WHYDTYTT: What Have You Done To Your Truck Today?

[85lebaront2]

The spacer is part of the manifold.

That's right, been a long time since I saw any M engine, let alone a stock unmolested one.

[FuzzFace2]

That's right, been a long time since I saw any M engine, let alone a stock unmolested one.

During the week I received my brake bleeding tool from my son. It runs off compressed air to create vacuum on the jar and a hose from jar to the bleeder and let her rip.

Pedal felt good but would not really know till I have the motor running, power brakes, and can move it to test.

Not wanting to do bodywork I working on getting king pin bushing measurements between the 2 sizes I have to see if there is a way to use the DJM small king pin drop beams on a large king pin truck.

From what I found you would have to have a custom bushings made to fit the OD large pin spindles but have the small pin ID and turn down the dia. of the large pin to small pin spec as the small pin is 1/4" too short.

Might be easier to ask DJM to make a large pin drop beam?

That pushed me to work on the front suspension that came from the truck as I needed the axle beams as they have the large king pins needed for the spindles that are needed for the large wheel bolt pattern for my wheels.

The only way to get the spring plate nuts off the old parts was using MAP gas and then my impact gun. The other nut holding the radius arm on I used a 20" adjustable wrench to break it loose then the impact gun.

I am only using the axle beams and spindles with new king pins, not the springs or radius arms. Will replace the bushings on the beams, clean and paint them before I install back in the truck.

With that pulled apart it was time to pull the truck apart. All that cleaning and painting for nothing, well on the beams as I will reuse the springs & radius arms.

Spring plate nuts came off easy, the radius arm was another story! Took a 20" adjustable and a 4' pipe to break them loose!

Truck pulled apart.

The unpainted beams & large pin spindles that I have to make the large king pin spindles work.

Have to order bushings and clean, paint before I can install them.

Dave ----

[fords4life]

During the week I received my brake bleeding tool from my son. It runs off compressed air to create vacuum on the jar and a hose from jar to the bleeder and let her rip.

Pedal felt good but would not really know till I have the motor running, power brakes, and can move it to test.

Not wanting to do bodywork I working on getting king pin bushing measurements between the 2 sizes I have to see if there is a way to use the DJM small king pin drop beams on a large king pin truck.

From what I found you would have to have a custom bushings made to fit the OD large pin spindles but have the small pin ID and turn down the dia. of the large pin to small pin spec as the small pin is 1/4" too short.

Might be easier to ask DJM to make a large pin drop beam?

That pushed me to work on the front suspension that came from the truck as I needed the axle beams as they have the large king pins needed for the spindles that are needed for the large wheel bolt pattern for my wheels.

The only way to get the spring plate nuts off the old parts was using MAP gas and then my impact gun. The other nut holding the radius arm on I used a 20" adjustable wrench to break it loose then the impact gun.

I am only using the axle beams and spindles with new king pins, not the springs or radius arms. Will replace the bushings on the beams, clean and paint them before I install back in the truck.

With that pulled apart it was time to pull the truck apart. All that cleaning and painting for nothing, well on the beams as I will reuse the springs & radius arms.

Spring plate nuts came off easy, the radius arm was another story! Took a 20" adjustable and a 4' pipe to break them loose!

Truck pulled apart.

The unpainted beams & large pin spindles that I have to make the large king pin spindles work.

Have to order bushings and clean, paint before I can install them.

Dave ----

Got started on my lower manifold R&R to fix some oil leak issues. Everything came out surprisingly well. Noticed while I was in there that all the heater hoses are Motorcraft, all the gaskets were Ford gaskets. Everything under the valve covers is extremely clean and I'm starting to wonder if this truck only has 60k miles instead of 160k like I was told. Started pulling injectors from the manifold last night to fix some leaking o-rings and found one broken and multiple cracked injector caps. Bought the service kits this morning and will be starting on those after lunch, then on to manifold clean up and reinstall.

[fords4life]

Got started on my lower manifold R&R to fix some oil leak issues. Everything came out surprisingly well. Noticed while I was in there that all the heater hoses are Motorcraft, all the gaskets were Ford gaskets. Everything under the valve covers is extremely clean and I'm starting to wonder if this truck only has 60k miles instead of 160k like I was told. Started pulling injectors from the manifold last night to fix some leaking o-rings and found one broken and multiple cracked injector caps. Bought the service kits this morning and will be starting on those after lunch, then on to manifold clean up and reinstall.

Well with the help of my Dad, Father-In-Law and my Uncle-In-Law, I got it all done and back together. Installing the injector service kits was a breeze, it was just time consuming getting everything cleaned up with years of grease on it. Still not perfect, but close enough. Best part was she does right up and purred. Interested to see how she runs after everything, not expecting anything big, but between the injectors, a disconnected vacuum line, and a plugged PCV she should be happier.

[Gary Lewis]

Well with the help of my Dad, Father-In-Law and my Uncle-In-Law, I got it all done and back together. Installing the injector service kits was a breeze, it was just time consuming getting everything cleaned up with years of grease on it. Still not perfect, but close enough. Best part was she does right up and purred. Interested to see how she runs after everything, not expecting anything big, but between the injectors, a disconnected vacuum line, and a plugged PCV she should be happier.

Good job! Nice and clean.

But tell me more about the "injector service kits"?

[fords4life]

Good job! Nice and clean.

But tell me more about the "injector service kits"?

I have heard them called service kits and seal kits. They come with the upper and lower o-rings, pintle cap, and I'm not sure of the technical name for the yellow piece but the only thing I could find called it a gasket.

They are really easy to install. You just pop-off the old pintle cap, remove the oring and gasket, slide the new oring and gasket on and then press on the new pintle cap. A 3/8" socket worked for me to sit the cap into and press it on. Lots of videos online. Most of them heat up the cap slightly to get it to pop on easier. I did a couple without heat with no issue, but the heat definitely made it easier.

When I set the timing yesterday, everything was fine with the shorting bar installed for the timing advance on the distributor. With the shorting bar removed to check the timing at idle, I had what sounded like a possible valve tick. It went away with the shorting bar reinstalled.....Driving it this morning, the tick was there under acceleration, but not when idling. Truck was not up to full operating temp as my drive to work right now is 2.5 miles. Any thoughts? I did install an standard breather cap on the drivers side valve cover instead of the factory style one that was on there with a stock style paper filter. Any chance I can just hear the valves more now because of that?

[Gary Lewis]

I have heard them called service kits and seal kits. They come with the upper and lower o-rings, pintle cap, and I'm not sure of the technical name for the yellow piece but the only thing I could find called it a gasket.

They are really easy to install. You just pop-off the old pintle cap, remove the oring and gasket, slide the new oring and gasket on and then press on the new pintle cap. A 3/8" socket worked for me to sit the cap into and press it on. Lots of videos online. Most of them heat up the cap slightly to get it to pop on easier. I did a couple without heat with no issue, but the heat definitely made it easier.

When I set the timing yesterday, everything was fine with the shorting bar installed for the timing advance on the distributor. With the shorting bar removed to check the timing at idle, I had what sounded like a possible valve tick. It went away with the shorting bar reinstalled.....Driving it this morning, the tick was there under acceleration, but not when idling. Truck was not up to full operating temp as my drive to work right now is 2.5 miles. Any thoughts? I did install an standard breather cap on the drivers side valve cover instead of the factory style one that was on there with a stock style paper filter. Any chance I can just hear the valves more now because of that?

Thanks for the info. I'm chagrined that I haven't thanked you already.

As for what I did today, I finally worked on one of my trucks - Big Blue. More specifically, I put the window run and anti-rattle pieces on that Vernon sent with the truck. And, I can tell you that it made a HUGE DIFFERENCE!!!! Heretofore having the radio on or trying to have a conversation while on the highway was futile due to the wind noise. Now it is easy to carry on a conversation or listen to the radio at 65 MPH as the wind noise is GONE. Plus, the doors shut solidly w/o the rattles they had previously, although part of that is due to the new push pins I installed to retain the door panels properly.

The parts I used were those from Dennis Carpenter, and they fit nicely. In fact, they weren't all that hard to put on, although the first one took three hours. But the second one took an hour, and that could have been cut in half if the old window run hadn't been so brittle. As it was, I probably had 200 pieces of it to pick up when I was done.

But, along the way I discovered butchery. I knew that someone had installed rather large 6x9" speakers in the door panels, as shown below:

But I hadn't thought about what that might mean to what is behind the panel. And I was somewhat disappointed when I pulled the panel and found this:

[Ford F834]

Thanks for the info. I'm chagrined that I haven't thanked you already.

As for what I did today, I finally worked on one of my trucks - Big Blue. More specifically, I put the window run and anti-rattle pieces on that Vernon sent with the truck. And, I can tell you that it made a HUGE DIFFERENCE!!!! Heretofore having the radio on or trying to have a conversation while on the highway was futile due to the wind noise. Now it is easy to carry on a conversation or listen to the radio at 65 MPH as the wind noise is GONE. Plus, the doors shut solidly w/o the rattles they had previously, although part of that is due to the new push pins I installed to retain the door panels properly.

The parts I used were those from Dennis Carpenter, and they fit nicely. In fact, they weren't all that hard to put on, although the first one took three hours. But the second one took an hour, and that could have been cut in half if the old window run hadn't been so brittle. As it was, I probably had 200 pieces of it to pick up when I was done.

But, along the way I discovered butchery. I knew that someone had installed rather large 6x9" speakers in the door panels, as shown below:

But I hadn't thought about what that might mean to what is behind the panel. And I was somewhat disappointed when I pulled the panel and found this:

Ouch. That is a disappointment with the door frames Gary. Amazing what people will do to vehicles installing aftermarket stuff 😭

I had the same experience you did installing the new belt line and glass run weatherstrip in the ‘81. The most time consuming part was getting all the pieces of old rubber out of the lower glass channels. Someone replaced the upper half at some point and gave up on the lower parts. They were cut and they left the lower half alone. And yes, what a huge difference the weatherstripping makes!

[Gary Lewis]

Ouch. That is a disappointment with the door frames Gary. Amazing what people will do to vehicles installing aftermarket stuff 😭

I had the same experience you did installing the new belt line and glass run weatherstrip in the ‘81. The most time consuming part was getting all the pieces of old rubber out of the lower glass channels. Someone replaced the upper half at some point and gave up on the lower parts. They were cut and they left the lower half alone. And yes, what a huge difference the weatherstripping makes!

Brandon was over yesterday while I was installing the passenger's door panel and asked if I was going to install a vapor barrier. The answer was "not right now" as I was pushing to get both doors done yesterday before company came last night - and I made it. But I'll have to go back and install a vapor barrier at some point, which will probably be when I replace the door panels themselves to get rid of the 6x9's as well as the flaking paint. As for the butchered door, the braces in there now do a fair job of providing support, although I can probably do better when the time comes.

But I'm so happy that I installed the glass runs and anti-rattle strips. The upcoming ~250 round trip to get the French truck will now be so much more pleasant. It is amazing how tiring it is to have the constant noise, and with the big gaps in the window runs Big Blue had lots of noise. But, while yesterday's upgrade helped a whole lot, there's more to go as the sound insulation on the back of the door panels is missing. So, when I do go back into the doors I'll replace that as well as apply some sound deadening to the inside of the doors.

But yesterday's change was such a huge step that now it is worthwhile listening to the radio. So maybe I can figure out how to connect my phone to the radio so I'm not depending on radio reception. That and aligning the headlights is about all I can think of to do before the trip this coming week.

[Ford F834]

Brandon was over yesterday while I was installing the passenger's door panel and asked if I was going to install a vapor barrier. The answer was "not right now" as I was pushing to get both doors done yesterday before company came last night - and I made it. But I'll have to go back and install a vapor barrier at some point, which will probably be when I replace the door panels themselves to get rid of the 6x9's as well as the flaking paint. As for the butchered door, the braces in there now do a fair job of providing support, although I can probably do better when the time comes.

But I'm so happy that I installed the glass runs and anti-rattle strips. The upcoming ~250 round trip to get the French truck will now be so much more pleasant. It is amazing how tiring it is to have the constant noise, and with the big gaps in the window runs Big Blue had lots of noise. But, while yesterday's upgrade helped a whole lot, there's more to go as the sound insulation on the back of the door panels is missing. So, when I do go back into the doors I'll replace that as well as apply some sound deadening to the inside of the doors.

But yesterday's change was such a huge step that now it is worthwhile listening to the radio. So maybe I can figure out how to connect my phone to the radio so I'm not depending on radio reception. That and aligning the headlights is about all I can think of to do before the trip this coming week.

Gary my diesel was insanely loud. I know exactly what you are talking about with the highway noise wearing on you. I never minded the short runs, but long road trips without even being able to hold a conversation really sucked. That is one thing I am going to fix during my build. When I drove Jan’s truck to Cali it was blissful compared to mine so I know it can be done.

If you are interested in quantifying your gains as far as cabin noise, download the app called NIOSH SLM. That uses your phone’s microphone to establish an instantaneous noise level in decibels. It is used to monitor noise exposure levels in the work place. I wish I had a before and after reading on my diesel, but I can at least see where I end up compared to my Jetta or ‘81 straight six. Just something fun to play with, and maybe compare before and after the ZF swap or sound deadening efforts.