G’day Bullnosers, I’m a Bullnoser now too.

How you doing folks? I’m a green card holding New Zealander, married to what I consider to be the finest female representative of this wide beaming grin generating continent and now, am able to assist her with a leisurely partaking in the endless charms of this big-sky land in my newly acquired (yesterday in fact) 1985, F-250 XL, single cab, 6.9l, 4spd manual, with all original drive train, suspension, paint and interior. For some reason the original owners had an exemption on reporting the vehicles mileage (CIA, Men in Black, Project Blue Book, USPS Rural Service…..   I don’t know) so, I don’t know for sure the breadth of the vehicles adventure dance card but, the relatively superb condition of the original paint & bodywork, as well the barely oxide dappled chassis and associated components, leads me to believe it’s 36000 miles after its second odometer rollover. It’s the first Bullnose I’ve owned (not an item that was imported in to NZ) and being a lifelong Toyota FJ40 fan, these big beautiful Bullnose beasties dovetail perfectly with the reasons I am a fan of the Yotas. Great symmetry & proportion in their design, virtually mechanical everything, built like a battleship, reliability taking precedence over performance, an American classic and old school blue collar & farmers hero. I’ve been hunting a 6.9l, 4x4, manual 4spd within my miserly budget for over 10 months and to say I’m brimming with the fulfillment of a mighty hunt, is a real understatement. I’ve got lots to do on the old plugger, including rerouting of cable & pipework, along with installing forms of bespoke management to hold them in position (it’s like the power lines in a Bombay industrial suburb under the hood at the moment) as well as taking the original bed off and replacing it with a flatbed. Will hopefully be giving it around a 2.5" lift at some stage to grant the front suspension some usable travel but, will mostly be leaving it in stock format, with all the kinks that decades of refined experience from canny Americans can iron out. The first question I have is…..     where the heck are reasonably priced workshop manuals to be found? Happy New Year Bullnosers, it’s a pleasure to say hello.

Welcome!  Glad you joined.

Your enthusiasm shows!  So, now we have two New Zealanders - you and Ken. But he lives down under and has a Bullnose there.

So, where’s home here in the States?  I ask because we have a map (Bullnose Forum/Member’s Map in the menu) and we can add you with a city/state or zip.

You should start a thread in the main section on your truck. And include plenty of pics.

As for manuals, the best are Ford’s factory service manuals. You can sometimes find them in print on eBay, or buy them on CD. But we have a lot of that info spread out across the site in the Documentation section.

However, if your truck has 4wd I’m going to differ with you on a lift helping travel. An 85 F250 with 4wd will have about 2” of spring travel. Been there, done that, and got beat to death. What fixed it was a solid axle with SuperDuty springs and a reverse shackle kit. Now I have 8” of travel and a very reasonable ride.

Good on ya Gary,
Thanks for the friendly reply mate and a great snippet of info to boot regarding the front suspension trap I could’ve fallen in to. I will undoubtedly be haranguing you in the friendliest of manners regarding that matter and surely other equally well trodden paths in the foreseeable future. You don’t know what you’ve let yourself in for here Gary hahaha…..    

Welcome!

You can add me to the map mate…..    ZIP 85233

Cheers Grumpin.

You are now on the map, and it looks like there are others in your area.  You might look them up.

As for the front suspension, I am not a fan of the ones on the 1980 - 85 4wd F250HD's.  The combination of twin traction beam (TTB) and leaf springs is a very poor design in my book.  The arc of the TTB's tries to twist the springs, and they don't like it.  Mine had new springs and suspension bushings, and the ride was horrible.

But you can read in Sky's Offroad Design Super Duty RSK Install what I did, and it made all the difference in the world.  As said, prior to doing that I had 2" of travel, and after 8".  And that's about the way the ride is - 4 times better.

However, there are now people installing the later coil spring solid axle setups onto these truck, so if I were to do it again I'd research that.  I like what I have, but that may be even better.

Mehawl, you bring quite the cheer! Lot's of personality in you, I think. Welcome to the forum!

Cheers Machspeed, good on ya mate.

Welcome! My wife and I have always wanted to visit NZ and it's great to see there are some bullnose fans there too! Looking forward to stories on what you're up to, cheers!

I’m actually here mate, here being the southwest of the USA. Just as a heads-up, New Zealand is a bit like the bonsai version of the USA, or western Europe from what I’ve gathered through my limited experience and so, it must be akin to visiting a model village, of the village one actually lives in for Americans who take a trip to my compact little nation. It is well worth an easy grinning stroll around the unfeasibly good looking little island paradise but, I’d hold fire until the current crop of political reprobates have been given their marching orders and thanks for the welcome mate, it’s much appreciated.