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Reviving the M715, Chevy 350/700r4, Ford 390/T18/NP205

139K views 670 replies 14 participants last post by  Von 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
I finally put up a privacy fence to keep the city inspectors out of my bidness. Charged up the batteries on the M715 and crawled her into the back yard.

Poor old girl... Kept dying at idle so I locked the throttle at a fast idle and put it in 4low.

I got the front clip off, pulled the seats and took the battery box out of the cab. Started pulling the wiring harness loose. I'm going to rewire the whole truck, I've got 100' of 10 ga and 600' of 12 ga in various pretty colors, new crimper and stripper... ready to rock and roll...
I forgot to take a pic with the front clip off.. I need to get some.. show the old Tornado in all it's glory.

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The transmission dude in Alvarado called and said my 700r4 is ready. I'll run down there next week and get it. .. Funny. A guy at work gave me his number. He's used a dozen of this guy's 4l60's and never a problem. And the farmers he's installing them for use the crap out of them. This guy does 90% of the work in his shop, one part time helper does the other 10%.
So i called him up to tell him what I needed and see when he could get to it... I wasn't even asking about price. He kept asking me questions so he could give me an accurate quote and we were kinda pissing each other off... I'm a little deaf so I piss people off on the phone anyway... So finally I said "Dude, I don't need an accurate quote. You build them yourself, right? Not a bunch of teenagers throwing sockets at each other when you turn your back? And your high quote was $200 cheaper than the sleeze bags that sell leaky crap around here. I'm sold. When can I bring you all my crap so you can build what I need?"

The FedEx and UPS Santas have been dropping a steady stream of parts off all week. Most are pretty boring... Throttle valve and throttle cables and brackets, battery cable ends, trans cooler, B&M torque converter lockup kit, fuel pump (went with the Carter)(I was too cheap for the Holley), all new gauges, fuel sender... SHINY new cold air breather like thus : http://www.ebay.com/itm/390711520191?_t ... EBIDX%3AIT
I'll rattle can it black or OD.
I had a chrome breather like that on my Trooper. Flows great and won't get in the way if I'm fiddling with the distributor.

But today I got THIS in...

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Winters Sidewinder shifter... commonly known as BAD ***... ( <-- what the what? I been bleeped...)
I'm sure my wife will be a lot more impressed with it IN the truck than she was with it in my lap on the couch while I shifted through the gears...

I originally planned on going with one from American Shifter or Lokar that looks like a 4 speed stick and uses the stock shifter location, because I want to stay dual battery and was going to keep the battery box in the cab between the seats... But I kept reading that those shifters aren't very rugged, the button sticks after a while... and I could tell my step sons it's an automatic and NOT a real 4 speed all day long... but the first thing either of them would do when they got in was go "oh cool.. 4 speed!" and immediately grab the shifter, go for neutral and swing it side to side.. and those shifters don't move like that..

So I went with the Winters... I'll have to get creative with the passenger side fender well and make a new box for the batteries there. That'll save me some battery cable too. One of the guys at the Zone showed how he notched a fender well out for a battery tray, I'll do something similar.

I want to put all the electrical crap (fuse block and relays) under the hood. I'm looking for some kind of enclosure to put it all in. Maybe 8"x12"x2" with a hinged lid... maybe a little bigger. Water resistant. Not water PROOF... I've gotten as close to fording as I want to in that thing...
I did some googling and saw the water proof relay boxes and fuse block enclosures... but I'm thinking $20.. not $200..
I'll probably go with one of those power strip enclosures for the patio.. or an ammo can... or a small tackle box.. or a plastic pencil box from the school supply isle...
 

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#402 ·
The nice thing about hei as you know is that it's one wire , two if you hook up a tac :)

I have an f350 , it's a 94 and the last of the old school 7.3's (late 94's got the power stroke and mine received a turbo and larger wrist pins) ...

An earlier comment about ford changing things around on there engines reminded me of my dads f150 (01 if I remember) , Tristan v8 ... Thing ran and towed good , changing the plugs sucked royaly, then I got to the brake job ... Front was easy , the rear axle was 3 different possibilities for shoes ... I figured that new of a truck wouldn't be an issue anymore but I was enlightened !!

My wife likes to run my buggy hard and fast , I told her to keep it in second and when I let her take me out we hit the flats and she shifted it into drive haha , I yelled slow down women !! No speedo but man I garrontee it was close to 90.. probly the only place she'd go that fast ..
 
#403 ·
bradzuzu said:
The nice thing about hei as you know is that it's one wire , two if you hook up a tac :)

I have an f350 , it's a 94 and the last of the old school 7.3's (late 94's got the power stroke and mine received a turbo and larger wrist pins) ...

An earlier comment about ford changing things around on there engines reminded me of my dads f150 (01 if I remember)
Stick with that 94, last of the good Ford pickups. They got plumb stupid after that. I had a 93 F350 with the 7.3. great truck. We had a 97 F150 that we got for the oldest boy when he got his drivers license. It had TONS of miles on it, 325k I believe, and the engine still ran great. the Tritons are great engines until you need to work on them. Major PITA. We replced the plugs and some coil packs on the 97 and it was awful.
If the heater core on your dad's 01 goes out... bypass it. Then wait till summer and SELL that sucker! Sell it! We replaced the heater core on the 97 ourselves. I burned a week of vacation time doing that. A shop owner we know said on those he puts 3 guys on it and it takes a good 5 days. You gotta take the dash out, all the way to the firewall. The dash, frame, duct work, wiring harness... EVERYTHING except the steering column. I think they started with the heater core and built the rest of the truck around it.
.. I tried like hell to find a short cut... no go.
 
#404 ·
That intermittent fuel pump problem is still haunting me. I replaced the original ignition switch a while back and it helped... only did it every few weeks. The pump would just not come on... pull over and prime with the keyed switch, start up and go till the bowl runs dry again. It'd do that 4 or 5 times and then kick in.

Tuesday night I was getting ready for a shower before bed, brushing my teeth and started the shower running. Got in the shower and the water was still cold... yup, water heater was dead. It's a Whirlpool 40 gallon natural gas with the Honeywell gas valve. Jacked with it till about 1am and determined the thermocouple was bad. And the thermocouple used with the Honeywell/Whirlpool combo is an oddball. Nobody local carries anything like that. And I couldn't find a part number for it either. left a voicemail for the boss saying I wouldn't be in the next day, heated up some water on the stove and got a quick spongebath then went to bed.

In the morning I pulled the burner assembly out, looked online for a while and still couldn't find a thermocouple. Took the burner to a few appliance parts stores and, of course, as soon as they saw the assembly they'd stop me before I even got to the counter... Nope, we don't carry Whirlpool parts.

so.... Even if I can find a part number... wait a week for it to come in... nope. We're not living in the Zombie Apocalypse yet. My wife is NOT going to take sponge baths for a week. (actually we'd be getting a hotel room for a week... ) So I bought a new water heater. One WITHOUT the Honeywell gas valve.

I don't know how old the other water heater was. Not ancient... rest of it looked to be in decent shape. So I put it up on Craigslist explaining what was wrong with it, asked $100 or trade for tools or firewood. I figured some slum lord would take it as a spare for a rent house. Got a reply offering firewood Thursday night, arranged a meet Friday morning. Take off with the water heater in the back of the truck and it dies a block later. Prime carb, take off, dies a block later... and so on. And it WOULD NOT kick in. Took a half hour to make it 1 mile. text the guy and told him I'd be a minute. I was 2 miles from him and needed to splice a couple of wires together to get back on the road. ..... he said he was packing up and going home, maybe later or when it warms up... I bypassed the oil pressure switch and wired the pump relay trigger straight to the ignition switch. Fired right up and ran great. Yes, must revisit fuel pump wiring again.

AND... while I was posting crap on Craigslist... I'd been looking for a C6 transmission with the FE bolt pattern to run behind the 390 I haven't even rebuilt yet... mostly just getting a sense of availability and cost. A lot harder to find than the 700R4 was. Closest one I found was a core in Plano TX. Trans shops here want $750 to rebuild a C6... Or pay $550 plus with shipping from an ebay salvage yard. I have no faith in salvage yard warranties, and not when shipping is involved in the claim..
I posted an ad in the wanted section, ISO a working C6 or FMX trans for an FE. Could also use a standard trans but would also need other parts off the donor vehicle, I have no clutch pedal assembly or linkages. (some dummy sold the clutch pedal assembly)

Well, yesterday evening I got a hit. Local. 1971 F250, 360 and 4 speed. $500. he bought it a couple of months ago, now it's cold and he doesn't wanna mess with it. he was told it ran when parked 9 months ago. hmmm...
 
#405 · (Edited by Moderator)
Ain't she a beaut!

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Might keep the shifter handle.
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I put a battery in it and gave it shot of ether and drove it off the trailer and into the shop. I guess there's still some gas in the tank... and the gauge doesn't work. I had to make some adjustments to the bailing wire that comprises about half the carb linkage, she was idling kinda high... like screaming. And there was almost as much gas leaking out of the carb as there was going through it. And blue smoke... LOTS of blue smoke.

Definitely a farm truck. bailing wire everywhere. Wires twisted together, not even any electrical tape on them.

So the poor Fairlane gets pushed aside again.... Not for long though. I'll pull everything I might need off the truck and scrap the rest. Then get back on the Fairlane.
It has the T-18 4 speed. Nothing felt hinky in it.
I was thinking about making a trailer out of the back of the F250 to sell... but there's no tail gate. And around here old truck bed trailers go for $200 or $300 with tail gates. And I'd have to rewire the whole thing... The ignition wiring appears to be the only part of the harness that wasn't butchered.

I think it has a Dana 60 back there. may just pull that for resell.. or spare.. or something..

And the bench seat is in astonishingly good condition, considering what the rest of the truck looks like. may go bench in the M715.
 

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#406 · (Edited by Moderator)
After unloading the truck I parked my truck and Randall's trailer on the street in front of my shop. The trailer is a little wide so I angled it up into the driveway a little. Was going to take it back to Randall's the next day.
About 12:30 or so The dogs start freaking out and then the doorbell rings. I can see flashlights whipping around and hear radios... the coppers! WTH... what did those idiots do now?

Somebody had clipped the back tire on Randall's trailer. It popped his tire and woke the neighbor up, they called the cops. The tires stuck out just a little past the fenders. Tandem axle setup. Popped the tire, bent the aluminum wheel a little, snapped the hub off the axle and broke the hanger thingy between the front and rear leafs.
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Also found these laying around the scene. Fender flare and some bits of aluminum wheel that didn't come off the trailer.
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A buddy of Josh's had left his 06 Chevy pickup parked out front an I noticed the flare is a perfect match for this one. So whoever did it had a 03 to 06 ish Chevy pickup, Tahoe or Suburban with a missing flare and running on the spare...

Called Randall the next day... one of the hardest calls I've ever made that didn't involve a death... I hate being That Guy that borrows stuff and tears it up. I've know too many of Those Guys and like to return stuff in as good or better shape than when I picked it up. I would be understanding if the roles were reversed, and so was Randall. But that's beside the point... still kicking myself, I borrowed it and it was my responsibility to care for it.

After calling him I posted the flare pic on FB and the hunt began. I didn't call for retribution or anything... just wanted whoever it was to step up and hope they had insurance.

I was at work the next day, went to lunch and got a text from my wife. Randall and his wife were on their way over to check it out and he spotted a white Suburban 2 blocks from my house with the right front flare missing and the spare mounted... They took a pic and went on to my house. they called the cops from there.
When they showed they had to take new statements and make a new case number... the cops from the night it happened had assumed I did it and was just trying to make a cover story or engage in insurance fraud or something. He deleted the case number.

Then they took the flare off my porch and went to the guys house. Asked him if he knew anything about it and he denied it... then they got the flare from their car showed it to him... fessed up then. He got a ticket for leaving the scene or hit and run, and Randall got his insurance information.
 

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#407 · (Edited by Moderator)
I had quite a bit of overtime leading up to Christmas shut down at the plant. Not much time to play with the old Ford.
We were going to my Mother in Law's on Christmas Eve but the oldest boy had to hang back because he was on call that day. After 7pm he could leave. But he didn't trust his Caddy to make the trip... and his driver's license is suspended... so borrowing my car wasn't going to work... so my wife and the youngest left that morning and I hung out till Brayden was cleared to go or had to work... what to do, what to dooo?

I could get the old Ford ready to yank the engine and trans!
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#408 · (Edited by Moderator)
A lot of the bolts were so rusted up... got fed up and grabbed the sawzall and cutoff grinder..

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Easy access. I was having a blast...

Sent my wife a pic of the cab roof and told her it was a new coffee table. She wasn't amused.
 

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#409 · (Edited by Moderator)
Between working a lot of overtime and my cherry picker still being AWOL, the donor trans and engine have looked like this for a while...
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When Collin borrowed my cherry picker he was just using it to unload an engine out of one of his pickups and bring it back the next day. I made the mistake of telling him there was no hurry. That gave him time to find other uses for it. I told him last week I needed it back and it's in his driveway holding a 12v Cummins in the engine bay of a square body dually he's working on. No motor mounts, no gas for his welder, it's cold, blah blah blah....

anyway... overtime tomorrow and wanted to get that engine and trans off the frame so I can haul the rest of that truck off on my next day off. Frame, front suspension and rear bumper is all that's left. Kept the Dana 60 rear end.

Needed to get the T-18 out of the way. I found that an old 390 camshaft was the right height to support the back of the engine. And a chunk of 4x4 tubing resting on the drag link... as you can see when the trans isn't blocking the view.

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#410 · (Edited by Moderator)
Then the engine.
Couldn't use the lift to pull it up like I did with the Fairlane because the Fairlane is on the lift. Well, guess I COULD have... but the logistics of moving it under the lift...
I've been thinking about materials on hand for a week or so. Came down to either a couple of old rusty clothes line poles or the cut up frame of the F250.
Tacked this mess together.
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.. a little sketchy.. but it worked. Josh came out to bum a smoke. Soon as I started pulling the engine up he hauled ***.... thanks bud..
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Gotta make some room in the shop.. wrap some of this stuff up.
My brother in law (the one that bought the CJ last year).. at Christmas he was telling me about taking it to his cousin in law's shop in Missouri for a paint job. They're going to pull the body and work on it, he'll go back and fetch the frame. Wanted to know if I'd help him put a lift kit on it. Nothing crazy, just enough to get 33's under it. 2 1/2 inches ought to do it. Other than the occasional empty field with mild hills on it, the thing will probably never get off road. So wheel travel with the 33's isn't really an issue.

I told him there's not much to a lift kit, a little labor, easy peasy. But he's totally out of his element. Not knocking him for it... it's a temporary condition..
He is one of the most intelligent people I know. Really intelligent, not just book smarts. The company he works for recruited him and paid for his masters degree in England... where he developed an enormous appetite for fancy schmancy beer.. And he's a skilled carpenter. Beautiful work. After telling me how much working on cars intimidates him.. he's just never done it, the man that raised him and my wife never did that, took all their vehicles to a shop for everything.. but after telling me that he was talking about a planter he built. he was a little bored and had an extra 20 minutes and some lumber laying around. He "just slapped it together". Multi tiered planter about 4 feet high for growing spices and such. And it looked great! If I'd built it, it would have taken 2 or 3 days and looked like crap. And it would have fallen apart.
.. so he'll catch up quick on the automotive work.
 

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#411 ·
Any more on that hit and run ? I'd be up that guys *** !! Man that was a hard hit to rip the spindle clean off , what a butt face !!

Funny how when you want something done you get it done quick and get creative !! You sure are making good headway ...
 
#412 ·
bradzuzu said:
Any more on that hit and run ? I'd be up that guys --- !! Man that was a hard hit to rip the spindle clean off , what a butt face !!

Funny how when you want something done you get it done quick and get creative !! You sure are making good headway ...
Disassembly! Destruction! My favorite part of any project!

Yeah, Butthead has insurance and Rockin Randall is dealing with them. IF the insurance pays out enough, he might repair that trailer and sell it, then buy himself another trailer. He asked if I'd be interested in buying it.... Nah, that POS has been wrecked!
 
#413 · (Edited by Moderator)
Got the rest of the old Ford cut up and hauled off. Kept the coil springs... I don't know why.. I'll find a use for them some day. Springs fascinate me, I always keep those.

Moved some stuff around, did some sweeping, pretty much just goofed off. One day off so didn't want to open up the Fairlane's 289 or start chopping floor pans out. Oh, rewound the cable on my winch... it was a MESS! All wadded up on one side of the spindle...

My wife got me a TV for the shop for Christmas. I put that up a while back and found a use for the springs off the F250 hood hinges while I was at it.

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Ran cable out there, quick and dirty... that'll last until my wife notices how it's strung between the house and the shop.. "That looks trashy! Can't you bury it or something?"

Got a mini (or is it micro) HDMI to HDMI cable to string between the TV and my Kindle Fire. Tested it by listening to Mark Levin's show on his app. Didn't think the Wi-Fi from the house would reach out there that good.
 

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#414 ·
Making the man cave even better I see , up until she yanks the cord to get your attention haha !! You need another wheelin trip to go on , that last one was full of adventure ...
 
#415 ·
bradzuzu said:
that last one was full of adventure ...
Speaking of that episode is still verboten at my house... under penalty of Death by Eye Laser. The boys like to bring it up every once in a while just to see her glare. Or to distract her from whatever trouble they are in.

Only 1 year, 23rd of this month. just 29 more years until she can joke about it.
 
#416 ·
Haha that's terrible , why is she so mad about it ? You didn't get any tickets or anything , just stupid fun times especially all the other trucks ... So today I told the wife I started on my rig swap and she's all what was the new thing again ?? Uhh a trooper hunny you saw pictures , oh I don't remember ... I showed her a couple and I think I saw an eye ball get slightly bloody lol

She don't like my projects but say if it was for her oh boy buddy she'd be rootin me on ... I plead the 5th !!
 
#417 ·
bradzuzu said:
... I plead the 5th !!
LOL!, good luck with that!

That mess started on our anniversary. Pretty much ruint the whole weekend. If it hadn't been our anniversary she probably would have packed a lunch and come out to watch the festivities.

When I get a roll cage and seat belts in the truck we'll putt around at the lake every once in a while. The one time I took her and the boys out there in the Trooper she had a blast. Just messing around on the four wheeler trails with the doors off on the Trooper. her and Josh were in the back seat screaming their heads off...
 
#418 · (Edited by Moderator)
The starter situation on the 350 has been steadily getting worse. It'd gotten to where I'd get 3 or 4 starts out of it and then the grinding would start. I'd loosen the bolts and retighten and get some more starts.

Couple of weeks ago I pulled it off, thought I'd clean the holes out good and use lock tite. The outside bolt hole was busted. Same place this one in the pic is cracked.
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Still used lock tite on it, but... So I'd been using the truck sparingly and leaving it running when I needed to use it.

Sunday while I was waiting for paint to dry on the Fairlane's gas tank I got another bolt, 1/2 inch longer, and drilled that hole all the way through and tapped it. Just started it once after that and it sounded like the starter was lined up good.... no weird sounds. But I'm still going to try to ration starter usage. if the rest of that thing breaks I'm really screwed....

Need to get to work on that 390...
... although... I saw on the FB market place, there's a fella that bought a 74 C65 dump truck for the engine. he wanted to use the engine in his jet boat but it wouldn't fit. Now he just wants the dang thing gone. he thinks it's a 350, has 77,000 miles on it.
FREE. The engine is out of it, don't know if the trans is still in it. Thought about just loading the engine in the back of my truck and towing the rest of the truck to the scrap yard.
 

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#419 ·
I would, scrap is going up and you would gain another block and some spare change for a little bit of labor. You need to look at the engine. Some of those heavy duty truck had a 366 industrial engine in them. I drove an early 70's propane delivery truck a long time ago and it had the 366 in it. It was a good engine but I don't know if it has the same bolt pattern as what you already have.
 
#420 ·
Thanks Hess, I'll look into that.

I showed my wife the ad about the dump truck and she just rolled her eyes... OMG... She just doesn't understand the "logic" there.. I hope it's still available when I can scare up somebody to help me tow it. Somebody with big cajones. I've never driven a C65 but guessing they have air brakes? which won't be working?

If the bellhousing pattern is different I could save the transmission that's in it too. Divorced transfer cases are awesome...
 
#422 ·
N law said:
Just go get it already!!
LOL.

Oldest boy starts his new day slot at work Thursday, youngest one works days (and totally unreliable any, NOT making any plans around him). I work tomorrow then off a week.... Unless I happen to be feeling puny in the morning..

According to these master technicians the tall block 366 and 427 have the same bell housing pattern, but sometimes use an adapter ring for the heavy duty clutch assemblies.
http://www.flatratetech.com/community/i ... opic=30420
 
#424 ·
Gonna message him at break and see if he has the title. Scrap yards won't take em without a title. Unless it's in chunks like the 71 Ford I hauled off. It won't fit in my shop... We don't have an HOA but it's a pretty decent neighborhood. 2 days to dismember it on the curb side... my wife would be the least of my worries.
 
#425 ·
Von said:
Thanks Hess, I'll look into that.

I showed my wife the ad about the dump truck and she just rolled her eyes... OMG... She just doesn't understand the "logic" there.. I hope it's still available when I can scare up somebody to help me tow it. Somebody with big cajones. I've never driven a C65 but guessing they have air brakes? which won't be working?

If the bellhousing pattern is different I could save the transmission that's in it too. Divorced transfer cases are awesome...
It may or may not have the air brakes, really depends on how it was ordered. If it does have air brakes it may not even move. Air brakes were designed to lock up when they lost air, now that was not always the case. In the early years it was the opposite, no air no brakes. After so many runaways they reversed the rule. But I don't have any idea when the rule change came about. On mine it required air to move and I think it was a 72 if I remember right. By the way the truck could also have a 427 big block. It was an awesome Chevy engine.
 
#426 ·
hessmess said:
It may or may not have the air brakes, really depends on how it was ordered. If it does have air brakes it may not even move. Air brakes were designed to lock up when they lost air, now that was not always the case. In the early years it was the opposite, no air no brakes. After so many runaways they reversed the rule. But I don't have any idea when the rule change came about. On mine it required air to move and I think it was a 72 if I remember right. By the way the truck could also have a 427 big block. It was an awesome Chevy engine.
hmmm. I snuck a quick smoke and messaged him. I also read the rest of the ad. It says FREE at the top but he IS wanting monies... says make an offer. between that and the possible brake situation/towing difficulties.. I'm starting to loose interest. I'll see what he says about the title and ask about the brakes.
Another break in 38 minutes.
 
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