Bollweevil

I like it. I can see it now, pulling a road train. Ducky on one side and me on the other, with our own separate steering wheels. Of course we would have to agree before hand which side of the road to drive on. Hah.

It doesn't look weird to me, from this angel. If anything, it is sure to improve the sight picture in the right side review mirror. Thanks for your support. Are plans in the works for B model parts?

Your truck will talk to you if you take the time to listen. When everything is right, it is somewhat soothing, sort of a happy sound. The problem with radios, cd's, ear buds, traditional indian flute music, etc, is that your truck can be saying ouch, ouch, ouch, for miles and you will never hear it.

I know what kitty on a stick looks like, I see it at the Chinese joint. How are you going to take a picture of something you already ate. I guess we will never know what mickey on a wire looks like.

I think Rob is right, cable would be just as easy to rig on either side of the bell housing. Use the pedal and cable from an R, and whatever Ducky used for a brake valve. Get them both off the floor and out of the muck.

Any time that you flip the through out brg 180, you also flip the grease fitting. The best time to address this, is when the clutch is still on the bench. You can try to rig some kind of flex hose, or a better choice is just to drill and tap the opposite side for a grease fitting. I've done it both ways, on the bench is much easier.

What is the distance from the back of the cab to the center line of the drive axle? Depending on the length of the spreader lip, and what your intended use of the truck is 8 ft of frame might be enough for an 9 ft. bed

By the time you get all those candles lit the first ones would be burned out, if the smoke alarm doesn't go off first. As my friend Peg-Leg said, maybe it's time to start celebrating your shoe size. Less chance of burning the house down. Besides. you don"t need an excuse to have some cake and ice cream.

Another option, instead of scabbing new rails, gathering up usable cross members, and re drilling everything. You could do as my friend from NC, did. He used an air ride cut off from an early 90's CH on his RS700. With the engine and transmission already out, it would not be much more trouble to set the cab off. Not only would the frame repair be much easier, however you elect to do it. But with the cab out of the way, You can set the Detroit where it needs to go, with plenty of fan clearance, and clearance for the rest of the accessories. If you have to set the cab back a few inches when remounting it, so what. An extended, extended hood R model would be really neat. Even more so if you put enough gear in it to set your hair on fire.

It would be really bad to run over the only woman in a million miles that will put up with him.

The only compressors I'm aware of that had timing issues, were the earlier Cummins compressors, manufactured by Cummins. Since the couplings did not have a master spline they would fit and work any way you could stick them on. If not timed properly they would rattle even more than normal, which was really bad. If I had a failure on one of my own trucks I always tried to round up a Bendix to replace it. Mostly a used unit, to get the necessary parts to change it over. Today, it is easy to get an argument started over where they needed to be timed in the first place. I never had to tie a rope around one on a Cummins, but I have used the rope trick on starters several times. If you could teach the puppy to hold the rope or start the bolts, it would be a really good trick.

I'm glad you straightened that out, reception for anything might not be to good from under the house. It would be even more miserable if she also had custody of the dog.

It works very well on lawn mower carb's also, Just a suggestion, but if you boil the hot dogs first you won't have to change the water. And as an added benefit, you can also clean and lubricate the parts at the same time. If you save the water to wash your hands afterward they will smell like hot dogs and she won't complain about you coming in the house smelling like grease or mineral spirits. Leave the pan outside, and the dog will be glad to clean it up. Works for me.

Joe, on models with Horton, or similar fan clutches, the same Kysor shut down also controls the fan clutch. Whether viscous or air operated the fan clutch would be the first suspect. See what it has. If it is air operated look for a manual switch. If no manual switch, jump the solonoid with a test lead to make the fan operate, and test drive it. A quick test for a suspect Cummins water pump is to attempt to lay your hand on both top and bottom radiator tanks, when the engine is showing hot. If the bottom is a lot hotter, it is not circulating. Cummins uses a lot of phenolic impellers in replacement pumps. They are prone to turn loose and spin on the shaft. Due to cavitation, over time they will sometimes lose the vanes. They always end up in the oil cooler. If you pull one of these pumps, and find part of the vanes missing, do not pass go or collect 200 dollars, but pull the oil cooler and clean it out before using the truck. If you can't find your problem, call me. James

The rationale for using engine oil is that on engine mounted pumps, a defective pump seal could and sometimes would, deliver steering oil into the engine sump.

You could say, Well, it is just what you get used to. But enjoying what you do, and absolutely loving every minute of it, smooths all of the ruts out. My oldest grand daughter is 21 now, but when she was about 1 1/2 I had the first opertunity to let her have a ride in my rig. In the bright sunlight, as we pulled out into a long clear stretch of highway, she leaned forward, slapped the dash, and gave a tremendous rebel yell. My daughter, who was holding her, said she's really getting in to this. Without having to think about it, I said, honey I feel the same way every time I start out in this thing. On another note, my dad was career Air Force. Having spent most of a 3 year tour of duty in Japan with him, we were just back in the states. It was another bright sunny day, and as we left Travis Air Force Base California, dad pulled onto the freeway and started down your side of the road. He couldn't understand why I was yelling, or why all those other S.O.B.'s were on the wrong side of the road. LOL

123 oil water and egt. 456 fuel pressure boost and trans temp, 789 air pressure volts and fuel level. If you are trying to have a factory set up I just don't know Paul Van Scott has a 66 with all the guages in the speedo cluster. My 73 has all of them with exception of the air pressure mounted in the center of the all steel flat dash. What ever you come up with would suit me fine. I like the idea of rebuilding something bigger, better, faster, and neater. If it stands out, and shines like a new penny, so much the better. Quality craftsmanship never gets old or never goes out of style. Fix it the way you like it, that's what hot rod's are about. What could be better than a hot rod Mack with a 60 in, air ride cab/bunk, a hanging brake pedal, and a custom guage package.

Since you are starting with a clean sheet of paper so to speak. It all boils down to what kind of an operator you are. It wouldn't matter to some, as long as the arrangement didn't compromise the CD changer or the CB radio. I would mount them the same way that you do in your race car. With an uninterrupted clear line of sight to the most important. OIL pressure, water temp, and EGT, and I would probably clock them to read the desired results at 12 O'Clock. I would mount the rest of them the same and conveniently as possible. Someone else getting in your truck might think you were drunk when you installed them. But, you could read them all at a glance, without really looking at them. I have never had a fuel guage that lasted much longer than the warranty, so any place you can find to lay your stick would work. LOL

I could not agree with you more, due to the complexity of the controls an internal combustion engine is no longer simple. Gas or diesel. That makes your job in the shop a lot harder. The basic engine however remains the same. But, you now have a lot longer list of possibility's that affect the same results. Separating the cause's from the results is a greater problem. Being able to separate them separates a good tech like yourself from a not so good tech. You have got a good attitude, you can handle it. I always figured that if someone designed something and someone else assembled it, then I could fix it. I'm not so sure now. I liked it a whole lot better when I could overhaul one on the side of the road.

I have began to see signs that some of the California guys are selling off some really nice older Pete's. It won't be long until they can't use them anyway. California is considering raising the weight limits for agriculture to 96,000 lbs. The thinking is that they can reduce emissions by using fewer trucks. Wonder how long it will take to figure out that you can"t stop the suckers. You could get around like that fine, so could I. but the simple fact is that everybody can't. In today's business climate it is hard for me to understand why anyone would want a truck. Shipping from the states would probably preclude buying a bunk here. I have no doubt that you could buy a whole dang truck for $4500. I have a dandy 40 in. sit in I would give you if you lived a little closer. After looking your project over, I'll have to start looking for another RS700 to put it on. I can tell you now though, that I am not putting the steering wheel on the same side that you did.

If you haven't already purchased a bunk, and can"t find a suitable Mack offering, you might take a look at a 359 Pete flat top. I like the notion of having a door on each side.

Two essential elements are required to build a fire. Fuel and oxygen. Normally, until a cold diesel engine reaches operating temp, it will emit a blueish smoke. Then the closer it It gets to 200 degrees, the smoke becomes neutral. Depending on the time of manufacture, you will see either more , or less black smoke, as you add fuel to a warm engine. Black smoke is a result, not a cause. Black smoke is caused by too much fuel, or not enough oxygen. A restricted air supply is worse than too much fuel. In extreme situations the fuel will put the fire out. At highway speed if you see white smoke under acceleration, the engine is adding oil to the fuel, or an excessive amount of fuel is cooling the combustion process. Again in an extreme situation you might be seeing raw unburned fuel. A high EGT is also a result not a cause. Again, it takes fuel and oxygen to build a fire. To build a 1200 degree fire you need a lot of fuel and a lot of oxygen, or too much oxygen, thereby leaning the combustion process. The new generation electronic diesel engines are more effecient, to a point, but a lot harder to diagnose. Engine basics are still the same regardless of what controls when and where. It still is just a big heat pump. It takes BTU's to make horsepower.

It would probably be a lot easier on you to just hire a couple of big boys to stop by every few weeks and beat you up.

I think I'll cry some too.

Your comments about RPM's and the chevy engine sounds a little odd. They have an entirely different reputation here. On the other hand, us ford guys here have had to suck hind tit for years. The 335 series, or Cleveland engines were in production for a short while, and you guys can still get good stuff for them. The high bearing speeds and crummy cylinder head castings of the Windsor engines are, or were a limiting factor. I am talking about normally aspirated engines. You can stuff, and puff a Honda Civic and out run anything we had to work with. I saw your coupe in your gallery, Nice. Made me think of Mad Max for some reason.