Russ Roth

Long time since I heard anyone mention a 262. Drove several different ones. I drove a 300 small block at one time and that one you needed to be pretty careful to not run over 1250* with it. Had to drop gear more than one time. I have an old book I acquired from somewhere years ago describing the proper use of a pyrometer and 1250 was max number according to it.

If you are anywhere near Portland I highly recommend Six States @ 60th and Columbia. Ken in the driveline shop will do you right. RR

Because of all the things said about Jon is why I had him do my '01. Unfortunately it is still there sitting in my driveway wrecked and my current '02 still has OEM. I was fortunate to have had Tony Garcin (Dunrite) as a friend and mentor to some degree when I worked a bit for him one summer. He said he wanted to give me enough learning to not get shafted if I were out on the road somewhere and had a failure requiring repair then and there. He did do that but unfortunately he passed a few years ago so I no longer have that resource and friend. He was successful in that and so I was able to watch Jon answer questions here and on Cummins Forum which allowed me to get a feel that he knew what he was doing which I attribute to Tony. Tony was also very good friends with Dave Georend and they spoke often a lot of times to solve an issue one or the other was dealing with. I was able to hear part of more than one of those conversations. The interesting thing about Jon is when we chatted over several phone calls and later in person he sounds like Tony talking. Which means mostly over my head. LOL But I did and do understand some of it since I tend to be mechanical and like Michael I have quite a bit of Fire experience that relates to hydraulics. Well, less than some since I was a Truckman almost all my career although I am not totally sure how that happened. Since Jon did my '01 and I spent time in his shop I consider him a friend. I believe he is real, genuine and a real stand up guy who knows his craft. Would not hesitate to have him do another although I will eventually migrate the tranny out of the '01 into the '02. Not sure when since I have a bum knee they tell me will only work again with a replacement joint. Not what I am looking forward to. Guess I gotta get it done if I want to continue doing this as I have for so many years. Or at least in some semblance of the same manner. This did go back in the river to make more! Kill your fish, kill your fishing.

Interesting you have an '01 Freightshaker. My brother drove his '01 Mack since new and put 1.4 million miles on it and had hoped to retire out of it too. A few months ago it blew something out of the block that had to do with the injection system and they took it away from him and made him (literally) drive a new(er) one. I think it had about 8,000 miles on it. He does not do change well to start with and has said the same thing about the new ones. Too much downtime and too much pain in the butt with all the emission stuff. This one is a 12 speed auto-shift and he won't even call it a truck. It has fleet programing for the tranny and he says almost no control over it and you never know what it's going to do for sure. The company repaired the '01 and were going to peddle it down the road but called the truck museum in Brooks, OR to see if they would be interested in it. They were and it has been totally redone and restored to look better than new. It also says "44 years and counting-Bruce" on the doors. They sent him with it down to the ATHS truck show in Salem, OR a couple weeks ago. I asked him if he let them know he would like it back. His answer-----they already know that! LOL

Technology has passed you by then. I texted my brother yesterday AM and he called right back since he was waiting to get unloaded. His 2015 Mack has discs on the front steer and drive axles and drum on the tag axle which I think the company put on. They do come from the factory too but it is cheaper for them to put them on in their own shops. I forgot to ask him about the new trailer he is pulling to see what it is running for brakes. He did say the set up does not look the same as an S cam but the fire truck I drove did look and adjust like S cams. Not sure now how they work in either case since I retired in late '99 and the truck was new about '94 or '95.

Semis do run disc brakes. Matter of fact the aerial ladder fire truck I drove bought new about 5 years before I retired had disc brakes. My brother had to give up his 1.4 million mile rig and his company forced him into a new one so I will ask if his has discs or drums.

I know Eric personally and consider him a good friend. I actually worked part time for him part of a summer and saw first hand how he took care of his customers. Some were not always great to deal with but he would try to do his best to do right by even the very few that really may not have been deserving. It is not lost on him how important his customers are.

We not only didn't have TV but had a 4 party line phone when I was small. I never did figure out that different ring business. We did finally get a TV when I was about 11 or so and eventually private line phone. I wish I had chatted with my Grandad even more than I did about things when he came here from Switzerland by himself at 16 years old, 1906 I think. He did have an older brother around Vancouver or Portland who talked him into coming. One thing he used to say quite a bit was that progress was a wonderful thing but I somehow think he would not still be saying that. Sure sad the way many things are now but it is reassuring to see at least more than a few here feel much as I do about all this stupid junk going on. There is hope yet!!!

Well that really stinks but I will agree with at least it was close to home. I have had similar upsetting things happen and then I have thought about how much worse it could have been. I would not be afraid to at least check out what may be wrong. I have gone through a number of manual trannies over the years but not this new. Mostly NP435's and at least one 540 along with a couple SM465's. Those are fairly straight forward but not sure about these. I have dealt numerous times with Six States PDX and they are really great here. You KNOW you have spent too much money there when you walk in and they say hi using your first name. That was a number of years ago when I was rebuilding my '67 W200 that Dad bought new.

And that is about the only way an RV or mobile home is saved if someone keeps the fire in check or puts it out before Fire Response arrive. Not much of a head start and it's done. RR

It's a bit of a long story but to make it short 3 of us took off after Katrina to help @ New Orleans a few days after I took possession of my '01. Starter didn't always want to work but figured it would likely make it and I would replace once we got there. On my last fuel stop just before we got there no start right on the fuel island. There was some others we knew on the way home and I hitched a ride with them to the closest NAPA to get a replacement and did it right at the pump.

Lucky for me too! Jon is worth the trip to have him do it. You won't be disappointed. RR

I despise those pillar pods. Just the pillar covers enough area to force you to look around it to make sure it isn't hiding a car or worse a person. I had to stop real quick just a couple days ago in a parking lot because a lady was hidden by it. Fortunately I try to look around it to make sure something isn't there and that was how I spotted her. I apologized as she came by and let her know the pillar hid her. That's with my OEM pillar, no gauges. I drove Eric's 98.5 a few years ago with pillar gauges and it was way worse than mine. RR

I'm actually working on a fix for this right now... What you're feeling is the transmission upshift to 3rd gear, lock the converter, then briefly unlock the converter for the shift to 4th, then relock the converter...all in rapid succession. This becomes much more exaggerated with a "built" transmission or valve body because with elevated line pressure, the 3-4 shift will generally occur before the converter fully unlocks. So, you'll feel the shift, then the converter unlock briefly, then re-lock. It gives a really weird feel to the 3-4 shift, but in reality, the transmission is just doing what it's programmed to do. I have a working prototype of the "fix" on my personal truck right now, and it works great. Really cleans up this 3-4 shift weirdness. It just keeps the converter from unlocking for the 3-4 shift (assuming that it was locked prior to the shift). I just need to find time to have more of them made... My '01 felt like it would shift locked sometimes. I'm guessing this is what you are talking about or something really similar. When I mentioned it to Tony he said sometimes it is not able to time it correctly so it actually does shift locked.

Jon, I swear I am going to have to start calling you Tony. This kind of stuff is exactly what he would say on numerous occasions and at times would even trace it out in the colored hydraulic section of the FSM. Even though I understand about hydraulics due to my work, most of it was still was over my head although I did learn some. Thanks for going above and beyond. Wish mine was still functional. RR

While I only had an untapped comp and a Dunrite VB I ran mine with stock trans for at least 6 years and had no issues in that time including shifting locked towing. Did not have it with stock VB so that may be different.

I have over 215,000 on it now and just recently had Jon Elford (Dynamic custom trans) build one for me. It has the goodies for anything I will ever do with it but nothing other than the Dunrite VB until now. Tony and I did pull it twice because of a broken front drum and changed a couple seals at that time. I was working for him and he made a change to the VB and we used my rig for the test dummy. He had to do another workaround for the change so the VB was not cracking the drum. Tony and I were going to build it when needed but unfortunately he contracted cancer and has been gone about 4 years now. A real tranny expert and friend. I live East of 162nd right off SR500. I know 5 corners as I attend Crossroads church on 78th street. Should be pretty easy to hook up. I'll PM my phone #.

I shifted mine for years locked and still do and have yet to break anything. I did have a Dunrite VB and it may be different with a stocker. Tony did tell me he wouldn't do it but I saw he advertised it as having the ability to shift locked and I knew him well enough to take him at his word. =) I wouldn't say there isn't added wear to some of those parts though. Well, shoot I just now saw you live in the Couve. We might be able to touch bases and I can show you how mine works if you like. First hand experience would almost certainly be better than just talking about it.

I think you are over thinking the whole thing. It is done so you can control lockup when and where you want. Your VB needs to be modified to lock all gears which mine is. I will have to specifically try it but I think mine will downshift when it is locked at least under power. Since I normally manually shift mine most of the time I don't remember for sure but I will check in the next several days and get back. I did not have the lockup switch on a stock VB so I am not sure how that is but not all trannys are programmed the same. The '01 and '02's are programmed to lock third gear and unlock/relock the third to OD shift. 2000's might be the same I don't recall for sure but at least '99 and earlier did not. Hope this helps clear it up a bit.

Seals are only about 10 bucks from Cummins.

I had Jon (Dynamic) build one for me a few months ago. I gross about 16,000 with the toyhauler and no trouble holding on highway 26 to the OR coast although I have yet to tap the Comp. I have no doubts it will hold what I throw at it. Low stall triple disc and billet input. Really like the way it works although the triple does make for a bit more noticeable shifts which is expected. Would recommend him for sure.

Got a couple myself although I read nearly every day if not a couples times a day. I only post on any of the sites if it's something I know about and am pretty sure what I post is worthwhile.

I had the distinct pleasure and honor of not only meeting and working part time for Tony Garcin, I also counted him a personal friend. We actually did not live very far apart. Unfortunately Jon (Dynamic) is right, Tony was unfortunately to become a victim of cancer. I built about 30 VB for Tony over the course of a summer. He also shared many insights about not just Dodge trannies but had a very intimate knowledge of almost every make/model you could imagine and would chat some about other brands on occasion. He said he was trying to educate me enough that if I were somewhere in the country and had to have work done I would have some understanding of what was going on and I am thankful to him for that. Since Tony is gone I wanted to find someone I had the same confidence in since my tranny was in need of some help if I was going to tow or even use full power on occasion. Jon had been here for awhile and I liked what I was seeing here, so I PM'ed him a few times,chatted a couple times on the phone and a few texts and the answers I felt were what I was looking for thanks to Tony's sharing. I had Jon do my rig a couple weeks ago and so far everything has been 100% up to snuff and just what he said it would be and I expected. I haven't towed yet and not very many miles but that is coming soon! HTH

Well, you are talking GM. Is that the one that came when I was there?