Geoff Weeks

Ok, someone put a newer tank on there. Step tanks up to the late 70's have the Tolhiem access plate, as both Ford and IHC big Gassers used that in tank pump. That tank is from a later year, when the gassers were no more and diesel was the fuel of choice. When you put it back, do yourself a favor and either get some strap webbing or make some by cutting an old inner tube to put between the strap and tank. Everything flexes and it will rust and wear a hole under the strap.

Vlad, If his tank is like any of my step tanks, they have a plate on top for access to the Tolhiem pump that was original fuel pump for the truck. With that removed, there is plenty of room to get your whole arm in the tank. It is a large "D" shaped opening. My tanks tended to rust out under the "bands" and around the step area. I can take pictures of what I'm talking about, but it will be obvious once the tank is out.

Bocky, you bring up something that happened to me last week. I was traveling to my brothers house in DMZ IA, and saw Love's had the cheapest unleaded. I pulled in and started to pump, no where around the grade selection buttons did it say anything other than "unleaded, Super unleaded and "premium" But on the top of the pump there was a little area that stated all fuel other than premium were 15% alcohol while "premium" was 10%. Around me, they have the alcohol content labeled at the selection buttons. I stopped pumping (I was driving a pre 2001, which is not supposed to have that much alcohol). Buyer beware! I buy Premium with no alcohol for my '84 Saab, 10% for my Toyota, The K-7 burns a lot when it is run, but gets run not much. Still that was, what I would call deceptive on Love's part. You can (and most stations do) put the alcohol content above or below the grade selection button. They have seen the last of my money!

It is my understanding that the LV (as well as Ford SD) have in tank Tolhiem fuel pumps, no? so at least the evaporation problem that many of us struggle with (fuel evaporates from the carb, fuel pump) is a non issue and should prime quickly. I have similar step tanks on my K and similar rust problems. You can increase the filter size or keep many on hand. Clear filters can help see the problem before it plugs.

I know more than a few oldtimer that never pull the wheels for brake jobs, doesn't matter if inboard or outboard, they pull the hub and wheels as one. If you are working on a smooth shop floor, a big piece of tin layed under the tires and slicked up with soap and water, just slide them out. I was always doing it in dirt, so would use my boom truck when I could. Trailer hubs you can't do that, but they make a slider tray for dual, which is slick. Quicker to pull the hub and wheels together and allows for bearing inspection also. Only down side is if you find you need a drum, with out board you have to pull them apart, in board it can depend.

Kinda begs the question, what is the intended use of the truck? If you plan on using the 58's to their fullest, then stay with 24" TT, if you are not, but are still going to load the truck, I think those 58's would be an albatross in terms of parts when on the road. If it is a "hobby" truck then the 24" tires will out last your lifetime, so again no reason to change. Seams like a whole lot of money to spend if you don't need too.

Then I'd say it isn't a common occurrence. I've had SP-4 spring brake valves on a trailer fail, and will not apply the spring brakes until all the air leaks out of the tank, I wouldn't use that to condemn spring brakes. It was a one off failure that can and did cause problems holding a loaded truck (tractor spring brakes were not alone strong enough on the grade it was parked on). Any truck with a driveshaft parking/E brake is subject to that failure, not just 2 spds. It was the reason that trucks got away from driveshaft brakes in general. I have repair more than a few snapped axle shafts, and most were on single speed axles, but they are more common anyway, so can't say why they snapped but it would point to operator error. Never snapped anything on stuff I owned.

Yes, Paul you are correct. I didn't take the two posts as one connected incident. However my comment about spring brakes stands. most all tractors will have spring brakes on the wheel ends. It was why they were retro-fitted to older equipment still operating. Thank you for pointing it out. That said, I have never twisted off an axle shaft, and moved loads in 170,000 lb range, not much for some of your Roadtrains, but for the US considered heavy, BTW that was done through a 14" organic double disk clutch.

In the above quote, I was talking about shifting the rear only. Like any compound shift, you need to take into consideration what is happening ratio wise. If you pre select a compound shift (moving trans and rear) like any other you can get caught with neither in gear. I will upshift the trans, and down shift the rear as I complete the shift. So double clutch upshift, when letting the clutch out when in higher gear, make the change on the rear. This means a larger drop in engine RPM to make the shift in the main but gets speeded up before load is on it. How wide the step also plays a part, My K's have a big step between 3rd and 4th, you need to downshift the rear making that jump, if you pre-select low range when you 1st break torque, there is nothing to speed the driveshaft up to match the rear low ratio to what the driveshaft is spinning. If the engine is against the gov, you can't speed up the driveshaft, so neither will go into gear. Kinda like shifting a 13 speed, make the main upshift 1st and the rear ( or in case of the 13, splitter gear)2nd. Sound more difficult than it is, but with a gas engine the ratio jumps tend to be bigger than with a close ratio box with a diesel. Most gassers have a 5 main and 2 spd rear, many diesels may have a 5 speed main and 3 spd aux. for the same ratio spread. A little time in and becomes 2nd nature.

Fine then you are saying wait the decades for the money before doing anything! Companies will declare bankruptcy and courts will have to sell off what few assets there are. Neither Biden nor I am saying don't go after the company, but what is being said, is lets get going! We need the port open, and we need the roadway. If you want to wait until all funds are collected from other entities, the port will never be open again. We have already spent more money then the assets of the ship owner (responsible party) so are you suggesting we stop now? Think about it. I am not saying it is fair or just, but it is what it is.

Sure, if you want to wait decades for the lawsuits to make it through the court process. Eventually, moneys will be recovered, but chances are not 100%, and in the mean time, the port is closed and traffic diverted. The US is going to act as bank, finance the removal and replacement, the costs to our economy is such we can't wait for the lawsuits to be settled, and recover as much as possible when all is done.

No, you learn to park in low range! Never snapped an axle shaft in 1000's of mile pulling with them. You sound like a guy at work who managed to snap the shift handle off the top of shifter rod, can break an anvil with a rubber hammer. By the mid 60's if not before, tractors and most air braked trucks had spring brakes and axle isn't even a factor,

There may be a "European" bolt pattern disk hub that will carry the big bearings. Plenty of disks made for those hubs, but still not what I'd call common. That said, I wouldn't have made the change to begin with.

Brocky, I can see where flipping something on the dash might throw off timing. On my K's I pre-select,so on upshift there is already vacuum at the diaphragm, and once torque load is off the gears the shift takes place. downshift is a little more tricky, as you have to "break torque and quickly raise the engine speed to complete the shift.. Both ways are pre-selected. In the Marmon, with the gov diesel, it is a little easier to control the engine rpm, than it is with carb'd gas.

My Marmon has two speeds front and rear on the tandems. Air shift (piston type) and never had a problem, always shifted when I needed them to. I started out in low every time, they got used alot.

That is not a Loadstar, it is a V model. BTW I maintained a Loadstar school bus on air brakes, you could get a Loadstar with air brakes, just as you could a K-7 (around the same GVW range) and all "midrange" IHC's. Juice brakes were more common, but air was an option.

With any two speed you are not going to have lightning fast shifts. Air and Vacuum, use air pressure as a cushion, Electric needs a torsion spring. (note early diaphragm air shift also used torsion spring) that is known to break without warning. I have two single axle on vacuum shift and one tandem on air (piston type), I find both reliable and easy to "learn" My air shift is electric over air, air solenoid controls air pressure to both front and rear axle shift motors (pistons). The two vacuum shift are cable to valve with no other power needed.

Right kind of wheels, non syncro, 2 spd rear.... Life is good! Air, electric or vacuum on the 2 spd shift motor? Air is my 1st choice, vacuum 2nd and electric last.

Which side of the seal is it on? That looks like it could be a "weep hole" to allow any coolant that gets by the face seal to drain out and not destroy the bearings, also to vent air from the bearing cavity when there are temp changes. If you have a lot of coolant leaking from it than the face seal is shot. If I am wrong and it is on the impeller side of the seal, then disassemble, clean the casting and braize shut.

Not really, These trucks were used to pull semi trailers after WW2 when trucks were in short supply. They were geared to run 55 @ rated RPM. Mine will top out at 62-63 at redline. Smaller, lighter trucks were sold to small farms, etc had the flathead, and were more 45 mph trucks. The -6 and up had IHC designed OHV engines, lined blocks (for easy overhaul) and were trucks from the get go. I can only conclude they didn't understand the dynamics of driveshafts turning at high speeds. Like the OP'ers truck, it was designed for longer trips on hiway.

I was chasing a bad vibration, I used to be able to run the truck at 50-55 and it was un-drivable above 35. The rear shaft had bowed badly, not from any hit but from running above the critical speed. The more a dove into the problem, the only thing that made sense. I started laying out a replacement shaft and once I ran it through the Spicer calculator, I found stock would not work. The hard part was U joints were obsolete and I had to switch to a more modern joint. That meant changing yokes and had to make the tube a lot larger to make it stronger. Ended up putting more in the shaft than the truck cost me 20 years ago!

One thing I found working out a new driveshaft for my K-7 that early on and I don't know when it was learned, that driveshafts were made that were well into and above the critical speed. My K-7 had the OEM shaft , I checked against the parts list and dimensions, it was as built. I then plugged those very same dimensions into Spicer's calculator for critical speed and it was in and above during most of highway running. I had to re design the shaft to make sure I stayed well away from critical speed. I suspect that the people mentioning not running the rear in low with the trans in O/D is because if you are pushing the driveshaft into critical speed it can whip and come apart. I don't know when the effects of critical speed and 1/2 true critical speed were fully understood, I knew of critical but not 1/2 true and didn't know how to determine it. Spicer has a calculator on their website that makes it easy, plug in shaft dimensions and it will spit out the rpm's to keep away from.

No reason you can't run low rear in O/D front. The rear doesn't care, a worn driveshaft might as you are pushing it at its fastest speed, something not always done in high. It would be like saying you can't run any rear fast. It isn't the rear but the driveshaft that has limits. Run a rear real fast and you'll have heat issues, but unless it already has a problem, it will not make one. Without knowing the trans ratio it is hard to say what is "progressive" and what is not. My K-7's go 4-lo, 5-lo, 4 hi 5 hi (working 5 speed) but I find the steps too close together to be of much use, with a big step between 3hi and 4 lo. I ran my Marmon with a .73 od in top (15 O/D) in low but had to be careful not to push the driveshaft speed above critical speed. When I would feel it I would upshift the rear and down the main. Really pulling hard in 15th low, was close to 14th (direct) in high, but there was a slight difference, nothing the 3406B couldn't deal with.

At least you had a good portion of the root of the tooth to work with. What did the pinion look like? Most times I have seen damage like that the pinion took the worse of it.

Off topic but... Years ago I was working on a large NG boiler. It hadn't been in use for a while and once it was repaired wouldn't fire up properly. It would light off and the main gas valve started to open, got about 1/2 way and then stopped. Guy I was working with determined that the valve was hyd operated, and was low on fluid. He pulled a sample and said "this smells like nothing I know". I took a sniff, and knew I smelled it before, It took a while and then it came to me Skydrol! it was over 15 years since I had been around it. Made sense, fire resistant hyd oil! Sent him off to Midway airport for a pint, problem solved!