TheBulldogExpress

Ok, cool. I guess I'll nominate our 1990 Mack CH for the blood award lol. We made everything happen on that truck with low cash and never had anything done on it by a body shop or garage. I don't want to sound too cocky about because I'm sure theres alot of guys on here who did frame up restorations on some beat up old Macks. But it's worth a shot at the award lol Another category could be "Hardest working Bulldog" That would be cool.

Neat idea and yeah I think we all could agree you deserve the "Mack fan" award lol. Would the "blood" award be for someone who put in a lot of hard work on their rig? Thanks for maintaining a good site Eric

Yeah your right on. Were going to change out the lever arms asap since the 14.6k spindle has a different sized, shaped, and angled one, and thanks for the comment.

Name: Chevrolet V10 (1987) Date Added: 23 June 2010 - 07:50 PM Owner: TheBulldogExpress Short Description: My first pickup. Doing a complete restoration. Bought my first welder, been learning alot on this. View Vehicle

Name: Chevrolet C10 (1978) Date Added: 23 June 2010 - 07:33 PM Owner: TheBulldogExpress Short Description: 2wd 78 Chevy out of a junk yard with a V6. Put a flat bed on it. Bored .20 over 454 hooked up to a Turbo 400 and 3.73 gears. View Vehicle

Name: Mack CH613 (1990) Date Added: 22 June 2010 - 01:21 PM Owner: TheBulldogExpress Short Description: Purchased in 1999 from Gulf Oil where it was worked by my father (who also owns it) and it had 1,100,000 miles on it. The engine was rebuilt at Mack before we bought it. We took an axle out and fitted a sleeper on and fabbed a wrecker body on the back to fill in the frame since we were going to tow a ball hitch camp trailer. We also put in higher gears since its only towing 15,000 max. Chrome, lights and paint were also all done by us and we keep adding little things here and there trying to keep it looking decent. View Vehicle

lol 400 gallons and were in Branford.

I appreciate the comments. I'll post some pictures of the interior tomorrow. If any one hauls with a big rig or wants to, talk to me lol.

I appreciate it Rob. We might leave the current spindle on depending on how the lever arm effects the tire wear. If for some reason it still wears bad we will begin the hunt for the correct spindle. Ill let you know if that happens and get you the info. Again, I appreciate the help and your comment on our rig.

Yeah I understand all of you. I've helped out at auto shops and I think the spindle is bad. My father who owns the truck keeps intending on using it and I wanted to just see what other people thought. As a mechanic I would never let it leave the shop either with a spindle like this. I know what places go through with a holes today lol. We only use the Mack for camping and money is tight, probably the only reason he keeps intending to use it. I'm going to change over the steering lever to fix the angle the tie rod is at because it isnt correct, the tires are wearing a bit. We keep adjusting the toe and it never seems to correct it self. The truck isn't worked, so it won't be in danger for now untill its fixed. I hope to find a used spindle and just put new bearings and races on it, but thats a hard find here in Connecticut. If anyone knows a good place in PA or NY with salvage trucks let me know lol. Mack wants $1700 for a new one = / Thanks again for the opinions and help, Ill make sure it ain't used again! Also, if I correct the steering lever so that the tie rod sits at the correct level again, I should be ok with the different spindle/hub. It's the same size and everything, but It must be from a different year or a heavier rated front end. The only difference will be the brakes. The fit correctly, its just that since its a different spindle/hub, the brakes are for that model and not mine. I would think thats fine to do, but just asking incase im missing something.

I was 6 years old when my truck driving father bought this 1990 Mack CH from Gulf Oil in New Haven, CT. He had delivered gas with them for years and they were selling their fleet of 90's Mack daycabs. They ended up having the engine rebuilt (it had a million miles on it) before he bought it for 16,000. My mom and I thought he was crazy for spending the money he saved on it. He told us he wanted to haul the camp trailer we had with it. He was towing it with a 78 Chevy 454 Dually which always had problems and you all know how fun taking an old gas job from Connecticut to Florida would be. Since I was young at the time, I know of what he did but never really helped, just held the light haha. He took out the front rear axle and put in a higher gear ratio in the remaining axle since its only use would be for a camper and better mpg. He found a sleeper for the truck and a wrecker body that had to be widened and all cut up and re welded to "fill" in the back of the rig. It was probably a year later that he finally go the body all set. He then painted it him self and had a graphics place put on the "The Bulldog Express" which was my silly idea, and the picture on the back of the sleeper. Since then we have been adding all sorts of chrome, we even cut out behind the chrome "Mack" piece under the door so we could light it up, we added fuel tanks, strait pipes, train horns, chrome bumper and visor, ect. We put down "fake" wood flooring in the sleeper and got rid of the bunk beds for a couch and a tv/dvd setup. We haul a 38 foot camp trailer with ease now. The truck has gotten me interested into the big rig industry. I love to go to truck shows and get my hands dirty on them. I'm 17 right now and go to a trade school for automotive. I hope to take up diesel after high school and work on big rigs for a dealership someday and drive em too. It's not a perfect truck and its all "backyard" work lol. We try out best to keep it lookin decent and go camping.

On our 1990 Mack CH613 (12k front axle) the bearing seized to the spindle. Not sure how common this is lol, but I've never had to deal with it. The hub was full of lube. A mechanic in Alabama heated and hit the seized bearings off the spindle and then too the spindle off because he thought it wasn't safe to put new bearings on. Well strait to the point unless you guys want to hear the hole story or other details...we ended up putting a spindle on from a junkyard that had the brakes, hub, ect all on it. It appears to be for a heavier front end but it worked and got us home from rural Alabama to Connecticut. We don't want to have the different brakes on one side, and the arm going from the tie rod end to the spindle is a different angle and size. We talked to another mechanic up here and he said the old spindle isn't that banged up from being seized to the bearing as we thought but were still not too sure. Heres a picture of the spindle, the only etched part is on that 3 inch section after the threads, it's not raised though and it not too deep, the rest of the spindle is fine. It never really got that hot with the bearing, we pulled over immediatly. Any help appreciated. If you have ever had a bearing fail, Ide love to hear the story lol.