36 Ford truck on Ranger

[MercuryMac]

I have been tinkering a wee bit on the truck, though nothing picture worthy. On the jack-stand test run, I realized I had an exhaust leak, so when a friend came over to get his alternator pulley pulled off I made him work for me. After he got to listen to the truck for a minute I made him sit in and rev the motor a bit, so I could find the leak. It's at the driver-side header to pipe connection. I think that is fixed now with a new gasket that is installed better. I adjusted the emergency brake up some more and checked the oil level in the transmission. Quite a bit of time has been frittered away trying to make a small transmission for the speedometer cable. Not much success there but I did find a connector for the '36 speedo head so I can hook up something to the head now. Then I finally tackled the back end. The left hand tail light broke it's bracket so I had to take it off, but I had snuck the wires through the pipe bracket to make it look neat. The wires now had to be removed and I did not make the wiring easy to take apart. It was meant to be on there for life. Anyhow, while I have the bumper off I will reflip the spring hangers and shackles.

 

[MercuryMac]

Here's my tail light bracket welded up and primed again. The elbow pipe is very thin [folding chair leg] and it was a little devil to weld to the thick bracket base.
I unbolted the rear spring hanger and flipped it, only to find out that the bolt hole pattern is not square so I can't bolt it back in the old lowered position. You see, I not only flipped the hanger, I raised it on the frame and bored new holes, when I was building this. I don't want to put the hanger back in the original position because that will raise the truck about 4", I think. Too much. I was shooting for a 2" lift of the back end.
So, no action shots of me flipping the hangers because it was a waste of time, and you would have seen disappointment written all over me.

 

[Sam_Fear]

....and two steps backward. Bracket looks nice though.

 

[bob w]

Very nice bracket. Those flippin' hangers can be a headache. You'll get it the way you want it though, I'm sure.

 

[MercuryMac]

Thanks guys for looking in and patting my back when I needed some soothing. Once I got away from stewing about how to handle this, I had two possible solutions pop up. #1 reflip the hanger again and bolt it back up and add two inch blocks between the springs and the rear-end housing. Because it's a truck suspension the springs are on top of the housing so a car lowering block kit should work. [already have the kit, swap meet find]. #2 The hanger is not square --- but it used to be, it is molded and probably sprung so even if I reflipped it, I might not be able to bolt it back where it was, anyhow. So figure out how to unspring it.
Is this Imagineering or just plain-Jane engineering.

 

[Bamamav]

Is this Imagineering or just plain-Jane engineering.

That's RRR engineering!

 

[kenny c]

don't feel bad about a do over. I build everything at a minimum of three times. At least twice in my head and once when I think it's final fabrication time then there are the multiple patterns in paper or cardboard and repeated efforts in steel. and then when its all done it just doesn't flow with the parts around it or the next piece ends up in the way. don't get discouraged. Keep on welding.

 

[MercuryMac]

Thanks Bam for the classification; RRR engineer, that's better than a plain-Jane engineer any day. Although, there is a Jane in my memory banks that was anything but plain---------whoa, I wandered off topic, there for a while.

Kenny. There is sometimes a short time in the engineering process when I am not confident that I have the right answer, that I get downhearted. I went and plowed snow this afternoon for the county, so got nothing done on the '36, not even Imagineering.

Thanks for looking in guys. I've heard that there is always some tinkering to do after the summer initial run, so I guess I'm in that phase now. I hope I'm still in the normal range. It's good to have you guys out there.

 

[I-R-POPS]

Hang in there Mac. My dad told me one time "if it was easy
that other monkey could do it". Don't know why he picked
on me

Seems like there's always something to make your head hurt.
Stay after it.

 

[Torchie]

Hang in there Mac. My dad told me one time "if it was easy
that other monkey could do it". Don't know why he picked
on me

Seems like there's always something to make your head hurt.
Stay after it.

Looking great Mac. You've been watching my thread and a once do over is thrice less than I do.
Torchie

 

[Bamamav]

Seems like lately I've done more building going down the road than in the shop!

 

[MercuryMac]

Well Guys, the do-over is a livable situation, but when the do over doesn't work then I get annoyed. Patience, patience; ya ya I know.
Anyhow, I did get away from it for a while and decided on another do-over, so the hanger is flipped yet again, [fourth position, same as the second]. All the bolts are back in and tightened [a horrible job]. I'm going to put a car lowering kit in under the springs and raise the truck body 2". The exhaust pipe is rehung and the tail light bracket is rebolted on.
In the first picture you'll see why bolting and unbolting this hanger was almost impossible. The box floor is very close on top, gas tank is very close on the inside of the frame and the box side and fender is in the road on the outside. I hope my camera has no audio, because there might be some of you that are faint-hearted RRR's.
The second pic is a Speed-way lowering kit.
Bam, that would be Imagineering, that is, if you stayed on topic, not like I do sometimes.

 

[MercuryMac]

The left hand tail light is all together now, wired and tested. pic 1
The Speedway lowering kit is all in and tightened up. pic 2
After I put the back bumper on and align it again I will lower the truck off the jack-stands and check for height and more importantly suspension travel.
My list is getting smaller, by golly.

 

[Torchie]

Looks good.
A smaller list is great.
Torchie.

 

[Dirtyrat]

Looks like you got it handled with the lowering blocks!
I imagine you could use nuts welded on the inside of the frame so that all you have to do is pull the bolts out of the spring hanger bracket as well, that might make it a little easier to work on in the future.

Would be cool to see some stance pics now that you lowered the rear some!

 

[MercuryMac]

Dirtyrat, If I wasn't so arrogant to think that I wouldn't have any do-overs I could have welded those nuts in the frame. I could have done all this fiddling around now, with one eye shut.
When I was building this truck I tried to think of everything that had to be done, while it was easy, before the cab, box, engine or fenders were on. That helped quite a lot. It didn't allow for screw-ups that had to be done over, though.
I did take a before picture with a measuring tape so today when it's down on the floor again I will take an after pic.
Keep on tinkering.

 

[MercuryMac]

Well, today went sideways. My list wasn't getting smaller very quickly. When I let the truck down to the floor and bounced each corner so that it sought its right level, I found out that I have one spring weaker than the other on the back. The back end sat cock-eyed. Again I'm glad there's no audio portion in this thread.
I went outside and shoveled some more snow off the shop roof. While I was not thinking hotrods, a possible solution hit me; put another leaf in the weak side. I hunted around for a leaf that I knew I had and finally started digging snow away from where it could be outside. There it was. So I brought it indoors, took off my left hand wheel, undid my brand new U-bolts, split the centrebolt nut and took the bottom spring leaves out of there. When I was cleaning up the threads on the centrebolt I discovered that it was fine thread 11 millimetres. I had no die to clean the threads up and possibly no new nut. I found a nut, ---eventually. Everything went back together quite well, and the truck was reunited with the floor. It leveled out the truck. I think I gained a little over 2" [picture 1&2] and the back end is a bit too high now, as you'll see in [picture 3&4].

 

[MercuryMac]

After Imagineering quite a bit, I decided to mount my spare tire in the middle of the box near the front and bolt it down, so it didn't scar up too much of the box sides or floor. I put a 2"x2" about sixteen inches long under the floor boards and 7&1/2" bolt up through everything including a 4" tall piece of round stock [firewood]. [pic 1]
The tire just fits over that. [pic 2]
I have made a retainer and a butterfly nut to hold it all down. The retainer is unpretty at the moment so you're not getting a looksee.
I hope to throw the jack and a folding wheel wrench in the dish of the wheel. Maybe a cover too.

 

[MercuryMac]

My conscience would bother me if I just went out and bought a new wheel wrench so I had to come up with an old looking one and one that fit nicely inside an inverted spare wheel. Well, I found some of an old wheel wrench and crank combo and engineered it to work for me. I had to cut an air socket in half and weld it onto the wheel-nut end because it was for a bigger size nut, [had to be 3/4"]. That and heating up the two ninety degree bends and straightening them, one a little and one completely straight, made a usable wheel wrench out of an old multi-tool. I found a jack that's quite small, and still worked. You know those long 5/16" crank handles that were made to steer a jack a way under something and then crank it up forcing the rear end housing up, well, I've got one of them hidden away behind the rear bumper.
pic 1 is my two part wheel wrench.
pic 2 is my wrench and the jack placed in their nest.

 

[Torchie]

Nice Imagineering.
Torchie.