Level? Lift?

I've been trying to decide if I want to lift the truck or just level.  It sags pretty bad in the front which gives it a good bit of rake.  It's probably a combination of 35 year old coil springs and the enormous bumper.  The front sits 2" to 2.5" lower than the back.

So I decided that I wanted to see what it would look like leveled.  I jacked up the front to match the back.  What do you think?  Normal is on the left; level is on the right.

Instrumentation

My instrument panel was not operating.  The lights did not come on and the gauges worked intermittently.  I pulled the panel out and noticed that the plastic backing was absolutely disintegrating.  It turns to dust where ever you touch it.

Dirty and decaying instrument panel

Broken bulb socket

I read on Ford Truck Enthusiasts that this instrument panel was used on Ford vans up until 1991.  They changed the composition of the plastic in 1981 and the newer ones hold up much better.  Off to the junkyard!

Right there in the first row was an '85 Ford Econoline.  Just like we had when I was a kid, it was even a diesel!

1985 Ford van with the 6.9 liter diesel

Pristine instrument panel

A lot of these old vans had warning lights instead of oil and amp gauges, but this one had the full set of gauges.  I was in and out in about 15 minutes.

New panel front

New panel rear.  Dirt, but no decay

There were a couple of minor problems.  First this van was a diesel, which means the fuel gauge says "DIESEL FUEL ONLY."  Second, the odometer reading does not match mine.  I decided to switch out the fuel gauges.  I don't want someone borrowing the truck and putting diesel in it accidently.  The odometer I am just going to leave.  The title to the truck lists "99,999" for the mileage ("beyond mechanical limits" basically), so there is no legal issue with an incorrect odometer reading.  I documented the readings of both so one could calculate the correct(?) mileage.  If I ever sell the truck, I will include the old instrument panel.

The fuel gauge swap was very easy, although old panel crumbles every time you touch it.

Mid-swap

Done

Unfortunately, the lights still don't work.  I think I have a problem up stream somewhere, but the new panel looks great in the truck.  I'll update with some pictures of the finished product.

Progress

In addition to the headliner, my friend Andrew and I finished some other projects on the truck last weekend:

I believe that my distributor fouling was caused by the reluctor contacting the magnet in the coil pickup and grinding off material. The coil pickup is almost $30 and the relutcor is $15, but a whole new (remanufactured) distributor is only about $50.  So I decided to just replace the whole thing since it comes with the reluctor and pickup.  Also my distributor already had a lot of gunk it in.  My problem was that if I replaced the distributor, the new coil pick up comes with a plug that snaps into the wiring wiring harness, but my truck doesn't have the plug. The current set up is just spliced into the harness.  

Dirty distributor and ugly splice

So my choices were: A) cut the new plug off and splice it in like the old one or B) find a plug, splice that in, and then plug it up correctly.  I wanted to go with option B, but my local yard doesn't have a truck like mine and you can't buy just the plug new.  Fortunately, by using ShowMeTheParts.com, I found that I could get the same plug from any of almost 250 vehicles.  Surely they have one of those at the yard.

I also wanted to get two door jamb switches.  Again, ShowMeTheParts gave me a list of 75 vehicles that use the same switch.

Sure enough, the we quickly found everything we needed at the local yard.  The coil pickup plug ended up coming off an '85 Bronco.  I also found a rim and tire to use as my spare.  It even still held air.

Coil pickup plug ready for splicing

The door switches were installed in about 2 minutes.  Now my dome light comes on when I open the door.   

We picked up some heat shrink and soldered the pickup plug into place.  After carefully marking the distributor position, we dropped the new one in.  I also tightened up the connection on the low voltage side of the coil.  I think that had something to do with the stalling as well.  I got this connector from the Bronco as well, but decided it would just be easier to tighten mine.  I'll hang onto that one just in case.

Truck fired right up with all the new parts.  It still had some hesitation which I hoped the new distributor would cure, but it runs pretty well and I haven't had any stalling issues. 

Headliner Project Phase 2

So with my friend Andrew in town, I wanted to tackle the headliner.  Mine was completely missing (including trim) and just the insulation was showing.  In a previous post, Phase 1, I described the headliner that I found.  Long story short, it was not suitable to install, but I thought I could use it as a pattern.

I had seen a few examples of people doing it this way.  This example uses fiberboard.  I liked that direction, but I had my doubts that it would be flexible enough.  People use steam to make it conform to the contour of the roof.  I wasn't interested in striping the interior and pumping steam into the cab, so I looked for another material.  I thought something plastic would be a good combination of flexibility and durability.  Andrew went to Lowe's with us and we settled on this stuff:

Headliner material

It is vinyl wallboard .060 inches thick.  It is meant for wall covering in showers and such.  They had some similar stuff that was a good bit thicker.  The thicker material probably would have worked better, but it was $34 versus $19.  The whole point of this project was to save money, so we went with the cheaper one.

It was easy to cut with a utility knife.  We traced the old headliner and cut it about three-quarters of an inch bigger all the way around.  The original piece had cutouts for the screws.  The screws don't actually hold the headliner up.  Instead, the trim clamps it to the roof.  We did not make the cutouts and screwed through the trim and vinyl.  The only exception was on the rear of the headliner, but in hindsight, I would have left those out too.  The vinyl is not as rigid as the original material and it needs more support.

It was good that we cut it big because we only needed to trim in a couple of places.  It went in easy enough.  The only difficult part was finding the hole for the center screw.  There was no way to see it, so we just had to feel for it with a pin.

Here is the finished product.  It sags slightly, but it isn't really noticeable.  I am pleased with the result.

Another Bittersweet Day

I've been doing little things here and there to the truck. Each one seemed to help. I put on a new distributor cap and rotor, replaced the vacuum advance hose, and sealed the distributor cap with dielectric grease. I wanted to try to recreate the stalling issue so I could troubleshoot the issue. I started out driving around the the block for a while. No problems.

I decided to run by the store to see if they had the coil pickup in stock. They didn't and the truck didn't want to start when I came out. This situation didn't really fit the issue I was trying to recreate, but I decided to start running through my checklist. The accelerator pump was squirting gas into the carb; however, the fuel filter was almost empty. Is it possible for the accelerator pump to be working, but the carb not to be getting gas? I was cranking it over, trying to test the ignition, and suddenly the fuel filter filled up and the engine started.

The fact that the situation was not really the same and that this appeared to be related to a fuel issue makes me think that this may have been a different issue altogether. It has always been a little hard to start when hot. I wonder if the fuel is boiling in the line when it passes near the exhaust manifold.

During this whole process, my frustration with the starter reached the breaking point. I was tired of thinking about the stalling issue and I was tired of the started not catching, so I decided to pull the starter. Turns out that problem may be an easy fix. I was worried that the ring gear was missing teeth or worn, but the gear on the starter is obviously the problem:

One great thing about replacing parts like this is getting the lifetime warranty. This is the last time I'll buy a starter for the truck.

So I'm not any closer to solving the stalling issue, but my starter issue is going to be easier than I thought.

Headliner Project Phase 1

As I mentioned, I got a headliner with trim and hardware off a donor truck.  The headliner tore during removal, but I think I will use it as a pattern.  Apparently, the trim is a much more important find.  LMC Truck doesn't carry the trim.  

What I salvaged from the donor is pretty rusty, so I tried the aluminum foil cleaning method.  It works well on lightly rusted chrome, but I found that the heavier rust was less responsive.

Before and after.

I think it will be good enough to use.  Phase 2 is cutting out a new headliner.

Another Setback

Today I was confident enough to take the truck to work.  That was a mistake.  I drove it around town yesterday (Sunday) without incident and I thought I had resolved the stalling problem.  Nope.  My office is about 15 minutes away.  About 3/4 of the way there it started missing.  I made there alright, but on the way home that evening the missing got worse and it finally stalled again.  I had to tow it back.

I thought that my problem was with fuel.  I noticed that air rushed into the tank whenever I opened the gas cap after it had been running.  A previous owner had replaced the gas tank recently and I assume that it was not properly vented.  Also, a section of the steel fuel line from the tank to the engine had been bypassed with hose.  I figured that because the tank was not venting, after running for a while pressure would build up and the pump could not pull any more gas.  Seems like a plausible explanation   To test my theory, I started driving it with the gas cap off over the weekend.  That worked for a while and I'm still convinced that it was at least part of the problem.

Now I am considering an electrical cause.  When it stalls, it turns over, but never fires.  Fuel is reaching the carb, because I can see the accelerator pumper squirting gas into the carb.  After it sits for a while (hours) it will start again.  There are some sketchy wire spices between the distributor and the coil (not the high voltage wire).  After doing some research, I think I am going to try to solder those together and put heatshrink over them.

I have also noticed a lot of carbon under the distributor cap.  I have heard of carbon tracking, but this is more of an all-over build up.  I will probably replace the cap and rotor, but I would like to know what is causing this.

Carbon under cap.  The dark spot on the left is where I wiped it with my finger.

Carbon on rotor and in distributor.