Late 60's bonneted MAN photos

If you look at the gear lever in the above photo hold it with you thumb uppermost you will feel undulations underneath to the front for your fingers, the lever moves up and down for the gate not side to side like a normal gate. Is that clearer. Obviously you will use your left hand. Did you enjoy the beer

You mean as in lifting the lever upwards from the floor? Am I getting it or do I need more beer?

Yes lifting from the floor to the roof up and down

almost like driving a modern powershift tractor ... i noticed the miles to goondiwindi road seems to look smoother when it was still dirt !

Nev, Does your mate's NC have this "pogostick" type change lever or a more
conventional side to side,back and forth type shifter.
If it does STOP reading,'cause I don't have a clue about them.

Rather a lot of the MANs in Aus. have Roadrangers.Does it have the oval
shaped,alloy "up for high,down for low" R/R switch on the lever,held on with a hose clip?

If yours is a more "normal" setup and the switch on the lever is a smallish black device with two wires(rather than air lines)coming from it then there is probably a ZF AK5/80 or AK6/80 (constant mesh)under there somewhere same as '20,'23,'24 series Benzes of that vintage.
If it has a "splitter" button then it has the GBV splitter attached and is called a 10/12 speed.
Splitters(they're electo-pneumatic) are controlled by microswitch on the clutch linkage that requires the clutch to be depressed about two inches (when correctly adjusted)to close the switch.
Mainbox shift pattern is straight forward but you need to assertain where Reverse
is so that you can tell if it has a RHD selector mechanism in the box or a LHD.

RHD has reverse to the far right and back (deep south east).
1st will be left and forward (NW) and the rest are in a straight H 'till you reach 5th (NE)
or 6th (SE).

LHD pattern has reverse to the left and back (deep SW).
1st is extreme right and forward (NE) and straight H pattern working away from driver 'till you reach 5th at (NW) or 6th at (SW).

In my experience it is virtually impossible to drive an AK5/6 without the clutch.
There's plenty of guys will tell you that it's virtually impossible to drive them anyhow!
Personally I always liked them and got on well them but acknowledge that many of them used to arrive from the factory "noisy".Some operators put up with the noise and a
destinctive howl,others did not.It was "easily" fixed by taking the box apart and reassembling it to the finest tollerances according to the service manual.
We shouldn't have had to of course but some of them just seem to have been thrown together "just before lunch".

i test drove a M.A.N years ago it had the gears on the steering coloum

I drove a cab over one when I did my apprenticship with a road ranger in it, and it was on the colomn, was good to drive too.

The mate's nc has the pogo stick in it. It appears to be, down & forward = 1st, down & back = 2nd etc. [picture a drawing of a six speed shift pattern, then tip it on it's edge, 1 & 2 to the floor] however, it appears to be a 'drunken' H because opposite gears 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, don't seem to be in a straight line. It could be a strange pattern, or might be just wear. It's also got the little black button with the wire's comming out of it. We think it's a 1968 model. Also, as a 130kg interstate spud carrier I've never had a problem jamming a gearstick through, crash or syncro, when the need arises.
Should be able to get some photo's next week.

G'Day,

There may be useful pics here:

forum.bauforum24.biz/forum/index.php?showtopic=11912&st=0

and here:

baumaschinenbilder.de/forum/thread.php?threadid=2424

Cheers,

T

Thanks Tatra some excellent photos there, heres another picture of my MAN unloading rolls of paper at Smiths Industries, Ferndell st, Sydney. 1972

Oldbugger,

Here's another for you - where and what (yes I'm being unfair)?



Cheers,

T