Looking at an old Kenworth

Boston

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I'm thinking of buying an old Kenworth as a toy hauler and am curious about the availability of parts.

Its a 50s vintage vehicle, in great shape. has a reman 350 small cam cummins engine. Which I'm not sure is original equipment 5/4 transmissions. Its a W900

In any case I've picked the wrong vintage vehicle to try and maintain before and I'm curious about this one. How hard is the injection pump on this thing to get ahold of ? Any other trick parts ? Steering linkages ? Any ideas as to how tough it is to keep it running ?
 

Clb

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I can't say much on the availability of spares...I will mention the 5/4 does get interesting to work in traffic and up and down quick grades.
Shifting and recalling where the brownie is at can get hectic!
Killer lil tractor, decent eng( no monster but the gearing helps)!
I'd look at the rears, check out the cad/frame mounts, and look for a good foof ac.
I love them old rigs.
We're gunna need pics if you get it!
 

Boston

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Yeah I have a friend, neighbor at the warehouse I rent, owns a moving and storage business who said the same thing about the trans. I'm sure I can deal with it but I'd rather just have a 10 speed is the main input I'm getting so far.

I'll post picts if i get it.
 

Clb

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Or a 15-18 speed,
What kinda money( room for a trans swap?)
 

Boston

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Cheap, under 10K and its a 5/4 so 20 speeds. I've never driven one of those before. But I'd like to assume I could just use 2 and 4 on the rear and play it like a 10speed

And no idea about how much room there is but I suspect I could get a fuller 10 in there
 

Clb

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The brownie is basically a 4 sp reduction box, using 2 in brownie from a stop will be line taking off on 2nd in a regular 4 gear box, brownie in 4 would be like starting in 4 th...
Or you could say each brownie gear 4321 represents 25% or the 5 gears ratio.
5 gear in 1 brownie in 1 40:1
" ". 2. ". 2 30:1
5 gear in 5th brownie in 4 th. 1:1
This is just a verry basic description. As the two gearboxes are not axle related, think of the 4 gear as a reduction box.
In the real world you may get away with brownie in 2nd starts.
Usual heavy haul pattern is ...
Ready?!
1-1 roll out declutch hit 2 nd in 5 gear, declutch hit 3,4,5, then declutch grab 2 in brownie, go to 1st in 5 gear and start rowing again.
Once ya hit speed you decell brake the same 5th down to 1st 5 gear in brownie 4th declutch grab 3rd brownie and 5th in 5 gear ( aka main) row down to 1st 1st.
I hope this helps.
You will be the guy in camp with bragging rights for best operator!

Ps check with dot, out here the smog natzi's are killing trucks older than somewhere in the 90's.
A 600k tractor is 5k or so. Cuz we can't drive em commercial( you get a pass as a civilian/pov opperator.
 
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Boston

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Well I'm trying to buy but I keep getting "the person you are trying to reach is not available at this time". Driving nuts cause I've decided to give it a shot.

The 350 is supposed to be rebuilt and the body is perfect, wheels might be the old funky split rims but they're also perfect, chrome all the way around. Thing looks tight but for the money I don't see not buying it.

I just need to get ahold of this guy and then get him to hold till I can get someone half way across the country to just verify the truck exists and has a tittle. But I'm hot to buy if I can just get ahold of this guy.
 

Boston

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Oh hey and CIb

I'm not going to be hauling with this thing, or at least not in the working world. Its a toy. I'll be hauling my camper around with it. Think of a full length flatbed with maybe 10,000 or less on it. I can't imagine I need to stroke my way through the whole pattern. I was a farm kid, drove all kinds of weird vehicles. We had an old firetruck that I drove soon as I could reach the pedals and it had a split tranny. What a pain.

Thats the one thing I don't really like about this old truck is its not just a simple 10 speed
 

Clb

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Yup
Even at 15k gragging toys you might be able to use 2nd brownie to start , if the power is there, the rest up top ya will use most of.
I dig it, wanted to go this route but the idi is easier to run to town in.
Good luck getting thru.
 

Boston

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Thanks. About 20 calls later and still no luck.

I have a TDI VW and a Ford IDI but I'm parting out the Ford, couldn't get reliable parts. Seems like I changed everything twice and I just wan't going for round 3. Never did get it to quit leaking from the fuel return system and I've been through 3 injection pumps so far. Its done. Besides its to small to be my toy hauler anyway
 
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