davehummell

I'm putting my B up for sale it has a 1980 260hp. Mack engine, double over triplex, Freightliner air ride 373 rear, air seat, six aluminum 22,5 rims with very good tires, power steering, aluminum 70 gallon fuel tank and aluminum battery and tool boxes, 10 ft flatbed with headboard, air dryer, a dry type air cleaner from Watts, reupholstered passenger seat and a Mack green interior with the right floormat and headliner with Sunvisor, pyrometer for turbo, working two stage jake it will see 80 plus on an interstate in overdrive, no rust on cab, windows crank up and down, heater works good, I was a Mack mechanic so I built it to fit me I did all the work in my machine shop. As it sets I have antique tags and insurance on it. Northeast Pa. near Wilkes-Barre

I looked at that engine Mack had on display at their museum and my thought was they should have put the engine in production it would have been a vast improvement over the low hp engines they ran in the trucks I ran back in the day the 237's were everywhere slow but you got there eventually.

Henry Ford was wrong on his thinking the Model A was an improvement. I have drove a model T and it is fun but I own a 31 Model A coupe and I will put over a hundred miles on a Sunday drive I wouldn't do that with the T I drove. But for real fun I built a 32 ford pickup with a 302 ford v-8 that is zippy.

How about Perfect Seal ring company out of Nevada had some rings for my old 673

I have done up god knows how many deer helped do up cows and pigs' chickens, rabbits, game birds, at my age I am happy to stop over to an old friend and buy meat out of his store. I haven't hunted in quite a few years, and I don't help out at the friend's farm anymore.

I used to work on a d-9 for the west side landfill and I was in there working on it on the way out they had a lineup of lawnmowers and such for sale and I bought a 66 international pickup for 150.00 out of that line up, I drove it for years everyone always made fun that I bought the truck in the dump.

I worked at a trash transfer station before I retired it was amazing the stuff I drug home that someone would throw out I was good at crawling in the dumpsters to check out the contents about everyone that worked there was looking for goodies every day. I was in the center running the cat loader loading trailers and I had a guy back in to dump his load said he worked here many years ago and he was returning stuff he drug home back then was carping about paying to dump the stuff he drug home for free.

My B would do 50 and 52 down hill not safe on the highways last time I came up from Gerharts it worried me on 81. I installed a 373 air ride rear out of a freightliner and I found a double over triplex I have a very good setup for traveling on highways and it doesn't hurt having the 260 hp Mack engine and jake I installed.

Last year a guy didn't look pulling out onto the highway and I nailed his truck doing about 45, I spent two weeks in intensive care and two weeks in physical rehab learning to move and speak and think again. My left shoulder bones never got back where I can hold onto handle bars. Please wear a helmet I had one on and I still ended up with a cracked skull and bleeding on the brain I would have been dead, but the helmet helped save me. I was lucky the cop was right down the street and it happened right in front of an ambulance business those guys saved my life.

If you go to the antique truck show at Hartford Pa. on September 3 you will get to talk with the family they will have 3 or four trucks there. I just can't remember their names any more.

I had Gulf coast and then they transferred me to Hagerty's I have my 58 B model Mack and my 31 model A and my 32 ford hotrod pickup insured with them it works for me. I have antique tags on all three and I use the Mack to haul round bales for my goats in my area no one pays any attention to my stuff.

My uncle owned a school bus business and Sammy had two of those busses like in the previous pictures. I removed the 318 in the one bus and found it had a bad block so took three engines and made one good one it was quite a project removing and reinstalling the engine tilted over and in under the bus body and you had to adjust the clutch fingers on the pressure plate. The later busses he bought the engines were mounted more normally and still two stroke DD's. It must be almost forty years ago when I did that tilted over detroit.

The White 5000 I owned and drove it had a 220 Cummins tilted, it made the truck cab low. It was either a 59 or 60 with a fiberglass cab if I remember correctly.

I was planning to attend with my B model last year, the year before had a great time but I was recuperating and this year I am getting my left eye operated on the Wednesday before so I shall miss it again. Hoping for Gerhart's show I usually attend that one.

First thing is really look over those old air bags just like tires they have life limit. when I slid in the rear I went up to Cooks and bought two new ones one less crappy thing to worry about mine had slow leaks.

That 3.73 will give you a better speed on the interstate if you decide to run it. I put a single axle off a freightliner on my B and with my 13 speed double over trans it rolls right along down the highway. With the gearing that was in it I came back from the show at the Mack museum and 50 up 81 was not ideal back in the 70's it was but not now.

B61 Fred in 1973 I started to work on cat equipment we did countless pumps in the one vice on the bench those older cat pumps were alright to work on. These days I don't think I could remember how to do one, used to like reworking the 1693 pumps for the owner operators back in the day fuel was cheap so more smoke was good.

Mark you referring to Charley at Dunmore Injection? I had a Mack pump adjusted out in Williamsport and a friend called out this spring and they are gone. Enzo used to do Cummins but I can't remember if he screwed around with Mack pumps He was at the Kingston Franconi shop quite a few years ago. Cooky's sold the Mack dealer up in Scranton and they don't sell Mack parts anymore !!! Back in the early 80's had a Mack pump rebuilt at a shop out in Hazleton.

I did quite a bit of work on 318's in the Brockway triaxles I drove they had 13speed's I liked them quite well more power than the owners cabover Mack 237. The Mack 5 speed wasn't my favorite trans and it seemed all the r's and f's had the 5 speed in them always thought a few more gears would help out but those transmitions were durable.

I had a ford 2000 that was the same vintage used it to pull the manure spreader when I sold the tractor it had 900 hours on it. mine was the 8 speed. They are nice tractors yours looks very nice.

I was lucky the bolts came right out but I played it safe and used two studs to help with alignment and my cousin to help steady the assembly on the removal and remount of the fender and inner fender on my old B model.

I was loaded with marble chips in the dump trailer driving a f model Mack and the day or so before the trip the owner had two caps replaced on the passenger front drive axle. I was back up above Maryland border when the inner cap came off in one piece got my attention whacked the back of the cab on it's departure and scared the Bajuses out of me pulled over the casing was intact so off I went nothing I could do about the dent in the cab. About 30 or so miles later same thing again but this time I was losing air pressure fast, get off the interstate fast, this time the cap is wrapped around the axle and has taken out the maxi brake lines and put a big dent in the fuel tank it is about dark so I'm looking at what I can rob somewhere off the truck to repair the air system to go home with the help off passing car lights I jury rig the truck up thank god I always take a toolbox with me but just when you really need it the damn flashlight batterys were dead. The owner was some po'd about the damage to the Mack but I told him cheap caps are always a gamble and you were putting me at some risk.

The last place I worked I took care of a fleet of garbage trucks, role offs, tractor trailers with live floors, every day I had to tend to tires one way or other I got so if it was a tire on the outside I would change it on the truck every month I would roll in about 25 tires in the tire room and they were gone and we would be looking for more everything had caps on the drives and trailers, new tires for steers. A 385 steering tire did me in was doing a tire change and that was it disabled at 59 years old. I used to use either to seat the beads before the tanks got popular.

I put in my 58 B a 673 that was made in 1980 in was out of a firetruck with an automatic transmission it has a turbo and the tag states it is a 260 hp engine.

I looked around for the correct box that was used on a B, but no luck so I added a box I got off a Mack firetruck and part of the steering column from an R model it was quite involved I didn't want air assist steering, I drove different trucks with that setup and not for my truck. If memory serves it is a Shepard brand box that Mack used. And you will need either a pump on the end of a generator or alt. or do like I did and find an air compressor that takes a pump on the end. Good luck,