Big Red 69

[flyboy71]

Coolness. Im on the edge of my seat. Please enlighten us with further progress quite hastily.

[TNIceWolf]

Thanks for all the replies......am honestly impressed that the old girl has generated this much interest.
Now to answer some questions and bring this closer to up dated.
Flatbedford was correct in his guess. The fronts were actually a little worse than the rears..........but they got the same exact treatment and new flexible brake hoses as well. I did the right front first and then the left. On the left I finally found the cause of the rock hard pedal and no improved braking even with all the repairs. What it boiled down to is that the wheel cylinder on that side was frozen. If I am reading my hunches right........this created a static lock of brake fluid in the line that prevented the master cylinder from activating any of the three other wheels..................and since that one wouldnt move anyway.........I am lucky to be alive or having avoided being sued for causing a lethal accident. Make a note here guys..........be SURE to inspect and maintain your brakes on those all drum systems.......the results could be deadly.
At last though I was finally able to enjoy the feeling of setting my foot on the whoa pedal and feeling a response......what a relief!!!!!!!!!

As to the question about the cruise control components.......the answer is no. There is nothing else there except the wheel itself. The column is the one that is the correct type for the year of truck.

[TNIceWolf]

Now to cover the wheels and tires.
I had kept track of my costs as I went through the process of aquiring this truck and doing what few repairs I had been able to afford over the roughly four years I had owned it at this point. The results were rather dismal to say the least. I had a truck that still had a lot of work that needed done to it and had invested about four thousand five hundred dollars in puchasing it and parts to do the repairs that I had done myself. Those little pieces and parts purchases here and there really add up over time.
But I judged it worth it at this point because it hadnt really hit my wallet all at once.
So having managed to arrange a nicely rolling and more importantly....stopping.... vehicle.....I turned my attention to what I thought was the next major problem keeping me from just jumping in it.....firing it up....and driving it with few worries of a breakdown.... the wheels and tires.
I knew this was going to get a little expensive. My initial estimate was more than a little off though.
Here's a shot of one of the original wheels and tires that I started with.

What I had discovered in my work so far was that some alterations had been attempted in this area with mixed results by some previous owner.
After some discussion with the guys in the garage at the local CO-OP I decided I knew what needed done. Here is a pic that pretty much shows what was going on.....

What I had was a mix of three different types of wheels on this thing.
I had two of the original split ring style wheels the truck left the factory with mounted to the inner sides of the rear duals.
Three of the proper replacement style beveled type one piece steel wheels. Two mounted to the outside of the rear duals....which allowed for the proper fit of the stainless steel wheel covers that were on it when I bought it. And one on the right front.
The third type was on the left front. It was a one piece steel replacement wheel all right, but had the totally flat non beveled bolt mounting surface that was incorrect for my vehicle.

What was needed for the truck was seven correct wheels and seven new tires.
That would give me a good set of tires so I could have a good solid front end inspection and alignment done and one reliable spare.
Heres how I had to go about affording it.

On the left rear of the truck I had two new tires with less than 300 miles on them I had already purchased due to a flat tire. All I needed was two good wheels to mount them on and I could install those on the front. So it was off to CO-OP to purchase two of the three beveled wheels they had in stock. A quick stop by the car wash to wash off what looked like years of accumulated dust and I made a stop at the local TSC looking for a matching gray spray paint to paint the wheels already on the truck to match. No exact match to be found of course....so I bought the next darkest shade I could find. Back to the house with the wheels and paint and it was time to scuff and repaint......two down and five to go. That Saturday I loaded up the two wheels and tires from the truck and the two new painted wheels and headed off to my favorite tire shop.
Here's what I brought home......

What else I brought home was one two piece wheel.... inner tube.... and liner which were of no use to me...and one correct style one piece wheel that needed some serious cleaning and painting.Having used up that weeks paycheck that was available after bills I spent the next week cleaning and painting the wheel I could salvage and waiting on the next payday hoping no one had yet claimed the last wheel gathering dust at CO-OP.
Come payday... I dashed to the bank and snagged the last wheel ...and made the arrangements to order a fourth.I was told it would be at least a week before it arrived but I had plenty to do..... so that weekend I did some work.
I pulled the remaining wheels and tires early Saturday morning and once again headed to the tire shop to have everything broken down......the following week was spent cleaning and painting the 4 useable wheels as I waited on my next paycheck and my monthly kicker check from the military. That payday I went and got the final wheel from CO-OP and dashed home to get it painted and ready for the final trip to the tire store.........I thought.
Come Saturday it was off to the tire shop again and my collection looked like this.........

The only thing that went awry was that the cost of the final wheel from CO-OP was a lot more than the three previous ones.......some thirty dollars. So I saved it for use as a spare and had to wait to get that final spare tire. One more trip to the tire shop... but no real big deal. After that trip I finally got around to adding up costs again...jeez.....no wonder I was broke.

Three new wheels at 100 dollars each...
One new wheel at 130 dollars.....(ouch)....
Two new tires........the ones on it that I hadnt included in costs so far......120 dollars each...
Five new tires at 110 dollars each.......
The paint to make them all match.....65 dollars....
Then I figured in the cost of the alignment.......another 80 dollars......

Thats 1,305.00......sometimes I wonder if it's worth it.........but god I love driving that thing!!!!!!!!!

One more small post this morning and it's finally time to start in on the engine.

[FLATBEDFORD]

Thats 1,305.00......

And that's why my flatbed is still riding on split rims with tubes, and bias ply tires. I even have six correct one piece wheels. I just don't have the cash on hand for six tires, especially when the bias plys still have so much tread on them.

Nice work. Your making that old truck like new.

[TNIceWolf]

Thanks Flatbedford..........coming from you that means a lot to me.
Stick around for the in frame overhaul.....it could get interesting.

[TNIceWolf]

Just to get as much as possible up to date here I thought I would throw in these three pics before I begin the saga of the great overhaul against all the rules.

Heres one of the new steering wheel I chose for it.....by the time I used my rewards card at Auto Zone it was a 60.00 wheel and kit.........gotta love it........



Heres a pic of the shifter knob I chose to go with it.........



and just for giggles.....here's one of the odometer.......



Well so much for that.....
On to the long awaited.....(in my case years) .......engine overhaul.......
Let the games begin!!!!!!

[TNIceWolf]

Let me begin this post by saying.......this is my most anticipated and dreaded part of the project to date.

In February of 2009 a very special lady came into my life. And when she did it really became imperitive that Red be running at her best in mid September of this year. The reason being that it is now needed to make a roughly 3,000 mile trip in less than five days from East Tennessee to Missouri..... from there to Kansas....back to Missouri.....and then back home...to fetch her remaining belongings. And that is the only time I will be able to use my aquired vacation days from work.
Needless to say I was under the gun here..........

I did have some warning however and around the first of the year I was able to aquire some parts from a local junkyard. I wont say they were primo by any means. But I was able to aquire a 4BBl cast iron intake manifold......a set of good exhaust manifolds.... and a set of heads from a dent that were part number D2TEAA for 75.00.

That at least gave me a base for the engine overhaul I had in mind.
I spent the next six months aquiring engine parts as I could afford them and having the junkyard parts cleaned .... checked.....and machined and here is what I have to start the overhaul with.........


The heads already have in them the seals from the gasket kit and a set of valve springs that were reccomended for the camshaft and lifters.
And here is a pic of the rod and main bearings I neglected to include in the above pic...



Now I am not going to even try to build some monster engine here.......just refresh an old reliable work horse.........so I would appreciate any comments or suggestions to that end anyone has.
Thanks for sticking with it so far.......tommorrow we tear down.

[1971ford]

nice! where did you get that wheel!?
edit: oops i see you got it at autozone

[71PA_Highboy]

I don't know your skill set, so please don't be offended if the below sound simplistic or insulting....

Make sure it is a standard volume oil pump... it will save you leaks and oil down the road.

Get a new oil pump drive shaft - I like precision pumps billet shaft (~$15).

Use a purolator oil filter. never a Fram.

While the foam air cleaners are nice Bling, get a real paper filter for longetivity.

Get the studs in the exhaust manifold while you are waiting for paint to dry.

Use lots of anti-sieze on the Ex. manifold bolts.

Have the exhaust side of the heads and the exhaust manifolds resurfaced, then when reassembling use no gasket - only Walker Exhaust sealer.

Use a decent torque wrench.

be vey careful putting on the intake... use a cherry picker if necessary to insure it goes on straight and doesn't move the gasket.

A new water pump may be a good idea, along with a new thermostat.

Just a few ideas.

Good luck!

Eric

[TheDarkOne]

Seeing it itemized out like this sure puts all those parts I have watched you accumulate into perspective. Truck looks better in person tho . Whenever your ready for the cherrypicker just holler at me.

[TNIceWolf]

A quick update here...........

Nothing is going as planned as usual.............work and life in general get in the way sometimes. But I did make some small progress tonight.

I figured it was a good time to highlight some of what Highboy pointed out here. So here is a shot of the painted new water pump and the oil pump driveshaft.




I figure I am almost two weeks behind schedule now so it's gonna take a big push to get caught back up. I am used to setbacks in a project but I swear....it is frustrating...........nothing to do from here but bite the bullet.............grab ahold...............and wrangle it back where I need it to be.

I will be cleaning and painting or refurbishing parts as I go during the teardown. I am hoping that will save me some hours when it is time to reassemble.

[71PA_Highboy]

Do you have a ring groove cleaner?

Since you didn't mention taking out the tranny I assume you are leaving the crank in? Be careful with the rear main. If you go to a rubber seal instead of the rope seal, make sure you drive out the locating pin in the main cap.

Keep everything clean and you should be OK..

Best of luck!

Eric

[TNIceWolf]

Thanks again there Highboy.....That pin could have stumped me.

As far as the groove cleaner I do have one.....however.......since I am way under budget on machine work............I allowed 500 dollars for that......and have spent 265....I am planning on taking the pistons and rods in for a detailed cleaning and blasting. No sense doing the cleaning myself if the money is in the budget eh? Plus the machinist might spot some flaw I myself might totally ignore.

I bought all three sizes of plastiguage to guide the bearing installs. Not a crank out job to be sure........and definately a cleaning hassle.......but the only option I have due to the landlords rules.

I am wondering however about the wisdom of springing for the overbudget on the parts and going with new core plugs where accessible and possibly new engine mounts. I figured my budget at 1200 minimum.....with the possibility of 1500 for parts..........so I DO have some wiggle room there as well.......plus the money from certain core returns.

Once again....many thanks for your well thought out points. If I can ever possibly help you in any way......dont hesitate to ask.

[rjewkes]

going good there. I too had to work wth constraints, this was however from the city and not the landlord. Seems this city had a problem with people having 2 or more dead cars rotting in public view, and instead of being half intelligent about it they wrote a blanket law. you don't even get 1 day unlless you beg for five.

as for cleaning the internals up any better i'm thinking once its all back together and running you could run a cleaning oil in it to clean the lossest stuff off of it all, and then flush the coolant real good.

[TNIceWolf]

Well tonight has been consumed by payday activities so I'll post a reply and call it a night.

I do remember reading about the odd size freeze plugs but wasnt alert enough to note the exact size.......maybe it will pop up again soon.

As far as budgets and timelines.......nearly a decade in the Army taught me just how much those were worth..............it costs what it costs and it happens when it happens and damn the hopelessly optimistic expectations.

As far as a distributor there is a reman replacement in the parts pile. The points and condensor are already in it and preset as bought.....the cap , rotor, wires, and Motorcraft plugs have less than 500 miles on them so I will take a chance on those. Depending on what I find on inspection of course.

The flywheel ring gear I gave a close inspection when I replaced the starter......I couldnt find any real flaws and cranking smoothly has only been a problem when either the starter or battery was shot.I have what I believe is a NP435 trans by the way hooked to a Dana 70 which I think is running a 4.11 gearset.

I think I did the brakes first because of being stationed in Germany. We had to brake test each wheeled vehicle on a brake test machine....( sort of a reverse wheel dyno) .... every three months whether it had been driven or not. That kind of drove home the point that go aint worth a crap without the whoa. It goes without saying that the brakes on a tracked vehicle were held to an even higher standard.

That should be enough rambling for one night....thanks again for the interest.