1979 F150.. first project in a long time!

Forty61

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Been a long time since I’ve had a project vehicle. The wife was on board with me getting something and actually pushed me to get this as it was something I liked but more than I wanted to spend on something for myself.

It’s a ‘79 with a 302 in it, old farm truck. Running and insured up to 2019, barely runs at all now, carb leaks fuel like crazy and I THINK the timing is off. First batch of parts (carb kit and ignition stuff) is on the way. Can’t wait to get to tinkering on it!

I’ll post more photos as I go if people are interested.


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tjm73

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Cool. That ol truck did a lifetime or two of farm work and now it can enjoy "retirement".
 

Forty61

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Since the truck was insured up to last year I figured it couldn’t be too far out of tune so I did a semi-rebuild on the carb by replacing all the soft parts and tweaking the float a little. Bolted it back on last night and low and behold it fired on the first hit of the key!

Plan when I get time is to do an oil change and replace all the ignition components. The oil looks and smells just a little gassy and since I’m not sure if it’s from the leaky carb or maybe the fuel pump I figured it was cheap insurance to just slap a new pump on it at the same time. I’ll get some more photos once I get it running enough to bring it home and wash it.
 

Shotokan1509

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Nice, I'd love to do a bump side preferably earlier 67-69 but up here so much dang rust
 

Forty61

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Washed it, took off the tool box and rack, cleaned up the motor and changed the oil. Shows good pressure for the oil, drops a little low once it warms up so maybe the 10/30 isn’t thick enough for the heat down here. Slight off-idle stumble but not bad for sitting as long as it did!

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tjm73

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All my 302's have liked 20W-50
 

Forty61

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All my 302's have liked 20W-50

I’ll bump up to that after the ‘break-in’ period of getting it back reliable.

Repaired/replaced some vacuum lines and fittings today, the previous owner had hacked a lot of them. Found a couple open ended 1/4” fittings leading to manifold vacuum so I also pulled the first plug to inspect. Looked like it’s been running a little lean so after replacing the lines I fired it up, let the choke open fully and read my manifold vacuum, steady at 19-19.5 inHg.

It still has the slightest stumble under very light load, not sure why. Once it’s hot it seems to smooth out a little bit too which I can’t figure out why.. mixture just a hair too lean maybe?

I need to find someone to borrow a timing light from and probably invest in a tach for the truck to confirm the remaining variables of idle.
 

Iceman62

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Nice project...miss my '78 F100. Lots of good times in that truck.
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tjm73

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My brother had a real nice shortbox '67 F100 2WD. It was frost turquoise and whimbleton white. Had a 352FE with a three of the tree. I loved that truck. I was kind angry when it got sold. I wanted it. They are starting to bring dumb money.
 

Forty61

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Awesome to see it have factory ac. I have never seen one in my lifetime.

Factory AC that ALMOST works.. blower fan comes on for every speed but high (need to check the controller), compressor sounds like it kicks in (motor drops rpm) but air isn’t cold. I need to pull apart the blower box and check for debris as apparently they have a habit of catching dried leaf debris on fire.. and then see where I’m at, it’s just a big job and kinda down the priority list right now.
 

Macman45

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Factory AC that ALMOST works.. blower fan comes on for every speed but high (need to check the controller), compressor sounds like it kicks in (motor drops rpm) but air isn’t cold. I need to pull apart the blower box and check for debris as apparently they have a habit of catching dried leaf debris on fire.. and then see where I’m at, it’s just a big job and kinda down the priority list right now.

Probably out of freon
 

Forty61

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Probably out of freon
Most likely.. once I get all the other little road-worthy things working I’ll dig into it and confirm all the functions and then try charge it up. Got a little list of stuff to handle first!
 

Forty61

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BACA0ABC-25F8-44A3-9BAF-7279D37D75E5.jpeg 298E85A6-7360-4887-8607-8FB4B6628085.jpeg Making some slow progress, changed around some vacuum lines to their correct places and tweaked the idle mixture, cleaned up most of the hesitation it has. Probably still needs some minor tweaks but it’s workable for right now.

Found a tach on sale, couldn’t turn down the price. It’s a little bigger than I would have liked but it was cheap so I’m happy with it. Pulled out the old non working radio and all the pieced together wiring, cleaned up some other wiring and then cleaned the door trim strips and dash. It’s actually a pretty nice place to be now!
 

Forty61

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Quickly checked my timing yesterday trying to chase my off-idle hesitation.. vacuum unplugged in Park at 1200RPM I’m reading almost 40 degrees BTC.. vacuum hooked up at the same RPM? Almost 60 degrees.. amazed it runs that far advanced! Gotta find time to get in there and tweak it..
 

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