[AndreasPassat]

Quick Links to Pertinent Posts:

Master parts purchase list.
http://www.passatworld.com/forums/a...r-1966-ford-f250-4x4-pick-up.html#post4353666




Well, the time has finally come for me to get my lazy butt out of the house and start working on my '66 Ford pick-up.
I've owned this truck for a number of years now and has been shuffled from one storage place to the next. It has been in my garage now for the last 4 years, but as usual, nothing has gotten done.
I've removed all the Passat parts that were piled up on the truck and now have decided to finally get it running.
By my rough calculations, it's been at least 20 years since this truck last ran. I've owned it for 11 years to be exact and I've never even attempted to try and make it run.
This truck is kinda rough right now, all I'm wanting to do is to get running so it goes down the road reliably.
Restoration will come at later date.

Vehicle details:
1966 F250 4x4 3/4 ton pick-up.
352 (5.7L) V8 'FE' motor. (208 hp from factory)
New process 435 4 speed manual transmission. (straight cut teeth on 1st and reverse gears)
New process 205 drive transfer case. (gear driven) (divorced from transmission)
4 wheel drum brakes.
Dana 44 closed knuckle front axle.
Dana 60 rear axle.
4.56 to 1 gear ratios.

Short history and notable notes:
During the 40's all the way up to the mid 70's, Ford, GM, and others shipped their '2wd' vehicles to other manufacturing facilities that actually converted them into '4wd' vehicles.
It wasn't until the late 70's when Ford and GM developed their own front axles, did they actually produce a '4wd' as part of the vehicle build process on the assembly line.
The Ford F250 model I own was only produced for model years 1965 and 1966, with the 4 wheel drive model being very rare. F100 '4wd' models were much more common.
I have only seen (3) 1966 F250 4x4's in my lifetime. I owned one when I was 18 years old. Sold it because I was stupid when I was 24. Now owning this one being my second. And the third vehicle was up for sale. (asking $30,000)



This is going to be interesting.


Exterior shots will be posted tomorrow.

Inside the cab.

Under the dash. :icon_eek: :thumbdown

Engine bay.

More wiring nightmares

Note: this page will be edited as soon as I get more pics uploaded to imgur.

 

[AndreasPassat]

Interestingly enough I saw another one of these trucks for sale on YouTube the other day. Asking $25k. Sure was a cool looking truck.

 

[AndreasPassat]

Been poking around at this thing off and on.
Had some trouble finding out what kind of carburetor was mounted on the engine. Found out it was from an early sixties (60-63) Galaxy.
Now that I know what carb it is I purchased a rebuilt one from Rock Auto today along some other goodies.
Bought a new battery last Friday. Got a bit of re-wiring to do under the hood and dash to make the engine runnable, so I'll be doing that during the next couple of days.

 

[AndreasPassat]

Side shot.

Front shot.

All the junk wiring removed. Ready to start with the new wiring and some of the components that go on the engine.
Newly rebuilt carburetor, all new ignition system, new fuel pump and all new hoses due in mid-week.

 

[PZ]

Looks a lot like the tow truck I used to drive for AAA as a teen. Same engine, although I think ours had a 2bbl and no headers, same ugly wiring, no p/s, no a/c, gas tank behind the seat. I don't know if it had 4wd, but we used it for plowing and it had a kingpin front setup. It also had a PTO for the hoist.

 

[AndreasPassat]

New carburetor installed today.

Interior pretty much gutted out.

Next out - the gas tank. Yeah, that's inside the cab. Old school.

 

[AndreasPassat]

Set the static timing today and installed new plug wires. Was turning engine over by hand with spark plugs installed. Pretty darn tough to get the engine to turn, good sign, must mean I have got some compression left in this old dog.
Installed battery today. Starter is dead shorted. Thought I was arc welding with battery clamps for second :icon_eek: before I realized what was going on.
Procured new starter. Gotta take the passengers side headers off to get the starter all the way out. :banghead:
Tomorrows another day.

 

[PZ]

Hard to turn is not always a good thing.

 

[AndreasPassat]

Hard to turn is not always a good thing.

True that.

Before I put the new plugs in I turned it over quite few times after I saturated the cylinders with Sea-Foam. Turns easy, but not to easy.
After all those years of just sitting, who knows what those piston rings were doing. So I poured Sea-Foam in and let it work it's magic a few weeks before I put the new plugs in. I'm sure it disolved some ****. For sure it'll do good before any bad. :wrench:

 

[AndreasPassat]

New starter is in. Had to remove passengers side header and exhaust pipe. :thumbdown
Always gotta take something apart to get something together. What is up with that? :crazy:
Only broke 2 of the eight header bolts. :banghead: Fortunately, the top bolts on cylinders 1 & 2 are the ones that broke. I can make a little clamp to hold the header flange on at those points. Ain't gonna look pretty, but I don't care. Just want it going down the road.
Making it all pretty will come at a later date.

Jumpered the starter from the solenoid under the hood (old schoolers know what I mean). First time this engine has turned over under its own power at least since I've owned it (11 years).
It seems to have quite a bit of good compression. You can definitely hear the starter working to push those slugs up on the compression stroke.

Fuel pump should come in the mail tomorrow, so i'll get that installed and maybe I can actually start this thing.

 

[AndreasPassat]

Well, installed the fuel pump on Saturday. Did some make shift wiring for just the primary ignition circuit.
Sunday, made myself a fuel line from the fuel pump to the carb. Used an old school metal gas can for a make shift fuel tank.
Low and behold it fired up almost immediately, sputtered a bit the first attempt. Second attempt it fired right up and stayed running for about 10 minutes.
I have no clue what's in this thing, but it obviously has some type of performance cam in it.
You can definitely hear it's developing some power. The piston rings soaking with that Sea-Foam must have worked, because it doesn't blow any smoke. :thumbup:
Now that I know it runs and decent at that, I can move forward with this thing.

 

[Urlik]

Very cool!

 

[AndreasPassat]

Been trying to circumvent the inevitable. My guesstimates are this truck hasn't ran for at least 20 years, the old gas which is about a half tank full has protected the inside of the tank even though it is mixed with water from condensation and leaky gas cap. The upper half which is continuously exposed to vapor only is pretty rusty.
My thinking was, I can just get the tank boiled out and whalla, my tank would be good as new.
I finally found someone that reconditions old gas tanks. BOOM :thumbup:
Not so fast...
Much to my surprise it'll cost upwards near $500 to restore the tank. HUH?! :icon_eek:
I can buy brand new for around $200! To the scrap hopper with the old :hatoff:

Next on the list, drill out the original ignition key set. Never got a key when I bought the truck.

 

[AndreasPassat]

Drilled out the ignition key assembly :thumbup:

 

[AndreasPassat]

Makeshift wiring to make it run. I'm not proud of the wiring job. :wrench:

Here it is running. It's a crap video because I'm holding the cell phone and NOT paying attention to what I'm pointing at. Plus there is broken bolt on the exhaust header right where I'm holding the cell. Hence the horrible exhaust noise.

https://youtu.be/qokWVSFlLl0

 

[AndreasPassat]

Still got a long way to go before it's road worthy.

 

[AndreasPassat]

Scored on a set of 32" Hercules mud tires today. Used, $180 for all 4 of them, couldn't pass that up. There's probably another 10k miles left on the tread.

Need a set of 17" rims and this thing can roll on its own :thumbup:

 

[Electron Man]

The piston rings soaking with that Sea-Foam must have worked, because it doesn't blow any smoke now.

It may not be smoking now, but I'm sure it did at first...I've done the "Seafoam in the cylinders for several hours" treatment too many times. That's why you crank it at night.

 

[AndreasPassat]

I was never a fan of RockAuto, but then again there was never a need for me to shop there.
But now...
It's my new favorite place to shop
Bought a crate full of parts last night for the old dog. All for less than $500 :thumbup:
Everything should be here next week. That will really get this project moving along.

 

[AndreasPassat]

First box of goodies showed up today at my door step. But unfortunately its not the ignition switch. I need that switch to finalize my under dash to engine wire harness that I'm making from recycling an engine harness off a 2001 GLS.