Vladislav

All is done the right way! Great to learn the problem is solved. If you're going to use the truck in the future and taking to account that machine isn't new it worth to remove the starter and go through it completely. Mostly for cheking contition of the brushes and shaft bushings and also for cleaning and grease. These starters seem able to work for really long time. But preventive service would minimize chances of unexpected failure.

Starter windings have so small resistance in relation to common electrical pieces so testing by multimeter in a "normal" way looks like short circuit. Starter motor operates on very high amps so winding wire is reall thick.

Something looks wrong about the relationship of the engine fan and the radiator shround on the 2nd photo. And that reflects the position of the plate between front bumper and radiator assembly on the 1st pic. Overall the truck looks nice and these big radiator B's are relatively rare. But it would need some notable amount of work to be brang back on a road for going to a show.

Yes, there's a style of steering boxes with circulating balls. That's good design regarding the function. As I understood it came on the big truck scene a bit later, after those simple warm and sector boxes. The steering box is of screw, nut and sector style. You spin a screw by steering shaft which drives or undrives in/out of a nut. The nut is also a rack having teeth on one outer side. The teeth are mashed to a teethed sector which turns Pitman arm shaft. The balls are put in the threads between the screw and the nut. So the threads operate as a ball bearing. If the box is an integrated power steering the nut also takes function of a piston having seal rings over its body and moving in a cylindrical cavit bored in the housing. That style usually has a set screw but you can adjust mesh between teeth of the nut and sector only. And if you ran all that adjustment to its limit and still have play in the box that means the balls or their racing surfaces are worn and a fix is replacement of the parts or complete steering box.

Here's a bit of what to look at. The unit is SG-16 made by Mack in 1945. Earlier than yours but from your description I guess very similar. Steering shaft put into a long tube you see in the cab which is attached to the top of the housing under the hood. No U-joints. I indeed had to remove the steering wheel when dismantled the unit off the chassis and that was a trouble with splines stuck to the shaft. Having no luck with simple movements I tried attaching a puller but ended up with a chiesel hitting from below the steering wheel and cracking its lower skird. Found no other way. But looks like you may try removing all the column off the housing together with the steering wheel. My style had the column driven into the housing with threads. Bend off the lip of the lock washer and turn the column (the tube) counterclockwise. The gear itself is a simple warm and sector. My model had the Pitman arm shaft spinning in two needle bearings not cooper bushings. Originally the gear showed excessive play either so I went through it and finding play of the shaft and seeing no wear on its journals I started a hunt on the bearings. Those were marked Torrington-something and after stiring a pot at my local parts supplier I in a month and a half purchased... one bearing. And after telling them "Yes, that's true, I asked for two" and two more months to wait (and paying double shipping cost) I grabbed the 2nd one. To my big frustration after reinstalling both bearings the play rest as it was with the old ones. So it looked like Mack minded that way from the factory (and I didn't liked it). The warm and sector teeth didn't have any notable wear either so my further look put on the bronze bushing the sector seats against and limits its end play. I made additional shim and if assembled with it the shaft had no radial play and all the gear lost 95% of its play too. I was pleased but not cheered since if the shaft had no tight vertical support in the bearings it would lean (dance) under steering force trying to brake the cover or so. And the thickness of the gasket was a mistery to me too since it influences the required bushing thickness. That time I ended up with the original bushing and no gasket (put sealer) and some notable steering wheel play of a couple of inches I would like to minimize for perfection. But I never drove multiple old trucks down the road so kept it about the way Mack made it. Much later a large factory repair manual happened to appear in my hands and Mack engeneers were offering to set the shaft end play by thickness of the gasket (!). That was written there with a comment of no shims of other than standard thickness were avalible. The truck is still in the shed having no engine and cab on so no comments on driving experience from my side. Hope the pics will help you. P.S. As I remember the warm could be removed from the steering shaft in a case you find it bad and no need to remove the steering wheel for that. Also look up for the electrical horn wire as it goes through the steering shaft getting out of the gear at its bottom end.

A bit of addition to what Mech said. Full check left to right is also aimed to figure out is your steering box in ITS central position when the wheels are straight forward. The reason to check is the most steering gears are designed having minimal or no play only near the center of the operational range. So if the gear is off its central position while the wheels look straight you would have excessive play in a good steering box. Usually a box have a mark on its housing with another mark at the pitman arm shaft end but you can always do preliminary check just counting steering wheel turns. The 2nd point is that devuice - the valve assembly - you have installed in place of the drag link. The valves are necessary for the hyd system to figure out when to assist and how hard to. The principal is when you start turning the steering wheel the Pitman arm forces the drag link to move. Truck's wheels resist the movement being on the ground. There's a spring in the drag link (acually 2 of them for L and R) and when you put force on the steering wheel you start compressing one. If the wheels are steady the force is sufficient so the compressed spring opens a valve (talking with simple words) and pressurized fluid goes to the power cylinder helping you. As long as the wheels are moved and no more force to the steering wheel the valve closes stopping the assistance. If you act the same but the truck drives on a highway the wheels don't give much resistance. So no force enough to compress the spring and open the valve so the hyd system doesn't help out and actually you steer mechanically. All that above is a theory. But the theory is the valve MUST have some play. To allow space for the spring to compress to a certain grade before activating the assistance. So in very theory such power steering desings (with the most other styles) have additional play to what just a mechanical box would have with no hydraulic (or pneumatic) add on. What I mean? Or what to do? Looks like a check of that valve unit in the drag link should also be provided. Along with other points mentioned above.

That guy had a nick name of Bigdogtrucker on here and used to be a long time active member in the past. I remeber having exchanged a few PM's with him a while back and he said he was active on FB in some antique Mack group (or so). So that may be one more way to try contacting him.

BTW one nice looking 2nd gen Superliner sells on Craigslist for 16K somewhere at the East coast and I've seen the ad for a few months already. But that's E6 and from the pics it looked like the frame had a trouble in the bogie area.

Overall sounds quite reasonable. If the condition is good the truck has good chances for a new home having E9. My personal taste is more to the 2nd generation Superliner and having the amount of projects I already have looking for one more truck is more just drool. But who knows?

Probably some not cheap beast with V8 (I can't see the price and don't need that) but looks really fresh. Thanks for posting.

Wonder how those public highways are used for landing the plane. It must be very dangerouse if the stretch isn't closed at the both ends. But overall the idea is great for sure.

MH633 is for Cummins for sure. And no comment on the rest from my side.

Paul, as you can see on the cab pics posted later the cowl is similar and swapping soft nose wouldn't be a trouble. But personally I mind keeping the Flintstone look better in this particular cace. My original post had another meaning being addressed to Bob's comment of no need to do any jobs to the truck.

Brocky, you didn't note my post was a quote to Bob Moverman's post. Sure steel nose is much rarer in your neck of the woods and being also a single axle the truck represens unusual configuration. So worth to keep it that way on my mind.

Bearings are going to be all standard bearings excepting a double race one at the rear end of the compound countershaft. Cones are standard Timken or others but that double race cup is an original part which was even possibly made by Mack in house. I had luck locating a NOS one for my Duplex TRD-37 and my tranny thogh being rusty inside looked much more promising (and contained oil not clear water) as the one on the pics. Ok, now I recall I also had "adventure" locating a small roller bearing installed in the rear end of the pinion shaft. Main box main shaft spins in it with its front end. I could find the part# and further used interweb search and found the part in Australia and for nearly hunderd and a half local bucks. Plus shipping. Spent a couple evenings on the net and found much cheaper alternative locally but the bearing race needed a bit of machining. If you hit that trouble PM me and I will describe the details.

Why not to swap to fiberglass hood and paint it?

That's the job

My R688 1988 cab had nutserts all over the roof for the marker lights, horns and Lund visor. All turned out into a big PITA when I started cleaning the roof for body work. I don't recall maybe 3 or 4 bolts and screws drove off by normal way but the most required a ton of work even with the headliner removed. We could drive off a half catching the body of a nutsert with heavy pliers and turning the screw from the top but nearly the half of spots we made by drilling off. Some nutserts are close to the windscreen and when you try access them from under the roof they're too far behind the front reinforcement channel of the roof structure. The most difficult were Lund visor screws which attaches to the sides of the windscreen near the door frame. The screws were stainless and they sure not being lubricated from the factory locked dead tight into the normal steel nutserts. I could drill off 3 of four and cut new threads by tap but the 4th nutsert spinned needing the swap but making its hole larger than it was originally. Worth to point out I applied all possible antiseize, hit and heat and did the job in a few days or even a week having no rush. And on the removed cab I could stand near by, not on a truck. Vlad

Nice looking truck and interesting configuration. Would be cool to see in progress pics.

Good job! To me it doesn't look to fire right up with a set of fresh batteries. More looks like parked at that spot for a while. But probably was kept inside for many years in the past. Would be interesting to know how the frame rails are perfect.

My guess (again a guess) END-673 had dry liners of tighter fit than Maxidynes so you need a strong puller to remove them. Not like E6/EM6 OEM or PAI you have sometimes them off the block just turning the crank a little bit. And put back in new ones by hand (after keeping in a fridge overnight). END's didn't have separate firerings, just integrated in the gasket ones, like in car. That same (as it looks now) for head studs. They were thinner in pre-Maxidyne engines. Again, I have no experience with END-673 but I rebuilt my ED-519 Lanova which also had similar overall design to all END/E -series. Actually the very predicessor to them all. The crank and rods were much lighter than in E6 along with lesser OD journals etc. Dry liners I used a 20 ton press to get off the block, no firerings. If the memory serves good my ED-519 had even lesser journals than 673 but I didn't have need to check that out. There was a big thread on here about Maxidyne engines a couple or so years back. Unfortunately I don't remember its title. Glenn Ackers put the most of points in it. I asked question on how those new engines being basically the old 673 could provide much higher torque and even at low revs. His answer was the basic design was seriousely reworked with more massive crank/rods, reinforcement plates over main bearing bolts and other mods. Glenn looked knowing that matter like a palm of his hand. But too unfortunately he's no longer with us anymore.

I may be wrong (never dealt with END673 by my hands) but what I figured out from the forum Mack made a major step redoing 673 into Maxidyne family. Those were called ETAZ-675 or so and further on and I belive started calling E6 and EM6 at a certain time. The matter I mention that is Maxidyne engines got newer more massive crank shaft and rods with reinforcements in the block too. Those parts differ from END-673, 711 and other older engines. E6/EM6 have removable liners you can purchase from PAI or other suppliers and they have an edge circle over the top to press into steel firerings to seal against the heads. Heads have recesses corresponding the edges at each cylinder. What is important all those parts are avalible and if older 673 have different liners, bearings, gaskets etc the overhaul may be found troubleful. What I have on my mind is checking out on purchasing some old EM6 and use it as a basis for overhaul. Those engines look very similar to 673 at the outside and the most mating spots are similar. I mean the oil pan, front cover, etc. Sure every spot should be checked out for that but in general both engines have plenty of similarities. I don't declare it as the way to go. But a possible option. First it worth to check out possibility of purchasing parts for 673 and having the value you may look for alternatives. My guess is buying a complete engine for parts wouldn't be a big offset in cost from the cost of all new parts. And as long as your engine is already not original to the truck you don't loose truck's originality much.

Thanks Brocky. Me too. I hope for the things to go a better way in our world.

This truck could be made to transport barrels originally. Or maybe gas set indeed. I have two tanks in my shop but limit myself with oxigen and propane tanks. I newer trained for gas welding and was told just heating with propane is less dangerous than use of acetylene. Maybe too much of to worry about but propane is quite fine to heat up some too rusty bolt or nut.

Great to hear from Zina! I had been keeping her in mind yesterday, thinking of did she knew you invited that decoration crew. Sure kidding. I keep her in mind every time I remember you. It was really nice to meet in person at Macungie, no matter quite a while passed since. Thanks for wanting me seen in your neighbourhood. I keep hopes for more travels to the US of A in the future but right at the time doubts prevail. Let's see and let's hope we will live long enough to enjoy doing cool thing. Happy upcoming New 2024! To Zina and to you Tom.