My new truck has inadequate braking, sloppy steering, and horrible gearing

And I love it!

It is a 1970 Ford F-250 Sport Custom 4x4 long bed standard cab big block v8. Pretty rare combo of options, plus some stuff added by a prior owner (like power steering and air conditioning!) that isn't seen much at all on these. It's a former California truck so it escaped the ravages of Ohio winters. I'm keeping it garaged and won't drive it in salt. But I'm using it like a truck, from time to time:

I probably won't be hauling gravel in it or anything. But certainly will haul lumber, furniture, etc.

It didn't run and had a leaky radiator; a new radiator and fuel filter fixed that.

It originally had a 360 and had a new crate motor (360 I think - might be a 390, hard to tell from the outside) put in not too many miles ago. Runs like a top and sounds great, but needs some attention to the brakes; they pull to the right. The steering is about what you would expect for a 45 year old truck which combines with the brakes to make an exciting drive on the narrow 45mph road my house is on. The transmission (4-speed with super low 1st) has terrible gearing for modern roads. First gear is uselessly low and unsyncronized, second is a little higher than a normal 1st, third is barely any higher, and fourth is below a normal 3rd gear.

All told, it's a totally awesome truck!

Love it, nice score!!

Awesome, good score...one thing about a truck, no matter how old they get, they can still truck

Awe, nice one. This '65 F-250 Camper Special bounces around my area and the patina is perfect. I would be hesitant to paint it. The beauty of the Fords from this era is how cheap they are, especially compared to the Chevys

I like the camper mirrors.

Very cool.

schawing!

I had a 69 100 with a 390. only vehicle I ever sold that I still miss.

They had some issues in those years with the races for the bearings in the steering boxes being made of below-spec metal. They'd wallow out and the steering would be horrible. A reman box might take a lot of the scary out and not cost you an arm and a leg.

How similar is that trans in dimension to the standard 3 speed? I have a manual 3speed +OD under my workbench. The bolt pattern and input shaft are the same as the standard 3speed of the day, but the tailpiece is a little longer. It came out of a '78 302 Granada I'm told. I was gonna use it to get a leg up on the highway but never got it installed.

Mind me asking how much you paid for this Rig Of Awesome?

Nice truck!

Something our old ford farm truck had that made the steering totally sketchy was a coupling in the steering column where two flat disks came together close to the master cylinder. There were little plastic pieces on studs that met one another to connect everything.....well if one or more of those press on little plastic bushings is out of place or missing the steering column gets incredibly sloppy.

(I hope I described that well, it's been thirty years since I fixed that issue)

my girlfriend's old truck is equally crappy in every way, but it runs decent and gets infinite fuel economy since the gas gauge and speedometer don't work:

it's parked for the winter, but come spring time it will get the speedo and gas gauge fixed- maybe the wiper motor and heater, too- as well as some seatbelts so it's ready for some family cruising time when the baby comes some time around Memorial Day. there is a ton of room for a rear facing car seat in this thing...

Nice find! I am super jealous here. I would drive just about any F-100 from 48 to 79. I don't think they ever made a bad looking one back then.

Someday I need to take a trip out west or down south to buy one. I was absolutely blown away by what I saw driving around Georgia years ago when I visited there. I saw 60's Fords and GM trucks all over the place that the paint had all but burnt off down to primer but they only had light surface rust.

In reply to ultraclyde:

Two problems with your trans, one is that his truck is 4x4, so unless he has a divorced transfer case it won't work. Two is that I believe you are describing an overdrive toploader. These were a weak design. In a underpowered late 70's era car they were ok, but it would be short lived in a big block truck.

I love old Ford pickups and I'm in the market soonish, too. The only problem is to find one with an extend cab for a place to stick some kids is quite rare. It's not like it'll be the DD, but it would be nice to haul load and the fam when the occasion strikes.

Nice truck! Ive been looking for a 2wd late 70s version. Friend had a 69 f100 he sold because it needed a steering box. Still annoyed he didnt tell me it was for sale.

The thing about trucks from that era is they tended to have really steep gears in the differential. I used to have a 1965 F-250 that had 4.56 gears - even with tall 16" tires it sounded like it was going to explode at highway speed. I now have a 1966 F-100 with the same heavy duty 4 speed trans as the F-250, but it has 3.25 gears so it's just fine on the highway. You could probably get different gears installed in your differential which would make it more user friendly. I like the heavy duty transmission and shifting that big tall lever that goes click-click between gears. Don't bother with first gear,just start out in second.

Nice truck!

ultraclyde wrote: They had some issues in those years with the races for the bearings in the steering boxes being made of below-spec metal. They'd wallow out and the steering would be horrible. A reman box might take a lot of the scary out and not cost you an arm and a leg.

Sounds like a common issue for several generation of ford trucks. 80-86 have steering box issues too. I probably have a couple inches of steering wheel play on my 86.

I know they sell rebuild kits for mine, maybe the earlier ones too.

What a wonderful truck.

before I leave the west coast, I need something like this. http://seattle.craigslist.org/tac/cto/5294329152.html

or

http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/cto/5331376479.html <-- this one is calling me

Very nice!

awesome score!

That looks like alot of fun!

dculberson wrote: And I love it!

Ain't that fun?

It's all wrong, totally inadequate, and thoroughly delightful. Makes you grin like a little kid.

Thanks for all the positive feedback guys, sorry I'm not on as often as I used to be. (New house + new baby + trying to get stuff done at work will do that huh?) @NickD: I got the "family discount" as my brother was the prior owner combined with the "doesn't run" discount. Which at least around here is a steal. I told him the truck was worth more but I couldn't justify paying more and he was willing to do the deal. @Stuart in mn: That's a good point, the rear end (err, front and rear end) on this thing is very steep. It's complicated by being 4wd but I'm sure I could get better gears. The trans has some notchiness going into 3rd and my prior experience with this trans (1984 Bronco) was that 3rd will gradually get worse until it's kicking out of gear. If that happens I'll explore swap options as well as rebuilding it myself. I did haul some stuff home the other day, metal cabinets with sharp pointy corners. And despite being careful I put a nice big scratch on the inside of the tailgate. I know it's a truck but it still sucks. (It's not the first on the truck, but it is my first!) What are you guy's thoughts on spray-on bed liners in classic trucks? Necessary evil or just evil evil? I died on me on the way back home, unfortunately in the middle of an intersection but fortunately a very sleepy residential one. I finally got it restarted with a combo of starting fluid and persistence. I think it's the fuel filter plugging back up - I'll probably have to flush the fuel tank as it did sit for a long time. I'm thinking about trying to get an under-bed fuel tank. The factory tank is the "behind the seat inside the cab" type and that makes me a little nervous. There are three tanks total, with two aftermarket side-saddle (outside the frame rails) aluminum tanks, and a selector switch. The side-saddle tanks aren't much better than the behind the seat tank in terms of safety. What do you guys think is my best option here? Just stick with the factory setup or switch to an under-bed style or ...?

As far as the gas tank goes, I was looking at something like this:

http://www.lmctruck.com/icatalog/fb/full.aspx?Page=37

although this specific one has you filling through the bed floor which I'm not super hot on, since I'm planning on using the bed to actually haul stuff.

In reply to dculberson:

Remember all the work I did on Tunatruck mounting a tank between the frame rails and custom building a fuel filler?

That.

Everything else is hacked (like the bed-fill) or semi-dangerous (side saddle tanks).

Cool truck!

That first gear is probably a granny gear. Don't use it. It's more for stump pulling and such.