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Santas 71 EB

Santa

Red Skull Member
Joined
May 19, 2020
Member Number
162
Messages
1,259
Loc
North Pool
This thread is going to be primarily about the latest work. Installation of a Holley sniper 2 barrel fuel injection kit. I will post some pics of where it sits now, and provide the current stats as well as some pics.

Please be patient as I figure the site out on both mobile and my laptop. It will be slow to develop.

Please feel free to ask questions as we move along, and I will try to answer as best I can.

My assistants will be my wife and daughter. My daughter started work on this truck at about 5 years old helping me clean the axles to prep for paint the first time we built them. I'm hoping to find some of the early pictures to post in the thread. She is now 23. Its been a long journey. My wife inherited our project about 8 years ago when we got married and I moved it into her driveway.

Hope you enjoy.
 
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Stats:

71 EB, wrecked a couple times. Bent the frame bad enough to cause silleyneck grief as he beat the crap out of it to bend it back into place to get the motor square in the frame again.

I do not recommend putting the passenger front fender into a concrete abutment at about 30MPH as you are getting on the freeway in a spooled rig in the rain :homer:

Since then it has been an almost trail only rig.

Carbed 302(soon to be Holley Sniper 2bbl EFI)
NP435
Dana 20 twin sticked with detent balls removed(front digs)
Klune-V goiliath(I think 2.77:1)
Dana 44 4:88's ARB disks chromos
Big Bearing 9", Tru-Hi 9, 4:88s ARB disks chromos
3.5" suspension and 2 " body lift
James duff long arm front
Chicom Dual battery set up with Optima red top and Batteries and bulbs AGM second batttery.

yada yada yada.
 
Subscribed.
Looking forward to the carb/fuel injection tech.


"With 27 eight-by-ten color glossy photographs with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one...." :flipoff2:
 
Plan is to make a few little repairs that I have been neglecting. Fix some lighting gremlins that developed about 3 years after the re-wire, and then do a basic tune up, oil change, filter, hoses and fluids. Once that's complete we will start the FI install.

This will not be a basic install as I am using the old style 23 gallon tank with no return, am going to maintain both main and aux tank. To do this I will be using a fuel accumulator and an electric tank switching valve. I have taken KISS and tossed it out the window. I'm fairly certain my kid is smarter than me at this point and I will be relying on her to make sure I don't fawk it all up to bad.

If I'm being repetitive, it's the beer. so deal with it.:flipoff2:
 
Wife and daughter started with changing the oil, draining the antifreeze and getting all the hoses off. Radiator and heater core.

They also figured out I bought the wrong plugs. So we have to go back to NAPA tomorrow to exchange them. I should have checked when I picked them up. That's my bad. As soon as the kiddo pulled the first plug out of the box I knew it.

They got most of the hoses reinstalled before I got done cooking dinner. Will finish tomorrow and pick up new plugs to finish out the tune up.

We also figured out the wiring gremlins before I started the BBQ to cook dinner.

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Then we started to replace the old upper and lower steering shafts. They had some booty fab trail repairs. Removal did not go so well. Broke an Allen head socket off in one of the set screws. Broke 3 or 4 drill bits trying to drill them out. Out came the saw zall.

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This is where we will start tomorrow. Instslling the new upper and lower shafts.

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So today, we actually started the install. And as usual, plans have changed and it did not go as expected and we have more parts on order. On with the pics.
 
Cleaned things up a bit and painted some stuff, even some things I didnt want painted:homer:
 
What's your opinion using a spool?

My FSBronco will be used around town and offroading up in the mountains in rain and snow (Oct to April).


My other options I'm looking at are the Detroit and Yukon locker.
 
What's your opinion using a spool?

My FSBronco will be used around town and offroading up in the mountains in rain and snow (Oct to April).


My other options I'm looking at are the Detroit and Yukon locker.

For a trail rig that you only drive to get to the dirt or a quick beer run to the corner store, a spool is fine. If you plan on doing more street driving than that, I would pony up for a locker. The welded rear in my beater Bronco II sucks, and I have thought of putting a locker in even with as little as I drive it on the street.
 
For a trail rig that you only drive to get to the dirt or a quick beer run to the corner store, a spool is fine. If you plan on doing more street driving than that, I would pony up for a locker. The welded rear in my beater Bronco II sucks, and I have thought of putting a locker in even with as little as I drive it on the street.

Pretty much this. I was DDing my truck with a spool on 35s. That's when I hit the concrete abutment in the rain because the ass end came around on me. I put one if the lunchbox lockers in it for a while and it was better. The ARBs are much better. :grinpimp:
 
Pic no worky. :D

Maybe now?

And this has already taken a drastic turn. We also need to prep a house we own 3 hours away to sell, move a kid back home from college and complete the install to be able to wheel this summer. So I've ditched the plan to keep the second tank, which really simplifies things. Depending on how house prep goes this weekend I hope to have this wrapped up the following weekend and at the latest the end of the month.
 
So, things slowed down considerably. Today the wife helped me install the new throttle linkage.

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And we started on the valve covers when to my surprise we found issues...

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This was discovered on top of the cylinder head between the number 3 and 4 cylinders. The eyes and nose are plastic, the frown is metal.

I know next to nothing about cylinder heads and valve springs. Really not sure what I am looking at. Any advice would be appreciated. At this point I am dejected and dont want to proceed with a motor I thought was solid if this is an issue

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What valve covers were on it? Could be pieces of a broken breather cap.

Went back to post 14, missing breather right above #4


https://irate4x4.com/ford/5925-santas-71-eb?p=32030#post32030

That makes sense for the plastic. Parts of the PCV valve that was stuffed in that hole before we started taking it apart. What about the metal half circle that's a couple thousandths?

it was supposedly rebuilt before I bought it. Probably had less than 20k on it in 20 years of ownership. Wondering if it's a fawked up rebuild just now being found.
 
How do the springs, retainers, etc. look? Doesn't really mean catastrophic failure. Bet the plastic stuff is just from a breather or PVC vent. Metal "frown" don't recognize at first blush, but I have a feeling you're in fine shape.
 
Possibly part of the breather.. looks like a sliver of spring but looks too big, without a spring to scale it to, so I agree with pro...


Look down the galleys...with magnets. Any questions pull pan for a gawk.... that would suk to do but may be worth it....ounce of prevention..
 
Nice, subscribed! I'm going to do a Sniper 4bbl on my '68 when the time comes - its sporting a Holley 600 right now and I want it to go on a carb-free diet. :laughing:

What front bumper is that? I like the clean, simple look of it.
 
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