greg

I used to drive a 95 mack with the same specs cross country. I got between 7-8 mpg average. I put 250,000 on her before I got done. One of the best otr trucks I ever drove. Nice looking truck!

I change my oil and filters at 250 hrs, Grease once a week or every day depending on what and where you are hauling. I carry my grease gun with me , if there is any waiting time at the pit or dump site I will go around and grease my trunnion's , dump hinges, kingpins. I change my trans, and rears every spring.

Well you guys are good! It was the rear rear end carrier. I pulled the cover off both rears and found nothing but shavings and teeth on the cover magnets. The front rear was just like new . picking up a used one tomorrow for 700.00. thanks for the help. greg

I lubed mine up with soapy water, then I put a block between axel tube and frame and put a jack under the cap to compresss the bushings up then tightened up the bolts.

Thanks Rob, I haven't decided what to do yet , might upgrade and sell truck for parts. greg

I have an 86 rd 686s with 6 speed with lo hole. Was going down highway today with 18 tons of gravel on and a vibration started, so I pulled over , crawled under checked all u-joints , they were ok. Started back down the road no vibration now. I turn off of main highway started up steep hill in 1st gear , did not shift in hill , all of a sudden the trans. went BANG about three times. Pulled off road and checked underneath . The truck will move if I really baby it, the minute I give a little throttle it bangs and movement stops. This sounds like the main shaft in trans is broke? Which is cheaper to rebuild trans I have , or get a reman?

Spoke wheels are much more rugged than steel budd rims. Steel budd wheels tend to crack and break after a while. I have seen spoke hubs crack , but I have never done it myself. The only advantage of budd wheels I see is easier changing and the tires run true, get better milage out of them before replacing.

In the spring I maple sugar. Almost as bad a trucking , need a million to make a hundred. The rest of the year I have 2 daughters that take up most of my time and money, oops got that backwards, money and time. But they're worth it.

The way we used to do it was to let air all the way out of bags mark height then inflate bags till maximum height is achieved and measure distance between highest point and lowest. Then we would split the difference, and fine tune from there.

Sorry HK didn't mean to give same advice . Your's must have posted when I was typing mine. LOL!

Get a bigger hammer! lol! Try heating the rim around the hub just slightly and take a spray bottle of water and spray the hub a little. Make sure you spray hub and not rim so the hub will contract and rim will stay expanded. Let air out of tires first. Shouldn't have to heat it to much. Then hit with sledge. Should pop right off. greg

Yeah , around here we have managed to sqeak out about 63 hour for a tandem. That is why I have a 20 year old mack. It doesn't bother me as much when I don't have work the truck doesn't cost me anything sitting. I can't imagine having a 1900 dollar payment a month to worry about. You would have to live in it 24-7. greg

Yeah , no kidding! It's pretty bad when the hourly rate to work on them is more than we can charge to make a living with.

According to my paper work , they did shim the rockers. greg

Hey everyone, I got a dealer in upstate VT to do my head gasket. They planed the heads and while they where in there they might as well change the injectors. They did all that in 2 days and it cost me 2150.00. I didn't think it was too bad. greg