Hey, I mentioned a video of my old 400 running and forgot to post here, but here it is:

Ford 400 Engine video - 1978 f150 - YouTube

Also notice the distributor? A lot of people don't and prefer to keep it Ford stock, but I personally fully recommend swapping for an HEI dizzy with the coil mounted on top like the Chevy does.
You can remove the ford coil and module once you put one in. It's a one wire setup, easy to install and troubleshoot.. it really made my truck run smooth

and I love Ford's coils but I don't love the modules from these years, they're all busted and old and the replacement non-Ford's are garbage.

 

Ah i see. I replaced my coil with the life time warranty one i think. It seems to work fine so far my old one was good but my wires were messed up so i ended up replacing it. I figured i might as well keep the new one and just have new parts too. Same with the dizzy.

 

Well i did some work today after work. I put my new silver trimmed dash bezel in, i also cleared up some wiring bugs. Once i finally pulled the dash apart i started poking around for random light sockets tucked away. I found one for the headlamp switch and the wiper switch. I got a bulb and verified that it worked and i used it on my temp gauge instead. Next i unbolted my cluster and pulled it out a bit to see why most of the lights were out and it turns out to be a finicky printed circuit board. Once the bulb sockets bounce or move around it loses connection i was able to get the light for the speedo, the gas and oil pressure to work which is really all i needed. Once i figured that out i started looking around at the choppy wiring my PO had done. Turns out 3 of the wires coming off my rear window switch were just twisted together then taped over. I went an re-spliced them with butt connectors so it has a good connection now, I also located the ignition wire and ground for my stereo BTW does anyone know if they had a constant 12v in 78? Now all i need is a deck and more speakers and wiring and i could have music. There is a few more random wires that i need to sort out but so far everything looks to be in working order. I did snap some pictures, they aren't great but they tell the story.
This is the original bezel i had, it was kind ugly and had some cracks:

This is the back of my aftermarket temp gauge and the PO had the head of the screws on the inside making it a huge PITA to get out. Took me about half an hour longer than i thought.
Here are the 2 bezels, the bottom is the wood grain and the top is silver from a 77(?) f series. The silver one also has the unbroken factory radio holes so i can get them cut to fit an aftermarket deck when it is ready for that.

And the final product once done. It is kind of blurry and not good cause it had been raining for a while and i didn't want to be out much longer. But it is pretty nice.

I didn't get one of the dash lights cause i knew it would be too dark to really tell. Tomorrow i am going to call a transmission guy who will rebuild mine and give me a 2 year warranty when i buy a torque converter and oil cooler for around 700$, as for the drive lines and u-joints, those will have to come another day when i have had more time to plan everything out. But till then, Cheers everyone.

 

Looks great man, silver is much better IMHO. I love the painted dash too. The newer trucks are all plastic and boring.

 

Thanks, i like it painted too, wish i could say i did it but nope. Oh well.

 

As a small update i went to walmart to get myself some candy and speaker wire and got side tracked and ended up buying a stereo for $50 and 100ft of speaker wire.... Oh well

I haven't hooked it up but i might tomorrow, then i am going to have Car Toys actually do the instal so they can be the ones to cut the dash and put together the little kit thing.

 

Ok so i did my work today, got my stereo installed and working all by myself it looks almost professional and works like a charm. The speakers don't sound so good but i can deal with it. It is nice to have music now.


This took me a while cause i had to lengthen the wires and stuff but the hardest part had to be trying to re-ziptie my aftermarket temp gauge back onto the dash bezel and having to clean everything up when i was done. It was fairly easy but it was just time consuming and kind of a strain on my back. Oh well i am happy and i have discovered my truck once had a CB in it cause i have 2 antenna wires. One for the radio and one for a CB

 

Ziptie your gauge back to the dash!?

Radio looks good. I always get distracted at Wally world. I end up with all kinds of extra stuff too. Do you plan to upgrade the speakers anytime?

 

Yup zip ties, i will get a picture if i can remember next time, the PO had screws holding it on but he did it so the head of the screws were on the inside under the gauge so i couldn't get a screwdriver on it. I don't have a clue as to how he got it tightened but i had to use pliers to twist the threaded part on the bottom to get them out. I tried putting the heads on the bottom when installing the new bezel but the holes on the gauge metal were too big so they only screwed into the plastic. Basically as a temp fix for now i zip tied it. The PO situated it right where a vent would be on the far left side. I had to know the vent piece out of my new one.

I too get distracted often at walmart i go there to get 1 thing and leave with 5... I do plan to and need to upgrade the speakers but for now they sound ok, the dash one i will need to play with cause it doesn't sound right, almost like the vents on top of the speaker are clogged or something. Maybe the speaker itself is just shot, who knows. I could very possibly go buy some 3 1/2 round ones and find a way to mount on on either side of the dash or something and eliminate the center one. Oh well, i can hear most of my music (till i push the gas pedal) so i am happy.

 

Also here is a picture of my beloved Ford hat that i wore for 6 months while working my lot attendant job at a GMC dealer.

Both my boss and the owner had no problem with it but the dealership owners son had an issue with it and made me change it. Luckily they can't make me change my vehicle

 

Its always the spoiled son that ruins the fun. Nice looking hat btw. I can't talk too much, I ziptied a monster tach to my column in my 78...

 

i win.. my exhaust is hanging with a ziptie right now. It is a big 2k pound industrial zip tie, but still plastic (and has held for months!)

awesome story about the Ford hat

 

Your Exhaust! Yeah, you win.

 

You do win, i will have to get my duct tape out to top that... I'm surprised it hasn't melted yet, mine is held up by those metal strips with the holes in them. The PO bolted them to the frame to hold the exhaust up.

As an update, i started my work on the tranny rebuild. I decided on going to another place that is an actual transmission shop and the guy that runs it has the inards of a transmission he built up for another company but they misjudged the diameters of the housing and decided not to buy it. So my brother called to get a quote for me while i was driving home from work and he said the guy would charge about $650 for the rebuild and a new torque converter, plus i would have a 1 year warranty. So i went to the shop to talk with this guy and i told him that the dude on the phone was my brother and that his room mate and probably best friend is a tranny tech there. That little tid bit of information knocked $50 off my price and now i am paying $600 then when i got home i gave him a call to let him know that i was going to bring it in tomorrow and get it done and he said ok and that i can bring my T-case in and he will do the front seal for free!. And the shop closes at 3pm tomorrow the guy said if i can get it too him by 2 he can have it done and put together before he goes home so i can finish it over the weekend. This is a pretty good deal IMO and the guy is really nice. Definitely will have to grab some business cards to pass out to people.

He told me the inards he built to go in were originally made for a truck transmission so they are heavy duty.

So this is where i stand, i have the pan off the torque converter drained and the bolts off, and the bolts for the axle side of the driveline off, i need to finish the pan deal up then pull the drivelines, pull the linkages off and any other random connectors, then the bellhousing bolts and drop the sucker and split the t-case off and cart them a mile down the road to the shop. I just wish i didn't have to take this beast out it is already turning out to be a PITA. But in the end i think i will be very happy.

 

Alright so there was a change of plans unfortunatly the shop owner was having some problems with his elderly mother and her dementia so he said he won't be able to do the work today. He said if he can he will come in tomorrow and do it but no guarantees. I am not the slightest bit upset though, i mean ya it does suck not having my tranny back but when it comes to family problems i think it is fair that that would supersede some under the table work. By under the table if i pay him cash then i won't be charged sales tax which is $57 so i would pay a straight $600.

Now for the juicy bit, me my step dad and brother were pullin the tranny and we had the trans jack on the pan and a floor jack on the t-case to even the weight, and as we were lowering it down slowly it started tilting to the right. Step-dad said "Keep lowering it, don't worry about it" So i did and when it got pretty low it ended up falling off the jack. Tipped over to the floor, not a big drop but it scared the living crap out of me and i shot across the floor on my creeper faster than i ever have haha. But all in all we got both out and loosened the linkages to split it then threw them in the back of my ranger and transported it down to the shop. Then i went home and started work on my U-joints i went up to O'reillys to get the trans fluid and u-joints which cost me $109 for 3 joints and 3 1 gallon jugs of ATF... Got home and tried installing a joint turns out they were too small. Went back with an old one to match and had to get another gallon of ATF and returned the other joints, Got 3 different ones and got home, these ones fit good on one side but were too long on the other. I had figured those would be the ends with the straps bolted on but a neighbor told me about the little tab type things on the yoke which i forgot about. Now i get to take those 3 back for a refund and go to Napa to see if they have the right ones. What a mess. Then i get to figure out how to get the middle u joint out from the t-case side of the driveline.

And now for the pictures, I don't have any of the trans cause my brother and step dad were in the Go Go Go mode so i didn't get the chance.

First off, this is when i began yesterday, wedged it in the garage and had to not hit my moms car

This is after my first trip to the store, i took a few pictures while i cleaned up a bit of cat litter.

This is the one joint for the axle end, one of the caps had no bearings in it and was out of grease so those were pretty much shot. One of the caps on the other u joints was actually broken but i didn't get a picture.

This is pretty obvious, i could almost sit up in there now

Don't be checkin out my rear end you pervert!

I took this before i found out i couldn't use them. Had i put more planning into it i could have ordered Moogs but even then i don't know if they would be right, you can see one of the sides is longer


Thats pretty much it, if i can i will get a picture of the whale of a tranny out on show, you don't realize how bit that and the t-case are till the drivelines are off and you are under it... Anyways thats about it for now.