1959 AEC Monarch

 

If the rest is as good as the front, probably a good price. 

I bought one of these from a guy at Gumdale for $400.......they had a very iffy motor.....AEC 470 ......magnesium sump and flywheel housing couldnt take rough Qld roads ,and cracked in many places ...........the motors also had leaky  head gaskets. all the time..........wet liner motor ,with water in the sump...... it wasnt the liners ,but a head gasket leaking....again........I looked at a nice tandem drive once  ,asked the owner if he ever had any problems with the motor ...No ........behind the seat was 20 used head gaskets.........then he starts telling me about replacing head gaskets at midnight so he could be at work the next day.

You are only going to be going to the odd truck show, not overnighting the Hume 6 nights a week, it's all about looking good now.

They were known as Mercury in the UK where they had a good reputation in spite of the mentioned head gasket failures. Usual scenario of Aussies scrimping on specification and using a boy to do a mans job. Improvements were made to the engine at the time of change over to UNF threads (AVU470).
This particular truck comes from a renowned Hunter Valley operator and was at a Dubbo truck show some years back.

I would tend think Mammoth is spot on
My brother and I were the very first in the family (including extended family) to own a tension wrench
The were plenty of motors getting head gaskets before the addition of the tension wrench
My Dad would reuse a head gasket if it looked okay
So I'm thinking our haphazard approach to mechanical work probably had a lot more to do with head gasket failures than poor design
Also the what believe was common practice, removing the thermostat in a attempt to stop motors over heating wouldn't of helped either after climbing a big hill with the motor nearly boiling over and the racing down the other side with now cold water getting pumped thru the motor

Paul

The engine was redesigned as a dry sleeve 505......but still had no crankshaft damper ,and still had deflected intake valves ..............the head gasket problem was said to be the heads "Walked about on the block due to lack of rigidity"........I replaced mine with a 6/354 Perkins and Fuller gearbox and had no further trouble.....I sold the truck to some housemovers and they had it for years until the income tax discovered they had never submitted a return..........Two Dutchmen who worked like steamengines ,and never stopped arguing and squabbling ............One of them tried to move  25,000 volt train wires with a bamboo pole ........he survived the flash and a fall to the road ,one tough Dutchman.

Now I think back ,my motor was wrecked by an alloy welder who tried to weld the sump and flywheel housing cracks ...so far out of shape it would not fit back on the motor .........and spare sumps and housing were ,as they used to say ...rare as rocking horse shit

Who remembers when you reused a head gasket you would paint it with Silvafros to help it seal better?

“Redhead” used for sealing too.