Vladislav

Didn't go for free as it seems to me but looks like a good solid truck on the picture. Thanks for sharing, I like them L's.

Wow! Great! Thanks for sharing! Just looks like I need a couple of evenings to go through all those nice shots.

Paul mate, It happens I'm a penny bit busy in the recent times. Interesting thread, would be cool if we see the final result some day. Here is a link to my R-model restoration work. Including the opening arrangement. https://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/61222-r-model-cab-resto-report/#comment-444164

The Longest Day...

Looks like a common TRD-72-something Mack tranny of those times. The main box is an over with that "mirror: shift pattern" if I understood correctly what you're talking about. I mean 4th (direct) is down and the 5th (overdrive) is up. The reason is, when you shift direct you slide a sliding clutch up front in the tranny to unify the main shaft with the spigot (the pinion). This way you get a "solid straight shaft" through all the transmission (the main box) which means a direct gear (actually no gear). As long as you slide the sliding clutch up front you move the shift lever to the rear (it has a ball moint in the tranny top cover). So the direct is normally with the lever pulled back. And when you put the lever up front in the same cluster it slides the clutch into another gear wheel, the first on the main shaft after the constant mesh set. IF that gear is lover than 1.0 ratio you get slightly lower ratio which would be #3. So you're Ok shifting 1st left-up, than 2nd left-down, than 3rd right-up and 4th (direct) right-down. Or if we count starting from the crawl gear which shifts against the reverse it would be 1-2-3-4-5 with 5th direct. So life's good. Until we desire an overdrive tranny. Practically it's done by installing a fast set of gears in place of the 3rd gear set. Which was slower than direct but becomes faster. Physically tranny remains the same. But when you shift right-front you get a ratio faster than 1.0. So you have first shift to direct which is right-down (or back). Later series transmissions were bult the same way (including T200 series). But correction was done in the shifter rails arrangement. There's a kind of a balancer lever in the top cover or I don't know how to call it correctly. Design is when you put the shift lever right-front it moves the rail and the fork also up front due to double reversing by that balancer setup and the shift tower ball joint. So you're getting the overgear after the direct one following the normal shift sequence. Speaking the compound it could be of different ratio. Some trannies (duplex) had if of 1/37 (if I'm not wrong) so you have "halves" for splitting (usually for Lanova Diesels). Gas jobs had wider revs range (up to 3000RPM's against 2000 with diesel) so the truck could drive with no splitting and the aux box could be slower for off road or slow pull operations. Actually the compound could also be a triplex or quadriplex attached to that same main box.

Don't you ocassionally have drawings for laser cut panels you're going to install? Or are you going to hand cut those plates? I also want to make new insert panels but their geometry isn't really simple shapes, needs a bit of head scratching for measurings and scatching.

Welcome to the forum and congrats on the great purchase! Also thanks for posting photo's on your new toy, we all like to see cool truck pics. Vlad

Seems like a steal

Situation of the same kind is here. Besides of of some crazy taxes you can't import a truck with lower that Euro-5 emission level. Same for cars but 40 y.o. and older ones go as an exception.

Haven't you separated their heads? The older style I have on my NR-model had threaded plugs at the ends. So you just fit tension by them. There also shims inside too. In your case an idea pops up on some grinding of the end caps to minimize gap. Sure if the ball portions are even in their shape. Too probably you may find an aftermarket rod with the same cones and length (Strenle Brothers or so web-site) but those you have look very steady and vintage for the truck. I have a similar set on one of my Macks, they found a way to get onto a 1984 MH somehow. But I haven't got myself to their inside.

What you say is a matter of taxes. To level up those who live poorer. They're poor by different reasons, some were born in poor family having no money for education, some are illy and some are just lazy. Seems the approach is a two sided coin. At one we should be merciful since those folks are humans. And at the other we who can make good (or normal) living for ourselves may share some worth with those others for being calm and easy to not get in our line with hungry protests or crime. But that's a side note. The main stream is the cost of local production is ballasted with taxes over the edge. Ok, strange situation. Your government wants high taxes from you to produce something or to not produce much instead. But they can import cheap goods from China to supply you and everybody around with. But where get they money from? Here it's clear. The country explore natural resources and sells them. The government do that. Or controlls, no much difference. Then they buy all kinds of goods from all over the world and sell them in the country. I suppose the goods turn out 3 times cheaper than if a man would make it by his labour. I mean in a natural form. Say you'd need to work 12 months at a plant as a worker to afford a car but now your wages allow you to buy a car in 4 months (literally). But here the reason is known. Those who control the export money flow can cut off a good dozen for their private needs. And the rest goes to the nation to be calm and qute to not disturb the big boys. So the cut off is as larger as the main stream is. This way you don't need some locals tinkering in their sand boxes with potential risk of anyone to grow up high enough to ask "Who you are for doing that there?" Just easy sell-buy with stable margin. But that's a country with export-based economy. And what is the source for supply in the US? Growing national debt?

This sounds strange to me since the economy is of supply and demand kind. So if so many folks are employed in offices someones need them. Or that. Could be a matter of burocracy sure. Here we have that but Russia's economy is mostly govnt controlled.

So what is the reason a trouble occures finding working people? The answer is people are doing well enough having incoms they have consuming cheap Chinese goods. You can't force a man to stand a whole day near a lathe if he can spend the same time in a office chear. And if you try making lathe job attractive and offer 3 times higher wedges than for office job you would get a product 3 times more expensive than a made in China item. The solution is production of everything at home but 3 times more expensive than in the South East. This way you would just consume 3 times less of goods for your labour. Nobody wants such situation actually. And it wouldn't be achieved when the things are as they are now. To get to that you need to stop the draft of Eastern goods into the country. And that can be done by putting high border taxes. Looking the recent events that's exactly what I was typed above. So your distant future (I sure doubt it will come in that shape) would be less goods for more labour. As I mentioned the approach here in Russia is similar. And you always hear plenty of talks why we don't produce locally and why there are so many Middle Asia workers employed. But those who talk don't realize they would have to pay higher costs for proper economy. On the other hand on my mind the proper economy is the way to go. And you may consume less and still do well just being efficient and not stupid.

Sorry, no ready answer handy at the moment. Plety was written on the site on this matter. You may do some relaxing reading during long winter evenings or maybe some one will knock on the door in this thread.

Yup, those middle hands definitely are making big difference. And not a trouble to figure out who puts control on that section of money travel.

That Mack emblem I belive is similar to what was used on B-models. Watts Mack used to have them in on-line store and recently they started offering plastic chrome-coated ones for some reasonable cost (about $100 if I'm not wrong). During the years I aquired a pair from flea-bay catching good ones by chance. But they were found semi-pitted to some grade anyway. Diesel is more special part since B's had smaller Diesel script. Those on your truck were installed on LT's and also on some 60's-70's Brockway trucks.

Yes. They made RS/RL700 in Hayward only. Too probably they were Hayward design too. Hayward discontinued them in 1978 (1979?) when RWS/RWL Superliner came to the scene. Production of RS600 continued and after closing Hayward (in 1980-82 time frame, don't remember) was removed to Macungie. So RS600 could be both produced at West and East coasts but 700's were Hayward built trucks only.

Very familiar situation, Geoff! In 2014 I accuired wery good solid Mack Ultraliner. The engine was operational, good paint on the cab, good tyres. And that strange rear setup with a few issues such as eualizer beams butcher-welded and one shock went south. I was full of enthusiasm and had thought to myself I'd put a question on here and easily locate and import all needed pieces. Not difficult to guess what that turned out into. I fixed a few things over the truck just to find FR axle is bent. Could swap with another one but would need to grind off ears for normal Neway levers. Which didn't look reasonable to me so I resolved to swap everything with normal Neway set I was going to get off my R-model. After installation of a restored set onto it. 10 years passed since and the R is still needing frame rails to put revised suspensions onto along rebuilt cab, hood and a sleeper. And the MH is sitting near the front of my house in the yard having about 30 meters of total milage for the time I own it.

What you may find on the frame is the VIN stamping only. Or the chassis number (which I belive before 1980 and also after 1980 was VIN). BTW door tags also didn't contein engine info.

You would have to contact the museum. There's on-line decoder but it gives general info only. Something like the production year and possibly an engine option, such as Mack, Cummins, Detroit... I was looking for actual info on my 1988 R688 such as the original engine number etc. Asked a few dealerships in the US (personally) and ended up getting essential info from the Museum guys.

This truck was up for sale about a decade ago. Zoom in the pic and you can see where to look at for the VIN. That's RS600 not RS700 but also Hayward production. And Happy Easter to you! This year this is the same date for both Catholic and Orthodox celebration.

The frame rail is expected to have VIN stamped into RH side near the steer tyre area. But there could be an exception.

Just a question you sure may not answering. If no VIN how can you register the rig?

Hmm... A question on a side note. What are those brackets attached to the frame rails in the background of the picture? Too look like that extremely seldom seen late style Neway setup.

Wow! Steel dash! Looks cool, and the steering wheel seems seamless. Wonder could you find any traces of presence of the V8 in the past?