Well, I wouldn't call the Reno/Sparks area "Metropolitan" by any stretch...More like a gussied up backwoods girl. She may look pretty in that dress, but she's still missin' a few teeth. My options are kind of limited as to where to find parts. With only a few medium sized towns around most 'good' parts are found on someone else's property. Polite knock on the door and a question usually results in a part (that's how I pieced together my 67 VW back in the day). But, I won't give up. She'll be under her own power by the beginning of Summer.

Yeah...Once I started looking at it I figured there was no way I was going to cut it. So now I'm either going to hang it on my office wall or find someone that really really wants it and pass my find onto them.

Thanks for the info on the bracket! Just another confirmation that my Dad isn't totally crazy

Thanks man!

 

Well that was a depressing weekend...

Took the truck to where my Brother-in-Law works in town and pulled the third member out. He works at a dealership in the service department, so no lying in the dirt trying to turn a wrench.

Didn't look too bad when we pulled it, but he noticed shavings in the fluid so we were concerned. And then we found this:



Broken Pinion Bearing Housing in the case.

I've got another housing on order since people around here want an arm and a leg. Hopefully it will show up on Thurs/Fri and I can take the old one apart the rest of the way and see if there are more parts that I need to buy.

Pretty soon I'm either going to run out of money, or I'm going to fix the truck.

But all in all it was a good Sunday since I got to go around town with both the girls:



On and on we go...

Luke

 

Someone has hammered that 9" to do that as they are pretty strong.

Anyway, you'll get it fixed and be able to enjoy it knowing that the rear axle is solid. I'm there on two of my trucks, having had to have both diff's repaired.

 

Looks like I get to revive my own dead thread!

After the excitement of finding the busted third member housing, and the depressions that follows a check of the bank account the poor truck sat out at my buddy's place for the rest of the year. Until we moved into a house that is. So once I had a three car garage connected to my living room I was able to tow the Ford down...And let her sit NEXT to said garage until this month. The wife gave the ultimatum once I started looking at sailboats in the 3k range of "Why buy another project when you have one sitting next to the garage?". Which got me thinking, if I'm willing to throw 3k into a project boat...Why not throw 6k into the Ford! So thats where I'm at.

I ended up finding a NP208 at a yard to put in so I wouldn't have to change speedo gears and sold off the BW1345 to recoup that money. Then I took the third member bits down to a local shop (Bayshore for those local) to put back together. Well, they gave me the news that it was shot (not wholly unexpected) and would be a better plan to replace than to rebuild. Well, flush with cash I said do it. And since they were the ones that would make me a new driveshaft it worked out. So Friday I dropped off the truck and asked them to just go ahead and do wheel bearings while it was there. Hopefully I'll have her back sometime this week so I can start the real parts order.

And there we go, this thread is up to date and I plan on keeping it that way as I progress to my goal of driving the Ford soon.

Luke

 

Glad you are back. And anxious to see your progress.

 

Well, she's finally home!

New Third Member is looking good too!



The junkyard transfer case was looked over and installed while it was in



New driveshaft was in the bed because I had to flat tow it home. But now the fun begins.

Next step is to pull the wheels off and look over the brakes, I know I need to replace the master cylinder just because I'm unsure about it. The booster I'm not really sure on. There is surface rust, but nothing I can stick a finger in. I ordered new tie rods from LMC because they're falling apart, but now I'm thinking the power steering pump is leaking. I'm sure I'll have to fix that but it'll have to wait until after I have plates. So that is going to be a trip to pick and pull to find a smog pump and the first valve, I ordered new check valves off LMC too. So, with a new compressor in garage I'm ready to go.

More to come.

Luke

 

Looking good!

 

Yes, I like the rear axle. In fact, it looks like mine!

 

Thanks! It's getting there. Not as fast as I want it to though.

I'd say I did it all myself, but I know where I need to call in the hired guns. And I think that it was the best investment I could have made for the truck. They kept all the gears to show me how bad it was. I'm not an expert by any means, but it was toast. If I had done it myself I would have just slapped it together and wondered why I had to tow the truck home because of a rear end. Best to let the experts do it (and provide a warranty).

This weekend was getting all four wheels off and start some brake work. No use making it go if I can't stop. So off to Napa my son and I went and picked up new Drums, Shoes, Cylinders and rebuild kit for both sides. Managed to rope in some (much cheaper) hired guns while pulling things apart.



Here they are trying to get as much of the old junk out of the lines as possible. My Son makes a good jack-man too. Little slow, but he was impressed that he could get the truck up in the air by himself.

Once one side was pulled apart I realized that I couldn't go much farther because I have to wait for the new parking brake cables from LMC. And I noticed that the new shoes from Napa were MUCH thinner than the glazed ones I pulled out. Closer inspection shows that they gave me the wrong ones. So, I'll be back there tomorrow. But all in all was a good weekend of wrenching. Got the new master cylinder and both wheel cylinders installed, now I just have to put everything back together to bleed everything and really dive into the engine. Which is going to be a headache in and of itself since all the vacuum lines are gone.

Oh the joy of hand me down trucks.

Luke

 

That's great that you got your kiddos involved! Good memories for them (and for you)!

 

Yes, good memories! I wish my grandtwins were old enough to help.

 

Definitely a nice looking truck! Getting the kids involved will mean they'll have a greater respect for everything when they are old enough to drive. My now 16 year old granddaughter was helping on mine at 14. She's pretty god at putting automatic transmissions in, either her dad's AOD or my E4OD.

 

They love coming out to the garage with me. Usually results in not getting yelled at since Mom can't find them. My daughter told her Grandpa that night that "She fixeded the big truck in my Dora Dress!" Although, my wife wasn't excited about the grime on the dress. I smoothed it over by pointing out that I had grime on my good jeans now too.

I remember helping my Dad work on cars/trucks/boats/lawnmowers when I was young. Mom always worried about me losing fingers, but I still have them all for now. But with my Granddad(s) it was either working on Logging Equipment or Fishing Boats. Once helped repair a gill net at the dock and found a few dogfish. Drug one around on a piece of line for the rest of the day.

I'm hoping this is going to be a 3+ generation truck. My Dad had it since I was 14, now I have it and when one of them gets old enough (and expresses enough interest) they'll get it. In better shape than when my Dad gave it to me too. Right now my 4 year old Daughter is in the lead by a large margin. She's the one that helped pull the brakes apart, and helped clean up the cab. My Son got tired of it all and went inside to watch Spongebob videos on YouTube.

 

I'm hoping Dad's truck will be a 4 generation truck, and I'm certainly going to pass it to the next generation in better shape than it was when I got it. In fact, it will probably be in better shape than when it left the showroom floor. Unfortunately, neither my son nor my daughter spent much time with me in the garage, so it may have to be the grandkids to do that. But, that means this 66 year old has to keep going strong for another 15 years or so 'cause the only grandkids I have are just 2.

 

Holy cow it never ends.

Thursday the box from LMC came in with the tie-rod bits and the new parking brake cables. So with the help of my trusty 4 year old we pulled the old ones out and got Mom involved to install the new. Friday after work I finished installing the rear brakes and once again grabbed the wife to assist in bleeding the system...again. After getting the peddle feel a lot better I checked everything over and found the fronts completely locked up. At that point I started looking for new calipers to pick up today.

Surprisingly Summit had some in stock plus pads and rotors for a good price so off I went this morning. After an enjoyable time with my wife and 4 year old (6 year old was once again watching Spongebob videos) tooling around town I went back to work. Now, this is where my inexperience and lack of patience bites me in the butt. I didn't figure out I needed to pull the hubs until after I got home, and had already gone to Autozone once, so I was woefully unprepared for the task ahead. Once I started pulling the locking hubs I found extra bits falling out, and other bits looking like they were missing the extra bits. So off to 4WheelAutoParts (I like going to different stores) for a new set of locking hubs, then to Autozone again for wheel bearings and other shiny bits. At this point I was feeling pretty good about myself until I got the locking hubs out and was met with the locking nuts. Having never done this before I didn't have the right socket, so off to O'Reillys I went (with the 6 year old because he killed the laptop battery). One socket, wheel bearing grease, and caliper grease later I was back home ready to...GODDAMNIT...The socket was too big (said 1/2 ton right on it). Back to O'Reillys to exchange with the smaller size and back home to try it out. This time it fit. Took the lock nut out and tugged on the rotors. No go. WTF man! Watched a bit of NASCAR, drank some coffee, cruised FTE and then reread the paragraph on replacing wheel bearings in my Haynes manual. Two lock nuts? WTF man...Poked around and found the keyed ring and pulled it out and sure as chit, there was the second one! finally I was able to pull the hub and rotor off. Now to most people that work on cars as much as I work on Cisco routers it may make sense when looking at this pile of metal. But for me I was a bit lost until my Brother-in-Law popped by and explained that I needed to pop the studs out to split the two. Well the only hammer I have is ineffective at hanging pictures, but I was refusing to go back to the store. So I did what any lazy person would do, spray PB-Blaster on it and watch TV. Eventually I went back and smacked at them with the hammer , which scared me because the first one popped out fairly easy (15 smacks with my sissy hammer, which is like 2 with a real one). BiL seemed pretty impressed with my progress, I guess I should mention again that he's a mechanic at Nissan, and looked over the pile of parts to put it all back together while kindly pointing out I was missing the inner seal. Crap. Off I went to Autozone for the third time today (this time they didn't even ask about what vehicle...such service) to pick up wheel studs (hammer had bad aim and took out the threads on a few) inner seals and a seal puller because I was there. Well, they didn't have any studs in stock but if I went to three others I could get all 10 or they could get them for me and I could pick them up tomorrow. Having been to one store three times there was no way I was going to three others once. I'll be picking up the studs and seals tomorrow after my pick and pull run.

So now I've got the the front wheels apart and waiting to take the hubs over to my BiL to get the races out (no chisel but its on the AutoZone list for tomorrow) and to change the oil in my Toyota in preparation of our trip to Wyoming next weekend.

It never seems to end with this truck. But talking to my Dad on the phone I figured out the personal plate for the truck. If she passes smog I'll be running "WASDADS" around town.

If she passes.

Luke