When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Been creeping around here for a while but finally decided to register and share my project and become part of this group. Love the positivity that seems to be consistent on this forum and look forward to being part of it.
My project is a 1975 f250 crewcab. I inherited this project from my dad as it was started about 20 years ago before being stalled for about 15 years. I decided that newer isn't always better and that my 95 f150 regular cab wasn't working for the growing family. I planned to stick around that 90's timeline but my dad saw my interest as a chance to get rid of the 'project guilt' he had been carrying and thus started my project. It was a bit of a return to my own driving roots as well as my first vehicle was a 77f250 crew with a tired 460/c6 combo that suffered dearly in my high school years...
Sorry for the long narrative! I will work on some picture uploads here and hopefully it'll be interesting for someone!
Welcome to FTE fellow Cannuck! Looks like you have quite a project ahead of you but starting with something solid. Great crew here to encourage and educate. Any rot around the drip rails on that cc? Look closely inside and out. Do you have a heated shop?
I actually have lucked out seriously and the rust situation was all sorted on that cab. The pictures show how I got it. Dana 60 front and rear ZF5 already in place with the mated 205. The original plan of my dad had been for a big 460 but I don't want to build a truck I can't afford to drive so the 1st gen cummins was my goal. Motor is all stock right now from a 1993 d250 and is very moderate on power but high on fuel economy.
Progress was slow until this winter but got the motor in place with an adapter plate, fly wheel, and some motor mounts from Diesel Conversion Specialists. The mounts got heavily modified but were helpful for the sizing. The tilt front end required a hinged rad support which took a lot of messing around and opening up for the intercooler. Built an independent rad support and got everything plumbed. New fuel tank and a pair of stainless fuel lines run on the frame rail got it running. Some mechanical clutch linkage pieces and the first drive was taken last summer! Since then I've been heavy into electrical which should be done in the next week or two... Luckily I have found a shop for some winter work with a big wood stove so things are less weather dependant...haha...
So I have got in a few more days work on the truck, getting to the light at the end of the tunnel for the electrical...
Between the cummins swap and the missing wiring harness I decided to build my own using relays and all the factory lighting wiring as triggers for them. Hopefully the result will be worth the time.. the picture shows the two rows of relay holders and the junction box by the booster that feeds back to the rear of the truck. The big black lines you see are actually the extended breather lines for the trans/tcase/front dif. They were part of my dads 'original' project and I guess he assumed he was going to be swimming with the old girl... lol
I decided to use the ford starting solenoid still, though with the cummins starter I probably didnt need it. I kept it on the passenger side with the voltage regulator and preheat solenoids.
I haven't got too crazy with the wiring loom yet but will after everything works the way it should... lol. With the tilt front end i wanted to have a plug for easy removal so I ran all the lighting wires (and horn) to a deutz (spelling?) plug which should be weather tight but easy to split.
My little man likes to 'drive' whenever he comes out to visit. Wife is glad to see it starting to resemble a truck VS pile of parts money pit...
Finally to make myself feel better I trimmed up the grill frame openings a little to clear my rad support hinges and stuck it in...
That pretty much gets it to current. I have the headlight plug I was missing for the passenger side coming in so I will be able to finish the front end lights next. Trying to find a mount location at the rear for my other junction box and will run my 7 wire trailer cable into that for rear lighting.
Seem to have hit a snag on my E-brake cable as well... got it plugged into the pedal end and out of the cab but seem to be a little short on length to reach the junction with the rear cables... Does anyone have any info on the correct routing of that annoying steel cable? It kind of goes up over the transmission right now which is where I assumed it should be but now I am not so sure. Its also possible that the new cables I have arent the right length? Any advice would be appreciated!
Looks great! I too am doing a 75 cummins crew. Currently I'm in the disassembly / parts collection phase. I really like your tilt front. Most of the ones(cummins conversions) I've seen had the intercooler in front of the core support. Did you set your engine back a little further to get the intercooler behind the support? I'm also trying to figure out what tranny I want. My cummins is out of a 97 freightliner with a SAE bellhousing. I'm thinking I want a ZF6, but if I found a deal on the NV4500 I would do that.
Keep up the progress!
Hey thanks! Yah mine was a little odd because of that tilt front end. I left the engine in 'factory position' so the tranny didn't move. I did however move the rad closer to the engine. Because its on an independent support from the actual factory rad support i could move the two independently. I don't have the manual fan anymore so i gained some room there. My intercooler is mounted to the same support as the rad now so i just trimmed the factory rad support until it could tilt without hitting the intercooler. Most of the intercooler is forward of the factory rad support with the tilt closed... hopefully that makes sense...?
Yah i inherited this project with the zf5 already in place for what was to be a 460. Otherwise i would have been in the same place as you. The nv4500 would be nice as it avoids an aftermarket adapter plate and any associated starter issues but that 6speed would be sweet too..
Man, you have done a lot of work alreadyd. Looks freaking great, can't wait to see the outcome of it all. I'm a new owner of a 75 f100 myself (about a week) and been working on it around the clock. Got a build page going as well in here, titled 75 pics or something like that..lol good luck!!
Thank a lot! I had seen your build page. I'm jealous of having a driving truck! I can believe how rust free /affordable your truck was. That doesn't exist up here... the 1500$ trucks are well on their way to returning to the soil.... keep up the good work, enjoying all the updates.
Yea, I thought it was a fair price but I'm a cheap a$$ but now that I have been reading more and getting a better idea of cost of our vehicles, I feel like I won the lottery..haha
In my part of the world it's common to pull the fans off of the older diesels in the winter to try and make enough heat... lol. My plan is to run dual pusher electrics for the summer but ill see what it runs like first....
02-08-2016, 12:51 PM
