Vladislav

You can use hub piloted wheels on old studs if machine the holes. Otherwise (and the correct way) is to install newre style hubs for newer hub piloted wheels. On the pic of the rear hub you can see wheel nuts for the old style wheels. But seems not easy to find such ones in the design of the front ones on the truck. So I expected some mod.

So far it seemed to me like not all the hardware used in MH frame was metric. Wonder which style of threads was used to attach Camelback stand or Neway brackets if airride was used. Neway was a vendor so the brackets could be pre-drilled SAE. 3/4 is equal to 19 mm but you have 18 mm or 20 mm of metric hardware.

Interesting story and pics. BTW do Australian trucks have 17 digit VIN numbers or shorter ones? Or 17 digits starting from 1979? And did Macks have VIN stamping on the RH frame rail (or LH?) or neither of?

No, these are for Estern trucks. Would fit R, DM, late RW and MH. Ealy Superdog, Cruiseliner and RS had wider tops and different bottoms either. You can't step on Western tops as was mentioned on here. Eastern ones set alog all the front and rear line so don't flip when you put your weight near the side.

Wow! Cool! I haven't seen it.

There was discussion about this truck on here about a year or two back. As I remember the cowl was modified to make the total length of engine compartment larger to accomodate V12.

looks like inverted Camelback rears to me.

I wouldn't advice you on engine options since my strong preference is stock configuration which only brings historical value to a vehicle but I would toss an idea on the look. If you're thinking installing pickup bed or so I'd put a big winch or a small crane behind the cab and mount the bed further to the rear. This would allow you to keep long wheelbase and achieve special and a bit agressive appearance. Telling further that may bring you smooth enough ride with stock rear and also front suspension and split the rebuild costs sufficient. Again, your truck means your rules.

I think such option was typical for many firetrucks. Probably to save space for rirefighting equipment at the sides of the chassis and also for weight distribution. Nice looking unit, congrats on the new toy!

Welcome to the forum! Sounds like you covered plenty of interesting miles and kilometers with your F-model. And also sounds like you passed along my neck of the woods several times. Macks are really scarce in Russia, I'm pretty sure you noted that yourself. Would be very interesting to see pics of your restored truck. Vlad

I would pull off the top cover and watch the gears. Including how bad or rusty they are. Identifying an OD tranny against a direct one is quite easy with the cover off. You see 5 gear wheels on the top shaft. The 1st at the front is a constant mesh (actually a drive pinion). The 2nd from the front could be 5th (OD) or 3rd. Relate the size of it to the front gear (constant mesh). If it's less in size it means it allows the shaft spinning faster than the constant mesh so it's OD. If it's slightly larger than the Constant mesh gear (and every next gear is larger in any case) it works as 3rd and the highest gear in the tranny is Direct. You shift that gear wheel in when put the lever into right forward position. It it's OD you first shift Direct and than that spot. If it's 3rd you shift it and than Direct. This explains why old Mack transmissions had different shift patterns for Direct and OD units.

Blue truck is what was for sale at OldMacks. Purple hood was offered by a company in the States. I don't recall details excepting that Paul 41Chevy posted the link. As you can see in both cases the look was Ok.

Where is that cool shade to spend an hour or a half to enjoy?

I rebuilt my old one in a reason of restoration. It also had ancient carbon seal and it still has but I put a new rebuild kit into and had to lap the mating surface of the housing. Turned out Ok, a bit to my surprize.Had to pull the rotary wheel off the shaft and press back on after. Also going to restore a pump for R-model mostly to sandblast and paint and will put new PAI seal in it but that's not today.

Definitely looks like Mack 673 or 711 block to me but with oil/water cooler and turbo it must be something newer than everything installed in L-models. Interesting it has the oil filter mounted off the engine block and this could be one of key points for identification..

O-ho! Sounds like multuple different stamps were involved. Didn't know, thanks, will keep in mind.

Not that bad. Went through and had our shots Ok

Hmm... Difficult to choose the favorite between "in a car" and "in the truck". So I would go for the R-model Nice "DMM in the hills" picture too.

P.S. I see no need in the pump rebuild unless it's leaky or bearings make noise or don't run smooth when you turn the shaft by hand.

There's no source of grease in the pump except the bearings and the cavit in between. What you describes sounds like excess of grease went off the cavit by the reason of heat. But this makes sence only if you heated up the truck for the first time after the pump rebuilt or installation a new one. I passed through rebuild of both my NR-model pump of 1945 and MH one of 1990 and can tell they are pretty much the same (not absolutely). The older one had a gease cup at the top and the newer didn't. My suggestion is if you fill the bearings with modern Lithium grease well enough it would be Ok for no less than 50K miles or more (same matter as wheel bearings) so I see no need in the grease cut to be used. Seems like design of newer MH (and R-model) pump was based on the same theory so no gease up during the service life at all.

Cool looking truck! Worth to point out I started looking for RH steering wheel in the pic when saw it at the first time being in doubt on the correct truck location written Welcome to the forum! Vlad

Ok, got it. Thanks for clarification. Just thought R-model cab must mean everything as in a R-model

It would if you speed up the truck fast enough

Usually some holes in the shifter housing get worn where axles pass them through. In fact it could be required (or might worth) to remove all the shifter (bolted to the cab doghouse) and revise all the joints. I personally would be likely to get just a used spare shifter assembly to revise and have as a spare but seems not easy to put your hand on one. I mean finding a perfect cond shifter is a hen's tooth entertainment To figure the truck has operational reverse or not you can use someone's help. Put the guy in the cab and show how to put the lewer into the reverse. Than get yourself near the linkage (being sitting on the frame rails or so) and try to force the shifter on the top cover of tranny to end up the way it would go when the helper operates the lever in the cab. Than tell him to try releasaing the clutch and see the truck moving or not. Pretty sure extreme caution must be provided during such actions including plan B instructions to the helper if anything would go out of line..

In fact you should end up with what a typical 12V starting truck has. Just put 12V starter and organize batt cables to be supplied with 12V from the batteries. If you already have 4 batts connect them the way Back in Black described (I would do that). If you currently have 2 batteries left them alone and isolate or remove the cables to the other side (where you had 2 other batts for 24V) and you will be fine in the most cases to start maybe excepting really cold temps. In fact more batteries with more capacity is more chances for easy start. The alternator you put its 12V straight to charge 12V connected batts and forget about transformer and other things. Also connect the rest of truck electric to the setup as long as it's 12V and you have 12V at starting/charging. There could be another way of keeping 24V starter in place with 12V alternator and no transformer if you add series/parallel switch as it was done on earlier trucks such as B-models etc. But seems much better to use 12V starter if such option for a E9 is avalible.