The chronicles of Lou, '70 F350 dually Cummins project

[Ranchero50]

Who'd a thunk that a '71 cluster wouldn't work in a '70 harness... I took my '70 cluster apart to play with the idea of putting mechanical gauges in and decided to put the '71 one in with the new bezel. Spent the last couple hours figuring out the wiring differences. I also used my volt meter retrofit. Now just fighting the dim lamps... I may end up with green LED's in the cluster and heater controls.

I want to get tags for it tomorrow so I'd really like to get the cluster buttoned up tonight.

[Ranchero50]

Ok, finally done for the night. Took the truck for a trip around the block and adjusted the headlights. Truck sounds awesome but it's hard to be quiet at 12:30 in the morning with stacks and a 6bt. I did have the misfortune of having the injector pump wire some off twice and I found out that I need to adjust my neutral safety switch. I also had the front pass side lamp housing lose it's ground so I fixed that once we got back home. Speedometer doesn't work either but that's pretty normal.

Been a long time since I've driven a bump, good times indeed.

[Ranchero50]

Spent some more quality time with the truck today. I swapped out the coolant temp and oil pressure sensor. I was too lazy to drain the coolant so I hooked my small vacuum up to the radiator cap to draw a vacuum while I swapped out the fitting. For some dumb reason the vacuum sucked the coolant out of the radiator and filled itself making a really big mess. So after swapping out the sensors I got to filter the coolant a couple times before finishing the engine wiring. Later I tinkered with the interior and installed the dome lamp.

I tried to get farm tags for it today and ran into new bureaucracy where the DMV wants a copy of you 1040 schedule 'f' (for farm) to get farm use tags. It cost me $138 just to get the title signed over and I don't want to pay another $150 for 2 years worth of tags when the farm versions are $2.50 per year with a 25 mile travel range.

This evening I figured out my transmission logic, just need to order some relays and timers off of eBay to hook everything up.

[Ranchero50]

So, spent the day at spring Carlisle and then took the truck for it's first official ride on the road. Truck runs good, sounds good and performed well. Only burp was the idle screw backed off and I can't get anything 10mm to lock the nut down. So as a farmer fix a slid a cotter pin through the wire opening on the adjustment screw.

Going out to Lowes now to find some wood to put under the bed. I have a 4x4 sitting across the frame rails and a strap holding the bed still (more or less)

Oh yeah, spring Carlisle sucked this year. Bought more machine tooling that auto parts...

[Ranchero50]

OK, been pretty negligent about posting pics...

Last night we went and got some pine 2x4's as spacer boards. After a coat of Rustoleum gloss black they slid into place. I have straps holding everything tight until I can get the tie plates drilled and mounted.


As it sits today...


I also decided to do something about the wires hanging down and made a thin aluminum headliner. Sadly I mangled the drivers side trim ring and the chrome set that I have doesn't fit this cab (dent side maybe). I'll trace the trim ring once I get it and then spray adhesive some white vinyl to the metal and put some insulation on top of it. Oh yeah, finally got to enjoy my dome lamp setup.


Tomorrow I want to find a glass shop that can hot glue the mirror to the windshield. I'm had mirror glue release twice and I don't want to ride around with a pile of rags on the dash forever. I also want to get the speedo working and mount the Glowshift gauge. I'm still brainstorming about hooking up a overdrive disconnect switch. I think I even had a O/D cable to get the bezel from. Long term projects are a PITA... Of course I need to find a home for the switch so it's either right next to the column under the tach or I'll graft in the wider section from the old double DIN setup I was playing with.

Speaking of the tach, I need to pull the harmonic balancer and made a timing plate for the front so my prox has something to read off of.

[Ranchero50]

Why, why, why doe something not want to run when it's pouring cats and dogs outside?

Yesterday I worked all day to get the hard top for my dad's Chris Craft done so we could get it on before a couple days worth of rain. Of course it was drizzling while we ran 15 miles down to their place so the lights and wipers got a workout. Everything went well until we came home. The engine didn't want to turn over fast so I thought maybe it hadn't charged the battery with the extra load of lights and wipers. For some odd reason the wiper switch started acting up once we were moving, had to hold the switch in to the washers for the wipers to work. Little bugs eh?

Got home and tinkered with the Glowshift gauge cup while the battery charger was on for an hour. Figured no big deal, the yellow top battery had acted up over the winter and killed itself. Welp, no short charge helped, just clicked, so I pushed the truck outside. and hooked the charger up to it overnight. Came out this morning and still just getting the click from the Ford solenoid on the inner fender. Whacked the starter with an aluminum dowel and the engine would turn over but not start. Still not satisfied it's a battery issue I swapped in the yellow top I have in the Ranchero with no change. So now it's raining, the truck is outside and I'm looking at pulling the starter...

Some pics of the truck at work:







I do have a little boat trailer winch on the back wall of the garage and could pull the truck inside but that thing is a real PITA to use. I think I'm still going to get wet pulling the starter.

Anyway, I'm cold and wet and going to go find some warmth before my next move.

[1970FordTK]

Cause things don't break at convenient times or places. Wish you luck on that job.

[Ranchero50]

No drama, ate a Snicker's and winched it into the garage. Fired up the furnace and it dried the truck off in about 30 minutes.





Actually the starter came right out. 17mm for the big battery cable, 8mm for the control wire. 10mm 12pt for the 3 mounting bolts and it was out. $200 later the 6bt about jumped out of the engine bay when it started. Amazing amount of torque from the new motor and a single 750 CCA battery.

[Ranchero50]

In other news, I finished my Glowshift gauge mount. I just left it bare sanded metal and hit it with some clear.





For mounting I cheated and just welded a 5/16 nut inside a washer and used a bolt from the top through the dash support into the pod. I notched out the back for the 4 cables to slide through.


In still other news, I popped another cab bulb so this evening my oldest and I went on a mission to find foam for new gaskets. I've been searching for a couple weeks without success. So after stopping back out at Autozone for bulbs at $6 a pair we rode over to Hobby Lobby and picked up some Silly Winks foam sheet. For $2.40 we got a sheet of 5mm black and a sheet of 3mm white. The original gray gasket was 3.5mm thick. No gray in the thicker stuff so we decided to go with white as it should reflect the light better if it would stay below the silver body and black if the gasket was going to be visible.





A new utility knife blade made really quick work of the gaskets. I ended up just using a spare lens and cut about 1/16" wider than the lens. For the inside slot I just punched two 1/2" hole and cut a slot between them. Simple but effective.







It took about 15 minutes to make and install the new gaskets, time well spent.

[Ranchero50]

OK, another good day. Spent some time out at the junk yard and found more parts for the truck.

One item I really wanted was a decent terminal strip to tie all the oddball stuff together. This one is mounted on the bottom of the dash brace and will have constant power, switched power, lights and grounds on the bus.


Another item I wanted was an O/D disable switch that looked like the rest of the Ford parts in the dash. Fortunately I found a '78 P750 tilt nose truck that used the same bezels as the bumps but without any names. I also grabbed a 4 way (emergency) switch and stripped two of the wires out of the plug. Still waiting on my parts to arrive from China to hook up the O/D and converter lock up.


A 1/2" hole and it's installed next to the column. Maybe some day I'll take the time to mill 'OVERDRIVE' into the bezel but for now it's perfect. Pull to enable, push to disable O/D.


In other news one of the things I needed was the rest of my headliner trim as I squashed my painted parts last summer while working on the shed roof. Sadly the only '71 headliner set I found int he yard was painted black so I chucked up the 80 grit drum sander in the drill motor and clamped it in the vise.


About an hour later the trim had a nice brushed look like the gauge pods. A couple good heavy coats of gloss clear lacquer should keep them looking nice. This was a compromise as I didn't have any white paint and didn't feel like painting all the white bits so they would match.


While cleaning up everything else I decided to reclear the tach after hitting it with the 80 grit drum.


I also found a decent coolant overflow bottle out of a 90's Chevy van that I think will stand proud next to the turbo once I make a heat shield for it. I picked up a set of door bumpers and a few extra screws while there and only had to donate $35 for the parts.

Currently working on the cargo lamp install as I need it wired before putting the headliner back in.

[Ranchero50]

Further along...

I used the drawing in the other thread (I'll link it if I remember) and drileld the holes after pin punching them. I'm not real impressed with the gasket and fit. Mine light didn't want to aim level.


Screws. I didn't get the correct screws for the light when I won it off eBay so I turned a couple spare headlight pan head screws down so they looked like they belonged.


Modified the original sock to accept a 1157 bulb. I'm still going to get the color switching LED for the cargo light. Currently the wiring is dressed in and waiting to be connected once I know which lead lights which color.


And, the headliner is back installed. I really like how the trim looks. It compliments the other colors without being obnoxious.


In other news I spent an hour on my head getting the tach and Glowshift gauge wired up. Everything worked well. I still need to figure out the prox for the ignition pulse to the tach. I have a couple options but haven't dug into it yet.

[Ranchero50]

Spent the morning tinkering with the I/P. Ended up turning it up a bit. Still no smoke but the truck pulls better. The Glowshift said I'm seeing 11psi at the motor and only pushing 800 or so on the EGT's last night when I took it for a test run. I also prepaid for my spot at Carlisle so I guess this truck will be there.

[Ranchero50]

Horse poop, one ton made the truck ride nicer. Truck didn't even flinch when the driver dumped the bucket onto the bed although I think it did break the rusty spring stacks loose.



Poop is for my 8' x 20' garden. Maybe this year something will grow.


An hour later... Empty


Still later... Full again. Tiller, extension ladder, and a whole bunch of goat food.


I did run into some trouble with it later when I was down at my brothers place working on a Mustang that some dummy put the wrong rotor in the distributor... My truck decided that it didn't want to start. We added a gallon of red stuff and bled the lines and it finally took off. It hasn't been running well since I played with the pump so when we got home I backed the AFC screw all the way out and it started running much smoother at idle.

[Ranchero50]

I finally hooked the torque converter up to a switch and took the truck to work. Everything performed well at 75mph running down the interstate. Still working on the I/P tune and deciding what strategy I want to use for the transmission. Learning a ton about how the Bosch VE pump works.

[averagef250]

The VE's are pretty neat little pumps. I have had poor luck with aftermarket fuel pins and trying to push tons of fuel through them with the full load screw.

I find they run best with the internal linkage (the piece that runs the fuel rack) from an AG application like a Case tractor. The length of the pin that rides of the fuel pin has a lot to do with max fueling. With the AG piece installed, 3200-3800 governor spring, the AFC/fuel pin at bone stock settings and a set of slightly higher flowing injectors and an HX35 the VE 6BT's are pretty impressive.

The AFC/fuel pin limit fuel until boost is achieved which is actually a great thing. The "smoke screw" is exactly that. Mess with it and you'll get smoke and less power, not more. If you increase the max fuel rate and use a more efficient turbo the VE can really push some fuel and keep it pretty clean.

Strange that the AFC could have anything to do with the idle quality of the engine. Might verify fuel inlet pressure to the injection pump. Make sure you're not sucking air or have a lift pump on the way out.