I have the tonner trailer sitting upside down in front of the shop. All looks good. I can't remember how to count revolutions of pinion to tire and find ratio. Seems somewhere I read you have to immobilize one side. I have a yellow paint patch on one tire and on the pinion yoke. Gonna check back after I go to town for cabinet shop supplies. Thanks in advance.

 

First thing I'd do, Gary, is see if the tooth counts of the ring and pinion are stamped into the housing somewhere. I've had one like that iirc. The 4.86/1 is 34-7, and the 4.11/1 is 37-9. With the trailer tipped over it might be easier to see it. Then if not, immobilize one wheel, put chalk (yellow paint if you prefer) marks on the opposite side tire and on the pinion, then turn the wheel one rotation. Count the revs of the pinion. Almost five, or if slightly over four you're a lucky man. Stu

 

Well it got dark and cold and folks came by and we invited them to stay for dinner. Now it's darker and colder out there. I will do the test in the morning. Thanks Stu!

 

Not sure what I'm doing wrong.... I have tried both sides. Immobilize one wheel, mark pinion yoke and tire. Rotate tire one complete revolution. Pinion goes around something like 2 5/8 times. Never more than that.

 

Gary - I did a Google search and this guy says its TWO revolutions of the wheel. Given what you describe that probably says you have the 4.89/1. Stu

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...1976-f700.html

 

That's a big 10-4 good buddy! Actually a good ratio for an Orcas Island rig. It's very hilly here and top speed on our only straightaway is 40 mph. This is kind of a beater, but it's relatively cheap because of the broken axle assembly and hood being smashed. Looks like a complete 59ab and radiator etc under the hood. I will make running boards out of wood and paint them flat black. Picture it with my good spare hood, this axle and 4 nice 7.50 17s and those new 'boards. It will look a lot different. Gotta find some more Russian truckers to deliver it after the new year (and after I break it to my wife)

 

I've lost track of where you've come up with the panel. Local or on the mainland? Or out on the praire like your 1.5 ton? It'll no doubt be a beauty when you've got it together. Stu

 

2 5/8 times 2 is more than 4.89, more like the 5.13s I'd say.
If you find an extra set of panel back doors, let me know, seriously.

 

Low gears are ok. Every other Wednesday us 5 Orcas cabinetmakers meet a semi truck that comes from the mainland and load up on plywood. With this rig and a bit of modification, I can return from the Wednesday trip and park in the bay right alongside the cabinetshop, leaving the load dry and neatly stacked. When we need a few sheets we just work off the top. This is my justification why we NEED a panel truck. All the other guys show up in a normal white van, except for one guy who runs his in a restored '54 chevy 1/2 ton shortbed. Stu, it's a prairie wagon and he has a deposit. There are a few really expensive ones out there and they never seem to have back doors. (stolen or sold for a 1/2 ton restoration?). None of this rig is perfect, but the back doors are at least there and very fixable. I bought a nice set of jailbars a while back for my 1/2 ton, but don't be surprised if you see them on the face of this panel. I will start a thread when it arrives, which doesn't need to be too soon. I have worn myself ragged pulling this axle the last two nights. Those u-bolts were really on there, but the complete axle is sitting in my shop tonight and the husk of the trailer has been relegated to the back forty. Now I need to go rest up. After dinner it's lighting the tree. If I'm not fast asleep on the couch.

 

GB, that is an impressive leaf pack. I would think you'd use the blue wrench and cut the u bolts off?

 

OK, I have to know how one side has one style of rear end and the other side something different?

 

I'm too cheap to waste the u bolts, and the passenger side rear hub, axle and drum are missing. I offered to send him the parts so it could roll, but the axle housing is missing it's ring of bolts and folded downwards. I'm thinking it met it's demise at speed when the right rear wheel took off into a cornfield. He put the half ton wheel in the fender for the photo. He claims he will put some kind of half ton wheel and axle in the tube after he re-bolts the housing together, just to make it roll. This thing is gonna be NO fun at all to load and unload. I'm thinking it gets delivered to someplace on the mainland with a hoist etc. like Mt. Vernon Frame and Axle, which is about 20 minutes from our ferry dock. I will have the axle and some good tires at their shop and they can mount the axle to the springs. Then she's a roller and I pick it up with my trailer. I can do something light like build kitchen cabinets or drawers to pay for their work. It was so hard getting everything appart with it upside down, I can't even imagine what it's gonna be like under that panel. I really over did it wrestling with all that gear. When I was young and healthy, leaf springs were one of my favorite things to do. At the rate I'm going, I'll find someone else to rebuild the flathead (or do the diesel swap) NOT.

 

It might be time to bite the bullet and quit trying to save those old rusty U-bolts. If I need to re-use them, I still heat the nuts cherry red and run them off with an impact. My days of squeeking them off setting under there with a breaker bar are long past.
How much is a ferry ride with a trailer? How do you get your torch bottles across?

 

Oh, I did heat those nuts cherry red and I did use an impact. My breaker bar is slightly more powerful than my pneumatic impact wrench when my employee Danny is cranking it. He had to break a couple of them loose before the impact would move them. If I do the axle swap, I will put the blue wrench to the u bolts on the panel. The ferry is a real ripoff when you pull a trailer. A vehicle and driver under 22' can use a 5 trip commuter pass and it's 23.00 round trip. The commuter pass is void with a trailer and it goes by length. My '92 f350 and my 12,000 lb equipment trailer is just over 40'. If they take my word that it's under 40' I can get on for about 160.00, if they measure me, it's more like 210.00. I can haul tons of 12' beams on the '92 which is a single cab with 9' flatbed, and go back and forth all day for the 23.00 pass. None of us knows why two 22' cars/pickups can roll on for 46.00........ We are figuring the panel gets here for 1000.00 from Minnesota. The 1.5 ton last year was 900.00 from Minot ND. Fortunately my 'restorations' involve primarily used parts saved from various 'rolling piles of misery' and very little from the parts vendors. Seller claims he doesn't know if the engine is free. There are a lot of unknowns here, but it looks like the whole operation of buying and shipping will be financed by the sale of an 18,000 lb triple axle deck over equipment trailer that I never use since I put a flatbed on my '92.

 

Yeah, once they measured my 97 supercab and with the hitch it was 2 inches over. Simple enough to pull the hitch out but pretty **** that they made me. It was maybe 12 years since I took a trailer, seems like it was $85 or so. I got yelled at bad for trying to get on with a brand new gas can, still had the tags and never had gas in it but it said GAS so they made me leave it. I started using the yellow cans maeked diesel, no problem. Or keep it in the tool box.