Some EX Kwikasair / Comet 8 wheelers

Thats interesting Rex.......
We ( KW Lansvale) thought we were alone with that Eaton problem.......cos, talking to KW HQ..they didnt
seem to know what we were on about...........so, we assumed they had not came across the problem before.
Its only now i am realizing that it may have been more wide spread than first thought.............
..........................Billy..................................

When you work at a dealership you are always told that HQ has never had that proble before even if all the trucks you sold have the problem! I remember selling 4 series 60s in S-lines and 2 of them dropped liners and being told that they had never seen that before, only to find out the heads were over tightened cracking the liner flanges off letting the liners drop. The makes don't want the bad news to get out!

Just on those two speed Eaton diffs, I could be wrong, but wasn't there a smaller version (around 34 or 38,ooolb) being fitted to Butterbox Inter's at one stage? Seem to remember a bloke in Liverpool (NSW) had a couple of 6 wheelers under contract to Pioneer Quarries, ran 10 speed R/Rangers but wanted the extra low gearing for pulling out of the pits. had all sorts of trouble with them, always seemed to be back to the dealers. Dealers reckoned that the failures were caused by the drivers (Surprise! Surprise!) trying to 'split' once coming out of the heavy going. Bloke who owned them swore black and blue that wasn't the case, used to wait until he came to a complete stop, even tried upshifting (diffs) and reversing a bit. Damn near broke him, last I heard from the bloke who used to do his maintenance, he swapped one of the trucks diffs for a single speed and overdrove the R/Ranger. Hey presto! Problem solved! Sold the second truck and just continued with the one which he drove himself, was still going years later, probably wore out a couple of those small V8 Cummins. (185's??)
Swore they were the greatest abomination ever foisted on the transport industry, (his opinion)!
Are they still in use? Did Rockwell ever make a version? I'd only ever heard of Eaton.
Dave_64

Dave M80
Not shifting on the run can prevent problems
as the 2 speed were air operated and one diff could change sooner than the other diff
but also the yanks ran trucks with 5 speed cog boxes and 3 speed diffs = 15 ratios th@ they changed on the run

the diffs had a hi n lo
and the 3rd diff ratio twaz (intermediate Between Hi n Lo) obtained by run n one diff in lo n the other in hi
guess n the interaxle diff really get n would up = short life

www.numeralkod.com/cross/archivemanuals/...0third%20edition.pdf

cya

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Yippeeeeeeeee....................Billy......................

Well dun Billy Peee

Me see U found nuther button on sum wizz bang program

B no stop n U now

:lol:

cya

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I could say i am on fire
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..............................Billy..............................

BillyP wrote: .

Yippeeeeeeeee....................Billy......................

Stop it , I'm getting dizzy.

.OverN................i carnt find the brake.................

..........................Billy..........................

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.Here is ........ a little early KW nostalgia...........not necessarily about 8 wheelers............
I was driving for Liquid Cartage at Camellia when Brambles bought it from Kilpatricks...
Some how or other i ended up in the workshop... so when the cab over KWs arrived on the scene
i used to do a few things to them, but all the major work they liked to do in Vic.
Then one was sent up full time dragging a gas tanker , loading out of ICI.
(Inline 671 GM.....5 speed fuller box.....2 speed rsend on a Page & Page 60/40 pusher set up )
When used for Propane it was blown down to be loaded with Butane or what ever.....
On the side of the workshop was an areal stack ....the tank was connected to this and the Propane just
blew into the air like a big white roman candle (you would get shot if you did this nowadays)...
So while this was going on the work shop virtually came to a stand still. yet.......
50 or so yards away was the tank cleaning gantry with a pretty large Clayton steam generator.,
belching smoke and fire out of its stack............yeah...........i some times wondered about that....................
Anyway back to the KW............the chief calls me over one day,,,gives me a sheet of paper saying here is
a cab mod to be done....go to it.
Apparently the cab floors were breaking away from the eng tunnel on some trucks,, so the mod was fit a 1/4 plate on the eng side
about 10 ins high to the full length of the tunnel at floor level ,with about 30 5/16 bolts and nuts.........that secured the
floor to the tunnel...........(on both insides of the tunnel)..........
To do this i had to flip the cab right over..........this bit the chiefs didnt like one bit ......because some cabs had hit their head on the floor
else where.......the Vic crew had fitted 2 slings to stop the cab travel from going over centre on all the KWs
I admit those days i liked to have a rope tied to the cab from the rear some where just in case it did get away....
Those hydraulics were a bit unpredictable.....
I remember one day some one couldnt get the cab to go up..............every body saying something has jammed...........
At that stage a shuttle valve was used to controll the cab movement.....once the cab went over centre....the spool in the shuttle valve
would pop back the other way....allowing you to do the lowering bit.......
So what had happened was that the shuttle spool hadnt shot over ......so ,,,,instead of the pump lifting the cab up...
it was actually trying to force the cab back down............
But.......on both ends of the shuttle valve , was a plunger to manually move the spool to where ever..........
So a jab on the plunger ......then saying righto fellas now pump it up............and up went the cab..
(cheers all round!!!!!!!!!!)................
When the first trucks came as CKD OR PCKD..........the cabs wernt all that bad (give or take) BUT when the cabs started to
be built in Aus it wasnt long before some main structual faults appeared (like the afore mentioned tunnel to floor bit)
It was soon discovered why.......the american cabs were using steel rivets (supposedly) on the structual bits, where by
aluminium was being used here . So a lot of replacement steel rivets (or bolts) were fitted to existing trucks.
I am thinking the steel Huck bolt system might have started to be used about then...................maybe.............
....................................To be continued.in case all goes astray...........................