I appreciate all your answers, gents. It’s interesting to hear folk wax lyrical about a manual constant-mesh box that wasn’t a Fuller! I am aware that not all such 'boxes were as nice to use (David Brown and ZF 6-speeders, and 10-speed Spicers spring to mind, along with love-em-or-hate-em Foden ones). By the way, GOM, I remember well how those coaches flew, and they could go in the outside lane in those days! Robert
grumpy old man:
robert1952:
gingerfold:
The 6-speed constant mesh gearbox was a dream to use if the selectors and the linkage from the gear stick were set up correctly. It was a very small adjustment that was required but it made a world of difference.Thank you for that informative reply. As a teenage passenger I used to watch closely as drivers progressed through the gears on AEC Reliance coaches (East Kent) - I think this was a version of the same 'box, wasn’t it? Robert
On one wild night when I did a bit of part timing for National Express I got my hands on one of those East Kent AEC’s (It was a changeover at Leicester Forest)…
ye gods, what a machine, it was set up spot on, beautiful gearchange and it went like **** off a shovel
I maintain and frequently get to drive this AH 470 powered 1961 East Kent Reliance. It is one of the batch that were retro fitted with overdrive gearboxes for Motorway work when almost new. According to the records the owner has, in its younger days it travelled over much of Europe as well as the UK. This has the D197 six speed overdrive box currently fitted and even today it is still a flying machine. I am not prepared to say how fast I think it might go, but it is definitely able to break the national speed limit. With respect for its age and since it is vacuum braked it doesn’t get driven that hard, but it is very happy at 50 to 55 mph. The gearbox has suffered from its drivers over the years who have burred the teeth of the dog clutches, so sadly it is not the best example of the species to use, being just a trifle ‘touchy’.
Nice pic ‘CAV’, I used to travel up to London on those. Robert
cav551:
From their small workshop in Hope St Maidstone, the local AEC Agent W. H. Gatward sold dozens and dozens of Mercuries to the local haulage companies, it almost seemed as if the Mercury was King.
There were brothers (who are now deceased) in the Maidstone area who ran AEC’s then one purchased a Bedford KM (must of been a offer not to be refused from Drake & Fletcher).It caused a fall out that was never resolved I believe they never spoke to one another again!(BTW the firm I worked for purchased some KM’s they were not a bad motor not in the same league as AEC or Leyland but better than some old tat that was about then!)
D197(Thornycroft?) that’s rung a bell, ever had one jam in gear? take bolt out of the top of the O/D casing put a long Phillips screwdriver through give it whack with a hammer back to neutral,broken selector fork,jammed in two gears lid off,(side of the road job) open up a Jubilee clip tighten round the mainshaft to stop gear sliding,lid back on home minus a gear, not a bad box used in the fixed head Lynx IIRC was also the basis of a 10 speed range change box used in Buffalo’s & RE 229(with a 505 engine) mixer chassis.
A.ONE TRANSPORT .Early 60s
Driver is Jack Ellener worked for a. One for over 30 years.
This is me in 1972, the Mercury had a great gearbox, unfortunately the gaffa loaded it the same as the Mandators he owned 
it struggled a bit at 32T. Regards Kev.
Frankydobo:
That’s right Larry, good place to work then, we used to call Arthur ‘Arty Laffa’ , when it changed to Tillotson we got a guy from Yorkshire as the Manager, he was quite a good bloke too but Arthur still run the place pretty much as before, I remember he wasn’t impressed with the V8 Mandator Demo and wanted shot of it as soon as we done the headgaskets, probably why not many firms bought the V8 in the Northeast as the demo never done the rounds, Mercury’s though were very popular with many local companies. Franky.
Franky, do you remember Ralph Scott fromTillotsons? He lived on Benton Road not far from the dealer. He worked as a fitter at Waugh’s for many years and was still there when I left in 1984. I’m sure Larry will remember him,he was a magician with a seven pound hammer!!! a bit of heat and a well aimed belt, that would free it. He was so good everyone trusted him if he asked you to hold the chisel or the bar. Regards Kev.
kevmac47:
Frankydobo:
That’s right Larry, good place to work then, we used to call Arthur ‘Arty Laffa’ , when it changed to Tillotson we got a guy from Yorkshire as the Manager, he was quite a good bloke too but Arthur still run the place pretty much as before, I remember he wasn’t impressed with the V8 Mandator Demo and wanted shot of it as soon as we done the headgaskets, probably why not many firms bought the V8 in the Northeast as the demo never done the rounds, Mercury’s though were very popular with many local companies. Franky.Franky, do you remember Ralph Scott fromTillotsons? He lived on Benton Road not far from the dealer. He worked as a fitter at Waugh’s for many years and was still there when I left in 1984. I’m sure Larry will remember him,he was a magician with a seven pound hammer!!! a bit of heat and a well aimed belt, that would free it. He was so good everyone trusted him if he asked you to hold the chisel or the bar. Regards Kev.
Aye Kev I can remember old Ralphy, He was from the old school when fitters like him could mend anything & kept the gaffers motors rolling, No diagnostic crap like there is to-day, Regards Larry.
I fancied buying a new Mercury when I got my first “A” Licence,but the price was a lump more than the D1000 so I had to “pass”,the Ford did me no harm though as It provided the “where-with-all” to put my second motor on the road 18 months later. 
Cheers Bewick.
Kev that photo could be me, apart from the trailer which was a 9’1" wide spread.
Looks to have a Maudsley diff too, no shiny hubcap like the earlier photo of the car carrying Ergo with an AEC diff.
Leyland did a recall for the splitter box and retrofitted a much larger unit. Prior to that it was common to see these things stopped with the driver tie-wiring the splitter change arm into high range.
My retrofit was a bit of a fail as they didn’t re-assemble the air change valving on the remote linkage properly and it completely jambed the gear stick in peak hour traffic. Brute force fixed that one.
32t would have been an extreme effort for the rumoured 180 horses.
I once did a light load test at around 26t which made a massive improvement to the performance compared to the normal 28-30t.
But we carried bulk product, so light loads weren’t an option.
7-loads a day, 6.5 days a week, the vehicles had to be extremely reliable.
I’ve heard people complain about Leyland’s brakes yet I found them excellent. Power steer was not so great, more armstrong than power.
kevmac47:
This is me in 1972, the Mercury had a great gearbox, unfortunately the gaffa loaded it the same as the Mandators he owned
it struggled a bit at 32T.
kevmac47:
This is me in 1972, the Mercury had a great gearbox, unfortunately the gaffa loaded it the same as the Mandators he owned
it struggled a bit at 32T.
Ha ha, i remember a company my dad worked for borrowing a mercury unit when his mandator was off the road ,his gaffer did exactly the same thing loading it to 32 tons , it struggled going over the M62 to Ramsbottom on that particular saturday afternoon when there were no ministry men working ,but it flew back it was a bit nimble to say the least, they were rumoured to do 75 mph ,i don`t know how true this is 
ramone:
kevmac47:
This is me in 1972, the Mercury had a great gearbox, unfortunately the gaffa loaded it the same as the Mandators he owned
it struggled a bit at 32T.Ha ha, i remember a company my dad worked for borrowing a mercury unit when his mandator was off the road ,his gaffer did exactly the same thing loading it to 32 tons , it struggled going over the M62 to Ramsbottom on that particular saturday afternoon when there were no ministry men working ,but it flew back it was a bit nimble to say the least, they were rumoured to do 75 mph ,i don`t know how true this is
Oh yes it would do 75mph and the brakes were pretty good also, I don’t think I would like to test them at that speed now!!! But then again we braked at that time we also were very mindful to use the gearbox also. Regards Kev.
A couple that Butlers used.No idea what engine spec only a kid when I went with the driver,Ken Barr from Wickersley.The black and white pic this was driven by Des Halifax.
I was going to Glasgow one day in about 1974 with a '68 F-plate TGM Mercury rigid fully freighted when I reached the Beattock summit (5th gear) and heard and felt a loud ‘crack’ sound. Pulled over at the first opportunity and had a look around and underneath but couldn’t see anything amiss, so carried on. When I arrived at Glasgow the fuel tank and chassis was splattered in oil and there was a tell-tale trickle of oil from the back of the gearbox. I drove it back home 200 miles empty and when we investigated further the bearing on the on the output shaft / propshaft flange had broken up. By then it had done 420,000 miles and been trouble-free. These Mercurys were bomb-proof.
At W.H.Williams (Haulage) Ltd Spennymoor We ran about 6 AEC Mercuries all bought about 1973 onwards. We would have continued buying them until about a year before tey stopped manufacturing they wouldn’t accept orders, giving production problems, as excuse and we bought two Super Comets which weren’t too bad but nothing like the Mercuries, and then were persuaded to buy 3 Lynx which were amongst the worst buys we ever made.
We never had much problems at all with the Mercuries, certainly no engine problems, and all did over 500,000 miles. Only fault was cab rot, which was very bad. Probably had AEC been allowed to ft their own cab this might not have been problem either. Pity the day Leyland had got their hands on o much a better product.
I drove this Mercury from new in 1969 UBB 805 G,When I worked for Ken Short, F Short & Sons Ltd, It was a canny motor it had the 505 in it, Mind you it was overloaded quite a lot, But I never once got pulled by the ministry, Of course it looked no different to a Mandator at a glance, Regards Larry.
That reminds me of the days before manufacturers’ plates & dept of transport plates- when they stopped you the police would ask, “How much can you carry, driver?”
In the 60’s Leyland Aus. was pressured to increase local content so they put together these jiggers, fast and fairly popular with a few more horses than a Leyland Comet.
Would have had the 470 engine and 6-speed box.
Two speed Eaton No.4 out the back.
The 470 probably let them down but for the day quite a clever combination.
