Truck – Page 2 – Butch's Truck

Making progress

June 22, 2017 by Mark

Over the Father’s Day weekend I made good progress. My wife was gracious enough to let me spend most of Father’s Day in the garage. 🙂

I started by climbing under the truck and pulling the drain plug on the transmission. Interesting, what appeared to be water or very thin oil came out first, followed by thicker oil more like the gear oil I expected. So, more research is in order there, I’m not sure how water could get into the transmission. Apparently in Ford tractors there is a way for water to get into the transmission if left outside, but I’m not sure our Ford truck has spent enough time where it would get rained on for it to be able to drip into the transmission via the shifter or top end. We’ll have to see what I can figure out.

On the learning front, even though I “saw” four hoses, I never realized that the Ford’s cooling system actually is split into two sides. With a water pump on each side and intake to the block and outflow on each side of the block to the radiator. On Butch’s truck, there is also a heater bypass hose, as there was no heating system in the truck itself, I’m guessing because it was a farm truck, but I still have to research that.

I opened the petcocks on both sides of the radiator. One side was totally dry, the other dripped slowly, so I was guessing there was actually some liquid still in the system.

I started by removing the bypass hose from the block, then tried to remove it from the T junction in the lower radiator hose. I was thinking that by removing it here, if there was any coolant left in system it would drain from the lower hose. Unfortunately the T junction in the lower hose was rotting, so the hose tore as I tried to work it free. I had figured we would need new hoses, given how old they had to be, but that convinced me, no question, new hoses would be going on it all around.

Bypass Hose

Next I removed the hoses from the top of the cylinder heads to the upper part of the radiator. After removing the clamps I ended up having to cut the hoses to pry them off the connectors on both ends of each hose. The rubber had been compressed long enough to harden around the ridges in the tubes, so there was no way they were going to just slip off. I also found there is a thermostat on both exit openings on the heads on each side.

Thermostat

After I got the bottom hoses removed on each side, I had to cut them off as well, I removed the plug wire guide/tubes and the spark plug wires. Interesting that the wires are enclosed in a boot kind of assembly that caps the distributor on both sides, then tubes that runs up and along the top of the block, peeling off wires to each cylinder. It is actually a very neat set up.

Plug Wires and tube

Then I removed the generator from the top of the block, which also freed the belt. I already bought a replacement belt, but it was kind of funny, the belt was so stiff that it held it’s shape even after I removed the generator, even after removing it from the pulleys connecting the generator, crank and water pumps… LOL

Belt

I removed the broken flexible fuel connection that connects the hard line coming from the tank and connecting to the fuel pump, as well as disconnecting the oil filter assembly line from the front of the block. The rear connection seems to be a bit harder to get to, so I decided to wait for the manuals to get here to make sure I wasn’t just going to be forcing something.

Next I removed the radiator. I’m not sure if it needs to be reconditioned or not yet, but I wanted it out of the way to make room for what comes next, and to make sure I don’t damage it in some way working around it.

With the radiator out of the way I decided to break loose the nuts on the motor mount, since I now had some room to work with. These will have to come off to get the oil pan out when I reach that point as you need to jack the front of the motor up a couple inches to get the clearance for the pan to drop free.

Then I pulled the plugs and I decided to break loose the nuts on the studs holding one of the heads on. I plan on removing both heads, then the intake, then I’ll decide if we need to pull the block out of the truck to have it professionally cleaned up or not, or if more will be needed than just cleaning.

Head

I didn’t have time to finish loosening the nuts on the studs, Father’s Day intruded at that point so I decided it was a good place to call it quits for the weekend.

I haven’t been able to do much this week, but the replacement flexible and stiff fuel lines to connect to the fuel pump and carburetor arrived, as did the best things… 🙂 I got a Ford Service Manual and Fuel System manual, so I’m not just working on my own knowledge.

Manuals

Happy Father’s Day Dad

June 18, 2017 by Mark

This is my Father’s Day gift for my Dad, Butch, who has taught me so much.

For Father’s Day Dad, I’m giving you (and your truck) a gas cap… 🙂

A gas cap worthy of your truck

For as long as I can remember, the old Truck has had a pot holder sticking out of the filler neck. In searching the bed of the truck for parts and to see what was there, I found numerous gas caps, but none of them were the right one. So I decided as part of getting it running again, you and it deserve a gas cap worthy of your truck, one with the Ford “V8” embossed on it.

Happy Fathers Day, love you Dad.

I learn something new every time I crawl under the truck

June 11, 2017 by Mark

I love learning new things.

Today, while figuring out what it is going to take to drop the oil pan, I found the original hand crank attach point on the front of the crankshaft.

Hand crank starter

I even found the opening in the front of the grill that I never knew was there because the tow bar has been in front of the grill for as long as I remember.

Hand crank grill opening

I was also going through some of the stuff in the bed of the truck because I knew there was a pair of jack stands in there, I found a full set of new plugs just waiting to be swapped in…

New plugs!

Since I did find the stands I went ahead and put the truck totally up in the air. That also helped to give me a little more room to slide under it. I’m not quite as thin as I used to be, even just a few more inches of clearance was a blessing… LOL

Jacking the truck up

Doing some research leads me to the fact that dropping the oil pan wasn’t going to be quite as simple as I had hoped. But I’ll order new the gaskets that I’ll need this week and I should be able to get it dropped next Saturday without too much trouble. I think we’ll also need to pull the intake manifold and make sure the valley in the top of the block is clear and maybe flush from the top to make sure we clear anything that may have accumulated.

All in all it was a good day. I didn’t get as far as I had hoped, but I’m always optimistic how far I am going to get. Figured out the next steps and we’ll go from there.

Digging in and it is not all good news

June 10, 2017 by Mark

I now have definitive proof that my Dad taught me the tin can exhaust repair procedure long before the Internet spread it around…

Tin can exhaust repair

I discovered that while cleaning out the engine compartment. I spent probably a half hour vacuuming, and then blowing out a lot of dust, pine needles, sawdust and not sure what else from in and around things.

The next step was to climb underneath and start by opening the petcock to drain the radiator, which apparently was already empty, since nothing came out. So I’m going to get something to flush the radiator and to run through it to try to clear out any build up, scaling or debris that may have accumulated before we fill it.

Climbing underneath

Next I decided to tackle the oil. I moved the pan down under the drain plug, which on this truck is actually about two inches across. I pulled the drain plug, but here is where the bad news starts. Instead of gushing out like I had hoped, it just dripped, slowly, from around the edges of the hole. So I stuck my finger up into the hole, which was a semi-solid chunky goop, that refused to slide out, just continued to drip from around the edges of the hole.

This is not what oil is supposed to look like

I decided to open the oil filter canister hoping to let some air into the system from above (yes, I know the breather should do this, but not knowing the state of the it…). I decided to let it drip, and hope more comes out, but the new plan is to pull the oil pan (hopefully tomorrow) and take a look at the bottom end of the engine. Depending on what I find will determine the next steps, but I think we will need to tear the engine down and rebuild it or at least seriously clean it now and try to take it apart and flush it out and do a top and bottom rebuild over the winter. I’m not holding my breath, it was pretty chunky.

I don’t know how long it has been since K-Mart sold these oil filters, but I’m guessing it has been a while…

K-Mart Oil filter

I also decided to pull the plugs, well at least on one side to see how they looked. I already planned to put in new plugs, but I figured it might give me some hope if the plugs weren’t totally rusted, that the cylinders aren’t either. Fortunately they don’t look too bad. They are obviously pitted and showing their age and some wear and tear.

Plug

Tomorrow, time permitting, I’ll drop the oil pan and we will start trying to determine the next step where the engine is concerned. I’m wondering if I can talk my wife into letting me put a lift in the garage… LOL Not much headroom as it is, but even a couple feet might be worth it.

Christmas In June

June 9, 2017 by Mark

The first of the parts have arrived…

Parts delivery

This weekend will be the first real work on the truck. I stopped by the parts store last night and got them to ship a new battery in since they still can’t seem to find it in the store, even though their computers say they have one. Hopefully I can pick that up tomorrow when I go for supplies.

The plan for the weekend; Pick up oil and coolant, I’ll get the coolant changed, or at least drained, the oil changed and new filter in the canister, the fuel bowl rebuilt with a new filter…

Fuel Bowl

I need to pull the plugs and try to determine if the plug wires will work or they need to be replaced and the shape the plugs & tips are in as well as checking the distributor.

Something is dragging, I think it is the brakes. Hopefully it isn’t the axles or the differential, I plan on draining the diff and transmission and refilling with clean oil, but we’ll find out more as we get into it. I’m hoping I can get to the point of pulling the tires and brake drums off to see what kind of shape they are in, probably not this weekend, but we’ll see.

Working on the next parts list…