PACCAR Recalls 982 Kenworth Trucks Over Driveline That Can Separate

PACCAR is recalling 982 Kenworth trucks because their drivelines may be missing a snap ring in the slip yoke assembly, according to the campaign the company reported to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on November 11, 2026. Without the ring, the bearing cup can separate from the driveline. NHTSA's number for the campaign is 26V743, and PACCAR's own number is 26PACK.

The recall covers five nameplates, all from the 2027 model year: the Kenworth T280, T380, T680, T880 and W990. That's a spread of the brand's working range, from medium-duty vocational trucks to the W990 highway tractor. The population is small as recalls go, under a thousand trucks, because the suspect driveline went into a limited slice of production.

The defect itself is a parts problem, not a design problem. A slip yoke lets the driveline change length as the suspension moves, and the snap ring is the small circlip that keeps the bearing cup seated inside it. Leave the ring out on the assembly line and the joint carries a failure that mileage will eventually find. The recall notice doesn't report crashes or injuries tied to the campaign.

Kenworth owners won't get paperwork soon. Owner notification letters are expected to be mailed on January 10, 2027, and the vehicle identification numbers in the campaign become searchable on NHTSA.gov the same day. Until then, a fleet that wants to know whether a specific truck is covered has to ask a dealer, because the public lookup can't answer yet.

This campaign doesn't stand alone. Daimler Truck North America recalled several thousand 2027 Freightliner and Western Star trucks over the same missing snap ring in specific Cummins drivelines, in a campaign Land Line Media reported on November 11, with NHTSA number 26V737. Daimler estimated about 1 percent of its recall population carries the defect, and Cummins replaces the driveline free on affected trucks. The shared root is a supplier driveline, which is why the same sentence keeps appearing in different makers' filings.

For a fleet, the arithmetic is downtime, not drama. A 2027 Kenworth on the list is a new truck, likely on a payment schedule and a route schedule at once, and every inspection visit is a day it isn't earning. The recall is free to fix. It isn't free to schedule, and that's the cost PACCAR's January letters will actually deliver to the 982 owners waiting on them.

It's also PACCAR's second recall headache of the season, on top of a much larger fuel-system campaign. In October, the company recalled 26,729 Kenworth and Peterbilt trucks from the 2022 through 2027 model years because remote fuel filter hoses could separate from their fittings, leaking fuel and risking a stall or a fire, with owner letters in that campaign set to begin December 20, 2026. Different defect, same lesson for fleets: the newest trucks on the lot are carrying the recall load this year.