Elmore: 1967 Ford F350

In reply to 03Panther :

Thanks!

I've noticed a faint cyclical vibration, primarily on light throttle cruising, as of late. I crawled under earlier this week and the only thing I could identify visually was that the rubber in the CSB had degraded. 

It took some hackery to be able to pull the old bearing off...

The new one went on no problem. 

When I pulled the rear driveshaft slip yolk off of the front splined section, there was a cork thing left behind that totally disintegrated. The shop where I bought the replacement CSB said it's just for dust control. Oddly though, there is now a lot of movement on the splines up and down, if you will. I really don't like it and I feel like I'm missing something. 

I took it for a short test drive last night and all seemed OK but I'm not convinced. 

What I did learn on the test drive is that the headlights aren't working... Tail lights, yes. Gauge cluster lights, yes. Headlights, no. Hm.

Elmore got a little test drive Friday afternoon and everything felt good so I was surprised when, yesterday morning, there was a rather large pool of ATF on the garage floor.

It had come out of the output seal. The seal itself is only a year old and I don't think I damaged it while doing the CSB but sometime tomorrow or Tuesday I'm going to try to push the CSB further onto the shaft so that it can pull out further from the trans.

If that doesn't fix it, unfortunately, I'm going to have to take it to a shop to remedy as I need as much time as possible to focus on Hatchet over the next week or so.

It's still leaking. The parts store had a seal in stock so I bought it. My running theory is that because I didn't push the CSB on far enough, the seal was running on a rough part of the shaft and now won't seal.

Questions for the group. 

Trying to avoid pulling the trans pan - how much fluid will pour out of the back when I pull the driveshaft out? Clearly it won't be all of it but it could still be quite a lot. 

How confident are we that I'll be successful in stopping this leak by putting in the new seal?

I've got enough to do over the next week and a half before Schenley. Just make it someone else's problem?

I pulled the old seal out and just for anyone who may be wondering, only a couple drips of ATF came out. A very nice surprise. I spent a good amount of time cleaning up the yolk with some emery cloth, put the new seal in and it's dry. 

Anyone following the Hatchet thread will know this already but Elmore dutifully did his job again without a hiccup. The drive out of Pittsburgh back home is immediately up hill for quite some time. It was 87 degrees and all the way up that hill I never saw temp over 190 and oil pressure under about 45. Once back on flat ground, Elmore cruised at his normal 180 and 50-60 lbs of oil pressure at 65 mph. Great truck. 

I did have to stop for gas on the way home where I usually can make it the whole way on one tank. I think that hot climb out of town really ate into the mileage. 

When I went to put the front hitch on to push the trailer into the woods, I found this fella who really hit his mark. 

In reply to AxeHealey :

Spotted Lanternfly?

In reply to Recon1342 :

That's what it looks like to me. I know they're big time invasive in Pittsburgh so Elmore was just doing his part. 

My buddy got a shot of us passing him on the way home. 

Glad to hear replacing the seal didn't require an ATF shower. Did the replacement seal seem to solve your problem? 

In reply to Mezzanine :

Haven't seen another drip!

With a fully functioning passenger window, it was time to look into the driver's side. I was expecting this to be a more difficult problem to solve and it was.

I pulled it out to find teeth ground way down.

The gear that the crank attaches to was also worn down and very loose in it's mount. I spent a few minutes planning out how I was going to add weld to the teeth then shape them back down etc, etc. but then I realized fresh ones are less than $70 brand new. 

I didn't take any pictures but that's what I did.

Just a note for anyone looking for the non-existent 1967 model year regulators for a Ford truck, the '68 regulators fit right up. The splined section that the crank mounts to is a bit shorter so I needed a longer screw but everything else was just fine.

I'm sick of the horrible exhaust leak caused by the trans shop last year so I've been planning out the new exhaust system. I think it'll be 3" all the way back. Y-pipe into a resonator, into a muffler and then straight out the back. 

Exhaust update - it seems the Y-Pipe I thought would make my life much easier will not work. The company didn't have any dimensions they could give me whatsoever but what they did tell me is that, although the sections forward of the "Y" look to be in the same plane, they definitely are not. 

Bummer because especially with the drop down in the middle, it would give great clearance under either/or the trans pan/driveshaft. 

It just looks so right in the pic.

In my mind, the cool ol' trucks like that kinda require twin 2 1/2 pipes,, with  minimalist mufflers, side exit before the tires!!!

Yes,I've gotten older, and would probably ad the x pipe, to even out the pulses, quieter mufflers, and strait out the back, but stil gotta have the duals on a truck that old school cool. 

In reply to 03Panther :

That's pretty much the setup right now albeit side exits behind the rear wheels and I do love the sound if there weren't a big leak. An X-pipe would get messy under there with the driveshaft angle and I would like to have the exhaust come together so I think the Y-pipe is the way forward. 

I am still considering having it exit out the driver's side before the rear wheels though. It would be simpler, lighter and would still have the side exit cool factor.

EDIT: Further update. I ordered the Y-Pipe. I think that even though it's not perfect it will make my life easier. Time will tell.

I'll tell you what, it's like living in luxury being able to just roll the driver's side window up and down.

The fancy y-pipe showed up today and it's definitely going to save me a ton of time. 

The welds on the outside are really great looking and it'll be sad to have my welding added onto it but at least I can almost match the welds in the collector.

I shined a flashlight on the inside and couldn't see any light coming through but I may still try to close that up.

I poked around under there for a couple minutes this evening and found that my biggest obstacle is going to be the pipe coming out from the passenger side collector. It is Tight. Notice the capital "t".

I believe that's 2 1/2" tube and there's only 1/4" or less clearance to that cross member. We know from Engine Masters that bashing primary tubes has no effect on power so I'm not worried about doing that here but I may also take the time to clearance the cross member. We'll see. Either way, this little complication means that this will likely be a winter project because Elmore season is quickly coming to an end and I don't want him laid up for more time than is necessary. 

The y pipe looks great! Is it a model specific, or a universal piece?

In reply to 03Panther :

It's a nice piece. Sort of a shame I'll be hacking it up a bit. 

It is intended to fit an 07-13 Chevy truck. 

Change your old engine mounts and I bet you find some added clearance on that tight exhaust pipe situation. Most motor mounts for old trucks are like 10 bucks each and you might be surprised how much the drivetrain is sagged down over he years.

In reply to Cousin_Eddie (Forum Supporter) :

That is a really great point, thanks! I tend to avoid looking at them in Elmore because the most favorable way to describe them would be cobbled but the rubber is indeed totally deteriorated. 

The exhaust project has been on hold as I've been looking for new engine mounts. Ford big block engine mounts, as it turns out, are like hen's teeth. There is one company out of Canada that seems to be reproducing them but they have yet to come in stock and anywhere else I've been able to source them is charging $100+ per side. No thanks. 

I found a kit from TD Performance that is designed to bolt in, replacing the sketchiness the previous owner made. 429-460 into a 65-70something Ford truck with a poly bushing. Now, I have no idea whether or not the placement of the engine will be such that it'll actually just bolt in but it's worth a shot.

AxeHealey said:

In reply to 03Panther :

It's a nice piece. Sort of a shame I'll be hacking it up a bit. 

It is intended to fit an 07-13 Chevy truck. 

Looking fwd to the "hacked up" pictures!

Got a friend in NC - phenomenal welder / fabricator. He just did a "quick and dirty" for his 5.4:

better than my best work, and go him, that's a bit rough! But he's to cheap to pay for the aftermarket one, and his is equal length!

In reply to AxeHealey :

In the '90s, a friend put a 460 in his 71 F250. Don't remember the stock engine, probably a 302. But he stayed with the stock mount "towers", and used car 460 rubber over the counter mounts, flipped, and one hole drilled. I wasn't there the day he did it, so don't recall much. But he said it was a lot easier than he had been told by everyone (pre internet days!)

Parts are starting to roll in for Elmore's winter-of-attention. I have almost all of the exhaust pieces needed (the remainder are to show up today). New drag link and tie rods (waiting on driver's side), engine mount kit, bushings for the twin I-beam and the patch panel for the A-pillar. 

Yesterday I took a closer look at the engine mount kit.

Although the holes drilled in the cross member side of the kit don't appear to match any existing holes on the cross member itself, it looks very promising that the engine placement will workout just fine. I will absolutely need to remove the headers to do this as the current mounts are welded directly to the cross member. 

While holding my breath, I started to break free header bolts and, amazingly, all of the ones I tried broke free no problem. Keep your fingers and toes crossed for me. Eyes, even.

I then opened the box of bushings for the front suspension. Here's what the radius arm bushings look like on the truck. 

Here's what the new ones look like. 

It's hard to tell the difference in scale but the ones on the truck are smushed to about 3 inches in diameter while the new ones are about 1.5". For any twin I-beam people out there, are these the right bushings or do I need to look elsewhere? The kit is for trucks from 65-75. 

EDIT: Just talked with the company I bought the kit from and they have confirmed that this kit will not work with the 350.

Alright so I got on the phone with an old Ford parts company in Cincinnati, they looked up the part number on the microfilm for a '67 F350, said they have them in stock and sent me 4 (what the application calls for). They are essentially the same size as what I received from the other company. 

I know that the knuckles are from a later truck. Is it possible that the whole front end is? I'm going to ask the previous owner but I'm not sure he'll remember. I just can't imagine these things will smush that much. 

EDIT: This guy is the best PO I could have bought from, seriously. He already responded and thinks it's highly likely that everything was swapping in from a later truck. It's got to be. I looked up radius arm bushings for a '77 and they look much more correct. Unfortunately, I think the answer is I should pull these first to get a good look at them before ordering a third time.

On another note, here is the basic layout for the exhaust. 

I have an actual 3" piece to use between the resonator and muffler and I don't think I'll use that little tip I have laying there but this is where I expect to end up. 

I've lived in Cleveland for almost all of my life and have seen the seasons shift over time but this fall has been something else. Until this week it's been in the 60's most days and hasn't even rained so it's been impossible for me to take Elmore off the road because driving season just keeps going! I have decided though that tomorrow morning is it's last trip for the year - taking one of the pups to the vet. This dog LOVES rides in Elmore and it's a nice clean break for me to drive it once more, stabilize the fuel and then finally get into the mountain of work I want to do to it this winter. Neither the Healey nor Sven are at the storage place yet so my wife's 4Runner will have that tow duty, which is fine. 

Speaking of the mountain of work ahead of me, I've also been dreaming of getting Elmore a bit lower. There is no lowering kit available for a '67 F350 with 70-something front suspension and an 80's (?) rear end. Imagine that. I'm considering cutting some out of the front springs and removing a leaf or two from the rears. 

The rear leaf set up is incredibly beefy so I'm not concerned about taking one or two of those bottom leafs out in terms of load. I know generally speaking cutting the front springs will serve to increase the spring rate but I think the amount I'd cut to lower it 0.5 - 1.0 inch won't make it uncomfortable. We'll see if I get to that or not.

It has begun. Slowly.