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TSB Organization, Presentation, etc
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TSB Organization, Presentation, etc
 
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Guys - I need some help thinking through things as I need to have a plan that'll work before I start.
Today UPS delivered a big box with over 50 Technical Service Bulletin booklets in it. (My friend Keith Dickson, Mr FORDification, pointed them out to me - $25 - and I couldn't resist.) They cover from 1979 through most of 1983 as well as 2 or 3 random later ones. And each one of them has 3 or 4 TSB's for the light trucks. But, after perusing them I've realized that our current way of displaying TSB's in the menu by their title isn't going to cut it. You might ask why, and I'll tell that if you go to the TSB index you'll see there are over 800 TSB's in that list, and that list was published in 1985. However, they kept coming up with TSB's for the Bullnose trucks well into the 90's, so I'm confident there are well over 1000 TSB's for our trucks.  So here's my plan. Since the TSB index which I have is not complete and is not easily edited, I've converted it to a spreadsheet - with 1050 lines.  It is going to take quite a bit of cleanup, but once it is done I'll be able to add to it as and when we find additional TSB's. Further, I can create links within it to the TSB's that I post on the site.
Let me say it another way - you will no longer be able to find the individual TSB's in the menu of the website. Instead, you'll find the TSB index in the menu, and on that page there will be the index spreadsheet. In the spreadsheet just select the tab for the "category" you are looking for, scroll down to find the TSB you want, and click on it to be taken to it. As for "catergory", Ford sorted the TSB's into these categories, so that's what I'll use for the tabs: Body/Windnoise/Water Leaks/TrimElectrical/Climate Control/Starting/ChargingBrakes/Steering/SuspensionEngine/Cooling System/ExhaustTransmission/Clutch/Driveshaft/AxleDriveability/Fuel/Ignition/EmissionsThat way, behind the scenes I can add TSB's as and when I have the time, and they will automagically show up. Does that make sense? Any suggestions? Help, PLEASE!
Gary, AKA "Gary fellow": Profile
Dad's: '81 F150 Ranger XLT 4x4: Down for restomod: Full-roller "stroked 351M" w/Trick Flow heads & intake, EEC-V SEFI/E4OD/3.50 gears w/Kevlar clutches
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Steve - I appreciate the input as it has caused me to think through this differently and compare my approach, as well as my TSB list, to that of BBB. Having said that, since this is such a long post and my conclusion is waaaay down there, let me state it here as well:
Bottom Line: I think the spreadsheet, which is simply a digitized version of Ford's TSB index, will be easily usable for us as it lays the TSB's out alphabetically by category the way Ford did it. And, it is easily added to when we find other TSB's. In fact, with BBB seemingly having so few TSB's for our trucks I can and will add theirs to the spreadsheet and to our database.But now, let me tell you how I got there. First, I've used the BBB site and it isn't laid out anywhere near the way Ford did it. As said earlier, Ford used these six categories, which are the ones I'm using. But BBB's breakdown is very different than this. Body/Windnoise/Water Leaks/TrimElectrical/Climate Control/Starting/ChargingBrakes/Steering/SuspensionEngine/Cooling System/ExhaustTransmission/Clutch/Driveshaft/AxleDriveability/Fuel/Ignition/EmissionsNor was Ford's listing searchable from what I can see as the TSB's were supplied to the dealerships in paper and microfiche format. But, mine will be - I think. I've told Microsoft that I want a link included for downloading, and it works for me. But I haven't heard that it works for others. Can you download it? However, I'm not sure that it will be necessary to download it. I'm using Ford's format from their frequently-sent TSB index that shows the TSB's within each of the above categories listed alphabetically, and to which of the years it applies. In fact, what I've done is to digitize one of Ford's own indices, which allows me to add TSB's to the list as we find them, and that is important as I've not found a snapshot that has each and every TSB issued on these trucks. Here's a grab of about half of the TSB's shown for Body/Windnoise/Water Leaks/Trim. Since that category is all that will be shown on that tab of the spreadsheet and since they are alphabetized, it is easy to scroll down and pick the one you want and then click on the link to be taken to it.  As for the BBB site, they don't have what we will have here, although I'll want to add here what little they do have. For instance, here's all I can find that they have for 1984 F150's, which I chose at random. But the spreadsheet shows over 200 TSB's for 1984 trucks, and I quit counting at 200. Also, note the issue dates for BBB's 8 - all 1987 or later, with the exception of the recall at the bottom, which was issued in 1984.  Bottom Line: I think the spreadsheet, which is simply a digitized version of Ford's TSB index, will be easily usable for us as it lays the TSB's out alphabetically by category the way Ford did it. And, it is easily added to when we find other TSB's. In fact, with BBB seemingly having so few TSB's for our trucks I can and will add theirs to the spreadsheet and to our database.
Gary, AKA "Gary fellow": Profile
Dad's: '81 F150 Ranger XLT 4x4: Down for restomod: Full-roller "stroked 351M" w/Trick Flow heads & intake, EEC-V SEFI/E4OD/3.50 gears w/Kevlar clutches
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Re: TSB Organization, Presentation, etc
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In reply to this post by Gary Lewis
Ford has renamed the categories over the years, and reorganized them. My point was that there ARE categories, rather than just the numbers & titles. I missed that you were also planning to categorize them. Right, in the 80s. I meant now, like BBB. It's very possible (even likely) that BBB doesn't have access to any books older than '87, so they might only be listing vehicles which had TSBs & FSAs issued after '87 (including many pre-'87 vehicles). I'll try to dig up the crate of publications I bought a few years ago, and start scanning them soon. 
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Wow, Jonathan. That's a really, really good point. I guess I missed the intent of what has been said about them being "searchable". I was thinking that once you've found the index you can search it. But it would be far better to have people be able to find the index and/or the TSB's themselves via a Google search. And, that may change the plans as, for whatever reason, embedded documents don't appear to be found by Google, or other, crawls. I thought they were supposed t be, but they don't seem to be.  So, that begs the question of just what needs to be found in a search, and I would like everyone's input. One option would be to just have the index searchable. The index has several key words in it, like "Shudder During Braking — Semi-Float Rear Axle". Would that be acceptable? That I could probably do fairly easily, although it would require me to put the text of the index directly on the webpage rather than in a document. But, if that's not enough then we are into a whole 'nother ball game. To go the next step would require that I turn each TSB into text and pictures so that can be pasted onto a webpage, rendering it searchable. See the discussion below regarding OCR'ing TSB's. I'm watching the Cowboys game and will see what I can do to turn the spreadsheet into words and a TSB into words & pictures.  Steve - That would be great. But, a couple of things. First, I have the TSB booklets from mid-79 to mid-83, with a couple of misses. And, I have 91-6 & 7. So, if you have others and could scan them then those would be very helpful. However, let me tell you how I'm scanning - black & white at 600 dpi into a pdf. The reason for the b&w is that it makes the yellowed pages nice and white, and it makes the file smaller. As for the dpi, I've learned that my OCR program works far, FAR better at 600 than at 300. At 600 it pretty much nails it, but at 300 I have to review lots of questionable results - on each TSB. Depending on what I find, we may have to convert the TSB's from separate documents into words & pictures on a webpage in order to have then searchable.
Gary, AKA "Gary fellow": Profile
Dad's: '81 F150 Ranger XLT 4x4: Down for restomod: Full-roller "stroked 351M" w/Trick Flow heads & intake, EEC-V SEFI/E4OD/3.50 gears w/Kevlar clutches
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This post was updated on .
SUMMARY:
Ok, it is good news and bad news. Which do you want first?  The good news is that I think we can get there, with "there" being where both the index and the TSB's themselves are able to be found via a Google search.The bad news is that it requires some work, which may be somewhat tedious for me. But, better to find out now rather than later.DETAILS: (I'm explaining all of this mainly so I'll have a place where it is recorded so I can get back to it.) It appears, and I say that with caution as I've only found it one place on the internet, that files embedded on a webpage will be crawled by Google if, and only if, they are available to anyone on the internet. However, to this point all of the many files I've embedded on the site are only available to people who have the link to them. So, if what I read is true, that would explain why nothing I've embedded can be found w/a Google search. To prove that theory I've changed the security on the file for Section 2: Axles & Frames, Suspension & Steering in the 1983 Dealer Facts Book. And then I asked Google to index that page and its direct links, which includes that document. In a day or two it should have been indexed and then I ought to be able to find things in it via a Google search. However, that file resides on my Google drive where it is easy to unlock the security. But I prefer the Microsoft OneDrive, so while Google is indexing that page I'll be searching for a way to unlock the security on my OneDrive. If I can't figure out how to do that then I'll have to move all of the embedded files which are on my OneDrive to my Google drive. So, hope with me that Google does indeed index that file and we can find text from it via a Google search. The text for which I'm searching is "•Twin-I-Beam front suspension for Econoline andF-250/350". Yes, there should be a space between "and" and "F", but for whatever reason there isn't. Something my OCR engine messed up. But, there's no instance of that text on the internet at the moment, so if it turns up it should be us.  Meanwhile, now that it looks like this is may work, I'm back to cleaning up the index. So far I've cleaned up 230 of what will probably be 800 entries in the spreadsheet. But, there are more to add 'cause y'all been asleep! You didn't even notice that while the Bullnose era began in 1980, there's no column for '80 in the index! 
Gary, AKA "Gary fellow": Profile
Dad's: '81 F150 Ranger XLT 4x4: Down for restomod: Full-roller "stroked 351M" w/Trick Flow heads & intake, EEC-V SEFI/E4OD/3.50 gears w/Kevlar clutches
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Thanks. The more I think about it the more I realize it has to be one complete spreadsheet. I've already split some out, but they are easy enough to put back.
Now if Google will just find that file.... Hope you find your books. But there's no huge hurry as this is going to be a long process. I would say you can ship them to me and I'll scan them, but you probably wouldn't like my process. The pages are perforated, so I remove the pages I want as that makes scanning them so much easier and cleaner. And, since they are punched for a 3-ring binder, I put them in a binder with the page back in the right spot. I'm sure some would think that heresy, but I'm not a collector of literature for literature's sake. If I can't share it what's the use?
Gary, AKA "Gary fellow": Profile
Dad's: '81 F150 Ranger XLT 4x4: Down for restomod: Full-roller "stroked 351M" w/Trick Flow heads & intake, EEC-V SEFI/E4OD/3.50 gears w/Kevlar clutches
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Seems like we are on the same page regarding publications.
 As for the logic, let me do more research today - while I watch parades and football games - and I'll get back on how I think it works. Hmmm, I wonder if my book on Search Engine Optimization has anything to say about it? On the file, it does work. It is remarkably crisp, and it is a very small size - 110kb. But, while it is searchable, not everything on it can be found. For example, I can find 8 instances of "set", including one in the upper left of the label itself. But I can't find E4AE or AGG, which are in the lower left of the label. And, while it finds "air" and "purge", it doesn't highlight them at the right place. Which leads me to tell you what very little know about pdf's like this one - there are at least two layers. One layer is what you see, which in this case is a picture of, among other things, words. And another layer includes the actual words - in their supposed position on the page. But, sometimes the OCR engine puts the word in the wrong position, like "air" and "purge". Or, it gives you the wrong word. Or, as in this case, it sometimes gives you no words. To find out what it did OCR you can try to select some words. For instance, try to select the whole of the label itself and you'll see that it doesn't highlight all of the words, so it skipped some. And then, highlight a word or two and copy it to the clipboard and then paste them somewhere. I did that to "E4AE 9C485" and found that it OCR'd them to "E4AA GgcG485", which explains why it couldn't find "E4AE". Anyway, I'll re-OCR that file and see if my program finds more words and/or corrects some of the errors. Perhaps we can do a two-step on them successfully. 
Gary, AKA "Gary fellow": Profile
Dad's: '81 F150 Ranger XLT 4x4: Down for restomod: Full-roller "stroked 351M" w/Trick Flow heads & intake, EEC-V SEFI/E4OD/3.50 gears w/Kevlar clutches
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I've re-OCR'd the file and my OCR app did find lots of things that hadn't been previously found. Here's a screen shot of some of what it found - I'd already processed several of them.
You can see what it found by the red rectangles, each one being something it questioned. And the one filled in with green, "HEX", is the one it was questioning at the time. It asked if I wanted to accept what it thought it should be, or if I wanted to correct it, or if it wasn't even supposed to be text. It is tedious, but doable.  And, I put the file up on the website here: TSB's/CALIBRATION: 4-53F-R00. Now to figure out about Google....
Gary, AKA "Gary fellow": Profile
Dad's: '81 F150 Ranger XLT 4x4: Down for restomod: Full-roller "stroked 351M" w/Trick Flow heads & intake, EEC-V SEFI/E4OD/3.50 gears w/Kevlar clutches
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This post was updated on .
In reply to this post by Gary Lewis
Yeah, I tried searching a few words & text strings, and they worked. I didn't try selecting the whole document to check for holes - good tip. This is the first time I've used this scanner, and the first time I've used searchable PDFs, so I haven't found the OCR settings, or how to edit the OCR'ed layer yet. But I'll try to dig them up so you don't have to re-do what I'm doing. That first page's scan settings were: 600dpi; deskew; text enhancement sensitivity 0, threshold 0, noise reduction 1, reduce wrinkle. I haven't found the HELP explanation of what the text settings do.
...and to reduce me re-doing what you're doing, I have these books:  The massive TSB binder includes: 83-1 83-2 83-3 83-4 83-5 83-5a "Special... 1983¼ Escort, Lynx, EXP, & LN7 Updated Service Information" 83-6 83-7 83-8 83-8A "Special! Front & Rear Spring Usage" 83-9 83-10 83-11A "Special Specifications Issue Update" (VECI labels) 83-11 83-12 83-13 83-14 83-15 83-16 83-17 83-18 83-23 83-24 83-25 84-1A "Special Specifications Issue Update" (VECI labels including that one) 84-1 84-2 84-3 84-7A "Special Specifications Issue Update" (VECI labels) 84-12 84-13A-1 84-14 84-15 84-16 84-17 84-18 84-19 84-20 84-21 84-22 84-23 84-24 84-25 84-26 Have you already scanned any of them? I've picked a few TSBs out of a few of those books that interest me. These were scanned with the same settings, except 400dpi: https://drive.google.com/open?id=18eMI8GebF3VZQR0qDUWyksvAgIJt8JhO https://drive.google.com/open?id=1n73yT7JDE1ZyPAqBoCvjTCngl7u8fKN3 What OCR app do you use, and what PDF editor? |
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I've noted which ones I have, but past 83-11A I don't have any. And I haven't scanned any of those as I started with the late '79 ones. As for your new files, I OCR'd them and found something like 3 questionable things in one and 11 in the other. So that was very easy to do. Bring them on! I'll try to get those, and any others you send, on the site in a bit. But, there needs to be some organization as things are getting really busy. So I need to think about that for a bit.  As for my OCR and pdf editor, I use FoxIt PhantomPDF. It certainly isn't perfect, and crashes every once in a while. But it did better in sample OCR's that I did than did Adobe's pdf editor. And it is a lot less expensive.
Gary, AKA "Gary fellow": Profile
Dad's: '81 F150 Ranger XLT 4x4: Down for restomod: Full-roller "stroked 351M" w/Trick Flow heads & intake, EEC-V SEFI/E4OD/3.50 gears w/Kevlar clutches
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