Lahti35

Looks like they chopped the can off the front of the cleaner and used the baffle material from it to cover the hole. Magnifique!

I think the way to go is to partially put the car you want to sell in the background, always generates decent interest!

I dug around in the rear brakes and found them to be in good condition... I had purchased new hub seals 2 years ago and more recently a set of brake shoes but found when I got to the shoes the ones on the truck have more meat on them than the new replacement ones. I'll pack the new shoes away for later! No scoring on the drums but unfortunately the seals I bought were the wrong ones, too small! The old ones are in decent shape so for the time being I just cleaned them and left them in place. I was able to locate correct seals this week. Someone has been in these brakes in the not too distant past, no signs of leaks I can see. I did find the telltale signs of hub removal without the correct socket, chisel marks on the nut. The nut locking tabs were not bent all that well though, the only real sloppy work I found. When I put it all back together temporarily to be able to move it around I put in a new locking washer as I had extras. I'm going to pull the hubs again down the road to clean the adjusting mechanism when I get some down time. I'll put in the new seals then also. The self adjuster doesn't seem to be working on the passenger side...

You are correct, the holes do go through the casting. I was surprised about the random bold tightness, I guess I should have checked them! I think they just stamped the cover off center, the holes in the casting are pretty centered so a correctly stamped cover should straighten things up. The new parts should be here tomorrow so we'll see how it goes together! Unfortunately I used up my paint when doing the engine so I had to get a new can which has been delayed by Fedex until next week, maybe I'll get lucky and it'll be early...

The NOS points came in so I installed them in the distributor and set the gap. I also noticed the distributor wire connector that plugs into the coil bullet connector was backing out so I crimped it a bit for a much firmer connection. It's ready to roll... After work earlier in the week I pulled the the water pump off the front of the engine. I found that the bolts holding the back cover on were all varying in tightness with one barely tight at all, there was barely any gasket stuck to the cover around that bolt hole... So I thought I'd make up a new gasket and use some Permatex #2 for insurance when I discovered the holes in the cover are off center enough to shift it over a ways exposing 1/2 of the gasket on one side. Talk about bad manufacturing... So long story short I ordered a new back cover plate, an accurate reproduction instead of this generic stuff. I thought about just ordering a new pump but would it be any better? I looked around for an authentic original to rebuild but they are priced like gold. The pump that was on it when got it was a newer made unit, the original Ford unit being long gone. The plan is to install the new rear cover which hopefully has on center mounting holes. I also ordered a new bypass tube which I may replace and seal with Permatex #2. I'll definitely use some #2 on the bypass hose during installation, can't be to careful lol!

... And dry their underwear with the overhead vents, lol!

As would I... I can't help but wonder whenever I see a water pump on a T if the radiator is not pulling it's weight!

I ran a '61 Falcon as a daily driver 10 years ago for some time... The locals enjoyed it, used to get thumbs up often! It had the 144 and "three on da tree" as we say up here in Michigan. 1st gear would get you going pretty good but that was the highlight of power in that combo. It threw a bearing one day on the way home and that was that but I still have a fond spot for the little car that could.

Reminds me of the old Lucky Strikes joke: Knock, knock... Who's there? Alice... Alice who? Alice M-F-T!

You're not wrong there! It's getting tough to find good parts... I'm not buying the cheap stuff either, but it might as well be with the issues. I may have a set of gaskets for the water pump, I'll have to check tonight. I tried getting a wrench on from behind but there isn't enough room, the bolts I could access were tight so there must be a flaw in the rear cover gasket or something. I know what I'm doing this weekend!

We'll get there in end! I don't recall what brand of points I purchased as it was over two years ago, I don't recall them being the lowest price set but they should have been, lol! I ordered 2 NOS Motorcraft DP-12 points and made sure they had the reinforced rubbing block, I'll try 'em when they arrive and see how it goes!

There are foul things about in the garage... But first some pics of the truck outside! It occured to me that I hadn't snapped any pics of the truck in it's current state since last year... I think it's looking pretty cool! However it's not behaving at all... I went to cold start it and test the last carb settings I made but it would not fire, wouldn't even try. This eventually had me looking at the distributor testing for 12v here and there when I found that the points weren't opening or closing. My brand new points with the modern plastic contact pad had worn down so much that it wasn't being actuated by the cam on the distributor shaft. I reset the gap and it fired right away but gee whiz, they aren't much for longevity! I ordered a couple of sets of NOS points with the old style reinforced contact pad, I'll stick with the classics as I've never had one of those wear down like this new one did. Bugaboo #2 happened when I walked back into the garage to see this on the floor... Now, I've become accustomed to seeing some wet spots under the truck from exhaust condensation but the green made my heart sink as I couldn't help but think a head gasket had failed. What I eventually realized though was I had backed the truck 1/2 way out of the garage earlier so the green was actually under the engine compartment at the time. I popped the hood and found some small specks of antifreeze at the front of the engine on the passenger frame rail and timing cover. Further investigation revealed the source... Yup, the brand new water pump leaks from the cover plate on it's backside. As soon as I wiped away the drop another would appear seconds later. At least it's on the front of the engine and easy to get to, would be nice to get a new part that worked straight out of the box but maybe i'm being too picky these days. At any rate success is anything but a straight path from beginning to end and down a detour we go again! Did I mention it looks cool in the pics????

Very sorry to hear of your loss Terry, take care. Jason

Sadly, Mr. Twisty and our other favorite local ice cream associates have closed for the season. They've hung up their scoops until spring but I'll be there directly when they open back up!

Looking great! I'm enjoying following along and seeing the progress. Keep up the good work!

My new fuel sender float showed up today... I was pleased, it looks to be of good quality. After installation I tested the resistance of the sender to make sure it smoothly increased and decreased with no issue after cleaning the parts last weekend. Everything was within spec... Back in the sender went and when I turned the key the gauge came to life with no issue. I tested the operation of the fuel sender selector switch that allows you to see how much fuel is in each tank and it also seems to be working. While the auxiliary tank has yet to have any gas added, the sender is new so I don't anticipate issues (you never know though). Next up is the brake warning light block rebuild (the red light is very distracting), and opening up the rear axle for new hub seals and brake shoes. It's not a simple thing to pull the rear drums off so I'm planning on doing everything while I'm in there and have access.

I'll check them out, thanks!

They just doesn't feel right going in, i've never had to fiddle with terminals so much and still be wondering if they are really in there. The fact that I took my time to install them originally and pulled the caps recently to find two sucked back into the boot like a scared turtle's head scares me some, lol. I'm going to experiment a bit and see what I can come up with. I've never had this much trouble with any plug wire terminals before. Maybe it's these specific boots, or the current terminal ends... can't say. They're just not working like every other standard plug set I've used before.

I fiddled with mine some more tonight, this time pulling the boot back a few inches and making sure the terminal "clicked" into the distributor cap before sliding the boot back down over it. What I got was front row seat as I watched several of the boots lift off the cap, the only way I could get them to stay was to pull on the plug wire and push the boot down with much force. Obviously this is not acceptable. They must just be taking stock length cables and slapping whatever boots on the application needs vs. installing the correct terminal ends, i'm sure it's cheaper for the bottom line. I'm going the opposite way, I ordered new 90 degree terminals and will be cutting the straight ones off the wire and installing the new angled ones. This is just dumb! Glad you found your issue, this is exactly the type of thing that makes it good to post what we run into keeping these old things on the road. One never knows who could be having the same issue. Thanks for the kind words!

Yup, they used them for decades on everything. I found one for $10 shipped. I almost pulled the trigger on a NOS one from the 70's but it had some corrosion going on. Hopefully the new one I got is of good quality!

Today I pulled the truck out to test the cold start settings on the carb I did last weekend. It really had a hard time starting and just didn't really run smooth. There was a steady rhythmic jerking while parked that just wasn't right, it got worse when I gave it gas. Not the result I was looking for so I was going to call it quits and walked away but then turned 'round and decided to check the plug wires. I figured a cylinder was missing so I started pulling wires off the distributor and found this: Yeahhhhhhhhh.... So this is a set of Motorcraft wires, not some cheap junk. Turns out instead of putting 90 degree ends inside of 90 degree rubber boots they just stuck a straight connector on there and let the wire do the 90 by bending. I found two plug wires that were pulled back into the boot. I know what happened, they got pushed up when installed because they are crammed to one side of the boot instead of sitting in the center like a 90 degree fitting would. These are a struggle to plug in and really feel like they are engaged fully in the cap, they had me fooled. Just more so-so parts for us folks to deal with, how much more would a 90 degree fitting have cost? Surprise, the engine runs much better on 8 cylinders than intermittently on 6 or 7, who knew?! Smoothed right out like nobody's business. I had to reset the idle again as the new constantly firing cylinders upped the rpm's to 1000 at idle, I dropped it to the 800rpm spec and it was still happy. I'll try another cold start this week and see how it does at the factory settings with 8 cylinders firing. One other thing I did was drill a small hole at the lowest point in the muffler to let out moisture. The hole is too small to make a difference in noise or performance but keeps the muffler from rotting out sooner from the inside. I'm at the point where I can start to do some real drives, out of the yard and past the corner stop sign anyway. We'll see how she behaves on a 15 minute drive shortly, followed by a 30 minute trip if that goes well. Baby steps at first, don't want to get really far away from drydock if things go sideways...

Saturday I looked into the fuel gauge which has not worked since I got the truck. I had never put much gas in the tank as it's gone nowhere and only needed to feed the engine recently. I thought i'd put 7 gallons in it and did confirm it was dead. The first thing was to ground the wire from the gauge which will make the gauge read full and eliminate the gauge as the problem. Turned out the gauge was ok and shot right up to full. So out came the sending unit and I discovered the issue... Yup, it's cracked and missing chunks. I've been working on this truck so long I'm starting to forget what I have already looked at and if it needed work or not, lol. I did install a new cork tank gasket like 2 years ago so I don't see how I would have missed the bad float. I took a trip to Tractor Supply as they used to carry floats but no luck, they used to but don't anymore and the current employees where mystified by the object I had brought with me. A further few miles down the road at the auto parts store the computer jockey was also mystified by this brass cylinder and could only assume it went to a fuel pump or carburetor. I came home feeling dumber from the interactions, out of touch with todays parts suppliers, and just ordered one online. Since I had the sender out I popped the cover off and verified the copper brush was tracking correctly. It did need a small adjustment to center it but was ok otherwise. I shined up the wire inside the body also, just to make sure there was no corrosion messing things up and then put it back together. Gotta be careful with those metal tabs, they are fragile! I had to put it back in the tank to keep the gas fumes at bay. When the new float gets here I'll pull it, install, and then put it back... hopefully it works at that point.

I spent the last few days fighting with the drive shaft... I was able to get the support bearing installed and all the u-joints pressed in save for the last one, the problem child that connected to the pinion yoke. While pressing in the u-joints I was very careful to make sure all the needle bearings were in position but I was getting tired near the end of the night. While I made sure the center member slid into either cap when they were in position (before pressing in) I was unable to test that it would seat fully with the cap retainers in the way. When I did go ahead and press them in one cup would not seat fully onto it's crossmember. I immediately suspected a needle bearing had fallen into the cap and pressed the whole thing out one side of the drive shaft to remove it. It was then I realized I had created a chinese puzzle, with the one cap sticking out slightly I couldn't get clearance to remove the u-joint! I couldn't press it back in and I couldn't take the offending cap off in order to get it out, it was so close but no dice. The last option, the only option really, was to cut the cap off with a grinder. Yup, I knew it! I was able to order a new u-joint for free overnight delivery to the store and after picking it up I got the new u-joint in and installed the whole driveshaft. I didn't realize I was out of grease until I went to lube the u-joints so it was back to the store for a tube, lol. I was starting to feel like I was doing home improvements where you have to go to the store 4 times to get the job done but the missing grease was the last bit and it was ready for service. I went for a short drive down the street and indeed the vibration is gone, problem solved. I think it was the support bearing, I didn't find anything wrong with the u-joints but better safe than sorry.

Before I do a serious shakedown run after tuning it good I wanted to get the drive shaft rebuilt and get that nasty vibration fixed. It's a two part drive shaft with a support bearing so it's a little more complicated than usual but not anything crazy. I did some research before removal so I was able to see the pitfalls and avoid issues. The two shaft pieces have to be orientated a certain way, the u joints are in alignment with each other. Incorrect alignment can cause vibration so I made it a point to check orientation before removal in case that was an issue but it's not, the two parts where together correctly. It looks like none of the U-joints or the support bearing has ever been touched and are original so that's a good thing. I had to take the driveshaft apart to measure for the correct parts... The U-joints came out like normal, nothing special. The support bearing on the other hand is a tough customer. I watched some videos of the bearing removal and short of having a press and bearing puller it looked to be a "chop it into bits" with an abrasive wheel type of thing. I did have a gear puller and figured I could make it work if I could give it something to bite on the bearing. I solved this by welding on some tabs after I had removed the bearing retainer and grease cover. The retainer had to be heated and slowly backed off the shaft to gain access to the bearing grease cover. Slow, tedious work but it was nice to save the retainer that I had seen cut up in other removal videos for reinstallation with the new bearing. You can see the tabs I welded on here... The heat from welding helped too, warming the bearing enough to expand it slightly and make removal easy. The old bearing all gone. All the bits disassembled. The new parts should be here Wednesday so I want to clean the shaft ends some and have them ready for reassembly that same night. I also got my brake warning light rebuild kit and special tool so that's on the agenda soon also. It's getting colder and darker so i'm trying to get as much done as I can before Thanksgiving...

The rest of my exhaust bends came in and I finished the exhaust system. I did have an issue with the collector gaskets with one squeezing out on the way to the recommended torque spec. I noticed the passenger side collector gasket looked odd after I torqed it down to 20ftlb as recommended by the Remflex gasket folks. When I mocked up the exhaust I placed spacers in-between the flanges to account for the gasket so it wasn't a lack of space. Before I hooked up the rest of the system I decided to pull the pipe under the engine and examine the gaskets. Glad I did... Yup, it was toast. I did notice the flange on the passenger side pipe had a crown to it around the inside diameter. I ended up filing it some to flatten it out, it could only help. About that time I got a new set of the Remflex gaskets in and reinstalled the unit. This time I did not torque them down, I just went by feel and watched very carefully for any squish out. They ended up staying in place ok, and they don't leak when running so i'll just monitor them and see what happens. Today I took it for a short 1 mile drive... hooray! It behaved well, plenty of power. I did notice that there is a rhythmic vibration when driving, I strongly suspect the drive shaft support bearing as it's non serviceable and looks to be original. I'll pick up the bearing along with U-joints and just replace them all for good measure. Last thing I did before calling it quits was to tune the engine again. I found the timing had shifted and tracked it down to the points which I had neglected to tighten well when I set them originally. Oops! I adjust the idle screws for best vacuum and set the idle at 800rpm as per the shop manual for an automatic. With that done I set the choke and it's "fast idle" cam that kicks the throttle up to 1400rpm when engaged. Good enough for tonight...