I think there were more problems with the R-44's and R-46's than just the truck fiasco.
Back in the late 1980's Transit Authority president David Gunn (current Amtrak President) was quoted in the media as follows:
"The R-44 came in as a dog, it has remained a dog and it has never seen a Mean Distance between failures above 10,000 miles. It's a scandal. And the highest the R-46 ever hit was 17,500. That's a disgrace." If you're superstitious, you might believe it was because they were the
first NYC subway cars with
full-width cabs and that's what brought them bad luck; chuckle!
Now mind you
that was 1986, before the massive rebuilding program. It's quite possible that their performance has improved since then. They were rebuilt, right? So those comments might not still be valid. But it gives you an idea of how bad those cars were. Surprising to me that St. Louis Car Corp. and Pullman could have built such a shoddy product. Especially when St. Louis had built several successful previous models for NYC.
And Amen Rob, to your suggestion re: R-32's on the F-Line, though I doubt we'll ever see it. But if you do please let us know immediately!