Yeah I'd pick up ballast resistor. Easy to swap, cheap I had an old ford engine on a crane that I couldn't get running. Swapped that and it cranked right up.

Any update?

Burdizzo said:

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Any update?

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Still stuck with no spark. To the best of my ability to assess, I seem to have continuity at every point under the hood. I had one mechanic acquaintance come out, but he didn't know much about older engines and ignition systems, so he's trying to ask around before getting back with me. But I'm not holding my breath. I've reached out to another mechanic friend, but haven't heard back. The cold and wet weather kind of delayed things, too. If I don't hear something soon, I'm gonna call a mobile mechanic (vetted to make sure he's comfortable with this kind of problem).

Anyone in this group live in the Austin-San Marcos area (I'm in Kyle) and willing to help a rookie out?

jaborch99 said:

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Burdizzo said:

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Any update?

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Still stuck with no spark. To the best of my ability to assess, I seem to have continuity at every point under the hood. I had one mechanic acquaintance come out, but he didn't know much about older engines and ignition systems, so he's trying to ask around before getting back with me. But I'm not holding my breath. I've reached out to another mechanic friend, but haven't heard back. The cold and wet weather kind of delayed things, too. If I don't hear something soon, I'm gonna call a mobile mechanic (vetted to make sure he's comfortable with this kind of problem).

Anyone in this group live in the Austin-San Marcos area (I'm in Kyle) and willing to help a rookie out?

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I live in San Antonio with family in Uhland-Niederwald Metroplex. I can swing up one weekend but it probably won't be for a couple of weeks.

Burdizzo said:

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jaborch99 said:

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Burdizzo said:

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Any update?

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Still stuck with no spark. To the best of my ability to assess, I seem to have continuity at every point under the hood. I had one mechanic acquaintance come out, but he didn't know much about older engines and ignition systems, so he's trying to ask around before getting back with me. But I'm not holding my breath. I've reached out to another mechanic friend, but haven't heard back. The cold and wet weather kind of delayed things, too. If I don't hear something soon, I'm gonna call a mobile mechanic (vetted to make sure he's comfortable with this kind of problem).

Anyone in this group live in the Austin-San Marcos area (I'm in Kyle) and willing to help a rookie out?

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I live in San Antonio with family in Uhland-Niederwald Metroplex. I can swing up one weekend but it probably won't be for a couple of weeks.

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That would be great! If I've figured this issue out, I'm sure there'll be another one at that point. Just let me know when you'll be in the area. I really appreciate it!

You cruising around yet?

will.mcg said:

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You cruising around yet?

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Man ... I wish! Brudizzo actually came out this evening to take a look with me. We're not certain, but we think the issues may be a bad condensor. So I'm gonna replace it, the points, rotor, and cap and see if that works. We'll see if that does the trick.

jaborch99 said:

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will.mcg said:

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You cruising around yet?

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Man ... I wish! Brudizzo actually came out this evening to take a look with me. We're not certain, but we think the issues may be a bad condensor. So I'm gonna replace it, the points, rotor, and cap and see if that works. We'll see if that does the trick.

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Here is a pretty decent video that goes over replacing and adjusting points on that style distributor. It is fairly straight forward since you should have most of the tools with the exception of maybe a feeler gauge. At this point I would not worry about the last five minutes of the video where he talks about dwell. That is kind of a fine tuning issue and a more indepth adjustment that you probably don't need right now. He also talks about dual points distributors which you do not have. If you don't get to it, we can do it on my next visit



Good to meet you today!

Just read this thread all the way through, THIS is why you TA. Good Ags helping Ags.
Best of luck to you with this project.


BTW way back in the day, my first truck was a baby blue '68 F100/3 on the tree, fixed up old service truck. My brother had borrowed it one Saturday afternoon and was sitting in an apartment parking lot waiting on a friend, when a drunk ran all the way off the road and t-boned/totaled it. Dangit. Luckily my bro only had minor injuries.

We have progress! Turns out the condenser was bad. I changed it out, along with the points, cap, and rotor. Voila! I think the fuel pump is next.

Video of engine firing

Awesome! Making progress always feels good

jaborch99 said:

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We have progress! Turns out the condenser was bad. I changed it out, along with the points, cap, and rotor. Voila! I think the fuel pump is next.

Video of engine firing

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May as well get you two more of those condensors to keep in the glove box.

That was always the weak spot on my '70.

The fuel pump I bought was the wrong one, and I'm finding it incredibly difficult to find the right one. So I'm considering installing an electric fuel pump. I found a great Youtube video on how to set up the wiring, but I have one question. The video says to wire it either to a switch or to the ignition. Instead, could I connect it to the starter solenoid like I did when I wired the electric choke? Seems like that would enable it to only turn on when the engine is running, right?

In case you need validation, VGG did a 1967 F250 with pretty much the same issues as yours. He had to replace the points and condenser, and he could not find a mechanical fuel pump either



It happens

Yes, you can wire it thru your starter solenoid so it gets power when you're cranking the engine & when the ignition is in the on position.

It's nice to have the electric fuel pump on a toggle switch so that you can "prime" your carb before you start the engine.

It is "safest" to wire it to turn off if the engine is off. You can google how to wire it thru your oil pressure switch much easier than I can try to explain it.

I believe this truck has a pressure gauge so there may be some additional plumbing required for that on top of the electrical

I found a mechanical one for $45 on rockauto from "GMB"

Never heard of them, but they claim to have a warranty in the rockauto listing.

Chrundle the Great said:

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I found a mechanical one for $45 on rockauto from "GMB"

Never heard of them, but they claim to have a warranty in the rockauto listing.

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Yeah, you probably found the same one I found for him that didn't fit. This is a typical Ford issue where parts books claim they fit only to find out they don't. There are quite a few pumps out there that will fit the engine, but it won't fit the application because of how the pump needs to be oriented on the engine and still clear the cross member. I have tried to help him too, and struck out. I was not expecting it o be this hard until remembered how bad Ford was about this kind of stuff.

OK guys ... this is a big day for Wilbur (I decided to name the old jalopy after my Paw-Paw, the original owner). For the first time in 30 years, the engine can idle!!! Thanks to this board, and especially Burdizzo, for guiding this rookie through thus far.

Since I'm sure the gas tank likely has debris/rust in it, I didn't want to pump gas from there just yet. So I decided to temporarily use a small gas can as my tank. Since its just a temporary solution, I decided to mount the electric pump in a temporary location, too. We'll have to redo this further down the road, but it will work for now. I followed the video I posted previously to guide me in wiring it up, and I connected it to the starter solenoid so that I didn't have to dig into the dash to find the ignition switch. I may change that up later, too.


Here's the video of Wilbur coming back to life!

As far as I can tell, the next steps are:

• Replace a heater hose
• Ssee if my radiator is too leaky to use. If not, I'll need to replace it
• I probably also need to adjust the carb some since it is currently exactly how it came out of the box. I'll have to let YouTube teach me how to do this.

Anything I'm missing? What would your next steps be?

Long way to go, but this feels great!

Congratulations!!! Way to stick with it!!

Brakes, would hate for the first time you decide to adventure from idling to moving it is when you find out you have no brakes.

Cleaning out the gas tank and getting that fuel pump mounted so that you can move with the hood down

If we want to start tuning the carb, I might lean towards trying to rebuild your original one and tuning it. Others might have different opinions. The cheap one at least proved the engine runs, but who knows how well it holds a tune.

After looping that heater hose, my next suggestion would be to fill the radiator with distilled water (I would not use that hard tap water or overspend on premixed antifreeze) and 1) see if it holds coolant and 2) see if you can let it run long enough to heat up and cycle the thermostat. I would also start thinking about moving it to a more suitable work area, especially a hard surface so you can crawl under it.

If it's the original it may be able to be brazed. Mine was too far gone and I ended up buying a replacement from LMC Truck.

Kind of jealous you've been able to find time to work on it. I'm so caught up with other stuff, mine is kind of stuck in the 'well it ran last year...' purgatory.

How much smoke came out the tailpipe once you got it to run more than about 5 seconds?

The Fife said:

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If it's the original it may be able to be brazed. Mine was too far gone and I ended up buying a replacement from LMC Truck.

Kind of jealous you've been able to find time to work on it. I'm so caught up with other stuff, mine is kind of stuck in the 'well it ran last year...' purgatory.

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Hold my beer…

Mine is stuck in the "well it ran when I parked it in 2004". Purgatory.

A wife, four girls through A&M, youngest getting married next month (1 left to go), two grandkids later - maybe I'll get back to it next year.



Glad you got it running. If this is a restore project, I would take the tank out and have it lined. A good radiator shop should be able to help with that. It will eliminate a bunch of headaches later.

Burdizzo said:

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How much smoke came out the tailpipe once you got it to run more than about 5 seconds?

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Actually not much at all,but I didn't leave it running for very long because I didn't have any water in it. Maybe 30 seconds.

That is a positive sign .

OK. I took off the old heater hose. The ports were clogged with debris.


I sprayed it with a little bit of carb cleaner to break it all up, then used the pointed wire brush on a battery terminal cleaner to try to clean it out. That's the best I could do for now.

I then looped the heater hose to both ports, filled the radiator with water, and started it up. I now have a couple of questions:

• When I give it gas, I get a high-pitched, loud chirp/squeal. See video. What is causing that? Belt?
• I put a fuel pump block off plate over the spot where the mechanical fuel pump was. I see some smoke coming out of that area. See video. I assume this is just old oil/etc from inside the crank case and is nothing to really be concerned about at this point.

For video #1, I'd say belt is most likely and water pump bearing is #2 next man up. Could run it without belt for a few seconds and see how the sound changes. Should be able to spin the water pump by hand and feel the bearing's condition as you turn it.

For #2 I can't tell from the view, but it sort of looks like it's coming around the sides of that cover on the side of the block or head. Maybe there's a gasket that can be changed there? I'm not too familiar with inline Fords though.

Video #1 I suspect is an old/loose belt since it happens mostly when you rev the motor. Could be either, but I would start with the belt since the coolant flows and pump doesn't seem to leak.

Video#2 looks like blowby in the crankcase. That is to be expected, but surprised the block off plate didn't seal. It looks like there is a gasket and bolts are tight. You my try resealing it with RTV.

You are making good progress

Turns out it didn't have a thermostat at all, so I installed one. I tested the alternator and it doesn't work. Next steps:

• Change oil & filter
• Figure out how to check oil pressure
• Replace alternator
• Figure out why gauges don't work.

Beyond those steps, I need to figure out why I can't get it in gear. I tried today to see if it would move at all, but I got nothing. The gear shifter feels very "gummy" when moving positions.

Thoughts? Am I missing anything?

Before replacing the alternator, I would replace the voltage regulator. It is usually in the fender and looks like this. These are cheaper than a new alternator, and I have been told they stop working when a Ford sits for years like yours has been doing. This should cost you about $20. Fords of that era are externally regulated, while the GM is internally regulated. If replacing this doesn't work, then replace the alternator.

Yes, change the oil.

If you get frustrated troubleshooting the factory gauges, you will not be the first person to spend $30 to buy a cluster of gauges to use in their place (oil, water, volts). Your local parts house should have a set.


Can you get it into gear when the engine is off?

Burdizzo said:

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Before replacing the alternator, I would replace the voltage regulator. It is usually in the fender and looks like this. These are cheaper than a new alternator, and I have been told they stop working when a Ford sits for years like yours has been doing. This should cost you about $20. Fords of that era are externally regulated, while the GM is internally regulated. If replacing this doesn't work, then replace the alternator.

Yes, change the oil.

If you get frustrated troubleshooting the factory gauges, you will not be the first person to spend $30 to buy a cluster of gauges to use in their place (oil, water, volts). Your local parts house should have a set.


Can you get it into gear when the engine is off?

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Are all voltage regulators created equal? Should I go with a cheap ($10) Amazon version or the one at the Auto Parts Store ($38)?

I may take that advice and just buy a cheap set of gauges for now because I'm trying to put off digging into the dash for as long as possible. Of course, I'll have to research how to connect it.

I can't tell if its getting into gear or not when the engine is off, but it doesn't feel any different from when the engine is on. The gear shifter moves but it just feels all gummed up - like if you were trying to stir a bucket of tar. Makes it hard to feel if it is getting into the correct position.