I wouldn't try to change the wiring on the road; too many things can go wrong. Since you don't know for sure that the problem isn't the regulator, I'd replace them both.

I drove my '76 F-250 with a 460 and no working gauges from central Texas to about 120 miles into Virginia before I finally threw in the towel and rented a u-haul to bring it the rest of the way home on a tow dolly to southern Maryland. It broke down twice before and I was able to get it running and back on the road. The last problem turned out to just be a clogged fuel filter, but I was wore out and just wanted to get home by that point. That was adventure!

 

Thanks for the help y’all. I replaced the alternator, voltage reg, and fan belt this morning. Threw some gasket sealant stuff around where the oil was leaking out of, so we’ll see what that does. I’ve got a jug in the back just in case.

 

Ima go ahead and say it- whatever else happens- those pictures were worth it!! Absolutely beautiful!! I'm seriously jealous and rooting for you to have fun.

 

Best of luck and keep on truckin!! In June of 2015 I sold Woody, my 79 F250 4x4, 300 I6, NP435, 4.10's w/33's to my BIL in KS. We were discussing shipping, and I just told him I would drive it out, and be there in time for my Granpa's 100th B-day. I told him that if I can't get in any of my trucks and drive anywhere I want to then I need to rethink my maintenance on them. Sure, things like alternators go out, wheel bearings (my fault for not checking them prior to driving my 66 to Camp Lejeune in 87) but the drive, the just toodlin down the road in an old truck is worth every penny spent, blood, sweat and tears and cussing
I made the 1800 mile trip, avg. 18 mpg and zero issues that time, got thumbs up and questions at every gas station, honks and smiles for miles on the road, wouldn't have done it any other way. As a side note, my Granpa retired from Ford, so it's in my blood. He, my BIL was jealous and amazed Woody made the trip with nary an issue, you do learn and adjust to just goin 55-65 and sloooowin down life for a bit.
Hope the rest of your trip is smooth sailing.
Not to hijack, but some pics from road-trippin to encourage you


Day one

somewhere KS


Happy nieces and nephews with their "new" Woody

He was my workhorse for years, hunting, wheeling, woodcutting and more.

 

Thanks for the pictures pickupman! Those are neat to see.

Naturally the one tool I didn’t bring is my torque wrench. After enough bumping around I grabbed what I did have and went and put as much weight as I could on the radius arm nuts. They moved a bit, so hopefully that’ll help. Checked the wheels and it looks like 3 of my wheels are missing the weights. No wonder it doesn’t like going fast.

pulled up to a rest stop and as I was turning the motor off there was a bang. Old man nearby laughed, said something about it blowing up, or not blowing up, I’m not quite sure, and then mentioned it needs to be timed. Not sure what to make of that. Hoping I’ll be fine for the rest of the trip, and if need be I can take it to a shop when I arrive at my destination to get it timed. Thoughts?

btw, I’m almost out of Kansas finally. About to hit topeka.

 

Not to be the Harbinger Of Doom™ or anything like that, but you do have a full size fire extinguisher with you, right?

 

Definitely get tires re-balanced, that's one of my pet peeves, was it a bang, like metal bang, or a bang from under the hood like a backfire? The 240/300's are my favorite engines ever, simple and durable, probably see if you could borrow a timing light, see where she's at, never hurts to do cap/rotor/points if you haven't done them recently also, if you don't have feeler gauge, a match works in a pinch.
My folks are in Harrisonville, MO, sister in Spring Hill, KS, cousins in Olathe. Plenty of good folks out there to help you out, small town old school garage places would be your best bet for help, and most farmers too I miss the mid-west.
Good luck and keep us posted on your progress!

 

Ah no.. I don’t have a fire extinguisher.

Felt like a backfire, just startled me real good because it was right as I turned the motor off. I’ve never dealt with timing before, so this’ll be new to me. Is it dire, like I’m going to blow my truck up as tedster is suggesting? Or will I be fine and it’ll just run rough until I get it fixed?

 

Timing being way out is bad for an engine. Get it checked including advance at higher RPMs. Some timing guns have that option.

 

Sounds good. I’ll get it checked out in the morning. Planning on stopping near a tire shop to get them rebalanced then I’ll find a place to check the timing. I’ll probably replace the cap and rotor as well. Cap is a little worn

 

I'm just pointing out it's a good plan to have a fire extinguisher with you out on the road, on a cross country trip, not that you'll necessarily need it. Most commercial vehicles, and the .mil, trucks etc, they require this, along with warning triangles in case of breakdown, and a first aid kit.

In many cases once a fire gets going "good", it's too late, though not always. I think you'll find many here FTE forums with older or collectable trucks carry an extinguisher, partially no doubt because of some of the photographs of numerous burned out hulks they saw posted here over the years. That's what spurred me to get one.

A pretty good sized ABC extinguisher, not one of those cute little keychain jobbies. Even just a few leaves & twigs accumulated over the years in the heater blower box (for example) is enough to completely total a truck and has done this many times. There is a wire wound nichrome voltage dropping resistor exposed to air flow in there, for cooling, it gets red hot in operation. Then, there's typically old rotted from the inside rubber fuel line hose in these trucks, the el-cheapo imported fuel pumps, grease soaked engines ... Jus Sayin'.

More paranoia for you: When was the last time the front wheel bearings were inspected and repacked with fresh grease? Brake fluid? I drove my '64 cross country several times without particularly paying attention on too much of that stuff. Never had a problem but it was a close run a few times. Good old trucks! Be careful. You'll look back on it as fun, maybe not now, so much.

 

Subscribed. Good luck and keep the pics coming.

 

I do appreciate it tedster. I’ll have to pick up an extinguisher to keep with me. I’ve got one with my welding kit, just didn’t think to bring it for the truck.

I actually did the wheel bearings before I left, so those are good. But good point about the tubes and whatnot rotting. Lots of things to look at and be careful with.

Since my speedo doesn’t work, I’ve got an app on my phone that I use to keep up with that, and it just so happens to have an odometer on it. I realized that since I bought the truck and before this trip, I only put around 600 miles on it over the course of several months. Now here I am putting several thousand in a single month. Just a little fun fact that I thought was interesting.

 

I made a series of trips, basically around the block a few times before setting out on longer trips in state. Then I figured, it was ready for prime time.

Another thing to beware of in this particular flavor of Ford Truck is the hood latch and safety catch. They tend to get pranged and out of adjustment. If the latch releases for any reason, and the safety catch doesn't, you will not like it! Ask me how I know. At highway speeds or windy conditions the hood will be scrap, likely broken windshield etc.

 

Sounds like a cool trip! I do not know much about your truck but is it the 300 6 with a manual? What gear ratio? If its the 300 six they do not like high RPM for long periods of time. Decent engine if rpm's kept down throughout its life.
I will be following along.

Wife and I have been planning for a few years or thinking about it that we wanted to take one of my 1966 trucks on a Lower 48 State trip all in one shot which will be minimum of 9000 miles. The plan is to go later this year so I better get busy having one of my 8 '66 trucks actually running!

I keep changing which truck I will use but now big projects seem to drag on and on so only one possible is my '66 short bed. Goal is to be able to go a minimum of 900 miles per fill up but will most likely not need more than 500 its just nice to have extra distance. I too am worried about any breakdowns but doing what I can to rectify that.
For a bit of a test in 2017 we put 11,000 miles in just a few months on my other '66 as it was supposed to be the one for Lower 48 (non original drivetrain) but ended up selling it. No paint on it as was bare metal.
I really wanted to take my F100 Ranger with 352 and 3 spd overdrive as it gets 22 mpg. In the process I pulled engine to fix oil leaks and it snowballed into full restoration! Then it was my 1966 F250 Ranger I was preparing for trip but started other '66 projects and never finished it. So now my '66 short bed is my only hope for this fall.