Freightrain

We had a full service Sears. Store, automotive and we had a parts outlet for appliances so you were covered. I remember buying my first 8 track stereo for my '72 IH pickup back in like 1981 from the automotive store. Used to buy lots of Diehard batteries through the years. My favorite story from Sears. About 25 yrs ago I ordered a new softener for my house. They told me it would be ordered in and ready in a couple days. Okay. They call, I go get it. A week later I start getting calls about delivering my new softener. Huh? I ignored the calls for awhile, but I finally said WTH and called them back. They deliver it and I wait for the call about me having TWO. Never happened, ever. I end up selling the extra to a friend a few months later. Apparently someone failed in their record keeping?

As they say...'Very Truckly"......

Looks like someones oil filter adapter fitting is stuck in it? I didn't think the box was tall enough to have that in their too? Did someone else get their hands on it before you? The very first thing I do when buying a filter(from any store) is open the box and inspect the threads and make sure it had an o-ring seal. I've never been burnt, but have heard horror stories. I'm pretty much exclusive to Motorcraft filters.

Looks like a fun ride Andy. Yup, staring into the blue skies makes a fun ride! Well, last Sunday was starting out good. I went to Dragway 42 for their regular points meet. I just wanted seat time. I made it to the fourth round, which being the only stick car on the property was doing pretty well. Then it all went awry. Just as it got stood up in first gear.............first gear let loose and it let the car fall to earth....again. Ugh. Luckily my skid plate/bushing took the brunt of the hit instead of headers/oil pan. I was able to limp it back to the trailer and load up. I got it home, in the garage and pulled it apart. Yup, first gear cluster is in pieces, which is the common one to loose because it is so small(only 17 teeth) and has such a large hole in the middle for the cluster shaft. I made the call to G Force Monday morning and parts are on the way. Should have it all back and ready for my stick points race at Thompson on Saturday. It's been like 4 yrs since I broke that gear. It is not "IF", but "WHEN". Apparently G Force makes a different shaft/gear for first to help make it stronger but it is not available in a torsion bar shaft like I run. It's kinda old school and they don't really offer it anymore. " I owned three of these at one time years ago, two GTA's one GT. One GTA had a 428 with a manual body C6 with a Side Winder intake and several other fast parts." A friend of mine had a GTA way back in the day, he did swap a 4spd into it and 4.56 gears. Was a real go getter then. He also owned a Boss 302 in the early 70's. He borrowed the motor for his altered wheelbase Comet he bought to race. That Comet turned out to be Hayden Proffits car, which was bought and restored by another friend of ours.

Yes, the hand pump is mounted to the transfer pump. I replaced the transfer pump on my 237 after I got it running. I'm trying to recall by poor memory that the hand primer just screws down into the transfer pump? Have to look at mine tonight to recall. Is it leaking at that joint?

Well, I have worked at a machine shop for 34 years, making drawings of broken parts for replacement parts in the injection molding business. I've made drawing from invisible parts many times. Made a few hot rod parts for myself along the way. Not that I can do anything and I've never seen what he actually needs, but I am just saying it is worth looking into if there really isn't any other avenue. My buddy works at fab shop, I work at a machine shop. We never see anything as "not doable". Though many people don't have those resources.

Is there anything that can be remade at a reputable machine shop? Flanges, shafts and such should be doable. If there are no parts available, then I'm sure something could be fabricated. Cast iron can be welded. I would not throw in the towel yet.

Depending if the bearing has an inner race or if the shaft rides on the rollers? If no inner race, then the shaft would need to be case hardened to survive the rollers running on it, even with just slow speed use like steering. Is the shaft itself hollow? I've had my wheel off a few times, but assumed the steering shaft was solid. You made a comment above about pounding a stud in it.

1200 miles for a truck? Sure why not? LOL!! You could have your own "Roadkill" show. Just the issues with finding bridges over rivers has the US "Roadkill" show beat all around. Fantastic story Vlad. Thanks for sharing. The pictures are awesome and really give us a feel for what it is like traveling in Russia.

Yes, this is paramount!

It doesn't 60 that great> Not hateful for a 4000# caron 10.5" tires. With the increased HP and torque I wanted to try to see if I could get it hooked on a "greasier" track. Well, I proved it can hook on water! My thought was to rely on the wheeliebars more to keep it under control and be able to hit the tires harder. If it hadn't got all stupid and turning on me I'm sure it would have been a better outcome. The whole jist is my original thoughts on how my chassis should work is backwards to what it really wanted and I just don't get many TnT days to just play like that. Now I know what it likes, and I'll keep it in that range. My other issue is I only have single adjustable shocks up front. One knob controls either direction. I need double adjustable so I can tighten the compression so when it comes down it slows down before it hits bottom but leave rebound alone. Just more money I don't want to spend right now!!

The advantage of having friends in the right places!! Very cool. I think it follows in the ICON sort of build. Very high end, price is no object.

Ugh, I remember repairing my LF spring a few years back and the torture I went through getting that insulator back in. Granted I had the whole truck to push up on, but it was still a PITA. Had to make sure I didn't cross thread the bolts or crack the castings!!

I can remember going to lawn equipment shows at the local mall and gathering up all the literature available for the models I liked back in the late 70's. It all got pitched years ago, but it would be neat to see it now. Being a "Ford" guy, I should be collecting Ford tractors instead of Cub Cadets? I had a '66 Cub 100 growing up. Have a 127 and 149 now. We had a "Monkey Wards" at the one mall in town. It's all gone, just like Sears has now.

Yikes. I lost a rag joint in my '70 F100 many years back. Was backing into the driveway, just about got it straightened out and woosh... the wheel just kept spinning. Ya, another lucky steering moment!

Oh, Jim...if you only knew....LOL!!! Two weeks ago, I went to Magnolia(same track as above picture) and did a little test and tune. What started out as a good day, turned for the worse. I made a first pass for a baseline and started adjusting rear shock settings to see what I could do. As I tightened up the rebound setting, every pass got a better 60ft. I was smiling, as this track is typically not the best hooking track(thus I figured if I could get it hooking there I would be even better elsewhere). As it got better, it was carrying the front end farther, BUT, it was pulling to the left. So, as the front end would settle down on the track, I would have to give it some right hand steering to get it back in the groove. For the 4th pass I had run out of adjustments in the back, so I loosened up the front shocks....a lot(first mistake). As I pulled out of the waterbox, the tires bit and the front end snapped up hard. Hmmmm. I said to myself "Well I do have wheelie bars, so I'll be okay"(second mistake). The lights came down and I let it fly. Literally. It went vertical on me right now....as it veered left. I had a split second to decide the fate. I quickly shifted into second to load the motor and try to bring it down quicker. I also kinda pedaled the power too. Just a bit too much(third mistake). The car came down..........HARD!! I mean real HARD. Though it did save it from ending up in the grass and heading for the old Armco guardrail. At the ET shack I noticed a rattling noise(my electric fan chewing into my radiator). I get back to the trailer and assess the damage. The fan broke off the radiator, thus chewing holes in it. Done. The oil pan was now concave worse then it ever has been, along with the headers(which were mashed up from years ago). I load it back into the trailer and head home. I get it in the garage and pull the engine. I couldn't trust how close the oil pickup was to the bottom of the pan(after being punched in) and I didn't want to chance harming my new motor. I got a new pan and radiator. I swapped everything around, made a new more secure way to mount the fan to the radiator. My buddy and I also fab'd up a "bumpstop" on the frame crossmember to absorb the hits instead of motor parts. I used a shorter pan, so that won't be an issue anymore, but when I build new front header pipes this winter I want to try to keep them around. They are D shaped, plus up by the heads they are kinked pretty bad. If you look closely at the headers, you'll notice a white block in the middle. That's my nylon wear block. I also lowered the wheelie bars down about 5" so they hit much sooner, keeping the front end height down to a safer level. I still need to do some chassis adjustments because I was hitting the bars so hard it was lifting the back end of the car up off the tires a bit too much. The race was called before I could anything else. Ah, the joy of drag racing!!!!

Well the second stick race is in the books. Not much to say about it, as it was called off during second round due to a major oil down that the track didn't want to deal with that late on a Sunday night. I had won my second round, so I was making my way to the winners circle one round at a time. Ugh. Did have a photographer getting good shots though.

Fellow on JOT was just commenting about his fleetstar and how 2 cyl were under the hood, 2 under the dash, and 2 in the cab.

Wow.....to be out west where even old worn out stuff still looks brand new?

^^That was going to be my question. Might not be enough first gear to creep around in or back up in tight spaces without riding the clutch.

My doctor of the last 20 sum years retired, I had to meet a new one this past spring. Nice guy. He told me he wished all his patients were like me. I told him he would be out of a job!!! My CDL physical is due, so that is where I get my basic health check up every 2 yrs.

Nice find on the dump truck! Welcome aboard. That 285 will move that down the road easily. As for shifting? With that engine, you won't have to worry about splitting gears much. Just drive it like a 5 spd for the most part when empty. Just try to keep the RPM's above 1500 or so. Even with my 237 hp and Triplex, it will let you know when you are trying to run it down a bit too much on RPM. Just have to mind your manners and listen to see if the transmission starts "talking" to you. The whole issue is these old boxes are SINGLE countershaft and all the newer stuff are double or triple countershaft. Those will put up with the low end grunt put out by these types of motors due to the fact the power is split up by multiple shafts. The old Quad box will just spit parts out! The engine number is on the top/front of the accessory drive casting(in front of the pump and access hole)

Dan Thomas owns the Aussie truck. I sat in it at York. He also had it at Lexington. Very cool piece.

Very solid looking truck. Welcome aboard!

In today's cars, they use ATF in the 5-6 spds. They have to due to all the needle bearings. Gear lube would never squeeze through those tiny areas. Old Spicer boxes needed engine oil for similar reasons. I suppose if the box was new enough it would be okay? If it was "loose", it would likely rattle and bang around from the extra clearance from the thinner fluid. I'm ready to mix some oats in my triplex to help fill in the gaps and quiet it down!! Lol.