dmlinton

Right you are! The sense of satisfaction was, and remains, huge. The key to whether she went to the scrap yard, got parted out or headed for restoration was in what happened when I tried to get the motor to run. I am very happy to report that she's headed for restoration!

I got the B30-P to start and run on its own without pouring some gas in the carb. Takes a lot of choke even when warmed up. OIl pressure gauge says about 50 psi, ammeter says generator works and temperature gauge got up to 130 F. I cannot seem to figure out how to post the video I made except to give a link. Brace yourself, there is not a lot of finesse. The wind was blowing strong, there is a fair bit of engine reving to keep it running, the truck has no brakes and the clutch linkage sticks just as the clutch starts to engage. I have to pull the clutch pedal on out wiith my toe effectively resulting in popping the clutch. https://youtu.be/gNjDe5DivIs

Greetings folks! Been a while since I posted on my B-30 ... last July actually (http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/index.php?/topic/36299-bringing-the-b-30-home/). Previous owner suggested that replacing a broken bendix spring and putting some decent fuel in it should start right up. Pulled the starter off the B-30 yesterday and found that one bolt had come out of the bendix spring (it had not been fully locked). My neighbour had a bolt in his bag of goodies that worked. I had asked the previous owner whether the truck had a six or twelve volt system. He told me that he used six volt batteries. So, I hooked the ignitiion system up to six volt but that did not give the starter much umph, which was no surprise. I hooked my RAM diesel up to the starter then it spun like it could start. Alas, after much fooling, no spark. My neighbour, who was the one that actually kept wanting to know when he could hear the Mack run, kept coming back to the resister on the coil lead. "Why a resistor on a six volt system?" The answer finally came to both of us at the same time .... sure, the previous owner used six volt batteries .... in series! Duh! Cleaning some crud off the generator soon confirmed it - 12 volts plain as day. Now the coil resistor was faulty anyhow. So I dug out a brand new 12 volt coil with internal resistance and installed it. Poured a little gas in the carb. Hit the starter and she started up immediately. Sounds nice but only until the gas in the carb is burned up. Took the fuel line off of the carb and rolled the engine - it shot a solid stream of gas all the way across the engine compartment. I am thinking I have a carb float problem. Next task - take the carb apart to see what is going on in there. BTW, I am using a snowblower gas tank connected to the fuel pump with a short piece of tube. Anyhow, started the engine about two dozen times by the last half dozen, or so, no smoke from the exhaust and I could see 50 psi oil pressure on the gauge. Life is good some days.

duplicate post -see http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/index.php?/topic/40146-got-the-b-30-to-run-today/

Your truck looks great! Amazing restoration and an inspiration - makes me want to get started on my B-30.

No worries. Video for sure. Having trouble finding a flat belt - may have to break down and buy some of the new rubberized stuff.

The 420C was still in proving stage before I commit to spending serious money. Hence, the ugly seat. All the old iron I come up with has to run and do what it was built to do before I will commit to spending much more than the cost of a battery, maybe some point & condenser and coil - maintenance type stuff. It's is real easy to sink a load of money into a machine that remains at the same sale value as one paid for it.

I got the B-30 home last week. Here are a couple of pics my neighbour snapped while offloading. We are about 30 feet short of home in the pics as we had to bring the truck in across my neighbour's lot because the 66' x 132' lots in my neighbourhood leave a bit to be desired when maneuvering a truck and trailer rig of this size. Because the B-30 has absolutely no brakes, I used my 1957 JD 420C loader with close couple chain from bucket to pintle hitch to unload the truck and pull it over into my lot. The truck came straight off the trailer and onto my lot with no one in the cab. Looks like the rear cab mounts need replacement/rebuilding. The tractor is what inspired me to get my butt in gear and find an old truck to haul him. The crawler loader just did not look right sitting on the float in the pic being hauled by my '05 RAM 2500.

My girly girl second daughter near ran me down with a king size mattress she was helping moving UP to the second floor and is the only person besides myself that I have seen pull the fifth wheel, rack and all, out of my RAM 2500 and carry it away out of the way. She put a guy in hospital once because he got playing too rough - not that she tried to - it's just that what happens if someone inspires her to escalate to her capabilities.

I agree.

I say whoever is involved is part of the gang and I have seen lots of "and Daughters" on trucks. I just found out today my eldest daughter is now a biker and, out of two sons and three daughters, the most likely of the lot to take an interest in my B-30 is my second daughter even though my eldest son is a driver on the Mississauga, Ontario fire department. You got daughters taking an interest in the old trucks, make 'em proud and acknowledge them for the world to see .... and Daddy ends up proudest of all.

How do I start my truck? Anybody ever have to answer that question ... or worse, have to ask it? I almost did. Key switch has two positions - ON/OFF. Looked all over the dash for something that looked like a starter button or lever. Nadda. Dad's '49 Dodge had a "pedal" above the throttle pedal. Nope. Anyway, was going to ask here but thought, man, is that ever a stupid question. These old trucks are simple so away I went to look again. One wire to starter connected to what looks like a terminal strip on the firewall with a connection going to battery so how do we start/stop power to starter?. Hmmmm! That's not a terminal strip, it's either the starter switch or something connected to the switch. Let's see what is on the other side of the firewall. Bingo! Foot activated push button starter switch and it operates quite freely. Had to share that.

Good question! I did not notice but now that you mention it, I couldn't figure out why my B-30 didn't quite look like Macks I remembered from way back (when I was kid, every truck that had anything to do with heavy equipment, road building, etc, was a Mack). It is the shutters - ones I remember all had horizontal shutters. Where are the Canajun old timers?

I am not a particularly religious fellow but I think somebody is testing me again. Old Macks are popping out of the bushes. Today's fare is two 1966 B-61s w/673 Thermodynes. One has a 5-speed triplex and the other has a "14 speed" - not sure what that is. One has been pretty well stripped the other seems quite complete and in reasonable condition. Both look like single axle tractors but pics are not clear enough. $4000 CAD for the pair. I am thinking half that might be more realistic. A B-61 is not in my plans but thought I would let you guys know. I am picking up a crawler in the vicinity of those trucks and could collect info if someone is interested.

The guy that owned the truck also drove it so 7 days a week would have been unlikely given that he also had his own dairy farm to run. Milk pickup was every second day around these parts starting in the late sixties so unless the guy had contracted for two routes, 3 - 4 days per week would have been the norm. Every other farm, sometimes more, were dairy farms here back in those days. However, the first 10 years of operation the truck belonged to a fleet operator so 364 days per year could be realistic. Last 12 years of milk pickup (1970 - 1981, inclusive) would be the PO's operating schedule. Nevertheless, even if the truck did run 364 days per year (they never ran on Christmas Day) for 22 years, the odometer reading still does not seem to make sense. The odometer is a six digit one, i.e., 999999 is max value it could display.

The rock truck owner posted a new ad this morning asking $5,500 CAD ( http://www.kijiji.ca/v-heavy-equipment/muskoka/old-mack-rock-truck/1000957884). No mention of whether it runs which means that either he didn't try to get it running this weekend as planned .... or that he could not get it to run.

I will jack only one wheel off the ground and securely chock all the rest. The diff should favour the easy to turn wheel ... hope she doesn't have some sort of limited slip diff but will find out when I put the M pulley in gear. I will probably have to do some serious "ground speed" guessing and double clutching to get the truck into gear but the "starter" will only be idling - rather stall the tractor while figuring things out than something more serious. Doubt I need a 17 HP starter anyhow so tractor at idle should be more than enough.

It has actually been painted and decals added. If you look close, "John Deere" is a decal instead of the original hand painted script. Otherwise, the tractor is pretty well original - I put a carburetor kit and muffler on it this weekend. The Ms are neat old tractors. Bought another one today with two furrow plow, scuffler and dozer.

I will take lots of pics. I am planning on making a video of the engine turning first time and, hopefully, starting in four years. Should happen this week. Going to use my JD MT with a flat belt off the pulley to a rear truck tire for a starter kuzz the truck starter needs repair. It will sort of be like bump starting with out the truck moving. There is only me, myself and I so between the tree of us, there will be just enough to operate the truck and tractor. Of course there is likely to be an audience. That has been known to happen when the neighbours notice me up to another weird scheme.

I have to wonder about the 1,003,109 myself. I can say that the previous owner would have looked after it like it was one of the kids so whatever it would have been good for, he would have got it. I don't if I would call it babying though given the 2000 Imperial gallon tanks he had on it. Based on a vague knowledge of dairy farms and potential route lengths around here, a milk tanker in 1960 would have had to travel at least 50 miles per day for five or six days a week the year 'round. Even at that rate, the odometer would had to have failed within in three months of new, which doesn't make much sense either. Based on typical B-30s, that engine should have gone through at least five rebuilds to rack up over a million miles. Maybe I should mention the mileage in my request to the Mack Museum. On the taxes, it is actually a quality tax when applied to hardware. The more quality a manufacturer builds in, the more the hardware will be passed and the more tax that is collected thereby penalizing a manufacturer for building quality. We don't like to encourage too much good stuff up here in Canada. While I am on the stupid things we do up here, some bunch of jackasses ( I think it might have been the police) started television commercials telling motorists that they have to pull over and stop when an emergency vehicle approaches with lights flashing when the law requires one to make way. In other words, one must get the f.... out the way. Now we have motorists pulling over and stopping in the emergency lanes on freeways, which they think are shoulders, in traffic jams. That crap came close to costing me my life back in 2007.

Oh, yeah, tires. Forgot about that. Just priced one for the rear of my 1952 John Deere MT (11.2x34 ag tire). $500! And it is a wee bit smaller than the ones on a rock truck. Actually, it is just plain wee compared to a rock truck tire.

Say thebeast weighs 16 tons with scrap at $250/ton (that's roughly the price here in Ontario). That's $4000. BUT, you gonna throw that thing in the back of a pickup and haul it on down to the wreckers? Even if you hire a crane and a rig capable of hauling the beast, how much is going to be left of the $4000? About what would be a reasonable expectation by the company to have the truck gone as is where is. $2000 tops maybe? There is a huge cost to scrapping a rig like that old truck. Point out the economics to the company and get a buddy to help you use your R, even with a pulling rig for your fifth wheel, hook onto the beast, haul her home and break out the beer and barbeque. Don't ignore the possibility that the company just wants rid of the liability of having derelict equipment sitting around, which is much, much higher than $4000 and they might, just might, not even be interested in the salvage value. So that would be like ... free truck ... except for getting her home .... and beer.

Appraisal cost $20 so not bad. Was just thinking about the pic I posted of a restored one down in Niagara Region, Ontario. Owner is asking $50,000. Tax would be $6,500 on top of that. I actually bought my truck for about $50 less than scrap (assuming she at least 10,000 lb with old dump body) so gov lost out on $6.50 of tax. The previous owner really wants to see the old truck restored - had the whole family - wife, son, daughter-in-law, grandkids and some people from down the road - out to take pics, watch it loaded and bid farewell. The PO has a lot of trouble walking but his mind still sharp. I hope to have the restoration well underway, maybe even finished, while he can still do an inspection.

Lady at the MTO office wanted to know mileage on my B-30 when I went to transfer ownership latest week. 3,109 miles I says. She says, "And you paid only $1,200?". "Yep", says I, "but I think you have to add a million to that number". She tells me I need an appraisal. Got the appraisal and went back to MTO and tells the lady I think I got ripped off. It only appraised at $1,000. She charged tax on the amount I told her in the first place. Wonder if I will still be a candidate for restoration at a million miles?

That is a great looking truck, maint1! I think I have some catching up to do.