Good Morning,

Well, I thought I would start a thread about my truck to keep everything I do and/or ask about in one thread so I don't go nuts.

A little about myself, I am a Cisco Networking Academy teacher. I've worked on computers my whole life. As a teenager, I worked at a store the sold musical instruments, computers, used cars, and serviced cars. Between repairing/tuning pianos and servicing cars (tires, oil, changing transmissions, plugs, wires) I've always had an interest in working on cars. I don't always know what things are called thus the reason for some of my questions.

Well, my daughter decided to name the truck Rusty, so that is the name.



The truck appears to have sat for a long time. Everything runs except for the A/C which I hope to fix soon. It still has the split rims on it which I hope to change out tomorrow with new tires and steel rims.

I've put new plugs, wires, cap, and rotor on the truck and have the new Pertronix parts to convert over to electronic. I remember seeing folks work on timing with and without a light. I never did it myself and it was never really explained in full so I have a rudimentary knowledge of this. I have a friend that says he will convert it for around $100.

I had an issue this weekend with the truck continuing to run after the key was off. Since it was late Saturday afternoon, yes, I went to Autozone and bought a Duralast solenoid for $20. It has a 3 year warranty so I look at it as a stop gap until I can get a higher quality part. When changing this out, I noticed that the wiring harness had some issues so I replaced some of the wiring outside of the harness. It appears that the wiring had melted in times past so I replaced the cable from the solenoid to the starter as well as replaced a previously done splice from the solenoid to the wiring harness. I think the wire goes to the alternator but I'm not sure as I didn't trace it. When stripping the wire to make the splice, I noticed that the copper from the wiring harness was the original as it was rusty / somewhat brittle. I was able to make the splice and now that I think about it, I need to some kind of protection around it to water proof it as I just used, if my memory serves me correctly, a butt splice where you put both ends into a splice and crimp it.

On another thread, I found out that the automatic choke wasn't fully connected to the exhaust manifold so I was able to remove the old broken part of the tubing from the exhaust manifold with an easy out. I put the tubes back into the manifold but they are not totally secure/air tight. A guy at Autozone recommended using exhaust putty to help seal it. I haven't used it yet but it sounded like it would work. I was only going to use it to seal the tubing after they were inserted as in, insert the tubes then apply the putty to the outside around the insert. Any comments on that?

Now, with the mention of Autozone all the time, I know there are a lot of folks that are NAPA guys on here. I have issues getting to the store as they are not open as late as the other stores so it kind of hinders me. I will say something about NAPA though that I really like, they know what the hell they are talking about. With the other, they are just retail guys for the most part.

My next thing to do after I finish with the electronic ignition and replacing the donut exhaust gasket is to fix the blower motor. I found a Youtube video and ARGH, it looks like I will need knuckle protection.

That's it for now, will update accordingly.

-Wally

 

Nice looking truck, welcome to FTE.
I would suggest you get Haynes and Chilton manuals. Supplementing them with this forum is going to make a lot of sense of things.

 

Looks like a nice truck. With the underwood wiring, make sure you use the water tight connectors. They crimp like anything other one, but then they have built in shrink wrap to heat up and seal out moisture. Or the best way, solder the connectors and shrink wrap.

The blower motors are a pain with factory AC. While you are at it, you might as well replace the heater core. It's a job you don't want to have to do over. I did modify mine to be able to replace the blower from under the hood just in case I have to replace it before heater core.

 

Good Afternoon,

Ok, I wire brushed the "interim" wheels then heated them up, then painted them, then let them dry by the fire. Yes, I wouldn't even have gone to all that trouble if my friend hadn't put the bug in my ear about sanding, brushing, cleaning, heating, painting, coating............. So here's my "interim" wheel collection that I will get new tires on tomorrow evening.





Also, was driving to the church to pick up my 2 daughters from practice and felt like the truck wasn't shifting right. Oh boy, another $1,000.

Hopefully I'll get this darn thing converted to electronic ignition Tuesday and get the timing set. After that, adjust the carburetor so hopefully I can get into the double digit mpg range. This 5 and below mpg is killing me right now.

I will look around for a Chilton or Haynes manual to go along with Mitchell Online and this website. Wheee....... if it wasn't fun I wouldn't be doing it.

This old truck has brought back so many memories of me and my dad who I lost in a car accident at 15. I remember his F100 Ranger (1976 I think) with 3 on the column. I remember mom telling me about the linkage breaking and it was stuck in 2nd gear. Mom also told the story about her kicking the truck and daddy getting the bull whip from the gun rack in the back and chasing her with it. hehehehehehehehehe...... good memories.....

-Wally

 

Good Evening,

Well Rusty got some new shoes tonight. Hopefully tomorrow night we will finish up the Electronic ignition and set the timing. This mpg is killing me.





-Wally

 

You might have a vacuum leak or the carb might need a rebuild after sitting so long

 

Good morning,

Yes that is what I suspect. Will also be checking that tonight as well. I've been driving it back and forth to work for the past two days and it has done well.

-Wally

 

Good ole Rusty.....there's a lot Rustys' I know of out there on the road. Looks like a good truck that needs some love. Ask all the questions you need and the experts will help.

 

Looks like a nice truck.

 

Hello folks:
First I have to apologize; but, I haven't figured out how to use this forum. My main concern is as follows:

I have three 1973-1975 half ton Ford trucks. The one I am driving is a 1975, F-150 and the headlights have gone out. I believe the problem is the headlight switch; but, I can't figure out how to remove or replace it. Can anyone help?
Thanks

 

Check your other thread, I posted instructions on how to remove the switch there.
Hijack over.

 

Subscribed, looks like a good project, great starting point

 

Your truck actually looks great with the black rims.

For your shifting issue, start by making sure you have a proper fluid level in the transmission by checking the dipstick while the truck is idling in park at operating temperature after shifting through all the gears a bit.

What exactly is it doing?

You could have a bad vacuum line from your intake manifold to your modulator on the back of the transmission. I had a small leak in mine and it wouldn't shift to third because of it.

Another thing to check is that the shift linkage is aligned.

 

Good Evening,

Transmission - After the tranny warms up and it goes to shift into third, it pauses for a bit like it is stuck in neutral thinking about where it should go. I will check the vacuum because I will probably go ahead and start replacing all the dadgum lines.

Electronic conversion - Well, I was able to get the electronic stuff in and the points out. I attempted to adjust the timing with a timing light but didn't know exactly what I was doing. I marked the distributor before loosening it to move it. Loosened, adjusted to where I thought it was ok, got in and drove it down the block after tightening everything up and it feels like it is missing. Grr, well, will have to have another set of experienced eyes look at it. I'm just happy I was able to convert it and the thing still ran.

Donut gasket - Well, put in the new gasket and tightened everything back down. Got in, fired it up, no noise. While I was doing the above item, the bolts evidently backed out just enough to cause it to make noise again. I did put red lock-tite(?) on the bolts to hold them in place so I may have to look at this again after things cool down if there is enough light tonight.

Tried to adjust the fuel mixture and didn't seem to make any headway here so I will leave that alone until I get everything else with the ignition hammered out.

- Wally

 

Good Evening,

Donut gasket - Ok, went back out and checked the exhaust and tightened up the bolts more. It appears to have resolved the issue.

Electronic ignition question - Ok, the shutter under the rotor, the instructions stated to put it on and turn it until the cam felt right. There was no notch or anything else to indicate that it went on a certain way nor did I fully understand the instructions in regard to the cam. I had it at TOC when I put everything in the distributor so should have one of the slots been in line with the rotor?

- Wally