I don't sell Amsoil but I may try it locally. I have been using Amsoil since the 80's, it's a great product. I have been using Amsoil in my T-Bird for many years and my newer Monte Carlo and my 65 F-100
I purchased my F-100 from a guy that hasn't driven it for over 11 years because of health problems from back operations. I had it towed home on a flatbed right after 4th of July. The PO told me it had a steering problem and there was another steering box that went with the truck.
First things first, the gas tank. Removed it and about gagged from the smell, 1/4 tank of really old bad gas and gunk at the bottom. I took the tank over to the radiator shop where they cleaned it out for me. I also purchased new gas tank parts like the sending unit, clamps and the big rubber hose plus a new locking gas cap. Meanwhile I changed the oil and all the filters except for the fuel pump filter. They were just corroded so badly I removed the pump and covered the hole with a plate then I installed a NAPA electric fuel pump and a filter before the pump and also before the carb. One notable thing, after setting for all those years when I removed the radiator cap to check the fluid it still had pressure in the radiator as it released pressure with a hiss and it was full of the green stuff! Installed a new battery so I was anxious to start the big FE engine to see if it was a good one. Well, I kid you not I turned on the fuel pump, sprayed in a shot of Amsoil MP in the carb, set the choke and it roared to life, just like it was parked yesterday. I warmed it up and checked for leaks, no leaks anywhere not even from the carb. The PO told me he had a rebuilt engine installed in place of the original 352. It's a 390 car engine with the good heads C4AE for nice compression and a car intake manifold. The engine has a nice healthy rumbling idle with the dual exhaust.
All fired up, ready to drive over to the gas station to fill the tank so I put the NP-435 into reverse and backed it out of the driveway and when I went to straighten out the steering I heard a loud pop and the steering wheel just spun around almost freely only with clicks. Not good! I got it back into the driveway to examine the problem. The PO had installed a GM steering column with tilt. Looked OK but they didn't engineer the installation because they took the Double D end of the shaft and just jammed in into the rag joint where it finally wore out.
Perfect time to convert to power steering, that's where the fun begun. I located a rebuilt PS pump and bracket for an FE from a 73 but the PS box was for a 4X4 so I only bought the pump and the guy threw in a A/C mounting bracket with the idler pulley, good score! Still looking for a box and steering column Rich contacted me so we met up and I purchased the PS box and some other goodies and he threw in a shorter 4 speed column. The biggest pain was the engine perch on the drivers side, I found one in a wrecking yard and got the perch, crankshaft pulley and some other goodies from a 72 F-250. I had to lift the engine to change the perch so I used my cherry picker instead of jacking up the engine at the pan, that worked great. I replaced the exhaust gasket and donut also. The crankshaft pulley was still not the right one so I went searching. The pulley I got from the 73 FE was a 360 and the groves were not in the right position for the PS and it would not bolt right up. Strange but true. That's when I called Rich and told him the problem. I took the pulleys over to compare with his fleet of F-100's. That's when I discovered I had a car engine in the truck, no C5TE's anywhere except the exhaust manifolds, COOL! After a couple of bouts on eBay and a craigs list search I found the double groove water pump pulley, in fact the guy had 2 pulleys, a big around one and a slightly smaller on from a 427 (he had lots of 427 parts) so I bought both. I was still searching for the crank pulley so I located a 3 groove from a mustang guy, he had a 3 groove pulley from a 428 CJ that fit the thicker harmonic balancer so that's what I did I replaced the harmonic balancer and it all lined up and is working great.
Now the power steering, I used new hoses that fit a 72 and they work great and fit correctly. The PS box is the big Ford Saginaw from a 69 unit, no problems mounting after I changed the engine perch. The steering column shaft that rich gave me had the rag joint connector cut off flush, no problem because I have a spare column that was too long but had a good shaft. Too eliminate any safety concerns I elected to use a Helix U-Joint instead of the rag joint. I took the short shaft over to the machine shop and he machined a Double-D on the end with a groove for the set screw. He did a nice job.
Now to mount the column, first we installed the newly upholstered seat with the Ford logo embossed. Nice upholstery I bought from Rich (he has the same one also) and I took it to Fonseca's Auto Upholstery and he stripped the frames, painted them and used all new material inside. He did a fantastic job, the seat is the nicest looking thing on the truck! With the seat installed in goes the column with wheel. It slipped right in, u-joint lined up perfectly. I propped the column and wheel up against the dash with a length of 2X4 and that's when I discovered the column was still way too long. The steering wheel was pressed into my chest so tightly I couldn't take it for a test drive. Guess I didn't engineer that correctly. So, a trip to the local Hot Rodders Speed Shop and bought a new FLAT, no dish steering wheel and adapter kit. I popped the old wheel off and it has about a 4" dish so I gained 4 inches and I was now behind the wheel but it was still close, like a NASCAR wheel, not comfortable for a pick up truck. I called the local hot rod fabrication shop in town and took the column over to them and they are going to shorten it 3 1/2 more inches. I must say that after all that trouble the power steering works great, lock to lock, no binds or anything. Happy Camper.
I ended up purchasing a good running 72 FE 360 that had some speed equipment on it and the price was right. Got a set of Hedman headers and MSD ignition components including coil, wires cap etc. I also used the thicker harmonic balancer from this engine. I'll put the headers on at a later date.
Reminds me of Johnny Cash's song " One Piece At A Time" I got a 65 66 69 72 73 pieces on my truck.
I'll just keep on upgrading parts, how about that new aluminum cab and bed, think it would fit?
Looking forward to a good intelligent forum.
Larry
from Georgia!
