Vladislav

That's one great looking machine! Thanks for sharing!

Your starter engages electrically. If mechanically that would be solved by the 1st swap. To light up the starter it needs power to its small terminal on the pull relay (on the starter not on the firewall). The sequence is you switch the ignishion in the cab and power goes to the firewall relay. It switches up powering up the starter pull relay. The latter connects its big terminals supplying power from the top one (which is constantly connected with battery plus) to the lower one which is a pole of the starter motor. And also moves the Bendix clutch into the flywheel gear. In your situation there must be power at the small terminal on the starter pull relay. At the time you turn the key to the starting position but than later on too. The most probably the firewall relay switches on but doesn't switch off once the key in the ingition lock released. Ot the lock itself keeps on regardless you released the key. You pointed you have checked that but may worth to double check. Overall pretty simple design so just figuring and step by step testing is required.

Strongly recommended

Never knew that, many thanks for pointing up.

So seeing the dates it more looks to me that MH Ultraliner swapped out WS Cruiseliner if we observe the fact from a view point of market niche. As long as Cruiseliner was in production (in PA closer to the end) there was no big need offering another cabover (Ultraliner). And F-model was already discontinued (in 1981-?) Would be interesting to learn better the time frame Ultraliner came into production. I thought first series trucks were made in late 1984. Sure read it somewhere (in Kevin's posts?). I was not at Mack plant seeing actual trucks leaving the assembly line.

I'm going to make it a try. I will let you know if any luck is achieved.

That's fine.

Unfortunately no. Obtaining visa for travels to EU is very difficult by a well-known reason. And the same for the US. I wish if I could. Hope for better times. But I'm not sitting at home. Made a very eventfull trip to one more "Mack region" https://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/74179-sometimes-you-need-to-drive-long-ways-to-see-a-mack-truck/ By the word I couldn't reach out Gerloff by e-mail. Don't you know if he does feel Ok?

You're welcome Paul! You can see a movie on Youtube of how I purchased and loaded the truck. It was filmed by local guys (neighbours of the previouse owner) and I asked them to not show myself up in it. It's in Russian but many things may be just seen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DECw8C-unQk There's also a part #1 of that movie where the guys described the truck at the time they haven't knew I was on the hunt and going to get it from there.

The terminal strips on the firewall (two parralel 14 pin stripes) are 71MR403P14 or 25496936. They are (were?) avalible from Mack and not by PAI. PAI was offering shorter terminals from 71MR403P5 (5 pins) as MJB-4384 to 71MR403P13 (13 pins) as MJB4398. But no 14 pin. 71MR403P6 with 6 pins are used on the inside of R-model hood for connecting headlight harnesses. Those could be purchased from PAI as MJB4385.

My hinge has damage at both ends, cracked for nearly a couple inches at each side. Also I have a portion of really bad hinge. The idea is it gets stress at the ends the most since off the ends it's supported by channels attached to the hood sides. This way I guess if I cut a portion off the central hinge and add a portion of a spare part the seam wouldn't be stressed much and could hold its steadiness just being welded by a couple of spots. It's a trouble to weld that channel (with my skills). It's thin and may meld down. Mine is not brass. It's covered with brass probably galvanized or soldered for corrosion resistance but generically it's steel.

Hi Leon, Where are that many Cruiseliners in the Netherlands from?? I thought your toy was the only animal of the breed in the country.

Thanks for posting the picture. If I'm not wrong the truck came out on a scene in the past by some reason.

How about the hood central hinge condition? They're usually troubleful when having age.

Australian and NZ Cruiseliners had rectangular headlights indeed. But from talks on here I figured those were quite few in number, something like a hundered trucks count. Down Under Superliners had appearance similar to American ones. If we speak about the headlights. With minor nuances though. We go off-topic here with that, so better to initiate a separate thread on the subject.

Two thumbs up!!!

Double round headlights. In rectangular bezels.

Also no direct answer but a point to guess from. My 1983 Cruiseliner was made at Macungie plant. And has the axle mounted box. The round headlights Superliners had their chassis style similar to Cruiseliner. No matter they were assembled at Hayward or later at Macungie. And as long as they used Cruiseliner chassis (and there was NO Ultraliner chassis before 1984) and that chassis didn't have a spot for mounting the steering gear, the latter must be having place on the axle beam. An add note from my side. I always keep my eyes open for chassis wievs of different Mack trucks and Superliners are near the center of the focus. Of what I ever saw there were no early series Superliner chassis with chassis mounted steering box.

Double congrats! The truck looks really cool! Sorry can't comment you boy's appearance. Just with him health and best of luck!

As said above. And that's the only idea on my mind at the moment.

Definitely an interesting matter got digged out. I also haven't had idea on possible installation of the seal between the bearings. Looking by an engeneering (design) point of view I'm with Geoff - "not meat and not fish" as we would say where I am. So possibly some technological reason or reason of some other kind was involved.

Yup, that fixed flange style showed up closer to the end of 80's as it seems to me. I have a question to you though. My 1945 Mack model NR has those cone flanges arranged with double splined end axle shafts and elephant ears bogie to frame brackets what being seemed as #44000 setup. The matter is those "mushroom" flanges have oil seals installed in them. So gear oil from the banjo can't go into hub bearings and the latters are spinning in grease. At the same time I have a 1984 MH-model with similar looking axle flanges but those bearings utilize gear oil from the axle. Were both of the styles existed as different options or was there a swap from grease in the hub bearings to oil?

Welcome to the forum! One nice looking R-model indeed! As for airride conversion I would go another route than welding a frame section off a Freightliner and so on. You can find a cut off or just a suspension set off a R-model which was produced by Neway. Very common setup for R's at the time but more for tractors than dump trucks and so. Neway was usually installed as a tandem bogie but actually that's two sepapate suspensions each of conteins a pair of brackets you attach to the frame, a pair of big levers an axle attached to and one Macks axle with Mack differential. So you can just use one axle setup and install it onto your frame with no cutting/welding the original rails. Just drill bolt holes where they're needed to be. Doing that you'd need a crossmember for installation of the frame brackets (should be taken together with other parts) and also you'd use a differential with no power divider (from the RR axle) since you're going to have a single drive and don't need the divider. This way you achive a truck with all OEM parts and solid factory frame rails. Vlad

I used to use Tamiya water-based paint but dissloved it with alcohol for airbrush condition. Much better application than adding water and much less poison vapours in relation to acetone-based solvents you need for common paints.