Chassis recall 24V-052

[Joe Hogan]

Just received a recall notification from Spartan regarding a potential steering gear issue. The IFS gear supplied by Meritor and RH Sheppard on K2, K3, K4 chassis can potentially lose power steering unexpectedly.
Apparently they have discovered foreign material internally in some units that may inhibit pressure buildup within the system resulting in a loss of power steering.

https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/2024/RCLRPT-24V052-1125.PDF

 

[Joe Hogan]

Now the question is how safe is this to drive to the repair shop? The shop I’ll go to is in Orlando , about 100 miles away. Straight through Orlando on Rt528. A busy interstate type road.
Timing is the second question. According to Spartan, this takes around 10 shop hours, overnight at least. More likely several days at the shop.
Not happy about that! Shop parking lots are notoriously dangerous places for all sorts of reasons.
Trips planned will have to be adjusted, canceled or rescheduled.
Hugh PIA, in my opinion.

 

[Joe Hogan]

Spoke with Spartan today. Apparently the units with problems failed quickly, very low mileage. Spartan will review and repair all steering gear that is in the batch provided by their vendors.
That said, they do not have the parts, instructions, or potential repair sites yet. Our unit is now on the list to be notified when parts and instructions are available as well as designated Repair shops.

 

[purring along]

Joe sorry to hear, but not surprised. My son-in-law, and his father worked at Metior for years. The stories of screw ups were amazing.

 

[Stuart W]

Sorry you have to go through this Joe, sounds like if your drive is pretty much straight HWY and you’re aware that steering effort can increase you will probably be ok.

 

[team bradfield]

I have not received any notice (yet), maybe mine is not affected

 

[Stuart W]

I have not received any notice (yet), maybe mine is not affected

VIN Range 1 : Begin : 4VZAU1D94NC091348 End : 4VZAU1D1XRC095341 ✔ Not sequential
Is your vin in this range

 

[Mighty_J]

I’ve also received the recall notice. I spoke with Spartan today to better understand the issue. They are aware of four examples that have all presented the same way. Following a low speed sharp right turn, the steering locked and would not come back to center, creating a hydraulic back pressure issue.

In all 4 cases, the coaches needed to be towed as steering was inoperable, not just a loss of power steering. Those 4 cases all occurred under 1,000 miles. Spartan was able to work with the supplier to narrow the serial numbers impacted down to 745 potential issues.

The problem:

When the steering gear housing was taken apart, there was foreign material present. That foreign material included pieces of the gearing that sheered off as a result of the failure. The failure appears to be traced back to air pockets created during the bleed process during the filling of the housing.

The fix includes a new steering gear assembly, plus the addition of bleeder hoses and fittings not currently part of the housing. Because of the location and addition of the bleeder hoses, specialized tooling needed to be created to complete the repair. After installation, a bleed process will be performed as well as an alignment as toe in will be impacted with the steering gear assembly replacement.

Given the above and the failures happening within the first 1,000 miles, I’m going to presume I’m at no greater risk of failure than usual (have 10x that mileage) and will use the coach until the parts are available for the repair.

 

[team bradfield]

I’ve also received the recall notice. I spoke with Spartan today to better understand the issue. They are aware of four examples that have all presented the same way. Following a low speed sharp right turn, the steering locked and would not come back to center, creating a hydraulic back pressure issue.

In all 4 cases, the coaches needed to be towed as steering was inoperable, not just a loss of power steering. Those 4 cases all occurred under 1,000 miles. Spartan was able to work with the supplier to narrow the serial numbers impacted down to 745 potential issues.

The problem:

When the steering gear housing was taken apart, there was foreign material present. That foreign material included pieces of the gearing that sheered off as a result of the failure. The failure appears to be traced back to air pockets created during the bleed process during the filling of the housing.

The fix includes a new steering gear assembly, plus the addition of bleeder hoses and fittings not currently part of the housing. Because of the location and addition of the bleeder hoses, specialized tooling needed to be created to complete the repair. After installation, a bleed process will be performed as well as an alignment as toe in will be impacted with the steering gear assembly replacement.

Given the above and the failures happening within the first 1,000 miles, I’m going to presume I’m at no greater risk of failure than usual (have 10x that mileage) and will use the coach until the parts are available for the repair.

I have not received the notice, but from OP, and your post of around 1000 miles, I'm not to concerned, I have 18k miles on my DS, I'm more worried about my 2022 jeep recall for the wheel falling off, parts not available for another month, wtf is wrong with mfg's today, sad, sad sad

 

[FLSteve]

VIN Range 1 : Begin : 4VZAU1D94NC091348 End : 4VZAU1D1XRC095341 ✔ Not sequential
Is your vin in this range

So if a VIN starts with 4VZVU1Exxxxxxxxx it's probably not included ???

FLSteve