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Video Transcript
(Marc)>> You're watching Powernation!
(Joel)>> We've got Clint Black's 1960 Ford F-100 back in the shop and we're tearing it apart from stem to stern as we replace the entire suspension system.
(Eric)>> And if you're into old trucks with rust, crust, and stubborn nuts, stick round. [ Music ] Sorry! [ Music ]
(Joel)>> Nothing cooler than an old pickup, am I right? [ Music ]
(Eric)>> Underneath all this dirt there's probably a pretty good truck. [ Music ] Welcome to Music City Trucks. Today we're going down under.
(Joel)>> That's right. We've got Clint Black's 1960 Ford F-100 up in the air to address a bunch of suspension and steering components issues along with brakes, wheels and tires to ensure this thing's first trip back on the road is not its last.
(Eric)>> The first step to doing all that is gonna be to get all these old parts out of the way. We found this fubar'ed F-100 right in the heart of Music City USA, and she was in desperate need of attention. We need to give this thing a Deep Creep bath the second we roll it in.
(Joel)>> Turns out she had taken a pretty serious bath already. That is straight water right there!
(Eric)>> That's bad! Start bringing it forward. Oh my god!
(Joel)>> So with all the water damage we found we had to go to plan-b and snag another 223 inline six that we painted Ford blue.
(Eric)>> Now we're on to tearing out all the old junk from this truck, and hopefully we won't be shocked with any more surprises. [ Music ] There's plenty of obvious problems here in the rear of this truck but there's a couple of things that are jumping out to me a little bit more than the rest, and that is these shocks right here because I should not be able to do that. Now these studs right here are supposed to be welded onto these brackets so that the shocks mount to the axle. Now I don't know if somebody fixed it at some point and the repair failed or if they broke and never got fixed, but that is not right. [ Music ] [ drill humming ] [ drill vibrating ] [ Music ]
(Eric)>> You can hit the end of your U-bolts but I try to avoid it just to keep from damaging threads.
(Joel)>> But if the U-bolts are rusted out they can be a safety hazard. So you might need to play a game of good ole whack a Joel. [ Music ]
(Eric)>> Down, down, down!
(Joel)>> You're here and I'm here. Who's running the lift?
(Eric)>> Jenkies! I know we're replacing pretty much everything on the suspension but if there's one thing we can reuse I think it's gonna be this rear axle.
(Joel)>> It's actually not in too bad a shape. It's not rusted through but it's got a lot of nasty creek bed water it looks like.
(Eric)>> It's got plenty of grime on there that definitely needs to come off. I think we'll soak it down in some degreaser and give it a quick pressure wash. That'll take care of it.
(Joel)>> Fresh coat of paint afterwards too. Do you need a hand with this?
(Eric)>> I got it. It's a little cold out here.
(Joel)>> Exactly why I'm going inside. [ spray bottle hissing ]
(Eric)>> With how crusty this rear axle is it's kinda hard to tell how much degreaser we're gonna need, but as long as you make sure to cover every crack and crevice hitting it with some high pressure HTwo-O should have you good to go. [ small engine rumbling ] [ Music ]
(Eric)>> If you don't have access to a pressure washer you can just use a simple scrub brush and regular garden hose but it's gonna take a little bit more time and elbow grease on your part. [ pressure washer hissing ]
(Eric)>> If you don't have the luxury of owning of a forklift just leave it on the wheels and tires, roll it outside, and stick it up on some jack stands. [ pressure washer hissing ]
(Eric)>> I can only feel two of my fingers. So I'm gonna give wintertime pressure washing a two out of ten. Let's get this inside. [ Music ]
(Joel)>> Coming up, we rip apart our rear axle and give Clint Black a rundown.
(Joel)>> After a quick pressure wash we got the rear axle out of Clint Black's 1960 Ford F-100 looking a whole lot better. Yeah she's still a little crusty around the edges but nothing a wire wheel can't fix. When it comes to aftermarket solutions on these old trucks you can actually get an independent front suspension, disc brake conversion, four link, you could even get a brand new nine-inch rear axle if you wanted to. However we received explicit instructions from Clint that he wants this thing to run and drive just like it did 30 years ago so that he can reminisce on old memories. First step in that process is get all this old junk off of here. Eric, cutoff wheel!
(Eric)>> I don't know what these U-bolts are doing on this axle but we definitely don't need them. [ saw buzzing ]
(Joel)>> Jeez Louise! [ Music ]
(Eric)>> I really hope your side's not as bad as mine.
(Joel)>> Mine can't be any worse. [ Music ] Fixed it!
(Eric)>> Get this yoke off of here. Is that a hair? Who's putting hair inside the diff?
(Joel)>> Bring the waiter over and tell him to take it back. [ phone ringing ]
(Joel)>> Hey Clint!
(Clint)>> Hey Joel, how you doing?
(Joel)>> I'm doing good sir, how are you? You're looking well!
(Clint)>> I'm feeling pretty well. I'm excited to see what you've been doing.
(Joel)>> Let me show you some of the carnage real quick and we'll give you a quick update here. This is your rear axle right here.
(Clint)>> So that's not me new barbecue pit?
(Joel)>> You could use it as one but we'd like to get it back into your truck. The worst of it was on the outside. There's a bunch of corrosion. That's pretty standard on a 60 year old truck. We're gonna rebuild everything. Your rear axle's gonna look brand spanking new before it goes back into the truck.
(Clint)>> So no fresh rust for me I guess?
(Joel)>> We can keep it on there if you want to keep that patina look, but I think you'll like a nice fresh paint job on it.
(Clint)>> It's not that kind of antique, I don't think.
(Joel)>> We'll bring you over here to your suspension now. So these are your front and rear leaf springs, and of course your shocks. Par for the course for a 60 year old truck. I want to show you this shock real quick though. You see how badly bent up and dented that thing is?
(Clint)>> That's not your normal wear and tear, right?
(Joel)>> Almost looks like something bounced up into your undercarriage.
(Clint)>> I don't think that was me who did that.
(Joel)>> Not to worry. For right now I'm gonna toss you over to Eric and he's gonna show you what else we've got going on with your truck.
(Eric)>> Hey Clint, how's it going!
(Clint)>> How are you doing?
(Eric)>> Not too bad! We're here underneath of it. I'm gonna show you around a little bit. As you can see, it is mostly gone. There's almost nothing left under here. Underneath that plywood that's daylight coming through your bed floor there, and that actually looks like it might be the original wood that was in this bed. The frame itself is very crusty. There's no rust holes in it though. For the most part it's actually still good, solid metal. So what we're gonna do there is strip all of that and get it recoated. Then we come to this big ole hole right here, and that is where your engine should be. When the truck first came in we tried to get it to turn over but that old engine would not budge. We pulled the engine and the transmission out and both of them were full of water. You know anything about that?
(Clint)>> There have been some floods in Houston. Could have been one of those.
(Eric)>> We got it all tore apart and it's not pretty. As you can see we've got just the bare engine block here. We've got no pistons left in it. It looks halfway decent but there was no way we were gonna get this thing ready by the time you needed the truck for the tour. So we found a replacement for it that we think might serve you a little bit better.
(Joel)>> So this is a 223 inline six that came out of another '63 Ford F-100, and it was pretty much complete and it turned over and everything. So we pulled all the accessories off of it. You've got a brand new carburetor. We went through and rebuilt the manifold, gave it a nice, fresh Ford Corporate Blue paint job. New distributor, new ignition wiring. You just got a little bit of everything in here.
(Clint)>> We couldn't stick with the Coca-Cola air filter? Is that what I'm seeing there?
(Eric)>> We think this will serve you a little bit better than that old boat anchor sitting on the crane over there.
(Clint)>> That's a beautiful thing right there. The bad news turned out to be pretty good news.
(Joel)>> It turned out to not be that big of a deal anyway. We found you a new engine. We were able to clean this one up, and I think it's gonna look pretty sharp underneath the hood of your old truck up there.
(Clint)>> It looks good sitting where it is.
(Eric)>> Next time you see this truck you'll actually be able to get in and drive it.
(Clint)>> My face hurts from smiling. This is fantastic!
(Joel)>> It's gonna feel good to sit behind that driver's seat after all these years.
(Clint)>> I'm excited! Thanks for the tour.
(Eric)>> Back to work.
(Joel)>> Back to the truck that keeps on giving.
(Eric)>> Up next, we get our bearings and differentiate our refurbed rear back into gear.
(Joel)>> After some sweat from our brow and a few coats of paint the rear axle assembly on our old Ford has definitely received quite a facelift. This particular housing is actually a first gen of the coveted Ford nine inch, which is one of the most popular and sought-after assemblies on the market today. This rear axle has been a pillar of the hot rodding and off roading communities since their introduction in 1957. They have a strong ring and pinion configuration, durable bearings, stout bolt in axles, and they're future growth potential is simply unparalleled. You could easily build one of these to handle up to 1,000 horsepower plus. Another favorable perk of the Ford nine inch is their dropout bolt in third member assembly. It makes it super easy to swap out your gear ratios there at the track. You've got a lot of options there as well, ranging from a three to one to a five to one, and a gear set for every ratio change, and that is what we're gonna tear into next. Upon initial inspection of our ring gear we found that it wasn't in too bad a shape other than some corrosion on a few of the teeth. Now you could technically run this but this is one of those things where we might as well go ahead and swap it out while we're in this deep. Also take a listen to these bearings. Them bad boys are about shot. Luckily swapping all this stuff out ain't gonna be that big of a deal. First thing I like to do is mark these little adjusters just so I have a good starting point for when I go put it back together. Another thing you're gonna want to do is mark your main caps because it does matter which side and which direction they go. [ drill humming ]
(Joel)>> Now they make these little specialty sockets for these adjusters, but if you don't have one of those what you can do is take a hammer and a little punch and just get it started, and then you can take a set of snap ring pliers and spin them from there. So this is just a little specialty tool that you can use to pop off your bearings. Just seats right underneath the bearing. You want it just snug enough to where it's gonna butt up against it, and then you can push a press right through the shaft and it'll pop the bearing off. Off to the press we go. Got our old bearings popped off and the new ones pressed on, and I also went ahead and pulled off our old ring gear. So now we're ready to put the new one on. So your rebuild kits are usually gonna come with a little tube of thread locker, and this is for your bolts from your ring gear to your carrier. [ Music ] So this next step is kind of a slow and tedious process but it's really important that you take your time here cause you want to use the bolts to re-seat your ring gear. Let's go nice and easy in a star pattern until it's fully seated and then we'll torque our bolts down. Torque spec on these is 110-foot pounds but we'll start out at 90 and work our way up. [ Music ]
We've got our third member completely reassembled with a brand new ring gear as well as new bearings. Take a listen to this. Much better right? I also went through and completely rebuilt our pinion support with again all new bearings, and races, a new oil ring seal, as well as new yoke seal. Now the next thing to do is to measure rotational drag, meaning the amount of drag between your yoke and your pinion using an inch pound torque wrench. Now on the inside of this pinion support is what is called a crush sleeve, and it sits between both bearings. The more you press your pinion into your yoke the more it expands, creating more drag. Now you want about 18 to 26 inch pounds of rotational drag and we are about 22 to 24 right there. Check it both ways. Yep, 18, looks like 22 to 24 going the other way. Now before we bolt in our pinion support we have to install one or possibly more of these depth shims. You have to put them in between the pinion support and your case. Now these dictate the distance between your pinion and your ring gear, and it's super important to have your gear pattern correct. Otherwise you could start breaking off or loosening up the teeth. The best way to measure which one you need is to take your original one if you still have it and measure its thickness. So the original one was zero point zero-one-two. This one's zero point zero-one-three. So both the shim and pinion support only go on one way on these nine inches. Make sure you've got everything lined up. This is a new O-ring. So some light tapping may be required. We got it seated deep enough to where we can get a bolt in. So just like we did on the ring gear we use the bolts and completely cinch it down. We will cinch this all the way down until it's fully seated and torque them from there. [ ratchet clicking ]
(Joel)>> With our third member and pinion support assembly finally back together it's time to measure our backlash. Now what is backlash? It's the amount of play between your ring gear and your pinion. Let's see where we're at. Now when you're checking this you want your dial gauge sitting right on top of the drive side of your ring gear, or the sharp side. So we're zeroed right now. Right now we're at about 13 thousandths. So we need to tighten it up just a little bit. Now also usually included with your rebuild kit is a little tube of yellow or sometimes white paint. What you do is you paint it on your ring gear, and then you make a few revolutions on your pinion and see where it's making contact. [ ratchet clicking ] [ Music ]
(Joel)>> From the looks of it we are making contact right in the middle of the ring gear, which is what you want. Now if you ever have any kind of contact on the inside edge or the toe of your ring gear that means you need to add shims because you're too deep, but if the contact pattern is towards the outer edge, which is the heal, that means you need to take shims out because your too shallow. From where we're at everything's looking good. So we'll go ahead and torque down our main caps and install our retainers and put this thing back in there. Good thing they don't make these heavy. Watch your fingers! Now that's all that's left to do is for me and Eric to put this rear axle back together and we're ready to put on some brakes. Don't worry, we're painting the differential.
(Eric)>> I think it looks good.
(Joel)>> Patina baby! Coming up, we break on through and spruce up our wheels one piece at a time.
(Eric)>> While Joel was getting our rear axle taken care of I was busy getting all of our front axle components refinished. Clint wants this truck to perform just like he remembers. So we're reusing o-e components. Now our first step here with everything already painted is gonna be to replace our grease fittings with new ones. I left these old fittings in because I knew we were gonna be replacing them. The paint here makes it a little bit of a tighter fit but that's actually gonna help us because this will hold it in place better before it's bolted in. The axle is upside down right now. So we want to make sure that these are oriented correctly. See, soft mallet. Next we're gonna be getting our brackets put on for our steering components, but I've got a little bit of paint on these bolts. So it's probably gonna be a little stiff to put them in. Easy way would be to use one of these little soft mallets and tap them in so you don't damage the finish, but what if you don't have one? Say you've got a regular hammer and some tape and a rag. You can make a soft hammer. What I like to do, take a rag and double it over as many times as you can. Then wrap it around the head of your hammer. Take some tape. Whatever tape you have on hand will work cause all it has to do is hold that rag on there. As long as the tape reaches itself it'll hold that on there just fine. Get our bolts loose. We'll take our freshly manufactured soft hammer. Because we're using o-e parts we decided to hop on the AutoZone Pro website, and they had just about everything we needed to get this job done right. Duralast products are designed to meet or exceed o-e specifications. In our case for the job we're doing right now we've got their wheel bearings and seals, wheel cylinders, drums and shoes, tie rod ends, and all new brake hoses. That's gonna cover all of our bases to get this truck back on the road driving just like Clint wants it. We're gonna get started with the bearings and seals. Now when you're doing something like this, using o-e components and going for any type of restoration, whether it's just getting something back on the road or doing a full on restoration where it's going to be pristine, it's always nice to find parts that are stamped with the manufacturer's label but in this case these wheel seals having that stamp means they've probably never been changed, and that's definitely not the place you want to see it. Look at that. That grease is probably twice my age. Oh yeah! With our new races pressed in it's time to put in the new Duralast wheel bearings and seals. Now installing new seals is pretty easy as long as you're careful about it. I like to use a block of wood to hit the entire surface at the same time to make sure it's going in evenly. You're just looking for it to be flush all the way across. To get these hubs put on that means we've got to put in the outer bearing, and there's no way to do that with tools. So I'm gonna put gloves on cause I hate getting grease all over my hands. Clean up all the excess. With the new bearings in and the hubs back on the spindles it's time to seat the bearings and get the caps put on. You want to spin your hub while tightening the nut. It'll get a little bit stiff. You just want to back it off enough to where you can get your cotter pin installed and have this spinning nice and free. Smash this down the rest of the way, beautiful. Now we'll get the other side done and it's time to put the brakes on.
(Joel)>> Today we got a lot closer towards getting Clint Black's old F-100 back out on the road. I feel like one of those ice sculpture guys. We refurbished our classic Ford nine-inch rear axle stripping off all the grit and grime left behind by father time. Then we hit it with a few coats of paint along with a fresh rebuild to get this thing looking brand spanking new. Next we ditched the torn tires and spruced up the original wheels with a quick stop off at the beach before hitting them with some black paint. Now all that's left is the rest of the truck. With that front axle completely rebuilt this old truck's gonna ride and stop just like a dream. Obviously we've still got a whole lot of work to do but with big ticket items like that Ford nine inch completely done we're well on our way. Until then see you truckers next time.
Show Full Transcript
(Joel)>> We've got Clint Black's 1960 Ford F-100 back in the shop and we're tearing it apart from stem to stern as we replace the entire suspension system.
(Eric)>> And if you're into old trucks with rust, crust, and stubborn nuts, stick round. [ Music ] Sorry! [ Music ]
(Joel)>> Nothing cooler than an old pickup, am I right? [ Music ]
(Eric)>> Underneath all this dirt there's probably a pretty good truck. [ Music ] Welcome to Music City Trucks. Today we're going down under.
(Joel)>> That's right. We've got Clint Black's 1960 Ford F-100 up in the air to address a bunch of suspension and steering components issues along with brakes, wheels and tires to ensure this thing's first trip back on the road is not its last.
(Eric)>> The first step to doing all that is gonna be to get all these old parts out of the way. We found this fubar'ed F-100 right in the heart of Music City USA, and she was in desperate need of attention. We need to give this thing a Deep Creep bath the second we roll it in.
(Joel)>> Turns out she had taken a pretty serious bath already. That is straight water right there!
(Eric)>> That's bad! Start bringing it forward. Oh my god!
(Joel)>> So with all the water damage we found we had to go to plan-b and snag another 223 inline six that we painted Ford blue.
(Eric)>> Now we're on to tearing out all the old junk from this truck, and hopefully we won't be shocked with any more surprises. [ Music ] There's plenty of obvious problems here in the rear of this truck but there's a couple of things that are jumping out to me a little bit more than the rest, and that is these shocks right here because I should not be able to do that. Now these studs right here are supposed to be welded onto these brackets so that the shocks mount to the axle. Now I don't know if somebody fixed it at some point and the repair failed or if they broke and never got fixed, but that is not right. [ Music ] [ drill humming ] [ drill vibrating ] [ Music ]
(Eric)>> You can hit the end of your U-bolts but I try to avoid it just to keep from damaging threads.
(Joel)>> But if the U-bolts are rusted out they can be a safety hazard. So you might need to play a game of good ole whack a Joel. [ Music ]
(Eric)>> Down, down, down!
(Joel)>> You're here and I'm here. Who's running the lift?
(Eric)>> Jenkies! I know we're replacing pretty much everything on the suspension but if there's one thing we can reuse I think it's gonna be this rear axle.
(Joel)>> It's actually not in too bad a shape. It's not rusted through but it's got a lot of nasty creek bed water it looks like.
(Eric)>> It's got plenty of grime on there that definitely needs to come off. I think we'll soak it down in some degreaser and give it a quick pressure wash. That'll take care of it.
(Joel)>> Fresh coat of paint afterwards too. Do you need a hand with this?
(Eric)>> I got it. It's a little cold out here.
(Joel)>> Exactly why I'm going inside. [ spray bottle hissing ]
(Eric)>> With how crusty this rear axle is it's kinda hard to tell how much degreaser we're gonna need, but as long as you make sure to cover every crack and crevice hitting it with some high pressure HTwo-O should have you good to go. [ small engine rumbling ] [ Music ]
(Eric)>> If you don't have access to a pressure washer you can just use a simple scrub brush and regular garden hose but it's gonna take a little bit more time and elbow grease on your part. [ pressure washer hissing ]
(Eric)>> If you don't have the luxury of owning of a forklift just leave it on the wheels and tires, roll it outside, and stick it up on some jack stands. [ pressure washer hissing ]
(Eric)>> I can only feel two of my fingers. So I'm gonna give wintertime pressure washing a two out of ten. Let's get this inside. [ Music ]
(Joel)>> Coming up, we rip apart our rear axle and give Clint Black a rundown.
(Joel)>> After a quick pressure wash we got the rear axle out of Clint Black's 1960 Ford F-100 looking a whole lot better. Yeah she's still a little crusty around the edges but nothing a wire wheel can't fix. When it comes to aftermarket solutions on these old trucks you can actually get an independent front suspension, disc brake conversion, four link, you could even get a brand new nine-inch rear axle if you wanted to. However we received explicit instructions from Clint that he wants this thing to run and drive just like it did 30 years ago so that he can reminisce on old memories. First step in that process is get all this old junk off of here. Eric, cutoff wheel!
(Eric)>> I don't know what these U-bolts are doing on this axle but we definitely don't need them. [ saw buzzing ]
(Joel)>> Jeez Louise! [ Music ]
(Eric)>> I really hope your side's not as bad as mine.
(Joel)>> Mine can't be any worse. [ Music ] Fixed it!
(Eric)>> Get this yoke off of here. Is that a hair? Who's putting hair inside the diff?
(Joel)>> Bring the waiter over and tell him to take it back. [ phone ringing ]
(Joel)>> Hey Clint!
(Clint)>> Hey Joel, how you doing?
(Joel)>> I'm doing good sir, how are you? You're looking well!
(Clint)>> I'm feeling pretty well. I'm excited to see what you've been doing.
(Joel)>> Let me show you some of the carnage real quick and we'll give you a quick update here. This is your rear axle right here.
(Clint)>> So that's not me new barbecue pit?
(Joel)>> You could use it as one but we'd like to get it back into your truck. The worst of it was on the outside. There's a bunch of corrosion. That's pretty standard on a 60 year old truck. We're gonna rebuild everything. Your rear axle's gonna look brand spanking new before it goes back into the truck.
(Clint)>> So no fresh rust for me I guess?
(Joel)>> We can keep it on there if you want to keep that patina look, but I think you'll like a nice fresh paint job on it.
(Clint)>> It's not that kind of antique, I don't think.
(Joel)>> We'll bring you over here to your suspension now. So these are your front and rear leaf springs, and of course your shocks. Par for the course for a 60 year old truck. I want to show you this shock real quick though. You see how badly bent up and dented that thing is?
(Clint)>> That's not your normal wear and tear, right?
(Joel)>> Almost looks like something bounced up into your undercarriage.
(Clint)>> I don't think that was me who did that.
(Joel)>> Not to worry. For right now I'm gonna toss you over to Eric and he's gonna show you what else we've got going on with your truck.
(Eric)>> Hey Clint, how's it going!
(Clint)>> How are you doing?
(Eric)>> Not too bad! We're here underneath of it. I'm gonna show you around a little bit. As you can see, it is mostly gone. There's almost nothing left under here. Underneath that plywood that's daylight coming through your bed floor there, and that actually looks like it might be the original wood that was in this bed. The frame itself is very crusty. There's no rust holes in it though. For the most part it's actually still good, solid metal. So what we're gonna do there is strip all of that and get it recoated. Then we come to this big ole hole right here, and that is where your engine should be. When the truck first came in we tried to get it to turn over but that old engine would not budge. We pulled the engine and the transmission out and both of them were full of water. You know anything about that?
(Clint)>> There have been some floods in Houston. Could have been one of those.
(Eric)>> We got it all tore apart and it's not pretty. As you can see we've got just the bare engine block here. We've got no pistons left in it. It looks halfway decent but there was no way we were gonna get this thing ready by the time you needed the truck for the tour. So we found a replacement for it that we think might serve you a little bit better.
(Joel)>> So this is a 223 inline six that came out of another '63 Ford F-100, and it was pretty much complete and it turned over and everything. So we pulled all the accessories off of it. You've got a brand new carburetor. We went through and rebuilt the manifold, gave it a nice, fresh Ford Corporate Blue paint job. New distributor, new ignition wiring. You just got a little bit of everything in here.
(Clint)>> We couldn't stick with the Coca-Cola air filter? Is that what I'm seeing there?
(Eric)>> We think this will serve you a little bit better than that old boat anchor sitting on the crane over there.
(Clint)>> That's a beautiful thing right there. The bad news turned out to be pretty good news.
(Joel)>> It turned out to not be that big of a deal anyway. We found you a new engine. We were able to clean this one up, and I think it's gonna look pretty sharp underneath the hood of your old truck up there.
(Clint)>> It looks good sitting where it is.
(Eric)>> Next time you see this truck you'll actually be able to get in and drive it.
(Clint)>> My face hurts from smiling. This is fantastic!
(Joel)>> It's gonna feel good to sit behind that driver's seat after all these years.
(Clint)>> I'm excited! Thanks for the tour.
(Eric)>> Back to work.
(Joel)>> Back to the truck that keeps on giving.
(Eric)>> Up next, we get our bearings and differentiate our refurbed rear back into gear.
(Joel)>> After some sweat from our brow and a few coats of paint the rear axle assembly on our old Ford has definitely received quite a facelift. This particular housing is actually a first gen of the coveted Ford nine inch, which is one of the most popular and sought-after assemblies on the market today. This rear axle has been a pillar of the hot rodding and off roading communities since their introduction in 1957. They have a strong ring and pinion configuration, durable bearings, stout bolt in axles, and they're future growth potential is simply unparalleled. You could easily build one of these to handle up to 1,000 horsepower plus. Another favorable perk of the Ford nine inch is their dropout bolt in third member assembly. It makes it super easy to swap out your gear ratios there at the track. You've got a lot of options there as well, ranging from a three to one to a five to one, and a gear set for every ratio change, and that is what we're gonna tear into next. Upon initial inspection of our ring gear we found that it wasn't in too bad a shape other than some corrosion on a few of the teeth. Now you could technically run this but this is one of those things where we might as well go ahead and swap it out while we're in this deep. Also take a listen to these bearings. Them bad boys are about shot. Luckily swapping all this stuff out ain't gonna be that big of a deal. First thing I like to do is mark these little adjusters just so I have a good starting point for when I go put it back together. Another thing you're gonna want to do is mark your main caps because it does matter which side and which direction they go. [ drill humming ]
(Joel)>> Now they make these little specialty sockets for these adjusters, but if you don't have one of those what you can do is take a hammer and a little punch and just get it started, and then you can take a set of snap ring pliers and spin them from there. So this is just a little specialty tool that you can use to pop off your bearings. Just seats right underneath the bearing. You want it just snug enough to where it's gonna butt up against it, and then you can push a press right through the shaft and it'll pop the bearing off. Off to the press we go. Got our old bearings popped off and the new ones pressed on, and I also went ahead and pulled off our old ring gear. So now we're ready to put the new one on. So your rebuild kits are usually gonna come with a little tube of thread locker, and this is for your bolts from your ring gear to your carrier. [ Music ] So this next step is kind of a slow and tedious process but it's really important that you take your time here cause you want to use the bolts to re-seat your ring gear. Let's go nice and easy in a star pattern until it's fully seated and then we'll torque our bolts down. Torque spec on these is 110-foot pounds but we'll start out at 90 and work our way up. [ Music ]
We've got our third member completely reassembled with a brand new ring gear as well as new bearings. Take a listen to this. Much better right? I also went through and completely rebuilt our pinion support with again all new bearings, and races, a new oil ring seal, as well as new yoke seal. Now the next thing to do is to measure rotational drag, meaning the amount of drag between your yoke and your pinion using an inch pound torque wrench. Now on the inside of this pinion support is what is called a crush sleeve, and it sits between both bearings. The more you press your pinion into your yoke the more it expands, creating more drag. Now you want about 18 to 26 inch pounds of rotational drag and we are about 22 to 24 right there. Check it both ways. Yep, 18, looks like 22 to 24 going the other way. Now before we bolt in our pinion support we have to install one or possibly more of these depth shims. You have to put them in between the pinion support and your case. Now these dictate the distance between your pinion and your ring gear, and it's super important to have your gear pattern correct. Otherwise you could start breaking off or loosening up the teeth. The best way to measure which one you need is to take your original one if you still have it and measure its thickness. So the original one was zero point zero-one-two. This one's zero point zero-one-three. So both the shim and pinion support only go on one way on these nine inches. Make sure you've got everything lined up. This is a new O-ring. So some light tapping may be required. We got it seated deep enough to where we can get a bolt in. So just like we did on the ring gear we use the bolts and completely cinch it down. We will cinch this all the way down until it's fully seated and torque them from there. [ ratchet clicking ]
(Joel)>> With our third member and pinion support assembly finally back together it's time to measure our backlash. Now what is backlash? It's the amount of play between your ring gear and your pinion. Let's see where we're at. Now when you're checking this you want your dial gauge sitting right on top of the drive side of your ring gear, or the sharp side. So we're zeroed right now. Right now we're at about 13 thousandths. So we need to tighten it up just a little bit. Now also usually included with your rebuild kit is a little tube of yellow or sometimes white paint. What you do is you paint it on your ring gear, and then you make a few revolutions on your pinion and see where it's making contact. [ ratchet clicking ] [ Music ]
(Joel)>> From the looks of it we are making contact right in the middle of the ring gear, which is what you want. Now if you ever have any kind of contact on the inside edge or the toe of your ring gear that means you need to add shims because you're too deep, but if the contact pattern is towards the outer edge, which is the heal, that means you need to take shims out because your too shallow. From where we're at everything's looking good. So we'll go ahead and torque down our main caps and install our retainers and put this thing back in there. Good thing they don't make these heavy. Watch your fingers! Now that's all that's left to do is for me and Eric to put this rear axle back together and we're ready to put on some brakes. Don't worry, we're painting the differential.
(Eric)>> I think it looks good.
(Joel)>> Patina baby! Coming up, we break on through and spruce up our wheels one piece at a time.
(Eric)>> While Joel was getting our rear axle taken care of I was busy getting all of our front axle components refinished. Clint wants this truck to perform just like he remembers. So we're reusing o-e components. Now our first step here with everything already painted is gonna be to replace our grease fittings with new ones. I left these old fittings in because I knew we were gonna be replacing them. The paint here makes it a little bit of a tighter fit but that's actually gonna help us because this will hold it in place better before it's bolted in. The axle is upside down right now. So we want to make sure that these are oriented correctly. See, soft mallet. Next we're gonna be getting our brackets put on for our steering components, but I've got a little bit of paint on these bolts. So it's probably gonna be a little stiff to put them in. Easy way would be to use one of these little soft mallets and tap them in so you don't damage the finish, but what if you don't have one? Say you've got a regular hammer and some tape and a rag. You can make a soft hammer. What I like to do, take a rag and double it over as many times as you can. Then wrap it around the head of your hammer. Take some tape. Whatever tape you have on hand will work cause all it has to do is hold that rag on there. As long as the tape reaches itself it'll hold that on there just fine. Get our bolts loose. We'll take our freshly manufactured soft hammer. Because we're using o-e parts we decided to hop on the AutoZone Pro website, and they had just about everything we needed to get this job done right. Duralast products are designed to meet or exceed o-e specifications. In our case for the job we're doing right now we've got their wheel bearings and seals, wheel cylinders, drums and shoes, tie rod ends, and all new brake hoses. That's gonna cover all of our bases to get this truck back on the road driving just like Clint wants it. We're gonna get started with the bearings and seals. Now when you're doing something like this, using o-e components and going for any type of restoration, whether it's just getting something back on the road or doing a full on restoration where it's going to be pristine, it's always nice to find parts that are stamped with the manufacturer's label but in this case these wheel seals having that stamp means they've probably never been changed, and that's definitely not the place you want to see it. Look at that. That grease is probably twice my age. Oh yeah! With our new races pressed in it's time to put in the new Duralast wheel bearings and seals. Now installing new seals is pretty easy as long as you're careful about it. I like to use a block of wood to hit the entire surface at the same time to make sure it's going in evenly. You're just looking for it to be flush all the way across. To get these hubs put on that means we've got to put in the outer bearing, and there's no way to do that with tools. So I'm gonna put gloves on cause I hate getting grease all over my hands. Clean up all the excess. With the new bearings in and the hubs back on the spindles it's time to seat the bearings and get the caps put on. You want to spin your hub while tightening the nut. It'll get a little bit stiff. You just want to back it off enough to where you can get your cotter pin installed and have this spinning nice and free. Smash this down the rest of the way, beautiful. Now we'll get the other side done and it's time to put the brakes on.
(Joel)>> Today we got a lot closer towards getting Clint Black's old F-100 back out on the road. I feel like one of those ice sculpture guys. We refurbished our classic Ford nine-inch rear axle stripping off all the grit and grime left behind by father time. Then we hit it with a few coats of paint along with a fresh rebuild to get this thing looking brand spanking new. Next we ditched the torn tires and spruced up the original wheels with a quick stop off at the beach before hitting them with some black paint. Now all that's left is the rest of the truck. With that front axle completely rebuilt this old truck's gonna ride and stop just like a dream. Obviously we've still got a whole lot of work to do but with big ticket items like that Ford nine inch completely done we're well on our way. Until then see you truckers next time.
