mattb73lt

Sorry I missed you, it was a very busy couple of days.

My parking spot!!

Well, It was quite the trip and quite the weekend!! Truck ran beautifully with no issues at all. The only wear and tear to it was the KRACKERJACK lettering on the bumper. It took a beating on the way home in the rain. I wondered how long it would last, being painted on the stainless bumper. Not upset at all about it. I'll have some vinyl letters cut to replace it and those should be more durable. The total trip was almost 450 miles and I got about 6.5 MPG!! But the show was incredible. I did end up with an excellent parking spot under a huge shade tree!!. I had a hard time getting away from the truck and seeing the show, with all the people coming by with compliments on the job I did or just to talk. When I finally did get away, the trucks there were incredible. I took a lot of pictures, I'll try to post them separately. Lots of big collections from single people/companies were present. I saw a lot, but couldn't see it all with people coming and going to the show. A really great time and lots of socializing. Our chapter had a lot of members present and we ended up having a great cookout both thursday and Friday evenings. After an almost 25 year absence from my last time, I'm going to try to make it a more regular thing. The trip going down was long and hot. Met up with two othe chapter members at the I-95 Orange, CT rest stop and got on the road about 6:30 AM. And then a long slow exit from CT from Bridgeport to the state line. Coming and going, the worst traffic was definitely in Connecticut. The run down was a little slow and I hardly ever got into 5th Hi-split and the truck I was following would fall off on the hills causing me a lot of extra shifting. After a while I passed him and got in the middle where driving was much easier. Coming back really sucked. Yesterday's rain made a tough trip for loading up and for about 3/4's of the drive. I needed to leave by noon as I had plans for Saturday evening. Getting the truck out of where I was parked and over to the loading lot was a chore with the rain and foot traffic. I was quick loading, but got completely soaked doing it even with the hood on my rain coat up. There was heavy rain for the first half of the trip and my wiper system and defroster fan got quite the workout. The wipers works perfectly throughout the trip and I'm so glad I spent the time to put them together. I ran a bit faster by myself, when it was drier to do so, on the way back. Couldn't be happier with how it performed the whole trip. Part of me still can't believe that it did the trip, considering what I started with and how long it took to get done. Every trip builds my confidence in it's abilities to go places safely and without issues.

I think it was 2001 for me, just after I finished the B42. Then 9/11 hit and it was off to the races for me.

Best wishes for your wife’s recovery. Going to try to get as many as I can!!

Off to Macungie tomorrow morning. Meeting up with friends at a I-95 rest stop along the way. Should be a 3.5 to 4 hour run to get there. Looking forward to going finally. I think its been about 25 years since I've been there. Cleaned and loaded the truck all day . Bringing my little BMW for some wheels to run around with. 934C529B-95B6-464F-B004-FD31E8D7A490.heic

I bet no one was dropped off like that!!! That's awesome!!

Hauled a 1942 Chevrolet Riot Truck with me up to the Bethlehem, CT show On Sunday. Cool little truck that was in service from 1942 into the 1970's, carrying teargas munitions and riot equipment. Only had about 6600 miles on the clock before a cosmetic restoration three years ago. The truck is part of the CT State Police Museum fleet i help out with. Great day and lots of conversations about both trucks.

When I was building my B42 and converting it to diesel I parted out a B61SX dump truck. I bought it mainly for the transmission. I didn't know a lot about B models back then. The transmission ended up being a TRDX-72. Which was a direct gear Duplex with a deep reduction in low range. You didn't split it. Five in low range, then five in high range. What some call a "dead stick" duplex. It did have a normal H pattern five speed for the main. Your transmission sounds like it works similarly, just with that odd gear pattern. That transmission was the only thing I didn't use from that part out.

I renamed mine "KRACKERJACK" from a nickname that was on the picture I got from the original owner, so that was kind've easy. But, if you were to ask my wife it would be, "That Big Red Whore!!". She busts my balls about it every time I take it somewhere or work on it, "Oh, taking your red whore somewhere on a date??". It's all in jest, though and we get a good laugh out of it.

Is that Bradley? I know runway 6/24 is scheduled for resurfacing, I thought it was later this summer.

It's a great car, runs very well. Did a lot of work to it when it was my father's and he couldn't work on it anymore.

Two other things for that trip to Foxboro. One, there was heavy mist for the first part until just east of Worcester and that wiper system I built was awesome!! The intermittent wiper features were perfect and the first two speeds were all I used. Well worth the effort to design and install. Two, upon return to the house, the odometer showed 3,972 miles!!! With minus the first 99 miles when the engine blew up, have been completely trouble free. I built this truck to go places and it just amazes me that from a complete junkyard wreck it's all in one piece, looks this good and runs so well!!!

I talked to a lot of people Saturday. We'll meet up at one of these shows coming up!

Made a two hour run up to Foxboro, MA yesterday to the Springbrook show put on by D. Rounds Trucking and G. Greene Construction. It wasn't on any of my lists of up coming shows, but timing wise it worked out with my schedule. It was held at their facilities which are adjacent to each other. Started out leaving the house about 6AM in heavy fog and drizzle, but by afternoon cleared up for a great ride home by 5PM. Lots of local trucks from the greater Boston area and a chance to see G. Greene's collection of restored trucks in a special built garage just to hold them. I'm so envious of that facility. My brother lives about a half hour away from there, so we got to spend the day together along with my nephew for a little while. Truck ran great and had no issues at all with it. It is very loud when you're in it for that long of a trip. It's going to get a muffler at some point. Still amazes me to see it in one piece and restored. other than the exhaust noise, it's so comfortable to drive with that big, roomy L cab. Another greatshow and day with the B73

Four generations....impressive!! Certainly is a family heirloom now!! And a beautiful restoration!!

Lots of great memories and three generations surrounding the LJ. A similar story with me but surrounding a '27 Model T. I was kind of raised around it and still own it. First picture is when my dad brought it home in 1966, that's me with the hat, then a few in the '70's playing around with it. Up through '80's. It survived my teenage years, for a little bit it was a daily driver. First restoration was really sticking it back together, I had no real money for it. Second restoration was late '80's early '90's. My dad helped me re-wood about half the body. I've been all over New England in it and hauled it to Colorado on the back of the B42 to go on a national T tour in the Rocky Mountain NP in 2005.

Awesome to see you out and about in the LJ. It's been a long road to bring it back to it's current beautiful condition!! The floods were so devastating to the whole area and you property suffered significant damage. But, it's getting better, albeit, slowly. A lot of work to get your land back into useable shape and building that new bridge. Your grandson has grown quite a bit during this. I remember a picture of him standing up in the cab a while back, now I bet he couldn't unless he stooped over!! Looks like he's becoming quite the helper with your projects and you've given him knowledge and memories that'll last a lifetime, too.

That's great to hear!! So glad it survived the storm disaster. Regarding the picture posting issue, it may be that your account has reached it's limit storage wise. I ran into this well into my postings on my build. I couldn't figure it out and edited some content out of my blog. I ended up contacting Barry to increase it by making a donation to the site. It helps keep the site going so we can all enjoy it. That may be the issue and I felt the donation was worth it to preserve my posting efforts and to help the site.

Yes we did. A lot of rain coming this week. Dammit!!

Just about five months in storage. Brought the toys out of storage and home today. Weather sucked, but due to schedules and needing two drivers, it was the best time. B73 fired right up after about four turns. A little issue with a sticky starter on the B42, then she fired right off. Now to chase a bunch of gremlins on the Caddy and the '40 Ford, mostly from disuse over the last few years of concentrating on finishing up the B73.

I found the brackets. The 90* base strap is the original part. The round clamps were added when someone added a vertical muffler to the truck from the original staight stack. The lower bracket has an added 90* bracket that bolted under neath the cab corner.

I deleted the brackets on my B73 and put the exhaust on a late model support arm. The later L cabs only seem to have had two brackets, one near the top below the louvers. The lower one was mounted to the lower internal cab frame in the corner. There were spacers inside the lower mount to make up the gap between the skin and the frame. I saved my two brackets, but they were pretty rusty and had been modified by previous owners. Let me see if I can locate them. Here's a picture on the corner of the cab with the skin removed. The upper bracket is still in place on mine. The two lower, short brackets below are for the grab handle. Then the lower frame of the cab. Second picture is after I painted it, but before I put two polished stainless bolts in the threaded holes as place holders. I left the bracket as it stiffens the area and if someone in the future wanted to add the bracket back. I've seen the schematic you posted before. The four bracket arrangement may have been for the heavier LJ-X versions like yours. I don't think regular LJ's had that type of arrangement.

I believe the main feed comes off the firewall mounted foot starter switch. Reason is I left the switch in place on my B42 when I converted it to diesel and ran a feed from the 12V starter to power it. Used it like a terminal block. The 6V trucks were early production and were the lighter gas jobs. A friend has an early B42 that is 6V. It was a pristine oil truck out of New Haven when he got it years ago. Kept inside during it's working time. The factory paint was literally like new. Now it's a rusted, faded truck laying in his yard. What a waste. He's one of those, "I'm going to fix it one day." guys

FT. Wayne Clutch and Driveline is another very good and helpful vender for old and obsolete parts.. They were very good with help with an issue I had with my double disc arrangement in my B73 and helping with my '41 Cadillac putting a larger 75 series clutch in it.