Brains trust , I dunno what it is

This has been fun. I looked up every pommie diesel I could think of last night, but forgot about poor old Leyland. ....

Jarrod.

I looked at Leyland but could not get the rocker covers matched. The alloy construction certainly should have pushed us into a pommy make.

Lang

Yeah, Good One, Billy !
Had most of us scratching the old grey matter for quite a while.
No way known would I have thought of anything other than Yank, just goes to show you that sometimes you have to think outside the box.
What, did it get the better of you too, jump in the car and go up and suss it out that way?
Cheers, Dave

.
.Yeah Dave........got the better of me............
as i said ....lucky to track down the bloke involved with it...........
spoke to him for a couple of hours..........too much info....too quickly...........
he had been in transport all his life.......even mixing it with the grey ghosts on the Putty.........
in all.....a very interesting arvo..............
..........................Billy............................

.
.Here is..........a little heavy reading...........
www.scribd.com/document/164690055/TM-9-7...-WARD-LA-FRANCE-1944

.....................................Billy..........................................

Hey, Billy,
Some good reading there if your'e into that gear.
I'm guessing that in their original configuration, they were powered with the Continental petrol engine?
She has certainly been through the wringer with engine transplant, (Leyland) and that Mack chain drive. You said that the bloke who built it gave you a bit of her history, maybe he had a few leftovers from other carcasses to bolt her altogether? Never fails to amaze me how some of these old timers threw things together to get the job done, ingenious.
Ended up being quite a good posting.
Cheers, Dave

.
.A bit of history.............................
After the war effort,it was acquired... (some where along the line.)..by a towing crowd around the Parramatta area...........
Some how that rings a bell...but cannot figure out why.................. the current owner bought it off them......
At this stage it was all standard as built...........Continential 6 cyl petrol ..Timken diffs all round...
fuller 5 speed box ...2 speed transfer case...and the crane bit all intact..............
The crane bit was removed..(later ending up on a Bedford of some type for what ever..........)
It then went into log recovery from a forrested area north of Bilpin ...carting back to their saw mill....
the fuel usage was astronomical........and with repeated diff problems in the rear bogie....and parts becoming a problem...
it was time for some mods.............
The Mack chain drive assembly complete with chassis was obtained from a coal mine in the Lithgow area where there was three
old Macks that supposedly had been pensioned off............
The Mack chassis was welded onto the KW chassis where you can see ...leaving two original spring hangers in situ....
( nothing to do with another axle).... this lengthened the whole thing by about 6 feet.
The front axle is still original (with the double reduction Timken diff).....
But the rear wheels were now a different size to the steer.......different size rear tyres were fitted (but still not the same height )..
they then said we like it that way..........after some test running in rough country.....it stayed this way for ever....
Next the Continential donk was given the flick..........a 600 Leyland was chosen (for what ever )... so in it went with a 5 speed
Leyland box attached.......
The original 2 speed transfer case remained ..........With the Leyland installed......the original radiator (still in it ) ...
had to be moved forward about 6 inches.......this is what makes the bonnet shape look a little odd......
The sides were lopped off and the top lengthened as you can see.....
This big modification was done around 1966.......not sure when it was pensioned off...............
Hoping to get some pics of it with logs on.................
Well thats about it......(.i hope my brain absorbed all the info..).......
I also hope that is near enough to the way it all happened.......
.....................................Billy...................................

BillyP wrote: .
.A bit of history.............................
(.i hope my brain absorbed all the info..).......
I also hope that is near enough to the way it all happened.......
.....................................Billy...................................

Billy your gunna be a lot closer to what happened to the truck than any of us having WAG and thanks for taking the time to find out it just show how little we really do know
Theres a lot of history and stories to go behind it out there
I sort of wonder some times when some one gets something and sands it all back and put things how they consider to be right if we are sort of shooting our selves in the foot because once the gear is restored that history will be gone for ever in most cases anyway just thinking out loud here probably shouldnt

seeya

Paul

Billy, great stuff, great research! Thanks for not only going to the trouble to go up and suss it out, but also for posting for the rest of us wannabee restorers. Dave

Thanks Everyone that took part in this Thread .Got to say ,the brains trust did us proud .