Shifting A Set of Sticks

I'll agree with you about the 2-sticks. We still have three trucks set up that way and for what those trucks do it's the best.

But the "armstrong steering"? No thanks. Even our old guy old timers who prefer the sticks don't want to see that come back. That was from the days when a driver needed a size 18 collar and a size 2 hat.

 

I remember fondly(now, not so much then) the old '71 COE KW with a screamin' 318 and brownie 4x4. This truck had a real loose steering gear and would jump to the right about 6-12" at random times, other times you were swinging that big old wheel quite a bit to keep her in line. It's a good thing is was to the right, as we didn't do much passing in this beast(that's right, team truck) you could get it to 80 on a long down hill.

 

Remember the old HB Cummins with the DD pumps? They were VERY slow to tach down. As I recall the discs in the pump were lubricated with fuel oil so if you took your foot out of it at high RPM you could score the discs-so there was an internal mechanism that didn't allow that to happen-made that long drop between full gears seem to take forever! I suppose if they had been hooked up to a road ranger it might have worked better, but both of the ones I drove had sticks-one was rated at 165 horse and the other 180! When I first drove a 220 with a PT pump I figured life didn't get any better than that!

 

You got that right! Rule #1: Thumbs on the OUTSIDE! My hat size was a bit larger though, mainly because I was pretty much full of myself in those days! LOL!

 

I was told the same thing

 

haha I did the same thing and wouldn't refire. thought it was a fuel problem

 

Hey the trk that I drove with a 5 4, I got lucky. Had center point steering. Great when you where moving, not so great sitting still and wanting to start making a turn

 

LOL...I started right out with the 220. If I remember right that was in the late 60s. Big power all the way. When I moved up to a 262 with a 6&4 I thought I'd died and gone to heaven.
I still didn't have a jake though, just a water tank behind the cab for the brakes.
Remember having to turn the little knurled knob on the 220 fuel pump to get home if the battery died?

 

Driving that Mack was quit the experience. Besides the compound, the Cat had a diet of a 1/2 gallon of oil a day. The boss had said, if you blow the engine, not a problem-IF- you check the oil. No checking, you just bought an engine. In the cold Maine winters we would go out , check the oil, fill it with about 2 quarts, then fire it up. We would then go back inside out of the biting cold and wait 20 minutes for the engine to warm up. The parking lot was pure ice so it was like pachyderms on ice while we tried to get out onto the salted roads. Like I said a lot of learning that winter.

 

YES-One of Cummins' best ideas-I think they kept that feature on PT pumps until they went electronic, or at least up to the BC4. Got my 220 about the same time-no jake for me either-had an Eaton clutch fan-when it would kick in I had to drop a gear on the brownie! I got the bright idea to manually engage the fan on downgrades to help slow me down a bit-bad idea!-it's about like dragging a foot! LOL! Water cooled brakes-yep I'll bet I know what you were doing!