Hey Guys,

I just wanted to share some progress of a project I started working on a couple weeks ago, and hopefully get some info/suggestions to help me out.


The truck is a 1966 Ford N600 that was originally owned by Scraper Sales Co. in Otwell, IN according to the OE manual found in the glove compartment. After doing some digging into this company and reading through some archive online documents, this turned out to be a car sales lot. This leads me to believe the original purchase intentions were to utilize the truck as a car hauler. Since then, the truck was purchased to be used as a farm truck according to more documentation and scale sheets found in the glove compartment. It was later sold at auction to a friend of a friend and I purchased it shortly after for $500 (Roughly a year ago). Due to the current virus pandemic I was finally given the free time to get the truck running and out to the highway to be towed to my property and finally start digging into the project.

My goal for the truck is a unique car hauler for our families corvettes/camaros. To help add some cool factor, reliability, and modernization I purchased this 1999 F-250 7.3 Powerstroke with a bad auto trans for $1200 as a donor.


Phase one of this build is getting the truck moving under its own power with the 7.3 from my donor truck. While doing this I also want to give the body some love from its life as a farm truck, since the bay will be wide open.

So we started with pulling the old engine/trans. Up until this point I had assumed I would need to rebuild the A4 trans in the Powerstroke, but once I had access to the removed engine/trans I was finally able to clean them up enough for identification. This has proven to be one of the more difficult tasks with this truck, identifying the model/options. It appears at some point the doors may have been replaced, and the OEM tag is nowhere to be found that specifies the Engine/Tans/Axle info.

It appears to me the truck had a FT 391 after removing the head and measuring the cylinders/stroke. One question I had was what someone would think this is worth if anything?

The trans appears to be a NP 435, and after some digging found out this should bolt to the 7.3 with a T19 bellhousing. I would like to do some calculations on gear ratio's and cruising speeds/rpms, however I'm having a difficult time identifying the rear axle. I know from the pictures below it's clearly an Eaton and 2-speed, but none of the numbers shown were able to give me info on possible models or gear ratios. Does anyone have any idea what this rear end is?


This is all I have for now, I had my tank refilled this last week for the welder and plan to take a few before/after pictures of the body while I get some info and determine best path forward for the trans. One final questions I have is regarding the wheels, does anyone have any specs on the stock wheel that appear to be bolted together? I've only heard of, but never seen the "Widow Maker" wheel style from some old timers, are these them? If so, does anyone have any suggestions moving forward that are a good bang for the buck and accept a common tire size? I was thinking maybe some bus tires as a thought.



Thanks for reading, and any help is much appreciated! I'll be sure to get some work done this week and provide some more pictures for those who are interested.

 

Those are Dayton wheels. Not widow makers. I can't see them clearly on my phone what size tires are on there?

If they are tube type, you can change to tubeless with just different rims and tires that bolt to the spoked center section.

As for ratios, the NP435 will have a low first and a 1:1 high gear. Other ratios may vary, two shown for Ford issued transmissions here, there may be a 3rd variation in mediums vs. pickups:
https://www.novak-adapt.com/knowledg.../manual/np435/

For your two speed, the ratio may be on top of the carrier, as shown in the Eaton PDF you will find first up if you search "Eaton 2 speed ratio".
.
IF, repeat IF it is 5.83 in high range and your tires are 10,00x20 (which is roughly 40" in diameter) then you can expect a 60 MPH cruise RPM of about 2938 RPM. With a 330, these hit a wall around 55 to 60, maybe a smidge more. A little higher with the 391 but you risk collapsing the fuel tank.
Those revs are too high for comfortable running of a 7.3 diesel.

 

The original engine was the 330 2V Medium Duty FT engine (VIN engine code C). If it had a 391 4V FT, it would have been swapped in at a later date

 

Thanks for the reply! They appear to be 9.00-R20, and after you were able to help me out with calling them out as Daytons I was able to dig up plenty of info regarding the 22" swap with modern tires, so thanks a ton for that!

Also, the PDF you mentioned should help me ID that rear axle today so I'll get working on that and start looking at my best bang for the buck for alternative trans/tire/rear end combos to get that cruise rpm down to 2000 revs. Thanks again for the help, this is why I wanted to post and reach out and help find problems before they start haha!

 

Hey Number Dummy! I've actually been seeing a lot of your posts over the past few months while doing research for this project, so firstly thanks for your active information sharing it's already helped me a ton haha. I also read one of your posts designating the "C" as a 330 and the current engine coincides with being swapped as it has a re manufactured plate with the numbers "730616". However, I may be wrong on my 391 assumption if by 4V you mean 4 valves per cylinder, because it was definitely a 2V withe the cylinder head numbers being C8AEH. Thanks again for the help!

 

If the rear wheels will turn, and you can get the axle in the high range, here is a simple way to get really close on the gear ratio on any axle that is not limited-slip.

Jack up one side of the rear axle while the other tire is still on the ground. Make a mark on the driveshaft at the rear u-joint, or somewhere you can match it up with anything close that doesn't rotate. Also mark the tire facing straight down to the ground. Have someone turn the tire/wheel two complete rounds while you count how many rounds the driveshaft turns.

For example, if the mark goes by 5 times, and stops past 3/4 of a turn past the 5th turn, but not 6, and you know your type vehicle used a 5:81, that's most likely what you have. After a little practice you can get right on the money doing this.

Most of the bigger trucks were made to use around town, on the farm, or on two lane roads, so they didn't have road gears, and if they did, the engines didn't have the power to pull high gears.

 

If it has C8AE-H cyl heads, it is a 330MD. 2V is a two venturi/barrel carb (2bbl) while 4v is a four venturi/barrel carb.(4bbl)

 

C8AE-H heads were also used on 1968/71: Galaxie/LTD 390 & F100/350 360/390.

All 1964/78 391 FT engines came w/a 4 barrel (4V) carb.

 

That wheel is a spoke 3PC SPLIT RIM - TUBE TYPE

 

The three piece rim was originally called the Firestone R-5°. It is still in production today by Accuride for use on the demountable (Dayton) 22” size, and is now called the 5° Radial Commander. There is no reason they can’t be kept in service if you want to save them. Stu

 

5° Radial Commander.

Has quite a ring to it. I can hear little kids saying "Daddy, when I grow up, I wanna be a Five degree Radial Commander".

9.00R x 20 tires seem to be an oddball at this point. "Off brand" and ebay sellers. Hhhhmmm.

 

Feel like we need to ‘splain that the 22” I mentioned is a different animal than the 22.5” you mentioned. The 22.5” tubeless is the size equal of a 20” tube type. The 22” tube type is the size equal of a 24.5” tubeless. So, if the member doesn’t want to keep the stock rims the 22.5” tubeless variety will mount cleanly on his cast spoke Daytons. Stu

 

Put the engine in before tires. That way you can check the rpm at say 45 mph. I wouldn't want to go any faster on the old tires.

You most likely will need to go to 10.00R/20 if you keep your rims, or 11R/22.5 if going tubeless. The R is for radial. You can still get bias ply tires, but your butt will appreciate the radial.

 

DAYTON is the name of a wheel manufacturer -

 

Dayton is like tissue paper., All tissue paper is Kleenex, just as all spoke wheels are Dayton.