Rear Axle Drive Pinion May Fracture

Affected vehicles (2)

Component / system

Defect

Ferrara Fire Apparatus, Inc. (Ferrara) is recalling certain 2021-2022 Inferno and Cinder emergency vehicles. The rear axle drive pinion may fracture.

Risk / consequence

A fractured drive pinion may contact the brake drop hose, and unintentionally engage the parking brake or activate the brake lights, increasing the risk of a crash.

Remedy

Meritor will inspect and replace the drive pinion, as necessary, free of charge. Owners notification letters were mailed on January 3, 2022. Owners may contact Ferrara customer service at 1-800-443-9006.

Chronology of events

1. June 2020

   June 2020 – Pinion crack found on campus in Charlotte during a different PSR. August – September 2020 - They completed tests to attempt to replicate and could not reproduce the fracture. Implemented 100% mag particle inspection on all 186R series. Meritor Product Engineering provided a high confidence level that this would be an infancy failure (during the carriers first high load event) due to the fracture signature.

2. April 2021

   April 2021 – Claim created through standard warranty process for pinion crack. July 2021 – Pinion failure during delivery to the dealer from the plant. Facilitated warranty claim through Meritor, they provided new gear set. September 2021 – Houston reached out regarding a pinion crack failure while in service (24 hours in service and under 3,000 miles), was second truck of fleet with similar failure. Pinion broke off and damaged the spring brake air supply line. Metro and Houston insisted an inspection method to validate that the rest of the fleet do not have the same failures. This resulted in Meritor completing an on-site ultrasonic test for the rest of the fleet. Meritor provided corrective action and containment dates, as well as their assessment that this issue is low risk. October 2021 – Spartan risk assessment completed. October – November 2021 – Reviewed past precedence. Reached out to all REV Fire businesses to check for any Meritor pinion warranty issues. E-One had one failure in the field in October 2021 but a different axle series affected. Met with Meritor to review the cause again and the potential affected population. November 10, 2021 – Escalated the issue to REV Group Management. November 15, 2021 – REV’s senior leadership approved a voluntary recall for this issue.

Notification schedule

Dealer notification

APR 26, 2022 - APR 29, 2022

Owner notification

MAY 06, 2022 - MAY 13, 2022

Documents (14)