Another update.

I'm getting closer to hitting the street again in over five years.

In the last few days I worked out the bugs in the front driving lights. Turns out that I had the turn signal wires spliced into the park lamps. That's why they worked with a single filament bulb. The turn signal would override the park lamps if they were on.

Surprisingly, I was able to order the dual point contacts from O'Reilly's. It's a Dorman product. I ordered them late in the evening and they were at the store by my house the following day. This time, I ran separate wires for each contact (park lamp and turn signal).

Park lights on.



Left turn signal on with park lights on concurrently.



Also installed the fan shroud after wire-brushing the rust off and painting it. What a chore. The installation wasn't fun either. Had to remove the fan belt pulley and the upper hose.



Hooked up the accelerator rod linkage and had to fabricate a bracket for the return spring. Still need to attach the choke cable to one of the carbs. I'm contemplating adding another choke cable to the second carb and fabricating a bracket to attach to the instrument panel. I'd prefer to find a dual choke cable that attached to one **** in the instrument panel.



Today I was going to change out the gear oil in the transmission, but after opening the side plug, I was able to see that the fluid was still good and didn't need to be changed. There was also a good level of it in the housing.

Lastly, I cleaned, polished and affixed the air cleaners onto the carbs.





Tomorrow I plan on getting the truck off of the jack stand and prepping it for transport to the muffler shop on Friday. Need to have a pipe done from the exhaust manifold to the muffler.

After that is done, then I'll be able to run the truck and adjust the carbs and timing. Will also look for any leaks and see if the fuel tank needs to be cleaned out (eventhough I had that done before I parked it).

With any luck, the maiden voyage should occur in a week or two, after I try to remember the order and position of the gears on the column shifter. I'm used to the floor shift in the Airflow.

I'm still keeping my fingers crossed.

 

Wow that's great progress!

I thought that's what was going on with your lights.....and I thought I posed that - must have been in a different thread!

It's a little late now, but I was going to tell you (and will mention it for the rest of the folks) that you can use your signal lights up front on the single sockets if you don't mind not having parking lights.....Who uses them anyway?

You would just run a second wire up for one side and disconnect the parking lights from the headlight switch. Then hook that wire and the new wire to the signal light switch.

Also, I have a great deal for you! I'll write you an e-mail in about a week! Once in a liftime thing!

PS LOVE the grille guard!

 

Oh, oh. Sounds like I may need a lot of money since it's a "once in a lifetime thing!" Can't wait for the email.

I had two grille guards. Was saving them for both trucks. However, I traded one to my friend for the 16" wheels and WWW tires that are on the truck now.

 

Love those grill guards! Great progress, way to go. On the road soon I hope. Good luck. Those air cleaners look good until you find the oil bath ones you want.

 

Thanks! Couldn't have done it without you, and the rest of the great people on this forum.

Buying the dual offy intake from you gave me a kick in the rear to get the Panel going again.

I'm not sure what I'll do with the air cleaners. I have one original oil bath. Once I find another one, I'll put both of them on to see how they'll look. I might stick with the chrome ones, however.

 

On Saturday I had the exhaust done and installed. Brought the truck back from the muffler shop.



That same day, I was able to start and back the Panel a few feet off the trailer and into the driveway. The truck hasn't moved under its own power for over five years. That was a step in the right direction, so I thought. However, it still ran rough and I kept hearing an exhaust leak. Checked the newly installed exhaust and no leaks found. I had no time to investigate further and left it for another day.

Came back to the truck yesterday and ran it again. Found that the valves needed to be adjusted, and still kept hearing the exhaust leak and a rough idle. Found an exhaust leak coming out of two spots on the intake. It was too late to do anything as it was getting dark, so I abandoned the project until today.

Today after work I adjusted the valves and put the cover back on. Checked the timing with my newly acquired vintage Snap-On timing light that I bought at an estate sale over the weekend for $5 (works on 6v and 12v). The timing was perfect at TDC.



As the engine kept running, I looked over the exhaust manifold really carefully with a flashlight. I finally found the issue. The exhaust manifold cracked in the center! It wasn't cracked when I installed it. The manifolds on these engines have a tendency to crack, so I made sure to check it before I proceeded with installation of the Offy intake. I also checked the gasket and it was toast. It was good when I installed the exhaust manifold. This is the same exhaust manifold that came with the engine.

The crack went all the way through, rendering this manifold unrepairable. Perhaps a machine shop can still repair it??? I'll find out in the next few days as I'll need a spare.





Luckily, I have three more 215 engines. One of which happens to be from a 52 (the exh manifold on a 215 from 1953 is slightly different). I happened to have a spare exhaust/intake manifold assembly at home.



I checked it over and the exh manifold doesn't appear to be cracked. The intake, however, has had a crack repaired and welded. That doesn't matter to me since I won't be using the intake manifold.

Tomorrow I'm taking it to a friend to have the exhaust pipe studs removed so I could install new ones. Hopefully, I will be able to put it back on the engine if I could find a new exh manifold gasket at the parts store.

I felt like I took two steps back today. Sometimes it gets so frustrating that I just want to walk away, but I'm very close to the end and can't quit now.

EDIT: Just noticed that this was my 2,000th post.

 

Well Ilya it's not really steps backward, they are still steps forward, bu tthe wind is just blowing in your face. You are still moving, and moving in the right direction.

The fact that you have it running and moved it on it's own power (and stopped it by itself!!!) is significant.

At this point you are house cleaning! Keep charging!

 

Don't get discouraged Ilya, you've make alot of progress. I have the exhaust manifold that was with that intake I sold you. Let me know if you want it, it's yours, free. Just pay for shipping. I was going to use it as an anchor. LOL. I've decided to join FTE. After all, I never have meet such helpful folks and I'll use some of the money from the intake since it would probably still sitting in the attic of the garage if not for you. How's that for a nice circle. It's nice to know my intake was the motivation for your resurrection. Keep going.

 

Yes, buying the intake from you motivated me a lot.

Your offer is very gracious! Thank you!!! Email sent.

 

Some good news and more bad news today.

Today, I took the only remaining extra exhaust manifold I had to my friend's shop to have the exhaust pipe studs removed and new ones put it. That was done without any problems. However, after the tech was done cleaning up the manifold, I found a small crack at the bottom right near the exhaust exit. He was able to weld it up, but not sure how long it'll last.




I installed this exh manifold, along with new gaskets purchased today, back onto the truck. I was able to start the truck and adjust the carburetors. Had to advance the timing a little.

Take a look. (Picture quality isn't the greatest. It was getting dark when I finished.)

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The truck finally runs and idles. It is running a bit hot and I've developed a few other problems.

The first problem is that I noticed a fairly large leak coming from a pan between the engine and the transmission. I'm thinking that the rear main seal is bad. The leak is coming between the blue colored transmission and the green colored pan.



Also noticed that my oil pressure was at 60-70 when the truck was idling high. However, after the carbs were adjusted and the timing slightly advanced, the oil pressure dropped. Now when I start the truck, the oil pressure needle climbs to almost 30 and then gradually goes down to about 10. Is this normal?

Aside from these issues, I think that the truck is ready for its maiden voyage down the block. I'll need to get more gas in it first. The maiden voyage may occur as soon as tomorrow.

 

Nice looking truck panelman......Its Cool looking at the old stuff. I wished that my panel was more original instead of being a FRANKENSTIEN...Maybe one day I can pick up a f1 truck that still is original. But first I have to finish my Monster.

 

What goes around comes around!

 

Keep up the good work, you're almost there! The truck looks great, especially with those wwws and wheels.

 

I don't want to jinx myself, but looks like I might be able to make it to SF before you make it SJ.

 

I improved the looks of the engine compartment today. I added a used Offenhauser valve cover that I bought recently.









If there was a finned oil pan cover for this engine, I'd buy it too.