ndcowboy

Fish scale?

After talking to Lucken truck parts in Winger MN I ordered used pinion gears from them for $350. My bearings and bull gear and the small gear above the bull appear to be good. The pinion gears were pretty easy to remove. Waiting for parts to arrive to reassemble.

It would be the side to side rod mount. Both have the single bolt (ball joint style) on the carrier. The bracket bolts to the chunk using four 3/4" fine thread studs in the rear face. The carrier I am looking at has the mounting face but no holes. It is out of a 70's cabover with no sleeper with a grain body and hendrickson spring suspension. The neighbor replaced both rears and suspension in that truck from an early 80's cabover he wrecked because he kept wrecking brake cans from them hitting the frame pulling out of feilds with a load. I will try to get some pics soon. Too many other distractions trying to get falls work completed before winter shows up.

I found a 4.17 rear carrier in the neighbor's bone pile that was in a wrecked truck. Only hang up is the case has no mounting holes for the drag links bracket. I think these could be easily drilled and tapped. I should say easier than swapping internals. I am also attaching pics of our two big trucks.

you guys caught me in a dyslexic moment on the gear ratio. I don't thing I would like to try Mt. Eagle with my old 350 at 100,000 pounds. I know it could do it but my patience couldn't. I was running my companies 379 Pete with a 475 cat and 18 spd. Thanks again guys. What type of use does your truck see Superdog? Also I would like to post some pics. How do I attempt that?

Thanks for all the advice guys. This is becoming my favorite forum it is amazing how much great info is on the web if a person looks in the right place. I am figuring that I will give the 3.68 a try because I will be needing this truck in a big way in about a month to start deliving our stored grain. Superdog, I am located near Bismarck ND and we farm and ranch south of New Salem. The rears are near there. If I am reading your info correct you are in TN. Too bad we aren't closer we could park the trucks side by side in the shop and have a day full of carriers swaps and enjoy a few malted beverages. Slower gears would not bother me because probably 70% of my miles are at 40 mph on gravel roads. I am also content at 65 to 70 on the interstate. With farm plates on our semi we a limited to a 120 mile radius to run without inspections and logbooks. I see Bell Buckle is between Nashville and Chatanooga. I was through there a few years ago with an oversized load delivering an 80k lb. green waste grinder to Atlanta. I scaled out at about 108,000 and found the trip across Mount Eagle to be a new experience for this flatlander. Thanks again everbody and I need to get to work. Also any advice on the dynatard system?

Thanks for the replies. Just to clarify when I say a carrier costs more than what we paid for the truck I am refering to a carrier from the local Mack (RDO) dealer. They quoted me $3800 for a carrier and $1300 for a new top gear set. We paid $4000 for the truck and it was full of fuel approx. 250 gallons. I really enjoy the truck. The air ride suspension and air ride cab it a huge step up from a 79 Freightliner cab over. However the 1693 cat pulls like a freight train. I have done some snooping around here and a neighbor has a 83 mack cabover with a set of 3.68 rears. The engine is shot in the cabover and he would sell any parts off the truck for a little better than scrap iron price. Would 3.68 gears be acceptable for farm use? I am worried I would wear out all the gears in the tranny but high gear. Also would it be easier to swap out the entire rear axle assemblies or just the carriers. Both trucks have the same suspension. The cabover also has a dynatard engine brake. I do not. How difficult would it be to install that system in my superliner and would it be worth the effort? As a side note when I first started running the Mack I found the 12 spd tranny to be quite different to drive, however now I find it to be one of the easiest trannys to drive.

Here is some background. Dad and I bought this truck this spring for hauling grain and hay for our farming operation. We typicaly put between 5 and 10 thoudand miles a year on a semi. It is a 85 superliner, 350 mack engine, 12 spd mack tranny, 4.17 gears in the rear and the power divider has a air swith in the cab. The hourmeter is around 9700 hrs and odometer is at 45000. So I can assume there is a million something miles on the truck. We have newer grips on the rear axle and 1/4 to 1/2 tread on the front axle. Last week harvesting corn that we deliver 45 miles away I noticed a change in the sound of the truck. Thought maybe i was having tire issues only to discover the top of the rear carrier was too hot to touch with a bare hand and the vent was steaming. I also noticed that the u joint was going out. I was a mile away from an off ramp so i limped it to a parking lot and shut it down. Went back the next day to check oil levels and replace the u joint and noticed that I could rotate the driveshaft. The truck losses air overnight and I reliazed the power divider was locked in and had disengaged. Which means that several trips were made with the divider locked in which in turn made peices of the pinion (Upper) gears in the rear carrier. I removed the side covers on both carriers and the front appears to be fine other than a fair amount of fine metal dust on the magnets. The rear pinion gears are missing all there teeth. I removed the driveshaft inbetween the drivers and locked in the power divider and gently drove the truck home. A rebuilt carrier from Mack costs more than I paid for the truck, Could I get by just replacing the pinion gears. They are a 14 and 17 tooth. This would include new gear lube and flushing the metal out of the rears. Could I flush and replace lube and run the truck to finish harvest using the front to drive the truck with the power divider locked in and fix the rear later. I figure I would have about 6 loads 40 miles one way. Any advice would be appriciated and thanks in advance.