About AEC Buses

Doesnt really matter ,unless someone has fitted a more common (spares wise) engine Heres a guess.....If its front engined ,and single decker,then a Mk3 Regal ,double decker ,Regent......Both likely have a 7.7 motor......If its mid engine (underfloor) ,then its likely a Mk4 Regal ,with probably a 9.6 horizontal engine......If its rear engined ,then its likely a Swift ,and has a 505 engine........None of these engines have been made in 50 or more years,so parts are pretty hard to find .......gearboxes are likely self changing ,again spares nonexistant.

JOHN.K. wrote: Doesnt really matter ,unless someone has fitted a more common (spares wise) engine Heres a guess.....If its front engined ,and single decker,then a Mk3 Regal ,double decker ,Regent......Both likely have a 7.7 motor......If its mid engine (underfloor) ,then its likely a Mk4 Regal ,with probably a 9.6 horizontal engine......If its rear engined ,then its likely a Swift ,and has a 505 engine........None of these engines have been made in 50 or more years,so parts are pretty hard to find .......gearboxes are likely self changing ,again spares nonexistant.

Could also be a Reliance, Brisbane City Council bought about 45 of them.

I do recall ,at the bus auctions ,maybe early 1970s,some BCC AEC buses came up were supposed to be specially bought for the steep hills around Paddington,Red Hill,The Gap ,Bardon area......they had 11.3 motors ,and claimed to have 5 speed Spicer automatic trannys ......didnt check them out ,but Ive never heard of a 5sp Spicer auto box.....Anyhoo ,long past now.......The AEC Mk 3 Regals used to sell for $400 each ,on the dot ,hundreds of them....Very good buying ,all in roadworthy condition........Some may not know ,BCC buses all ran on special slick tyres,which were grooved in service only about 1/8 " deep ,to make them last .

BCC Reliances had 4 speed SCG gearboxes, as did the Leopards and early Panthers.

The Adventist school down the road had a fleet of late AECs,I would have thought they were Swifts,but looking at an old BL advert in T&B,I think maybe they were late Reliances .....I know they had 505 motors,cause I tried to sell them a 505 I got from the Technical College at Mt Gravatt......Anyhoo,they were the last AEC buses Ive seen still in service.......thge old Council auctions were something else ....AEC Regals would sell for $400,but a Daimler with a Gardner would hit $2000.....I even saw Frankie Boyce spend a fortune on Daimler diesel parts......most of the BCC Daimlers had the Daimler diesel.....Frankie was a marine engineer ,or so he claimed .....he was always at the auctions ,dont think he had much time for work......some may remember the old house at Highgate Hill,very steep ,and a million tons of stuff in the yard......He also owned a yard at Underwood with a DC 3 in the front yard,you could see from the highway.

Bit off the track, but twas a wrecker near Beaufort Vic. Who had a really small AEC bus, maybe only around 24 seater, cant remember but think door in front of steer axle. Ex SA govt, used either as country services or owner said at time was used internally by Adelaide Transit. Wider than normal, so possibly fully imported. Was there for years, being overwidth wasnt a proposition for a mobile home. Dissapeared after a while and owner of yard said overexuberant young rooster got carried away and punched the forks on the yard machine through the side, ended up being scrapped. Apparently, Adelaide Transit Auth. had 3 of them at one stage. Was also told that although AEC built and badged, actually powered with a smaller Albion 4 cylinder oiler! Anyone else remember them?? Dave_64

Buses from Adelaide were known to be overwidth in other States. I understand they were 8 foot 6 inches wide. Some blokes in Victoria bought them and narrowed them to meet Vic. regulations.

I know a bloke from Melbourne who told an HCVCA meeting that years ago, he had found a Trade Plate on the side of the road and used it to bring seven overwidth buses from Adelaide. He would not have been capable of narrowing them, so they must have been for someone else.

At one MRD here ,the guy from inside would come out to measure,and let you hold the end of the tape......you were pretty dumb if your vehicle was knocked for being a few pennyworth overwidth or length.

IIRC the SA Swifts were 8'2½" when the maximum legal width was 8'0" everywhere else in the country. With the adoption of the metrics, by default, 2.5 metres became the new standard width. Fortuitously, that converts to 8'2½".

That’s one of the reasons the early ghosts were registered in SA, they were overwidth, in the other states, until the other states excluded mirrors in the total width.