Flat Work

Should I feel power building before 1200 rpm's?

On 10/12/2017 at 10:04 PM, Mp8tech said:

What year/engine is it? 

"04 AC 427.

Thank you for the good info, guys. I learned a lot. I'm going to see what I can do with it. But more than likely the entire clutch is going to need replacing. It's got several inches of free play in the pedal, and almost no room for adjustments in the places talked about. It's not slipping or anything. It still grabs nice and firm.

I spend a lot of my time in parking lots and city streets doing bump and go under an asphalt mill. Stop, move 25 feet, stop, move 25 feet, stop. Over and over. It's hell on a clutch. AND your clutch leg!!

How much (just a rough figure) can I plan on paying for a clutch job? Material and labor. I plan on using all new parts. No reman. parts.

The one on my '04 AC Engine is pretty strong. It works pretty decent at 1700-1900 rpms. I try not to use it any higher than that just because I don't want to accidentally over-rev it. I think it works just as well as the one I had on my Kenworth with a C-15. Except the Mack is only a 2 stage. My Cat had 3 stages.

I do mostly local city and rural driving. I have it turned on basically all the time. It's perfect for back road stop signs and city red lights. I've gone down some pretty big hills at 80,000 lb plus. But I've never used it descending a mountain. So I can't speak for a long downhill distance.

But I think for a 12 liter engine, it holds its own.

Heck, I turn my A/C on just to kick my fan on to keep the engine running cooler. But I run the city a lot. And spend quite a bit of time idling. I'm also really obsessive about coolant and oil temps. I wish it had an override switch to where you could elect to run it manually.

Here's a question for the gurus- if I unplug the A/C compressor, will the fan still kick on if I turn the switch in the cab to the on position?

 I used the Newstar pto that was on mine for my wet kit. But it was previously used to run a Tuthill blower for unloading fracking sand tankers. It spins fast at 160% of the engine's rpm. My pump is remote mounted and uses a driveshaft.

Do you know the optimal rpm speed for the pump's maximum flow? That will tell Chelsea or Parker, or whomever you deal with what size and speed you need. And it will tell you when you're approaching over speed of the pump. I'm sure you can Google the numbers and get all the specs on the pump.

We ended up having to size a Parker pump that fit the pto speed. 21gpm @1600 rpm.  I'm lifting a 235 inch stroke 5 stage dump cylinder. It goes up pretty effortlessly with a 20 ton load at 800 engine rpm. Which is about 1300 rpm on the pump.

All of this may have absolutely no particular bearing at all on what you're doing. It was just the experience I had because I was matching a pump to existing pto.

When I bought the ole' girl, she had spent her life in the Texas oil field. The VGT vanes were stuck. With some penetrating oil and a pry bar, I slowly got it working. The turbo sounds great. It responds perfectly with the throttle. Or seems to. But the truck is sluggish on the low end. The turbo doesn't start building boost until about 1200 rpms. I'm running at about 75,000-80,000 lbs, and it struggles hard on take off and pulling even small grades. I know that 12 liter is no 16L Detroit. But it just seems it's not making what it should.

If the turbo in fact does need calibrated, would that help address this issue?

Alright. I crawled underneath it. What I saw is this:

The clutch cable comes down, and connects to a lever with a clevis. At the top of that lever, there appears to be something for making an adjustment. There's a bolt that rides thru a slot and locks. And a set screw opposite of that. The set screw/jamb nut, looks like it only has a couple of threads left before it's bottomed out.

I took the inspection cover off and looked up in there really quickly. It has an electrical wire connected to it. It looked like there was quite a bit clutch dust caked on. I just did this really quickly outside the shop on the concrete slab. I've got a project to get out of the way before I can pull the tractor in and get underneath it.

Any suggestions how to move forward from here?

1 hour ago, fjh said:

For a fuller trans yup!

On the mack they provide an adjustment on the lever if that has become seized  ( Likely Why no one wants to adjust it for you ) you can remove the clevis pin and wind the clevis in several turns that will shorten the cable in turn that will give you more clutch brake and less free pedal!

once you got the brake where you need it  then you can set the free pedal  with the adjustment  provided on the clutch  itself . IF its not a solo clutch!

Thank you! Now we're getting somewhere.

It would seem to me, if there was a problem with the adjustment lever, someone would have said something. But, as I have found out the hard way- truck and hydraulic service based companies in Lansing, MI, absolutely suck. You go in, tell them what you need, don't complain about their prices or wait times- and they start looking for reasons not to serve you.

I guess they've got enough work servicing fleets.

8 hours ago, fjh said:

Make and model of truck?

for (most) normal trucks this is a linkage adjustment?

'04 Mack CX 613. !0 speed Eaton Fuller.  AC 427.

I've never looked at it before. But I'm hoping when I do, that it's pretty clear how it works. I just won't know what's considered "properly adjusted".

I'm also going to check the trans oil. It's a little (not much) wet around the output housing. If I need to add any, I've been told the correct oil is synthetic SAE 50 manual transmission oil. Is that right?

1 hour ago, Swishy said:

FlatWork

Gudday m8

Wot we do is clunk the gear lever into 1st gear (the biggest badest gear in the box)

th@ slows the gears down to stop spinn n then push cog selector into desired gear

we do this also to engage G/Box PTO

cya

§wishy

I have noticed that dropping into 1st does slow it down.

And yeah, for me, the pto is also another reason I want it adjusted. On a normal day, I engage it at least half a dozen times.

What I've been doing with the truck recently is hauling asphalt millings. Loading directly under the mill in parking lots. So I'm running in 1st quite often. But I'm doing a lot of city driving too. It just needs to be correctly adjusted. I've watched a couple of blurry youtube videos. Hopefully I can figure it out.

Anyone have a detailed explanation/directions on how to adjust the clutch brake? The last two times I've had the truck in for unrelated service, I've asked that it be done. But for whatever reason, they seem to avoid it like the plague.

It's bad. And I'm tired of grinding the Hell out of it to get it in gear.

It's a no winner. The engine is designed to need high temps to operate correctly. yet high temps damage other components in the system. 

Thanks guys and gal!

Yeah, when you pull into a quarry or plant, there's usually a sign at the entrance telling you which channel to use.

Now, as for an antenna, are the short ones any good?  I'm out in the country a lot. My stack smacks the low lying branches sometimes. So I know a long antenna will get banged around a lot.

Actually, now that I think about it, there's a short one on top of the cab already. I don't know anything about it.

We had a mid-80's International 5488 tractor that had the intercooled DT-466B engine. I believe it was 175 hp from the factory. The local dealership mechanic turned some screws on the injector pump. He said that brought it up to about 215-220 hp. It made a heck of difference. The tractor held it fine- nothing broke.

It was a very reliable engine. Even after turning it up, we never had any issues with it.

My truck's an '04 CX-613.  My question is: is there a way to mount and and use a remote mounted oil cooler? Just a regular run of the mill tube and fin type?

On 8/13/2017 at 8:27 AM, kscarbel2 said:

In choosing a truck, it is so important to choose a strong dealer as well. It's all about the owner, the distributor. His "attitude", good or bad, spreads throughout the dealer.

After the US truck makers (Mack, International, ect.) got away from factory-owned branches, Scania went the opposite direction so as to offer a consistent customer experience. Today, most Scania sales and service locations are owned directly by Scania. You can promise so much more when you're in control. But that's only half the story. You have to genuinely care about the customer, which Scania does.

"Real" silicone coolant hoses from good manufacturers like Flexfab are good, Silicone-appearing fake coolant hoses are junk.

I grew up on a pretty good sized dairy farm. Your equipment dealerships played a big role for farmers in those days. And the car dealership we bought all of our pickups from. We deal with the local Deere dealer now, for what little equipment we have. The service is nothing like it used to be.

As far as the silicone hoses go- I seriously doubt I'll ever be sold on them. I've had 2 split on me. And I don't think  belted rubber hoses the same age would have. I absolutely could be wrong.

I need to choose a CB. While I'll be doing some OTR driving in the future, (both U.S. and Canada) most of my driving will be in state. I pull an end dump, and I'm constantly in gravel pits, and concrete and asphalt plants. Communicating with the dispatchers in these places is a must. The signals in those places can be weak. So if there are any features to help deal with that problem, I would be interested. Weather channels would be nice, but between the Weather Channel app. I have on my phone, and available channels on my Sirius Radio, they're not necessary. I'm not looking to spend hundreds of dollars. Just something effective.

 

Now I'm going to get serious..............

I think that it's pathetic that a truckmaker charges Mack truck operators money for an Operator's Handbook.

In the interest of spurring greater sales, wouldn't Volvo want operators to fully understand the operational features of their truck for maximum satisfaction and optimized operation?

How would it harm the Mack brand to offer the handbook by free PDF download ?

Even if the recipient bought the truck used, providing an Operator's Handbook free-of-charge could result in a new truck sale down the road.

We're not talking about comprehensive service manuals. Online Operator's Handbook PDF downloads would cause no expense to Volvo Group, and yet be a display of goodwill to serve the Mack brand's image.

For now, you have to pay $19 for a TS82304 (Mack CX Series Operators Handbook. 2003-2004)

https://macktrucks.vg-emedia.com/InformationListing.aspx?GroupId=593

My biggest problem has been with parts, parts numbers, and availability. I live south of Lansing, and the only Mack/Volvo dealers are in either Grand Rapids, or the Detroit area. One is 98 miles away, and the other is 87. And they will never ship directly to me. It all has to go thru the dealer. So I either have to go pick the parts up, or wait for them to come to the dealer, and then have them ship to me from there. Which means in many cases, I have to pay for shipping twice, and end up waiting anywhere from 5-10 days getting them. And cross-referencing Mack part#'s is difficult, at best. 

Right now I'm trying to find any cross reference source I can for cooling system hoses. I've had a couple of those cheap-ass silicone hoses split on me. Causing me to break down and spew coolant all over. Whoever the engineering morons are that thought silicone was a good idea for cooling systems, should be in the unemployment line. As we've all seen with intercooler silicone hoses, they aren't always reliable.

I think for the parts issue alone, I can say I've bought two Mack Trucks- my first, and my last. It's too bad. I like the truck. It drives and handles great. While the 12 liter  lacks a little on the low end torque, It's a very smooth and steady engine. The turbo spools up nicely in the 1200-1800 rpm range.

But parts availability is my problem. Mack thinks they have to keep everything close to their chests. If you buy something that has a Cummins or Detroit in it, you can damn near got to Walmart and get parts for it!!!

 

Seriously  It's tied in with the fridge in the sleeper if you have /had a sleeper. The snowflake goes out when you turn the fridge switch on the sleeper control panel off. 

the other is "O" with the "X" through the middle is the shut down over ride

Thank you, Chevy.

Well, this is all fun. But does anyone have an answer?

Too bad it's not a liberal snowflake button. I would wear it out!

 

It's better to ask for forgiveness than for permission. 

Ding, ding, ding!!  We have a winner.

Go for it. Buy once, cry once!

On 8/12/2017 at 7:20 AM, kscarbel2 said:

The switch with the snowflake initiates the truck's magnetoplasmadynamic drive system, in effect releasing plasma from the deuterium fusion reactor to power the magnetic coil.

The switch with the circle-shaped arrow with an X releases inertia from the propellant to prevent time dilation, a possibility in the event of an abrupt system shutdown. 

Check your Mack manual under "Drive Systems - Operation" for more details.

Well, if I'm reading your subliminal message correctly, I would guess the circle switch is the engine shutdown override switch?

But you got me on the magnetoplasmadynamic drive system.

The truck didn't come with a manual. At least it didn't come to me with a manual.

I've got a couple of switches on my dash panel that are a mystery to me. Both are intermittent rocker switches.

One has what looks like a snowflake on it.

The other one is a circle shaped arrow with an X  running thru it.

When I push them, I can't tell that anything specific is happening. Anyone got a clue?