Just so you know this brings back a lot of memories for me since my first car was a 73 LTD. I am especially fond of chrome bumpers that had taillight built into them. Oh.....cool thread BTW

 

Thanks. That junkyard gets a lot of cars that are too nice for the junkyard. I think they should have separate yards for cars which are more than 30 years old or something.

I added some brake fluid, and hauled a bunch of garbage off of my property, and drove it about 90 miles ...according to its odometer.


Several weeks ago, I changed my speedometer cable's driven gear and gloated about it here. It was originally a tan 19 tooth gear, and I'd swapped in the off-white 18 toother out of my old 5-speed '92 Mustang GT. The one out of my old '82 GT with an SROD 4-speed is that same off-white color and also has 18 teeth, but they are pitched in the opposite direction! They are also chewed up... I ran that car with the SROD and later a T5, but the speedo always seemed to work quite well with no jumping needle or anything.

With the 18 tooth gear in my truck, the speedo seemed to still register slower than I was travelling, so last week I put a wine colored 16 toother (out of a junk-yard '83 F250 with an NP435) in there, and it is 3-4 MPH fast according to my phone's GPS speedo app, which is about right. I downloaded the app after I'd already put the 16 tooth gear in, so I don't know how far off the 18 toother is. I'm tempted to swap it back in to see...

So I'm thinking that either my truck has taller tires than stock, or/and someone swapped a 2.75:1 chunk in place of the original 3.00:1. I'm also starting to think that my 300 is really a 240...

Still gets the job done well though...

 

Got it a little sideways! Then fell asleep before I could post...

I checked the weather before leaving for work, and them biasturds said that the temperature would stay above freezing until 11:00 PM. So I figured I'd haul some more crap with me to the dumpster at work. There was some snow coming down by 6:00 or 7:00. Fortunately it melted right off of the roads and only accumulated on bare land.

I was making a left turn, and the back-end oversteered and swung/snapped out about 45º too far, until I lifted the throttle and countersteered and pushed in the clutch, maybe not in that exact order. I got it under control without stopping and motored on more carefully.
I think it might've been the crown of the intersecting road, which caused a rear tire to unload and start spinning, opening the door for the oversteer. And my truck is not one for spinning its drive tires even in the wet, with its straight six (possibly just a 240 even) and 3.00 or 2.75:1 gearing with 29.1" tires...

 

 

Put on two new wheel cylinders and their lines to the junction block on the axle.
Both of my old cylinders had their rearmost pistons seized in the bore. The line fitting wouldn't come loose from the driver side cylinder, so I broke off the line, so as to be able to finagle the cylinder out without removing any shoes. (I did remove one spring.)
The passenger side fitting was seized to its line, but I had that side all the way apart, and was able to fish the cylinder and line out through the backing plate.
Then I bled them out - after realizing that my O'Reilly wheel cylinders have 10mm bleeders and not 3/8"!

 

Today I tightened up my new rear driver side brake line at the junction block on the axle. It had been leaking a little when under pressure, but it seems dry now. Then I bled the rears.
Yesterday I drove it 210 miles, mostly interstate between Cincinnati, Springfield, and Dayton. It averaged close to 20 MPG, from what I could tell by not keeping very close track. Extended periods of 75-80 MPH too! As long as the terrain refrains from an uphill inclination, my 240, directly driving 2.70-3.00 gears, hangs with today's traffic pretty nicely at speed. That old truck didn't skip a beat, and made me proud!

 

Drove it up to Home Despot and rented me a plumber's snake for the floor drain in my driveway, where a garage used to be. It stopped feeding at about 25 feet and didn't speed up the drain action, so I brought it back, and decided to change my oil.

I made sure the truck wasn't facing downhill this time, and got all of the old oil out.
Unfortunately, my drain plug is right over the crossmember, so I got some oil on my face and in my hair, but whatever... Oil filter is a little messy too, but I'd laid some cardboard under there.

I also realized, as I watched my oil pressure come up, that I hadn't looked at the fuel gauge all day, and that the needle is now below "E." I'll take it to the gas station tomorrow.
I then changed the oil in my Corolla.

 

Hopefully finished up with brake work for a while!

A couple or few weeks ago, I put in new wheel cylinders, which of course ended up including the two metal lines to the axle-vent junction block, and motored on. Well, the other night, I had the pedal go to the floor but lock up the rears, so I picked up a reman master cylinder from O'Reilly's. I put that on yesterday along with new lines to the proportioning/metering valve, but realized that I needed new front pads, so I grabbed some, and put them on today.
Turns out the pads were all at about 45%-50% worn, but the driver side inner had the friction material come apart.
I took it for a test drive, and the brakes feel great! A basic F150 Custom Dent, with the six cylinder engine and probably zero options, has some pretty darn decent brakes - at least unloaded...

And then last week, I had my buddy's '96 E150 here for a couple of days, while I replaced every brake line from the wheel cylinders all the way up to the short metal line coming out of the antilock module.

 

Got my ammeter working!!!!!:
Since I got the truck the needle has been sitting maybe 1/32nd of an inch off Center, toward the Charge side. I thought I saw it barely move before, but it must've been an illusion.
I pulled my cluster out of the dash and pulled the little plastic insulator thing off of the ammeter posts, and connected a 9 volt battery to it like I read about here. The needle swung all the way to Charge. I reversed the polarity and the needle swung all the way to Discharge.
Then I checked the corresponding wires on the dash harness, and found battery voltage on only one of those wires, I was expecting to see 12.30 DC from both of them with the ground probe touching the harness ground behind the speedometer.
So I got out and checked under the hood, and finally found a broken wire under some electrical tape where a yellow wire and a larger black wire pass through a tube-shaped rubber fusible link-looking-thing, near the big flat connector which sends 12V+ to the cab. I reconnected those wires, and got in the cab and and probed the offending harness terminal once again, and found battery voltage.
I then plugged the harness into the cluster and turned the key to Accessory and deployed a turn signal, and was rewarded with the ammeter needle swinging about 1/32nd of an inch toward Discharge and back to Center, in time with the turn signal!
I then pushed in the clutch and started the engine, and that needle swung nearly a quarter inch, all the way to the hash mark halfway between Center and Charge!!!! It then settled back down near Center, after a few seconds.
When I would rev the engine, the needle would swing a good 1/8th" to the right, and then come back to Center when dropping back to idle! Only thing is that the lights all brighten and dim with this cycle too... But I'm still super stoked to have this gauge working. It swings farther than the one in my old '82 Mustang GT did.
After I removed the battery to put it back in my Mustang, I checked the needle, and it was sitting a hair toward Discharge.

Can't wait to monitor the ammeter during normal driving.

 

Finally got my left front fender off. Yesterday I drilled one of the bolts along the top of the inner fender, as the clip-nut thing broke and was stuck on the threads. So today I removed the three bolts on the front edge of the fender, and pulled that sucker off.
Then I got busy drilling on the two broken bolt stubs for my lower driver's door hinge. Got all the way through both, but neither of them spun any. My upper has two broken bolts too, and it's kept me from driving the truck, as I don't trust the hinges with just one bolt.
Once I get those out, I'll remove the whole door, and go after the two broken bolts on the top hinge. The one needs the door removed, but the other is at least partially obscured by the cowl. I'm planning on buying a welder here soon, but still don't want to drill or cut my cowl, just to access that bolt. Although I will feel better about having two out of three bolts securing the hinge, than I do with only one...
I should've grabbed pics, but neglected to bring my phone outside with me...

 

I adjusted my clutch pedal travel. It was releasing just an inch off of the floor, and it would free-travel down to at least an inch below the brake pedal, before the starting to push the PP fingers. So I adjusted it until the bearing hit the fingers maybe a quarter inch below the brake pedal. Sure enough, when I drove it, it felt just about right.

And a bonus shot of my now-working ammeter!

At idle with accessories on:




Revving the engine:



I'll have to get a day-time shot of the needle swinging nearly halfway to full charge after startup!

 

My hinge bushings are worn out and my door started sagging a little more, to the point where I had to lift it to get it closed. I hate that on any vehicle, just hate it! The striker 'pin' wouldn't go any lower, so I figgered I'd simply loosen the bolts at the A-pillar, and raise the door up a little. Well, two bolts broke on the lower hinge, and on the upper hinge, one of those same two bolts broke - and the other was already broken...
Then I spent nearly two weeks messing with getting the fender off. I encountered some stuck bolts along the top of the fender, and found one bolt they'd driven in, which was too large. Here's the one I had to drill out:

This one tore the inner fender:


I started drilling the two lower bolts a few days ago:



And today I drilled them out to 1/4" and tried a little additional wallowing with the drill. I couldn't get the bolt to collapse, so I wallowed them out as best I could, and started with the tap:

I used a 5/16 - 18 tapered tap. It threaded nicely into the door's hinge-backing plate. I also bought some new bolts at the hardware store.



O'Reilly drill bits:





SO now I'm half done, but at the more challenging part, the upper hinge. One bolt is totally covered by the cowl, while the other will still need long drill bits, as the drill itself won't get in there:


What is the best way to go after those upper hinge bolts?

 

I don't have a welder, so I drilled out the lower bolt stub, and tapped it. I'll have to either get a welder, (and learn to use it - a possibility) or figure out something else to get at that top bolt. I figure that like the old song says, two out of three ought to keep the door hanging on there for now.

I also put washers under my hardware-store bolts. I need to get some grade-8s. I used a block of wood on a trolley jack to support the door while I preliminarily 'aligned' it. Then I adjusted the striker as high as it would go, and lifted to door to get it to latch fully. I then hammered lightly on the hinges to get them to move some, and tightened it down.

I loosened the striker and closed the door. I then lifted slightly and opened the door while trying to not move the striker. I tightened it back up and the door closed nicely. It was sticking out too far, so I adjusted the striker inward. That got the door aligned good enough.

I then put the fender back on, and threw a battery in the truck and moved it into the driveway. I might drive it to work tomorrow if it's not too hot out. It's nice to have it ready for mundane daily-driving, rather than being available only for truck-tasks, which have been non-existent lately...

 

Popped some new mirror glass into my type-7s today. Two weeks ago I was going down a narrow street and clipped the passenger side mirror on one of those modern 10-story trash receptacles sitting at the curb.
I went to Autozone and bought a whole new mirror head with the intentions of getting the glass out. Well then I decided I might as well put the new glass on the driver's door. I ended up breaking that one trying to get it out. Then my dumb azz still broke the Autozone mirror trying to get its glass out!

So then I got pissed, and went down to Menard's and got me a glass-cutting tool. I had a mirror from an old projector TV I dismantled and trashed, but I had hung up on disposing of the mirror because of superstitions about breaking it...
Last night I cut that mirror up, and got two passable mirrors for the truck. I had to tighten the crimps on the mirror head in order to hold them in, and I accomplished that with some pliers with a rag in the jaws to avoid marring the mirror metal.
Then I put on some new-to-me 47-year-old wheel covers, and made a huge improvement in the appearance of my truck:



I like the dog dishes too, but a PO had painted them a dark smoke gray, which didn't look quite right. It actually looks Okay on my step bumper though. Plus my white steelies are showing a little rust. That, and the new wheel covers will look better, should I choose to add some factory-style striping.

 

Pulled the trigger on four of these.
Never bought tires online before, but they're supposed to E-mail me when the tires are ready at the store, and I'll bring the truck and have them mount them up - the only time when someone other than me works on one of my vehicles. (I used to even carry my wheels in to have tires mounted, after a bent lug-wrench and forestalled brake job, due to an impact-happy tire tech - around the time my Michelins were new...)

My truck has some nice 235/75/15 Michelin LTZs with 85% tread, but the rubber is all cracked to hell, and the left rear slowly went flat over several days. I halfheartedly looked for a nail, but finally resolved to do what I knew I should've done within a few weeks of buying the truck...
I did check one of the date codes, and they're from 1999! Or possibly even '89!! They didn't tell you which decade back then...

I've put over 5000 miles on them...