mechohaulic

any picture or name of the box;; sheppard . TRW,??

as it has been said;"Rome wasn't built in a day". the truck sure looks a lot better then Rome .

changes would depend on whether we got a glimpse of option #2 on life.i'd change a couple of things for the "better"not for financial gain or materialistic stuff.

rough farm life for a kid is an under statement. being 3rd generation trying to keep grandparents farm going i heard unbelievable stories of life on the farm. in the day anyone could go to the hardware store and buy dynamite (try todays world).one uncle lost 2-3 finger tips from blast that went wrong. dynomite was used to clear the fields of rocks/stumps. dairy cows didn't take a day off either..

"braindead in no time")??? your not going to run for pres of USA now that you feel qualified are you???LOL

another sign of "things change"; not for the positive; how sad. new ownership came in to waterbury mack they went through a number of "service managers" in a short time. not many knew the job just position fillers. one manager was known for asking your opinion regards a road call .what do you think?;; your paid to think not me , i have work clothes not a white shirt was my thoughts. one of the reasons i left.

that air-o-matic might have helped in the steering ; sure was a pain-in-the-ass to keep running 100%. tie rod cylinder wore out inside or gummed up, 6 bolts would loosen , cyl tipped ,would steer one way better then other,; spot weld corrected some. control valve welded on drag link screwed up alot. when it worked glad it was there; other then that!

they don't plug in the laptop and tell you what's wrong;; they can't tell you what's wrong cause they don't know. they can only tell you what the computer tells them is wrong. give one "the test" after they "tell you what's wrong ;; ask= what does that mean ?;; duh i don'tknow .. LOL I know it doesn't apply to all . heck of alot.,

comical the way professions are related to a person life. after the heart surgeon went through his technical explanation of my open heart surgery , i looked at him and said" so your putting in a piece of heater hose."LOL years ago i finished painting the trim on a house; paint was red my pants were light colored. my Grandmother saw the pants which looked like blood splattered. She started rattling off in Polish trying to see where the "blood" was coming from. such a sweet Lady.😄

can remember the trans with external compound shift rails. might have been big and heavy, but easier to set on a proper jack for removal. except for one occasion pulling a quad from dm611sx using a borrowed car jack,NOT my idea: top plate maybe 8-10 in square and it was old ratchet style. outside on a piece of plywood that cracked as we moved it. maxi torques came along had to make adapter plates for the transmission jacks to cradle the top heavy tri shafts.

guess it's another sign of memory fade, never noticed 15/18's main on the right==10/20's main on the left. at one time :WAY back I could do 3rd high to 4th low with one hand . levers close enough to spread fingers move both levers same time on the duplex.

ole school ; the cable going from firewall to front top lever. some had compression release ; mack had the series parallel switch. HD equipment had things like pony motors (cat D8), or the IH (dresser) had =start on gas , flip both levers , fire up the diesel; such a beautiful sound engine going gas to diesel-OH the good days. lets see which had a computer = NONE

can't compare the 3406/ 3408 with the 1100/3208. cat 34 series were real truck engines. the 11/32's were cheap engines (favored by some fleets)used to make a truck move. a LITTLE difference in fuel cost then vs now

we're on the same page with that. first thought looking at the pictures. a LT relative for sure . to have an unlimited check book ! that's one truck you don't see many of. would be a class act with proper total resto. in the day trucks were made for working , yet so many had style. unlike the plastic of today.

when i see the TV commercial about mesothelioma i say yep know all about the asbestos in lungs. no one paid attention to the brake or clutch dust back then. wouldn't want to count number of times leaning through floor panel with air hose in hand cleaning out the dust in a bell housing for clutch job. when the guy was grinding down the brake block ; 1- he was in the open,2= maybe clean asbestos was better then dirty clutch disc asbestos..

every engine in the day had a Nickname; DD =carry 10 gallons of oil were ever you go. cummins = a boat anchor. cat == take out a mortgage if you want one. the 1160 was called a throw away; replaced by the 3208. i did a swap for a customer had a ford dump single axle. saved the best for last ;;;;Mack = now there's an engine .. before the days of electronic intervention on engines . $$ were important for owners ; it worked use it

A real long time ago. guess you missed all the fun of brake jobs . pull the shoes , shatter the remaining linings, remove the 3/8th brass bolts any way that worked. pop the shoe in a vise, and start the clean up. looks clean dig out the straight edge, follow the shoe making sure they were flat. not flat ;possible the shoe would crack when tightened. lighter shoes with 3/16 bolts(mostly trailer shoes) same process. important part == the shoes were tapered 3/4 went to center. watched some one put the blocks on the shoes not paying attention( he didn't clean them either) ..saw his mistake, didn't remove the blocks, took a grinder ;; yep you guess it. sanded the block till drum fit.

like alot of good stuff I HAD , all the baskin stuff i gave to a driver. even had a 1/32 scale model painted their colors. think that went to palawman. the move from CT to TN saw a massive scale down.

when is the brooklyn show ??

later on the company contracted with TTS - truck tire service, it is /was a network of garages they would call near the downed unit. gave me a few nights full sleep , or most cases time to work else where. one night/morning i was at second full time job and the phone rang. it was foreman from baskin. he says " what you doing there it's 2-3 am " said im working, "there's a road call" -- guess you have to go i said , he was pis-ed

THANK YOU for comment on pretty big impact. it was a team effort . myself and wife #1 took one of the newer combo out for a ride one Sunday. i dropped her off at a highway overpass on I84 . she took the pictures as i drove up and parked the rig. had the pictures enlarged and on my office wall.

every day was (still is )a learning experience. i made alot of mistakes; just did what i thought was right. had my own little office which i swept the floor; no house keeper LOL. no cell phones or GPS. road call to MD to change alternator, up state NY to change steering box on KW123 in an ice storm. just couple i remember.

alot of things changed . started at baskin day after leaving Mack. foreman at B&R was one who didn't care. fortunately company transfer him to lawn mower detail.==long story. '75-'98 mech for B&R , '98-'09 driver.

i had a major discussion with super when i started at baskin. questioned why a fleet hauling food product looked worse then the concrete company mixers down the street. a paint /cleanup process started. after teaming up with a REAL good MECHANIC , work was a pleasure every day. fleet was mechanically fit to the best of our knowledge and clean. A DOT inspector told me once;" when we see the baskins in line at the scale house , we flag them by" , it took alot of work over 6 1/2 yrs to get and keep the fleet there.

also the mechanic was put in parenthesis for a reason. don't know who decided to pull eng apart. maybe it ran a little with disconnected filter ????