36 Ford truck on Ranger

Rat Rods Rule

Help Support Rat Rods Rule:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
I saw on the news some would be carjackers couldn't complete the act because they didn't know how to drive a stick.
 
Both of my daughters learned on standard transmissions early in life. They both had stickshift cars and the youngest one hauled a lot of grain in several different 'standard trans' grain trucks. So, then I sent her out to work in the Kenworth a few times when I was short staffed. She always came back alive, eventually, ---- but with wild stories that made her mother shudder.
 
Pops, I'm sure she told those stories, [with some truth in them] just for her mothers benefit. Her mother would shudder, [loudly, sometimes] and scowl at me. Luckily, I'm a generous Dad and I gave her more opportunities to hone her skills.
 
Yesterday I took the '36 to town on a test-drive. The only hiccup was after I was parked, facing uphill in a parking lot. Then I remembered that these Ford 'Holley look-alike' carbs cannot be slanting back at all or the gas in the bowl syphons into the throat and floods the motor.
Overall, though the test-drive was a success. [cl
 
Thanks Guys.
You are right Joe, but I really, really wanted three deuces and a lumpy cam, so I have to learn to overcome the hardships.
I must like punishment, because I have 'three deuce' intakes already set up with carbs for the next two builds. :eek::D
The farthest one is for a flathead and already on the '36.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_1762.jpg
    IMG_1762.jpg
    126.2 KB · Views: 15
Last edited:
Our hotrod season is over for the year, so I pulled the '36 into the shop. Early in the summer the speedometer quit working so I started taking it apart to diagnose the problem. Probably an broken speedo cable and possible wrecked housing. I unhooked the top end and turned the speedometer head by hand and it worked nicely, good. The top end of the cable felt alright to me, Hmmm, [first pic]. I undid the bottom end of the cable, and it felt good too, Oh, Oh, [pic two]. Once I pulled out the cable and checked it I found it , as good as gold. Then I pulled out the drive mechanism and tested it, nothing the matter, OH, Oh. So I reached in through the speedo drive hole in the extension housing with one finger and tried to turn the plastic gear on the output shaft. This was really hard to do and also very hard to determine whether your finger is slipping on the oily plastic spiral gear, or your finger is actually turning the gear on the output shaft. I guessed the latter. Now I have to take the extension housing off the main case and move the plastic gear back and check the clip that holds it in place. Pic three is all of the stuff taken off to facilitate the removal of the extension housing.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_2965.jpg
    IMG_2965.jpg
    59.7 KB · Views: 16
  • IMG_2964.jpg
    IMG_2964.jpg
    119.8 KB · Views: 16
  • IMG_2967.jpg
    IMG_2967.jpg
    138.4 KB · Views: 19
You know how good mystery novels have a couple of twists near the end, well, here's some plot twists. I got the extension housing off and slid the speedo drive gear back off the hold down clip. The clip was just fine and the gear was not spinning on the shaft. So I put the gear back in it's place and started looking a way closer at the things I'd already checked. When I wiped all of the oil off of the driven gear, I found it had two teeth worn shorter, so the worm drive gear would spin not turning the driven gear. All of that removal work for nothing. Then I went into town to find a set of plastic gears, maybe 10% faster, No sweat, Eh. Wrong Mistake. I guessed that the partsman would ask for the numbers of the transmission so I gave them to him. Then he wanted to know the rear-end numbers. I gave them. Oh Oh, an 87 Chevy transmission driving an 85 Ford Ranger rear-end, no, no, no. What's the speedo head?, Well that's a 1936 Ford. What's the speedometer cable? Boy I don't remember, a '79 Mustang I think. "And you want us to find you parts for that, that will make your speedometer read right."
Sometimes, I don't know when to get on my knees and clasp my hand together, or get 'wordy'. So I said, "See I'm trying to also convert my speedo to Kilometers per hour, too."
The partsman said he'd keep looking around. ::confused:rolleyes:
 
After lallygagging around, getting my yard and driveway ready for winter and visiting my distant daughter, I got back at the truck.
The picture is the back of the transmission with the extension housing off. I was going to take another pic off things put back together, but I never got that far, and then Hallowe'en hit.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_2968.jpg
    IMG_2968.jpg
    108.9 KB · Views: 14
After waiting for parts, and abandoning this poor '36 truck for a long time, I got very aggressive, [I almost raised my voice]. I waited for three and a half months, almost patiently for my speedometer drive gears, then went back to the partsman who had promised on several occasions that my parts were on the way, and asked if he would track the parts while I listened. After shuffling lots of papers and phoning here and there, he discovered that he hadn't ordered the parts. AAARGHAA, this is where I was thinking of raising my voice. With shocking pleasantness I asked him to order the parts now that he was talking to the right partsman to do the job. Ten days later, I got the parts. [pic one].
I had started to put the transmission back together a long time ago so now I took it apart again. [pic two].
 

Attachments

  • IMG_3049.jpg
    IMG_3049.jpg
    95.5 KB · Views: 10
  • IMG_3050.jpg
    IMG_3050.jpg
    121.7 KB · Views: 9

Latest posts

Back
Top