Pete Whitstone Posted October 26, 2021 Share Posted October 26, 2021 Hi All, This thread is to document some of the work I'm doing on my 81 F150 Flareside. I bought the truck about 2 years ago and have been addressing various issues (many times with the much-needed help of this forum so thanks) ever since. The reason I call the truck The Deuce is because it is (for now) my second truck, and because it looks like doo-doo. My current DD is a 2006 F150 with 160k on it. When that truck goes for whatever reason, the 81 will take its place from then on. I don't intend to ever buy another truck, I want a truck that I can fix whatever goes wrong with it, and I don't want truck payments in perpetuity. Anyhow, when I picked up the truck a couple years ago, it was in odd shape. Rough on the one hand, as it hadn't been driven for a couple years, and had a very rough running I6 300 in it, and a C4 without reverse. But aside from those rough points, it had all new gas tank, brake lines, etc., so it was someone's pet project very recently. Not the guy I bought it from, however. He had had it about a year and hadn't done much to it. It was advertised for sale by his wife. According to her, he had bought it "for her", as a project to fix up. She had no interest, so it was for sale... Yeah, I remember when I was 8, I bought my mother a model airplane for her birthday... good times. A VIN check on the truck showed it was born with a 351W/C6 combo, and that's what I wanted anyway, so when I picked up the truck, I also picked up a running engine/trans from a guy that had plucked it out of a motor home. I took a week off work to do the swap, not knowing much about these trucks. When it came time to lower the V8 onto the mounts, I saw that the I6 engine perches did not line up with the mounting bolts of the V8. I tried to find some V8 engine perches, but couldn't really find any info about them (I don't think I knew about this forum at the time). So I assumed they were the same as the I6 perches, just a bit taller. So I got out the welder and converted the I6 perches to fit the V8, not knowing that the V8 perches were behind the K member. So now my engine sits a bit high and a bit too far forward, which I'll address going forward. The truck was in pretty terrible shape from a wiring perspective. I noticed there were waaayyyy more wires running around the engine bay than an early 80's truck should have. I traced a bunch of them to an unconnected Ford engine computer under the dash. Dunno what it was for, the I6 that was in there was carbed, so apparently at one point there was a fuel injected engine in there. The wiring that was left after that was highly questionable so I ended up either rerunning the factory wiring, or just running new wiring, but still trying to use the factory wire color scheme, so as not to confuse myself too much in the future. After the engine swap, I did a bunch of other work to the truck, including: - Electric fans - https://forum.garysgaragemahal.com/My-81-flareside-is-going-electric-td60503.html - Headers, exhaust - Edelbrock carb, Weiand intake - Suspension bushings - New sensors - New gauges and gauge panel - https://forum.garysgaragemahal.com/New-instrumentation-for-my-81-td64519.html - New shocks - Alternator upgrade - Running a 4 flat trailer wiring harness - Complete interior redo - https://forum.garysgaragemahal.com/81-Interior-makeover-td90007.html#a90027 - Stereo, amp, speakers - Brakes including new MC And probably a million things I am forgetting. I put about a thousand miles on the truck in that format, mostly around town. One of my long-term goals for the truck was to convert it to 4WD, so I had been keeping an eye on FB marketplace for a suitable donor vehicle. About 6 months ago, I came across a 95 in extremely rough shape. The poor thing had been used for extensive target practice. In addition to that abuse, there was a really poorly executed air bag system on the back end. There were no usable parts on it at all, except for the drivetrain, but that's fine, that's what I needed. I paid $400 for it and dragged it home. I spent about a month harvesting parts off that, which included: - 351W Hydraulic roller motor - E4OD trans - BW 1356 transfer case - Dana 44 front diff - Front & rear springs - Front & rear antiroll bars - V8 engine perches It now reposes behind my shop. Maybe with the high price of steel I should see if someone will drag it away. Anyhow, I have spent the last few months breaking down the harvested suspension parts, cleaning, painting and powder coating them. And sourcing new parts for rebuilding those pieces. I am thinking the springs on the donor truck may not have been stock. The fronts are painted red, which I doubt came from the Ford factory that way. And the rears have a bushing size on one end that does not appear to match the normal 95 bushing size. Anyhow, for about the last 4 weeks, I have had the truck torn apart getting the new 4x4 suspension on there. I am nearing completion I think. The back is done, and it sits a few inches higher that I thought it would, but I'm liking the stance. I chose to re-use the 9" rear, rather than the 8.8" out of the 95. This means that when I go to actually hook up the 4WD I will have to change the ratio - it currently has 3.08:1 (or maybe 3.00:1, can't remember). It will have to be changed to 3:55:1 to match the Dana 44 in the front. But that's for another phase of the project, for now I'm glad the shallower gearing is in there, I need all the help on gas mileage I can get. I am now working on the front end. Problems with that didn't take long to manifest themselves. At some point the truck had taken a fairly hard bash from something low on the road. The rest of the truck is unscathed, but the front of the K member took a big impact and bent it backwards at some point. No big deal for the 2WD stuff that was in there, it still fit because it's smaller. The 4WD stuff however, would not even come close to fitting. I considered swapping in the K member from the donor truck, but after reviewing the number of factory rivets, and remembering the fun I had removing the rear spring perches, I decided that was not a good plan. Instead, I went with another not good plan - bending the K member back. Lots of oxygen/acetylene and a large hammer and bottle jack later, I had massaged it roughly back into its original configuration. More importantly, there were no project-ending fires. Not saying there were NO fires... just no project-ending ones. After the heating/beating/bending was done. Then I could proceed with the reassembly of the suspension, which now sported all new everything - seals, U joints, ball joints, etc. Here is where it is at right now. The other project going on now is the installation of some step bars that I bought from LMC. After reviewing the totally inscrutable instructions, I came to the conclusion that these probably didn't fit flareside trucks. So I spent the weekend fabbing up bracketry to attach them to the frame. That probably worked out better anyway, since the stock bracketry seemed to want to put them about an inch below the door opening. You have to step 2 feet up, and these are helpfully placed 22.5 inches up... great. So I was able to move them a few inches down, and maybe a little outwards as well. Pictures of that when that project is complete. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Whitstone Posted October 26, 2021 Author Share Posted October 26, 2021 - deleted - Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted October 26, 2021 Share Posted October 26, 2021 - deleted - Pete - A quick response as I await the start of No Time To Die. Rotate the pics in an app and save them with a new name. It remembers the old name and won’t reload. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Whitstone Posted October 26, 2021 Author Share Posted October 26, 2021 Pete - A quick response as I await the start of No Time To Die. Rotate the pics in an app and save them with a new name. It remembers the old name and won’t reload. OK I think I understand how to get photos to post upright now, so getting rid of all the experimental photo uploads in this post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted October 27, 2021 Share Posted October 27, 2021 OK I think I understand how to get photos to post upright now, so getting rid of all the experimental photo uploads in this post. Pete - Sorry, I missed your question about freeware. But it looks like you figured it out. GSMBlue - Can I move your post to the new thread entitled Discussion On How To Properly Orient & Size Pictures. Pete - Once I do that and delete my posts you may want to clean up or delete some of yours to get this thread sorted out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gsmblue Posted October 27, 2021 Share Posted October 27, 2021 GSMBlue - Can I move your post to the new thread entitled Discussion On How To Properly Orient & Size Pictures. Yes sir! I should have mentioned to select a size under 1mb, but you got that covered :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Whitstone Posted October 29, 2021 Author Share Posted October 29, 2021 Well I got the drivers side front hub reassembled without too much trouble. The little diagram I was working from was not super-clear on some things, but I found that most things only fit together one way where it was unclear. I did run into some questions along the way, though. 1. After I finished assembly, I read that they keyslot on the hub is supposed to be on top. I didn't know that and mine is at the 10 o'clock position. Does it matter? Is it worth taking it all back apart again? 2. Couldn't find a reliable torque spec on the 5 nuts holding the hub on. I saw one thing that said 35-40 lb ft, that seemed pretty light to me so I tightened them quite a few ugga-duggas beyond that. Anybody got that number handy? 3. Wisdom of loctite on those 5 nuts? I'm guessing the factory did not use any. Thanks in advance! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted October 29, 2021 Share Posted October 29, 2021 Well I got the drivers side front hub reassembled without too much trouble. The little diagram I was working from was not super-clear on some things, but I found that most things only fit together one way where it was unclear. I did run into some questions along the way, though. 1. After I finished assembly, I read that they keyslot on the hub is supposed to be on top. I didn't know that and mine is at the 10 o'clock position. Does it matter? Is it worth taking it all back apart again? 2. Couldn't find a reliable torque spec on the 5 nuts holding the hub on. I saw one thing that said 35-40 lb ft, that seemed pretty light to me so I tightened them quite a few ugga-duggas beyond that. Anybody got that number handy? 3. Wisdom of loctite on those 5 nuts? I'm guessing the factory did not use any. Thanks in advance! The specs on the spindle nuts, which I think is what you are asking about are: Install and tighten the spindle attaching nuts to 68-81 N-m (50-60 ft-lbs). The instructions are on the Front Axles & Differentials tab on the page at Documentation/Driveline/Axles & Differentials. But the torque specs aren't in the table at the end of the chapter like they should be. Instead they are in the text. And I'm surprised that you could get it on with the groove in the wrong place. Did you swap sides? I don't think it really matters though. And Loctite won't hurt. May not help, but it won't hurt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArdWrknTrk Posted October 29, 2021 Share Posted October 29, 2021 The specs on the spindle nuts, which I think is what you are asking about are: Install and tighten the spindle attaching nuts to 68-81 N-m (50-60 ft-lbs). The instructions are on the Front Axles & Differentials tab on the page at Documentation/Driveline/Axles & Differentials. But the torque specs aren't in the table at the end of the chapter like they should be. Instead they are in the text. And I'm surprised that you could get it on with the groove in the wrong place. Did you swap sides? I don't think it really matters though. And Loctite won't hurt. May not help, but it won't hurt. Loctite will help. It will keep water and oxygen out of the threads (it is an anerobic, after all) I've never seen a rusty thread that was installed with Loctite. Probably won't help any threads protruding on the back. But it can't ever seize. Even the pipe sealant will seal out corrosion while lubricating and not substantially increasing breakaway torque. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted October 29, 2021 Share Posted October 29, 2021 Loctite will help. It will keep water and oxygen out of the threads (it is an anerobic, after all) I've never seen a rusty thread that was installed with Loctite. Probably won't help any threads protruding on the back. But it can't ever seize. Even the pipe sealant will seal out corrosion while lubricating and not substantially increasing breakaway torque. Good point, Jim. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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