Geoff Weeks

Anybody remember "Arlene's" In Battle Creek, MI? Used to make a Friday night pot roast to die for! about a mile or so off the Interstate on the old US hiway. I'm sure gone or sold to new owners by now.

In my view, you always have a choice, my truck, my income. I'll mark it "refused" and take it back at the shippers expense. If I were a company driver, I would call in and get the company to make the choice. I once had a guy try and climb in my cab "to show me it could be done" after I refused. My dog was sitting in the drivers seat as he always does when I am out of the cab, they rancher didn't look when he reached for the door handle, Rory is a big Chow/Great Pyrenees mix and just looked down at him, I said "I wouldn't do that if I were you"! Rory would have just moved over and let him it, but his reaction was priceless! It save a physical confrontation from me, and I got unloaded and turned around where we sat! At this point we were already 40 miles from where I was told it was to deliver, and I had the drives chained for those 40 miles.

I've been dragged in a few places but I put an end to it. Every time I ended up with damage, sometimes minor sometimes major. If I can't make it in with 10 tractor tires and 4 trailer tires chained, you've got a problem, not me!

Engine coolant thermostat 180-190 deg F, Fan switch, 205-210 deg F. Often people who don't understand, use a low 160 deg thermostat to try and solve an overheating problem, it will not! the engine thermostat only sets the MINIMUM temp the engine can run at, above that the thermostat has no effect. 160 deg thermostat and fixed fan, tells me someone is having over heat problems and isn't dealing with the real problem but trying to "get by' without fixing the real problem, which it likely to be the radiator. The radiator only has to drop the coolant temp 10 degs F at full load, if it can do that, the engine will never over heat. The outlet of the engine at 190 (thermostat temp) and the inlet back to the engine at 180 deg. When really working hard the outlet will be 200 and the return 190, when there isn't enough air flow to drop the coolant that 10 degs the fan kicks on at 15 deg above thermostat temp or so. Overheat alarm is often set at 220-225 deg (may be higher on the newer engines.) Radiators can be expensive, but often they are the true fix. I have spent more on a radiator than I did on an engine overhaul kit ($2150 for a radiator, $1500 for an overhaul kit).

I can't stand the noise of the fan running all the time. I don't know how much fuel is saved but the noise is enough for me to fix the clutch. I've had to make a few trips with the clutch locked when something went wrong, but never kept it that way.

It's yours for the postage if you want it. Face is 4 7/8 OD fits in a 4 11/16 hole or there abouts. Dip switches on the back to adjust for tire/ratio, has extra wire for Eaton 2 spd (leave disconnected if you don't need) I has no "name" on the dial

I was delivering a cell tower in Or up near Crater Lake, but several miles up a one lane dirt track. There was a space we could turn around and they we take the tower the rest of the way up the Mt one piece at a time. At times like that, I would put Jesse on a long lead tied to the trailer while we did the off load. When I got done, I noticed the long lead had parted. We were in bear country and likely cougar as well. I was calling and calling, and would have stayed the night or longer if that is what it took. what really concerned me was he was trialing 1/2 the rope and I could see it easly getting caught on something. He came back with a big grin on his face, and a big grin on mine when I saw him!

here is a photo. Let me know if you are interested.

Something is niggling in the back of my mind that Mack used the Prestolite Treckstar speedo like IHC did. If that is true, I have a used one. I know it worked when I had it in a truck a few years ago.

I met him and visited at his house for a short while. I needed an air start tank, he knew where there was one, got it for me and held it until I could pick it up. Just the kind of guy he was. His advice was always good and he helped a lot with Cummins stuff over the years.

Tried heat, rubber wheel (that was made for removing decals) and someone suggested oven cleaner (don't do it, takes the paint off). no luck, head a a plastic scrapper only "flakes" the decal. I have done others with heat and rubber wheel followed by rubbing solvent to remove the gum, but these are not budging

Anybody got a recommendation on the best way to remove old baked on decals that have been on the truck for more than a decade? I've got to get the old ones off the Marmon, and get it sold. Started right up, I don't remember when the last time it ran, but has been years not months. Didn't take a full air tank before it was purring.

A lot depends on the construction of the engine. Those with water cooled aftercoolers, it is always a trade off between best temperature for efficient running and still be able to cool the intake air from the turbo. Those without an aftercooler or with an air to air, the limiting factor is how close to boiling it can run without cavitation damage to the liners. Those that can handle higher radiator pressures the higher temp they can handle. When the coolant pressure is held to around 4 psi than 218 to 220 would be the high limit. There is no hard and fast rule as to how hot is too hot. Look at the owners manual and see what they recommend. Deutz (air cooled) are known to run fine at 300 degrees F head temp just fine.

Loose like the caps drop in, or loose like the yoke has spread? Long and short of it is driveline is not a place to cheap out. 1st I would try with a new joint to see how the fit is before condemning a yoke that may not be able to be replaced. You could take the all the dimensions and see if there is another yoke that could be machined to accept a speedo drive gear, any speedo drive gear then adapt the ratio to the head with a ratio box. But in reality what ever you do isn't going to be cheap. It is going to come down to what you can find.

IIRC on the east side of US 20, never stopped there, but I do remember it.

Forgot to mention the box with all the different gears to make up ratio adaptors. This application was the 1st I've seen where they said the gear and yoke were supplied as one. New one on me as well.

I can strongly recommend going with an electronic speedometer. Makes life easy. Cost isn't much and the yoke for electronic seams to be available. If you must keep the mechanical and are willing to spend the cash to keep the original speedometer, Dakota digital makes a steppermotor cable drive to convert electronic pulse to speedo cable drive. Cost plenty though. depends on what your situation is. For a working truck, I would go electronic and be done with it. Hobby or restoration is a different matter. Cable drive is only going to get harder as the years go by. I used to be able to get them made up in Omaha, no more, Colorado, Texas and Michigan are the closest places now. What exactly is the problem with the present yoke? Can it be repaired?

Everything I find so far says it is discontinued, so repair or used may be your only option.

this might help: J300P-10 (patsdriveline.com) Interestingly the catalog shows the speedo gear as integral on that model trans? Not seen that on other transmissions, they list one for mechanical and one for electronic. Learn something new every day!

I would still look it up in the Spicer catalog, often I find people have one sitting on the shelf, can't remember what it was ordered for and just want it gone. Sell it for used price for a brand new yoke. Once you have the yoke number you can search it both ways, by application and Yoke number. You'll need to know what series U joint you are using either way, the Spicer catalog will help with that, they list the dimensions.

Agree with the above. Spicer yoke catalog should get you the right yoke if you truly need a yoke.

I always went about it the long/cheap route. I bought a used truck and then outfitted to what I wanted, often with used parts. I would imagine that as long as the parts are still available that route would still be an option. IDK with air disks taking over how many spokes that can handle disk brakes, would be available? I know school bus chassies use them a lot, not sure on heavier trucks?

I've heard that alot, but it has always been by non technical people. I haven't heard any conclusive proof. There are many reasons why I doubt the "corrosion" explanation. My Uncle was a corrosion specialist for USS and I wish I had thought to put the question to him when he was alive. 1) most corrosion is caused by air and moisture/salts external to the wiring, new sealed lights more or less prove the point, now the corrosion is not at the light bulb but at the connection, again where air and moisture can attack it. 2) we still have as many connections with either polarity and while the direction of flow at each connection is reversed you still have steel to copper, so if it would make a difference it would just move the corrosion point not eliminate it. 3) some point to galvanic protection of pipeline and bridge structures as proof, this misses the point that vehicles move through the air and to be effective you would have to charge the air around the vehicle to have any effect. 4) when positive ground was popular, little was known of galvanic corrosion or the effect or direction of electron flow in a dc circuit. With old simple vehicles, it just plain didn't matter, most gauges didn't care (later balanced coils gauges do) so it really didn't matter which way around the vehicle was. In the 6 volt era, you saw a lot of positive ground. When the switch to 12 volt as the common vehicle voltage is when we see negative ground become popular. It think it was more to differentiate from the 6 volt vehicles. Once semi-conductors started being used, it cemented negative ground. For some reason it is cheaper and easier to mfg semi conductors in that polarity. Old tube radios used vibrator coils to make a static inverter essentially isolating the radio power feed from the vehicle. I had an old Telafunken (sp?) out of a '55 Porsche that could be run on both 6 or 12 volt, positive or negative ground. Once transistor radios came in most were negative ground. An alternator requires diode in both polarities so no gain or loss there as to vehicle polarity. L/N an early maker of automotive alternators, went with "case neutral" construction so could be used on either polarity, most other mfg made the case one polarity or the other, requiring a different part number for + or - ground. With the abundance of semi-conductors in a modern vehicle, negative ground is almost taken over. You did ask Swishy.

Correction, I am wrong, it is not a U200 Timken, although it looks a lot like it. It is CRD117 Mack. I didn't know Mack made frontloading double reduction, all I know are the top loading. Bearing and seal kit: 205SP70 According to Weller for what that is worth. Quick search comes up with: PAI Online (paiindustries.com)

Wow, old Timken axle. You might find a rope seal sandwiched in the front bolt on plate. I haven't pulled one apart, I'd have to look if I have any parts or service that cover that old "U" axle.