FECruzer69,

I think I ended up gapping it at .020" with my feeler gauges. I don't know much about engines, but I'm learning quickly. All my previous vehicles have been newish foreign cars that were tough to work on, and I've already enjoyed the ease of access and the simplicity of the F100. After watching some people gap their plugs (gotta love youtube) it seems like a task I could easily do. Question though, what do you torque the plugs to? I do not have a torque wrench but could probably borrow one if it's needed.

Nate

 

Nate,your point gap should be dead on at .020". I love working on the old North American classic cars and trucks. Lots of room to work under the hood and no metric wrenches required! According to a book I have, torque spark plugs to 18ft/lbs in engines with cast iron heads and 14ft/lbs in aluminum heads. Your engine will have cast iron heads.

 

Welcome to the forums Nate! God bless the dessert, your truck looks great; Good find! If you don't have the torque wrench handy, you can use the 1/4 turn after it's tight trick to torque the plugs. Use the ratchet with your hand directly over the ratcheting part (don't use too much of the handle for leverage) to tighten the plugs until it's too hard to tighten further. Then use the handle portion of the ratchet to turn the plugs an additional 1/4 turn.

I'm similar to you in that my experience(until february 2011) is with keeping later model vehicles running. I had a starting problem right after getting my new to me '68 f100. I replaced the battery and she started great for a while. Then the problem came back about a week later. My problem was one of two things, either I'd turn the key and hear a thunk, and it wouldn't turn over. Sometimes it would try to turn over for a second or two, then give up and make a noise that sort of sounded like the whine of an old police siren. I've never heard either of those two noises before in my life when turning an ignition key. Initially, it scared the crap out of me.

The solution was found with the starter relay. The bolt that held the large gauge cable from the starter to the starter relay was the slightest bit loose. I tightened it up a bit and she started great! I then checked and cleaned the connections to the ignition switch(key). These are the ones that fit kind of loosely on the relay, I believe you eluded to them earlier (the smaller gauge wires). I removed the large gauge cable that runs from the starter to the starter relay and cleaned it up a bit. I also over tightened it, stripping a few of the copper threads on the starter relay. I used some washers to bridge the gap over the stripped threads. Then retightened the bolt (not too tightly this time!) The problem so far is gone!

 

Nice to see a fellow Tucsonan on here! I too just bought a '71 F100 and have been learning on it, and had somewhat of the same problem you did. My battery went, I had a bad starter relay/solenoid, and ended up buying a faulty replacement relay (took me awhile to figure it out). Have you gotten the altenator read again after getting the new battery? I found with mine my altenator is only putting out 12.25 at idle... something to check. Good luck with the truck, she's a beauty!