chirkware Posted October 3, 2022 Share Posted October 3, 2022 I posted pictures sometime back in the new members section. Starting work on this truck, and I’m sure I’ll be needing plenty of advice. Here’s a couple of shots after a little cleaning up. It’s mostly sat for 15+ years, but I know it was driven 3-4 years ago. I was very happy with the beds condition after we removed the bed liner (which had a hole cut in it to accommodate the hitch). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chirkware Posted October 3, 2022 Author Share Posted October 3, 2022 Spent a bit of time this afternoon to pull each plug and pour in a bit of marvel mystery oil into the cylinders. I found that it’s hard to use a funnel to pour into those angled holes on a 351w (I’m totally a rookie on Windsor engines) so I improvised from my plumbing junk drawer. That seemed to work well! The plugs all looked about the same, like this: I was able to get a 15/16 deepwell socket on the bolt for the bottom pulley (harmonic balancer?) and found that the engine spins just fine, so that made me happy! A piece of 1” square stock slides over a 1/2” Craftsman ratchet wrench perfect for a nice cheater bar. I unhooked the hose between the fuel line and the fuel pump, since there’s no telling what’s in the tank. I’ve got a fuel filter going to a hose, which in turn goes to a short piece of tubing setup to pull gas from a green bean can. Got a battery hooked up, headlights came on, but I’m not getting anything else. Absolutely nothing when I turn the key. So I guess I’ll be trying to go through the electrical system to see what’s up. I guess it could be as simple as a Neutral Safety Switch, which I’m guessing is on the transmissions on these trucks? (It’s a C6) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArdWrknTrk Posted October 3, 2022 Share Posted October 3, 2022 Spent a bit of time this afternoon to pull each plug and pour in a bit of marvel mystery oil into the cylinders. I found that it’s hard to use a funnel to pour into those angled holes on a 351w (I’m totally a rookie on Windsor engines) so I improvised from my plumbing junk drawer. That seemed to work well! The plugs all looked about the same, like this: I was able to get a 15/16 deepwell socket on the bolt for the bottom pulley (harmonic balancer?) and found that the engine spins just fine, so that made me happy! A piece of 1” square stock slides over a 1/2” Craftsman ratchet wrench perfect for a nice cheater bar. I unhooked the hose between the fuel line and the fuel pump, since there’s no telling what’s in the tank. I’ve got a fuel filter going to a hose, which in turn goes to a short piece of tubing setup to pull gas from a green bean can. Got a battery hooked up, headlights came on, but I’m not getting anything else. Absolutely nothing when I turn the key. So I guess I’ll be trying to go through the electrical system to see what’s up. I guess it could be as simple as a Neutral Safety Switch, which I’m guessing is on the transmissions on these trucks? (It’s a C6) Yes the NSS is on the transmission if you have a C6. You can jump the switch, or just the relay for testing. Larry looks quite a bit cleaner than his first photos. I'll admit I'm a bit jealous of your XLT interior. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chirkware Posted October 3, 2022 Author Share Posted October 3, 2022 Yes the NSS is on the transmission if you have a C6. You can jump the switch, or just the relay for testing. Larry looks quite a bit cleaner than his first photos. I'll admit I'm a bit jealous of your XLT interior. Thanks! I’m starting to think the NSS might just not have gotten hooked back up when the transmission was slapped back in last week. I didn’t think about that earlier. I’ll have to crawl up under there and have a good look. I’m kind of hoping it’s that simple! I’m thrilled how it’s cleaned up. Certainly looks a lot better after a bath. I’ve got to decide how to deal with the surface rust…the roof doesn’t have much paint left. Thinking I may just clean and wax where there is paint and smooth out the rusted spots and apply some flood penetrol for now to give it that patina look and slow any further rust. I’ll admit I went back and forth on whether I wanted to buy this truck. I really wanted a manual transmission. But when I realized it was an XLT Lariat, I had to have it! It’s optioned pretty well, other than power windows, but I’m not sure if that was an option in 86. The interior is mostly good, but the door panels are really crusty up at the windows from years of sitting in the sun. The panel around the radio/AC controls is loose (I found the screws in the ash tray) so I’m wondering if there’s electrical gremlins someone was dealing with or maybe someone was just gonna swap the radio (it showed no signs of lid when I fiddled with it). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gsmblue Posted October 3, 2022 Share Posted October 3, 2022 Thanks! I’m starting to think the NSS might just not have gotten hooked back up when the transmission was slapped back in last week. I didn’t think about that earlier. I’ll have to crawl up under there and have a good look. I’m kind of hoping it’s that simple! I’m thrilled how it’s cleaned up. Certainly looks a lot better after a bath. I’ve got to decide how to deal with the surface rust…the roof doesn’t have much paint left. Thinking I may just clean and wax where there is paint and smooth out the rusted spots and apply some flood penetrol for now to give it that patina look and slow any further rust. I’ll admit I went back and forth on whether I wanted to buy this truck. I really wanted a manual transmission. But when I realized it was an XLT Lariat, I had to have it! It’s optioned pretty well, other than power windows, but I’m not sure if that was an option in 86. The interior is mostly good, but the door panels are really crusty up at the windows from years of sitting in the sun. The panel around the radio/AC controls is loose (I found the screws in the ash tray) so I’m wondering if there’s electrical gremlins someone was dealing with or maybe someone was just gonna swap the radio (it showed no signs of lid when I fiddled with it). Looking forward to your progress and pics! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArdWrknTrk Posted October 3, 2022 Share Posted October 3, 2022 Thanks! I’m starting to think the NSS might just not have gotten hooked back up when the transmission was slapped back in last week. I didn’t think about that earlier. I’ll have to crawl up under there and have a good look. I’m kind of hoping it’s that simple! I’m thrilled how it’s cleaned up. Certainly looks a lot better after a bath. I’ve got to decide how to deal with the surface rust…the roof doesn’t have much paint left. Thinking I may just clean and wax where there is paint and smooth out the rusted spots and apply some flood penetrol for now to give it that patina look and slow any further rust. I’ll admit I went back and forth on whether I wanted to buy this truck. I really wanted a manual transmission. But when I realized it was an XLT Lariat, I had to have it! It’s optioned pretty well, other than power windows, but I’m not sure if that was an option in 86. The interior is mostly good, but the door panels are really crusty up at the windows from years of sitting in the sun. The panel around the radio/AC controls is loose (I found the screws in the ash tray) so I’m wondering if there’s electrical gremlins someone was dealing with or maybe someone was just gonna swap the radio (it showed no signs of lid when I fiddled with it). There's a hole in the side of the switch that you insert a 3/32" punch (or pin... or drill shank) when you install it. Be sure the transmission is in neutral. That assures alignment and proper reverse light operation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chirkware Posted October 3, 2022 Author Share Posted October 3, 2022 There's a hole in the side of the switch that you insert a 3/32" punch (or pin... or drill shank) when you install it. Be sure the transmission is in neutral. That assures alignment and proper reverse light operation. More of a curiosity than anything for now, but I’m trying to figure out how this hitch works. Looks like the door should come up all the way, and then the ball would pivot up, but I can only get the door about halfway up. Not sure if something is stuck down in there of if I’m just doing it wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArdWrknTrk Posted October 3, 2022 Share Posted October 3, 2022 More of a curiosity than anything for now, but I’m trying to figure out how this hitch works. Looks like the door should come up all the way, and then the ball would pivot up, but I can only get the door about halfway up. Not sure if something is stuck down in there of if I’m just doing it wrong. I'm not certain which brand you have but most of the foldover gooseneck balls I've seen have a latch handle under the bed on the driver's side that you have to pull out first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chirkware Posted October 3, 2022 Author Share Posted October 3, 2022 I'm not certain which brand you have but most of the foldover gooseneck balls I've seen have a latch handle under the bed on the driver's side that you have to pull out first. That makes sense! It’s seemed like something just needed to be released for it to come up the rest of the way. One more thing to look for when I crawl up under there. I probably already looked right at it and didn’t realize what I was looking at. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chirkware Posted October 3, 2022 Author Share Posted October 3, 2022 There's a hole in the side of the switch that you insert a 3/32" punch (or pin... or drill shank) when you install it. Be sure the transmission is in neutral. That assures alignment and proper reverse light operation. Perfect! My guess is they just didn’t hook it up. Thanks again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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