I'm confused in the video the distributor is on the wrong side

 

I recorded the video with my cellphone and had it upside down. I edited the video and flipped it 180 degrees, which is why everything is on the wrong side.

 

crazy how quite it is.. Nice project

 

That is a beautiful engine!

 

Well I have not been following this project, but between the story telling ability, and amazing looking work that is being done, I do believe I will keep up with this one, as long as you keep up the good work, and great story telling . Awesome truck, and I am super jealous myself...

 

Nice. That sounds like a strong runner.

 

Very sweet sound!

 

Now that is the way every engine builder should be. It sure beats getting the truck all together only to find that the engine builder made a mistake. Like what happened to another member when an engine builder neglected to follow the tech information given to him by our FTE member, the builder made a mistake on the timing chain. This mistake caused our member hours and hours of headache, and extra work, as the motor was installed B4 the problem was discovered. Anyway great Flattie (runs great), ready when its time, now that is cool. Thank you for the video, and great story about your truck. Looking forward to your build.

 

My engine builder friend dyno's almost all engines that he builds so that he knows that the engine is good leaving his shop. It is easy to fix problems before installing the engine. We dyno'ed mine and found a minor interference with the after market valve covers and a minor leak at a welsh plug both easy fixes with the engine out of the truck.

 

I haven't posted anything regarding my progress lately, so I thought it was time for an update.

While the weather was still warm, I took the frame back out into the parking lot and finished blasting it clean. While I was at it, I blasted the rear end assembly as well. I got all of the previously removed brackets and braces bolted back on, and shot the frame wtih SPI Black Epoxy.




Frame, Springs, Front Axle, and Steering

As some may remember, I was going to attempt to rivet these parts back on, as they were originally. I made a forge and bought what I thought would be the correct rivet gun. Alas, I was unable to get everything to work well together. The forge was hot enough to melt steel, I had myself with a rivet gun and a helper with another rivet gun, plenty of compressed air, pefect windless day, and no success.

I experimented with a couple of old frame sections that I had, Drilled them for the rivets, deburred the holes, clamped them together, and attempted to rivet. No matter what we tried, we just could not get good rivets. We tried: shortening the rivets; enlarging the hole; pre-heating the hole; using a bucking bar and 1 rivet gun; using the 2nd rivet gun as a bucking bar; heating the rivets until they started to melt; and various combinations of the above. No luck. My rivet gun just wasn't heavy enough for the size of the rivets.

Plan "B" then went into effect. I purchased a box of grade 8 bolts, 7/16-24 and grade 8 self locking nuts. I fixtured them up in boards so that I could blast the zinc finish, so paint would stick. I leveled the frame in all directions and bolted all of the parts on with 3/8" bolts. Taking out 1 bolt at a time, I drilled the hole out to 7/16" and used a countersink on both sides to remove any burrs. I then installed the 7/16" bolts, put locktite on the threads, and torqued each nut to 80 lbs.

Did this 76 times.

Then I wiped the frame and sprayed the SPI.

3 coats of SPI Black Epoxy Primer later, I did not like the pitted surface, so I scuffed it with 120 and skimmed every surface with Evercoat Rage Gold. Sanded that 120/180, cleaned the filler out of all of the necessary frame holes, and applied 2 more coats of the epoxy primer. Sanded that 220/320/red scotchbrite and applied 2 more coats.

Then I was happy.

More to come.

 

By this point, I had found a used blasting cabinet on Clist for a good price, so I bought it. It was big enough to fit the leaf springs. So I took the springs apart and sandblasted each leaf.

After blasting, I rounded the corners and sprayed a coat of SPI Black Epoxy Primer on all surfaces. I had researched it, and found the concensus to be NOT to paint the faces, but I wanted maximum rust protection, so I went ahead and painted them.

I purchased a roll of the poly liner for the front and a roll for the rear springs, as well as new bolts fro the clips and longer new bolts for the centers. I let the paint dry for about 2 weeks while I waited on deliveries. When the materials arrived, I cut all of the liner to length, clamped the pieces in order on the bench, and drilled for the center bolts. Following instructions I found on this site, I clamped each stack of springs together, using a long piece of all-thread through the center hole to guide the leaves together. Large C-clamps were uses to draw the leaves tight; when tight; I tightened the nuts on the all-thread to hold the stack. I added a couple more C-clamps, then replaced the all-thread with the correct bolt and nut. I replaced the clip bolts as well, then removed the clamps.

I cut the bolts flush with the nuts, then welded the nuts to the bolts so that there would be no chance of them vibrating loose. A quick touch up spray of Black Epoxy and the springs were ready to hang.

I had already replaced all of the spring bushings, so it was just a matter of lining up the new pins and driving them home.





Rear Spring Assemblies Installed





View Towards the Front Installed Spring Assemblies

 

I am completely rebuilding every part of this truck, which means that I am replacing every worn out part. With the springs, I replaced all of the bushings, pins, and locking bolts. So the same follows for the steering and brakes.

The PO had installed the Front Disc Brake Conversion Kit, purchased from Sacramento Vintage Ford. There were very few miles on it, as the rotors still had the grind marks and the pads still had ink numbers on the wear surfaces. I checked with Sacramento Vintage and found that the Calipers are mid-70's GM Impala and the rotors are custom. As they were all practically new, I stripped them completely down. I sandblasted the rotors, being carefull to mask and protect the faces, the stud threads, and the bearing locations. I wanted all of the rust out, so that I could protect them and prolong their life. After blasting, I applied 3 coats of Eastwood Black Ceramic Engine paint.

I took the calipers apart and stripped them to bare metal by hand, then applied 3 coats of the Eastwood Red/with Black Tint Engine Paint to them. I bought new seals and rebuilt the pistons.

I wasn't happy that the bearings were all no-name Chinese, so I cross referenced them and purchased all new Timken from my bearing supplier.

The Caliper hanging plates and bolts from the original install were fine, so I blasted these and painted with the Eastwood Black.

Because the PO had converted to a No-Limit bolt on power steering conversion kit, the spindles had been modified. After researching the No-Limit kit, I decided to scrap it, as no one has anything good to say about it. In fact, No-Limit no longer makes that kit, so I'm guessing that it was an idea that failed. Anyway, I had to find both left and right spindles, a drag link, a tie rod, and a steering box. Ebay and this site were my friends, and I got every part I needed for a reasonable price.

I was able to remove the bearing adapters from the original spindles, as they were just glued on with locktight. I fixtured up the new spindles on my lathe and knurled the area for the adapter so that I could get a press fit on it. While on the lathe, I cleaned up a little uneven wear and knurled for the outside bearings, so that they would be snug but not sloppy.

I should have taken pictures of the lathe setup. But I didn't.

Luckily, the steering box that I got was in pretty good shape. I replaced the bearings and bushings, and set up and adjusted the box per instructions I found on Van Pelt's site.

I replaced the kingpins, reaming the bushings with a shop made set up; I posted seperately about that. At that point, I was able to assemble the steering.




Steering Linkage





Spring, Axle, Disc Brake





Detail of Rebuilt Disc Brake





Detail of Rebuilt Disc Brake

But wait, there's more!

 

Nice. Good to see you back and working on the truck. Looks nice. Pretty decent winter so far huh? I only had the snowblower out twice so far. Keep er up.

 

Nice truck build in what looks like a nice cabinet shop...

 

Now that the springs, front axle, front brakes, and steering have been rebuilt, I turned my attention to the rear end. Earlier, I had sandblasted the entire assembly and shot a coat of the Black Epoxy on to protect it from rusting. Hoping that my luck would hold, I opened it up to see how everything looked.




Ring Gear and Carrier as Removed





Detail of Ring Gear and Carrier





Pinion Gear as Removed

My luck held! The rear end gears showed very little wear. In fact, the tapered bearings looked and felt pretty good, too. I counted and found my ratio to be 3.92:1, which I believe to be an acceptable ratio. Not perfect, but good enough.

As I had it apart, I decided to replace the bearings and shims. Randy's Worldwide had the kits that I needed, so I placed the order with them. Great customer service, by the way-there was a mistake with the order and they fixed it with no hassle.

As always, I read everything that I could find on rebuilding and setting up the differential. Turned out to be pretty easy. I saved all of the original shims and measured them, and started by putting the same shim stacks back in with the new bearings. I only had to pull the pinion out once and the ring assembly out twice to adjust the shim stacks. Got the backlash right to spec.

Randy's provided a tube of marking paste and a brush for checking the contact pattern. The Ford Shop Manual has pictures of different contact, and Randy's also sent pictures of good and bad contact. I was quite pleased with my contact pattern; just to be sure, I marked all the way around and checked it again, this time checking the contact on every tooth. Damn near perfect!

Replaced the axle bearings and seals while I had it apart as well. The bearings and the seals were completely shot, so this was a must do. What a pain in the *** to remove the old bearings! I ended up cutting them off, as they just would not budge. The new bearings weren't too bad to install. I put the axles out in the unheated garage portion of my shop, on a day where the temp just happened to be 10 degrees. I let them sit out there overnight; the next day, I heated the bearings and bearing retainer rings on a light bulb until they were too hot to touch. A piece of black iron pipe and a 10 lb. hand sledge were all that I needed to install. I set the axle on the concrete floor, using an old tapered bearing ring to raise it up and protect the center, dropped the bearing and ring down the axle, and whaled on the pipe until everything was seated.

I finished assembling everything and shot 2 more coats of the Black Epoxy, then filled the differential with gear oil. I let it set for a couple of days; there were no leaks, so I set it under the rear springs and bolted it in place. As with the front springs, I replaced the U-bolts and nuts.

The truck came with 2 rear ends, both the same gear ratio. I used the one that appeared to be in better condition. I still have to strip the brakes off of the other rear end assembvly, blast them, paint, and install.