1969 F250 4x4 Highboy 7/9 rubicon

[killakobra]

cracked the flexplate maybe?

[1971ford]

Well, there i was cruisin' down the road late at night when a godawful noise started. Sounded exactly like a cracked flexplate. It was a metal to metal slap sound, followed by a scrape. Flexplate bowing out, scraping adapter plate, or bolt heads scraping adapter plate.
Had it towed to not hurt the $800 torque converter or flexplate.
Bought a flex plate.
Was about to drop the transmission again and swap the flexplate when a buddy and i decided we better pull the rear driveline to rule out the noise being the rearend just to be damn sure before we dropped the transmission.
Pulled the rear driveline, and the noise went away! Long story short, we could tell it was the t-case making the noise. We found this to be the case because i pulled the drain plug to check for metal debri in the oil and well, there was NO OIL. I never bothered to check it when i bought the t-case and bolted it in!!
Wow. So I thought why not dump a couple quarts of gear oil in and see what happens. Surely its not going to magically free up though, i had to have roasted the bearings atleast.
Dumped 2 quarts in, and took it for a cruise. it's like a whole new transfer case. I can't believe it. Np205's really are some indestructible units! I must have put 2,000 miles on it with no oil at all. Freeway, around town, and 2 wheeling trips before it asked to have some oil!

[460 crew]

That is awesome! Cheap fixes r the best. Lol

[popeyes71]

WOW! It least it was a simple fix, hopefully the bearings stay together and don't make to much noise. I was thinking you were going to have to pull the trans again and that sucks!

[KRob]

Ryan, Can we get some pictures of your progress on your gauge cluster......looking for ideas.

Thanks
Rob

[fordpickupman]

I love this truck.....so much I'm building one of my own.

Good luck with the 205.....keep your fingers crossed. I bet it goes for many years.

[1971ford]

rob, I still haven't even put gauges in the cluster, shame on me. I should really do that haha. I'll update when i do that. I have the autometers... just have been putting all my time into the offroad race truck.. which i cut up and am rebuilding into a full blown deal.

Thanks fellas!


Pulled the injection pump, swapped a few new seals on, pulled the tappet cover off and put a new rubber gasket on that badboy to replace the rock solid cork gasket, ground the fuel pin, and cruised.

I also bought a suhhweeeet bronco 2 and have been smashing on that thing having a blast, so the highboy is no longer a daily driver.

[1971ford]

One last little haul before putting the thing away in the sideyard for a while

[sargentrs]

She looks great, Ryan!

[fordpickupman]

Ryan, the truck looks great. Once again, you take some great quality photos.

Don't leave the ol girl parked in the side yard for too long.

[1971ford]

Thanks fellas!
Dragged it out the sideyard... The Injection pump had taken a dump on me. Was dumping diesel from every possible seal. Not sure if the low-sulfur diesel just took a toll on the old seals or what. Started resealing the pump but then made the call to buy a new (new to me, 80k on it) built pump. Swapped the new pump on, couldn't be happier. No leaks, and more power!!

Now i am fighting some very bad death wobble. Just never ends. One balljoint was a tad loose, a jam nut backed off the heim on the tie rod and two tie rod ends were a tad loose, but after tightening everything up and checking toe (toed in 1/8" in still..) it still gets death wobble VERY bad. Sector shaft in the steering box has side to side movement. My guess is the loose jam nut, TRE's and balljoint caused the death wobble, and after getting death wobble multiple times on such a gnarly scale, it wasted the steering box.

[fordguy_78]

Time for some hydro assist and a D60

[1971ford]

Buddy offered me a 60 front for $600. Turned it down. All big money goes into the race truck for a long time..

[1971ford]

Took a cruise tonight. This is me with a point and shoot (not capable of changing shutter speed or f stop), and running around with a remote flash. Wish i had a decent setup again.

[sargentrs]

Awesome photos Ryan!