Growth mindset of an optimist.
So, I’ve been slowly restoring this beautiful truck Over the past two months. It is an insane garage find. Farm truck sitting under an oak tree for 31 years straight. Actually bought it because the original miles are 58,798. Well, now 60,000-ish.
Long story short, I’ve replaced damn near everything from the gas fuel delivery system, brake system, carb rebuild, heater core, etc.
You can imagine, anything plastic is worthless. From the body mounts to the vacuum lines to every single damn gasket. Just finished rewiring and rewrapping all the engine compartment wires. Have the body mounts sitting in the garage along with tie-rod, suspension bushings. Replaced the shocks last Monday.
Today, I replaced the intake/exhaust gasket. Um, that sucks with only one person doing it. Damn flange bolts had to be broken off. Ordering the kit to fix that tonight. Problem is:
now I am getting zero fuel delivery to carb. I unplug fuel line to carb to test mechanical pump- squirt squirt. Plug it back in, nothing. I think I have vacuum lines mixed up/fouled/wrong plugs, etc.
I did find some old pictures from a post from 2012. Definitely going to help, hopefully.
Looking for advice as to how to approach this.
I desperately need new vacuum lines. They’re snapping off left and right. Where do I find hard vacuum lines? Or should I use soft lines?

And lastly, this is the biggy:
I’m rebuilding the C6 tranny over Christmas break. I’m buying the kit in a couple of weeks, but I’ll be damned if I know anything about upgrading. I want to be able to have this truck pull a 22ft boat or an rv. I have one recommendation for a rebuild setup, but my God is it expensive!!! Not that I want to cut corners at all, but does anyone have recommendations for how they’ve rebuilt their tranny and where they bought their stuff for?
Long post and I appreciate your time. I’m not a new mechanic per-se. I actually taught AutoTech, but transmissions and vacuums have never been my strong point!
The pictures are when I first bought it. I redid the upholstery using heavy-thick Mexican horse blankets that I bought online from New Mexico. I have always loved that look. I had to completely rebuild the seat springs/wiring and everything. If you plan on doing the same thing, hit me up. I can explain exactly how I did it.
My daughter was yelling, "Going to Mexico Boys". She's now grounded until she's 16.
I'm super stoked with this truck. My grandfather had one very similar, but red and a Ranger. I'm wee-bit larger and like my trucks larger. I love this F-250 and always have held faith in a straight-6. Unfortunately, this is my first Ford truck to work on personally and I'm stoked, albeit, a bit beleaguered after having to work on it every single day for failing parts.
I'd really appreciate the advice on what to look for when not expecting. Fourth day of owning it, the heater core blew. Rusted completely into pieces. That was on the 4th day!

 

That's awesome lol!

I convinced my wife to let me buy a cheap old truck telling her that they are easier to work on.

Like you...all I've been doing.is working on it lol. Rebuilt motor, new clutch etc...untill I hopefully have the complete drivetrain refurbished.

Keep on wrenching!

 

Welcome to FTE.
Only 2 months working on it, come Dec I will have 4 years but I have done a cab off frame rebuild.
I did not need to rebuild the motor (new gaskets), trany (T18), or rear end but have rebuilt everything else.
From this

to this to replace floors, rockers, rear doors posts, cab corners & firewall for AC

last weekend

Cant help on the C6 I would pull the trany and give it to a shop to have at it and then put back in.
Dave ----

 

Since you are a mechanic, you already know about the ethanol fuel and what it looks like when it sits for a long time in a carburetor. That is probably why you are not getting fuel. I am sure the carb needs a kit in it. If you want to try and get it running before you take the carb apart, hook the fuel line up, and crank it over a few times to build some pressure in the fuel line to the carb, and then take the plastic handle of a screwdriver and rap a couple of times on top of the carb. The float needle is most likely glued in place from the ethanol fuel, and you need to break it loose to let the carb fill up.

I have never done much research on the c6 trans. I have had a couple of them though. They are tough trannies, all I ever did was put a large aux trans cooler on them and they never gave up. Their only drawback is they are gas hogs. You may not find many upgrades for the c6, since it's such a good trans. I would not be surprised if you pulled the pan and changed the filter on your trans, turned the torque so the drain is down and drained it, and refilled with new trans fluid, that it would give you many years of good service.

I had a truck like yours, nothing on it I didn't have to eventually go through except the c6 trans. I never did anything except change the fluid and filter.

 

First thing I did was rebuild the Carburetor from ground up. They're really not that difficult, just patience. Carb is now tuned to specs, but what thing I've never been a hot shot on, vacuums. I went through some seriously old posts here and found some stock photos of vacuum lines hooked up correctly. Going to rewire those right now.

 

No matter how the vacuum lines are hooked up, you should still get a squirt of fuel into the carb throat when you push back the throttle by hand. That is a good verification test to see if you have fuel in the carb.