36 Ford truck on Ranger

[MercuryMac]

I've got some honest to goodness progress to tell you about, today, not just the mindless drivel I've been peddling lately. I got a pinion seal, because the rear-end seems to not like the small amount of work it had to do in the test drives, so it's dripping on the floor. My clutch linkage is hooked up and adjusted, with a different spring to keep the clutch free-play right. The pedal pivoting bracket has it's forward brace back on. One exhaust pipe is bolted back on to the header. I then took the Ford speedo cable out of there and installed the Chevy one. It looks to me like the whole lefthand side of the transmission is back together again. That feels good.

 

[MercuryMac]

Today, the right side of the transmission caught my attention. The emergency brake is installed and adjusted, the battery cables are in and bolted down, the starter cable is tightened up, and [Whoa, sufferin' sucatash, I just noticed in the pictures that there is a dangling ground strap hanging from the frame.] Anyhow, I did up the exhaust pipe to the header on this side and filled the transmission with oil. The engine never had a filter on it, before, so I installed a remote partial flow spin-on filter when I was building, so now I thought I should change oil before many hours are on it. I could really read the dipstick easily, [not usually a good sign], and you guessed right , the oil was gross black. I dumped it out and changed the filter. [Note to myself] Change oil soon again.

 

[MercuryMac]

I now have finished the oil change and done up the ground strap from the frame to the motor. The driveshaft is taken off again and I'm making a wrench to hold the U-joint flange while I undo the pinion nut [pic 1].
My day had quite a bit of horizontal happenings [remember that's not the same as my life going sideways]. I traded away a '66 truck cab to a friend and got some goodies for future projects [pic 2; sorry about the fog, the camera frosted over going outside and I didn't realize what went wrong soon enough]. He is redoing his Dad's big block '68 Dodge truck. While the friend was here and I still had the tractor running, with the ginpole still on it we decided to fish the old original Super Bee 383 out of the shed it's been hidden in for 33 years, [pic 3]. I will now take it to town and try to get our best engine builder to massage it. The Super Bee is a near future project for those of you who just tuned in.

 

[Snake Farm]

Sounds like you are about ready to hit the road again........might want to put a plow on that thing though

That Dodge cab brings back memories for me, my neighbor had one about that year in the early 70's......same color....and he swapped in the running gear from a Power Wagon and built a 4x4 out of it.

 

[MercuryMac]

Hi Snake Farm. It's coming along, but there are a few more little glitches to fix that I've been too embarrassed to tell you about, like one taillight with broken welding already, and a water leak behind the heater. Oh, I almost forgot, I need to make a gearshift that looks right for the truck.

 

[MercuryMac]

Another report: I didn't get very much done through the holidays like I thought I would; life kept happening to me, visiting and ----well more visiting. Most of you will understand. I got the seal changed in the rear-end and discovered that the oil was leaking out mostly around the splined shaft and not the seal surface. On the advice of my brother-in-law and a nephew I bought some 'The Right Stuff' and smeared it on the yoke and spline just behind the nut. After the nut was on again, thanks partly to the homemade wrench that I hinted at earlier, I reinstalled the driveshaft and went on to the next project. [pic 1].
The gearshift was next, so I took it all apart and imagineered most of a plan for it's reincarnation.

 

[Bamamav]

Keep plugging away, you'll get it done! I've been in the same shape lately, either raining and blowing into my work area, or too cold to do anything. One of these days I'll get me a enclose work area! [

 

[MercuryMac]

I'm a lucky dude, Bam, as I just got given two more weeks of shop time to keep plugging away. Our January holiday down into the 'States was cancelled by our medical insurance company. Pill problems, which is not the same as 'drug problems'. I was going to take in the Pamona swap meet. It might have been tricky window shopping all day, because it's even trickier trying to get back on the plane for home with a Y-block three deuce intake manifold under your coat.
You don't know how lucky I feel, getting to stay home in northern Canada in January. Whoa!

 

[endicott_jb]

I would love to take a trip down to Pomona. There is literally nowhere like it. Miles and miles of cars and parts just waiting to be plucked for the perfect ride. My old boss used to go down about once every other month to swap and always came back with some off the wall stuff.

 

[MercuryMac]

Endicott, now we're both in the same boat, sitting back at home wishing we could go to Pomona. Anyhow, you got me to thinkin';[S there's a March swap meet and by jumping through some paperwork hoops I can maybe go. Besides, in March, Yuma, Arizona has the Midnight at the Oasis car parade and show, which is pretty dang O.K. to take in. I better start softening up the wife right away, by being good for months, so I can go to the swapmeet.

 

[MercuryMac]

I got at it, in the shop today, for a while. As I said, a good looking gearshift was next on the agenda. [pic 1] is the complete old T-5 gearshift. The handle was too short and too new looking, so off with it's head. I liked the length of throw on a T-5 so to get that same throw with a third longer handle I had to raise the pivot 1" thereby lengthening the bottom part of the lever by about 1/3. [pic 2] is the lever base with it's pivot hole up 1". [pic 3] is the base with an Imperial 1/2" fine thread bolt welded on the end instead of some sort-of fine thread semi-size metric male threaded piece. When I raised the pivot up, I also had to raise the socket hold-down base, up 1" with some shims of high density molecular plastic [the white squarish thing]. I have been saving this old gearshift for a while now and it's time has come. While I was testing all of the bottom stuff on the transmission and in the cab I also tried two different boots that passed the test.

 

[Snake Farm]

That should make for a neat 'gennie' looking shifter!

 

[MercuryMac]

Thanks Snake. I really like working with levers and fulcrums so I relished this job.[. I want the truck to look authentic to those who might not know what it should really look like.

 

[MercuryMac]

Between a way more snow to plow, and visiting, [holiday season, eh], I got a little bit more done. Here is the 'swan neck' gearshift in primer. It has been shortened, bored out and tapped, measured, tried on, bent some more, tried again, eye-balled and finally given the thumbs up.[ Dang-it, guys, I may never make a RatRodder, I think my gearshift might be almost too long. It peeks above the steering wheel in second gear.

 

[MercuryMac]

Progress report. The gearshift is painted and the old knob is fitted on [not as easily done as said]. The new gearshift has a 5/16 fine thread male end and the old knob, that I liked, has a 3/8" fine thread female, so they weren't as compatible as I would have liked. I have seen gearshift knob adapters in hot rod shops but the closest one to me is now 300 miles away. I took a chance that 5/16" helicoil would have a 3/8" O.D., and by golly, it does, so I'm set.
Anyhow, I also put in the transmission hump sound barrier, and the tin hump. The old center part of the floor mat was getting beat up, [not from a lot of driving but a lot of un-humping and transmission fiascos] so I went and bought another rubberized door mat at Home Depot and using the old section as a template, cut a new one. The rubber on these is not very strong, but the fuzzy stuff is. It looks finished now. Notice in the first picture that the gearshift is above the steering wheel. Awwllright.

 

[MercuryMac]

A job that I wasn't looking forward to, is now done. The top end of the old Ford speedometer cable was unhooked and pulled out, so the new Chevy cable could go into the speedometer housing drive nipple. Sounds easy, right? Well, the new cable is of a different brand and 50 years newer so I had to massage the upper end of the cable a bit. Tomorrow I'm going to test drive the speedometer and transmission switch-a-roo, while the truck's still up on jackstands.
This may sound like bragging but I forgot to crow----I mean tell you that my gearshift has a 'first to second' throw of seven inches, which is really nice. The sideways movement is 6".

 

[dowoplover]

Back in the early seventies (when I was just a child). A buddy and I bought a Harley trike that had been "chopperized". It came complete with "mouse trap linkage", and "jockey shift". We did not like the way the shifter came up beside the tank............three hours later, we had another one. Hand bent. We laid them in the floor for comparison. (can you guess where I am going?) They were identical!!

 

[MercuryMac]

Hello plover, I hope this early inventing has given you a lifetime love of levers, linkages and building; even if you ended up again at 'start'.
Since I was a kid, and rode on an old Harley, I've always liked those jockey shifters. They may not be the safest or handiest things but they are cool.
Keep on tinkering.

 

[earthman]

........................[P

 

[MercuryMac]

Thanks for looking in, Earthman.
Yesterday I test drove the truck, up on jackstands, and found a gasoline leak where I hadn't been working. That was easily fixed.
The gearshift felt very nice through all of the gears.
The speedometer seemed very slow so I'm thinking up a small transmission to double the speedo reading.
Oh, and I poured into the oil, a zinc additive and now have mixed it in the motor. Have any of you got some facts on adding zinc to the new zincless stuff, for use in old motors?