willowrun

Friggin awesome, and if my spanish is correct over 1000 hours to complete, amazing!

Well, Good news. I drove about 9 miles from the mechanics to our sawmill and made it in one white knuckled piece! Still shakin and its been about four hours ago now. Dad and I went out this morning and checked it over, fluids were all fine, brakes checked out, and it fired right up with no ether at about 40 degrees. Welll I thought, hurdle one is cleared, so we put 10 gal of fuel in it and started checking linkage, shift, throttle, driveline, etc. Well the u-joint on the primary stick is shot, and i mean metal on metal no bearing or bushing left whatsoever, but all else looked in runnable condition. So I decided to drive around the lot a few times to brush up on the shifting (never shifted a true 2 stick before.) Well it smoked when the rpms got up to around 1500, and I don't mean a little whiff I mean you can't see the rear tandems for so much oil smoke. Well it could be because it hasn't been worked in 5 years and it is just loaded up the mechanic said (works on cars and new pickups, so we hoped he was right). Got out on the main drag (just left it on the high side) 55mph road and proceeded to white out both lanes from the smoke, uh oh I thought I just hope we make it home. Drove about 2 miles and i realized if i kept the rpms below 1500 it didn't smoke so bad, well this worked good until I came to about a 5% hill that is about 600 yds long. Well here goes and I let that little thermodyne eat, half way up the hill at 2000 rpms its smokin so bad in 4th gear its chasin me up the hill. Then it happened, for the last 100 yds I started blowin a 4ft flame out the exhaust pipe, I realized when I crested the hill and the smoke had turned black and dad was now about a 1/4 mile behind me that we may have problems, BIG problems. Turns out it was either oil build up in the exhaust or loaded up in the engine (like the mechanic said) beacuse it didn't smoke the rest of the way, actually seems to run a little smoother. Got it back to the mill, still had oil (and pressure) let it cool down a bit and parked it. Enough excitement for one day. Dad got in and played with it a bit before we shut it down and he seems to think maybe the auxillary is not working because it didn't seem to be much difference between high and low (though he was in granny). i know someone posted on here a while ago about real close ratios in the "plex" transmissions and maybe its so close in granny you cant tell. Any info on this would be appreciated. I was running about 40 mph at 1600 rpms in 5th gear. I appreciate everyones reponses and I might still try to sell but if 1200 is all we might just fix the little puppy up and use as a spotter or hook a gooseneck or lowbow to haul stuff with locally. The way it drove (save for those first few miles) it steered, braked, and even shifted, although a little sloppy, just fine. Thanks Justin

To answer all the questions, yes i do believe it is drivable (i am going to the shop where it is at tommorrow to fully assess everything.) It does have a crack on the hose from the air cleaner to intake which would need to be replaced and i am afraid that there are some bushings in the shift linkage that would also need to be replaced, it shifts but is a little sloppy. The throttle lock has been converted to the fuel cut off and it has bias plys all around. (which if you were restoring wouldnt be a big deal, the fronts are practically new, still have the nubbys on the tread, the rears hold air and have tread but are starting to look pretty rough) body is straight excet for a few rust spots on the doors and a dent on one of the fenders. I was really hoing to get $1900 out of it, (that is what i have in it) but maybe that is unrealistic, that is why i asked the experts here. thanks justin

Rob, nope , i purchased it at an auction here locally about 2 weeks ago, it was a yard truck for an outfit that went bankrupt. it had a state inspection thru '06 and the ony real problems now are no key (easily fxed) and a small air leak at the parking brake valve.

as promised,bob my wife helped me upload the photos, sorry but she says you will not get ant christmas cookies next year! i tried to reason with her but ?????

Ok guys, I promise to put up some pics. I have like 2 dozen on my "smart phone" but none of us are smart enough to down load them to the computer. Is there a certain type of file you have to be in to download to this site, I am not computer savvy, But i will keep trying. thanks justin

Hello all, I have been lurking for a little while and can honestly say that I am way out of my league when it comes to discussions on mack trucks. I drove an old r model for a couple of years right out of high school, but it has been kw's,volvo's and gmc's since. Anyhow I bought an old mb 607 overnite truck awhile back, sigle axle with a thermodyne and a duplex tranny, and now the wife is telling me I have too many projects and I need to get rid of it. I know without pics or seeing it in person it is really hard to determine a value, but is there any way someone could give me a ball park? I really don't want to scrap or part it (it runs great, shifts in all gears and is in exceptional shape for the year, very little rust, no major air or oil leaks, etc.), but i kinda need to console her. Any suggestions (btw I told her it was a christmas gift for our 2 month old son. did not work). Thanks in advance Justin