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Posted by Caleb(Kansas City) [68.102.27.121] on Friday, July 06, 2012 at 22:34:19 :
Hey All! Been away for a bit with the baby and the new "job". Life is interesting...
Anyway, back on topic (or off). Ill start by asking if anyone knows of a decent source of REO parts....Last weekend I hauled all the way across the fine state of Kansas to haul half way back with a 1948 REO D19 (19D?)for a friend of mine. GREAT unrestored truck with about 33k on the ticker. It looks like it had been red at one time, but had been repainted green about 20 years ago. Only bad things about it are a missing choke cable and the previous owner didn't know you have to grease the water pump bearings....it was a brand new pump. He then proceeded to drive it about 70 miles back to his house. He said he got up to about 20 mph so we know how long the ungreased pump was running....he also didnt know which gear the 2 speed rear end was in.....it was in low range when we started it....so we can loosely figure how high he rapped the engine to get to 20...the oil didnt smell like burned bearings, and it held 30psi when it was warmed up, so we figured its worth the risk. We took the fan off so we could do the quick test drive as to not destroy the radiator from the roached bearings. Other than that, the thing ran AWESOME, guages seem to be working well, and despite the varnish for fuel, it started up after a few minutes of cleaning the fuel bowl and repriming the carb. Definately a rare piece around here....speaking of rare, anyone know a place to get parts? The local auto parts stores (all of them) thought we were joking when we asked for parts for a REO Speed Wagon.
As a side note, I found out that a 47RE has a life span of around 55k. made the whole trip fine except the transmission temps got around 200 even at 50mph with the overdrive off and the programmer set to stock. At about 190, we would pull over and idle in neutral untill it cooled down to about 150. Funny enough, I lost the trans not 10 minutes after we got home and unloaded. At least we made it home. Shop said I'm about the 15th Cummins truck he has done this year so far. It appears that the converter shelled and took the rest of it...most likely the higher temps were caused by the clutch lining clogging up the cooler and I was lucky to get back. So, Im spending about 1k more and getting a beefed up version rated for 10k constant towing and 200hp over stock....oh, and a torque converter built for a diesel instead of a V10 gasser.
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