Greetings from Les Bryant in Brisbane, the capital City of the State of Queensland, Australia

It is great to be with you as a new member of the Ford Truck Forum.

I have had a hankering for an F Series over many years and finally bought one about 12 months ago, an F100 1 ton 4X4 with a 351 Cleveland and auto.

It is in very good condition for its age.

It runs on dual fuel. petrol and LPG. I have recently renewed the gas with 2X75 litre tanks, new lines, wiring, solanoid cut outs, evaporator, carb top and dust filter.

It has a 75 litre petrol belly tank and I am intending to install a 100 litre rear under auxilliary petrol tank shortly.

As I do a fair amount of long highway and outback driving one has to take sufficient fuel to go out and back in remote areas of OZ. The rule of thumb for all in remote regions in OZ is the same amount of water as fuel in case you get into trouble, as well as a GPS and CB. Hand held mobile phones do not work hundreds of miles from nowhere. No servos on every corner out there.

The transfer case leaks around the case joints and I intend to split it over the Xmas break. Any tips on this job or unforseen difficulties I should know about to do that job successfully.

Is there normally a gasket? as there does not appear to be one there now and what type of sealer should I use? Just ordinary oil resistant silicone?

The brakes are not the best. It has discs up front and drums on the rear. The hand brake hardly holds at all.

As I tow a caravan or a heavy off road camper trailer, as well as camping gear, additonal fuel, gas bottles and ample water, it is quite heavily loaded all up, good brakes are essential.

I was considering replacing the rear drums with discs with a hand brake component on the rear. Any suggestions or options for that job?

Any help would be welcome.

Les Bryant, Brisbane, Australia

 

Wow, a cleveland in a 4x4 truck would be something neat to take a ride in, I cant imagine it would be a good work motor, but it would sure be a fun High revving mud flinger....... Welcome to FTE

 

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Once again...Welcome to the FTE Family

 

Welcome to FTE! I would image most 4x4's in Austrailia would be Toyotas, Range Rovers, or Jeeps. Are their many Fords down under?

I have the same brake question that you do. I am also interested in going to all disk brakes. I was told by the clerk at Advance Auto (the most helpful that I have found), that is possible to order a rear disk conversion kit.

I have not found one yet, but I will look.

 

I am doing one of these disc brake conversions on a friend's mustang right now and while searching, found that it is a popular thing to do on ford trucks as well. It seems that many of the truck guys like to just swap the whole axle with an old Versaille or Lincolns which had disc brakes and a 9" rear end. Just something to keep in mind. I also found a website that sells parts for the rear end since regular auto parts stores apparently don't stock the rotors and such anymore. Prices didn't seem too bad as long as you plan ahead and can wait for the shipping.


There are tons of conversion kits for sale for the 8.8 and 9" rear ends but the prices vary from $300 to over a grand so since I have't done one myself yet for my truck, I hesitate to say which is the best option to go with. Eventually I will do it to mine but I am still messing with my other projects on it and need to tie up all these loose ends first. -g-

Good Luck,

Lee

 

The whole axle swap is probably a good idea. When I talked to one of my sources, he didn't think it was worth the dollars or the trouble. The kits that he had seen were in the $600 plus range. Also he made the arguement that the drum brakes are better and last longer for a truck rear end. The larger pad surface area make a large difference when handling a load - which is coincidently why I bought my ford.

I will continue to look into it though.

 

Thanks for the response guys. Great to hear from you.

You would be aware that many Cleveland and Windsor motors were manufactured in OZ for a while, getting a reputation as being very powerful and reliable. They had redesigned heads which solved many of the breathing and cooling problems which were prevelant with the US and Canadian made donks.

They are spoken very highly of by dragsters and speedway followers, being able to take a lot of work to make them real fire breathing brutes. The local hoons love them too.

Some had changed oil passages which allowed them to run at higher pressures. Mine runs at about 75-80PSI.

My 4X4 is not unusual. It is a LWB and handles sand and rough going really well. The Cleveland allows me to more or less idle along in heavy going without strain on the whole machine. In sand the tyre pressures have to be at least one half than that one runs of pavement so 18-20 PSI is the norm. Better grip in soft going is a must.

My suspension has had a 3 inch lift and is rather stiff so charging along in 4WD at speed in rough going is very pitchy and uncomfortable.

As I said in my welcome many parts of OZ my wife and I frequent is remote, so easy going is the answer to get out and back.

F Series Fords have been a cult machine here for quite a while, the older ones like mine are not rare, just looked after by their owners and continue to offer good reliable service in all types of conditions. Some owners have had them for years.

Many tradesmen use them as they offer a good large trayback for carrying tools and materials and the like. The blokes who do my carpentry and concrete work have had theirs for over 25 years, working them 5-6 days a week. So they are not a soft vehicle.

For long range travelling they are great, heaps of power when towing, plenty of room in the cabin, comfortable ride and large rear tray carrying space for all our camping goodies.

In OZ there is a love/hate relationship between Ford and GM owners. Here the GM product is a Holden. Unbelievable rivalry on the road circuit race track with the Super Sedan V8s, Holden Commodores and Ford Falcons. In the next week or so the Bathurst 1000 at Mt Panorama will be held over a weekend. It is the premier race on the OZ motorsport calendar bar none. Rates higher with our fans then the F1. People who normally never watch motor sport on TV watch Bathurst.

The fans have a close relationship with these cars as they start life as showroom models which mums and dads buy.

I have been there a couple of times and it is great. Lots of fun, rivallry, excitement and competiveness between the fans especially up on the mountain where a tent city of about 10-20 thousand people gather to watch the practise and race days. See if you can pick it up on one of the cable TV networks. It may be very enlightening to you.

In OZ there is a fair range of 4x4 vehicles to choose from. All makes are very popular here with many in suburban back yard garages. Mum will more than likely be the more frequent user taking the kids to school and doing the shopping. Most owners hardly ever use them for serious off road driving, the closest many would come is on an off shore island beach just off Brisbane, which is accessable by barge.

The Toyota Land Cruiser and Nissan Patrol are the most popular. My son who is currently working in Longreach, a large outback Queensland town has a Nissan Patrol. Out there you need vehicle of that type.

Ford has the big expensive F250 range, cheapest about $75AUD, the dearest about $100AUD, the Territory and the Courier which is a smaller model.

Along with the Land Cruiser, Toyota has the Prado and Kluger, and the Hilux range which is very popular. Nissan has the X Trail which has really taken off, mainly as an urban vehicle rather than country. I have one as a company vehicle, it is not too bad, comfortable to drive, no guts in the engine, but has good fuel ecomony and with the price of petrol and diesel hovering at about 125-140AUcents per litre and rising, many people will be opting for the fuel saving vehicles.

The big GM Suburban was not successul in Australia, nor was the Hummer, too expensive and too unreliable.

Land Rover is also popular but with a niche market. Their new model is very expensive. LR was the first real pioneer 4WD in OZ after the army Jeep. Mercedes also has one at about $200k, as does BMW

Mitsubushi, has the Pajero and the Triton range, both popular.

Holden has an AWD based on the Commodore, a S/Wagon, ute and crew cab.

There is a wide range of smaller Japanese boutique off road AWD vehicles, Honda, Daihatsu, Subaru, Hyundai, Mazda, Suzuki and now Volvo.

None of them have really proven themselves yet in really harsh outback 4WD territory. Their gearbox and final drive casings are very suspect under harsh conditions

Thanks for the brake comments. My old lifelong mate, Johnno Johnson, a very good common sense professional mechanic, a person who you would like to have with you if you broke down in the outback, made similar comments to me about retaining the drum brakes. I might do a full overhaul and see how they go.

Oh, by the way we have just had a good shower of rain after about a 18 months of severe drought, which is really bad in South East Queensland where I live. We need heaps more, perhaps some heavy falls like those in the US recently.

Our sympathies go out to all those in the US who have been affected by the 2 typhoons, we call them cyclones in our country, not quite as bad as you have experienced, but be assured all your OZ mates are thinking of you.

Have fun,

Les Bryant, Brisbane Australia.

 

Les!
Really interesting info on the Aussie 4x4's. Hope your project is going well. We apprieciate the thoughts and prayers of our Aussie brothers.

 

Just a thought, but four wheel disc brakes are the most over rated change ever made to a car. The front brakes do nearly 90% of your stopping. The back brakes are just there for the ride most of the time, and only help a little and keep the truck straight other times. See my web page for my truck. http://www.geocities.com/toyscout2/Scout_page.html

I have a 6000 pound truck, 33x12.50 tires, and over 500 HP. I do this with rear drum brakes. I have had this truck do everything from mud bogging (it was a professional sponsored mud truck before being converted to street duty) to hill climbing to gorest trail rides through national state forests. I am in an association whre we have done just about anything to trucks that you can think of, including rear disc brakes.

If you make the change, you will have to change the master cylinder and proportioning valve because the discs require different brake pressure to operate with the front discs and not lock up one end or the other. Just too much hassle for no gain.

Take the money you saved and invest in a front limited slip differential. Besides a lift, the absolute biggest improvement you can get. This gets both front tires working to pull the truck and does not have any inherant disadvanteges. After that a locker in the rear, although I prefer Detroit Lockers for strength, you have to be willing to put up with the associated noise and driving characteristics, otherwise there are other locking diffs, air lockers, etc.

Now, if I were going to do this swap, I would go to a dana 60 axle to do it with. Here is a page to give you some ideas, http://www.off-road.com/ih/jweed/discrear.htm and another if you really want to get into it: http://www.off-road.com/ih/jweed/dana60.htm.