I couldn't help it. I was seduced into buying another 40 something year old truck!

Bought it from the original owner. He even has the original window sticker. Also came with the 1973 Ford Truck Repair Shop Manual 5 Volume Set. Good timing helped me get this. Certainly not easy to score one of these in So. Cal. Saw the ad about 30 minutes after it was posted on Craigslist and called the seller.

1973 F-250 4x4, auto, cruise control, paperwork for a rebuild at dealership. Says its a 390, but we all know the saying...


I will be bringing it home in a few days.


Step one will be to remove the camper shell and put the tailgate back on. I'll have to put the back window in when I toss the camper.


I'll fix the soft brakes and then drive it how it is.

Tires have some flat spots if they don't smooth out I may grab some Goodyear 36 x 12.5 x 16.5 tires from 100Dollarman - Tires!.

Other option is to buy some 16" wheels and tires. That seems like the more sensible long term approach as I can buy the wheels that'll go on the crew cab and then swap the crew tires onto this if needed.

I'll swap the auto 4x4 stuff into my crew cab & put the NP435 in here. At which point I'll rebuild the auto transmission. Ultimately this is a parts truck to help me not get nickel & dimed on things I need for the crew cab. Somewhere down the road I'll sell it once I've swapped everything around unless we decide to make it the teenagers daily driver.

 

Nice score, maddog

 

It's cool being the 2nd owner of a Dent......I am......

 

Got the truck home today!

I have a receipt for an engine long block replacement from 1987 at Keystone Ford in Norwalk. The part number for the block is listed as:

C8TR,6012,H

What does the 6012H cross referent to?

I bought the truck from the original owner last week. He said a 360 was ordered but a 390 was delivered. He provided me with a bunch of receipts including original window sticker and sales contract! Motor only has 10K miles since a rebuild in 2002. I'll check stroke to confirm displacement.

 

But, what the owner didn't say, is that when the engine was replaced in 1987, a 390 was installed.

GPD (Genuine Parts Distributors) has been the Ford authorized parts rebuilder for the 11 western states for over 50 years.

Originally located next to Farmer John's meat packing facility in Vernon. I hated going there, the smell would gag a maggot! Now are located in the City of Industry.

Their part number for a 390 rebuilt long block would be: C8TZ-6012-HX .. X refers to rebuilt.

If the rebuilt part number was: C8TZ-6009-HX .. this would be a 390 short block.

If the rebuilt part number was C8TZ-6009-GX or 6012-GX .. this would be a 360 short or long block.

Short block does not come with heads or oil pump. Long block comes with both.

btw: Only dealer installed Speed Control was available for 1973/74. The Speed Control switch attaches to the T/S handle.

Factory installed Speed Control was introduced in 1975. Speed Control switch/buttons located on the horn pad.

 

Thank you for the enlightening reply NumberDummy!

I should clarify that the truck definitely came with a 360 per the original window sticker.

When the truck was taken in to diagnose and repair the motor problem in 1987, the original owner asked for a 360 to be installed once he knew it had to be replaced.

He said the dealership called him and said a 390 came instead of a 360 when the replacement block arrived. Original owner told the dealer to go ahead and install the 390 rather than wait for a 360 because he needed to get the truck back on the road quickly. According to what NumberDummy stated it appears it was a new 390 long block, because there is no X at the the of the part number. Looks like a 390 long block was ordered per the paperwork. Seems like good fortune to me.

Cruise control is on the T/S handle as described.

The 390 block was subsequently rebuilt again in early 2002 and only clocked about 10K miles since that time. I also have full documentation for this rebuild, which was actually done at a Chevy dealership that the owner was employed at. It's pretty cool to see the history of the truck through the paperwork that was passed on.

Transmission has never been rebuilt and has 319K miles on it. The front seal is leaking quite a bit so I'll pull the transmission out in the near future.

 

Oh man! When you said 40 something Cougar, I was thinking, like 1969-70 Cougar Eliminator. I'll take mine with a Boss 429 or a 428 SCJ, ram air, drag pak with a toploader 4 speed.

 

The R in the C8TR part number prefix reflects a rebuilt engine. If the engine was new, the part number would have been C8TZ-6012-H

The rebuilt long block was most likely sourced from GPD, as this was the only authorized Ford parts rebuilder.

There were no new 390 engines available in 1987. No 390 crankshafts either, as I bought the last one in 1981.

The parts manager at Keystone Ford at this time was a native of PA which is ironic, as PA is the 'Keystone' state.

His daughter handled the inventory control, called around at local dealers for parts that they needed, and charged out parts on RO's.

 

I've pulled off the camper shell and put the tailgate back on. Here is how it looks now.







I haven't put the back window in yet. The rubber that was on it is cracked quite a bit so maybe I'll get a new seal. I'll probably put it in how it is and see how it does when I wash the truck.

Along the lines of cleaning things out...

Here's what my fuel filter looked like after about 10 miles of trying to drive.



It bogs down on acceleration sometimes and just plain dies quite a bit especially under load going up a hill so I know its starving for fuel. I'm hoping to run things out thru the filters but am thinking I'll have to take out the tank to clean it. Maybe I can get away with just replacing the fuel pump and keeping on top of replacing the fuel filter until it gets less sediment in it?

 

Key word TRYING I'm sure. Not laughing at your pain, just your excellent choice of wording.
Just get the pain over with quickly and drop the tank and clean it. If the tank is full, maybe try the above strategy until it is low enough to be a little more manageable, but it will take forever and a lot of frustration before it will clean itself out. Go for the extra work, but keep your sanity intact. There is NOTHING worse than walking home.

 

This is an aftermarket auto parts store in-line fuel filter, it's not the original fuel filter. None of these trucks came from the factory with an in-line fuel filter.

The original fuel filter was a corrugated paper cartridge type (C4AZ-9365-B / Motorcraft FG-1A) that fit into a canister that threaded onto the fuel pump.

Some people were unaware of this filter, so they installed an inline fuel filter.

When the engine was replaced, the fuel pump may have also been replaced and back then, 1973/76 360/390's were available with two different fuel pumps. One had the cartridge fuel filter, one did not.

If not, the fuel filter threaded into the front of the carb with a short neoprene fuel hose clamped to its nipple, then to the metal fuel line of the fuel pump.

Bogging down, stumbling, hesitating from a dead stop or when accelerating at speed: Defective carburetor accelerator pump and check valve. Common problem with the 1963/74 2100 series 2V carbs.

 

My '77 has that cartridge filter pump, as I'm pretty certain that a PO swapped in a 1969 240 in place of the original 300.
And more irony is that the '68 Cougar I used to have had one of those cartridge filters on its small block. The VIN said "F" for 302, but the sticker on the air filter lid said 289...

 

Carburetor was just rebuilt on Friday so I know I'm good on that front.

I have a new mechanical fuel pump waiting at Napa for me to pick up. https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/CFPB0113P

There is also an electric fuel pump mounted on the frame, so it feeds the mechanical fuel pump.



I actually put my bicycle in the bed of the truck in case I couldn't limp it home during my test driving. The max I went was about 3 miles from home.

I put the inline filter on to see how bad things looked. I've got about 4 gallons of gas to burn thru and then I can remove the tank.

I can easily bypass the electric fuel pump and only run on the new mechanical fuel pump once I clean the tank. That way I wouldn't introduce any crap caught in the electric fuel pump into a fuel system where everything else is new and clean.

 

1968 Passenger Car VIN engine code: C = 289 2V; F = 302 2V; J = 302 4V

302 introduced in the Spring of 1968 (cars), but the 289 was also available.

The corrugated paper cartridge fuel filter was introduced in 1964, installed on almost every I-6 & V8 thru at least 1972.

Also installed on some 1973/79's.

 

i was a little bit disappointment based on the thread title...
cool truck tho!