Poncho Loco build thread, yes here it is ...

[mat in tn]

you must be living right if your daughter is right there hands on with you. teach them right. as to the red capped vacuum port, that looks to be a 1/4'' port. i believe you should find one no more than 3/16'', often its an 1/8'' and it will be directly off the venturi on most holleys . vacuum advance happens after the throttle is opened and a vacuum signal is present above the throttle.

be sure to check any port with a vac gauge first before hooking it to vac advance as manifold vacuum will give you full advance at idle . no bueno...

[Gary Lewis]

Poncho Loco is assembled and running well enough to go pass Texas Safety check. Here's the happy girl riding the bed down into place the other night.

I just remembered that we still need to connect vacuum advance to the distributor. Can anyone tell me which nipple on the carb is ported vacuum for the advance? I'd guess the one with the red cap, pointed towards the battery. (this pic is from before we rebuilt the carb!)

She does look happy! Well done!

On the vacuum, Mat is right. Check with it running and hook the advance to the one that doesn't have vacuum at idle.

[RenoHuskerDu]

She does look happy! Well done!

On the vacuum, Mat is right. Check with it running and hook the advance to the one that doesn't have vacuum at idle.

Sage advice, gentlemen, and I thank you. It's coming back to me now, carbs and testing the vacuum ports ... so long ago it was that I fiddled with them, in my teens. It's been nearly 50 years.

Yes the young lady is happy when she makes progress on her truck. Her brothers chip in after work. Now she wants to figure out why the backup lights don't work, so it's a teachable moment to explain that switch on the tranny.

I drove it today around the property after it passed Texas safety check. I was amazed at how low the Low Range is on the transfer case. In reverse gear low range it really creeps slowly. Does anyone know the actual ratio? The tranny is a 4spd manual.

[Gary Lewis]

Sage advice, gentlemen, and I thank you. It's coming back to me now, carbs and testing the vacuum ports ... so long ago it was that I fiddled with them, in my teens. It's been nearly 50 years.

Yes the young lady is happy when she makes progress on her truck. Her brothers chip in after work. Now she wants to figure out why the backup lights don't work, so it's a teachable moment to explain that switch on the tranny.

I drove it today around the property after it passed Texas safety check. I was amazed at how low the Low Range is on the transfer case. In reverse gear low range it really creeps slowly. Does anyone know the actual ratio? The tranny is a 4spd manual.

Yes, we know the ratio. Go to Documentation/Driveline/Calculators and you'll see all of the tranny and transfer case ratios.

[RenoHuskerDu]

Yes, we know the ratio. Go to Documentation/Driveline/Calculators and you'll see all of the tranny and transfer case ratios.

That is a great page, thank you. One additional tidbit that would help is the reverse gear ratio. F150hub lists the T-18 reverse as 7.44, wow. F150hub.com

It appears that Poncho Loco has a T-18 or T-19 and NP208. I'm sure about the NP208 but not about the T-18/19. It's 49F and raining cats and dogs right now or I'd go see if there are any syncros on 1st gear. Certainly they are worn but I seem to recall some synchro action. It looks like the T-19 started in 1983 and Poncho is a 1982 model so probably a T-18, but who knows what's been swapped in.

With 3.73 (DOT sticker axle code 16) in the pumpkins and a T-18 that yields 3.73 x 6.32 x 2.61 = 61.53:1 crawl ratio in low range 1st gear. Not bad for a torquey 351W and cautious teen driver.

I also have a doubt on the axle ratios, to the extent that Fordification.com lists it as 3.50:1 (WDM-CN, Bronco '80-'82, Ford F150 Pickup '79-'82, 3.50, 9 in, NL, 31 spline) while the DOT door tag translates on Blueovalttrucks.com to either 3.73 or 3.50, and I don't know which is correct. I didn't know that 3.50 was a ratio option, but looking down the list I see plenty of other ratios I didn't know about. Blueovaltrucks does list 9" (16, Ford 9″, 3750, 3.50) so perhaps 3.50 is correct after all. Redoing my calcs that would give Poncho a crawl ratio of 57.73:1 in low 1st and 67.96:1 in low reverse gear. That's what I noted backing off the trailer yesterday, a very low reverse gear.

 

[Gary Lewis]

That is a great page, thank you. One additional tidbit that would help is the reverse gear ratio. F150hub lists the T-18 reverse as 7.44, wow. F150hub.com

It appears that Poncho Loco has a T-18 or T-19 and NP208. I'm sure about the NP208 but not about the T-18/19. It's 49F and raining cats and dogs right now or I'd go see if there are any syncros on 1st gear. Certainly they are worn but I seem to recall some synchro action. It looks like the T-19 started in 1983 and Poncho is a 1982 model so probably a T-18, but who knows what's been swapped in.

With 3.73 (DOT sticker axle code 16) in the pumpkins and a T-18 that yields 3.73 x 6.32 x 2.61 = 61.53:1 crawl ratio in low range 1st gear. Not bad for a torquey 351W and cautious teen driver.

I also have a doubt on the axle ratios, to the extent that Fordification.com lists it as 3.50:1 (WDM-CN, Bronco '80-'82, Ford F150 Pickup '79-'82, 3.50, 9 in, NL, 31 spline) while the DOT door tag translates on Blueovalttrucks.com to either 3.73 or 3.50, and I don't know which is correct. I didn't know that 3.50 was a ratio option, but looking down the list I see plenty of other ratios I didn't know about. Blueovaltrucks does list 9" (16, Ford 9″, 3750, 3.50) so perhaps 3.50 is correct after all. Redoing my calcs that would give Poncho a crawl ratio of 57.73:1 in low 1st and 67.96:1 in low reverse gear. That's what I noted backing off the trailer yesterday, a very low reverse gear.

I'll see if I can add the reverse ratio to the spreadsheet.

And the T-18 does have 7.44 reverse ratio, and Poncho Loco should have a T-18. Plus, the only trucks that got the T-19 had the diesel or the 460. Smaller engines always got the T-18, and the "F" does indicate T-18, as shown on Documentation/Specifications/Transmission Codes.

As for the F150hub link, I'm sorry but I have a hard time believing them when their T-19 page says:

A common application is the 1983 to 1987 Ford 6.9L IDI diesel, but this version of the transmission had a less favorable 4.02 : 1 first gear. 2WD Ford's with the 460 cid big block also received this version, while 4WD Ford's with the big block got a more desirable 6.32 : 1 version from 1983 to 1986.

That's not true about the 460's as the factory literature (Documentation/Driveline/Transmissions/Transmission & Transfer Case Ratios) says they had a 5.11 1st gear and it doesn't appear to vary by 2wd or 4wd. And that has been borne out by what I've found on T-19's I've been around. In addition, their chart shows the T-19 to have a 6.96:1 reverse with the 460 when it was actually 5.63 - which I've also checked out on T-19's from Bullnose trucks.

As for Poncho Loco's axle code, the factory axle ratio info (Documentation/Specification/Axle Ratios) says that a "16" is for 3.50's.

[RenoHuskerDu]

I'll see if I can add the reverse ratio to the spreadsheet.

And the T-18 does have 7.44 reverse ratio, and Poncho Loco should have a T-18. Plus, the only trucks that got the T-19 had the diesel or the 460. Smaller engines always got the T-18, and the "F" does indicate T-18, as shown on Documentation/Specifications/Transmission Codes.

As for the F150hub link, I'm sorry but I have a hard time believing them when their T-19 page says:

A common application is the 1983 to 1987 Ford 6.9L IDI diesel, but this version of the transmission had a less favorable 4.02 : 1 first gear. 2WD Ford's with the 460 cid big block also received this version, while 4WD Ford's with the big block got a more desirable 6.32 : 1 version from 1983 to 1986.

That's not true about the 460's as the factory literature (Documentation/Driveline/Transmissions/Transmission & Transfer Case Ratios) says they had a 5.11 1st gear and it doesn't appear to vary by 2wd or 4wd. And that has been borne out by what I've found on T-19's I've been around. In addition, their chart shows the T-19 to have a 6.96:1 reverse with the 460 when it was actually 5.63 - which I've also checked out on T-19's from Bullnose trucks.

As for Poncho Loco's axle code, the factory axle ratio info (Documentation/Specification/Axle Ratios) says that a "16" is for 3.50's.

Hmmm, wrong info is worse than missing info. I deleted my post recommending that site.

[Gary Lewis]

Hmmm, wrong info is worse than missing info. I deleted my post recommending that site.

I'm not at all saying that the factory info is perfect. But I believe it is a lot closer to perfection than lots of the info floating around on the internet. And when Ford runs the same gear ratio info for several years in a row, and I've been able to confirm it hands-on, I'll take it any time over the "info" found elsewhere.

But if someone has info that is counter to the factory stuff, please let me know.