When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Received the clevis repair grommets this evening and installed them. It went pretty good. First I trimmed the bushing a little to protrude maybe 1/8 inch and then used a peening rod and my press to get the bushing to peen over. I pressed until I could feel the rubber grommet tighten up in the clevis. I then peened over the edges with a brass punch and then used a socket to make sure the peened surface was flat. I only ended up with 1 stress crack so I think I did ok. The shifter is assembled and ready to go on the box. We should be able to do some major assembly this weekend.
Today we had a good day, several solid hours. I couldn’t resist addressing the pedals, so we took out the pedal assembly and pressed in new bushings. Got the rebuilt pedal assembly installed, the steering box in, the engine set, and some of the pedal linkage. Will continue tomorrow.
Got the head torqued down and the carb on this afternoon. Used permatex aviation on the head bolt threads and copper coat on the head gasket. Went three rounds on the torque sequence. First 25#, then 45#, and ended up at 60#. We can now touch up the block and continue on with engine add-ons.
The engine is all buttoned up, belt on, and carb primed. Turning it over with no plugs, probably 30-35 lbs to turn it, and the starter turns it over fine. Put the plugs in and it’s really tight, probably 60-70 lbs to turn it and the starter really struggles.
Not sure if we have a starter issue or not. It’s a newly rebuilt starter. It’s no help on the starter to attach heavy duty jumper cables to the mounting bolts back to the ground. Going to need to troubleshoot that.
Not unusual, after even a minute's running it will be noticeably looser.
Thanks Ross that is comforting. It worries me that maybe I do not have a brush spring seated well or that maybe I have some oxidation on the armature I should polish. It’s a NOS armature that I just popped in without polishing it. The starter is really tough to pull with the draft tube so I would rather address any issues now since the fenders are off.
I think if I can get it to fire it’s going to run like a mule. It really has good compression even with the plugs barely threaded.
I took a look at the starter tonight and did a little more restoration work. I polished the communicator and sanding the brushes to true them to the communicator. I had a lot of oxidation and think that maybe that was causing a weak start. Glad I took it out to check it, I had forgotten to bend over the metal tang on the spring bolt.
Installed the starter this morning, and everything is good. It turns over well with the plugs in now. We buttoned up the draft tube, installed the radiator/shroud, and the passenger side fender. Installed the drag link with new internals and installed the horn wire.
Our battery box was ok, but had some homemade components so I have a correct one on the way. One more good day and I think we can button it up and fire it off.
Dad and I spent this afternoon reassembling the front clip, that went pretty well. We were able to add coolant and fire the engine off for the first time. It started pretty easily but ran a little rough. We set the timing and idle mix and it runs like a sewing machine.
oil pressure cold is 52 and the vacuum was in the excellent area. Need to work on the vacuum line and tidy that up a little better, but other than that runs great. Clutch engages smoothly, etc. Will try to get the hood on one evening this week.
Dad and I definitely made some mechanical improvements on our 50 F1 farm truck. Engine is a top notch rebuilt unit, steering box is rebuilt, and the transmission is basically new. When we were taking it apart, I realized it’s actually in pretty good shape and a good candidate for a full restoration. I think in the summer we are going to take it back apart and do a full restoration on it. The big debate dad and I have toyed with is what color do we paint it. It was originally black, but boy do I love red. I just think red will set off the running boards and grill better than black. Going to continue to debate that for a few more months.
