Been playing with the Junkyard Dog (my 76 Ford F-250 4x4) for the last couple days. I expected to have to pull the trans, transfer case, clutch and pressure plate in order to replace the ring gear on the flywheel since I've been having starting problems since I bought it. I was quite sure it was chewed up given the terrible grinding sounds that came from it every time I tried to start the darn thing.

The good news was that the whole thing turned out to be nothing more than a bad starter (wrong starter IMHO given that the new one has different shaped teeth than the old one). The bad news was that it took two people over an hour to get the new starter in with those damn headers in the way. This thing is geared for pulling stumps so why someone would have spent the money to stick headers on that 390 is beyond me. With the stock exhaust manifolds the starter replacement would only have taken about 10 minutes. Anyway the job is done and the new starter works like a champ. Now it's time to install the new glasspacks I bought.....

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Well----saved you a lot of time pulling that other stuff.
Myself---I prefer cast manifolds---less of a long term headache.

I never did have very good luck with the headers, and my brother is contantly replacing collector gaskets on his 46 Ford (Supercharged SBC).

Glad you got it working with a minimum of fuss (figuratively speaking).

Hope it keeps on working.

Bryan

Why would anyone want to put glasspacks on a Ford pickup?

Glad it was just the starter........Last time I had to do a ring gear on a 4x4, I just moved the whole trans, tranfer case unit back on a big floor jack.

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Well, as my 440 Demon had 2" CPPA headers, and they also COOKED the starter.... forget about the re&re...... I have no sympathy!
LOL!!!!!
OK... just a little bit....


Can you cut and reroute the offending portion of the offending tube(s)?

Actually with the starter installed the headers give it enough clearance so that heat isn't much of a problem. It's getting the starter up and in place that was the problem. What a PITA that was.

Poncho, I'm putting glasspacks on for the same reason the previous owner put headers on...... because I can.

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