F-Superduty IDI water hauler build

The nice part is that the harness separates at the firewall. The bad part is that there's a few more wires than bullnose trucks. And it's hard to find unmolested wiring in the pick and pulls. It's getting even harder to find pick and pulls.

Jim, the only way I can realistically salvage this harness would be to focus on the handful of critical systems that I need to make the thing run and forget about restoring full factory function... especially regarding the instrument cluster.

Shaun, sourcing an intact Aeronose harness might be an option... subject to availability... and there were several wiring changes through the years for the clusters, so one would have to note the donor year and model carefully. I dread the disappearance of pick n pulls as few employees know what they are looking at or even care.

I was not able to go to the junkyard today, but I will try for Monday and see what presents itself...

Man, that looks like a mess!  I've had "fun" fixing Big Blue's wiring, but at least his wasn't that badly hacked.  That doesn't look like fun.

So, do we have a new category of "Arizona Man"?
Should it be the tweaker of the week award?

The saddest part (aside from what Jonathan is left with) is that person is probably very proud of what a great job they did!

Maybe  was visiting his cousin?

But, perhaps you are onto something.  A Tweaker Of The Week thread where people post their "finds"?

I thought I was way ahead with Big Blue, but Jonathan may be closing in on me.

I didn’t expect anything less... given that their MO for taking the Cummins in and out was to take a sawzall to the core support and then weld it back up. But they sawzall’d the plastic grille frame too... I’ve seen this method employed on vans where there really isn’t room to get the engine out and few people have the means to lift a van body off its frame... but for an OBS pickup c’mon. That’s extreme LAZY to not unbolt stuff... so this is on me folks. I saw this when I bought it, and I bought it anyway. Part of me regrets buying it, but every time I see the 10 lug axles on the short pickup-like wheelbase I feel reassured that it will be worth it... it’s just not going to be easy peasy to get there. I’ve got some roofing to do this weekend and some clean up before monsoons start in earnest. Then I’ll see what options the junkyard has for me...

You've got a Super duty and that's all that matters.  💪

It will come together.
You're doing the right thing, making intelligent choices so you don't have to backtrack later on

I remember when I picked up my F350, I figured I would stab an engine and transmission in it and drive on down the road. That's completely snowballed into building a truck that has had every nut and bolt removed, and has also needed a partial wiring harness repair. I'm a long ways from done, but it's gonna be one awesome truck and will be worth it in the end. I feel the same way about your truck.

salans7 wrote

I remember when I picked up my F350, I figured I would stab an engine and transmission in it and drive on down the road. That's completely snowballed into building a truck that has had every nut and bolt removed, and has also needed a partial wiring harness repair. I'm a long ways from done, but it's gonna be one awesome truck and will be worth it in the end. I feel the same way about your truck.

This story sounds familiar.  Where have I heard it before?  Wait!  I've told it time and time again!  

I’m really trying not to let this turn into a rebuild down to the last nut and bolt. I have one of those already... and it’s been disassembled since 2013. I also intend to keep it indefinitely, and I won’t want to take it out of commission for major changes later on so it behooves me to get the foundation right. That’s my primary objective along with establishing some maintainable reliability. I know it’s all a used crap shoot, but best as I can with what I have.

If you get to the salvage soon you can scope out the possibility of getting another harness.  Then maybe the decision will be easier.  But, many of the connectors in the pics have removable pins, so if you decide to use the harnii you have then you could remove the pin and replace the wire.  But that is very tedious.  So, maybe graft the wires from another harness in - assuming you can find another?

Salvage yard results from today favored keeping the Aeronose stuff in place. There were actually a couple of trucks with good cab harnesses, but man... that is a BIG job to remove everything and replace the whole loom on an Aero. I opted for some cluster pig tails since that is primarily what is hacked. And I bought a cluster.



The only tach cluster I could find was out of a ‘92. I read that one should seek a ‘94+ because they resolved a speedometer needle shake issue, so I pulled a ‘95 speedometer out of a non-tach cluster and swapped it into the tach cluster before buying it. I also found a manual block off plate for the gear selector area.

But I know what you all are thinking... that’s a gas tach. True, but I just so happened to have a diesel one (just the tach out of a ‘93) that I pulled several years ago with the intent of putting it on eBay. It only uses 3 posts instead of 4, but should plug into this cluster.







The cluster pin out changed over the Aeronose years, so I may need re pin the harness, but I will be all over that to repair it anyway. I’m hoping the speedometer will plug and play as none of that is chopped. I think the guy just wanted aftermarket gauges. None of it was related to the Cummins swap that I can tell.

I also bought a driver side headlight frame, the big plastic grill subframe an A pillar trim and the half of the engine side AC box that got melted by the Cummins. I know I’ve already said it, but I will say it again... the more I have to do with this Aeronose the less  I like them. They really went full plastic with lots of weird fasteners that are not intuitive and like to break. It seems like you to have to unravel half of the sweater to change one button. This era is not my cup of tea, but I’m trying to keep the scope in check.

A friendly birdie here sent me an email on how to remove the lock cylinder. It worked perfectly and was not violent or damaging to the column at all. A new ignition tumbler is only $10-$15 but the key won’t match the door, and I need door locks also. Tumbler and door key sets exist, but are around $100 . For that price I think I will live with separate keys.

But I am not sure what I’m missing... door cylinders at Bronco graveyard say they fit ‘92-‘95 cost $38 and have the awful plastic head keys that I hate:

https://shop.broncograveyard.com/mobile/1992-1995-Ford-Bronco-and-F-Series-Truck-Door-Lock-Cylinders-With-Keys-Black/productinfo/34375A/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI66qjt8Tx6gIVNQPnCh35ngryEAQYFSABEgLJQ_D_BwE

Car parts com shows a set with flat metal keys for less than $22 but is says for 96/97 F250/350 only? Why? They look like they are the same complete with horrible plastic arm 🤮.

https://www.carparts.com/details/Ford/F-250/Replacement/1996-1997/REPF545602.html?TID=gglpla&origin=pla&utm_source=google&utm_medium=pla&utm_campaign=221983653&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI66qjt8Tx6gIVNQPnCh35ngryEAQYBCABEgI-5vD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Could I maybe use the door lock mechanisms out of the bricknose and get a set of the round key locks? I may even have a set... (but the bricknose does have power locks).

https://shop.broncograveyard.com/mobile/1987-1991-Ford-Bronco-F-Series-Truck-Door-Lock-Cylinders-With-Keys/productinfo/34374A/

Jonathan,

If you have a new key with your ignition it's easy as pie to re-pin your door cylinders to match.
I bought all three cylinders from Amazon (Standard Automotive Products)

I even lent my re-keying set to Bill Voss for his Konvertible.
I think it worked fine for him too.
I remember we checked that the pin diameter and length were good before bothering with posting it.

You had a successful day hunting at the boneyard Jonathan!

Can I ask you to show pictures of the back sides of the door and ignition cylinders from the F450?

I'm not understanding why the DL3 and LT70 cylinders I've used in the past can't fit.
These have the bare square head key, and actual metal arms on the back of the door locks.
Under $30 together from Amazon.

It's almost criminal how easy it is to pull an ignition lock in a Ford, isn't it?  

Well done, Jonathan!  

I know nothing about door locks, or even ignition locks, so I'm along for the ride on that one.

Eleven years ago we ALL participated in a thread about keying doors and ignition alike.

You had plenty to say then....

But I don't know the details like what changed when.
I mean I know when interior door handles went from lever to cable, and when the column stopped going straight through the firewall.
But I don't know how (or if) this changed the lock cylinders.

If you say so I'll believe you.  But I can't remember yesterday, much less 11 years ago.

Somehow we need to pull the collective wisdom about locks and keys together and document this stuff.

I'm all for that!

Much as my autism drives me to ponder things and solve puzzles I'm attracted to mechanisms like locks and firearms.
Clocks.... not so much.

But I DO know someone who is fascinated by vacuum cleaners, and has quite an extensive collection.
If typewriters were still a thing, I think we'd see a bunch of those as well.

I have not had a moment to do any work to the water hauler yet, but today I had a stroke of good luck at the Prescott junkyard. I had to go to Cottonwood change the water pump in my son’s SUV and decided to make a quick stop. They had a 1984 Econoline incomplete chassis vehicle with an IDI in it... with the very tough to find IDI Saginaw brackets and pulley... jackpot! 🤩.




Tomorrow I will go to my parents’ and pick up the wide ratio ZF, the DNE2 and ATS turbo system parts, along with an extra engine spacer to facilitate drilling the 460 bell to fit the IDI. I was dreading the prospect of living with a C2 pump even if temporarily, but it looks like now I won’t have to!

Excellent!  That's a great find.  

Will you run that Sag pump?  You are aware U-Tech Center has them for $55 delivered?  Or, contact me for a better deal.