Thanks for the tip on the fuel filter, Marcus!
I removed my fuel tank today, I'm going to strip it down and clean it and all the pieces, do rust treatment if necessary, then reassemble. Now I'm trying to figure out what to do with all this old fuel... I have many buckets full! I tried burning some in a metal bucket, but the smoke was too much - someone would end up calling the fire dept. on me.
A few more observations, after spending some time poking around the truck:
- The chain drive for the rear winch is missing. This is no ordinary chain, it's about 3" wide and has fins on the insides of the links that combine to form gear teeth; the "sprockets" that this chain runs on look like big straight cut pinion gears. These two gears are over two feet apart, so it is a big, long chain. Where to find one?
- There is damage to one of the frame cross members in the rear... it's bent upward about an inch. I have no idea how it could get this way, (Except maybe backing up the truck while the auger was in the ground!) but it put a dent in the auger drive shaft by causing it to strike the bottom of the bed. To make clearance, someone then cut an arc in one of the ribs supporting the sheet metal of the bed floor. This bent frame member supports the front end of the auger unit. You can see in the pics below that the front end of the auger is higher than the rear. This could be fixed - replace the frame member, drive shaft, and weld in a section of a bed support... But it will be a lot of work. For the forseeable future, it will stay as-is. It's not that noticable.
- The tires are all completely junk. I can't believe they made it home, but since they did, I had hoped that I could use them for a little while after I get the truck running. I don't think so... They are scarry, and one of them is flat. When I went to put some air on it, it was leaking right through the sidewall!
Although I've had a few unpleasant surprises, I'm still extremely pleased and the truck really is in excellent shape. It's easy to forget that it's 55 years old! It's looking better now, too after I've hosed it off and removed all the junk from the cab and bed.
Here's some more pics... More to follow in the coming days.
Regards,
Jon