The trip went very well up the California coast, thru Oregon and then on to the Seattle area. We took or time and stopped a lot. We were also checking internet coverage because we signed up for new service with Sprint and they acknowledge that their coverage isn't as good as Verizon. We found it Very Good for starters. We just plug in the air card to the laptop or the installed desktop and we have internet coverage. (came in handy with one of the minor problems later)

Unfortunately we went thru the Seattle area in the middle of the night and didn't get to see Olroy or BCN as we had planned.

My BMW car event went well and then we headed off for a few days in Vancouver. We parked the Barth at a friends home and stayed at Coal Harbor for 4 days.

Headed south again but debated going up North, figured that would be better later in the summer.

As we neared Wilsonville OR, I was looking for a good fuel stop and notice that the transmission was shifting funny, a few miles later the service light came on, kinda worried, still ran well but everytime I lifted, it would shift to the next lower gear if it was in engine RPM range. Hmmmm. Stopped for fuel and then noticed another issue, FUEL leaking badly from the injector pump area.

We pulled into the Camping World parking lot and shut down, figured they would know of an Allison Service department around there.

Got on the internet and--
Found the nearest servce was near Eugene 90 miles south.
Cummins also had a large service area there.

Did a Google search and found that the error code that I was getting was for the TPS sensor (throttle position sensor). I called the Allison service center and they had a 24 hour technician available, he confirmed that the code was indeed a TPS fault and it was safe to drive it to them for a look see.

I checked the fuel leak and it appeared to be coming from the return line, a common problem as noted by the internet search.

Went down the road first thing in the morning and got to Cummins to have them look at the fuel leak and found that the fuel filter wasn't the correct unit and it had been put on using 2 gaskets and WAY aver tightened. ( was going to change the filters before the trip but that was the one thing I neglected to do) New filter and all is well. They didn't even charge me for installation. The tech did notice a bad exhaust leak at the manifld on #4 so I bought new gaskets and bolts for intallation after I got home.

Over to Allison, They commented that the unit was older and it was probably the linkage getting worn to the point where the TPS was no longer at the proper position, upon inspection, they confirmed that to be the case, they wanted 4-5 hours labor to fix it but I again asked if it was OK to drive 500+ miles home, the answer was yes, it would just shift funny. I told them I was a fabricator and would do the job later. They charged me $80 for the diagnosis!

Had a great trip down I5 stopped at Lake Shastina, got a couple of Bass out of the lake (wifey loves fish heads and roe!) and arrived home very refreshed!

The next day, I opened up the engine room and looked to study the TPS linkage to determine the fix, Then I saw it! The cotter pin that was retaining the pin going to the TPR had worn a slot in the clevis and allowed the pin to slip back putting the TPS out of calibration. Carefully I pulled the cotter pin and installed a washer to cover the worn slot, replaced the cotter pin--everything is good. no more service light, codes all reset, shifts are good, all is well. Later this summer I will take it all apart and refresh the parts as they are indeed worn abit but for now it is good enough, all of 15 minutes work!

Average fuel consumption for the trip was 11.8 MPG and that includes the fuel lose with the leaky filter and the leaky exhaust gasket(s) I changed the gaskets after the TPS linkage was fixed. Most of the trip was on less then freeway class roads and I was not slow, 70-75 MPH where limits permit. Fuel price paid varied from $2.77 to $3.08.

Yer killin' me - I only get about 10 mpg with my DD 6.5L TD! (But I got plans for it...!)

Sounds like a wonderful trip Ed. I have only been up there to Seattle, Vancouver on biz but always thought to be breathtakingly beautiful.

If you get up that way, you MUST go to Vancouver Island and Victoria, BC. I've been all over the world, and it's one of my very favorite places.