36 Ford truck on Ranger

[GJunktionMike]

It would make sense to only have 3rd and reverse if you had a fork miss the grove. I had the same thing happen before, worth a try to stab it back in.

[Bamamav]

I thought 1st and reverse were on the same fork, and 2nd and 3rd on the other?

[GJunktionMike]

Originally Posted by Bamamav

I thought 1st and reverse were on the same fork, and 2nd and 3rd on the other?

Oops my bad I had them backwards.

[MercuryMac]

Whoa up, GJ and Bama, You're assuming this puppy is a stocker, three speed, wrong mistake. It's a HOTROD with a Borg Warner four speed, it's just small and aluminum, the forerunner of the T-5s. The first and second syncro-unit collar that was not engaging its fork was the culprit. Well, the real culprit was the mechanic that arrogantly put the top back on the transmission, assuming the forks were in their right collars. That same mechanic, much meeker now, just put the transmission lid back on CAREfully this time. I tested the five different gears after the top was on and the truck moved appropriately in each of them. Fixing up the mess in the floor around the transmission is all that's left of this part of the project.
And Sam Fear, you're thinking I have a problem with my hat sliding over my eyes and then falling off all the time. Indiana Jones stapled his hat on in one movie and I've considered doing this but I don't have time.

[MercuryMac]

Hi guys. As I was crawling around under the truck today it struck me that almost all of you make tin floors and I made a wooden one. I have two other wooden ones that are over 30 years old and still good. A John Deere farm tractor and an old Kenworth. Both of these floors have suffered a lot more life than a hotrod would. They are quieter, more rigid, fairly removable and easy to add things too. Got any opinions.

[MercuryMac]

Hello again. Well, I just came back from my second test drive. My wife wanted to come too; seems she has been waiting for this moment for years. The gears all work but the clutch seems to be hanging up a wee bit. Shifting into that first gear is embarrassing. It's a NOS clutch that's been lying on the shelf for 60 years so it might heal up a bit as it wears in,-----I hope. We took the truck out in the field and I turned sharp each way to get all the bubbles out of the power steering, which made it slightly lighter to steer, although it wasn't bad. It drives down the gravel road nicely and brakes feel good. You should hear it start, wow, immediately every time and then it'll sit there at a dead idle so nicely. At high revs it flutters quite a bit as if I've got the points too close, although I didn't feel a problem pulling good in high gear. Overall, it was a real good run.

[Old Iron]

Great lookin truck
I like the fenders being on it

[bob w]

What Old Iron said. Looks like the Ranger chassis worked out well.

[Snake Farm]

Congrats on the shake down run! Congrats on the wife being interested too....makes it so much more enjoyable. The truck looks great!

As for wood floors if they were good enough for Henry Ford they are good enough for me I'm a carpenter first and a hot rodder second so there's lots of wood in unusual places around here, like my home made wooden sand blasting cabinet and my wooden welding cart. My Willys has metal floors but it has a wooden stake bed and a plywood seat.

[MercuryMac]

Hi and Thank you Old Iron, Bobw and Snake Farm. I like the fenders too, and we live a way out in the country on gravel roads, kinda like a lot of farmers, so the fenders keep the rocks off the paint. I remember why we should have had fenders on our first hotrod [my little brothers and mine, a '50 Ford car chassis]. We never got around to putting Dad's Model T phaeton body on the '50 frame. We were too young to drive legally so some of our miles were in the cow pasture. After we were painted green quite a few times we put pretty nice mudflaps on. Anyhow, we still have the old hotrod and the Model T body.
The Ranger chassis worked out really well, in fact I will recommend people to use one or at least think about it. The frame rails have two 'Z's so the cab area is fairly low and beneath the toe board is about 30" wide and at widest part it is 33" wide. The frame is beefy and the suspension gives a nice ride.
Snake Farm, ya, my wife perked right up when the truck was finally a truck. It seems that she didn't get much out of the build years. She's coming with me to A&W tomorrow night. Wow.
Also Snake Farm, here's a question just made for you. What do you think of my theory that you could build something out of wood for your ratrod, then age it by sandblasting it aggressively and painting it grey with a spray bomb.
Thanks Guys. and Keep on tinkering.