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Ray and Ray's Road Trip

Tow4

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I suppose an M872 or the like will be next so Ray can tote all his stuff to the rally. Or.......maybe Ray had tractor jealousy towards Ray and his tractor and is compensating. Either way we have the "All Ray all Tractor Show" underway
An M872 or similar is not a bad idea.

Us Rays do whatever it takes and figure things out as we go. Ray says he want's to build the Taj-2, but is at the limit of what his Deuce tractor can comfortably pull.... Not a problem now!
 

Recovry4x4

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Maybe a second M146. Build a deck and back them both up to the deck once at the venue. Have the Taj and the Taj annex.
 

Tow4

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I just noticed your signature papabear!

"STRESSED" spelled backwards is "DESSERTS":grin:

My wife feels better now!
 

EMD567

Driver for the Ga Mafia
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All bob tail tractors ride rough EMD'S first law of tractor trailer driving.
After 1800 miles in Ferro's 915, we are also convinced that the 915 spent more time in the air then on the ground. I will never drive that tractor bob tail again. My back aches just from the thought.
 

Tow4

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All bob tail tractors ride rough EMD'S first law of tractor trailer driving.
After 1800 miles in Ferro's 915, we are also convinced that the 915 spent more time in the air then on the ground. I will never drive that tractor bob tail again. My back aches just from the thought.
I'll go along with the more time in the air part, especially in LA and MS!

I remember looking over at the non-air ride passenger seat and thinking how much more it would have sucked to be riding there! HAA!!! No doubt the ride in a bob tail tractor (at least with the spring suspension) leaves a lot to be desired. I guess it's just the cost of doing business.

Congrads Tow4! Wonder if you can turn up the speed on them. Found out what was wrong with the brakes dragging?
Thanks.

I think the easiest way to go faster is probably go with 24.5" (or bigger) tires. This one will run up over 60 mph as I did it by accident a couple of times. I just want to stay comfortably below the engine red line.

The S-cam is not moving easy so the spring in the can is not enough to pull it all the way off. I don't know if it's the cam or something with the brake shoes. I'm going to pull it apart next weekend.

Hmmmm....mine doesn't bounce. And, I increased the speed....
Pete, didn't you tell me at the GA Rally last year that you didn't drive your latest creation because it bounced real bad? :wink:

I assume you got the tires straightened out? I guess the dump bed helps hold it down better also. BTW, that looks like a nice truck and I'm looking forward to seeing it.
 

Tow4

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It’s been a while since I updated this thread so let me catch up.

I had a dragging brake near the end of the trip home so after getting it over to my buddy’s where I could work on it, I took it apart.

Taking the outside wheel nuts off was a piece o’cake, the inside thimbles were a different story. My 3/4" impact would not budge them. So I pull out my 3/4” breaker bar and 4’ pipe and manage to bend the breaker bar. My friend had the idea to put a pipe wrench on the outside of the socket and with a 4’ pipe on the pipe wrench and me with a 4’ pipe on the breaker bar, we managed to get them all loose except one that we broke the top of the thimble off. I cut what remained of the broken thimble and stud off and removed the stud so I could get a replacement.

IMG_20140602_121155_689.jpg

Once I got into the brakes, the shoes look new and brake drum was good. There was a grease seal leak at the S-cam that got grease on the brake shoes but they cleaned up fine. After pulling the shoes and the S-cam and S-cam bracket, I noticed the bearing surfaces on the S-cam had some scratches so I took everything home so I could polish out the scratches and get the replacement parts.

I bought an S-cam rebuild kit that had the bushings, seals, and lock clips at the Rush truck center near my house. I also got a new wheel stud to replace the one I had to cut off because of the broken thimble. The stud was a little long, so I cut it off to be the same length as the others. I bought some S-cam shims at Weldon truck parts because there were not enough shims installed and the S-cam moved in and out quite a bit.

After polishing out the scratches on the S-cam and making sure everything worked properly, I reinstalled the S-cam bracket and S-cam, new wheel stud and then put everything else back together. After adjusting all the slack adjusters, I took it for a test drive and the brakes worked great.

IMG_20140602_121129_116.jpgIMG_20140602_134802_372.jpgIMG_20140602_141614_412.jpg

The next thing was to see what was going on with the A/C. My friend has gauges and Freon so we hooked it up and it just looked low on Freon, we put some in and presto, the A/C started working! :grin:

I noticed on the trip home the accelerator was hard to push and when I checked it, I saw there was a big bundle of air hoses running across the rod from the peddle to the injection pump. After making sure nothing was being abraded, I decided to wait until I got home to fix it. When I got into it, I also found the return spring tab on the injection pump lever was installed wrong and it gave the return spring an extra inch of leverage on the linkage. I changed the tab so it was installed correctly and then tie wrapped the air hoses so they were not on the accelerator rod any more. Much better peddle feel now.

Most of what’s left is just cosmetic. I still need to finish PMs, but I ran out of time before other things took priority. It’s better to wait for cooler weather to do all of that anyway. Before I know it, it will be time to paint it.
 
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