Hello everyone, sorry if this shouldn't be here, I saw the intro forum on the main site, but I didn't really think owners of an expedition or 2015 F-250 would care much about an owner of a 1986 Bully, so I thought I'd put my intro here.

I recently returned from 3 years overseas (I am a U. S. Marine, been in for 18 years) and my first purchase upon returning to U.S. soil was a beat up 1986 F-150 4x4 302 V8 with a C6. I have already uploaded a few photos to my album, and I've already done a lot of work prior to taking those photos.

The truck, named Delilah, has 159,000 miles on her. Since purchasing, I have replaced the shocks (adjustable load bearing), leaf springs, fuel pump, frame mounts, bumper mounts, entire muffler/tailpipe assembly, radius arm bushings, sway bar link pins, rear drum brakes (God bless America that was an irritating job), and entire parking brake assembly. I have a long list of future upgrades and projects lined up as well to get her more "restored". Frame is in good shape, especially considering this truck originated in Michigan and was then moved to upstate NY for most of its life.

One question. Has anyone replaced their steering wheel with the after market "Forever Sharp" wheel offered on LMC Trucks? Do I need the installation kit / adapter? The wheel on this truck is ridiculous (I couldn't attach, so there's a pic in my album). If there's a thread on such a steering wheel swap, with photos, that would be fantastic...a link to a good video even better.

I'm no mechanic, and all the work I've done so far on this truck has been accomplished by watching a lot of videos, doing a lot of research, and determination and grit to get better and fixing and tinkering with my new hobby. I'm always trying to get better at this, and may ask a lot of questions around here. Please be patient with me if I ever sound like an idiot, because frankly when it comes to this type of work I'm quite the novice. I'm a quick learner though, I like to think.

Thanks for reading if you made it this far.

 

Welcome to FTE, and thank you for your service!

Nice looking truck, what are those future plans?

 

Thanks.


Future plans include replacing all the drive shaft U-Joints (they're in poor shape, and there's a good amount of grinding/extra-curricular noise coming from there), getting a 2" leveling spring kit to even the truck up a bit after my shock and leaf spring upgrade rose the back end about 3 1/2", some interior work (carpet, stereo system upgrade, etc), and replacing the rear wheel well / flares that are pretty rusted out (the black paint hides that a little, but it's there).


It'll probably always be a "work in progress" but I love the truck and I'm looking forward to driving it for a long time.

 

Well, you're certainly getting a lot of mechanic things done for a guy that isn't a mechanic. Do you know how many people cannot do what you're doing? A tip of the hat to you for having the grit to get it done.

I'm new here as well. I picked up an '84 a couple months ago that is in need of rehab. Nobody has given me grief for dumb questions yet.

Good bunch I'd say.

Welcome aboard. Rem.

 

Thanks, Rem. I do appreciate the words, as some days I feel like quite the fool when I'm "under there" tinkering around. Other days I feel like a master mechanic (on the rare occasion when a job goes well and smooth with no setbacks).


Yesterday I set out to tackle my U-joint issue on the drive shafts (fwd and rear/main). I did the main first, using MOOG joints I had picked up from the local parts dealer. That part actually went really well, but I believe the job was made easier for me because I went to the local auto hobby shop on base, where they have bearing presses and quality vices available to use free of charge. VERY handy. You pay for the bay, of course, but that fee is only $6.


So anyway, the main shaft joints all pressed out real well, and the new ones pressed in pretty smooth (a couple presses were a little bit of a pain, but so it goes when pressing bearings). The old ones -- YUCK. Complete trash, and very glad I did it. I do have pictures, I'll get them posted soon. Old ones pretty much were disintegrated. Then I moved on to the front shaft joints. This is where I made a rookie mistake or two that cost me dearly. I didn't properly inspect and file down a couple burrs, and I was beginning to get pressed (pun - ha!) for time and started rushing through the process. This was a bad mistake because this forward shaft and joints were in pretty rough shape, so I actually should have been going slower and being MORE methodical; but again, I was already 4 hours into the job and had other things I wanted to get to. Anyway, the first bearing broke upon pressing because of the burrs. After I filed everything down real well and cleared the space, I broke the next bearing just from pressing to hard/fast and being an idiot. So I said the hell with it for the day, threw the shaft in the back (not literally) because I don't need it to drive right now anyway, 4x4 isn't a daily requirement for me. I'll get the new joints for that and approach it with more patience and intelligence when I have some more time this weekend.

 

How is your engine running ?

 

You created an album and inserted pictures, you should be able to do it here, too.

Click the mountain-n-sun icon in the editor window to insert them into posts, you can drag-n-drop or navigate to where they're stored.

FTE has a Testing forum where you can go play around with this stuff:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/forum98/

 

The 302 is strong. No problems with it whatsoever. It has 160K miles, but it doesn't seem in any way to be letting up.


In other news, the transfer case went on me a couple days ago, so I'm dealing with that.