1968 F500 Utility Truck

[dolinick]

I replaced the roll pin in the distributor, started the truck, and drove it around the block with no brakes.

It's the first time the truck moved under it's own power in 8 or 12 years I guess.

The brake reservoir is dry with just some powder inside which I assume is rust...

I still haven't attempted to put any air in the tires. I only have a bicycle pump at my house at the moment
and I need to search around for an air guage. I may go look for a Harbour Freight air pump of some kind.
If the valve stems are good I may put a little air in the tires.

It's very unusual to drive. It will take some getting used to. I am so big that it's hard to reach the pedals.
Thank goodness I lost about 20 pounds or I won't even fit behind the wheel. The steering wheel is touching
my stomach but it's not too bad. I'm 6'4" and still over 400 pounds I suppose...

I got more videos of it running and moving under it's own power.

[dolinick]

https://youtu.be/NssQp_aN1qk

[dolinick]

I did replace the brake master cylinder.
I attempted to bleed the brakes but no fluid comes out in the rear brake bleeders.
I think a line is clogged somewhere between the booster and the rear brakes.
I was able to bleed the front brakes.

I drove it a mile and a half just to put air in the tires but I think the vacuum advance
isn't working properly and my timing isn't set correct either. It idles fine but wouldn't
have any power at higher rpms.

Today I messed with the timing and ran the motor for about 10 minutes. I think maybe the
vacuum advance is sticking. I could get the truck to rev up but it didn't really want to.
It wanted to slow down and backfire if I stomped on the accelerator too fast.

I only put 25-30 psi in the tires for now.

[jzjames]

Yeah. So check out your vacuum advance, you can suck on it to see if its working, and if not I think I think theyre reasonable.
Youre getting there sounds like youve got to do the rear brakes. No biggie, right?

[hfdco4]

The truck looks so good sitting in the lot at the gas station!

[popeyes71]

Little at a time, glad to see you were able to drive her a little.

[dolinick]

Hey, i've slowed down working on the truck but yes it is coming together.

It is interesting seeing it there at the gas station with the price of gasoline under $1.50

It would be fun to drive it around during this lockdown time.

So when the engine is running and I push down the brake pedal the idle increases.
What would cause that? If the booster and check valve are bad then a vacuum leak
wouldn't cause the idle to increase would it. Well I don't have the carb tuned or the timing
set correctly yet and don't know about the vacuum advance. But the truck idle's nice.

I don't know if I told the story already but after going through $4.50 to put air in the tires a guy
walked up with two bicycle wheels. I told him I had a bicycle pump in the back and he could use it.
I felt like I was doing my service truck duty. On the saw on the front of the bed are the words
"behilflich sein" which I think translates to something like "to be of service" or "to help or be helpful".

[Ohiotinkerer]

Hey, i've slowed down working on the truck but yes it is coming together.

It is interesting seeing it there at the gas station with the price of gasoline under $1.50

It would be fun to drive it around during this lockdown time.

So when the engine is running and I push down the brake pedal the idle increases.
What would cause that? If the booster and check valve are bad then a vacuum leak
wouldn't cause the idle to increase would it. Well I don't have the carb tuned or the timing
set correctly yet and don't know about the vacuum advance. But the truck idle's nice.

I don't know if I told the story already but after going through $4.50 to put air in the tires a guy
walked up with two bicycle wheels. I told him I had a bicycle pump in the back and he could use it.
I felt like I was doing my service truck duty. On the saw on the front of the bed are the words
"behilflich sein" which I think translates to something like "to be of service" or "to help or be helpful".

It is "to be helpful" in German......I wonder what the story is for that being on there being in Texas....

On your vacuum advance see if the plate inside the distributor is moving freely - I just had to disassemble one off a 240 I6 that was so gummed up I could barely move it with my fingers. Cleaned everything up and reassembled it with a little oil on it and it worked freely after that.......if that still doesn't help suck on the nose for the vacuum canister and see if it holds......if you see it start moving after that or if it doesn't move at all then it's bad......

And it does look cool as hell setting at the gas station......

[dolinick]

It is "to be helpful" in German......I wonder what the story is for that being on there being in Texas....

On your vacuum advance see if the plate inside the distributor is moving freely - I just had to disassemble one off a 240 I6 that was so gummed up I could barely move it with my fingers. Cleaned everything up and reassembled it with a little oil on it and it worked freely after that.......if that still doesn't help suck on the nose for the vacuum canister and see if it holds......if you see it start moving after that or if it doesn't move at all then it's bad......

And it does look cool as hell setting at the gas station......

The lady said a man who lived in Falls City owned it before her late husband. I don't remember if she said her husband put the
saw on there with the german words but I think he did. Now, I wonder if the saw came like that. But there are lots of german
settlements around this part of Texas. Falls City is about one hour southeast of San Antonio and has some polish settlements
around it.

I haven't messed around with the truck recently. I have actually been a little under the weather.

so the distributor has two vacuum ports on it. The one on the side never had anything connected to it. Should that one be
capped? However, a gentleman sent me a spare distributor(with only one port) when he found out I was having trouble with mine.

There was an extra set of points and condenser in the glove box so maybe I can install them on the spare distributor and try it.
But I will check the old one out first.

Thank You for your help.

[Ohiotinkerer]

It is "to be helpful" in German......I wonder what the story is for that being on there being in Texas....

On your vacuum advance see if the plate inside the distributor is moving freely - I just had to disassemble one off a 240 I6 that was so gummed up I could barely move it with my fingers. Cleaned everything up and reassembled it with a little oil on it and it worked freely after that.......if that still doesn't help suck on the nose for the vacuum canister and see if it holds......if you see it start moving after that or if it doesn't move at all then it's bad......

And it does look cool as hell setting at the gas station......

The lady said a man who lived in Falls City owned it before her late husband. I don't remember if she said her husband put the
saw on there with the german words but I think he did. Now, I wonder if the saw came like that. But there are lots of german
settlements around this part of Texas. Falls City is about one hour southeast of San Antonio and has some polish settlements
around it.

I haven't messed around with the truck recently. I have actually been a little under the weather.

so the distributor has two vacuum ports on it. The one on the side never had anything connected to it. Should that one be
capped? However, a gentleman sent me a spare distributor(with only one port) when he found out I was having trouble with mine.

There was an extra set of points and condenser in the glove box so maybe I can install them on the spare distributor and try it.
But I will check the old one out first.

Thank You for your help.

Im used to German things here in Ohio - still lots of Amish around here where I live and alot of German immigrants settled here - didn't think there would that many down your way! As far as the distributor canister having 2 ports it had something to do with emissions - my '68 was built in California and it had 2 on the vacuum canister along with a smog pump. You can cap the one closest to the cap off - it's not needed as it was meant to retard the timing when you were at a steady speed or decelerating - drove mine over 4000 miles with no issues like that!

Hope you get to feeling better.......

[hfdco4]

Any more progress on the truck?

[jzjames]

Yeah, Thought you were going to dazzle us with this beauty!

[dolinick]

i start the truck and let it warm up most days now. i just got a timing light. i'm tryin to figure out what the marks mean on the timing cover. i think i got it. 0, 3, 6 10, and 14 degrees. if it runs good i may drive it to air up the tires and to the car wash both are about 1 or 2 miles away.

no progress. but i was looking at tires and wheels on the govplanet auction site.

oh, i drove the truck into the back yard and parked it next to my 1983 F100. actually i started a new job in May and just stopped messing with the truck.
I got layed off on friday so i should have more time to work on it now. but no money. .

[390FE1972]

Sorry to hear you lost your job! I think most everyone has had to go thru this a number of times in their lives.

Regards

[dolinick]

Sorry to hear you lost your job! I think most everyone has had to go thru this a number of times in their lives.

Regards

Thank you.

I think i got the timing and idle issues figured out.

I learned how to set the timing to 6 degrees btdc and then noticed that at idle there was vacuum still going to the distributor advance. i only had to adjust the idle screw so the buttervly valve could close all the way. now it idles much slower like i think it should. it also accelerates pretty much ok.

but now i have zero brakes. the master cylinder was pretty low. i don't know if it leaked out while the truck sat or what yet. it think it does need a booster.