mrsmackpaul

You blokes are pretty quick, mind you'll find it nice and quiet at 1600 rpm My bucket of bolts is pretty loud over 2000 rpm, 2100 is near 60 MPH and when I'm coasting along and the oils all hot it's ringing in my ears 1950 rpm is a lor quieter and at 55 MPH is much more relaxing Yeah very unfashionable and slow compared to blokes but we don't have traffic were I drive Paul

Wow, never heard of that happening Hoping it all goes okay, I decided maybe 10 years ago to start actually trying to take care of myself, dunno how well it's working for me but I'm still ticking along with no medication But injuries do happen easier and come from no we're these days Paul

Great stuff, really impressive Paul

I guess it really depends on what floats your boat I like the more classic scroll work I'm guessing period correct wpuld be graphics from the 80's See if this works https://share.google/hiURnM8cyEvLgRPic Might have to clickty click a bit, but there's 51 pages of Superliners for your viewing pleasure Paul

Well there goes the neighborhood ha ha People everywhere will be having a love affair with that Paul

Clearly having finger nails doesn't help Paul

Yep, brown and beige is the go to colours for all the cool Super Truckers LOL Paul

Brown beige all the way, can't go wrong with those colours You have a good starting point there, with the truck Paul

A survivor Dominic Golding believes he was born in Cholon, the Chinatown of Saigon. He was discovered in the street by an Australian doctor outside a building which had just been bombed. Dom’s deafness is attributed to this bombing. A vulnerable newborn with cerebral palsy, Dom was taken to a World Vision Orphanage and at some stage named named Hong Duc Nguyen, Duc meaning ‘good’. For Australia-bound orphans to qualify for evacuation, they had to have adoptive parents, approved by state and territory adoption authorities, waiting to receive them. Dominic believes he was one of four children without any such paperwork. “The circumstances which led to me being placed in the C-130 are haphazard. I think I was so small and sick they thought I would probably die, so they just put me on the aircraft hoping for the best.” He survived the journey, but two of the other babies did not. When he arrived in Melbourne, the Golding family of Mt Gambier met the Qantas Babylift, only to find that the baby they had been allocated had died in-flight. In Dominic’s words, “They asked if there was a spare baby.” Dominic spent four months in Melbourne’s Fairfield Infectious Diseases Hospital under the care of Matron Vivian Bullwinkel, after which he was able to go to his new home and family at Mt Gambier. His adoptive parents were school teachers who had worked in Papua New Guinea, and he had four older siblings. Thus, in Dominic’s words, “they had already been de-programmed from racial discrimination.” In 1975 orphans and refugees from Vietnam were test cases for the new Racial Discrimination Act which replaced the openly racist White Australian policy. Though nearly fifty now, Dominic Golding Nguyen’s life has been completely shaped by his first chaotic months. Dominic went to a loving family with first world medical care and opportunity. He is absolutely certain that his life was saved by Babylift. Life for a foreign adoptee, though, is not without difficulty. Placing a child of one race with adoptive parents of another race creates a complex identity narrative. Reflecting on his life, Dominic is outspoken on race relations and chooses to ‘interrogate whiteness’. In this context, the question of his feelings toward the C-130 Hercules was posed carefully. When we spoke, Dominic stood up, with some difficulty removed his coat and pulled up his sleeve. There on his left forearm was the answer. A bold black tattoo, the silhouette of a C-130 in-flight and the year [19]75. The C-130 means everything to him. For over 65 years RAAF C-130’s have continually provided invaluable support in times of humanitarian crises. Though Australian Hercules squadrons have demonstrated their capacity, willingness and rapid responsiveness to unfolding disasters time and time again, Babylift must surely have been one of their more rewarding operations. Dominic Golding-Nguyen is proof of that. Paul

Vietnam Veterans day in Australia today This year we remember that 50years ago we (The allies) had "Operation Baby Lift" Read bellow Half a century ago, the RAAF and also Qantas joined one of the great humanitarian missions at the end of the Vietnam War, using C-130 and even Dakota aircraft plus a Qantas Boeing 747 to evacuate infants and other refugees from Vietnam. This was called Operation Babylift, mounted in April 1975 in the chaotic final days before Saigon fell to North Vietnamese forces. Operation Babylift, like more recent RAAF missions to evacuate Australian nationals from foreign warzones, was a significant logistics effort, staged far from home at short notice under difficult conditions. In Canberra on Wednesday, participants in Operation Babylift, plus some of the (now grown up) infants they transported, gathered at the Australian War Memorial to commemorate the event’s 50th anniversary. Operation Babylift was just part of a larger US-led operation delivering aid and evacuating refugees from South Vietnam. Australia had withdrawn the last combat troops at the end of 1972 and the US in March 1973. As North Vietnamese troops advanced, thousands crowded into Saigon, creating a looming humanitarian catastrophe. US President Gerald Ford coined the name Operation Babylift to evacuate around 3,000 orphans, many the children of liaisons between Vietnamese women and US soldiers. Australia agreed to help, deploying what was called Detachment S (for Saigon), initially two C-130 Hercules from 36 and 37 Squadrons and two C-47 Dakotas from Transport Support Fight, Butterworth, Malaysia. Eventually the mission included eight Hercules, a very significant effort which tested the kills of aircrew flying to and from chaotic crowded airports in the final throes of a long war. “The airport was fairly busy with a lot air transport and ground strike sorties departing morning, noon and night and radio chatter was …intense,” recalled retired Air Commodore Ian Scott, a participant in the missions. “We had rudimentary intelligence and very rudimentary tactics. What we would try to do is to take off, climb as steeply as we can to get up to our cruise altitude. When we came back into Saigon into Tan Son Nhat airfield, we would try to do a circling approach or a very steep approach to avoid small arms ground fire.” Initially it was thought babies bound for Australia could travel from Saigon aboard a chartered Qantas Boeing 747 but it was quickly concluded the airliner should land at Bangkok, with infants transported from Saigon aboard the RAAF’s C-130s. The first flight carried 87 babies and the next 107, many loaded aboard, the smallest in cardboard boxes stacked side by side on the cargo hold floor. In all 281 children were transported to Australia and around 3,000 to the US. Operation Babylift wasn’t without tragedy and controversy. The first departing aircraft was a USAF C-5A Galaxy which crashed soon after take-off, killing 138, including 78 children and two Australian women. Not all those evacuated were orphans – some had been placed into orphanages by poor but still living relatives. Some alleged their youngsters had been, in effect, kidnapped, and launched legal action in the US. Not all Detachment S activities were about evacuating babies. The detachment conducted many more flights inside Vietnam, evacuating refugees ahead of the North Vietnamese forces and delivering relief supplies. Former Air Force Nursing Officer Val Lawrence, who was deployed on Operation Babylift in Vietnam in 1975, meets Warrant Officer Class One Darren Wasley at the War Veterans’ Home at Myrtle Bank in SA. WOFF Wasley was one of the children evacuated from South Vietnam during the operation and is now studying at the Australian War College. Credit: Defence

Yeah, they call it ESI, extended service interval, plus the tripple oil filters 20000km between oil changes Or 12000 mile for the poor Yanky cousins that are stuck inlast century Paul

Some more JFK useless information Did you know there was a song about PT 109 and JFK ? You all can thank my Mum for this useless information Poor old Mumsback home for the first time in around 6 months, she's been having a issue with cancer of late, a slight break in chemo before radiation therapy I was telling her about the forum and my post on JFK and she told me about this Good old Mum https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=tXGQt7SdbIE&si=ijaBjh89qq5WZ04y&feature=xapp_share Paul

Okay some useless information We had a radio presenter that I can probably relate to your Paul Harvey His name was John Laws, "The man with the golden tonsils" Anyway Laws had a segment each day "Todays usless information" So I have mentioned plenty of times just how flat Australia is, it's as they say "As falt as a shit carters hat" Anyway, the bloke that is credited with been the inventor of Australia's modern road train Kurt Johnannsen Paul

You don't have time for that, you've got a bonnet (hood) to finish ha ha ha Mind you, they would be a welcome distraction from the fiber glass Paul

I believe they will be the same length dip stick The oil level still needs to be the same no matter which sump is fitted Paul

Have a great day 🍻🥳 Paul

Mech, 100% correct, dont have to drop the whole shooting match apart, just the bit your fixing Lids off, undo the selector rod grub screws on the forks Undo the section you need access to and lift it apart carefully Always use gaskets, none of that poxy form a gasket crap or your grey silicone stuff Oozes out the inside and blocks the oil galleries and then gets stuck in the sliding dogs and and then she won't stay in gear Old mate at "gear boxes are us" (I dunno if such a joint exists, I made that up) says to you "mate she's cattle trucked, there cheap today, only 5 gorillas for a change over" When all it needs is dropping apart and cleaning out I have lived this dream a couple of times now Don't use silicone (can't call it what we call it out here, I'd be banned for sure) or a similar form a gasket crap Gaskets are made for a reason, gasket goo or Indian head I hear Bob call it and the gaskets If you can't keep the oil from leaking out, find out why ? Anyway, I'll get off my soap box Paul

Yeah Bob, everything has been taking more time than I ever imagined for almost everything I attempt Stick at it mate, you've got it by the balls now Paul

Joey I have only worked on 12 speeds, sort of the most common Mack box from this era in Australia Input shaft wont fit through the hole in the casting Paul

Joey, the ones I have worked on, the input shaft has to come out into the box The box needs to be split and the main gears all dropped out onto the floor This maybe different, but thinking maybe not either Paul

Not sure what your actually trying to achieve here Nathan I have had these style of Maxitorque boxes right down to housings and every last bit out on the floor They aren't that complicated, or at least I never found them to be I'll send you a message and see if I can help you Paul

Im standing by for a progress report Expecting wondrous things to happen now No pressure at all ha ha ha Paul

Either fluid will work fine, as would ATF Paul

Front legs only rest on the base, they don't really clamp down tight Paul

Leylands was the most successful of all the turbine trucks built The Leyland units were the closest to get into full production and were out in private fleets They must of been pretty safe as they were as far as I know, pulling fuel tankers From the Leyland society page In 1967 Leyland acquired Rover who had invested in research into gas turbine engines. Its application in heavy commercial vehicles followed with the construction of a small number of development vehicles and these three in the livery of the three major oil companies at the time. In 1971 and 1972 they could be seen regularly leaving Spurrier Works in Leyland for extensive testing on the M6 and surrounding roads, their distinctive whistling sound warning you of their approach. The cyclical stresses on their turbines in automotive applications and other factors meant the project was not developed commercially. Subsequent advances in materials technology would make a similar project more durable today but the market seems to be moving inexorably towards battery power, leaving no demand for this innovative form of motive power. Paul