My brother passed away unexpectedly a couple of months ago and I ended up in possession of his 59 F100. It is pretty much original (rust and all) and he had been using it as a daily driver up until about 4 years ago. I don't recall the exact reason he quit driving it but I believe he had decided that he needed to replace all the brake lines as he didn't trust them. He lived in a pretty hilly area north of Lake Travis/Austin and brakes are essential traffic or not.

At any rate, he ended up not getting around to doing anything with it and it just sat in the driveway. I am now trying to bring it back to life. The engine cranks, I drained the tank and made sure that I'm getting gas flowing from the tank to the fuel pump, but it doesn't look like I'm getting anything from the pump to the carb. There is a clear in-line filter just before the carb and it is bone dry.

I'm looking for suggestions at this point. My goal is to get it running and move it to my place in Dime Box, TX and register it as a Farm Truck. That way I can motorcycle to the country and still have a street legal truck to make runs for supplies, etc.

 

Welcome aboard it's nice to see more Central Texas Old Ford Truck owner on here. You should see some helpful folks come along shortly to help you diagnose your fuel pump issues. If you don't hear anything soon - send me a private message & I'll try to get you hooked up with some expertise.
I drive by Dimebox all the time visiting College Station.

Ben in NW Austin

 

Thanks. I'm hoping this forum is as helpful as some others I frequent regarding motorcycles, tractors, jeeps, etc. Seems like I'm always working on something with wheels.

 

Welcome to the board!!

Sorry to hear about your brother. Its cool that you are going to be keeping his truck on the road. From the sounds of it your fuel pump isn't working or the line between the fuel pump and carb is plugged.

You sound like the rest of us "always working on something with wheels".

Good luck
Bobby

 

Have you tried starter fluid, or just pouring gas into the carb. That sounds kind of dangerous now, but we used to do it all the time. At least you would know it runs. That may get the RPMs up enough where the pump would prime.
Either way, I'd go ahead and replace the pump, not that hard and if it sat that long may be weak or not working anyway. Even with a new pump, I'd test it. If you pull the sparkplugs you can really crank it to see if you are pumping fuel (pull the coil, you don't want any spark right now). Run a hose into a clear 2 litre bottle so you can see if it is pumping and also if the fuel is clean. Keep your extinguisher handy. While you have the line removed from the pump, take it off the carb too and squirt soem carb cleaner thoguh it. Carb may need rebuilt at this point.

 

What engine does it have? On both 6 and V8, some had fuel pumps with a filter mounted on the main body of the pump. Before going to the expense of a new pump, if the old one has the filter, look at the element. Most common is a metal canister that unscrews. There is a paper element in it. If there is no fuel in hte canister, no fuel is getting to the pump. Less common is a glass bowl with a screen. With this, you should be able to see the fuel in the bowl.

Sometimes it takes quite a while to get the pump primed if there is only a few gallons of fuel in the tank. I sometimes disconnect the line at the carburetor and use a hand vacuum pump ( the kind you use in vacuum bleeding brakes) to pull the fuel from the tank. This will also let you know if you have a plugged or blocked line.

 

It's a straight 6 and there looks like a metal cannister on the bottom of the pump. I'm out of town now but will check when I get back. Thanks very much for the tip.

 

Thanks. I sure miss him. I don't think it's goin to be too tough getting this thing going. It's totally old school like I grew up with. If you have fuel and fire, it goes.

 

Haven't tried either, but I'm getting close. Like you say we've done this lots of times back in the day.

 

Carter, welcome to the forum. This is the best place for knowledge of your truck. Take the advice given above, and just get the thing running! Enjoy what your brother gave you. Make it safe, make it reliable and enjoy.

 

Again sorry to hear about your brother. You said a canister under the pump could be where the fuel pump filter is. I would unscrew it and check for gas. On my V8 , I unscrewed it and it was totally corroded and plugged. Put a new one in and now problem. Before you disasembled everything you could try a squirt of starter fluid in the carb to see if it will fire up. It will burn off quickly.

Brake lines: I would order some lines at Inline Tubing. They have a set of pre-bent lines for your year of truck. I bent all of my lines and what a pain. I would order these next time. Good idea to change the rubber hoses, and check e-brake. Single resevoir MC doesn't give room for errors. Good to have a back up plan.

Let us know how it works out.

Good luck.

 

Replaced the fuel pump which got me gas to the carb. Found a short in the distributor and now have it running roughly. My sister-in-law found the shop manual but will be out of town for the next couple of weeks. Anybody know The timing and point gap setting for this guy off the top of their head? Straight 6.

 

From what I have with me, point gap should be .024 to .026. I do not have timing numbers with me, but setting it at zero then advancing a few degrees until it runs smooth with no knocking on acceleration usually works for me in a pinch.

 

Thanks, I found a site with the engine specs. Hopefully I'll get it smoothed out this evening.