Hello from Missouri

Thanks for adding me. I live in Sparta, Missouri located between Branson and Springfield. I really like the idea of being on a website that originates here in the middle of the country. It will make it easy to attend your Truck Show since I have a good friend who lives about 13 miles from Skiatook and I can stay with him that weekend as can a few other of us from over here. The main reason to be on the Bullnose Forums is my recent distaste for vehicles newer than 1986 due to the complexity of issues with things I don't and probably never will understand. That being EFI and everything associated with it, electric fuel pumps, all the sensors, etc. I have tried to fool with fixing a few and being 66 years old and never learning anything about it and not having much success have decided not to try. Don't get me wrong, when it all works I love it, we own a 2001 Explorer and a 2015 Edge with no problems yet. I think EFi is one of the greatest things that ever happened to vehicles. More efficient, engines last longer, easy to start in any weather and less maintenance, when they are fairly new, but after recently throwing money at a couple of older ones ('86 Ranger & '93 F-150) with no luck I have decided to stick with what I know, carburetors, points & condensers and early electronic ignition. There is a reason for that, I have worked on cars all my life, I owned a Phillips 66 gas station here in Sparta and sold it in 1985 just before vehicles went computerized. I went to work for the Missouri Highway Department striping highways and just retired in 2014 and I didn't keep up with technology. During that time we owned a new '86 Turbo Coupe, a '96 F-150 & a 2010 Fusion all good rigs with no problems. But....when my '96 F-250 460 truck  started  to act up and after the fiasco with the other older
used trucks I sold 'em all and  bought an '86 F-150 300CID aka "Little Joe", switched it over to Duraspark II and it became my parts chaser/beater. For me these trucks are easier to work on so I'm a Bullnose guy now. Again, thanks for the add, looking forward to meeting folks in September and sorry for the rant.

Welcome!  Glad you found us, and look forward to meeting you in September.  Hopefully you can bring a few more with you.  By the way, where does your friend live from the BD fire station.  We have friends from church that live ~1/4 mile due west of it - the Neals.

As for the newer computerized stuff, there was an era where it was particularly hard to work on.  That era started in mid-85 with the EFI'd 302 and ended in ~'96.  Most, if not all, of those ran the EEC-IV system w/o OBD-II, so while the systems worked well when they worked they couldn't easily tell us what the problem was when things went wrong since the user interface was Ford-specific.

However, starting in about '96, depending on location and engine, Ford brought in the EEC-V system with OBD-II, the standardized plug and diagnostic interface.  And with that diagnosing problems became much easier since an app on a smart phone and a blue-tooth adapter can let the shade-tree mechanic determine what the computer is seeing.

I'm almost 71 and know my way around a carburetor, but my offspring doesn't.  So I'm converting my trucks to EEC-V, and when problems arise someone can plug the adapter in, fire up the app, and find out that the right O2 sensor is going bad, or whatever.

You would turn west on 55th St N and go down to West 53rd street. He lives just West of the T intersection. Probably knows your friends, he has lived down there awhile.

Gotta know them - Gene and Glenda.  They live at the intersection of 55 st north and 66th West Ave.