Mike Bartlett's FCBS

Mike has been determined to save this 1970 FCBS for several years now, starting back while attending school here. We have agreed to partner up for the project. After sitting for over five years now, the engine, a 230 hp Cummins, is stuck and will not turn over with the starter or an 18" breaker bar and socket on the end of the crank. After Walter gets to his new home, which incidently is less than a mile from where he was built (Guilderland Industrial Park) I think we should put him in high gear and with a tow try breaking the engine loose. I guess we should drop the pan first and squirt some oil around and in general try to make sure we're not going to break anything through haste, darn it... And I suppose we could put it in high gear and rock it back and forth with another big horse like the 1947 Oshkosh W2201. We have a steel pole we can hook between their pintle hitches that will work nicely. It looks like we are in the market for some rear brake parts that are missing. We are missing some linkage pieces to the parking brake and I don't see any brake chambers in the rear or camshafts or anything for that matter or I might not have looked hard enough yet. Hey! This is our first Walter and there is a learning curve involved here!

The series parallel switch on this truck would seem to be much easier to work with than the type on the '47 Oshkosh. This one is straight forward, the starter simply has one cable and looks like a 12 volt but is 24v. The Oshkosh has a fancy shmancy solenoid that switches the ground and all sorts of connections to make and break along with the series parallel switch. Perhaps it was okay when new but half a century later there is always a bad connection or ground somewheres it seems, especially if you need it or someone wants to hear it run.. and what fun to track down when you are by yourself with an adjustable wrench, pliers and a screwdriver. This system looks like it should be a better one. And gives me an idea! Would like to find another switch like this one for the Oshkosh! And accidently on purpose leave the 12v starter in... VROOOM that old 220 cummins starts nice! Or put the 12v starter from Josh in Walter? Well, whatever makes Walter happy right now would make Mike and me happy I think. Larry

December 23, 2009 Today we were going to bring the Walter home but we found we have some tough work ahead of us. The parking brakes were disconnected and also the right rear air brake. Most of the bolts were out of the axle shaft on the right rear also... We could not budge the Walter and the right rear wheel was locked up... Someone was already trying to do something. Our friend Jim Roland rigged up a 6 ton Coffing come-a-long between the wing brace and around the wheel so it would make it turn after we disconnected the driveshafts on both sides. We can make the wheel turn but it just spins/slips where it sits and won't move the rest of the truck, and worse, the driveshaft doesn't turn. Do we have a broken gear(s?) ...Parking brakes may be frozen too, at least right rear again! And now for the kicker, we put a bar in the driveshaft between the front transmission and the rear differential figuring we would be able to drive the front axle but we can just turn it and turn it and nothing happens! What the heck?! Shoot! Had a great big pipe wrench and wish I had crawled under and tried turning the front axles....

We had already hired a lowboy and he showed up as we were discovering all this. We had him call the boss, Robert Van Etten, from Ravena to find out what the bill would be from the shop to there and back empty. Bummer but what can you do? After a conversation with the boss, George the driver told us no charge! Merry Christmas! And this has to be pretty close to a 100 mile round trip. Wow, thank you Mr. Van Etten and Merry Christmas to all!