mechohaulic

On 2/27/2020 at 9:21 PM, Freightrain said:

Ah shoot Hank...um, Dave.  I was hoping you'd get all practiced up and come swap my transmission(when I do find one).

I'm only working on half way through my 50's and I pay for every little thing I do anymore.  I'd suggest you all get stock in Aleve as I'm buying more then I ever thought I would?

I can't keep things in my hands anymore.  Just last week, working at my local machine shop cleaning engine parts I'm walking with a rod/piston in my right hand.  Three steps away from where I was going, my right hand just decided it didn't want to hold on anymore.  I did a quick two step to try to get my foot in the way so my much too expensive piston/rod didn't bounce off the concrete.  It almost work.  Only pinch the oil ring land in one spot!!!  Dammit.

had open heart surgery in '15. since then my left hand will :without notice lock up .i'm left -handed.  when some one talks about the great "golden yrs" tell  them go pound sand..  imagine all of us ole timers ending up in same nursing home , the stories we could tell;; if we can remember them , 😄😄,LOL  do  you think they would make a wheel chair with twin sticks like a quad,, 

looking at the hoist/cab combo, my first thought was damage to the cab  also .   have lifted a number of cabs , I always  used old pillows , towels or the like.  cushioning  the cab . always enjoyable to see old brought back to new . especially when its done with skill , not computers . great job. 

gave up on tie shoes, it's the Velcro or slip on for me. LOL  . how do you expect me to bend way down there to tie a shoe.  fell 17 + - ft through a roof  yrs ago landed on concrete ; that hasn't helped the back either. don't worry about dropping tools, now I double check I have all the tools I need before laying down on creeper.  job of standing back up !!!  thanks to this great site, interest back to 1/25th scale trucks;; much easier.  sit at table and pick up that transmission or cab in one hand. 😁😁 

On 2/29/2020 at 11:44 PM, Rob said:

At times I do wear knee pads but it's only when cutting or grinding something to keep metal shards out of my knees and pants. Usually don't think nuthin about plopping down on the kneecaps on the shop floor, but it is hard on the blue jeans and I'd wager these days knee pads would be less expensive than pants.

ever notice the  jeans today. they pay MORE to buy   jeans already with rips in them !!!  they call it style . I have good set of knee pads; damage done. knees are bad shape after all the yrs of  kneeing on concrete , under iron  . challenge now is to get grandson (driver-mechanic ) to take better condition of himself.  don't lift the brake drum, wear the ear plugs etc. I didn't listen 45 +yrs ago.  boy do I "pay"for it every day now. 

On 3/1/2020 at 12:55 AM, Quickfarms said:

Do to a knee injury I can not use knee pads but have been forced to use kneeling pads for the last 25 or so years

I have found that even a piece of corrugated cardboard helps a lot

small  piece of 2 in Styrofoam  works great. big enough to kneel on. will stand up to wet conditions better than cardboard also, 

opposite end of new wire ,is that going to ground? usually there is only one wire to pump which grounds it self.  now a days they may be using the pump switch as an on/off  to complete the circuit with two wires  the pump switches were a royal pain in a -- -. brass tab inside  always failed. if its staying on with red wire to ground, i'd say try adjusting screw on pump slightly. doubt wire colors can be seen that weathered. based on picture,14  R/G (red/ green ) should be from circuit breaker; 14 BR (brown) goes to pump switch to complete ground side ;14 B (black). to cyl heads. definitely don't want to open top cover with all that dirt  around it.  firewall connection  pictures aren't the worse  ever,  not that there isn't chafing wires  or connections  wrong. brake works when grounded . unravel the tape see what it looks like.  maybe not bad ,tapes only holding plugs together (ya right !!)  wiring is always fun when someone else has been there before... 

He's not the only other guy ! LOL  .. no facebook, or other for me. I miss the flip phone,  now I have a  " smart phone" .rarely use it , NEVER thought i'd see the day when I did a road call and didn't leave the shop. thanks to a young driver that couldn't understand how to find a relay in  control box. he says "don't you have a smart phone"? my reply-how the  h - - l do I know if the phone is smart or not ! short story ; he used his phone connected to mine , I watched as he moved his phone through the box till I said there's the breaker . reset and hes on his way.    L-n-L  had a phone on the wall;; I go back to a phone table in the corner with black rotary phone  with a party line connected. 

unfortunately  "we" live in a throw away society , if the 800's  were built today exactly as it was then ; eliminate  all the plastic :: the cost would be $$$$$  . and they would last forever. manufactures  don't want things lasting long. company I know in CT bought new triaxle last yr (not mack ). $240 K. has been back to dealer more  than on the road . gone are the days of handful of tools get it going on side of road. now it's the million dollar wreckers that go out and tow it in.   going to try and load some pictures of days gone by. not  the best;; pictures taken back in the 80's with a camera !  truck drag races in NJ. funniest thing to watch two DM 800's race each other in the 1/4 mile. and how fast can you shift a quad!! LOL

not much of a TV guy, the pickers show is a setup deal. being in TN now , I went to their store in Nashville. point is I watch the show to see the number of places that still have acres of  good stuff .  old iron  be it trucks, tractors  etc. i'd like to follow them just to see the barns full of history, and the ole timers that have stories . many yrs back I went to the Kemp museum  in NH . honored to have talked with Mr  Kemp.  acres of great  trucks. have a few pictures some where . 

sure would like to come out of retirement  and work in that shop. .looks like the days  when a mechanic rolled his toolbox to a job;   NOT a computer.. my day off would be spent with a loader hooking and moving all the iron outside so oil would coat the top half of gears in drivetrains . good to have all the iron  , but  dampness from ground raises havoc  as the yrs go by . 

the air force had the  majestic  B-17's : the mighty 8th,,art world has the mona lisa ;;  trucking industry  has the DM800 .  fantastic in every way. back in the day I was lucky enough to drive triaxle 800 . not only great truck, lunch time you sat on fender (try that with plastic trucks today)  and hood doubled as a table !LOL

studying the picture of the 2090 trans earlier post which has mounts installed correctly, could it be possible being an RL  the mounts would go on backwards? I've never seen  mounts turned around; but back in the day mack westerns weren't  common on the east coast.  when  everything is pushed forward and looking good, how far off are the four bolt holes? same distance  +  -  to proper line up if turned around?  stated earlier trans work was done. do you know the same combo was put back? there aren't that many different set ups for bellhousing / mount combos if mack   components  are used .  RR trans would have  different mounts  ,

NOW I SEE ;  forget the front.  we are all in the same book, just wrong page,  to the back we go!!  there has to be a lot of movement some where. even sitting on half the front mount, shouldn't rip rubber  like picture in 3 months. 

one piece   crossmember :  different  set up , disregard  my thought . some units had three-piece  , basically two angle-irons on frame with flat cross-member in between  . engine mount #14 in picture bolted to it. we won't discuss how I know it could be put on wrong ! LOL so that puts things back to rear section.  

electric to chain.  800 looking good.  mid '70's  I had three   DM 800's models  on display at mack dealer in ct.  since being on this site  seeing interest in models  I pulled couple of 800s out of storage. trip from ct to tenn  took it's toll.  DM800 cut/stretched made into wrecker. hopefully will repair and figure how to post pictures. 

besides tires and rims,  you'll  be changing hubs: includes wheel seals, cleaning checking bearings & races, brake job while it's apart   unless brakes and drums are good shape.  drums should bolt to new hubs.    $$$  if it's worth  it depends on your plans for the truck. 

if I recall correctly, the front cross-member that #14 engine mount   bolts to is a flat  three-piece cross member.  by slim chance was that taken off the two frame end pieces and put back on back wards; meaning on front of end pieces instead of behind. that would be  5/8=3/4 difference. was same model trans put back in?  after almost 50 yrs of pushing wrenches ( and a lot of cans of brake clean later; LOL)  the memory is taxed often.  mack mounts had slight off-set. backward mounting would make installation of the bolts challenging.  being 685 had to be maxi , roadranger would have had different mounts  . are both rubbers being chewed up like in the picture??? with new rubbers ,hood open so you can watch , what happens if you mash fuel pedal quick shot?  engine,trans moving like something broke you can't  see ?  I doubt it. if there was the stick should be moving around every shift. 

I still remember  the day while working at Mack Truck in Waterbury Ct ('69 -'75 ) this beautiful  brand new  burgundy /white  FL700 was delivered. one of a handfull sent through out the US to dealers for  testing. it had the experimental (at the time) 866 engine. as a young kid; I  got to work with mack engineers on tear downs of the engine etc. unfortunately  the truck later on was totaled  in  a major accident.   there weren't  that many people running F-models. Bozzuto's had a fleet of light blue F's. remember when the F's changed style and went from flat back to "bubble back" for more sleeper room. only major user was UPS non-sleeper .did  you know  Mack donated the bulldog on front of UPS trucks. each dog cost X hundreds of trucks; brass  cut cost. one reason you never saw the name mack on front of UPS cabovers, cost (each letter M-A-C-K $$ was figured out) plus they didn't want to advertise  mack.  I remember going into Hartford Mack for what ever reason.  good days gone forever.

back in the day, a lot of  guys painted their steel dump  bodies silver  to look like alum.  hope was to make trucks appear lighter  to truck squad boys. seems to me ; going with the squat look on a dump  will look  like an over weight after it is loaded . might find yourself on the scales more often. just a thought.  O&G in Torrington , CT  did some.  if they did ; had to be a reason.

I would be going over the driveshaft (s) with a "fine tooth comb"  , looking for a balance weight  that fell off. had a brand new truck yrs back drove us nuts for a long time .  just happened to see unpainted spot on front shaft. old truck , look for welds on tube where a weight might have been 

you will find life  a lot easier when you go to put the tumble back in door if the key is installed in tumbler.  working the tumbler shaft and placing the lock in at the same time is a challenge. pair of needle nose or flat nose pliers work best for pushing flat locking clip. leave door handle and window crank on assembly door handle works great for leverage handle.  assembly drops down in door to clear window , use inside door handle to push assembly up in place catch top two screws . 

did  you start with simple process of elimination  when fluid was changed ; meaning pull hyd lines off blow air through lines , make sure opposite end is in a pail or gallon jug ;  see if inner lining has folded over and blocking line? or maybe some one crossed lines. have even seen dry  grease/ dirt packed between spindle and axle make a difference. pressure wash …   pull filter cover; remove filter:   COVER with clean rag and start unit. should see  oil flow  fountain into canister.  DON"T race engine at first  oil will be all over . does it have single or dual steeringboxes ?  how does it drive going down the road ????  tires wearing smooth ?? front end out of toe will make a difference.  remember i'm not use to these "new" trucks LOL . throwing out ideas based on past experience  

On 1/13/2013 at 5:04 PM, BKrois said:

I heard a rumor hes selling everything? Haven't seen the trucks since he hauled on the I-95 job in bridgeport probably 10 years ago.

 just found this forum  can almost be brought  to tears.   at 68 years of age , looking at the pictures and reading the notes endless memories came back. I worked at Mack truck in Waterbury.CT from march 1969 t0 june 1975.

I am honored to know Mr Dom Moffo:: worked on his truck, Gasperri, O&G , and many others.  talked with Dom jr this past summer. Dom sr is doing as well as could be expected at 90 +. even the pool water business is gone. I delivered many of O&G "s new triaxles.

I brought in the first DMM quad chassis from Albany mack  to CT as a demo.  those are days gone .  my grandson drives   a fancy KW triaxle ; I tell him he has no idea of the fun behind the wheel of a B-81 or DM 800 with a quadbox. i'm glad to see so many people keeping  this part of history alive.   Thanks for the memories