"hicrop10" wrote:

How true Bernie,couldn't agree anymore.Back here in eastern Pa there a contractor that if your a subcontractor for him it takes 180 days to get your money,from what I've been told.How can you work like that.We don't have that problem we gave it all up back in 07 right before it turned south.All of our equipment was all paid for had no bills,wouldn't work for nothing,and the list goes on,me and my two brothers decided that we had enough so we got out of it all togather.Would love to be back moving dirt but won't do it for nothing then have to fight to get paid the little you bid the job for.Hell after the GC,owner get done cutting your balls off you you might as well have done the job for free.

As a kid in the 50's I heard an old man tell another man that was trying to get him to do a grading job to cheap, "I might die tired or I might die hungry but I be damned if I'm going to die tired and hungry."

Hi Team,
these engines at full song are a joy to behold.
Cheers,
Eddie B.

Tried to upload some pix and data but BB will not allow it--files are jpg and are 81.5 and 105 KB respectively and after trying to load shows a red circled exclaimation mark.

"edb" wrote:

Hi Team,
these engines at full song are a joy to behold.
Cheers,
Eddie B.

Tried to upload some pix and data but BB will not allow it--files are jpg and are 81.5 and 105 KB respectively and after trying to load shows a red circled exclaimation mark.

Hello Eddie,
Unfortunate for the foto . Probably your 657 in the USA have ROPS canopy. Good song for the engine I love the cover with Caterpillar but this engine are not a very good

In the late 60's and earily 70,s I worked for 2 contractor's that had 641 's 64fseries ,and 650's ,and 657 's
I thought that they were basically very reliable ,Had to do a couple of in frame overhauls in the field and the most problem I incurred as with the torque converter transmission shift governors .The needle bearing on the governor shaft would come apart ,and the trans would shift erotically . I got used to droping the stup pans ,and trans oil pan to replace the bearing s ,reset the shift points ,and put the machine back to work.
The most common problem with the 657's were the electrical micro switches in the rear engine .Rear engines would either not shift or out of time with front tractor .Its a no go situation when the front tractor was in forward and the rear in reverse ! Dirt and heat worked on those micro switches in time . It was a site to see those machines pushed with 2 D9's 41 cu yds of dirt flowing over the sides of the pans in approximently 20 ft

rjh-md,your comments on the micro switches on the 657's were just the same problems we had.Who was the contractor you worked for.I didn't know of any contractor south of PA that had these scrapers,the only one that might had some of them would have been CJ Langerfellow.

Yes ,The 657's were C J Langfelter's ,they also had a dual D9G that they pushed the scrapers with .I worked for Alban tractor at the time ,and C J's yard and corporate office Was next door to Alban . Where ever the scrapers went ,Alban road mechanics soon followed .I went as far as the northern boarder of PA near the New York state line on a power plant project to service the Langfelter machines
The 641's and 650's came up from Nello Teer Co located in Duram NC to the I 95 road project in Laurel MD
I stayed on that project for 3 yrs maintaining the D-9's and the scrapers. We had 4-D9G.S ,7 -641's and 3- 650 's ,3- D-8's 46A'S and pans 2-d-6 ,10k' s . I had never worked around large scrapers before ,and it was quite an experience .

rjh-md,we did the site work for the Hunt Valley Mall,and early my dad did the approuches to the c&d bridge.At the mall we used our ts-24's.There was a contractor that had there office right down the street on York rd and the owner would stop and watch us,i talked with him one day and he said that he had never seen dirt moved like we did.Our master mechanic had his own shop.His name was Mike Finn was a very good mechanic.We got all of our worker from the union hall they were good operators but they like their booze.

Wow ,Small world out there !I knew MiKe Finn, I worked under him on tugboats as, he was the union mechanic for C J Langenfelter when C J built the 2nd bay bridge Alban was non union and we could only work on the tugboats when a union machanic was on board .At that time Mike was the master mechanic on the tugs for C J . last time I heard of Mike ,He had his own shop in northeast MD.
What was the name of your company ? We probably crossed paths some where ! .

rjh-md,
When did you work for Alban Tractor CO? My brother-in-law worked there for many years. He is retired now. Name was Kenneth Petermann, also known as "Pete". catskinner