Straight Sixin' '63

[ThinLizzy13]

Made it back from the big sandbox across the pond in time for all the good weather! The 63 fired up with minimal coaxing but needed some points tuning. Then it was straight to work hauling stone and wood.



Big plans are cab mounts and some column work after I get the "new" trans put in my '87 (T170 to M5OD)

[shipwrecked]

Welcome back! Just in time for summer

[ThinLizzy13]

Thanks April! I came back just in time for driving weather.

After my points adjustment it ran ok for a little bit but seemed a bit rough after taking it down the road. Went through all the ignition components and it turns out my #3 had a bad wire to sparkplug line. Sparkplug got ate up Put in a new plug and got it running smooth again.


I also got around to finally putting in a new speedometer. It doesn't read as smooth as I was hoping but at least my bouncy needle gauge is gone. The new speedo was also out of a Bronco so I have the option to swap out the dummy lights.

[ThinLizzy13]

I went and visited my great uncle (the one who gave me the truck), and he found the spare tire carrier (under bed).
I had such big plans for this summer/fall for working on the truck, but it looks like the only progress I'll make this year is installing the spare tire carrier

[04sd]

Hey that's still progress
At least your truck is running an driving. I haven't gotten much of anything done on mine in 6 month's, back surgery was a big setback this summer. Hopefully I'll get back to it soon.

[ThinLizzy13]

Well that’s a better reason than mine Bill I hope your recovery is going well. I haven’t even installed the tire carrier yet.
Before I put it away for the winter my two absolutely have to’s are 1) weather stripping on the doors and 2) valve adjustment. No matter what I do I have a rough idle, stalling when cold, and top end noise. I hope nothing is too damaged...

[ThinLizzy13]

Hope everyone had a great Christmas/ New year. I made it my resolution to do at least one thing on the truck every month, no matter how small. Progress on the truck has been slow.

I did manage to pull it out of the back yard up to my work area. Pulled the carb and rebuilt it, it was pretty gunked up. The truck at least runs now, still has a little bit of a rough idle.
I have a day off next week with the family out of town so I should be able to finally do the valve adjustment.
Got a valve cover gasket and intake/exhaust gaskets on the way. Planning on pulling the intake/exhaust manifolds off and going through the exhaust system completely.

After almost 2 years I FINALLY got argon for my welder! That’ll help with my exhaust work and I should be able to work on the cab mounts come spring.

With my project Winnebago and the family the poor truck has been getting neglected.

[ThinLizzy13]

Got the valve cover and intake/exhaust manifold pulled. It came off really easy. Gunna clean everything up and get a new muffler and tail pipe. Seems like there was alot of gunk up top. Gunna try to clean the head up as much as possible before the valve cover goes back on and make sure that enough oil is actually getting up there.



Are these circles alignments for the manifolds?

[Zax63]

Yes, the circle clips help align the manifold and also help hold the gasket pieces in place when installing the manifold. They also like to fall out and roll across the garage floor into nice hiding spots when you pull the manifold...

[ThinLizzy13]

Thanks zax. That’s exactly what happened to mine, except it was in my snowy driveway

Managed to get the intake manifold degreased and wire wheeled. I’m going to sandblast it next weekend and get it ready for install. Next up is exhaust and valve cover.

[ThinLizzy13]

Got the intake and exhaust sprayed and shined up. I'm almost done wire wheeling down the valve cover. Right now I only have rustoleum paint for it, hope it holds up.



before/after

[Zax63]

No cracks on your exhaust manifold? I wish mine was in that good of shape.

BBQ grill paint works great for exhaust manifolds.

[ThinLizzy13]

There was a suspect spot near where the exhaust valve rod was. On the outside it looked like a possible 1/4” line, but there was no crack on the inside. So I guess it’s good?

If this stuff doesn’t hold up I’ll try the BBQ paint.

[ThinLizzy13]

Got the valve cover all cleaned up and repainted.

[ThinLizzy13]

Finally got the tig welder setup after almost 2 years. Had to weld a new stud onto the old manifold. The thing popped and crackled but I think it’ll stick.
After that I did a valve adjustment, not one was within spec Truck runs smooth now. I still have to paint up the oil bath then I’ll move onto either the steering column or cab mounts....

[ThinLizzy13]

Video of the truck running now. It's way better than it was but I can't tell if that sounds like something knocking or not.

https://youtu.be/DvH5bGlMl14

[ThinLizzy13]

I pulled the column and it needed a rebuild bad. The shift tube was missing a tab for the shift lever to go into and the lower column bearing was not even in the column. It also did not have the bearing cup that seats the bearing. Luckily I had a 65 column to compare and attempt to pull parts off of. I know its different but I was having trouble finding 63 only info so I'm attempting to make my lower bearing setup look like the 65's.

I drilled out the spot welds on the 65 shift tube to pull the tab. I'm going to clean up my shift tube and the tab and then tig weld it on really well as per old smiley's guidance.





I attempted to reuse the bearing cup from the '65 column by drilling out the spot welds and pulling it. I deformed it attempting to pull it out...so then I ripped it out. I had decided it was coming out so it did lol. My '63 column is on the right. You can see it has no bearing cup. No wonder my column was so wiggly...



I also grabbed a bushing kit to rebuild the shift linkage. I noticed the bushings fit the linkage fine on the transmission side of the linkage, but on the column side the bushings need to be reamed out a little bit to fit the linkage through them.
Also one of the linkage arms was pretty rusted. The cotter pin broke off inside and the old bushing insert is rusted to it. Plan is to cut the bushing off and redrill a hole if I can't get whats left of the cotter pin out.



Bonus pic just for curiosity's sake. The spacers between the column shifter arms are different between 63 and 65. 63 is open and 65 is closed off. The 63's was metal and the 65's plastic. The space of the opening is the same so I doubt it matters but I thought I'd throw this out there for posterity.



Bearing cup is on order, then it's off to the welder and then throwing the column back together. In the meantime I'm going to rig up a redneck cab mount and weld it in with some old scrap I have laying around. It's almost driving season I'm ready to keep it on the road til next winter!

[longcabjohn]

I don't think the 63 had anything at the bottom as it went down on the steering box. I could be wrong but I think anything with the shaft coming out of box were that way.


Johnny

[ThinLizzy13]

After closer inspection, I think you’re right.

[ThinLizzy13]

The column is all rebuilt but once I put it back together the steering box side still has a lot of play. When I put it back together I bottomed the column out on the steering box and the column was pretty sturdy, BUT I could only get one shifter arm to move. I had to back the column off the box about an inch or two. Once I did that I could shift through all the gears (shifting is much tighter now).
According to the 61 shift diagram it looks like there is some sort of boot or rubber thing that goes in bottom of the column, which would make me think it would take the play out (38564 and circled in the diagram).

anthropology job listings

I couldn't find a 63 specific diagram so I ordered the 63 supplemental manual and on top of that I ordered a complete 63 column lol. I'm gunna get this thing fixed right.