Hello all. I just wanted to introduce myself and my newly acquired project. This past weekend I talked my wife's family into letting me bring home a family truck. It belonged to my wife's grandfather. He bought it new in '73. It's the Ranger XLT package. Long bed. Grandpa passed away around 1997, and the truck was driven by an Uncle for a few years, until he passed away. Since then, the truck has been sitting under a tree. I believe it was started a few years ago, but it has never been moved until this past weekend.

The bed is rusted, as most do, and the front cab mounts are rusted (driver side almost completely rusted through). It has the big block 360 in it. It may, or may not have had a cam installed by Grandpa when he had the truck. My mother-in-law seems to think so, but she's not sure. I do know he installed glasspack mufflers and she said it ran great and sounded awesome! That's about all I know about the truck right now.

The goal is to get it running again and to be able to drive it around town for now. Eventually, get back to making it look good again. Maybe swap the bed out for a short bed, lower it a couple inches for a nice stance, and probably a paint job several years down the road. I look forward to getting some advice on here and hopefully keep track of the progress as I go. I've been on a few other forums, so I know there is a wealth of information to be had. I look forward to getting to know some of you on here.

 

Welcome to FTE. A lot of good people here. Congrats on the truck. Remember 1st thing is to not only get it running, but also make sure it is safe. OH, and we like pictures. Lots and Lots of pictures.

 

Thanks for the welcome. I can't believe I forgot to add pictures. I have a couple from loading it up, and then after a visit to the car wash.

 

I pulled the air cleaner off this evening and realized I'm now going to have to pull the carb off and get it cleaned.

 

Welcome to FTE.

Given the look of that carb, ya might need a different one. Oy! That's crusty!

Sounds like you've done the tertiary inspection of what needs to be done. Good! I'd work on the cab mounts and perhaps fiddle with getting the engine to idle and run but not necessarily drive... fluids, filters, a new battery, a basic tune up if ya think it can turn over if not run. Do this first to hedge your luck... pull the plugs and douse each cylinder with a penetrant break the rings free... just turn it over by hand to slick up the cylinder walls. Before firing it up, pull the dizzy and pre-lube the engine. Then... go for it!

BUT, my initial recommendation is to powerwash the hell out of the engine bay, undercarriage, and suspension because it's less work and more fun to work on a relatively clean vehicle than to be constantly have crap falling into your eyes, hair, and clothes and always emerging from under the hood with greazzy hands and a band of dirt across your midsection from leaning over the fenders or core support.

Make sure you read the forum stickies at the top of the first page.. tons of info and DIYs in there.

Again, welcome aboard Chief.

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Welcome to FTE Eaglechief,
Nice looking truck, and its great your saving it from rotting away into nothing
plus it officially a family heirloom.
your in the right place to get great advice tips and tricks and suggestions.
so don't be afraid to ask any kind of questions on here.

first things first safety. ie brakes, tires, suspension,lights.
second would be fluids and filters, especially knowing its been sitting awhile.
third tune up, carb rebuild, plugs, wires, cap, rotor, vacuum lines, and go ahead and up-grade your battery cables and the one to the starter,
clean All your grounding points
take your time and get familiar with your truck.
as far as on here read the stickys (marked READ FIRST in RED on top for help.
and as corvair62 said WE LOVE PICTURES ( yea we're that kinda sick)

 

Thanks guys! I have started reading the stickies and the tips/tricks posts. I actually already saved some of the write-ups off to my computer so I can print them out and keep them in the garage.

Obviously, all of the safety stuff is the main priority. I am somewhat mechanically inclined and have worked on engines before, but, that was 20 yrs ago in high school. I haven't really had to mess with much since, except for a few simple repairs. I probably know just enough to get me into trouble with this thing. I can take it apart and look at it and clean it up, but getting it back together may be a different story. I think my biggest issue will be nomenclature for parts and locations of where things are when receiving advice and input.

I'm thinking about investing in a pressure washer to help clean this thing up. But for now, it is sitting in the garage and will stay there until I can get it moving under it's own power. My driveway slopes down away from the house, and there's no way I would be able to move it back into the garage once I got it out to clean it. I have a friend that is working on a '70 Chevy that she recently bought. She has offered her parts cleaner for me to use to get some of the components cleaned up. I'll have to take her up on that offer.

Like I said, my goal is to have it driving this year. So, first is to make sure it will turn over. I'm pretty sure it will, but I'm taking it one step at a time. I bought a battery last night and just bumped the key (without turning it over) just to make sure I could do that. With that process, I determined I'm going to have to get new battery cables. At the same time I had pulled the air cleaner and will now have to either A) clean the existing carb and try and rebuild it, or B) buy another one and just replace it. Also, at the same time, try and clean the surrounding area while things are off/moved and replace any gaskets that I may come into contact with.

I know I'm going to drain the fluids and refill with clean, fresh stuff. I'll go through the brakes and make sure they are functional, and replace what is needed. Check out the suspension, replace all of the tires, and clean items, and replace hoses as I go from item to item. I envision this project to take a long time, as I don't have a lot of free time, but I know I will get there and this truck will be back on the road, eventually.

 

Congrats on your new truck, I'm about 4 weeks into my 75 ranger. My biggest mistake was thinking I had the fuel lines and tanks clean enough, I didn't, so make sure you don't make my mistake. I'm in the process now of replacing both tanks and all the lines just so I know they are solid.

 

Alright... I got a couple free minutes this evening and was able to pull one spark plug out (driver side, front plug). I sprayed all of them with some WD-40, but only had enough time to get to 1 of them. It was a bugger to get out. But, I eventually worked it loose without messing up any threads or stripping it. I was happy to see the results... No rust on the plug from inside the engine! With the way the carb looked, I was afraid of having rust on the plugs. So far, so good.

I still need to pull the rest of the plugs and check them out, and also spray some lube down through the holes. I already sprayed the one I pulled. Hopefully, I can get to the rest of them in the next couple of evenings.

Here are a couple of pics I got this evening

 

Forget WD, go with PB blaster (buy stock, you'll be using plenty). In the cylinders put some Marvel Mystery oil in each one and let it soak a few days. Then see if you can turn the flywheel by hand or wrench (if plugs are out, there won't be compression so if the belts tight you can try turning the fan by hand). If the motors free, you're a good way home to getting it running! That being said, the water in the air cleaner make me guess the motor will take several marvel mystery treatments. You don't want to snap a ring or something. If you have a scope you can look in and see the upper cylinder walls. You can maybe borrow one too. Motors aren't too expensive though, so if it's not free, look for another motor before putting too much money into the one you've got.

Brakes matter too. Testing brakes for the first time on a downhill driveway is not fun if they aren't good.

Looks like a decent truck overall. Your bed sides are in better shape than many, the floor is shot, but you could toss a bed mat in for now and focus on other concerns. Cab mounts are concerning. Factory AC is nice in an old truck like this!

 

Welcome to FTE! Lots of good people here often willing to help a guy out!

Nice heirloom-gonna take some work, but sounds like you're up for it

I'd pull the plugs and squirt some penetrating oil in the cylinders. Rotate the engine by hand to ensure it's not locked-up. Last thing you want is to break some rings when you hit the starter...

 

Lots of good advice here for you in this thread. Power wash the heck out of that thing. Buy a 5 gallon container of Evapo-Rust for all the parts you will be working on, that crusty air cleaner assembly, for instance. Check out this thread for an idea of how nicely Evapo-Rust works: https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...storation.html

David

 

Well, I've been able to get 7 of the 8 plugs out. How in the world do I get the rear plug on passenger side out? Do I need a flexible socket wrench of some sort? I'd rather not remove the air box, unless I have to.

 

Lay across the radiator, in as far as you can get, use a plug socket and a ratchet. You might have to have the ratchet handle pointing down. I u-joint extension might help. It's doable!

You can also do it with a short extension and the ratchet on top of the valve cover

 

Welcome aboard, Eaglechief!