Vladislav

James, thank you for respect to my English. I hope ideed I write suitable but difficult to figure that out myself. Another story is talking. Much less practice than typing on BMT and another trouble is to recognize speech. So always a wide field to increase your skills Yes, that's true. The most people in Russia drive on the right side. Just excepting those who do it really drunk

Ok, I promised in the past to do that and I will. Unfortunately not so many scenic wievs along the roads I usually drive. Central Russia is mostly flat with many fields and forests. Also a trouble I do many trips alone in the recent years. So difficult to steer and catch a camera at the same time. I took this road shot in this past summer. Just a common Russian highway, followed to Belorussia in 20 or so km.

Mike, your right. I tried to hide that when talked with you but you count me out anyway Actual idea was to complete my first MH with parts off this truck and than later build a Superliner using 2nd chassis. So now I'm on a slow hunt for a good RW2 hood.

Really nice! Is that one your uncle's WS? So if they did a notch in the sidewall what would you use of modern materials to fill into if you do it yourself? Seems like not a big trouble to cut sich strip.

No I think you better try prying the shifter when in neutral. Honestly I never tilted cab having the lever in any gear expect neutral. There's a pin or so with a small sphere on the end as I said above sticking out (down) from the cab part of the shifter. It gets into the alu cap on the chassis part and it gets straight into the centre hole. Suppse neutral is the best position since the hole is lined up with direction of lifting the cab. In fact it should be lined. If not enough it could be the matter of your issue. Just get under the cab and investigate. Nothing really complicated (if not broken down). Unfortunately I don't have any pics handy.

Contact PG Adams in VT for a quote on new rail sections. Since it's a double frame you cut outer rails shorter than inner ones. Than you weld new sections to the inners and another pair to the outers having overlap. Also check out this. Looks like not too far away from your place.

A couple of pics of Southern Russian environment. I followed the truck driven by the owner when we went to the city to make registration to my name.

Was keeping an eye for an MH tandem tractor which was in service in Southern part of Russia. Actually a city of Novorossiysk - a big sea port at Black sea. It used to tow trailers with containers from the port and do other hauls until got a synchro issue and lost hi range in its T2090 9-speed. Overall condition was poor either and the owner was running out of money and went out of business as the follow. So the truck was put for sale about a year back or so. The price tag was way out of common sence but he made a drop in a month and I called him. Learned some basic facts and put the deal on a back burner. Than this past spring I had a side business in the region so I made a 1600km road trip with a car and checked out the truck in person. Wasn't lucky observing the chassis condition and didn't make any offer. Actually just kicked the tires. Than I took 3 more months having the truck on my mind and finily resolved to buy it since as long as I could figure there were only two MH's survived all over the country. One was already in my yard and that was the other. So I got my breath away, made a call and offered 80% of the last discussed cost. The owner took 2 days and than said Ok. Further story was relatively smooth. I took my former wifey for the company (to drive a car) and she was eager for a travel. Got to the place in two days, arranged all paperwork with the owner in two days more and fixed a couple of small troubles on the 3rd day. After that I asked him to drive the truck myself when still with him to see how the things actually were. He drove 10 or so km, made a U-turn and I continued myself. First trouble was shifting since the shifter was really worn and almost impossible to put it in the top hole. Another issue was me always keeping right too much since I never drove cabovers and didn't use to be sitting right above the left wheel. But further events made me sad. After getting back closer to the place the truck was parked I couldn't shift into Lo (Lo gear of the high range was the lowest since he blocked compound in high range due to the synchro fail). After some more attempts the owner took driver's place and finally stated he couldn't get either Lo or reverse. And his suggestion was a broken shift fork in the main box since he had something similar in the past. I had doubts on that because seemed of not so easy for such brake doing nothing extraordinal to the shift lever. But having no other options we removed the top cover. Good thing cabover has free access to it. To my big surprise we found a half of fork sattling on the lo/rev sliding clutch. Good thing it didn't fall further into gears and another good thing the owner had a spare tranny apart including two forks. He had a brake down in the past indeed but not the same gears. It took us an hour or less to swap the part and put the cover back on. After that I thought to myself to drive the truck home hoping for no serious issues but being ready to call towing service to put it to nearest parking lot or a shop for further suggestions. Actually it was original plan since I didn't expect really smooth way of things from well worn rig. Being at a Black sea coast we took a day on a beach. In fact the woman already spent a day there when I dealt with Mack but I could catch only one. Sure preference of spending time sunbathing or driving a Mack is questionable to some guys so I started the trip back home. Ufff... About no shifting, tire bouncing and smell of transmission oil pretty soon since it started getting off from the shifter on the top cover. All that wasn't really bad since the truck continued moving. Forgot to mention one "nice" especiallity. Probably fuel supply pump was bad or so and the owner installed small electrip pump into supply fuel line. The pump was off injector car but the way of attachment... It was put in between two portions of rubber hose hanging on them between left hand fuel tand and chassis rail (and leaking ocassionally). The wires were a top notch job. One took its way straight from positive battery pole and wrapped over the pump terminal. Another wrapped over the 2nd terminal and than attached (sure just wrapped over) some chassis part. And when you park the truck and going to off the pump you reattach the positive wire off the terminal. And sure if you leave it falling down and catch any chassis part it was making sparks. I could live with that during the trip but in some first 50 km the engine shut off and the reason was that loose wire. The shoulder was empty and it didn't happen again. Further things turned out very well since the truck survived the trip and we got home in two days. I made 600 km on the 1st day (we started about noon) and covered 1000 km more on the 2nd one. Oh, and all that was with tranny in direct so the fasted I did was 80km/h. Maybe that was good.

You have to revise the shifter. It separates when you lift the cab. There's a kind of alu cap at the top of chassis mounted bracket. And the half attached to the cab floor goes up with the cab. That upper part has a pin or so which comes into the alu cap when the cab is back down. I would expect your shifter just got stuck of being not separated for a while. So I'd lift the cab a bit and get under it to the shifter with a small braker or big screwdriver to help getting apart. Very important point is to put some wooden blocks under the cab floor or secure it from sitting down by another way. Do it well and double check. Vlad

Look close to me. https://www.classicparts.com/1947-51-Outside-Door-Handles-pair/productinfo/18-105/# But difficult to judge since I don't have one handy. And having no one "handy" in my case means none of B-model doors for at least 1000 km in any direction

Two lines which are attached to the top cover supply air to the shift cylinder inside the rear compartment. Actually mounted on the inner side of the cover (or even cast together with it). Not almost sure but the rearmost is to shift in high since high range is direct in compound and direct is done via straight connection of both main and compound main shafts. So shift fork should go foward for that and it means air gets to the rear to force it. No matter, I might be wrong. Easy to determine removing the line and check for air pressure. The line which goes from the bracket is supply. There's a plated hose, it provides air from the chassis. The unit on the bracket reduces pressure to suitable figure to switch gears. The line from it goes to your flipper switch on the stick. The switch shifts air to one of those two lines to the cylinder and connects the other one to atmosphere at the same time. T2090 and other transmissions which allow pre-select have additional unit with air lines for locking air flow when the stick is not in neutral. T2060, 2070 and 2080 have just simple 3 line setup as described above. Vlad

Amazing pic. Any ideas on those white walls? Paint?

Prob a wheel you turn to lock brakes. Mounted and looks like one to steer.

A moving site on one hand. But on the other the trucks went to new homes. Anyway much better than if they're scrapped.

In theory the housing could be cast steel. So steel is welded to steel. But I doubt on it. On the other hand welding of cast iron seems the least a questional solution.

Put 2402 Lehigh Parkway South Allentown PA in your navi and you will be there soon enough. As for me I had to roam over the neighbourhood a little before got to the place.

A good pair of rails is what you could start with to build up a nice truck. Good luck on the entertainment.

Ok, the things could be more complicated indeed. I found a picture of the blue parking brake knob and it has almost two electrical switches on it. There's one more air switch which is installed to the right from the throttle pedal in the cab, close to the heater core. It could be a low pressure indication but worth to be checked.

The setup is similar to what you describe. Two 14 posts junction blocks at the left side of the firewall. Unfortunately I haven't had luck tracked the schematic for them. There is a full scheme for an R-model here in Viki section but it represents early models which differ from 80's years ones as I found out. I do suppose cab wiring on later R's and RW's is the same harness since see no reason making it different. And as I was told (by Matt Pfahl) that harness covers almost all factory options in its basic desing. So the harness must be the same. Ok, there were also 90's years harnesses with all the wires in white color with text markings on but multy-colored ones of 80's years must be the same. What I had in my truck was trailer coupling cable attached to some 5 posts (stop, marker, back up, L and R turns) of the outer 14 posts terminal. And when I was looking for tractor stops I found them at one of those posts. Possibly it could be different but I see no reason to multiply signal sources, much easier to just parallel tractor and trailor. Some relays could be used though but I found neither of them at my truck. Of brake light switches there's one unit attached to the outside of the firewall about its middle. It has two wires and an air line. It reacts on pressure change at some certain point in brake system and lights the lamps on. Again, I see no reason to multiply such switches as long as trailer lights must get on at the same time as tractor ones do. So if even tractor and trailer wires go to lamps from different 14 pole connectors the initiating signal should be the same. And it is the switch on the firewall.

The truck looks in very good shape. Good luck on the engine rebuilt. It seems like an easy task but sure much depends on ability of spares.

I don't know what you have of the steering gear on your LS85 but my L-model - like Mack truck (NR) has one named as Mack Archemoid gear. I had two of them when revised, used perfect low mile screw and sector but found play of the sector cross shaft (the Pitman arm was pressed onto). The shaft turns in two needle bearings and I could trace a pair of NOS ones through fleabay. Those were Torrington brand and almost identical to the original content. The final issue was new bearings supplied almost the same play of the shaft and some overall play in the assembled gear as it was with the old ones. So looked like a factory design to me. I was thinking on plasma-welding excessive metal to the shaft journals and than grind them down to the desired size but passed on that being afraid ruining the shaft.

So far I knew about the only brake light switch operated by air and it's located on the firewall behind the engine rear end (if straight 6). Two wires attached to it and the switch reacts either for foot valve, parking brake knob, low overall pressure or even the trolley valve. I'm not ready to tell is there any relay but what I have on my '88 R-model is the positive brake light wire comes to the firewall terminal to go further to the tractor chassis lights. And the trailer socket cable is just attached to the same terminals at the firewall connector to be in parallel to the tractor circuits. Sure all that could be a result of modifying but looks like was done at the factory.

Jim, thanks a lot for taking time to share. Definitely interesting and (surprizingly) unknown to me page of antique truck history. Would be cool to build a thread with the most of trucks represented there. BMT is well found by Google and other web-searchers so anybody who makes look for Kemp's collection would get what they want. Sure Facebook work either but BMT looks better from where I'm sitting

What?? I've got a feeling of me being on here for almost 8 years as just wasting my time. What is or was Kemp's Mack Museum???

I suppose the best would be some additional ramp at the rear you put below the rear end of the bad and make the track longer for smaller angle. As follow you 1st need to put that thing somewhere on the truck and 2nd you need to put it in place and it could be heavy. On the other hand all that could work and is relatively simple.