Afternoon everyone,

I just purchased a 72 brockway K361TL with a 871 detroit to add to my diesel collection. Could anyone explain the 13 speed trans with the 3 spliter lever on the side. I believe its a 13speed roadranger with the easton splitter. I got the jist of it, but need laymans terms. Thanks

Stephen

 

Simply put as best as I can, when you are in direct, with the button on the side, you can switch to o/d without moving the shifter and you'll be in o/d of that gear. Say 6th, hit the button and you'll be in 6th over, and on and on. There's not alot of shifter movement with a 13. There's a few different models of the 13 with slightly different patterns. But they all sure do whine when you get into the o/d ranges!!!!!

 

Thanks big horn, the shifter has the lever on the left of shifter and has three positions, all the way back, middle and foward. I thought you had to run each gear, flip lever run each gear , then flip again. Also, the truck has a deep reduction lever on the dash, if Im not towing, can I run it with deep reduction off? still learning with it, most I ever drove was a 66 deuce and a half with a 5 speed and a lever for low range.

 

Our mid 70's Marmons with the 13spd RR had air driven splitters. So I'm not sure about the splitter stick. Could it be for some type of PTO device? The Mack I drove has a lever for the PTO pump, another for the tranny and one more for the splitter. So three sticks on the floor!

The deep reduction is for off road use. IIRC it locks both axles together.

MikeyB

 

Used to drive 13 Speed Roadrangers back in the 70's. Is it an RTO9513? Is the lever you are talking about a three position button mounted on the left side of the shifter ****? If it is, you start out with the little lever all the way down, in Low Range. Depending upon load and gearing you work your way through those gears, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th. When you get into 4th Low and are getting ready for another shift, you move the lever to the middle position (direct?), shift into neutral, then back into first gear. THEN you start splitting the gears by shifting up into OD with the button, then into neutral and back to direct before going into the next gear, until you wind up in 4thOD. Sounds kind of weird, but it is quick once you get used to it.

Used to drive the old Eaton 3 Speed Tandems as well, actually liked them better. Those are the ones that you work through the three positions on each **** and then change gears.

As mentioned above, there is more than one type of 13 speed Road Ranger out theres. Look for a plaque mounted somewhere on the truck that might give the model number of the transmission.

Hope this helps more than it confuses. Have fun jamming those old gears.

 

It has been a long time for me too but basically you shift through the 1 to 5 gear positions then move the range selector button to the next range and continue using the 2 to 5 positions for the remaining upshifts.You only use the first gear position when starting out in low range.The gear count will be 5 speeds for the low range then 4+4 for the next two ranges which adds up to 13 speeds.
The lever on the dash will be for the power divider lockout most likely and do NOT engage that with the vehicle moving as expensive parts will break.You can disengage it while under way but be sure you are stopped when you engage it.Some of them have a warning buzzer to alert you when it is in use but the serious damage will be done before you hear it.Basically a power divider when locked out will guarentee that one wheel on each axle will turn.Most of the time you are better off without it unless you have a situation that specifically needs the advantage of a wheel on each axle turning under power.The power divider distributes power to all four tandems based on the traction that each wheel has and is generally preferred for limited traction situations.Some of those Roadrangers have fifth gear and fourth gear transposed and the plaque on the sunvisor may not reflect what you actually have in the truck after all these years so you may have to experiment a little if things don't seem copisetic as you are upshifting.Ron G

 

The 13spd did not have a deep reduction. Someone may have swapped out the transmission at some point. The deep reduction was a 15spd trans, the older ones had the reduction valve on the bottom of the dash plate. Does the valve do anything when flipping it?

As far as the 13spd goes, only the high side can be split, shift it like others have stated.



Tim

 

Tim,

Maybe it is a 15 speed, the deep reduction is on the lower dash kinda off set towards pass side, and works, owner tested everything while I was in truck, but we only ran through 6 gears, due to I had to get back to base. I am picking up truck today with lowboy, I'll post picks later so you can see the data plate and id it for me. I appreciate the replys, I know its off dodge topic, but its gonna eventially go to truck shows with me, just a different brand of diesel thats all

 

OK, that 15 speed is a very different animal to shift. The reduction on the dash can only be used in low range. The 4th and 5th gear shift positions are reversed, so to shift the pattern you go like this. All the way left and down for 1st, over and up for 2nd, straight down for 3rd, over and down for 4th, straight up for 5th, then flip the low reduction to high before depressing the clutch, then depress clutch and pull the shifter from 5th straight down into the 4th position, then back up into the 5th position. From this point pull the high side splitter on the shift lever and go all the way over and down onto the 1st gear position, (actually 6th gear at this point), then follow the exact same pattern as on the low side, just remember over and down for 9th then straight up for 10th. You do not have to use the deep reduction, it is mostly for off road very slow speed operation, you will see once you play with it for a while.

Good luck,


Tim

 

Tim thanks, I'll post a pic of data plate, and shifter, you'll pick it right out. Thanks for the help.