W900a

Truck Shop · Feb 20, 2017

I found this 79 W900a long hood amongst a bunch of other W900's on a farm. 3408 cat, 4sp Spicer twin counter shaft
brownie with 13sp in front and real tough dt480p rear drives. It got laid over in a ditch with a loaded lowboy and bent
or kinked the left rail and distorted the top of cab. 48,000 lb suspension. Big gun in her day.

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Birken Vogt · Feb 20, 2017

How many horsepower was that engine?

old-iron-habit · Feb 20, 2017

Are they going to fix it or transplant the power train? Grill looks good to me if it fits a 71.

JPV · Feb 20, 2017

Thanks for sharing, that is one skookum truck! For sale?

Truck Shop · Feb 20, 2017

Birken Vogt said:
How many horsepower was that engine?

450 stock but with some changes 550 plus, very expensive to repair a 3408. This one runs.

old-iron-habit said:
Are they going to fix it or transplant the power train? Grill looks good to me if it fits a 71.

He actually bought it to use the 3408 as a spare for other equipment. Then he had the accident with it and bent the rail and hurt the cab

JPV said:
Thanks for sharing, that is one skookum truck! For sale?

It could be repaired, replacing the rail and repairing the cab is all doable. Yes he will sell it-but not for a nickle.
And the floor boards are covered in cotton tail bunny rabbit crap.

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JPV · Feb 20, 2017

I know a guy who wants one pretty bad, not sure I want to show him this one because I would wind up doing lot of work on it and I don't need a project right now!

truckdoctor · Feb 23, 2017

There are two long hood Kenworths for sale on Craigslist. One is in Norther Cal and one is in east Idaho. They are both projects that are in good shape if some one wanted to mix parts with that one. I have a cab from a 72 that is in good shape if that helps this truck. I would hate to see it get parted out.

truckdoctor · Feb 23, 2017

I would also consider rolling bearings in that engine. You never know how long it ran on it's side.

JPV · Feb 23, 2017

I will take a look, he is looking for an A model longhood with a 3408, thanks for the heads up!

truckdoctor · Feb 23, 2017

Neither of those trucks have 3408's but they are a good start. The one in northern Ca has new rails and is pretty clean. I don't remember what he was asking for it. The one in Idaho is complete and runs but it needs some attention mechanically. It has a 400 cummins but I would be curious what it had originally.

Truck Shop · Feb 24, 2017

Or one could go this route for $48,000, A reman 3408 can set a wallet back 35 to 40K.

Birken Vogt · Feb 24, 2017

The guy with that truck, does he run it all the time? Hard to imagine that on some of the grades in the woods here. Working in the bottom of the canyon you can hear them Jake braking down grade for half an hour before you see them at full RPM and 5 mph the whole time. Hard to imagine doing that with no Jake.

Truck Shop · Feb 24, 2017

Birken Vogt said:
The guy with that truck, does he run it all the time? Hard to imagine that on some of the grades in the woods here. Working in the bottom of the canyon you can hear them Jake braking down grade for half an hour before you see them at full RPM and 5 mph the whole time. Hard to imagine doing that with no Jake.

That truck is equipped with a retarder in the flywheel housing. The retarder on a 3408 caused some pretty serious braking force. The oil cooler is a monster on a 3408 with a brake saver.

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hvy 1ton · Feb 24, 2017

Interesting bumper on that w9.

Birken Vogt · Feb 24, 2017

I thought those were bad and leaky and everyone by now had thrown them away, retarding force or not. Maybe just truck driver stories.

Truck Shop · Feb 24, 2017

Birken Vogt said:
I thought those were bad and leaky and everyone by now had thrown them away, retarding force or not. Maybe just truck driver stories.

The biggest gripe was the added weight. I operated several trucks that had them and for heavy loads there great.

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Junkyard · Feb 25, 2017

I love a brakesaver. Yes they dribble a bit of oil. I liked how smooth you could apply the retarding force, not jerky like jakes could be in lower gears. Having the big oil cooler helped when the motor was pulling its a$$ off too, helped keep things cool. When retarding you could sure heat the oil up. Also, it's kind of a built in dyno and preheater! I had one on my 400 JWAC and a C-16 600. Love them.

Junkyard

truckdoctor · Feb 25, 2017

I know several of the Cat guys around here ran them for heavy haul with jakes. You almost didn't need brakes to stop.

Junkyard · Feb 25, 2017

On the later model engines they'd actually reduce the available retarding power if you had both as you could exceed the capacity of the input shaft! Those were my favorite engines except for the 1693 in my C500. Having both is a great thing.

Truck Shop · Feb 26, 2017

For some serious retarder braking on a 3406 use the turbine-stator out of a 3408. Oil temp will climb fast though with the smaller oil cooler

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W900a

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