This is bitter sweet. I decide to sell my 1976 Ford F-600 4×4, but the buyer is a good friend and a better truck mechanic. Here’s what happened and how we upgrade the old truck. We fix the fuel leak and put it on giant semi truck tires. Let’s dig in!
This is an all original truck. It was sold as a F-600 4WD chassis cab. It was red on the ourside with a black bench seat. It’s configured with a 361 cu-in (5.9L) V8 gasoline engine. It’s a carburated FT (Ford Truck) engine that is mated to Clark 5 manual 5-speed transmission. It has a divorced Rockwell transfer case (with 4LO) and giant front/rear Rockwell axles. The rear axle is a very low 6.83-to-1 ratio!
It’s configured with a 17,200 lbs Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR). It means the original chassis cab had 8,000-9,000 lbs of payload capacity. Naturally, this old utility bed takes away a lot of that original payload, but it’s still supe capable.
Dan quickly swaps out the old carburator for a more advanced new one. We wrestle with the 24 year old tires that were on it before. Dan purchased six brand new 42-inch semi truck tires that have a 3-peak snow rating. We could not dismount/mount all of the tires on our own. We had to take the rest of the tires to the shop.
Dan replaced the old broken windshield. He tuned the new carburator, fix a vacuum leak, and the truck starts after half a crank. Amazing! We also had to replace the starter and we changed the engine oil.
How fast can this old beast go? Dan clocked it at 65 MPH in top gear at 3,500 rpm. I was able to verify the speed of 60 MPH at around 3,250 rpm. We are checking the speed via GPS, not the truck’s speedometer.
How much did we spend on the truck as it is now? We estimate it at close to $7,500. The truck has near 7,000 lbs of payload capacity. It’s a lot of truck for not very much money.
Please check it out in the video below.
