Advice on '67 F100

[Lep6]

Hey everyone -- I've been on the forum a while and read a ton, but don't post much. I'm writing now to ask some advice!

I've had a '67 F100 for a few years now. I'm in the Army and have been overseas quite a bit and haven't spent as much time with it as I'd like. But love the old Ranger. It's a 352 FE, automatic, with a Holley 4160 4-barrel (vacuum secondary, electric choke).

Truck ran pretty great when I got it -- I replaced the brakes and cylinders (manual drum), the radiator, and did a tune-up (points, cap, plugs, wires, timing). I am brand new to wrenching and I'm learning as I go.

I'm getting out of the Army now to go to school -- in a Chicago -- and I can't take the F100 with me. I live in western Washington, just south of Tacoma and my buddy in Eugene, OR is going to hang on to the truck for me for a few years while I'm in school. He's got a brewery, so he'll use it as a brewery truck.

I was having some timing issues last summer -- it had to be pretty far advanced (20* or more) to idle decently. But at that far advanced, it bogged down while accelerating past 30/40 mph. I worked on the timing issues with not much success, then stupidly pulled the carburetor (4 barrel Holley 4160) to rebuild it. Should have fixed the timing first. It sat that way for 9 months while I was on "business trips" overseas.

Anyway, now that I'm getting out of the Army, I've got 11 days to get it running smoothly before driving it 4 hours south to Eugene... And I'm a super newbie with working on these old trucks.

I rebuilt and installed the carb. It fires up with some coaxing (takes a bit of work to get it started) but runs rough and won't idle -- I've got to feather the gas pedal to keep it running. After about 30 seconds, it stalls and dies.

Here's my three options:

1: figure it out myself! I'm not entirely sure where to start and what to do. Here's what I think I should do:
- Fuel/carb: flush the fuel, check fuel pump and pressure, work on float levels (front bowl is too high), work on choke (which is electric), somehow make sure the carb is working correctly.
- Ignition: points look fine and are gapped properly and plugs are pretty new, but I should check all of those. I am not sure if there's some distributor issue that's causing my (suspected) timing problems.
- Compression: It's been good when I checked it (twice) over the past two years. That shouldn't be a problem
- Vacuum leaks: I don't know how to check for those, but could be part of the problem...
Problem is, I've got 11 days and a lot to do to transition out of the Army in that time...

2: Find someone around here (near Tacoma, WA) who's got some experience to help me out a bit. Anyone near here that would be willing to lend a hand?? I'll gladly pay in beer, food, and even some $$ for your time and assistance. There's a fully stocked auto shop on Fort Lewis where we could work -- I just don't have time to make a bunch of rookie mistakes.

3: Pay a local shop to do the work. Just talked to a shop that works on classic cars -- they charge $90 an hour for work. Probably cost me $1k or more. Budget's pretty tight cause I'm going to be a full-time student soon, but I think this might be the best route because it's more likely to succeed... But man, it's hard on my budget and makes it hard to justify keeping the Ranger.

Thanks in advance for any advice. Love this forum and how y'all freely share knowledge and help out new guys like me.

Corey Ritter

[19ford71]

It looks like your chances of getting it ready by yourself for a four hour trip are slim. Maybe you could talk to some people in local parts stores and ask if they know any decent mechanics that work out of their home. It may not be anything more than some carb adjustments and a bad distributor. I personally ditched a 4 bbl and installed a junkyard 2 bbl carb and intake on my '70 360 due to running issues and also replaced the dist. Due to a worn shaft. Try to find an old-timer mechanic to fiddle with it for the next week. I bet a parts store guy could give you a few names. Good luck!

[sargentrs]

Sorry, this is the first I saw your post or I would've responded sooner. First things first. Do the compression test to verify that's ok. While you have the plugs out, clean and gap them properly. Reinstall and get it running. Grab a can of ether (carb starting fluid spray) and while it's running, spray around the base of the carb, the perimeter of the intake and the brake booster if you have power brakes. If you have a vacuum leak your engine will rev up when you spray over it. If that checks out, we move on to timing, ignition and carb adjustment.