
Geoff Weeks
Pedigreed Bulldog-
Posts
1,642 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
6
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Gallery
Events
Blogs
BMT Wiki
Collections
Store
Everything posted by Geoff Weeks
-
Air brake issue
Geoff Weeks replied to Jizzo17's topic in Antique and Classic Mack Trucks General Discussion
last picture looks like a double check The other is a relay valve. -
-
"Ok you bearing, you have been warned, you better slip on there or I taking to the 50 ton press"😆
-
Phelan and LaCrosse made a bunch of those. They end up making the rounds of farmers etc as they are too short to haul much that is around today. Couldn't use to to go after a truck, too short, Might work for an antique tractor. Use is limited in today's world is all I am trying to say. That one has tubeless tires at least from what I can see, that is a good thing.
-
Air brake issue
Geoff Weeks replied to Jizzo17's topic in Antique and Classic Mack Trucks General Discussion
Going way back in my fuzzy memory, some trucks with the ign on and the parking brake set, would activate brake lights. With key off brake light switch is fed from another switch that is always powered. Not 100% 'cause we are talking about a 1/2 century ago. Get the air system fixed 1st then see where the electrical is at. Air systems are not all the same, and can vary widely. Some use relay valves on the spring brakes some do not, some have anti-compounding on the spring brakes, others do not. some use inversion valves on the spring brake side for emergency use of the spring brake when half of a dual air system is down. That is why it is so important to have pictures and label where each line goes. My 9670's didn't have any relay valves on the tractor, anywhere! straight piping from the treadle valve to the Q/R on the axle housing itself. -
The M.A.N's I worked on had planetary hubs, but a straight axle, The diff ratio could be a few different ratio's and the planetary hub did the bulk of the reduction. Kept shafting light and small. The British buses were different, the diff was below the plane of the axle shaft and used spur gear reduction up to axle shaft height. The hubs were conventional bearing on spindle type. From what I remember, going back over 40 years, the M.A.N's the trans, and driveshaft all turned in the same direction as the engine. With Planets, the reduction can be had in the same rotation, three sets of gears are used, sun, planet and ring. In spur gears when only 2 gears are used, driver and driven, the rotation is reversed. To keep it the same you need idler gears between the drive and driven. At one point, Rockwell/Meritor was offering the planet hub system to North America, From talking with heavy haul/ superload drivers, they have heat problems when run at high speed all the time, great for pulling but not so great for long haul high speed. Noisy also. The British truck I was talking about used the same trans/rear as the buses, so putting a conventional trans would reverse the ultimate output. From what I remember of the situation , the engine and trans were replaced with a conventional engine/trans set-up and that is why it ended up useless. They would have needed a counter rotation engine or a complete driveline swap from front to back. We did one of the British buses before I worked there with a counter rotation Detroit. I never saw it but heard about it from the other mechanic. To clarify the M.A.N. driveline buses would top out over 50-60 mph, the Heavy-haul operators were talking about heating up at speeds over 70mph coming home empty. I guess it is what you consider high speed.
-
There was a British truck that used the same system, I don't remember which make, and someone thought "I'd really like more gears" and fitted a Roadranger only to find he had 13 spds in reverse and only 2 going forward!
-
roll this around your mind a bit: The British bus manual transmissions the output was on the counter-shaft, or the counter-shaft was behind the clutch shaft depending on how you look at it. This made the output "backwards" from the engine rotation! So the diff turned backwards but because there were spur gear final reduction between the diff and the axle shafts, the rotation was reversed once again. Diff was mounted below the axle shafts to keep the floor flat on the lower deck. Really would mess with your mind trying to figure out what was doing what-where!
-
Given that somebody had been in there before (by the block oil to the bearing) I wouldn't trust anything. If I am the first inside since build, most times the same shims can go back and be correct. A local gear shop I used (past tense) was sending re-bearing pinions with 0 pre-load on the bearings! fortunately I saved the old spacer. They claimed I didn't know what I was talking about, and pre-load would burn out the bearings!
-
Mechanical Cat's were the worse, they returned very little fuel, Cummins and Detroit 2strokes returned a lot more. I had a problem with my non-draw side not transfering fuel to the draw side. At 1st I thought it was a frozen transfer hose, it was low and might collect moisture, but it turned out the tank breather would ice over and hold vacuum on that side. Open the filler to a large sucking sound and it started to equalize. I never owned anything without the cross-over, so that tells you hold old my equipment was.
-
As long as the fuel is warm, and the engine working under a load, a diesel does great in the cold. Spark ign engines need the mixture matched for the air density, a diesel doesn't. Well, at least not on the increased density end of the scale.
-
My 9670 have those coolant loops in the tank, but they are too slow to save you if the truck was shut off for any time. IIRC Arctic Fox was the brand name. I ran Tube and Shell heat exchangers before the filter. Used an air controlled coolant valve on them, so they remained off when the truck engine was running unless needed, opened when engine was shut down and air bled off, so cycled often to prevent sticking. With the combustion heater and/or electric block heater the exchanger had warm (if not hot) coolant right at engine start.
-
I didn't idle unless the overnight temp was below -25F (ran a combustion heater). Was running in true -35F temps, didn't warm to -25F until about 3pm. Duel 150 gal tanks have a lot of surface area, if snow and ice are clinging to the tank, it is a sure sign the fuel is below freezing! My fathers whole family was from Maine, we have roots going way back up there. That said, it rarely gets as cold as it can in Montana and North Dakota. Nothing stopping the polar winds from plunging south over the high plains of Central US and Canada.
-
Most of the sites that aren't forums, in other words, refiners and farm suppliers suggest, icing of fuel becomes evident between 30-20 degF. #2 starts clouding below 15 deg F. Clouding can be combated by mixing with #1, but at a loss of energy per gal. Pure #1 starts to cloud below -30F
-
Here are two links that somewhat discuss cloud point, one from a fuel refiner, the other from the state of Colorado, both mention wax as the cause not moisture: https://ops.colorado.gov/sites/ops/files/2021-01/diesel_analysis_and_specifications.pdf https://www.cenex.com/expert-advice-and-insights/cold-weather-diesel-problems
-
If your talking true "jell" where it is below the pour point, then no I have not seen that either, although I do know some running north of the 48th parallel that have. If it truly jelled than the fuel pump will not move jell, but it will move clouded fuel, where the paraffin has started to precipitate out. What I am talking about is not ice, it is wax or a waxy substance that will plug a fuel filter. Any water will form ice when the temp drops below freezing, water and fuel don't combine to lower the freeze point of water. Water in the fuel is a problem at any temperature, not just below freezing.
-
I was working at a construction equipment rental house, we had our own above ground fuel storage tank, We ordered "winterized" fuel, was supposed to be mixed #1 and #2 to cloud free to -25 or so. Makes for a long day running around sorting out equipment with plugged filters! When the sales person showed up trying to tell me it was "ice" I dipped a tank on a piece of equipment that had sat in the yard overnight, and you could see the "fish eggs". No,it can't be water, that would have frozen and would be at the bottom of the tank. Duetz's did fairly well once you got them started, the fuel filter is on the same casting as the oil filter, and that transferred enough heat to the fuel filter. They were fairly hard to get going, however. Measured shot ether systems were our solution.
-
Cold enough and the waxy components in diesel start to solidify. Looks and feels like "fish eggs" Water will turn to ice and be hard. You'll not solve a water problem with heat. I've had bulk fuel people say the same, but when you can strip it off a filter element and feel the waxyness, it isn't moisture. They say that to shift the blame on the person storing the fuel. So I guess we are talking about the difference between "cloud point" and solidifying. If you had enough water in a fuel filter to plug it, apply enough heat to melt it the slug of water would blow tips off injectors. True "gelling" is when the fuel in the tank all turns to "jello" but cloud point is when the waxy components start to drop out and stick together. JC I heard enough of people say what you do, but have never heard them explain why fuel at 20 deg doesn't have this "ice" they claim but does when the fuel is at -20! Fuel and water don't mix! True gelled fuel is below the pour point, and that is rare, but in popular using of the term "gelling" is anytime the fuel is below the cloud point. It is hysterical listening to a fuel distributor try and explain why his "ice" only shows up 52 deg below the freezing point of water!
-
Heat exchangers for heating fuel have always been around, while they may have not been common. I have an antique engine heater from the 20's? 30?'s. Motorola and Stewart-Warner have made combustion heaters since the 30's and 40's at least. Hot Box coolant heaters used to be a thing. The solutions have been around since trucks started switching from gas power to diesel. What has changed is the J-I-T "got to be there" nature of trucking. Gelling has been known about since before diesel trucks. The willing to properly address the problem and pay the price to do so has always been the weak point that brings down the "system". Running in -35F in rural Mt, and being one of 2 trucks on a lonely stretch of of road, vapor trails running 1/2 mile or more behind the truck, you get to value the time and money spent on being prepared. The other truck had Alaska plates! All others didn't try or didn't make it far from the truckstop.
-
my take is: If I am going to put my life on the line going out in the real cold, I am going to properly outfit the truck. Never gelled even running at -35F Warm fuel doesn't gel. I had driver controlled, coolant type, fuel heater that I could turn on or off on the fly. I had an electric block heater for cold starts I had an Espar coolant heater for heat while parked overnight on the road. I would never trust my life to an additive. I have pumped "slushy" diesel (diesel that came out of the pump already starting to gel) into my tank and driven on, Would you do that with additives? It costs money to properly outfit a truck, but the money is paid back in spades not paying for a tow.
-
I just realized I mis-read the 1st post, It isn't the hub that is cracked, but the bearing race. Knock out the race and inspect where the bearing goes. Get a new set of bearings, or at least an outer race, and see if it will press firmly into the hub. If so, you are good to go, if not you can look to replace the hub or have it built up and re-machined to hold the bearing. Building up and re-machining will cost a few bucks, but everything you have can be re-used. New hub means new drum and may be new wheels. If your lucky it will hold a new race and can go back together.
-
They are on spokes, but not so sure about Disk. The next thing you need to know is the bolt circle for the axle studs and count and the diameter of the studs. 7" B/C and 5/8" dia studs 8 count are common, but 3/4" and other sizes are used. 580 outer bearing cone space a little over 4" apart are common on the spindle if in the range I mentioned. If it falls into the common hub, then you could replace with outboard drums and common hubs. https://www.webbwheel.com/online_catalog_hubdetail.php?hn=26431--MLT
BigMackTrucks.com
BigMackTrucks.com is a support forum for antique, classic and modern Mack Trucks! The forum is owned and maintained by Watt's Truck Center, Inc. an independent, full service Mack dealer. The forums are not affiliated with Mack Trucks, Inc.
Our Vendors and Advertisers
Thank you for your support!