My New (old) Baby

Nice looking truck Alistair, especially the stripes, look good.
Not sure I think much of the Boylans motto, but you can be thankful for a hearing friendly motor. Cheers

Alistair mate a pipe dream is better than no dream at all

looks to be fairly good nic and looks like someone has loved it

[smiley=thumbsup.gif]

Paul

700GMRR

For now, i'll just use it as it is, depending on the minning work, I might have to get a bit of work for it to pay the bills. In a few years, I would like to take the tipper off and bolt a turntable back on, as I really enjoy the grain and cotton harvest and the people you meet there. Only done it a couple of times, but as I said, I really enjoyed it. Before any work , it'll need new wirring and brakes though.

Swishman

What you said makes perfect sense to me and confirms what I thought about putting in a 13 direct. Maybe even an 18, but I already have a 13 at home, just need to get it checked out to make sure it's ok.

Cheers
Alistair
PS

Just been thinking more about what Swishman said, maybe an 18 would be better.

Thanks for the comments Tacho and Mrsmack

Hey Alistair, 8th photo down the page, you can see where KW has cut the bottom flange of the chassis out for the torsion bar, looks like a crack starting there, might pay to have a bit of a look.

That is Frieghtliner Airliner suspension, would have come out of a Freightliner Western Star or Sterling.

I thought the 15's were alright behind a 350/400, though the 13 should go straight in. I had a 15 OD in the Road Boss, but it had 4.11 diffs. The Louey I'm doing up at the moment has a 15 direct and 3.55's, see how it goes, I'm thinking it'll be a bit over geared.

Nice truck.

I see what you mean Cam. I will have a close look in the next day or two.
If it is a crack, are we allowed to weld a section back in where the torsion bars were, or is that a big no no ?

Cheers
Alistair

Hi Bitsa .. the Kennys with TBB had an external angle bracket for where the lower flange was cut out to strengthen that area. Yours may've been removed when the airbag rears were fitted...

.... Good luck with the old girl mate

Alistair, if it was me, I'd vee the crack right out and weld it up, then I'd make a piece up and weld that back into the bottom flange, it would have to be welded properly, as in 100% penetration, then dress it all up like nothing had been done. Do both sides as well. I'm surprised it didn't start cracking from the other end of that cut out where it is notched. The chassis rail will be high tensile, but even putting 250/300 grade in will probably be all right.

If the RMS see the crack they'll want it repaired and probably an engineer's report, so best to sort it before then.

What has probably caused it is the radious rod from the diff back to the chassis rail, they put a lot of side stress on the chassis rail, I've seen a few crack around the radious rod mount on the chassis. A lot of airbag suspensions have an internal flitch (another chassis rail that fits inside the original) that runs from the front spring hanger bracket to the rear air bag, you could do this, but it is a fair bit of work, you'll have to pull the whole thing apart, narrow the cross members and fit the flitches. I'd run with plan A (above) first and see how it goes.

Don't get to worried about it, it shouldn't be a hard thing to fix.

Detective, didn't the external angle bracket pick up one of the torsion bar mounts as well? The torsion bar was a crap suspension anyway, the truck lays over in the corners and the axle's walk, you have to put 7 1/2 " rims on the inside on the rear axle 8 1/4's rub on the suspension because the axle's walk that much. Very expensive to rebush as well that Airliner is pretty good.

...i think you're right bigcam, as the angle brackets were for when the torsion bars didn't run parallel with the chassis ??

Good eyes Cam. It actually has two cracks about 15mm long. One where you saw it and the other one at the other end of the same cut from the factory.
I'll weld it up with a piece of h/t steel as you said, and I think I can make up a chassis sleeve to cover the outside of the cracked rail so any stresses will be on the sleeve as it pulls inwards, instead of directly on the chassis rail. Any outwards pressure on the rail should be handled by the new section welded in at the bottom. Make sense?
Cheers
Alistair

Just putting the bottom flange back into the chassis rail will probably give it enough strength again.