Freightrain

Ugh, I remember repairing my LF spring a few years back and the torture I went through getting that insulator back in. Granted I had the whole truck to push up on, but it was still a PITA. Had to make sure I didn't cross thread the bolts or crack the castings!!

I can remember going to lawn equipment shows at the local mall and gathering up all the literature available for the models I liked back in the late 70's. It all got pitched years ago, but it would be neat to see it now. Being a "Ford" guy, I should be collecting Ford tractors instead of Cub Cadets? I had a '66 Cub 100 growing up. Have a 127 and 149 now. We had a "Monkey Wards" at the one mall in town. It's all gone, just like Sears has now.

Yikes. I lost a rag joint in my '70 F100 many years back. Was backing into the driveway, just about got it straightened out and woosh... the wheel just kept spinning. Ya, another lucky steering moment!

Oh, Jim...if you only knew....LOL!!! Two weeks ago, I went to Magnolia(same track as above picture) and did a little test and tune. What started out as a good day, turned for the worse. I made a first pass for a baseline and started adjusting rear shock settings to see what I could do. As I tightened up the rebound setting, every pass got a better 60ft. I was smiling, as this track is typically not the best hooking track(thus I figured if I could get it hooking there I would be even better elsewhere). As it got better, it was carrying the front end farther, BUT, it was pulling to the left. So, as the front end would settle down on the track, I would have to give it some right hand steering to get it back in the groove. For the 4th pass I had run out of adjustments in the back, so I loosened up the front shocks....a lot(first mistake). As I pulled out of the waterbox, the tires bit and the front end snapped up hard. Hmmmm. I said to myself "Well I do have wheelie bars, so I'll be okay"(second mistake). The lights came down and I let it fly. Literally. It went vertical on me right now....as it veered left. I had a split second to decide the fate. I quickly shifted into second to load the motor and try to bring it down quicker. I also kinda pedaled the power too. Just a bit too much(third mistake). The car came down..........HARD!! I mean real HARD. Though it did save it from ending up in the grass and heading for the old Armco guardrail. At the ET shack I noticed a rattling noise(my electric fan chewing into my radiator). I get back to the trailer and assess the damage. The fan broke off the radiator, thus chewing holes in it. Done. The oil pan was now concave worse then it ever has been, along with the headers(which were mashed up from years ago). I load it back into the trailer and head home. I get it in the garage and pull the engine. I couldn't trust how close the oil pickup was to the bottom of the pan(after being punched in) and I didn't want to chance harming my new motor. I got a new pan and radiator. I swapped everything around, made a new more secure way to mount the fan to the radiator. My buddy and I also fab'd up a "bumpstop" on the frame crossmember to absorb the hits instead of motor parts. I used a shorter pan, so that won't be an issue anymore, but when I build new front header pipes this winter I want to try to keep them around. They are D shaped, plus up by the heads they are kinked pretty bad. If you look closely at the headers, you'll notice a white block in the middle. That's my nylon wear block. I also lowered the wheelie bars down about 5" so they hit much sooner, keeping the front end height down to a safer level. I still need to do some chassis adjustments because I was hitting the bars so hard it was lifting the back end of the car up off the tires a bit too much. The race was called before I could anything else. Ah, the joy of drag racing!!!!

Well the second stick race is in the books. Not much to say about it, as it was called off during second round due to a major oil down that the track didn't want to deal with that late on a Sunday night. I had won my second round, so I was making my way to the winners circle one round at a time. Ugh. Did have a photographer getting good shots though.

Fellow on JOT was just commenting about his fleetstar and how 2 cyl were under the hood, 2 under the dash, and 2 in the cab.

Wow.....to be out west where even old worn out stuff still looks brand new?

^^That was going to be my question. Might not be enough first gear to creep around in or back up in tight spaces without riding the clutch.

My doctor of the last 20 sum years retired, I had to meet a new one this past spring. Nice guy. He told me he wished all his patients were like me. I told him he would be out of a job!!! My CDL physical is due, so that is where I get my basic health check up every 2 yrs.

Nice find on the dump truck! Welcome aboard. That 285 will move that down the road easily. As for shifting? With that engine, you won't have to worry about splitting gears much. Just drive it like a 5 spd for the most part when empty. Just try to keep the RPM's above 1500 or so. Even with my 237 hp and Triplex, it will let you know when you are trying to run it down a bit too much on RPM. Just have to mind your manners and listen to see if the transmission starts "talking" to you. The whole issue is these old boxes are SINGLE countershaft and all the newer stuff are double or triple countershaft. Those will put up with the low end grunt put out by these types of motors due to the fact the power is split up by multiple shafts. The old Quad box will just spit parts out! The engine number is on the top/front of the accessory drive casting(in front of the pump and access hole)

Dan Thomas owns the Aussie truck. I sat in it at York. He also had it at Lexington. Very cool piece.

Very solid looking truck. Welcome aboard!

In today's cars, they use ATF in the 5-6 spds. They have to due to all the needle bearings. Gear lube would never squeeze through those tiny areas. Old Spicer boxes needed engine oil for similar reasons. I suppose if the box was new enough it would be okay? If it was "loose", it would likely rattle and bang around from the extra clearance from the thinner fluid. I'm ready to mix some oats in my triplex to help fill in the gaps and quiet it down!! Lol.

Wow, someone wanted that thing filtered to the max! I know the lower oil filter is a Luberfiner, my guess is the lower gas filter is too by the looks of it. I know that stock oil filter is not a full flow filter, but don't know what they called it(bypass?)? My 673 had the full flow and it has three lines on it, not just two.

Using the original switch, you should be able to operate it and see what makes contact in "start" or "acc" position. The wire with 12v to it should be the battery. There is another website, www.ford-truck.com and it has a big truck forum. They have a few parts guys that have access to micro fiche and factory information. You may have some luck there if you can't figure it out.

It is a cut throat industry. I just talked with my new State farm agent. Nice guy. I had issues with my Condon-Skelly I use for 69 F100 and black galaxie. He beat them with coverage and cost. He did speak of some agents just not wanting to do legwork for insurance on some vehicles. I couldn't get coverage years ago for these two from S-F, now this agent has no problem. Hmmmm. My wagon and trailer are through Hagerty.

Well, I got to play this weekend. Went to TNT Friday and spent the night and ran Saturdays program. Car ran well, not quite the numbers I was hoping but there is some carb tuning needed. It is running a bit rich, so once I lean it down it should pick up some. It is going .1 quicker in 1\8 mile, but not picking up in the 1\4. But it is not running rich until the 1\8 mark....thus the fall off. Did go three rounds on Sat. Was having troubles finding the tree(cutting a good light) with being my first time out in 8 months. Did go .002 second round so I know I can do it!! In all had a great time. Got absolutely roasted from the blinding sun. It was brutally bright out. No complaints though. Track photographer should have pics posted soon.

Loaded and ready. Ugh, what a bunch of work...washing, cleaning, swapping vehicles, getting B out to move trailer. I'm whipped.

Well, i brought it home Friday afternoon, got an early start today and it's in the car and running by noon! Got some tidying up to do, wash the car and get it loaded up tomorrow? Hope to tnt it next Friday to see what it will do and be ready for the race on the 27th.

Car is 3820 by itself. When "we" determined I had to put a big roller stick in it I knew my vintage Dove rockers would not survive. TD was the only real option, but heard it would be 3-4 weeks. Ugh. They showed up in 10 days from the day I called!!! Sweet. Those old Dove parts lasted 20 carefree years on my old flat tappet cam. Just need to work on getting this new found power to the ground.

We have a convoy cruise next weekend to offset the loss of our show. We are picking up food donations for Ashland food bank and returning to the fairgrounds to drop them off. Hope for sunny weather? We have had spectacular weather the last few weekends. That tip turbine makes me jealous!!

I finally dynoed my new engine last weekend. Really snowballed to more then I really wanted to put onto it. 496 FE, trick flow heads, roller cam, TD rockers, tunnel wedge 2x4 intake with 2 600 holleys. Made 665 hp at 6600, 630 ft lb at 4000 rpm. Car went 10.69@125 last year, it should see 10.4's? Hope to install it this weekend. First stick race is june 27. Really wanting to get behind the wheel again!

Not sure what that 3 cable thing is? A picture would help. Im guessing a later model truck? Sounds like it was losing battery power, thus shutting down. Must have lost alternator line too due to that bad connection.

A one piece nose would make it impossible for me to work on my truck in the garage since the stall is only as long as the truck!! Its a PITA as is, but at least I can work on it. Those Clariben hoods with quad lights are not my cup of tea. That stock looking hood is nice.

That 41 Willy's I helped build a few years back has the interior custom built by an amish guy. Crazy nice and way cheaper then any local upholstery shops. He had a 2-3 year waiting list.