Retro Racer

Have a look at my Old Macks for sale thread... A fellow Aussie thinks he has one on hand

WOW! I've currently posted on a historic truck forum here in Australia trying to track down a day cab F700 Mack that I had my first ever truck ride in when I was 12. Hopefully it'll turn up one day...

I love forums due to post as above... Members helping each other out with hard to get parts, win win! Here's a few more older Mack's for sale here in Oz... I have a thing for F and R models if you haven't noticed Another R600 tray top http://www.trucksales.com.au/buy/details.aspx?R=12536265&__sid=136FB602C492&__Qpb=1&Cr=2&__Ns=p_StockRankSort_Int32%7c1%7c%7cp_Make_String%7c0%7c%7cp_Model_String%7c0%7c%7cp_Year_Int32%7c1%7c%7cp_StockPrice_Decimal%7c1&PriceTo=1874&__N=1550%201552%201715%201600%201601%201602%204294958828%204294957853%201874&seot=1&__No=15&__Nne=15&trecs=28&silo=1701 '74 FIR700 rigid tanker http://www.trucksales.com.au/buy/details.aspx?R=12218572&__sid=136FB602C492&__Qpb=1&Cr=6&__Ns=p_StockRankSort_Int32%7c1%7c%7cp_Make_String%7c0%7c%7cp_Model_String%7c0%7c%7cp_Year_Int32%7c1%7c%7cp_StockPrice_Decimal%7c1&PriceTo=1874&__N=1550%201552%201715%201600%201601%201602%204294958828%204294957853%201874&seot=1&__No=15&__Nne=15&trecs=28&silo=1701 '67 Flinstone just begging to be restored... Uber cool http://www.trucksales.com.au/Gallery.aspx?R=12531996&PhotoID=/general/content/gc4779346782215726558.jpg&track=IMAGEVIEWER&h_mid=5235946&f_mid=0&c_mid=5235932&TabId=2611674

Great advice! May I also suggest using some heavy gear oil between the hardened washer and nut, plus your choice of quality thread lube... I found it helps torque the nuts up not only easier, but helps eliminate u-bolt twist whilst tensioning too

My profession from 1979 till 2000 was trailer maintenance... Saw lots of ungreased slack adjusters that were so sloppy in the worm drive that they'd use most of the booster stroke to barely offer any brake. On road trains running up through the centre of Australia back then in the wet season the cam bushes would bind up with fine bull dust mud and stick on, especially when fitted with BPW type slack adjuser return springs attached from the spare clevis holes to the booster bracket. If the cam splines weren't worn, the inner sleeve of the adjuster would rust onto the cam and would quite often have to be gas axed off, even with the adjuster itself flogged out. Also saw quite a few as previously mentioned where the adjuster lock ring was blasted to bits by rocks etc and would allow the brakes to unwind right infront of your eyes when doing a two man test in the workshop... Which reminds me of a common complaint of little or no brakes at all on the whole road train after driving through desert floods. Turns out the bull dust mud would enter the booster plunger hole and almost set like concrete not allowing booster activation. Push rod boots were later offered as an accessory to try and eliminate this problem.

Just thought I'd share these with you guys... Hope that's OK? Tidy late FR700 single drive with 13sp RR & Volvo high speed diff http://www.trucksale...cs=27&silo=1701 As is LWB '75 R600 tray top http://www.trucksale...cs=27&silo=1701 Restored F/R700 Day Cab... Price dropped $5K as it's been for sale for some time. http://www.trucksale...cs=27&silo=1701 Repainted '84 R685... My personal favourite at the moment. http://www.trucksale...cs=27&silo=1701 I'll add some more later as I'm running late for dinner... PS my search is limited to Mack $30,000, so I'm sure there's more there to be seen

Two gear sticks might be needed there...

Can't say I've ever seen one over here in Australia.

As you work your way through all the black detailing (wheels, bumper tray etc) she'll look like new

Thanks guys, I'm hoping to have a look around the US in the not to distant future too. Olivetroad, many laboring, drilling or trade positions in the booming mine sector in the far north east/west favor applicants with an unrestricted HR license... Fingers crossed!

Nice work! I like the idea of just concentrating on one section at a time

Hey all, I'm late '40s but was involved in the heavy transport industry over here in Australia from a very young age up until about 12 years ago in trailer maintenance. Used to build truck models as a kid, went on long truck trips on holidays. Business, relationships, motor sport and flying all got in the way, but I have just sold my business and after holidaying in the tropics for a month I went and got my HR (Heavy Rigid) License yesterday... Yes the school is open right over Easter, a two truck family operation. I had driven a few 9, 13 and 15 speed boxes in the early '90s so I was opted to go for my crash box license and the truck on offer was a 2235 Mercedes Benz... So I was spoilt somewhat by the air assisted clutch Although my dream truck is a FL700 Day Cab 285 Maxidyne 5 speed with overdrive (first long distance truck I went for a ride in) I really enjoyed the Benz with its turbo V8 13sp Fuller RR. Even though she was carrying about 8 tonnes, apart from hill starts, I only used 3-4 low followed by 5-6-7-8 Hi and after a couple of hours all the gears were rounded off nicely offering smooth shifts hehehe. I was super impressed by the similar torque spread to the old Maxidyne, most of the time only using 800-1,500rpm range. So I'd better do well in my quest to work in the mining sector here soon as I'll now have to save up for an old F700 and a 2235! http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3637674777422.171420.1140819025&type=1&l=6f56aac3ba

The version I heard went like this... Mount her from behind, hold on to her hips real tight then tell her "your sister likes it like this too"

At least now I know I wasn't imagining something from my youth, as I went for a long trip in a day cab F model... It was either a 237 or 285 and he said it was a rare overdrive setup on the second stick, so he only used it in 5th. Even pulling 30 ton, it rarely needed a down change on the main box... Usually just into direct and it'd lumber over the longest of hill, albeit flat out at 54mph if over drive was selected on the long flat sections of road. It also had a Jacobs engine brake... At least the switch was labelled Jacobs, but it was only operated by the switch, no solenoids on either the clutch pedal or throttle..

Some really great information offered here, but I'm going to throw a spanner in the works! I'm not that familiar with the underside of Macks, mostly worked on trailers for 22 years where castor isn't so much of an issue... But looking at those spacer blocks between the steer axle/springs in the video has me wondering if you have speed induced castor hop? Do Mack trucks usually use tapered spacers to set up castor or is it dialed in elsewhere in the suspension/bracketery? I do remember Kenworths had tapered (weld on) spring mount seats on the drive axles to match up driveline angles and old Volvos had tapered spring seats between the front axle/spring pack to set up the desired castor, but those spacer blocks on your truck appear to be just that... Not tapered... Just an idea and I hope you solve this sooner rather than later!

Pics?

Howdy guys, just reminicing about a trip I did many years ago as an 11yo boy. It was from Adelaide South Australia right up through the middle to Darwin Northern Territory. From memory it was ~1850 miles and most of that was on corrugated dirt "roads". The Mack was a slim line cab over with the really torquey 6 cylinder, I'm not sure if it was the 237 or 280 HP version. It had 5 main gears on one stick and an overdrive on the secondary lever. It also had a Jacobs engine brake switch but I'm not sure whether it was really a Jacobs or the Dynotard??? There was no passenger seat, so I just made a seat out of the sleeping bags, blankets and box of food/gas stove. The engine stop cable was faulty and sometimes we used all 3 shots of air and it wouldn't start, so one time we had to sit for 4 hours after our lunch stop in the middle of nowhere till another road train finally came by and stopped to give us some air. It didn't have any extra driving lights and there was a short under the dash that caused total light failure several times... I later learnt that trip was his first back on the road after months in hospital due to being trapped under a Flinstone Model Mack (R Model?) when of all things the lights failed and he ran off the road and rolled. Being his first return run to the North we didn't pull a road train like he normally would and just pulled a 40' long widespread bogie trailer albeit with ~ 30 ton onboard... The wide spread rockers assembly featured two 3/4" bolts through a large crush tube type bush that were prone to failure. Sure enough these bolts failed on the low side so the trailer was leaning over a fair bit for the last couple hundred miles. Return freight was basically non existant in those days and a premium was paid for running up north on the dirt roads, so most guys would load up their complete semi on top of someone elses with 1 or 2 trailer axles hanging over the back and they'd share fuel expenses on the way home... Road train guys would just carry their scond trailer home to try an weight the empty trailer and minimise damage. Guys would often have leaf springs and brake return springs fail on the empty return trip as the ride was just too rough empty. On my return trip I was spoilt, I sat in a MAN prime mover (rig) loaded on top of a brand new Mercedes 2228 truck n trailer so the ride was superb as both featured long leaf springs and air ride cabs. I'll try and find my old pics. I'd love one day to grab an old slim line 5 speed 237 Maxidyne and make into a tilt tray with airbag suspension for our race cars.