Bringing an F100 Back from the Dead

My wife and I went to Yellowstone once (it was late summer). We did Old Faithful, and saw sites near there. We too were planning on doing both loops, but after a day of smelling the sulfur in the air, I had enough. We exited after the first loop and went to a different location we wanted to see.

At that time we were tent camping. One morning, out there in the mountains, when I crawled out of the tent, there was snow on the picnic table outside of the tent (at the end of Aug)! Your pictures of the snow brought back the memory of that trip, so many years ago.

Still sounds like your having fun, despite the unwanted weather. Old cars and trucks do become conservation starters, especially when the locals see a way out of state license plate. We are living the dream they have always had a vision of. I think its one of the best parts of road trips in old rides.

 

Me too. Down in the RV park the temp was in the 70s. We decided to ride the motorcycle up to the Continental Divide. By the time we got there we were ankle deep in the snow. We met a newly married couple and talked them into taking a photo in the snow in their bare feet. Fun times.
Back in the RV park... 70s again.

Enjoy your journey.

 

Mike Sir,
thanks for your story and photos, we come over from Aussie each year for two months (Sept/Oct/Nov) and your
photos bring back memories , we usually drive over 6,000 miles each time, we land in Anaheim to visit our friends who run "Kings Inn" 10 minutes walk to Disney, then head off, north to the top of Washington State, across all States MT, SD,NM,and all States in-between .We alway spend a week in West Yellowstone, love the place. we have driven on the Bonneville Salt Flats which was a thrill at high speed
Drive safe and look after "Old Furd "

 

We're on the last lap as of tonight. I'll fill in with some more photos later. Right now, we're bone tired and just wanna get home.
Both wifey and Ol' Furd are in need of some TLC.
We (actually me) deviated from the plan of easy days yesterday and today. Just wanna get home. From West Yellostone to Ogden YOO-TAW, then to Vegas. Actually Primm. 350 miles to go, and we will have logged over 3500 miles, and been through nine states.
We seen some spectacular country, got rained on, hailed on, snowed on, and Ol' Furd has mostly taken it in stride.
Just a couple glitches, but nothing major. The latest is the oil pressure gauge has failed. Under 50 psi and its like the switch gets turned off.
Dolphin brand gauges. Don't buy those. Seems they are inexpensive for a reason.
Below, a random rest stop sonewhere in Utah.

 

The adventure continues....

 

I purchased a set of Speedhut gauges (www.speedhut.com) for my 49 Dodge. I bought an electronic speedometer with the trip odometer and the regular odometer, with turn and high beam indicators and a quad gauge with oil pressure, water temp, volt meter and fuel gauge all in one electric gauges for my truck, but they have several options. You can pick you gauge face color, the needle color & shape, and the color of the gauge outer ring. The gauges are all have back lighting.

Not cheap, but made in the USA (Utah), life time warranted, comes with all the senders and gauge wiring. The speedometer and fuel gauges are programmable. The gauges are made to order (took 2 weeks from order date until they were delivered). I had a set years ago and really liked them.

I will be redoing my dash and installing the new gauges real soon and will likely run a "build thread" on it here.
You should check them out.

 

Dang! And there I was in Utah too.
We are home. Not everything went according to plan. Or I should say "envisioned." Because we had no set plan.
Our last night on the road was in Primm, Nevada at Buffalo Bill's. I don't have much good to say about that. But then we rolled into Vegas on a Friday afternoon, when every hotel for miles around jacks their room rates up. Not an ideal scenario.
So it was either Buffalo Bill's or pay BIG money. The room was OK. But we had large, heavy tote boxes for our luggage and supplies. The clientele at Buffalo Bill's take all the luggage carts and keep them in their room to make sure they have use of them at all times. Even though they are supposed to check them out with a 30 minute time limit, there is no one to enforce that. The clerk is never there. I did manage to score one to get our stuff up to our room. I even helped a couple gals I met in the parking lot by letting them put their stuff on the cart on my way up with my last load. But there were none to be found upon our departure. It was quite an ordeal getting our stuff down. It truly tested my endurance level as well as my patience. I really gave the gal at check-out a piece of my mind too. No one care really gives a shit. Rant complete. Still pissed about it though.
But that's the thing about not having a plan. Gotta take the bad along with the good.

OK. I wanna get into the clutch and gauge thing sooner than later. But....big hairy but....I need a clutch release fork. I can't find my original. Maybe it's here somewhere, or more likely I stupidly tossed it.
Emphasis on stupidly.
1965 F100, 300 inline that originally had a t89 or may a T18 four speed. If anyone has one you'd consider selling, I'll fed-ex cash money. I found some for later models but I don't know if they are the same.
Below, Mammoth Hot Springs and a few buffalos on our way out of Yellowstone....where it snowed again!

 

Thank you for the warning us about Buffalo Bill's, it saves everyone else from have a bad experience there. Don't let the night at Buffalo Bills ruin the memory of your trip, just let it remind you that some places don't deserve our money. Your word shared here could cost them a fortune over time, a deserving punishment for the poor way they treated you.

We have been on those trips that were fun, but at some point, it was time for it to be over. When you get to that point, you just want to be home. It does seem that when ever we get to the point where we want to just go home, that is when we have a bad experience. Maybe its just trip fatigue setting in, and even the little things seem so big. I think we get burned out from traveling, and sleeping in our own bed becomes more important then almost anything else. We love to leave home for a road trip, but we are always happy to pull back into our driveway and know we will be sleeping in our own bed once the trip is over. Maybe that is the way its suppose to be.
Maybe your 3500 mile first road trip was too big for a first step, maybe it wasn't. I suspect time will answer that. But at the end of every road trip, we are always ready to be home, hasn't failed yet.

When we were younger (with 2 kids, one 10 and the other 6 1/2) took a road trip in our family car. We had "won" a 4 night stay in a 5 star resort in Phoenix AZ in July. We discovered why after we got there, it was 116 degrees all 4 days. Couldn't hardly do anything outside during the day, but the nights were full of planned activities.
We left home in the north west corner of IL, 4 days before our "free" nights started. We hit all the famous sites that caught our attention along the I40 corridor. The farther south and west we went, the warmer the temps got (no AC in the car), but we were all having fun and the kids were seeing things they heard or read about in school. When we got to the resort that first night, it was really nice. We found out how hot the dry AZ heat really was the next day. The nights at the resort were great, the days from 10 am to about 6pm sucked. We were happy we didn't pay for that 4 night stay.

From there, the plan was go to visit my sister that lived in Las Vegas. On the way there we hit the south side of the Grand Canyon. Still hot when we got to Las Vegas, but we got to see all the lights of the city at night. We did the Hover Dam tour and lake Mead while we were there.

From Las Vegas, we came around to the north side of the Grand Canyon (the south side was better) then went north through the Utah desert to I 70 where we turned east. We were almost to I70 before we got relief from the really hot temps and had our first sighting of anything that was green again. That trip from Utah on I70 to Denver was really nice with a lot of interesting things to see and do.

My wife's brother lived in Loveland CO at the time (70 miles north of Denver), our next stop before heading towards home. We spent three days that area taking in the vastly different sites in the Rocky Mountain area just north of Denver.

The drive from Loveland Co to home is about 1200 to 1300 miles. When it was time to leave Loveland, all any of us just wanted to be home. Those last two days driving home seemed like they were the longest drive of the entire trip.

Looking back now, maybe it would be fun to do that trip again, but 34 years later, a lot of things have changed. The stop at Phoenix probably would not happen, but another visit to the Grand Canyon would be OK. My sister no longer lives in Las Vegas, but another visit to the Hover Dam might be fun. I'd do the trip through the Rockies in a heart beat. But I know that long trip back home (even if its only a hour), when your burnt out from traveling, still sucks.
However that feeling goes away when you get the urge to hit the road again.

 

Yeah. Phoenix in July. Or anywhere in Arizona, except for the northeast corner is just brutal in the summer. Vegas too for that matter. Even here in Central California is really hot. Anything later than early May, and earlier than mid October should be avoided if you can't tolerate high heat. AC is a must in those areas.

Looking back, had we chosen a route closer to the Oregon coast, and not chosen to go down i15 all the way to Vegas, it might have been more enjoyable.
I shoulda knowed getter. I know how Vegas is on weekends. I lost track of what day it actually was, and it didn't dawn on me till it was too late.
Those desolate stretches in Western Nevada and Eastern Oregon on the way up, coupled with those two brutal days from yellowstone (500 miles each day), did us in.
The rest of it was awesome! I'm happy with most of it.
Ol' Furd did ok. She took us all the way, with just a couple minor issues. Now she gets some attention!

 

Monday morning I got into it and yanked the trans. Everything looks normal, and the clutch surfaces look nearly new.
Still, I've made my mind up to reconfigure the clutch actuation to an external slave. I don't know for sure what causes the stiffness when the thing is heat soaked, but should that hydraulic throwout bearing fail....like somewhere with no people or cell signal....that would be bad. The trans has to come out. With an external slave, I can carry a seat kit and fix it on the side of the road.
So here's where I am as of Wednesday. Clutch arm modified with a multi hole tab, and a bracket made for the other end. All 3/16" steel. It may be overkill, but after all the finish welding is done, it'll probably work.
The geometry isnt perfect, but based on previous experiences setting this kind of stuff up, i have no concerns.
I just need the throwout bearing and I can pre-adjust everything before stabbing the Trans back in. I have the throwout bearing depth after measuring where the hydraulic unit was. So I can get it really close.

 

BTDT in a stick shift van. I had to drive home from the Carlysle PA swap meet to Michigan, crash-shifting it all the way, getting it rolling on the starter motor.

Your clutch release looks plenty stout.

 

I don't see why that won't work. I would much rather have the hydraulic slave cylinder in the linkage. I was never a fan of the hydraulic throw out bearings. I figured that if it ever started leaking, I would much rather not have oil inside of the bell.

I drove a car 250 miles home with a clutch that wouldn't disengage (broken finger on the pressure plate from a seized throw out bearing)! Pull it into neutral at stops, shut the motor off, put it in 1st gear, and crank the starter to get it to move, match rpm to shift up or down. It seemed like a long way home, but we made it.

 

Most people of a certain age have done what you feller describe....at least car guys like us have. Not fun.
My reasoning for the hydraulic TB seemed logical. Simple and virtually friction free. And the TB is a top of the line quality Tilton unit.
But there's no argument about the risk. I've always had to be careful about "double-clutching" or pumping the pedal at the risk of overextended the thing and having it blow out. It doesn't have all that much travel capacity. Less than .700". And it starts engaging just an inch or so off the floor.
There have been inconsistencies in the pedal feel from day one. Most times , no problems.
So, hopefully, this will fix that.
I made the mistake of ordering the actual TB from rock auto. I have to wait for that to arrive to finalize the set-up. I didnt pay attention to the delivery date until I got the confirmation email. Dammit!
Thanks fellers

 

I used the Fox body bell housing and a pull type slave several times. I carried a spare slave in the truck. I didn't need it on the road but once coming back from the parts store, I had a failure. 2 blocks from the house was ok. I have since been using mustang pedal hangers and clutch cables. Not as neat but I don't think about the clutch anymore.

 

We've had a pull slave in the Karmann Ghia drag racer for a long time. Probably 15 years. All Wilwood stuff. Never had a failure. But a street car sees a lot more pedal action than a drag racer does.
It's all done and ready to go back in. I have it pre-adjusted for free play, based on the TB depth measurement that it was. Seems to function properly, and it has more actual travel than the hydraulic release bearing had.
The only concern I have is this slave calls for a 3/4" master. Mine is 7/8" (This is what the Hydraulic TB called for). I can easily put a travel limiter of the clutch pedal to keep for overstroking the slave cylinder, but the bigger master would also increase pedal effort. I reckon I will take a wait and see approach. No need to spend another $100 on another master if I don't have to.

 

Ol' Furd is all buttoned back up. The pedal effort is higher than it was, but it's smooth. Wilwood recommends a 3/4" bore master. Mine is 7/8". I have enough travel to switch it. Or I can change the ratio on my linkage bellcrank to get the same result. A task for another day. The test will be when it gets hot.
To make yankin' the trans easier, I made a removable section in my exhaust system. I had to pull the whole enchilada from back to front. Poor planning on my part when I built the exhaust. Anyway, I also put in a cross-over, or "H" pipe. An immediate benefit, is that it's quieter inside the car. And the drone that was there at certain RPM is gone.
One other minor glitch that was bothersome. I mentioned in post #574 about the oil pressure gauge acting up. Put in a new sender, and all is right. It reads different than it did. But that's the way it is with inexpensive (Chinee) sensor and such. Slightly different ohms throught the range gives a different gauge reading.
I am thankful...and proud, that Ol' Furd made such a big road trip with only minor issues. Although they had me concerned, we kept on truckin'!
So the next road trip won't be so extreme. But no lightweight trip around the block either. A trip to Monterey, CA, then south to Morro Bay, then home. about 550 miles in total. Highway 1 between those two point is still not completely open. It's really too bad as it is such a spectacular stretch of road.
If you find yourself in West Yellowstone, do yourself a favor and find Beartooth BBQ. Fine, FINE BBQ

 

Beautiful work , those old F 100s are as cool and tough as one can get . This one finished for the third time around . 390 C6 , 325 cogs , power steering , AC , disc brakes all from donor trucks at pick and pull .

 

So Mike, when is the next trip? 550 miles is a great weekend jaunt.

We did our WI Hot Rod on May 16 & 17. 205 miles to the 100 mile reliability run on Friday. We left home around noon, and did the nice 2 lane highway cruise there. Friday was a great day with the high in the mid 70s and puffy white clouds and sun mixed. We spent the night in a hotel room about 10 miles from the starting point.
Sat morning started out a bit drizzly, but it was pretty much ended by the time the run started. Once again, I took no pictures, even had the camera, didn't even think about it! The WI Hot Rod 100 is almost always a wonderful trip through the back roads of WI, and this year was not any different. We were sure happy the old truck has heat and good wipers. We hit a few patches of rain until we were about a 1/4 of the way through the run, from there it was cloudy, and 50 degrees. The shop where the run ended was pretty cool, and the lunch was pulled pork sandwiches.
We left the run a bit early (we were both getting cold). The 100 mile run, followed by a 300 mile trip home was a lot more then we are used to, for sure. Once in the truck with the warm cab, the drive home, though long, was pleasant. By the time we got home, we were both beat.

For next year, if the travel will be a long as it was this year, we will plan on spending another day in the area the run ends, to check out the local sights, and make the trip home 100 miles shorter.
The old Dodge worked great.

 

DRD, that's a sweet lookin' truck!

Gene, that sounds like a great time. 300 miles is quite a chunk in these old rigs, for certain. If I had it to do over again, I would keep to my original plan of 300 miles per day and taken extra days. Especially for the segment from Ogden to Primm. 500 miles in one shot, followed by a 370 miler the next day.
Beat? Absolutely.
Sooooo, the next one will be less than 200 miles per day.
I love reading about your road trips Gene. That's what it's about!

 

We took Ol' Furd over to Monterey for the Rock 'n' Rod Festival at the Custom House Plaza next to Fisherman's Wharf. What a great show! However it may be the last. The main guy, the driving force behind the whole enchilada passed away a few weeks before the event.
Five really good rock 'n' roll bands doing music from the fifties through the eighties. Both mine and wifey's ears are still ringin'.
Ol' Furd did great. No clutch issues, and had a consistent feel. It's been consistent since the linkage change. So, it was a good modification.
We leave Monterey today to roll down the Morro Bay to visit wifey's bestie.
Nice trip so far. I'm spoiled on car shows now. The ones where you sit around all day will no longer cut it!

 

I like your signage for the truck.

My son lives "just over the hill" in San Juan Bautista. I'll ask him if he was at the show and saw your truck. He has a '48 Anglia w/ a 300-6 and a '69 O/T Ranchero, so also a gearhead.

 

Mike, it sure looks like the old Ford is doing very well, and you and your wife are becoming more comfortable with it every trip out. The future looks great!

Currently I'm limping along in our old coupe. Just after the May adventure my truck's speedometer started messing up again. The actual speedometer head is out of the donor truck, it started having some minor issues a year ago. The speedometer head is actually going bad. I bought new gauges for the truck at the end of April, but I'm redoing the entire dash as I install the new gauges. I started that process just after the WI Hot Rod 100. Its been kicking my butt, but I'm going to beat it into submission (the dash is metal and required a bit of reforming ). I'll do a thread on the process when I get er done. I'm at the point of smoothing out (filler, sanding, and paint) and then actual installation stage.

 

Thanks!
I did that illustration a month or so back after scoring a workable version of Adobe Illustrator. My younger son did the printing for me.
I had a couple people say they couldn't find us at the show. Didn't spend much time at the truck. Mostly sittin' up front of the stage. It was a really fun show!

 

I'll look forward to that thread Gene. I reckon that's the thing about driving old stuff. ALWAYS something needs to be done.

On the future looking bright, we may have some tough times ahead in California. Yep the fruits and nuts that DON'T grow on trees are up to their shenanigans again. At the risk of getting political, an unelected group, the California Air Resources Board, has been seeing to it that oil refineries are shutting down, with no regard to what it means to the general public. And they've pretty much stated that. The predictions are $8 gasoline next year. Maybe more.
It may be worth it tho. Next year is an election year, and folks are unhappy already...to put it mildly. One preventable calamity after another. Once they get hit hard in the wallet....well, we shall wait and see. Until then, we the people are powerless to do anything about it.

Moderators, if this is too much, I get it. All you others, please just leave it be. No need to respond to the dribble!

 

I live in Illinois. We are right behind you, racing to catch up.

Made some progress on my truck today, until the upper 90s got to me, about 2pm. Been in the AC since!

 

Hi Mike
we will be over again for 2 months Sept/Oct touring west coast Anaheim to Washington State Pt Angeles across to Vancouver Is, Spokane, Hungry Horse,Helena,Custer,Cody W Yellowstone we have five days here ( will drop into Beartooth for a bite),Grand Junction,Bluff,and back to our friends in Anaheim thanks for your advice
Noel

 

Noel, if I could do it again, I'd go up the Oregon coast. I understand it's beautiful.
You won't be disappointed with Beartooth! Unless you hate good BBQ. And absolutely do use highway 12 rather than interstate 90. It is truly spectacular!

 

I've gone through and reviewed the state of Ol' Furd after the 550 mile trip to Monterey, then down to Morro bay and then home.
18mpg on the way out. Lots of slow traffic at the Highway 156/101/Hwy 1 section. It was Friday so that's to be expected. Then in and out of the show itself, we had a lot of idling time. So I am not displeased with that mileage. From Monterey to Morro bay, it logged 20mpg, and close to the same, maybe a bit better from Morro Bay back to Clovis. Haven't filled it yet so it's just a guesstimation based on where the fuel gauge needle is as compared to the miles.
Clutch linkage modification worked out great! Consistent feel and operation throughout the entire trip.
The exhaust modification....although it will make tranny R&Rs easier, the cross-over I put in, a simple "H" pipe deal, according to what I've read, was SUPPOSED to mellow the tone and possibly improve fuel economy. The tone is nice....at certain engine speeds and load. The drone is back at 2500 rpm, or about 60MPH in 4th gear. Right where it is when climbing. Pretty damned annoying. And now is has a raspiness when I'm into the throttle accelerating, like onto a freeway on ramp with approaching traffic and gettin' 'er up to freeway speed. So when I leg 3rd and 4th out a bit, the tone is almost like blown out glasspacks. It took me by surprise the first time. "What the hell was THAT?" Poking along in town, it's fine. But I can't say I like that raspy tone when I'm into it. It did not improve fuel economy, but it does make the exhaust system more solid. So I don't know what I'm gonna do about that. Maybe a different kind of cross-over? Dunno. Thoughts?
But overall, I think I have proven to myself, as well as anyone who has questions, that Ol' Furd is pretty much up to any road trip challenge. When I say to people (and I have) that I could drive it across the country tomorrow, it would not be lying.
But like I was saying to Gene Koning, with old cars, there's ALWAYS something!
And just because, here's my new show card I did a few weeks back that my younger son printed for me!