The Heinz

Today was my last day at the dealership, very bittersweet. I saved my list of old truck VINs, which hit 81 before the end, last of which was a 1991 Superliner II with a mechanical E7. Customer wanted rear hood bushings. I'll still be around here for as long as I can operate a computer! Long live Mack trucks.

The others can probably tell you more on how the engine runs and performs, but I'll tell you what I know as a parts guy: The EGR system gets expensive if you end up needing to replace anything. The EGR temp sensors are probes made into the "mass-flow" tube, meaning you have to replace the whole tube if one of the probes goes bad. The cooler itself is usually unavailable from Mack, but we've had good experience with TamerX in the past with reman coolers. The valve goes back and forth on availability as well. Not sure how reliable the EGR is on these trucks to be honest, I just know it gets tough when it's time to load the parts cannon. The turbo can be a little finnicky from what I've gathered, so I'd be sure to keep up with the maintenance on that funny filter I posted about. The other guys will have more knowledge than me, I can only parrot what I've read here.

Built in October 2004, built with an ASET AC-427 w/ T310 10spd. Has Mack CRD92/93 rears, 4.42r. Camelback suspension, looks like the model that you need to keep greased. If you don't know, the AC series ASET motors is the one with an EGR valve, EGR cooler, and the VGT with an air filter on the driver's side of the block below the oil filter housing.

I remember seeing an older Jeep truck (post-Willis) at a car show a while back, not something I see too often around here at least. Always liked the idea of a Jeep truck, but the Gladiator just doesn't look good enough for me to like them.

I have been told the Volvo cabs are very comfortable and spacious, so there is a plus to the redesign. I haven't really been inside one to form my own opinion, only parroting what I've been told by my techs!

Wow, that's a crazier curve than us. It was almost 90 here yesterday, now it's in the 40's and still slowly dropping. Shoot, it was 75 this morning, and around 11 it was 55. Glad the system petered out before it got to us though, I was keeping up with it out west and saw the strong tornados on several livestreams.

I usually don't like to talk politics, especially online, but I have to say I have no idea what to believe anymore. On one hand, I do not like Iran and would rather them not have a nuke at all, but on the other, where there actually any WMD's in Iraq? Could this be another ploy just to destabilize another country for monetary gain (or some other form of ill-gotten gains)? Maybe. All I know, is I want my diesel prices back down, please. I just bought my first diesel pickup and was loving it before, now I drive with my teeth gritted.

Apparently an Iranian-adjacent hacker group hit a massive medical company named Stryker. Supposedly 50tb of data was stolen and thousands of company devices like phones and computers wiped clean. It's big enough for our company to put out info and remind us to be very careful.

I will, I'll be working for one of the largest lease/rental truck companies in the US. They surprised me with the pay and benefits, not to mention a lot of my former coworkers are now working for them too; one of which will be my coworker again. It'll be a good change for me.

Thank you kindly, I joined to help as much as I could! I enjoy reading all the interesting info even if it doesn't pertain to anything I'm doing or working on, it's just cool to learn about such stuff. I honestly would love to buy an older Mack one day just to visit shows with. You know I always need a toy haha.

It is with a somewhat heavy heart I announce that I will soon be leaving my role as a dealer parts salesman and moving on to a different job. It's a net positive for me, except I won't be able to look up anything for ya'll anymore. I won't be leaving the forum or anything, and my love for old Macks isn't going anywhere either. I just needed to make a move that benefitted me. I might still have an answer or two for questions I have them for, but for the most part, the parts guy role has faded. Guess I picked a good time to move too, considering the Mack I fell in love with just isn't present anymore. Like I said, I'm still here and will continue to be active, maybe even more active now, I just wanted to make a statement so everyone knows. For the mods that might read this post, I'll post a condensed version in the dealer section closer to my final day at my current job in case any changes need to be made on your end.

It's extremely common and on top of Youtube's algorithm already being trash, it makes the platform about useless. I've picked up reading again since I've noticed that the internet as a whole is terrible for a person now. I've heard it called an "attention economy," where everything is vying for our attention, and I know for a fact that's true. I've been making it my goal to not touch Instagram or Facebook at all, because I noticed that I tend to get stuck there for longer than I need to if I do touch them. Somehow, money is made off of our attention, and I don't intend to give them anything if I can help it. Reading's more fun anyways.

Autocar cabovers have been getting popular around here for local trash haulers, so I wouldn't doubt that they're trying to push themselves back into the limelight. If they're making trucks to be worked on, they'll start getting local fleets' attentions pretty quickly. The only downside is their parts lookup is less than ideal and parts pricing a tad high, but hardly a reason to ignore the truck as a whole.

If it's like the current Mack/Volvo air ride, it'll have a sensor on at least one airbag that sends pressure readings to a module to toughen the suspension under heavy load, our techs call it the load sensor. We don't see too many failures out of it in all honesty.

Gotta say I don't hate them as much as I thought I would, still think the old Macks look better, but looks isn't in most truck owning corpos' prerequisites anymore. The only thing I absolutely despise so far is the 24v system that we argued about in a different thread. Really want Volvo to figure that out for their sake and ours honestly. Wish they could just make the old Mack's again, but these are the cards that have been dealt, and they aren't the worst hand to have I reckon.