The chronicles of Lou, '70 F350 dually Cummins project

[averagef250]

Sounds good!

I'm a little fond of the whole ignition wire to IP, oil pressure, temp and a 3g or the Denso with external reg if wanted. Grid heaters through a starter relay on a pushbutton.

BTW, I bought some of those same pressure switches and they work pretty good in this application. They are touchy to adjust, but repeat pretty well.

Putting the battery on the passenger side? I did on my dad's 76 F-350 (same engine/trans as yours). Made the wiring a bit simpler I think.

[Ranchero50]

Shifter linkage, some lathe work, some mill work, some drill press work and some hammer work. Used the Dodge transmission mount. Turned down some nylon for a bushing at that mount, turned down a 8" long bolt as the cross shaft, stepped it on each end so it won't walk and drilled / tapped the transmission end for a keeper bolt. Used the mill and bandsaw for the levers. Hammered the frame mount out of 1/8" sheet metal. Turned down a 3/4" NPT nipple and some more nylon for the bushing. I need to extend the Ford shifter rod and drag my little welder over closer to the truck to tack everything together.











Jamie

[averagef250]

I'd suggest a little plexiglass window in the floorboard so you can see that work of art!

Nice work!

[robroy]

'Evening Jamie,

Wow, that bracket's stunning! I'm always amazed when I see photos of the stuff you can make out of metal. It looks about like what Ford probably would have made it look like, if our trucks sold for two or three times as much when they were new.

Robroy

[Ranchero50]

Thank you gentlemen. I've had the idea in my mind for a while, just needed the motivation to build it. The bracket was just vise bent with a rusty 5lb hammer (that the kids left out in a flowerbed all summer). The little black bracket is Fords for the '74 4x4 F100, figured I'd make something similiar. The hardest part was drilling the holes in the crossmember and banging my head on the door coming out from under it...

I do need some more bushings, the shifter rod one had the adjuster screw in it when I pushed it into the lever and it sheared most of the retaining lip off. BTW, the adjusting screw I had to turn down a bit too so the bushing would fit it. I'll try to get some more better pictures this weekend when I'm off, might even get it moving under it's own power.

Jamie

[basketcase0302]

Awesome work on the linkeage Jamie.
Looks like a piece of artwork!
Is it drivable today?

[Ranchero50]

No, I worked 12hrs, then got home to a pile of parts from a cornpicker that needed some farmer unfixes. I'm off to eat some supper and go to bed before tomorrow gets here.

Jamie

[Ranchero50]

Ok, the work of art is installed, no real drama so far. It shifts nice and smooth and I only need to extend the shifter rod to 16" between centers to finish it out.







I also made a road trip to the farm and brought home the air cleaner assy's from a '93 and '95 truck along with a second gen harness that has the tranny plugs I need. That harness will be recycled into the '86 Chevy 3500 Crew Cab rollback that's on the way up once mine is moving under it's own power. Yes, another Cummins swap...

Tomorrow, bleed the brakes, dress in the wiring and maybe put the inner fenders on (that look like crap).
Jamie

[tybob81]

EXCELLENT!! job so far. You do a very high quality job. It's hard to find people in this day in age that don't want to rush and slop something together.

[Ranchero50]

Thank you sir. I try to do a job good enough that I won't have to revisit it on the side of the road on a dark rainy night.

Today was spent finishing the shifter mechanism and the ratios are pretty close, would be about perfect if the column lever was a bit shorter than the tranny lever. With the shifter buried in park I can only **** to '2' and 'D' is showing as 'N'. I shifted the adjuster on the rod a bit and now it's not nearly as bad. Full range of travel and 'D' is drive again. This afternoon I installed the inner fenders and started strategizing the electrical system. I think I'm going to mount the battery on the drivers side but keep the Ford solenoid on the passenger side. My alternator harness main wire has a 'repair' right where the solenoid would go and I can run the rest of the wire over to the driver's side. I think I'll mount a battery post over there to tie the heater grid relays onto as well. The huge starter wire is really only long enough for that side as well. I'm not sure about the regulator, might run the Dodge one but the harness for the Ford one is right there and I need to sort those wires anyways. My instrument cluster has the ammeter and I plan on changing it to a Voltmeter once I get there.

I painted the inners with WalMart brand $1 flat black around the engine, might do some repairs on them. I'll need to install some rubber flaps at the bottom to cover the opening where the body is lifted. Down the road I also plan on installing '78 or so plastic inner fenders to help keep the rust monster and road noise away.




Jamie

[Ranchero50]

Nothing picture worthy today, it was my youngest sons 9th birthday party. Been working long hours again too, 69 last week. Today I did clearance my inner fenders for the intercooler mount and tinkered with the heater hoses on the engine. I also have the top of the radiator mounted, need to fab some mounts for the bottom. I'm going to weld some angle onto the intercooler to mount that to the front face of the rad support. The bottom of the grill will still need some tweaking and I have almost 1.5" of clearance between the intercooler and radiator so AC might fit down the road a bit.

Jamie

[Ranchero50]

Today I managed to bleed the brakes, been whopped form too much work and not enough rest. I spent a good bit of the day hugging the woodstove catching up on sleep and feel better for it.

[gregamorton]

Jaimie what happened to that good looking IDI international that you had in the truck? The cummins is looking good and I will say that I am loving my 1st gen cummins for a daily driver.

[Ranchero50]

The 6.9l IDI and ZF5 are down on my friends farm still sitting in the F250 frame. The yellow cab is sitting on that frame backwards and the Dana 70 is on the rails. The red paint has flaked off the engine but it's been covered up and preserved so it should start if I were so inclined.

Jamie

[Ranchero50]

Ok, another update. I cleaned up this morning as the garage warmed up, used a Dremel to open up the throttle cable opening for the Dodge cable. Put the battery in and fired it up and it about half moved along with the brakes needing some more bleeding. I needed to add around a gallon of tranny fluid to get it to back out and once it was there I realised the power steering still doesn't power steer.

Swept the floor and pulled the whole mess back inside before dark. Now, to go get another power steering box. Ugh...

Jamie