Greetings all, hope yer well. Coupla updates...
After helping my new neighbour do an urgent 24 hour turnaround engine swap when the 351C in his F100 spun a big end bearing the other week, I kept that momentum going to attack a few things that have been on Leroy’s “to do” list.
What I though was a dry front universal joint causing a squeak, turned out to be the rear gearbox seal that had come adrift, cocked at a wild angle.
When replacing it, I discovered that there had been two skinny, plastic seals in the output housing, a common mod I understand. This would also explain why there was no substantial leak from the cocked outer seal...
Now with only one original, metal-outer type seal in place, it’s quiet, but leaking more than I’d like. Damn.
I’ll call up CPC this week and order two of the skinny plastic type seals in again I guess...
Front Uni turned out to be quite notchy (I hadn’t replaced them during the build) so I splurged and replaced joints at both ends. The inconvenient orientation of my bench vice doesn’t suit this task too well.... but a simple lowering of Leroy’s tailgate solved that problem haha
Discovered that the tailpipe, which had been bent by the previous owner backing it into a high gutter, was in fact fouling on the diff housing in service, explaining the graunching noise from the rear that had gotten worse over time. A quick decision was made to drop the clamps & twist the straight pipe from the muffler to the axle 180°, then lopped it off just after the bend, so gasses now exit downward toward the road:
Finally, the rear springs came out for removal of two of the six leaves that Utes run in standard trim. Leroy really was no fun to drive unloaded, bouncing around shitty inner Sydney roads and over speed bumps you see...
I had to drill new holes for the gathering straps and reshape/crimp them to hold the smaller leaf stack together nicely. Rust converter on the undersides of the leaves, lick of paint, new high tensile centre bolts with spacers, a couple of mods to the lowering blocks for squarer purchase, then the whole show went back together like a dream.
End result? Leroy’s a new car to drive.
The exhaust note has lost a lot of the conversation stifling drone, especially at 50-55mph and it just sounds... crisper, a lot racier. Blatty at low engine speed but actually quieter at higher revs with that sweet Grey motor note much clearer under wide open throttle.
And the ride is amazing now! More like a Sedan. The steering is better too. Leroy is mostly used unloaded or with a light load only, so the loss of load capacity isn’t a huge problem. The ride height has come down a little, looks much better without the rake it had before.
Picked up my hefty Mig welder with full E size gas bottle from service yesterday and when I was standing in the tray with that on board, could jump up and down and make it touch the bumps stops. On the drive home it never hit the stops, though was definitely not as nice to drive loaded, didn’t pull up as straight and wandered with changing road camber a little more than usual, but still totally fine.
Next up: oil change and time to have another stab at tuning the Strommy (thanks to Harv for the loan of his expansive tuning stores & tools) and see what can be done to the electronic dizzy to bring some advance in quicker, lower down the rev range.
Cheers! Joe
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I know what you mean about an unloaded ute bouncing around. With your tail pipe I thought it was a requirement that the exhaust pipe must finish past the axle to comply? I guess anything is legal provided you don't get caught! 
