1981 straight six manual 4x4 project

Cool!!! [well, almost]

     

I am so jealous
I need to find all the brackets & compressor for my 300, but first I should get it painted and on the road.
Dave ----

I will keep my eye out at the junkyard. If I find any more I will grab them. I know you are looking.

I have not had much chance to work on my trucks in a while, but today I was able to get a few little things done on it.

I replaced the parking brake lever with the newer style that has a switch in it. I still need to figure out the wire for it, but at least it now has the switch. I also discovered I still need new cables from the yoke to each wheel, but the lever and front cable are good now.

I have been refurbishing the overhead “shelf” with the visors on it. I recovered it with faux black leather material, and painted the visors with vinyl paint. Whoever fitted it before did a sloppy job if it and mounted the visor clips quite crooked. I straightened that out and replaced the ugly silver machine screws with black Allen head cap screw fasteners and nylock nuts on the back side. Since the “shelf” mounts to the visor holes, I wanted to have the headliner in first. I did that, but it is only being held for now with the visor fasteners and the dome light. I will have to finish the trim install another day:



I upgraded the dome light to the one with map lights. Nothing is working, but neither was the old one. The main purpose today was to hold up the headliner. With each thing I check off my list I add one or two more...

Very nice project you have going. One question, did you repair your old headliner or is that new?

Ford F834 wrote

With each thing I check off my list I add one or two more...

Oh, do I know about this. I was saying with mine 1 step forward, 2 back...lol. It's funny, because mine was never meant to be the project that it is now, but I'm in it.

Looking good, Jonathan!  That headliner will make a difference in the noise, which is especially helpful for long trips.  

Onions have layers, dances have steps.  Chose your analogy, but I can't dance so.....

Kevins750 wrote

Very nice project you have going. One question, did you repair your old headliner or is that new?

That is a used headliner from a junkyard. It was tan and I painted it black with vinyl fabric paint. I had read that it worked well on cloth. Maybe on some fabrics it does, but not on headliner material. It soaked up three entire cans of paint. It still isn’t as even as I would like, and is did get “crunchy”. It cost me more to do than buying new fabric for it and the adhesive to put it on. Lesson learned, but the show must go on. I painted this almost a year ago and it’s been in the way so I’m glad to have it installed, albeit only partially.

Nice work, Jonathan!

One thing I have had on the back burner is changing my air cleaner assembly to the remote “tear drop” style. David gave me one of the regular style air cleaners and it has served me well. However it occurred to me that the tear drop does not cover the choke area of the carburetor and would allow me to extend the choke lever and fix the short throw cable issue that the manual conversion kits have. Also, after having my carburetor vibrate in half on the back roads of Death Valley it seems that it might be preferable to have the weight of the air cleaner at least partially supported by a bracket instead of resting completely on top of the carburetor body.



I have looked through the Garagemahal pages and I can’t make heads or tails of which trucks originally got the tear drop. It says 80-86, while the flat type was 82-86 and both came in F100-350. Regardless, the tear drop has to be what originally came on my ‘81.



When switching, I want to do it right and return everything to working order. I bought the heat collector for the exhaust manifold. It looks like I can buy the aluminum pre heater duct new from any parts house.



As far as the vacuum / emissions aspect, I am striving to make it functionally and visually as close as possible to the Canadian non-catalyst non-EGR configuration. According to the Canadian emissions label there is no TVS in the air cleaner, just the bi/metal valve in the air cleaner base, the cold weather modulator on the wall of the canister, and the pre heat diverter in the snorkel. That’s it. And the distributor advance of course...



I have been seeing fewer and fewer of the tear drop air cleaners in the junkyards, and when I went to look for one I was quite lucky in that I happened to find one from a ‘79 F150 has only one hole in the side for the cold weather modulator, not two like all the bullnose ones I have run across. Very extremely minor detail with no real benefit, but it put a smile on my face. I guess we’ll see how long the smile lasts... it does seem like a hassle when you go to remove the tear drop and have all the bracket fasteners to deal with.



The only last thing I need to complete my set up is a Canadian non-EGR carburetor spacer. If anyone has one of these that they would part with please let me know 🙂

Jonathan - Good find on the air cleaner.  And, that vacuum label is the cleanest I've ever seen.  

But, do you have the calibration code for that label?  I'm going to guess that it is 5-77-R01 as that is a Canadian manual transmission from 1980 through 1986.  It looks like the calibration parts list, which is the shortest I've seen, has a carb, the Air Cleaner Temp Sensor, two different vacuum motors depending on the year, the cold weather module (9E862), and a distributor.  Exactly what is on that label.

And, since there's no mention of EGR I'd bet that carb D5TZ 9510-AG would be the one you want.

This is the rest of the label, but I don’t see the code you mentioned. However what you describe sounds exactly right. So that part number is for the carburetor itself? Or is that the part number for the non-EGR base plate?

The label has a part number for the label. 😳  Much like the number on the part is not the part number. One of Ford’s “Better Ideas”. 😩

So, you would have to find the calibration code on the engine.

Anyway, I think the bottom of the carb has/doesn’t have the EGR fitting. If I’m right, you need that carb or a similar one. But the other number on that line is what would have been on the tag.

Nice score!
And a air inlet heat shroud.
I got mine thru a member as my truck came with one of them cheap 3" filters on top of the carb.


Mine has the 2 valves as it should and I tried to hook it up as per the sticker but will not know if any of it works till I get the truck on the road.

I see you also have the bracket that runs down to I think the coil bolt. Mine did not come with it so had to make one out of flat stock that I still need to paint.

I also did not get the breather filter or clip & 90* that the hose fits on at the filter end.
The filter & clip was easy but could not find the 90* that is held by the clip the hose fits on.

Dave ----

Okay, the engine was missing in the junkyard, so that will remain a mystery. The EGR spacer on the American trucks is separate from the carb, but now that you mention it the Canadian version looks like it may have a unique lower carburetor plate with a tongue that covers the manifold port. It may not be be a spacer at all. I could potentially source a 60’s intake with the narrower studs and rat tail file the base plate on my YF. The other idea David and I have talked about is fabricating an aluminum or phenolic plastic spacer to cleanly delete the EGR piece while maintaining the height for better fuel atomization and keeping the carb fuel cooler. The fact is, my blocked off EGR works just fine. This is 100% cosmetic and my primary interest in doing it is to make it look stock and original in case I ever need it to pass any emissions inspections. I hope I never do, but if my employer goes under I will likely end up moving to Phoenix, and they test in Pima and Pinal counties 😔

FuzzFace2 wrote

I see you also have the bracket that runs down to I think the coil bolt. Mine did not come with it so had to make one out of flat stock that I still need to paint.

I also did not get the breather filter or clip & 90* that the hose fits on at the filter end.
The filter & clip was easy but could not find the 90* that is held by the clip the hose fits on.

Dave ----

Dave, I probably have an extra 90* piece. I bought a different breather cap that I like better and it may have one on it. If so, I can send it your way. The ‘78 actually braces to a valve cover bolt. One had a stud u stead of a bolt and the bracket bolted to that with a nut. I think I also bought one of the ones that attaches by the coil just to cover my bases. If your home made bracket does not work I might be able to help. Your canister sure cleaned up nice. I’ve said it before... you do nice work!

Thanks on the nice job done and the offer of the parts.
The 90* I need is the one that fits on to the breather filter that is inside the filter housing.
You stick the breather filter thru the housing slip on this 90* and then slid the clip on as it holds the breather filter & the 90* in place.
You then slip the hose on the other end of the 90* and the hose goes to a 90* into a rubber grommet on the valve cover, my cap is just a cap.

Valve cover end is good it is the air filter end I need.
Dave ----

Ahhh. Got it. Looks like you have the EFI valve cover which has a separate filler cap. It is different than mine. I do not have a spare  90* that is inside the air cleaner then, but I may be able to get one. I will look for you next time I go to the junkyard.

The phenolic spacer is the better approach as it won't transfer heat.