Boy, you never know what you can find when digging into a truck project that someone else began.....

First, while checking out the flex coupler to see if I could figure out how to replace it, it finally occured to me that the steering column didn't quite line up with the shaft coming out of the steering box. As you can imagine this felt about as good as getting hit with a medicine ball. I stepped back and took a look down each side, and sure enough the bed/cab don't line up. Supposedly it was in a driveway at the time and someone went through a tree before finally nailing the passenger fender. I think when the truck was hit on the front passenger, the cab must have shifted. The back of the cab looks like it is sitting too far to the right. That would explain I think why the column is sitting too far toward the back of the motor. It is about a quarter to a half inch off. Is that hard to correct? I was thinking of taking it to a body shop to see if I could have the cab shifted back into place and have new bushings or whatever the cab sits on installed in the process.

Next, I had the fortune to know who the owner previous to the last owner is. The last owner just let it sit and gather dust. The previous had actually done something and supposedly the front end (suspension and whatnot) is out of a '71. Good thing to know as the kingpins apparently are bad and the front tires are wearing on the insides. I have never messed with a front end that didn't have upper and lower A frames. Can anyone give me insight into how to approach this?

Lastly, there is some alluding to "something being done to the rear end by his son" as the message came to me through my wife. I am hoping to find out what that was and that it does not bode badly.

Anyway, I know I tend to type a lot in these posts, but I appreciate all the help my fellow Ford owners have given me, and I beg patience as this is going to be a looooong project.

 

Well my answers aren't quite the extrapolation as the question but...

You should be able to crawl under the truck and check out the cab mounting areas. Perhaps a hole was widened or the rubber has degraded causing the cab to shift. The rubber disks can be purchased and replaced. As far as the 71 front end, they are the same from 65 to 79, so just buy 71 parts and your set. Does it have disc brakes? As far as the front end, I would just replace everything that can wear. The kingpins are said to be best tackled on a press off the truck, but I would give it a shot anyway. Mine also needs all the rubber replaced on the suspension components, but it's not a daily driver yet.....

Hopefully the rear has just had a gear change or a posi installed

--Mike

 

Thanks for the info on the cab and the kingpins. I haven't actually looked at the brakes closely yet, but I will see. I don't remember anything that would have made me think it had disks up front, but you can never tell.


As far as that rear end, where is a good site to look up the numbers on it? I'd like to see if it is an original or if I can tell anything about it by what the numbers show it *should* be.

 

Refresh my memory on your truck. Generally there is axle info posted on the driver door "VIN tag". There should also be a little metal tag bolted on the axle cover too. If it is round and smooth on the back, it's probably a Ford 9". Other than that, it could be a Dana 44 or Dana 60. I will dig around for axle ID help in the meantime.

--Mike

 

Right on. Tomorrow I'll look at the tag info and see what it tells me. It is a '67 F100 with a '71 front end and "some" modification to the rear end. 2 wheel drive, 300ci, 4 speed.

 

Nothing fancy under the hood there. I'm guessing you will find the Ford 9" out back and teh door tag probably sayes it runs 3:25 gears. Perhaps the gears were just changed out for some additional power/towing ability.

--Mike