36 Ford truck on Ranger

[willyD]

I sure do like your truck too! Good find on the bent axle! That would have been hard to run down if someone hadn't pointed out the slight wobble to the wheel!

 

[BlueNorther]

sounds like some time in it's life, it got slid into a curb a bit.

 

[DozerII]

Glad you found the problem, you could have been chasing that one for a long time.

 

[MercuryMac]

Thanks guys. Yes I could have been chasing that for a long time, I already have a couple of years into it and a lot of money.
Blue, I'm sure it's curb rash. My donor truck was beat up pretty badly by the P.O.. It looked like he kicked every tin panel in and ran into lots of snow banks. His girlfriend then took a Magic Marker and wrote little inscriptions on each ding, almost as if she was as proud as he was at his careless, rough, stupid and pointless atrocities.

 

[smallfoot]

Ya say he was a "pinball wizard"?

 

[MercuryMac]

Ya, a pinball wizard.
Well I spent most of the afternoon learning that I can't straighten a bent axle until it's real nice. I got it down to a third as bad as it was, but wasn't gaining anymore and at one point the axle shot out towards me and hit me mostly in the knee pad, but not quite all in the PPE. A new axle is coming in on the noon stage, [in the next couple of weeks].

 

[MercuryMac]

Well, the new axle came in and I got back to fixing. I have taken the old studs out of the bent axle and hammered them into the new one. The new studs were too long, and would reach right through the one inch spacer that I have on there, so I would have had to saw them all off.
The backing plate is back on and the wheel seal is yanked out, but the wheel bearing is really stuck in there.

 

[Torchie]

Seems like it would take more than curb rash to bend that axle. I had one on my GMC panel but the donor chassis had been in a roll over.
It took me a while to figure out it was just slightly bent because it kept going thru axle seals on that side only.
Getting hit in the knee sounds like something I would do Mac......Only I'd do it worse.[ddd
Torchie

 

[Old Iron]

[P[P[P

 

[MercuryMac]

It turns out that when you get hit in the knee with a flying axle, your thinking changes. I no longer wanted to fix my old axle, I wanted to buy a new one. Also, I found out, there is nothing funny about getting bashed in the funny bone until you're sweating with pain.

 

[Old Iron]

I found out, there is nothing funny about getting bashed in the funny bone until you're sweating with pain.

[cl [ddd

 

[MercuryMac]

I got back at fixing again. Here's a picture of the brakes back on and the axle in, with the horseshoe clip slipped in.
Anyhow, I finished up the differential pinion gears, shaft and lock, tin rear-end plate, and brake drum, spacer and wheel.
On the test drive I found that I had fixed my vibration somewhat, which leaves me somewhat satisfied. There is a very fine little vibration in the gearshift and emergency brake handle, yet.

 

[MercuryMac]

I tackled the headlights yesterday. When I set them up initially, I set them on low beam and naively assumed that the high beams would be just a little higher.--------Wrong mistake.
These are Halogen conversions which sounds cool but didn't work out as I dreamed. Low beam was really good and the highs were flood light that wasn't directed at all. I could hunt owls on high beam, but couldn't see a way down the road.
There was nothing to indicate top or bottom on the concave reflector or the bulb, so I may have put them in upside down, I thought. I turned the pictured light up-side down, rewired it, and adjusted it down a little. The other light bulb seemed to be in corner-ways so I rotated it 60 degrees. Now I'll have to test my changes when it starts getting dark again at night. This may sound like bragging but, I can't test headlights now before midnight because it's too light out.

 

[MercuryMac]

I fixed a couple of things yesterday. The first one was changing the pinion angle yet again, with considerable success. The transmission output shaft and the pinion shaft are as parallel as I can get them. I'm 99% happy now about the vibrations.
The second one was the ring gear on the flywheel, which was coming forward off the flywheel. When it's too far forward the ring gear rubs on the lower tin dust cover when I step on the clutch. This is the second time this has happened, so I assumed that I was shooting myself in the foot, without learning anything. Pain is supposed to teach you not to do that again.
I have developed a theory on why the ring gear keeps coming off. Remember back a while ago when I was crowing about putting 12V through a 6V starter and not hurting the starter, well, I'm sticking with that statement, but----- the starter now hits the ring gear so hard that it eventually pulls it forward so that the ring get touching the tin dust shield. The starter sure does turn that old flatty over nicely, but it's a little rough engaging. Food for thought!

 

[DozerII]

Glad to see your getting the bugs worked out. Makes sense what your thinking on the starter.

 

[Old Iron]

Set the ring gear in position and tack weld it to the flywheel with 4 weld beads 90 deg apart an inch long. It will not cause any engine balance problems.
Problem solved

 

[smallfoot]

Is your ring gear just sweated on with your flywheel setup? If so, get it where you want it and weld the ring gear on huh?

 

[smallfoot]

Sorry Old Iron, I started my post at the same time and mosied off somewhere while the post hadn't been replied to yet...but that's the idea I had too!

 

[Old Iron]

[cl
Quick draw [ddd

 

[earthman]

We'll require a driving video soon. [cl