'69 F100 Ranger - Canada-born, Atlanta-raised, movie star(?)

[basketcase0302]

The "distribution block" (newer 70's started a "true" proportional valve) has a pop up indicator if memory serves me correctly that gives a telltale sign if anything is wrong there. Asked for clarification on resetting the distribution block on another thread here as I remember there is a specific procedure in doing so but I can't remember the exact procedure, (and if it needs reset you'll def feel it in the pedal as it "fails" in a safe mode providing only limited braking in case there were a line to burst).

Forgot to add about the magnetic cowl vent cover to rremember to take it off when you drive or you'll find the defrost and heat useless as it draws airflow from there. I remember a few days up there in Nooga' wondering why my defrost wasn't putting out duh...

Yeah saw where family in Chattanooga is right on the edge of sleet today, (as we have possible tornadic activity here) ya'll stay warm!

[LeoZelig]

Yep, the cold and the rain kept me inside mostly this weekend.

I disassembled and cleaned the fresh air vent parts I'd previously removed, scraped off old, degraded gaskets and glue:

driver vent.jpg

pass vent.jpg

I did remove the Dennis Carpenter ignition cylinder and door cylinder kit after I realized the ignition cylinder wouldn't lock into place. Instead, re-installed the original ignition cylinder and put in an inexpensive door lock set from O'Reilly's. The DC set is going back. Too pricey to have a problem, and the finish on the ignition faceplate had a little dent.

(and if it needs reset you'll def feel it in the pedal as it "fails" in a safe mode providing only limited braking in case there were a line to burst).

Jeff, this is very valuable information. Well, since it has tripped the brake light, I suspect I will need to reset it. Also, I found something interesting while looking at this diagram: http://fordification.com/tech/images/sc ... system.jpg

Brake union.png

Do you think this could be the union I'm seeing near the line leak? Maybe it is factory after all? But I agree, that's two more failure points - you'd think they'd have an uninterrupted line. I may remove it as originally planned.

Painted door panel and arm rest screws. Washed and scrubbed aluminum door sills. Cleaned interior door handles, handle cups, and window winders. The door handle cup on passenger side is chipped and has some kind of degrading coating. Sanded and painted with automotive trim spray.

Finally, I used some Mothers VLR to clean up the vinyl door panels and arm rests while I have them out. That stuff is bonkers-good at removing caked on people gunk! While I had the VLR out, I cleaned the Hurst floor shifter escutcheon, boot, and knob - shined up nicely.

[basketcase0302]

"Learn something everyday" has always been my moto, (yes looked like you've found the union did come from the factory OEM-the union). I too would question why they'd put it there creating one more place for a possible leak/failure)? Maybe the distance or difficulty of making the line one continuous hard line-versus two lines being easier to bend and flare?
DC for sure, (and I believe LMC and prob NPD) sell the new "accordian" rubber boot that attaches the fresh air to the heater pleunum if your is too rotten to reinstall.
Good job, it'll be a nice Ranger to be proud of when done.
You should meet up with our moderator Robert, (DuckRyder) this spring or summer. He's in Atlanta as well as another 15-20 guys on Fordification in the Atlanta area! I organized a few meets down here in Florida, you'll be amazed at how much each member, (no matter how new they are to bumps) have to share when kicking back and how much it can help the preservation of our bumps.
I tried to organize a multi-state meet-n-greet up there but didn't have enough interest close to Chattanooga, (we wound up having 5-6 of us meet near Gatlinburg).
http://www.fordification.com/forum/view ... 10&t=87762
http://www.fordification.com/forum/view ... 10&t=64430

A meet in Atlanta should be easy to do as there's so...many places to hold it, (Stone Mountain/NPD/Summit/etc)!

http://www.fordification.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=10

[LeoZelig]

"Learn something everyday"

Good motto Jeff!

Fortunately, my accordian boot is in good shape - surprisingly good, actually. But thanks for the tip.

Thank you for your kind words. It's nice to have stuff to clean up inside on icky winter days, and plenty to do outside on better days.

You should meet up with our moderator Robert, (DuckRyder) this spring or summer. He's in Atlanta as well as another 15-20 guys on Fordification in the Atlanta area! I organized a few meets down here in Florida, you'll be amazed at how much each member, (no matter how new they are to bumps) have to share when kicking back and how much it can help the preservation of our bumps.

This sounds like a great idea! Definitely sounds like a get-together would be a good time, and the encouragement and information exchange would be a big plus! I'd like to drive my new bump to any get-together, and that's a ways away from being possible

Saturday in Atlanta was a gorgeous, sunny mid-fifties day! Time to tackle the leaking brake line.

I began the chilly morning inside, taking Jeff's advise and practicing doing double flares at the table. Turned out to be good advice: my first three were miserable and I broke one of my adapter dies. Fortunately I had two dies. I watched a couple YouTube videos to see what I might be missing. Using the clamp block as a tool to file the tube off straight and flush helped a lot, but it's still a very fiddly operation.

Removed frozen-on rear lug nuts and rear wheels (the Christmas present impact wrench cam in handy for the first time - thank you wifey!).

Removed corroded leaking brake line between rear hose and union near front of bed.

Corroded.jpg

Removed the rear brake hose - it looked very cracked and dry-rotted - could it be original??? Noticed rear axle vent hose is coming apart - going to need a new one of those.

VentHose.jpg

Made new a brake line and installed it, along with new rear brake hose.

New and Old.jpg

Began bleeding brakes and found a new leak on the hard brake line in front of the union. Ah well, one step forward, one step back!

[basketcase0302]

I know everybody up there is ready for winter to be gone, (I have RA one main reason I live down here) we have 89 forecast for Saturday yay.
Good job on the hard line, and I think it's the Murphy's Law on our old trucks that something else breaks once we do one repair!

Was the threaded adapter OK that holds the brake line to the axle tube, (seems like I remember them being steel)?
A good trick even Ford failed to do on the rear axle vent is to run a longer 3/8" fuel line, (the OEM was not even braided just single wall tubing). Run an additional 12"-20" of tubing up to the bed / strap it upwards there / then run the end back downwards towards the rear of the truck (you're creating a P-Trap by doing this that makes water almost impossible to enter the rear axle via the vent which is a common issue when forging deep water) / and then install a cheap filter onto the end of the 3/8" tubing.
The trap gives you high water crossing ability, (I remember driving a rental car out of the Atlanta airport once through 12"-14" water after a record rainfall there) that will pay for itself the very first time you drive the truck through 12" deep water. And the filter on the end of the 3/8" tubing stops the wasps and mud daubers from building nests in the end of the tubing like I've fought my entire life! I had frequent 4' deep water crossings in So Florida where I ran my transfer case and tranny vents up into the cab to make them safe for forging deep water.
Here's one such 3/8" filter to hook onto the rubber fuel line, (not finding the exact type I used on my last build with an "insert" type barbed hose end that hooks righ to the 3/8" hose but this gives a general idea).



Real nice to have a lady on board with support here and am sure she'll cherish the days rolling down the road in the Ranger soon.

[LeoZelig]

Things have been a little slow on the truck, since my wife broke her wrist a week and a half ago. She's on the mend, but I'm choosing to spend time picking up household tasks and that cuts into truck time . But she's a peach, and I'm glad I can pick up the slack .

I had this post below for February 28th, then didn't end up submitting it. Fortunately, I saved it in my notepad, first .

We are definitely ready for winter to be on its way, but I can't complain - those folks in Texas have had it extremely rough lately, but we dodged that bullet here in northern Georgia.

I think it's the Murphy's Law on our old trucks that something else breaks once we do one repair!

Thanks for the kind words on the hard line, Jeff. And yes, that guy Murphy never takes a day off! I think it's similar to the situation on my last Bump: I would rebuild and repair part of the brake hydraulics, then the next weakest part would break. I suppose this is to be expected on a 50-year-old truck!

Was the threaded adapter OK that holds the brake line to the axle tube, (seems like I remember them being steel)?

Yes, the threaded adapter was in almost pristine condition, under layers of muck. Looks like steel, and it came out no problem. It was an issue on my last Bump, but I can't remember exactly why.

That's really good advice on the P-trap plus filter - I'll do that. Especially the filter - I can see how that helps with keeping mud daubers at bay!

Real nice to have a lady on board with support here and am sure she'll cherish the days rolling down the road in the Ranger soon.

You ain't whistling Dixie! I am super-blessed to have my wife's support.

No work on the truck this weekend since we are traveling to see our Tennessee relatives, but we did pick up a few parts at a Pull-A-Part here! Hood emblems, fuel tank sender and more! Woohoo!

Instead, I'll share my experiences recently on the brake line repairs. I pulled the longer line section out and made a reasonable copy. I also noticed that the fitting at the distribution block is not the 3/8" fittings I have on hand, so I'll reuse the original.

block.jpg

line.jpg

Whatever magic I had with the last double-flares was gone this time . I broke another die, and it was time to set the line aside for the time-being. I moved on to pulling up the damping mats.

floor pan.jpg

Well, the passenger side is the worst of it - even more swiss cheese. Ah well, good thing I have a new Lincoln MIG welder waiting for me. It was a wonderful birthday present from my beautiful wife!

And for some good news: I took a look at the cab mounts and they seem pretty sound. Thank goodness.

[Fordkid68]

Wow, That is still a very rust free truck!! I've seen worse rust than that on vehicles that are five years old not fifty! Good luck and keep up the great work!

[basketcase0302]

Good job on the brake lines. Regardless of how long you've been flaring tubing that's "par for the course", (the steel itself would/could be to blame especially if the tubing were sourced or manufactured outside of the US). I retired from 35+ years of HVAC, (flaring tubing on a daily basis) and I'd still would split a line tomorrow no doubt LOL!

And that's really not that bad on the floor pan! Have fun with that Lincoln, (my choice as I started on a stick Lincoln way...back in 76' and now use a Lincoln mig too)! Buy extra spools of wire as I can never estimate how much wire I need and usually wind up going back to Lowes in the middle of the project for wire ZLOL!

And maybe find a few threads here on the floor pan "fitment" as I'd read more than one guy cussing the LMC and a few other's pans being cheap china junk, (sorry Keith). Our member 67mann who is pretty active did his pans maybe shoot him a PM asking his source of his floor pans as he's pretty active here on the forum, (or even start a thread asking members who've done the pan replacement)?

[Fordkid68]

And maybe find a few threads here on the floor pan "fitment" as I'd read more than one guy cussing the LMC and a few other's pans being cheap china junk, (sorry Keith). Our member 67mann who is pretty active did his pans maybe shoot him a PM asking his source of his floor pans as he's pretty active here on the forum, (or even start a thread asking members who've done the pan replacement)?

Yes, definitely research pans before you buy them! I bought mine from DC which turned out being made in Taiwan It still fit okay, and I still used it but it is a little thinner and flimsier than the original floor pan. What ever you do try to find USA made parts. They are always better.
All in all the floor pan worked and it is in my truck now and it is a lot better than most Jackie Chan parts But still, Bumps are very nice American trucks and deserve American parts!!

[LeoZelig]

So I have about six months of progress to update here. I'll try to get caught up before too long. Hopefully some of these updates will help others as much as others have helped me.

This one is from mid-March. I blew out the cowl vents, then inspected with an endoscope:

20210314164511 (Small).jpg

20210314163425 (Small).jpg

Kind of cool photos, but not clear enough to know how holey or not the cowl is.

Next, I took your advice and made some removable covers to keep the crud out:

20210315_185036 (Small).jpg

They look great! And absolutely necessary to keep the leaves and berries out. Thanks for the advice!

[basketcase0302]

Dang...I'm jealous (the endoscope as I've always needed one). And at least it gave you an idea on how bad the cowl was.
Only bad thing about the cowl vents is the weather we're going in to this time of the year.
Just don't forget to take them off when you're gonna drive as the defrost or heat will barely even put out if your covers are left on.

Good job!

Edit...also keep your eyes peeled on inspecting the drip rails, (above the doors) this time of the year as it's another problem area most guys would forget about causing major issues. The drip rail area is the one area that sent more of our dual cab bumps to the graveyard more than any other that I'd seen over the years. I found a nice dual cab bump just north of Atlanta back around 2010 but the drip rails had rotted out leaving major work to restore the cab.

[LeoZelig]

Hi Jeff, I am a lucky guy for sure! The endoscope was a gift from our kids for Christmas. I find all sorts of uses for it!

Thanks for the heads up on heater and defrost - I'll try to remember to take them off before I drive. Chances are I'll forget, though... then I'll remember ("Why isn't this thing blowing???")

I try to keep the drip rails free of debris. They're there, but I haven't tried poking at them.... I'm a little afraid to!

[LeoZelig]

In our continuing series to catch y'all up on my truck's progress, I take you now back to late March.

After having replaced the hard brake lines from the distribution block to the rear axle, the pressure monster searched out its next weak point - now the master cylinder developed a leak at its shaft. No surprise - my last Bump did the same thing. So in goes a new master cylinder:

new mc (Custom).png

Where will the monster search out next? Well... the new master cylinder was leaking. And not just a little - a lot! Check out this photo of the brake fluid dripping off it (circled in red):

mc drip.png

That made no sense. It wasn't leaking at the fittings, and brake fluid shouldn't run uphill from the main seal... especially not without getting fluid in the cab, too. So I set up my phone and recorded video while I pumped the brakes. Holy cow, look at the spray in this still from the video:

Brake Spray (Custom).png

So, the new master cylinder was fine - it was the hard lines where they passed over the steering gear under a bracket. All corroded and leaking.
The spray from the the hard line leak was hitting the bottom of the master cylinder, making it look like a leak from there. Sigh, so that became a job for another day.

Not to worry - there is a happy ending. We'll get to that in a future installment of catching up on our progress.

Thanks for reading!

[LeoZelig]

So the next lines needing replacement were the ones leading from the master cylinder and going down to the distribution block.

I could not remove the bolt holding the lines to the bracket that is mounted to the steering gear, so I removed the lines and the brackets as a single piece.

Brake Line Assy (Small).jpg

Once I got them on the table, I documented them with lots of photos and markings, to make certain I could replicate them as closely as possible.

Brake line marked closeup (Small).jpg

Next step: fabricating some replacements.

[LeoZelig]

Fast forward to July. It was finally time to tackle this challenge.

These two master cylinder brake lines had lots of bends in three dimensions, and required serious measuring and planning to get them right.

Brake line fabrication (Small).jpg

During fabrication of the lines, I was having trouble making the coils. I could use the tubing bender to make really tight bends, but bigger radius bends were a challenge. I Googled whether I really needed the coils, since I thought I might leave them out. It seems they help with vibration and to allow some motion as the mounting points flex - that made sense, so I resolved to make the loops. I found a fire extinguisher had just the right diameter.

The clip holding the lines to the large bracket had rusted badly, too, so I made a new one out of some thin sheet steel. To keep chafing down at that attachment point, I put heat shrink tubing on the lines where they pass through the clip.

I painted the bracket while I had it out, too, then installed the new lines.

Brake lines in place (Small).jpg

The eagle-eyed among you will spot that I painted the new master cylinder, too. It was rusting significantly in no time!

My wife helped me bleed the brakes, and once the system was sealed I pressed hard and looked for signs of the next leaking weak point... and there was none! We had brakes!

Out of driveway (Small) (Custom).jpg

I took our truck out of the driveway for the first time since it came home to us - it was a red-letter day! Not far out of the driveway, but it's still a milestone.