Memories from nearly 40 years ago...

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   .... posted this on facebook - thought I would share.We had a tech, Dennis, who had gone thru a divorce and wanted to 'get away' . I got him a job with AC in Az under Marvin Prible in the mid '80's -another 'proving ground'. He reported all the jobs he was assigned. Any vendor who wanted to change a product like a starter or alternator or pump would have to have it tested. His job was to swap these parts and see what happened. When the plant thought a metal or rubber line would cut cost or improve reliability - it had to be changed. He called, collect, one day and was so excited I had to slow him down. He told about the new tractors that had Komatsu engines. When asked why he was told AC had to cut cost and improve efficiency and buying engines might be the best way out. Gleaner engineers were pushing this hard as well for various reasons. Dennis called, collect again, in early 1985 almost in tears "It's over, he said (he had worked from 1969 to present 1985 on AC tractors and Gleaners) it is over. We are gone. " when I ask him to explain he said that the word had come down to shut everything down. Pack it up - destroy everything - and go home. This was before anything was public about the sale to Deutz. I ask him if he could bring anything back. His boss said absolutely not, but there was a U-HAUL dealer a few miles away and he was going to be gone a couple of days to a meeting. Dennis arrived 'back home' a month later with a severely overloaded truck and trailer. 8095 planetaries, pumps, injectors, clutches, hyd lines and tubes, Agri-tronic 8000 stuff and can't remember what else. We were not surprised when we got the "letter". Just some memories from almost 40 years ago.

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