The chronicles of Lou, '70 F350 dually Cummins project

[FLATBEDFORD]

I hope you get the other stuff in order and back to the F350 soon. I have been neglecting my F350 for a few years now. Hoping to dive in to some much needed rust repair when the cool weather comes.

[Ranchero50]

Welp, looks like I went from waiting for it to cool off to waiting for it to warm up. Somewhere around when I stopped posting on this thread the tranny started to slip. At first it decided to not move when it was sitting in the alley and I thought I hadn't filled it enough. All I had was some DTE-24 hydraulic oil so filled it with that and it barely made it back up to the lot if I pushed the engine to the governor. Soon after I tucked it out of the way until I had time and motivation to figure it out. This afternoon it finally warmed up a bit and I am determined to do something with the truck so I pulled it up on the gravel and jacked it up so I could pull the pan on the transmission. The fluid doesn't smell bad but it is dark. I thought about just changing the fluid but naturally being 2wd the cross member is in the way to access the torque convertor cover.



So now I'm torn because to R+R the tranny I need to undo everything and even lift the cab about 6 inches for clearance. I also almost feel that just swapping the fluid isn't going to accomplish anything.

[FLATBEDFORD]

Talk about taking some time off! Good luck with it. Funny that my last post on this thread back in August 2012 talks about starting some rust repair soon. I sold the truck in July 2013. Time flies and plans change.

[smokey3215]

Is it a 518 or a 47rh I forget and too lazy too look back. Anyway you can try turning the line pressure up while the pan is off make shure the tv cable it adjusted properly and fill it with john deere hygard it will gain you some time if it's not shot yet

[Ranchero50]

Smokey, it's a 47rh now. I've been waiting on it to warm up, was 60+ on my work nights and down to 11 on my days off so... I've done some research and the oil I added was about half a viscous as the ATF it's supposed to have. I'm going to try the type 'F' first as it has a 150 viscosity. The hy-gard has a viscosity of 140. Some of the synthetic ATF's are up around 199, go figure...

[Ranchero50]

Well, that worked so far... Ended up with 2 gallons of cheap Wal-Mart brand Multi ATF. Adjusted the bands and put the pan back on with the old gasket and added 2 gallons of juice and it seems happy. I'm kind of torn though because I only got around a gallon of oil out of it after letting it drain for the last six days. It did show correct on the dipstick with the truck running in neutral after shifting through all the gears and letting it warm up.

Now I'm wandering around looking for all the missing hardware and trying to remember what was next after a two year break from it.

[smokey3215]

That's good to hear. I will tell you john deere hygard will make it shift a ton firmer but if you put a shift kit in watch out it hits like a hammer.

[Ranchero50]

Yep, I was just happy to see it move under it's own power. Speaking of which, the truck does get out of it's own way if I dip down into the throttle far enough. The turbo is also much louder than the exhaust with the 3" down pipe and nothing after the tranny. I guess the 3.50 gears are making it work harder than if it had 4.11's.

Now I do have to find a distribution valve for the front brakes. For some odd reason mine decided to start leaking. Figure it's a junk yard item as Ford doesn't stock it and the NOS ones go for $100+ on eBay.

Add in a gallon of antifreeze and things should be moving along nicely.

[Ranchero50]

Made the trip this morning and picked up one of the offending little valves. Nice walk in the sunshine, now to bed and work all night. Plan on taking the new one apart and figuring it out to make sure the seals are ok before installing it. The dent sides used the one piece proportioning valve, found this one on a '72 F250 with disc brakes.

[Ranchero50]

Good day, it started out cold and raining so I backed the bed into the garage and installed my newer rectangle style rear lights. I didn't like how small the round ones were and the reverse lamps were rusting... I did test and label the wires for the bed and just need to get the truck wiring straightened out before connecting the bed to it.



Oh yeah, last week I blasted the wheels with aluminum paint after blowing the cobwebs off them.


We also managed to get the roof clearance lamps installed. Of course I don't have enough grounds hooked up to check that they light up but at least they look nice. I painted the bases with aluminum paint a good while ago and it cured nicely.




Finally we installed the Big Honk'n Air Filter after the 4" aluminum intake pipe showed up from eBay. The filter was $60 and the tubing / hose / clamps was $48.


I'm going to drill the end of the filter and install the filter minder out of the Dodge air cleaner box. Guys say these filters last several years of rough duty before needing replaced.


We've also been tinkering with getting the wiring routed and I spent way too much time today just trying to find all the parts I stashed away.

[Maximus]

Trucks coming along nicely, I have a '96 Dodge 3500 with the 12V Cummins, love it!
Thats a beautiful diamondplate flatbed also, I am so used to seeing rotted out wooden floors in large beds, nice to see a full metal floor.

[460 crew]

I run was running that same filter in my 06 megacab and found another the same size but has a hard plastic shell around it and has inlet holes around the outlet so it's not open to the elements as much and still has the same flow #'s. Let me know if your interested and I'll get the #'s off of it. Price was just about the same as the open one. I didn't like the thought of filtering dirty water when it works it's way in when we actually have weather here and I can't stay out of the puddles.

Truck is looking good.

[Ranchero50]

Thanks for the compliments, the big brown box truck dropped off my stacks and adapter today. Still waiting on the 90's and I have to source one stick of 4" pipe locally.

4" stacks look size appropriate so I'm happy.

[Florian]

Haven't been online for a while, logged in and your build showed up! Looking good, Jamie! That Cummins engine must be fun to drive! I love the clearance lights! Did you prime the bases before the aluminum paint and did you clear coat them afterwards?

Florian

[Ranchero50]

Florian, the bases were weather checked so I just flooded them with the Aluminum paint and set them aside until they dried. Then they spent a year or so on a couple shop rags on the trucks dash waiting for me to get motivated again. After curing the paint doesn't come off on my fingers like it usually does so maybe they'll stay nice for a while.

Currently working on the wiring and sanding the hood so I can get some paint onto the front clip. I'm thinking about setting the goal of making it to the Ford show at Carlisle the first week of June.