Mack Technician

I’m seeing a break point on the off-road side. Liehberr gave up on ever perfecting emissions. 

 Liehberr flopped the Interim 4 so bad they had to punt. We stopped buying them and replaced them with Volvo in two positions with waaaaaaay better cost per hour......so that may well describe the desperation?

Liehberr had pulled their normal “Vee ahhhh Germans, Vee invent’id Deeesell” routine. They set the Tier 4 up with logical regeneration. The system doesn’t monitor delta at the DPF. System calculated a thousand operational parameters and not DPF plugging. So in other words it counted cylinder injections and qty and had the regeneration frequency set up according to the logical regen time, with no regard to actual DPF ash load. If an injector started underperforming the computer couldn’t increase frequency of the DPF regenerations to compensate. We were getting to the point of 12 hour reliability. They (Liehberr) didn’t let us force regen..... stripped our customer software. Service calls weekly and dealer couldn’t find source of base engine ash generation issues. 

Liehberr came back by eliminating virtually all external emissions on the motor. No EGR, no DPF, no EGR cooler, no dual turbo, and possibly no VGT (gotta check that). They got the burn so hot it Nuke’s the particulate and creates mega-NOX. Hot burn vs. normal cooled egr burn. The exhaust pipe is a def injection system dumping 8-10% into the exhaust stream via an electric compressor. They stretched the oil change to 2,000 hours... with filters and test at 500 hours.....if you use their synthetic. Engine is so hot and tight the blowby is clean and doesn’t contaminate the motor oil, supposedly. Some local facilities did the 2,000 plan and so far it’s working. We are getting one before the first of the year. Factory rep told me some time after 2020 (estimate) they are bringing back the DPF and junk to comply. So a brief research and development window.

I chum with the mechanics from Louisiana-Pacific. Kept their tier 3 machines, took a depreciation hit, and traded the junk interims in for the newer generation 4.

Verso Corporation out of Wisconsin Rapids has been doing the same. They called the dealership in Wausau last fall and said “get us a Liehberr 934B to replace our current 934B with 40K hours”. The 40K machine’s superstructure (base platform) was breaking. 

Corporations are keeping a small fleet of reliable, outdated, machines so they can maintain minimum material ton-age productivity.

Lot of the log haulers are doing the same. Guys I’m side working for keep a western star with a tier 3 Detroit parked in back and co-share it between two familes as the back-up for the Macks. 

14 hours ago, Keffer inc said:

Mine would shake and rattle like a train at anything above 45mph, and if I wasn't floored. The 7th injector only has to do with the DPF cleaning and shouldn't hurt the MPG should it?

Doubt it calcs to MPG. Did a lifetime check on one of our Cat C9 (9.3 Liter) interim 4 engines. Just before trade-in. Had burned about 1,600 gallons out the 7th injector. 

You have a line leak between the compressor and the dryer. The reason you can't find it is because it spontaneously leaks out of the small trapped column and is gone before your ear is on it. When running you can't hear the leak well. The leak is small enough to allow a little bit of air to remain and pressurize in the line, enough to create 30 PSI at a rev, but that's it. Soap the line while it's running at high rev and before the line gets really hot. Since you have a check valve at the air dryer there is not going to be backflow from the system to sustain the leak with engine off, so it may only be found running. Good Luck!

On 5/22/2019 at 8:11 AM, Rob said:

Got to be careful there as an electric pump is not variable in flow. Seen it done a time or two and the engines flood, or overfuel at idle.

Even as late as Vmac 2 they used a restricted orifice to attain fuel pressure. So yeah, flow sensitive.

Bent exhaust push tubes = injector slobber. Half burned fuel creates tar on the exhaust valves which glues the exhaust valves and bends tubes, esp exhaust tubes. Usually bends on cold start ups. 

5 hours ago, R.E.D said:

Yes it is .I hate to throw parts at a problem without properly diagnosing the issue but if I can't see anything rubbing against belt today , I'll be changing that plastic idler pulley in order to eliminate variables.

If you replaced a lateral fray belt without replacing Idle pulley & tensioner along with it then your were throwing parts at it. Since it's interior fray check for bolts backing out into the belt path or, as I recall, that shroud support bracket that runs through the proximity of everything on right side.      

On ‎8‎/‎18‎/‎2018 at 7:06 AM, fjh said:

 

 Good to see the reman center is keeping its bulldog reputation as well! Same old same old!😣🙄

On ‎8‎/‎17‎/‎2018 at 10:00 PM, Mackpro said:

Lol, guess what I was doing at work today ?.................yep , cups and injectors. However it wasn't the cups fault this time. 4 of the reman injectiors were leaking fuel into the oil. 3 were slightly leaking around the plunger/spring . One was leaking badly at the injectior body above the head level. This is not the first time we have had this happen 

Are you guys seeing many tip break off's when removing SS conical cups Vs copper cups?

On 5/15/2019 at 9:44 PM, Mike jacques said:

U have number for timing tools

It’s a kit. J-44514-B

On 5/15/2019 at 9:42 PM, Mike jacques said:

U have better pic of rocker lift

And specs

No

The 8888.... number at bottom of screen is a bag with replacement swag bits. If you see VOE on the box that is a “Volvo Original Equipment” number. That means it was cheaper to buy from Volvo. If you want the numbers Grab it since I have to erase pics soon, too little storage left. If you give Mack the Volvo number of any of these their system will automatically supersede to a Mack #. 

8 hours ago, steeler said:

Do you have the part number for the install tool for conicals? I never knew they had one other than the pull thru. Is the push thru easier to use?

11 hours ago, Bullheaded said:

What kind of luck did you have with it MackTech? I've often thought about it when spec'ing but I always get mixed opinions. People seem to either love it or hate it.

And despite Mack pushing it around here for a while I had a Mack rep at a trade show tell me to stay away from it. He said it puts too much stress on the frame and they had all kinds of cracking issues?

On paper I love the idea of it though. Best of everything. With our mandated SPIF laws here our lift axles have to be self equalizing, so air suspension is the easiest and most reliable for this. But with the Air Link you still would have the full articulation of walking beams.

And I like  how it is fail safe. They say you can run it uninflated if you blow a bag or have an air problem. 

I'd argue it's a good system if the salesman specs it to the right application.

We never had a frame crack on the trucks we ordered. I'd guess if anyone could bust one it would be a Michigan Log Train. The installs were on CL733's, long bed with Serco 8500 loaders, Cummins ISX, Rockwell full lockers, double framed, with a pintle plate closing the rear of the rails. The log racks were unitized w/8 point attachment and not free standing cribs, so that also adds frame strength via the one piece bed. On the other hand the amount of roll-over stress on an "Axle-up" turn should have still been able to break the frame if it was capable? IMO-Bouncing through the woods down a frozen snowmobile trail, for miles, with an overload constitutes a proving ground. 

Axle cracking is the real issue with the heavy set-ups. I've seen guys in the shop with the same truck set up (as above) and Hendrickson Z-member (loaded) air suspensions pull up their pusher & tag axles and the "Z" became a flat "------" under load. Those guys usually would crack the axle housing under the Z spring support pedestal. Camelbacks and Raydan grab a lot of the axle housing at the anchor points so they never seem to crack it. The Z spring guys also often get water in the axle before the cracks are found (hidden under the receiver), so now your putting a bearing kit in the diff while your fixing the spring pedestal cracks. Eventually Mack made a weldable Z-pedestal and less cracking happened. 

The crux of the issue with heavy vocational is axle tunnel crush from the spring u-bolts being compounded with overload on the same area of the axle. The U-bolt is pre-crushing the axle tube on the same spot your load is trying to snap the axle housing at. If your overloading you want a suspension with no u-bolt distortion, only weldment attach points.  Camels and Raydan don't crush, so now your tunnel isn't being distorted before the load is applied.

I had to pull the main members on one Raydan and re-bush the forward eyes on each side. I was able to do it with no special tools beyond our press. I really like the set-up. Simple, Beefy.

I wonder if the salesman may have witnessed breaks with a Canadian Spread, if they make them? That would compound the front anchor twist against the frame esp with a shorter turn radius truck.

They say you can run it uninflated if you blow a bag or have an air problem.----I'd guess you will also get less axle tip and less driveline vibration when the suspension of the link goes flat?

We used to spec the Raydan (Air Link) suspensions in our Michigan log trains. Tough & Reliable, basically the “Camelback” of the off-road air suspension world. 

Billy’s looking a bit mangy this time of the year...

On 5/13/2019 at 11:01 AM, ivanuke said:

What year is your CH613? I have a 2001 that the dash goes crazy and beeps with the seatbelt indicator coming on. I think there is a technical service bulletin (SB-732-005) about rerouting the grounding wire to fix this issue. If that doesnt work try unplugging the connector and clean it our with electrical contact cleaner on both the connector and the gauge cluster. Just google the service bulletin number and it should come up.

Did you fix yours without replacing the dash cluster?

It’ll show itself somewhere down the line. 

Google “Mack Service Bulletin SB-224-004” for instruction on testing. 

50-80 PSI.

Think he is going to need the Hendrickson Chicken Gauge to set it. Google “Mack Service Bulletin SB136012”. 

2 hours ago, Coolericsir said:

Any chance I could get those torque specs for the E7 motor?

 

The complete manual is available for free download. Google “Mack emedia”. Choose 1997 on year. Click on the book “5-101” description and keep clicking forward till you have “view” and file will open to view manual for print. 

I have a monitor for checking CO level in the upper tank, but that doesn't do you a bit of good. If coolants coming out of the tank after self-leveling clearly something is pushing it.

Someone you know works in industry and has a handheld for sniffing/reading air PPM. Got to get it and wand the tank air space after a run period to see what's lingering.   

I’d check specs on fuel pressure, make sure it’s tuned and run it. There are still engines, like John Deere’s 13.5 liter that still run terrible cold.....in 2019. 

How hot did things get before you changed the stat?

What's the freezing point of the water coming out of the air tank?