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Mine had a plethora of electrical bugs. And the motor leaked oil like no other, nor would it actually start. We had to drag it in 1st gear at 20 mph to get it to run. And it ran bad. Turns out the owner at the time didn't know he had to adjust the valves so all the valves were open. And the valve cover was crooked so it just puked black oil when it ran. It was a simple fix. The carb, I rebuilt but i don't know if it was correct, I couldn't tune it to save my life.
Spark plugs were another pain in the butt, they were hard to reach.
Ours starts but won't move more than a few feet under its own power. This is after it ran okay, but crappy, for a couple of months. Then I put in new plugs (took 2 days because I got frustrated and stopped), and it ran even better for a little while, and now it won't even drive.
They say these things are supposed to be easy to work on, but I wonder whether or not they've ever worked on an old Ford before, because aircooled VWs are crazy. My girl's dad and I took out the engine a while back so he could take it home and tinker with it, and it was a chore. Pulling the engine out of my Volvo was easier.
Just occurred to me, I never shared pictures of my new truck :O
Bringing people up to speed, A couple months after the picture where I'm towing my baja home with the 87 diesel, my boss at NAPA told me that he acquired a 76 F250 with a 300 and a 4 speed. He knew I liked that generation of truck (he's not a ford guy), so he took me out to see it a few times and needless to say I fell in love. Sold the 87 (I do miss it), saved a bit of money, and traded him the pair of JL 12's that were in the 87, all so I could get my new rig!
This is what it looked like when I bought it. Had been sitting for about 12 years, and had not run in about 10. Fortunately the PO was smart enough to put it up on blocks so the suspension is in great shape (and that is a factory topper back there. Another reason I bought it)
New battery, a can of seafoam in the gas, and a little bit of starting fluid and the 300 roared to life. Everything worked well enough that I was able to drive it home
Gave it a good 'ol pressure washing, tune up, and different wheels/tires
It was my daily driver like that for quite a while. It ended up being a bit rustier than I anticipated, but KrazeeMatt was kind enough to weld in new pans before he moved back to Texas. Did some cleaning up here and there, rebuilt the transfer case and transmission, and so far she's been a good truck to me.
And so she sits while I'm away at college. When I go home for Christmas, I'll have a visor (thanks oddfordjunkie) and a set of 35's to slap on instead of the dinky 31's it's got now. When I'm home for summer, I hope to build the 300, clean up the engine bay, get a new steering box, and with a little bit of luck a new bed!
--EDIT---
Forgot to put in the timeline :P I bought it at the tail end of July 2013, and started DD it in September 2013 just as my senior year of high school started.
Thanks! Definitely a diamond in the rough, but I'm chipping away at it. Once I get a new bed, I'll do all the bodywork and give it a nice new coat of black paint, get new trim, and have the white stripes redone. Slowly but surely
Just used it to tow our RV 2 feet. YEAH TRUCK STUFF!
I quite like the bumper, it's good for ramming people. If I ever decide to sell it, I'll let ya know.
EDIT: Nice pics! Love the truck, man. Especially the turbines....
Thanks! It's a rare truck, which is why I'm ok with how much I paid for it. 300/4 speed in a highboy is pretty uncommon. Turbines are also a bit rare, being that their 8 lug instead of the way more common 5 lug
Thanks! It's a rare truck, which is why I'm ok with how much I paid for it. 300/4 speed in a highboy is pretty uncommon. Turbines are also a bit rare, being that their 8 lug instead of the way more common 5 lug
-Jameson
8-lug turbine club
Totally. I'm not sure if mine's a factory 300 truck, but if it is, it must be pretty rare too. It's a custom and looks like it was a higher-end model when it was new, which would make it interesting if it came with the 300. In any case, 300 + manual + 4wd = truck heaven. The only thing that would make it better would be manual steering, lol.
That's one thing I loved about my bumpside. The manual steering made a trip around the block feel like a 1920s Formula 1 race.
Totally. I'm not sure if mine's a factory 300 truck, but if it is, it must be pretty rare too. It's a custom and looks like it was a higher-end model when it was new, which would make it interesting if it came with the 300. In any case, 300 + manual + 4wd = truck heaven. The only thing that would make it better would be manual steering, lol.
That's one thing I loved about my bumpside. The manual steering made a trip around the block feel like a 1920s Formula 1 race.
Mine has manual steering
This one was more of a base model. Has power brakes, trim, decals, and a full gauge cluster so its not base model gold. Did have vinyl mat instead of carpet though
And I agree with the powertrain setup. Slip it in 4lo/1st gear, and you just crawl all over the place, and it's still mild to drive around and is *decent* on gas
This one was more of a base model. Has power brakes, trim, decals, and a full gauge cluster so its not base model gold. Did have vinyl mat instead of carpet though
And I agree with the powertrain setup. Slip it in 4lo/1st gear, and you just crawl all over the place, and it's still mild to drive around and is *decent* on gas
-Jameson
Sweet! Would it be easy to swap a manual rack in place of the power unit?
Mine has vinyl mats, I think aftermarket, which when lifted reveal some very rusty floors.
Agree, gas mileage isn't bad, prolly around 15 if I had to guess. Better than the Granada I had with the 250 and an auto.
Sweet! Would it be easy to swap a manual rack in place of the power unit?
Mine has vinyl mats, I think aftermarket, which when lifted reveal some very rusty floors.
Agree, gas mileage isn't bad, prolly around 15 if I had to guess. Better than the Granada I had with the 250 and an auto.
On yours, I'm not 100% sure. There are a couple different options for manual steering, so it depends on which one you want. It will require a little bit of fabrication though. There is tons of information on it over in the dentside section of the forum.
I get about 11-12 in mine. I don't know what gears you have, but I've got 4.10's. So if you've got 3.50 or 3.73, you'd probably get around 15
On yours, I'm not 100% sure. There are a couple different options for manual steering, so it depends on which one you want. It will require a little bit of fabrication though. There is tons of information on it over in the dentside section of the forum.
I get about 11-12 in mine. I don't know what gears you have, but I've got 4.10's. So if you've got 3.50 or 3.73, you'd probably get around 15
I dunno. Looks like I'd need to do some research, but in the meantime I have my hands full just getting it to daily driver condition.
I think it has 4.10s, so my mileage estimate might be too optimistic. I haven't actually calculated it, so it may be closer to what you get. Feels like it gets a decent amount of miles out of a tank, though.
Being on mobile makes posting pictures kinda difficult but here it goes
71 super, and 78 bronco.
The original rims were rusty and faded so I sanded them, wire wheeled the rust then threw a few coats of paint on. I decided I didn't need to cover the sidewalls of the tires since the paint was black but I should have. Tire shine covered it up
1600 dual port. OEM oil bath filter, everything was pretty much stock.
The rats nest of wires. I installed a 12v cig lighter that I wired to the old radio lead. It worked even though I never used it. Probably the most stable wiring on the car.
How it looked when it got home. The beauty ring on the rims were trashed so those came off. The tires looked like they might have been from 71 (joking). They got new tires and front bearings before I did any major driving.
Lastly, one side of one tire, the rest were just as bad. When the guys at discount tire went to change them they were afraid of the tires blowing up while they were removing them from the car.
For the sake of Ford, 2 summers ago when I had the top off for a week.
I'm in love with your Bronco. The color combo is brilliant, and I always thought the '78-'79 was the best-looking Bronco since the original.
Your VW is cool too, but looking at it just reminds me of the headaches our '68 has lumped on us. My girlfriend bought it shortly after we started dating as her very first car. She had no idea what she was doing, and I was too distracted by her to give the car much thought. It looked nice and seemed to run fine, so she bought it.
Wasn't till later that we noticed the floor rust, orange peel/runs in the paint, and the wiring mess. When we pulled the engine out, some of the bolts holding it in were hand tight. There's overspray all over the place. Move a bundle of red-painted wires to the side and there's no paint on the sheet metal underneath. That kind of thing. Just a lazy restoration done as cheaply as possible to make money.
Here's what it looked like when we got it:
Don't let its beauty fool you!
Just because, here are some pics of my '72, gone but not forgotten. It was a 2wd 302/4spd truck. Very minimalist, makes the dentside look like a Cadillac.
Also, I found a decent pic of my Volvo:
RWD, high-winding 150hp twin cam 4-cyl, manual trans, and limited slip diff all from the factory. The 740 was only available with the 16v engine for a couple years, and the vast majority of them are automatics. I don't know how many manual GLE 16v cars were built, but probably less than a thousand for the US market. Just a wild guess, really. It's the only factory manual car I've ever seen with this engine.
Jameson, for PS, get a complete serpentine setup off a van with a 300. It would give you a Saginaw pump and a 3G upgrade in one shot, plus the benefit of Serpentine.
Harvey, if you want manual steering just disconnect the PS hoses. That way when you get sick of fighting to do a 3 point turn you can hook it back up and laugh at what a mistake downgrading to manual steering was. haha.
I'll post pictures of some of the 32 cars I've had in the last 11 years....
11-12-2014, 06:18 PM
