The Green Beast

[ford4x4fun]

Double Post

[ford4x4fun]

Hey guys!

Been awhile since I have posted. In the time I packed my whole house, rented it out, and put everything in storage! I took my family back to KY, than had to go back to FL for a couple weeks. Now I am in a military school in GA! Anyhow back to the truck. The old girl made it from Tampa FL, all the way to Morehead KY on its first trip over 5 miles since putting her back together. I am not going to say she didn't fight me but she made it.

The biggest problem of the trip was caused by what I thought was a timing issue. I kept stopping and readjusting on the fly. Well on day one south of GA after a couple stalls at stop lights, and my kids needing to push me through one intersection I had had enough. The straw was when my brand new plastic windshield wiper on the drivers side broke in the middle of a rain storm. So I got a room. Let the old girl cool down and than set the timing again and checked all the fluids and got new windshield wipers.

The next day she fired right up. I must admit though the old truck has got a soul! I got north of Atlanta around 7 am the next morning and pulled off the old interstate to get fuel. I was happy the truck was running it didn't stall when I came off the highway and everything was going good. Well I shut her down jumped out filled her up with the good stuff and got myself a coffee. Came back out and nothing. No fire at all. So I popped the distributor cap and found out the problem. The vacuum advance wasn't returning and burnt my points off. So in my loving wife's car I jumped (She wasn't happy with me or my truck at this point in life) and the mad dash to get parts started. So I went to the closest parts store Advanced. The guy couldn't speak English or figure out what points where. So I went to old faithful NAPA. I felt like I was in the movie "Oh Brother Where Out Though" because I was 2 weeks from anything. I really wanted to just drop a new distributor in. No luck so with my new points and capacitor the old girl fired right up. Oh and backfired and sent everyone running from the store thinking it was a gun shot! The old girl ran pretty good the rest of the trip to KY.

2 days there playing with it a little with my oldest in the truck I snapped a U joint, but had an extra on hand and put it in. A few days after that the new distributor got in and let me tell you she purrs like a kitten.

Overall I am proud of the old girl. She ticked me off just enough to stop before I hit Atlanta at 9 at night, and than waited until the parts stores where open and I was North of Atlanta to let me down. She must have a soul! Oh and I was pulling a U-Haul trailer and had my motorcycle in the bed. So a 15 hour trip took almost 24 hours but looking back it was one heck of an adventure!

Some photos of the trip and some in KY!



















Best Photos For Last!

[ford4x4fun]

Hey Gents,

Well I need some help from the smart people. I have something killing my battery and I can't seem to find it. My truck sits a lot seeing how I have been super busy at work. But I still go out and start it once a week or so. Well coming up when I get some vacation time I planned on putting the original rear end back in my truck and hooking back up the 4 wheel drive. Well before I can do that I need to see why my battery is dieing.

If my truck sits more than a week or so it dies, The battery itself is only a year old or so. Electrical modifications or changes on the truck.

-Fusible link removed coming off of the Starter Relay
-Electric Fuel Pump with my theft prevention switch installed on it
-Fixing Prior owners tail light wiring harness
-Reverse lights wired to a switch (Automatic Original Truck Body on Standard 4x4 Frame)

Everything else is factory wiring without any modifications. Trouble shooting I have done. Completely disconnected fuel pump, Reverse lights and Wiring. It drains power with all that done, and when I have the fusible link in the truck (but that link how I understand it provides power to the whole truck). I have went through and checked my wiring harness for pinched spots and bad/cut wiring. I hate vehicle wiring it is such a pain to troubleshoot for me. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Heirloom]

Pull fuses one at a time until you figure out which circuit is drawing the power. Disconnect the - cable from the battery and connect your VOM between BAT - terminal and the ground cable. Set the VOM on DC Volts. With a drain you should read voltage (potential), when you find your drain (and eliminate it) the voltage potential will go away. From there consult a wiring diagram to determine what branches are on that circuit. Armed with that info look into whatever devices and wiring are connected/common to that circuit. If you pull all the fuses and are still getting a drain, then your problem is somewhere in the unfused power feed.

[motzingg]

a faulty voltage regulator can also cause a battery drain, that one is tough to diagnose.

good luck, glad to hear you made it ok!

[Superjunk]

If you don't have a volt meter you can also use a test light, using the it in the same way..If the test light is lit,you have a drain.Pull the fuses one at a time untill the light goes out..

[ford4x4fun]

Thank you gentlemen I will look into and post back my findings!

[ford4x4fun]

Hey Everyone,

Well it has been awhile since I have been on here. I moved to KY and didn't have a garage, well I finally got one of those, but than got shipped off to Korea for a year. So now I am back into a parts finding mode to get a few last little things for my truck. I might end up pulling the motor again also to fix my mistakes from doing it the first time. I also figured out my voltage issue, my new battery just was bad. Forgot to post that back up on here.

[sargentrs]

back and thank you for your service!

[hfdco4]

Any updates and what parts are you looking for? There may be some available through the members on here. just a thought.

[ford4x4fun]

Well I am back to just a frame on my truck. As always life seams to get in the way and this project gets put on the back burner. Since my last post I have retired from the military, and now work as a civilian instructor training soldiers on what I use to do while in the military. On my truck I have pulled the body and sent it off to paint, I have had the 390 motor rebuilt, installed a serpentine belt system and completely redone my frame. Having issues getting the leaf springs off the back to redo the bushings but I will find a big enough impact wrench eventually. For now I just keep soaking them once a week or so. I will post up some photos eventually as hopefully by June my truck is in reassembly mode for the final time. I am really looking forward to just enjoying the truck from here on out and maybe hitting up some car shows' and such.

[basketcase0302]

Bill so...nice to see you back here!

I still remember meeting you and your family in Brandon Florida like it was yesterday and when this truck started all those years ago with 4 US Army soldiers lifting this bump cab off it's frame, (by hand folks!) and lowering it on to the dent 4 X 4 chassis!

[hfdco4]

Just waiting on the pictures now sir.