Rob

I could do that......

Guy is cleaning out his barn and discovers that he has a few tires in a size he no longer uses on farm trucks. Asks if I'll take and get rid of them for him. Out of a total of seven tires, five are 10.00RX20 with two virgin steer tires, (Yokahama), two new recap Fidelity brand, and another recap that is excellent. Each of the tires have new tubes and flaps included. I asked about the steer tires and they have less than 7500 miles on them when he swapped to tubeless tires from another truck. The other two are dry rotted so I'l prolly use them for something else. Be nice to get the flat spot bias tires off the front of one of my trucks. I'll use the caps on my yard dog so reliability won't be an issue as it never leaves the property. Rob

I'm sure he realizes your heart is in the right place. It's been my experience most folks prefer to live with grief or dire situations in private. Reasonably certain he will not be angry, or dissapointed with you for attempting to ease the burden borne at this time by all parties. Probably best to honor his request and be proud of your accomplishments as I'm sure "Old Bill" is. Rob

I can only imagine the firestorm something like that would set off at my job working on airport(s). TSA, and Homeland Security do not play around in airports. Rob

I should have thought about giving you the key cause the dog was awful hungry when I got home. He always likes a light snack and considers it a "gift from above". You did a good job maintaining batteries on both the A, and the B models. They fired right off. Rob

You're right about those pyramid tracks on a hard surface. You can't even push a pile of sand on concrete before the grousers were welded on. The tops of the tracks are rounded over and they are like "skates". You also had to be carefull when loading onto a trailer in the rain. They are great when spreading/leveling fill sand on a job as they don't tend to sink. Rob

Agree with you Glenn as the current draw is only about 600ma; That is not much but the truck set for about a month without being touched by anyone. These batteries have no dead, or weak cells that I could tell with both a temp compensated hydrometer, and internal cell resistance meter. All cells read very close and linear to each other. I did pull the starter assembly and removed the solenoid. It's internal resistance is the same removed from the starter motor between the battery connection post and the starter motor post. The starter motor windings are near a dead short from the post to the case. I haven't taken the solenoid apart yet to flip the ring or replace the contacts, but will probably get to that tomorrow. Someplace around here I've got a few of those parts...... I've seen that trick with killing a running small engine. Never tried it myself. It's always been with a distributor type ignition, never a magneto. Thanks, Rob

Pulled the battery cables from the starter tonight on my 73 RL and put a multimeter from the terminal where the battery cables mount and the engine block, then the starter housing. I measure a varying 3900-4200 ohms when there should be an infinite open. This truck has not spent a single night outside since I've had it nor has it ever been rained on in that timeframe. The problem shouldn't be moisture related. It's too damned hot to do anything with it right now so I'll pull the starter later this evening to replace the solenoid. I also metered the new one and there is no conductivity inside. Rob

With only a single wire on the two small terminals of the coil, you do not have primary resistance in that circuit. I would try to extra voltage that either an 8VDC cell offers, or a 12VDC to see if the engine fires more readily. Rob

Hi James, yes before I left this last time I ensured all batteries were up to full charge and left two trucks with the alternator, and auxilary wiring to the solenoids disconnected. This rules out all but the starter solenoid wiring and contact(s) internal to the units. There was only the positive battery cable(s) left attached. I seem to remember the 42MT starter solenoid being different that the 40MT series but I have a couple new ones in my stowage room to fit these. I did talk to the folks that rebuild starters for me and they say it is fairly commonplace for them to burn and arc the copper ring and draw minute amounts of current through the circuit that should be completly open. I'm going to pull a starter this evening and see what gives. Thanks, Rob

Hi Herb, both of my six volt systems use external ballast and cut the operating voltage back to about 4.75 volts. Sheila, (51 Mack) has a light bulb installed into a heat sink for this purpose. Rob

I arrived back at my shop after being gone for a month and three trucks with 12 volt 40MT starters have batteries that will not start their respective units. They are not completely flat, but appreciably low so with a boost all roared back to life. My old "Yellow Dog" with a series/parallel switch fired right up. All batteries are group 31 and and are verified good by testing. There is also 1/2-3/4 ampere draw through the circuit any time the batteries are connected to the starter solenoids. This is consistent through all units. Battery cutoff switches could be installed but I'd rather have the problem corrected. I don't know if this is a common occurance or not. I plan to ask my electrical rebuilder today. I've seen starter draw through the windings due to corrosion but don't know if some units are more suseptable to this or not. None of these trucks have any ancillary equipment installed to cause parasitic losses. Rob

That little D21P is great for all around use. It has the pyramid tracks that are 24" in width and at 40 gross engine horsepower, well suited to it's weight, 10,000#, (or so). I like it cause I don't have to permit to move and with a tight six way blade that is eight feet wide, is great for finish work. The only thing that we really were not totally fond of was that the pyramid tracks did not grab into soft ground as well as grouser bars. We welded 1/2"X1" tall stock to the top of the track points and that worked great, but it is soft material so they wear fast. Rob

My E3-210 was a very good engine. It displaced 8.8 liters. The E3-175 was also a good engine. It displaced 6.2 liters. Both are expensive to repair. I would not entertain cranking the horsepower due to cost of parts. Just my opinion(s). Rob

It should whether it be an actual ballast resistor, or a primary resistance wire. On the coil small terminals are there two wires on one terminal, and one on the other leading to the breaker points? External resistance is not used during the crank cycle as the resistance is by-passed with the ignition switch applying full available battery voltage to the primary side of the coil during engine cranking. When you either let off of the key, or button that causes the engine to crank, the primary resistance is switched back into the circuit. This allows the breaker points to have an acceptable service life. Without this resistance, the point life would be remarkably short due to the higher voltage they are switching on and off. Connect a basic voltmeter to the battery with no accessories on for a baseline measurement. Then connect the voltmeter to the potential side of the coil small terminal, and the other to a good ground. Pull the "trigger wire" from the starter solenoid, and with the ignition switch "on" and not cranking the engine when the starter switch is engaged, you should have very close to the battery voltage available at this terminal. If you do not, you have a bad, or high resistance circuit impeding current flow. Run a wire directly from the battery to the coil and then crank the engine. If it starts readily, isolate your wiring, or ignition switch problem. When you disengage the starter switch there should be about 80% of available system voltage to the breaker points during normal operation due to this primary resistance being switched in. Rob

It has to do with rise and decay time of the RC network you have set up. I don't expect you to be able to analyze that statement but it should suffice to say that the closer you place the spark plug lead to a ground, (block in this case) the spark has less resistance through the medium of the surrounding air and jumps more readily. This occurs earlier in the field strength of the rise time of the output pulse of the transformer, (coil). When you increase the distance from lead to ground, the arc is not strong enough to jump the air gap until the rise of the pulse is such that the secondary of the coil reaches/nears saturation level. Upon saturation, the coil cannot increase voltage further. Saturation levels change in transformers as they age. If it were me, I'd get a new coil using external resistance for use with an external ballast resistor to rule out that component. Rob

Aww man, in a moment of weakness in my motel room I'm gettin picked on again without Mommas' shoulder to sulk upon. Rob

I met several persons from the BMT community at the show outside of Tulsa that also thought I'd been bullshittin all these years. Rob

You guys that didn't attend missed one hell of a show. It was planned and executed to the highest degree and the turnout was exceptional for a first year trial. As an added bonus: It didn't rain. I'm gonna try to help support the growth of this type of activity as I never really thought I'd enjoy myself so much. Really look forward to see a few of you guys there next time. Very easy place to get to with great food, conversation, and of course TRUCKS!! Al and Tammy were gracious hosts and expended great effort to bring this to fruition. As able I plan to help further with this cause in the future. Rob

You probably have resistive plug wires. Get a set of solid core type wires. With your truck I highly doubt you are concerned with radio interference which is what resistive plug wires were engineered to combat. They cause a lot of voltage drop through them. Rob

It's not correct to alter, or cut the photo off at the entrance to the crusher located at the bottom of the hill. The photo could give people the wrong impression; And you know we wouldn't want to do that. Rob

I have replaced a Mack transmission with a Fuller and all that is required is the transmission, shifter, proper yoke for the driveline, and the bellhousing with mack mounts. The Fuller transmissions were common in the CH series of trucks so obtaining parts will be relatively easy. I would inform a salvage yard of what you are wanting to do and purchase everything including the frame, and transmission mounts as they are different than your existing setup. You will of course need to alter your driveshaft as the Fuller transmission will be shorter, (from memory). The Fuller is much less expensive to repair than the Mack but I don't really know much about durability. Rob

My only "real" experience is with a Cat D5B, (1982 year), a Deer 450C, (1983 year), and a Komatsu D21P, (1989 model year) when I was building my shop. I actually liked all of them and they performed as they should. Can't really say which I would lend precedence to as they all did what they needed to do. When I need to work on my shop property I grab either the Deere, or the Komatsu as I haul either behind the trusy, yet crusty Dodge on my skid steer trailer. Rob

Hell, they can't comprehend anything past the "I" when it concerns benefits. Rob

Two Reasons Why It's So Hard To Solve A Redneck Murder: 1. The DNA all matches. 2. There are no dental records.