1985 F-150 Estate Sale Find - "Buried Treasure"

[1986F150Six]

The "washers" will distribute the clamping force. Nice work!

[Gary Lewis]

Cory - That's a good idea.  Probably have more surface area than the washers I used.  

[grumpin]

As I’ve mentioned before, I used small screws and nuts with washers I think. Hoping for less damage now and later.

[Jonhasemail]

Thank you so much for this information!

I will try this out when the parts come in likely early next week.

[Jonhasemail]

Hey everyone,
 An update of sorts, along with some questions.

I've been able to swap out the window channels and felts, I think they turned out great. Not the greatest of pictures but it sounds a lot better inside the cab!


The past few weeks, I've been chasing down a couple of different issues:
-Faulty replacement fuel pump, it totally failed, started up one morning with gas shooting at the oil filter. Got that swapped out.
-Some issues with the rebuilt carb, causing issues with erratic idling. That's all squared away. Choke adjusted as well.
-Tried to start it up one morning, but nothing. Got out the manuals and swapped out the starter solenoid. Appears to be likely original with the truck. Now starts up fine.


Started running into a couple weird noises this past week:
-Was driving in roughly second gear at 10-15 mph, and started to hear a chirp. Totally went away at 15+ mph, and didn't notice it for the rest of the day.
https://youtu.be/IigC2jWI724

Then the next day, while in park at home, started to hear a couple chirp every know and then, and then a little of skip if you will.
https://youtu.be/RNhWhWjsQZs

Longer clip here, start to hear both the chirp and the skip.
https://youtu.be/vmJf-Tq7hTw

So I started digging around a little bit, and uncovered this:


Went around to check the other side for comparison.


So here are my questions:
-Assume that the chirp may be coming from a pulley going bad? The belts were replaced, so I'm not thinking the belts are worn down. If I am on the right track, any thoughts on which one is the likely culprit?

-Safe to assume that I need to replace the RH exhaust manifold given the "repair" that was made at some point in the past. Could this be a source of the "skip" if you will? Does it make sense to also go ahead and do the LH exhaust manifold as well?

-Looking at the valve covers more closely, does it make sense to have those swapped, or at least replace the gaskets? Judging by some of the oil build-up there, I'm assuming those are toast?

Thanks for any other guidance here, the truck has come a long way after all those years of neglect.

[Rembrant]

Your Youtube videos come up as "Private" when I try to watch them...

[Jonhasemail]

Sorry about that, should be ready to go now.

Jon

[Rembrant]

As for the valve covers, I just blasted and painted the originals on my 302. There are cheap replacements out there though if you choose to go that route. For the gaskets I went with the Fel-Pro Perma Dry Plus 1pc rubber gaskets and have been very happy with them compared to the original cork gaskets.



PS: I noticed that you still have the original valve cover bolts with the little posts on top. You can buy replacement plug wire holders that fit on these almost identical to the originals (in case you want to run the wires like they were originally).

[Rembrant]

Sounds belt related, no? Have you tried removing the belts one at a time to see if the noise goes away?

[Jonhasemail]

Thanks so much for the valve info!  I think in the meantime I am going to try to solve the chirp issue (look at those belts) along with getting some exhaust manifolds ordered. Even without the mystery sounds solved, having an exhaust manifold held together with effectively twist tie's doesn't seem like a good long term plan.

[Gary Lewis]

It looks to me like the wire is holding the shroud for the hot air to the air cleaner.  In other words, I'm not sure there's anything wrong with the manifold itself.  Or am I missing something?

[ArdWrknTrk]

I agree with Gary, in that the bailing wire was just to hold the heat riser on for the air cleaner snorkel.

As for tin valve covers, im a big advocate of gluing the gaskets to the tin and having them come away from the head with the valve cover.
Of course, I now have cast valve covers and silicone gaskets that shouldn't ever need replacing....