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Today's update. I took a. 1/2 day off to get material and work on trans mounts. I think they turned out nice. Just need to dress them up and get some paint on them. Be nice to get transmission off a jack stand. Just something scratched off the long list........

It happened! It's in there. Let the fun begin.....all over again.....ugh. It went well. 1.5 hrs from friend backing into driveway until he pulled back out. Took a little finesse, wasn't perfectly engineered, but it got set in place. I can't post pictures of friends truck because it is a Cat service truck and it will get him in trouble with corporate. We just back from lunch and it just started pouring rain.

I saw something recently, it really struck a cord with me, or maybe a reality check It was youtube video, this fella is a retirement planner for people in the US Anyway the guts of the video was, he asked his 80 year old clients what the regretted not doing or doing at different times in their lives The biggest regret by far was (as I understood it) was people not seeing that in their 50's they, by and large have it all, let me explain From the time we start work as a young bloke we can work 20 hours a day 7 days a week and never get tired This is very handy as we are generally struggling to get a foot hold in life In this time frame we can make good money by working long hours, we have our health but we don't have enough spare time to enjoy the fruits of our labour's Most of us apparently find that by our 50's we are now smart enough and capable enough that we don't still need to work these long hours, yet apparently by this stage, that is what we know works so we keep on working Our health is generally really good still, we can make good money and still work long hours What we don't seem to see coming is that this good health only lasts maybe another 10 years and starts to slowly go down hill before accelerating until we pop our clogs and the journey is over These 80 year olds, by and large regret working to hard, for to long and not winding back on the work front and winding up on the enjoying of life and enjoying the fruits of labour's Our health and the ability to just do and enjoy things apparently goes pretty quickly and catches unaware I say to people When I was a kid at school hours took days days took weeks weeks took months months took years I think we all remember those summers that went on for ever These days years are gone in months months are gone in a week weeks are gone days Anyway Larry we have completely ran this thread off into the side cut But reading comments above, it sort of confirms what this video was saying Enjoy every moment as best as we can Paul

More retirement money spent..... 118" of all new steel. Getting an eyeball on making carrier bearing mounting plate. It needs to be a 12" drop from the existing cross member. Time for so more 1/2" plate. More progress up front also Lots of little stuff. I have the cruise control box apart and bought some new throttle cable to extend the reach as the new backwards throttle arm has a Z bar and I need to get to the block side to make a bracket to attach casing so I can hook cable up. Figuring exhaust out. I have new flange and a 45* SS elbow to cut down to make it go down and hook up to my existing flex pipe that attaches to exhaust. I laid out my clutch linkage on CAD this morning at work. I need to get some plate steel and start that project also. I left it at work, I will post a picture of the layout. I need a few new pieces to correct my AC suction line that is in the way of intake tube to turbo. I bought a new piece of 4" exhaust to make new intake tube to air cleaner. Just a straight shot now, old motor needed a zig zag. I also received my new dry element air cleaner today. That will one of the last additions as it is in the way when working on the truck of it is mounted on the cab. The struggle continues......

Thanks. For a blind guy with a band saw and an old Miller welder they turned out okay. Like I typically say...." Not always pretty but not going to break".

So, Zina decided she wanted to get some chickens. As for me, I'd just as soon get chicken from KFC and eggs from Kroger. But there's a saying, something about "happy wife..." So I've been working on this chicken coop that we got at Tractor Supply. They loaded it with a forklift and It was way too heavy for me to lift, I can only lift 490 lbs. So I had to open the box on the truck and carry it to the jobsite piece by piece. We've made decent progress on it though... I guess. I'll try to finish it tomorrow.

Here it is.. I had to shrink it down.

So we had our Touch a Truck event today. It was a beautiful day, and lots of familie's came out to see our toys. It was nice to see the kids faces when they were allowed to sit in the crane.

Well the City bought me a new truck. ... Just kidding. They replaced the slow A$$ Mack ASET underpowered truck, with this new Freight shaker. It's got a big Cummins and an Eaton 10 spd. Hendrickson Spring ride. Locking axles and diffs. That crane had a good smooth ride. I didnt go far, just across town. We are having a public event tomorrow called, ''Touch a Truck'' it's for kids to come and see all the cool trucks and equipment we have. They get to climb in them and blow air horns and such. I will try to post pictures.. When I got in the truck it only 126 miles on it..

Picked up the B73 a couple of weeks ago from storage. Needs service and a big cleanup, still. Still tweaking little things with it. Added some seat belts to it. Re-did the bumper nickname "KRACKERJACK" in vinyl letters after the painted letters proved a lot less durable than I hoped. It was a gamble doing it, but the trip home from Macungie last year in the rain gave it a real beating. Just had it put on this morning at a local sign shop and it took barely five minutes to do. I actually think it looks better and stands out more than the old sign. Been busy with a lot of other projects over the winter, like managing a project for my employer with recommissioning a 1953 Mack fire truck to roadworthy status. Just mechanical and electrical work until he figures out what he wants to do with it. Took on my cousin's '54 M38A1 for some mechanical work. I generally don't work on other people's vehicles, but he begged me and threw some cash at me to do it. Mostly finished all the work on the '41 ford cruiser for the CT State Police Museum and it had several big reveals over the St. Patrick's Day parades, participating in some big ones in Hartford and New Haven. Lots of coverage of it for the museum. So all my hobbies are keeping me busy while i still work on call for a great employer at this point in my life. I can't wait to see what shows I can make it to this year!!

Hippy, The guy who stabbed that girl in charlotte is a repeat criminal, that Democrat judges let out of jail 14 times before he killed her. And now they are going to split hairs about his metal condition... Bull Sh!t !! He needs a dose of leadacilin.. I am so sick of liberal judges ....

Thanks all for the stories. Here is some Saturday updates. Carrier bearing bracket: 1/2" plate welded to fit. I don't have any fab shop available since buddy retired and business was bought by new company. Due to slight misinformation the shop put the bolt pattern on centerline of my bracket, instead of a couple inches behind so I had to zig zag a bit. No worries, it will work. Just had to cut and paste it a couple times. Took a few tries to get it tacked in proper orientation before welding solid. I can't reach truck with welder, so had to use digital protractor and guesstimate, then tack, reinstall and see how each piece fit. Couple times and it was dead on. Now to drill for the four holes to attach to existing cross member. I have driveshaft angles all worked out using online calculator. I will need to roll pinion down from 5* to about 1*. This frame was from a short single axle and the driveshaft was short and aimed up. Now I have to go 120" and it has too much angle to get there. When I had the third box in, it wasn't an issue because it had a short driveshaft. There are a couple shims to pull but not sure if that will get me down. I may have to cut torque arm and shorten a touch. Time will tell, that is for another day. I got the cruise control cable all remade and hooked up. Should function as well as before. With the Z bar reverser I had to extend the cable to get to the block side and around to pull. It used to have a bracket on head of compressor and pulled on pump arm. This pump works back asswards and so has to reconfigure it. Luckily a std throttle cable fits it. Exhaust downpipe: After picking up the correct clamp, a short piece and a SS 90* pipe I was able to fabricobble it into one piece and it aims right down to my existing pipe that runs down under the truck. I just need to weld a 1/4" npt bung for my pyrometer. Will do that at work Monday as I need to use SS and TIG it. I only have mild steel Mig at home. Don't zoom in on the welds. They aren't pretty (my buddy would have made it look like jewelry but I wanted to do it myself). Thus I put some black paint on it. Ya, polished SS, it was what they had. Driveshaft sorta hanging in place. It will get wiped down after carrier bearing hanger is installed and then put some paint on it. Damn that thing is HEAVY! Even in two pieces. I put it up one piece at a time. I purchased steel Friday for the clutch linkage contraption. New revised sketch. It won't criss cross now. I am using the longer arm from the old Mack 5 spd(fits perfectly) and gets me down and away from transmission better to allow linkage clearance. It is the larger circle, the smaller is the arm I am building for clutch pedal. The item to lower right is the Z bar and it lays out the motion and travel I need. It is a plus to be an "engineer". 😆. I am nothing of the sort, but can draw shit. I will work on cutting pieces out for some machine work this coming week. Progress.......baby steps all around.

I have seen first hand the ones that retire and just sit. They usually don't live long. It is just the stress at work that wears on me and makes it hard to come home and work 3-4 hrs in the garage. I always feel better after working on the truck, because I complete small projects and feel like I accomplished something.

May be not:

I got 10 yrs out of that $300 237. It was time to upgrade. It's just insane the cubic money I have spent to upgrade things. But I know the old adage "spend some today, or spend a lot more tomorrow".

That's absolutely ridiculous, here's his birth certificate right here-

😆 Karen asked a few weeks ago about had I had in this project. I laughed and said "you don't want to know". She is demanding to help pay. I always say "she's a keeper".

Here's a handy little reference guide for you-

when the Superliner FIRST came out;;;I didn't like it replacing the R. seeing the crap being built in today's world the Superliner was a work of art.

Few things Made my shifter arm, bent it, installed all thread for handle and welded to isolator. Air lines are hooked up and it works. Can't play gear jammer until clutch is hooked up so I can get gears aligned. Welded bung for pyro and have pipe installed. Just need to get lower pipe adjusted properly and left side exhaust pipe attached to Y pipe. Only after I get clutch linkage because I need the room over their to crawl around. I will also work on heat shield for heater hoses once I get them clamped out of the way better. I will order a few pieces for linkage and post that in a few days. Rod ends, bushings, etc.

Hi guys...this old software will be running out of security updates soon so we need to plan on upgrading to the new version 5 software in the very near future...I know some of you hate changes but unfortunately, they are necessary to keep the software safe and the forum running smooth and fast! I've seen the updates and they aren't too bad...the forums will still have the familiar look and feel but there may be some things reorganized into different places. I upgrade the forum almost monthly but this upcoming update is a little bigger with more visible changes so I wanted to let you guys know ahead of time so you don't get overly shocked after I run the update! There are also 2 features that will be going away after the update...Status Updates an the forum Q&A Mode. This is mainly for security as they can be vulnerable to hack attacks...so expect those features to disappear.

A craked egr cooler. We used to drain the coolant, and remove the front hose off the cooler and put a vinyl glove over the port. start the engine.. If it inflates, the cooler is leaking exhaust into the coolant.

Dont think your anywhere near finnished yet Geoff.Dont know about body and ability but your interest clearly hasnt gone...Your a mine of helpful information..... Paul

I stopped at my friends motor shop after picking up the driveshaft since I haven't made it down to lunch for a few Saturdays. A buddy was there and told me I'm working way too hard and he could never pull all this off. I told him I can't believe I'm even getting it done. It is an endless chore of assembly, fabricating, etc. Nothing like when I bolted the 237 in. Hook up a fuel line and go. Nothing that easy with this. Last night was fabbing up cruise control cable. Bracket is painted and ready to assemble on engine and then hook up cable. Should be good. Much easier with no fender in the way. No way I would get it done if I had to climb over that fender a 100 times. I also got the rear air tank hung back on. It used to feed air steering but I am leaving it for volume. I dropped it off to ease removed of old aux box. I use it to air my tires in race car at track. It has a check valve so it doesn't affect the rest of the system. I hooked the 13 spd air line to it, since it had an open port now with no steering line. The trans does shift ranges, as I confirmed it last night. I just need to fab up a handle. I just did a refresh on my clutch linkage drawing this morning. I think I found a better way and will confirm it tomorrow night.

All I know is, yah can't take it with you I'll share my latest dumb ass purchase when and if it arrives from the US Don't see any trailers hooked on the back of a hearse A very dear friend of mine is slowly dying of brain cancer, he has no regrets and has lived a full life Anyway, enough dribble from me Your having "Crack" and that's all that really matters Top work and your making us all look like bludgers, or bums or what ever you call no hopers in the States Paul

Yep, a sweet boat for sure.. todays event waa small, but all the smiles were BIG!! I may just volunteer next year..

Yes, all new driveshaft with carrier bearing. When it had the extra box it had two separate shafts. Now with no aux, I have to get all new made. Should be the last big purchase.

Not to be forgotten. Fred & Nessa

I guess it didn’t make it this far out ….. that’s discusting should be hung in the town square our legal system sucks

First time out this year, had to go get inspection stickers

We moved the yellow truck today, we went to Walmart in it. Zina drove both ways. I told her she could drive it without power steering, she just needed to get used to it. She gets more confident every time she drives it. The guy is still working on the power steering though- I guess. Last time I talked to him he said "I haven't forgotten about you" and he was still tracking down parts. PXL_20260503_151949178.mp4

Also flogged from Facelessbook Credit to Greyhemi and Gordon Dahm down town Tokoroa ..rogee Paul

I am turning 71 shortly and it feels like I was run over by a truck some days but you got to keep busy I take care of my goats and chickens and dogs and cats and keep doing stuff in the machine shop just small stuff anymore I miss riding my motorcycles but I figure it's a trade off by still standing I shure wouldn't want to be still working on trucks and equipment full time but I will work on my B as long as I can

I hear you but we dont stop doing things because we grow old.....we grow old because we stop doing things...... Paul

When I had the interest, body and ability, I didn't have the time. Now I have the time, but the 1st 3 are rapidly slipping away.

lol the thought had crossed my mind. You’ve been spending money like a drunken sailor doesn’t matter. It’s all for a good cause and I get it. You’re all jacked up. To gidergoing. I’m sure you’ve got tons of followers as myself ready to give you a big applause even bigger than you’re already getting. Thanks for keeping everybody in the loop.

Im Australia the bull shit story starts with "I know for a fact" Radios are only used for Over Sized and loading and unloading, very little other talk these days Paul

I have kept chickens for over 15 years there is 22 plus Fred the rooster in the henhouse. One time I had a fox checking out the chicken run he led a short life it ended that day. Every morning I have two eggs from the day before, there is some upkeep you have to change out the wood chips I spread on the floor and cleanout the layer boxes we have two Bernese mtn. dogs and a border Colley and a little guy that is very intent on barking at everything that moves so we don't see too many critters sculking around the chicken coop I keep my granddads single shot 22 and I keep a 22 that is scoped for longer shots and for anything larger I keep a loaded 44 mag handy that gun came in handy when a bear got too interested in my goats