bbigrig

Dual front steering is fairly common in Canada. It's more common in Quebec where it's been required for heavy power unit gross weights since the 80's. Most of Eastern and far Western Canada doesn't allow for liftable axles so it's easier to go with a heavy second steer axle. Simard Axle from Que. Canada has a patent on the design Mack uses from factory and aftermarket in North America.

Hatcity nailed it. E7 from 91-97 great engines. 98-2003 are meh. 2003 to 2007 are full of issues. MP8 2008 to 2010 are pretty good. The bottom end of MP8 are bullet proof but have issues that can be fixed in the top end without removing the head. Get the exhaust aftertreatment crap deleted and you've got a pretty good unit. 2003 and up to today have sensor/harness issues that seem to increase the newer they get.

I work on engines equipped with common rail Bosch manufactured systems. They are pretty good but have there own batch of issues and are more complicated to diagnose. They are also more expensive to repair in parts replacement and in labor when the proper diagnosis steps are taken. High/low pressure pumps (both in 1 unit), injector failures, injector feed tube leaks, cracked fuel rails, replacement of lines every time they are opened etc. By design and in a book the design of common rail seems flawless and simple. Working on them opens your eyes to more components and higher constant pressures equals more to go wrong and replace. If injector cup designs and materials could b improved, Detroit, Mack/Volvo as examples unit injectors have many benefits. Unit injectors can't handle the common rail pressures being another issue. The E-tech engine was a embarrassment from day one. Fuel efficiency and miles between defects took a dive. Adding EGR to th ASET version in comparison to other engines on the market made Mack lovers like me cringe. It was a sad time for Macks long standing reputation of building a strong product.

The 98 E-tech launch was due to Emissions. That's it. They couldn't get the PLN E7 to pass the 98 standards. When E7 (pre Etech) was cut the 454 was 46hp and 100lbft of torque away from the E9 in engine specs. Even the torque curve on the E7 was good. I had a E7454 it was a bit of a dog but we got great life out of it. They defiantly pushed those 12L engines to the max but the old E7 faired well. I compare th versatility of the E6 to the E7 daily. That Etech was and is just more to go wrong with little to show for it.

The only symbol I've ever seen on an RD was the "Western Contractor" symbol on the hood that looked like the Superliner/Valueliner writing. It was basically an RD with a flat bumper for Western bumper to back of cab (bumper stick out past grill) dimensions. Only ever seen one in Canada.

What he said^^^. No board. Just a head and set the dip switches on the rear. Fairly common and you should have an electronic speedo sensor that ties into V-mac. The switches will be based on tire size, axle ratio etc. The dealer may need your vin and they can cross it over from there.

Mack was a good truck into the 90's. Then the product went thud in 98 with the E-tech engine. I know lots of fleets that bought into the CH product mid 90's only to inherit the E-tech and be very disappointed in its engine replacment. What it had issues with in competing with other manufacturers was price. Big fleets wanted big price cuts. Most were willing to slash to get in the door.

Cup issues exist in the MP10/D16 as well. They are not as common as the smaller version MP/D series issues.

Back when drivers drove more then they lived in their sleepers. Those were the days.

"Thus endith the lesson". That's quite the history synopsis. Good post of the political B.S. Of Macks rollercoaster ride for the last few decades. Thanks for sharing.

We had a few 89 CS200's. For some reason they (blue haze) smoked for ever with low mileage (200,000kms) but you couldn't kill them if you wanted to. Ours didn't have an oil consumption problem but as they warmed up they smoked a little bit less. Being city trucks they didn't work real hard and idled a fair bit. If you dont have an oil consumption problem it's most likely glazed cylinder walls or weak/leaking injector nozzles. Being an 89 it probably has a crap load of idle time, it's probably due for both an inframe and injector replacement. Parts will be expensive and possibly difficult to find. Only our 89' had that issue. I think it was the 06.02.12 Renault engine. None of the other Midliners we had ranging from 89-99 model years had that issue. It may be the engines from that period had blue smoking issues.

No production E9's with electronic controls were ever made available in North America to customers. Only in Australia was an E9 available with V-Mac controls for purchase. I'm sure there were demo units outh there but not for sale. I'm not 100% sure but European Renault Magnums may not have either. They went from E9 V8 power down to E-tech in the late 90's just like North America.

It was featured on a Canadian show called "Trucker Television" (episodes can be found on youtube) it has a Paccar/KW serial # and everything. Same with the Cummins power plant. Paccar and Cummins engineers were involved and approved the build. It's all there in the episode if you can find it on Youtube.

Injectors or cups putting combustion gas into fuel system. So common on Macks and Volvo's it's not even funny.

The list is missing a lot of Canadian Factory Branches. Hamilton Branch as an example is missing they were there in the 70's to mid 80's.

Toronto Branch was moved from the Queensway to High meadow place before it was closed after Volvo took over. Toronto Mack includes many of my childhood memories.

Winnsboro wasnt opened until the late 80's. It's production was basically anything R, DM, DMM or CH/CL cab related. It was one the reasons why production in Canada ended. It produced som of the first CH's. There were 20 CH's built in Canada as a test run. Winnsboro wasn't Macks greatest Quality builds.

Mack Buses were quite common here in Canada especially in Toronto. The Toronto Transit Commission (Wrenching at the TTC is my full time job) was a big user of Mack over the years. The last Macks in the fleet lasted until the late 60's. Just so Happens that Alfred Pelletier former Head of Mack was a Mechanic at the TTC for years before he started working for Mack Trucks.