Howdy, y'all!

New to this type of rig! I have been in the German performance vehicle scene for a bit (Porsche, Mercedes, BMW), and have been happy, hunky dory with it. But my neighbor who moved a few months ago, abandoned their F250 Custom. As it turns out - they ended up selling it to someone else in the neighborhood, and the "new" owners have done *NOTHING* with it. Left to rot, basically. Well, it finally got one of those "we're going to tow your car" tags the other day, and I told the guy that I'd buy it from him. Ended up buying what appears to be a complete (although non-running) truck for less than the price of a single tire off of one of my other cars. Score!

Anywho, I'm going to probably be posting quite a few "what do I do" or "how do I do XYZ" posts in here. Yes, I know how to use the search function, so I'll make sure to do that first.

Now for the fun stuff:

1981 F250 Custom. Has the 300-i6, some very tasteful patina, and possibly some super low miles (though, I doubt it, with the oil leakage). Either it's got 14,500 miles, or 145,000 miles. Does the white mileage indicator show tenths, or full miles? Anywho, here's a couple snaps before I sign paperwork on it tomorrow.



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Sweet rig. Looking forward to learning about it.

 

WOW thats solid!!! I bet it will look 100% better just with a bath. As for the leaks... If it stops leaking, your out of oil.

 

First welcome FTE.
I am with the wash and I hope you dont run it out of oil
My 300 showed signs of leaking from every gasket so part of the rebuild of the truck, 4 year cab off frame, I replaced all gaskets but the crank seals.
I have had to go back and tighten up bolts as I went with cork gaskets not the rubber, did not know at the time.

We are here to help the best we can but from the looks of it a little cleaning, checking of fluids and a battery it may come to life.
Good luck
Dave ----

 

Taking on a project like this you must remain focused.
start by working things in systems i.e. brake system, cooling system, fuel system, in that order and continue on from there in systems.
Buy GENUINE Ford Service Manuals, the answers to all the question and the solutions are in factory service Manuals.
good luck and enjoy your new truck

 

You should know working on your other cars, that no matter how good you take care of them, time dry rots any rubber that is part of the vehicle. So it could have low mileage and still leak everywhere, all the seals will be hard and dry rotted and all the rubber in the brake system will be hard and the the rubber around the doors and the windows.

The white part on the odometer is tenths of a mile. This truck could have 14,500 miles on it, or 114,500 miles on it or 214,500 miles. Over here where they are used a lot, it is very common for them to turn over the odometer at least once, unless you truly do have a low mileage truck. Only the later model trucks had the extra digit to represent 100,000 miles.

 

Good find, I would try snugging up the bolts around the oil leaking items first. Snug them, don't over tighten them.
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A lot of us use this site for info on these trucks, check out the "documentation" link then down to "electrical" then EVTM.

https://www.garysgaragemahal.com/

 

I can see to stay focused but the order I would change as there is no reason to do all that you listed if the motor dose not run.
I would do just enough to get the motor running, make sure it turns over by hand first, and when you got it running you can go from there.
If it runs like crap then figure why and what it will take to fix. Again no need to do all the rest if it will take year(s) to fix the motor.
If it runs good, you are running off a gas can at this point and you most likely know if it has a brake pedal or not? I would see if it moves just a little forward & back.
If it dose not move and the ATF is up to level then you have to deal with the transmission and maybe another year(s).
Do you want a new gas tank turning to rut inside and brake system going to he11 again from sitting?

If it runs good and moves a little then I would look over the brake system so you can take it for a quick spin, remember you are still on the gas can sitting on the inner fender well.
If it now runs good, stops good and shifts then a fuel system rebuild just like the brake system and you should be ready to go for a good spin and Ice Cream

When I bought my truck, 81 F100, it ran like crap had a miss.
After a compression check and new plugs it ran great so I did a 4 year cab off frame rebuild. It ran off a gas can for moving as I did not want the gas going bad as I was working on the truck.
Oh I had 1 new rear brake wheel cly leak and I had not even moved the truck and they were name brand parts! So yes new parts can be bad out of the box.
Dave ----

 

"German performance vehicle scene ", welcome to the site, if you can work on german like i did for 55 years, "Audi/ Porsche/VW" . your ford is going to be a cake walk, good .luck

 

^ 100%. these are basic vehicles by those standards. Good luck and just do whatever was done to the drivers mirror to the rest of the truck. it will look like new. LOL.

 

It would appear my vehicle is "upgraded" from basic; with extra wiring, and do-dads all over the place! Ha!

Though, I fear there are some more pressing issues to take care of. I could be wildly wrong, but I think my timing may have jumped; or I'm not reading the timing marks correctly.

At TDC (on cylinder 1), the timing mark is nowhere to be found. When I rotate the crankshaft to get the mark where it's visible and next to the timing bracket, the piston seems to be halfway down. Am I missing something here?

Moving forward from that, I like to think I'm fairly handy with a wrench, but I have no idea what this is, connected to my throttle (in the engine bay) Any ideas? It seems super janky, and not original.

I've also got a beaded chain connected to the arm on the brake pedal in the cab. It connects to a small device clamped to the arm itself, and appears to also have a vacuum hose attached to it. Maybe all this is normal - I just have no idea.

 

That looks to be an aftermarket speed control system. The factory version has the control buttons on the steering wheel, but you appear to have the plain version. Any odd switches in the cab?

 

Definitely a few odd switches in the cab. The speed control is hose-clamped to the turn signal stalk. Knew something wasn't quite right about that. lolol

There's another couple weird buttons and wires that I'm going to have to trace to find out as well.

 

Up in post #7 I gave you a link to Gary's site, you can find a lot of info there, as we all do. But keep us updated and ask here before you buy something for the truck.

 

Yep aftermarket or dealer installed speed control if the controls are on the turn signal stalk.

As for timing the 300 uses gears not a chain and it is not common for them to jump or even strip and if they do strip there is more badness going on than just the gears going bad.
So #1 is the vary front plug on the engine. I would pull the plug and turn it over by hand feeling for #1 to come up to TDC, dose not have to be on compression stroke, and give a look for the mark.
Some have said it can be hard to see the notch on the balancer so you may want to take sandpaper to it all the way around looking for the notch.

Now I dont think the 300 has the same issues as the v8's where they used different pointers over the years and they may not line up with the notch but again that was v8's.
Been a bit since I checked the timing on my truck, once set there should not be a reason to check it again in my book. But I dont remember any problems seeing the marks.
Dave ----