We were plugging away at it today. It was cold as hell and that hampered our progress badly. Item one was cleaning out the cab... I didn't think to take an after pic of this (cold) but we found some cool stuff under the seat in among the rat poop and hantavirus.
This battery, date coded June 1988, gives us a clue as to the last time it was really rocking and rolling...
At this point the engine was still stuck but had been sitting with ATF in the cylinders for about a week. We had a socket that matched the crank nut but there was no way to get a tool on it with it on the nut. We puzzled over this for a moment, then I realized there was probably a crank handle under the seat... et voila. Now- I've been lucky with 3 random pasture engines so far. Will I score with a fourth? Lo and behold...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42cTqXEH0Bw
At this point we figured we'd better take the shifter top off and see why it no longer wanted to shift. It had reluctantly gone into second gear while I was tinkering with it in Brady, but after that trip now didn't want to.
The old oil had turned to a solid pack of grease in both the transmission and the engine. This stuff was rock solid. About 30 minutes with a heat gun was able to get it to liquefy and start draining; we chased it with some brakleen until it was all outta there.
We got the transmission drained and cleaned out and she shifts good now. Even the detents are nice and strong, I couldn't believe it. This truck is eager to go...
Next step was to put power to it and see what it would do. (The original wiring is all shot so we scabbed some stuff in.) Initially the starter would spin but the bendix wouldn't budge; we pulled it off, cleaned it up and got the bendix to retract and extend like it's supposed to, put it back on the engine, put power to it again, and then something died inside the starter and it doesn't even spin on the bench now. So this is where I started cannibalizing stuff off the T. With the T's good starter that old banger whirled right over.
A basic ignition circuit, set the timing and...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIyHkECBAxM
... that's as far as we had time to go today. It was getting colder (and it was already only 28) and sleet was coming in. With a two hour drive home ahead of me I wanted to try to get out in front of the weather.
I think the timing is just off. It wants to but it's not quite there and can't catch. Next weekend it will run... I'm very sure of it.