DragoMack

6 minutes ago, Joey Mack said:

If the A-Frame is not rusted out at the bottom where the trunnion is mounted, and not cracked real bad inside the frame, and all you have is 'D' shaped trunnion  ends...  I have actually hired an axle surgeon company that will cut the trunnion bar out and weld in a new one..  I have hired this service 4 times and the work is pretty good. and it was $1500.00... I had to strip the wheels and spring packs off, but so what, gotta do it anyway, then I got new pivots from Mack and built my spring packs on the side. then put it all back together the next day.  My guess is the company in youre area will have the name of your state followed by Axle surgeon.  jojo

I’d have to check tomorrow. It’s night time now. 2 years ago I changed out the whole trunion. As a newby it never occurred to me to check the condition of the bar. But as I get into it I’ll see how much damage I’m really in. Thanks for the info! 

7 minutes ago, Mark T said:

If he doesn't know what's wrong with it ?  I'm guessing he's not about to take on changing the trunion  stand

Two years ago I changed out the whole trunion from the original to a 3/4” thick steel trunion. I’m not afraid of doing the work and I would consider myself new to heavy trucks. I’ve only had about 2 years experience with them. For me the biggest issue I’ll have is time. I’ve got more than enough work on my hands that changing bushings isn’t the biggest priority rn

I appreciate the feed back and info. Just took a quick look and the bushings are shot. So I guess that’ll be the next fix in the next few weeks. I have all the tools and space necessary to do the job. The biggest problem I have is time. I have a lot of work on my hands that the whole process might take a week or two. 

8 minutes ago, Onyx610 said:

I believe worn trunions will cause excessive play. Someone correct me if I’m wrong. 

What do you mean by “worn trunions”? Do you mean the trunion bushings?

I should note that it’s a 46K camelback suspension. And the leaf springs also appear to move. 

Today I realized that the front axle of the tandem on my 97 Ch613 dump truck shifts. It appears to move left and right 2-3 inches on turns and I wonder if its the cause of uneven tire wear. My guess is that the shifting is not normal. Any opinions on what’s causing this? 

What procedure steps do you use to adjust valves? This past Saturday I did the following 

1) take off valve cover. 

2)set 1 cylinder to TDC after compression stroke. 

3) check valve lash and adjust as needed. 

4) rotate 120 degrees to set #5 to TDC and adjust as needed. Repeat in firing order.  1-5-3-6-2-4
 

5) check lash again on all after adjustment. 

9 hours ago, kt_Engineer said:

Also, I noticed something that doesn't make sense. The fore-aft torque rod is in the wrong direction. It should be mounted facing towards the front/cab and not towards the rear. Also the front-axle has the straddle type bracket but without transverse torque rod (mounts of the side frame rail). The rea-axle has tapered torque rod bracket and transverse torque rod (as it should). This does not look right (also strange front-rear has different bracket type than rea-rear).

Also, do I have the right set up for these rods? I’m new to Mack trucks and the truck came set up as you see. The torque rods were put on the inside side of the axles where the hole mounts are. The rod length of the front is about 21 while the back is about 24. Is that the right length? I plan on getting new rods next Monday so I want to get the right stuff

9 hours ago, kt_Engineer said:

Also, I noticed something that doesn't make sense. The fore-aft torque rod is in the wrong direction. It should be mounted facing towards the front/cab and not towards the rear. Also the front-axle has the straddle type bracket but without transverse torque rod (mounts of the side frame rail). The rea-axle has tapered torque rod bracket and transverse torque rod (as it should). This does not look right (also strange front-rear has different bracket type than rea-rear).

I bought this truck used over a year ago so I guess I’m dealing with all the negligence of the previous owner. He did tell me the front axle is a replacement. Truck does do tough work running through loose dirt pits. Although I will also note that the front tan dif was repaired recently so my guess is that during the install my mechanic didn’t properly tighten the bolts of the torque arm. Could you further clarify about the fire aft facing the wrong direction? Is that the rod mounted to the frame in the rear? Is the “pin” like part supposed to be facing the cab and the torque rod on the back side of the bracket?

Yesterday my driver came to my yard with the torque arm bent. Any idea what would cause this? She said she had a normal day. The u joints of the shaft between the tandem were shot. 
this is a 97 triaxle ch613