Larry the Lariat - My 86 F150 4x4

I haven't bought it yet.  I just submitted an offer it. It's a 130a.





I suppose the 95a probably would be sufficient, but who knows if I'll ever do something to this truck that needs more power. Should I need to plan for a two belt pulley, or just see how it goes and upgrade if I find I need it? As of right now, I don't have much planned that should add much draw.

chirkware wrote

I think I'm just gonna go ahead and upgrade to a 3g alternator. I plan on keeping this truck a long time, so let's just eliminate a known problem area now.
I need to go back and read through the guide again to see if I'm missing anything...

Looking back at your post the one thing I see you'll need is a piece of 10Ga. primary wire to bring the yellow 37 wire from where it used to live at C610 to the relay terminal where the charge cable attaches.
You see that the cab feeds each have their own fusible links after the splice where it forks.

Edit:
You won't need a second belt unless you apply too much load, and you aren't changing/adding anything today.
The one thing you might notice is a small chirp or squeal on startup.

ArdWrknTrk wrote

Looking back at your post the one thing I see you'll need is a piece of 10Ga. primary wire to bring the yellow 37 wire from where it used to live at C610 to the relay terminal where the charge cable attaches.
You see that the cab feeds each have their own fusible links after the splice where it forks.

Edit:
You won't need a second belt unless you apply too much load, and you aren't changing/adding anything today.
The one thing you might notice is a small chirp or squeal on startup.

Good call! I need to study the wiring diagram before I get too much further so I don't miss anything. I do have a piece of 10awg AWM wire that's 18in long and yellow if that's enough. Leftovers from an old APC UPS unit I scrapped after it tried to kill me (long story... Let's just say my face was a foot from it when sparks flew out!).

I've got a three day weekend needing a project. 😃👍👍

18" seems like it should be enough to take wire 37 from splice 202 or connector 610 to the starter relay stud, but you can always bring it to the downstream side of your Megafuse holder as well. (this is electrically the same, just the other end of the short cable)

Fuselink 'J' goes in the bin, but the hot stud of the starter relay can be crowded depending on how many circuits you have in your truck.
On my truck I elected to go for the Megafuse terminal.

Alternator is ordered... Hopefully it's a good fit. The seller had two. Here's a link for the listing if anyone wants the other one... It's listed at $70. I put it on my watchlist and a day later they offered it at $60. I counteroffered them $50 and they counter-countered $55 which I accepted, plus $4.95 for uncle Sam made it $59.95. Silly me lost a day to save $5 and hurt my chances it makes it in time to be installed on my long weekend.  Sometimes even I have to admit I'm a cheapskate!

Something I just thought about...should I be able to put the pully from the old alternator on this one, or will I need a different size?  Just trying to figure out if I need to get one ordered.  They look much more pricey from the local stores vs online...I've seen $50 from Advance Auto vs $15 from Summit.  That's crazy!

17mm shaft size is the same. Nut comes right off with an impact.

One thing of note is that you may need a thin spacer behind your V-belt pulley so it doesn't rub the 3G housing.

I'm not sure why this isn't better spelled out in the instructions.

ArdWrknTrk wrote

17mm shaft size is the same. Nut comes right off with an impact.

One thing of note is that you may need a thin spacer behind your V-belt pulley so it doesn't rub the 3G housing.

I'm not sure why this isn't better spelled out in the instructions.

Perfect, thanks! I saw mention of the spacer somewhere.  One of the YouTube videos I watched mentioned it but he ended up not needing it.

Haven't found a really good Bullnose specific 2g to 3g upgrade video, so I may try to make one. If I do, I'll be sure to promote Gary's Garage Mahal as the source for the best Bullnose info. Specifically, I want to cover details of the wiring changes, shimming, bracket clearancing, and dealing with the ammeter.

While I'm waiting on my alternator to show up, thought I'd post some pictures of some repairs I made to the plastic that the AC controls mount to. I knew something was wrong as my blower would never turn off. I pulled the controls out to find that the plastic was broken, causing contacts not to contact.


This explained the issues I was having:






Used a small soldering iron to do some plastic welding:




Found some more cracks...






And did some more repairs...






It ain't all that pretty, but it won't be seen. Hopefully it holds up.

Yikes!  No wonder that the control wouldn't turn off.  And you are right, it isn't going to be seen.  Hope it holds.  

Well I went out today with plans of swapping in the new 3g alternator, but decided I should actually do a little testing first.

Last weekend, I charged the battery overnight and disconnected the charger the next day. I also had taken the negative post off when I charged it, and it was still off this morning. The battery read 12.9v when I put my meter on it, 5-6 days after last charge.

After starting the engine, voltage at the battery consistently read 14.5v. Sounds like the old alternator is still doing it's job.

So does this point a finger back at the battery? Maybe it can't take the heat under the hood with that 351w loaded up?

Or does it sound more like a parasitic draw? Keep in mind, in the past, Larry started just fine after sitting for a week or two with the battery connected, so there doesn't seem to be a significant draw running it down just sitting there.

Another thought ... Could it simply be the starter is getting hot and thus not wanting to start the engine back when hot? I don't really think this is the case since a jump start worked for me last weekend, but just throwing it out there.

I don't think I ever put a meter on the battery when it's weak trying to turn over the engine. Wish I had.

My battery is a new to me "blem" battery from Interstate Battery. I've had good luck with those, but that doesn't mean I didn't get a dud this time.

I'm contemplating putting the battery from my 70 (a blem I got four years ago that is holding strong!) in Larry and see if it gets ran down too. If it holds up, that would seem to prove it's the battery.

I still want to do the alternator swap even if it's not a current problem (pardon the pun!), but it seems I should figure out and fix my actual issue first. (What a novel concept!)

Your battery is good, but there is apparently some draw.  Might be "parasitic", as in something left on.  But it could be that a diode is blown in the alternator.

You can test that by disconnecting the alternator and testing to see what the voltage on the battery is.  Then connect the alternator and see if the voltage drops.

And this is why I say verify., then rectify.

Your battery is apparently very good! The 2G is always suspect.
Theoretically the battery should have 12.6V so maybe your meter is reading a little high, but I wouldn't pass it without an actual load tester.

These diagnostic scanners they use at auto parts stores give a quick look at battery and charging system health.
But the counter kid doesn't want to disconnect the battery or be the last straw responsible for killing it.

Your situation could be a worn starter. It could be a rotten cable. It could be a combination of many factors.
I'd definitely try to determine why the quiescent draw seems so high and do a voltage drop test on the starter & charging system (both cold and hot)

So after further review, I think I was wrong to dismiss my issue from being a starter issue. It starts fine when cold, and the battery is charging. Here’s a start after 30 minutes of the engine running (while I adjusted timing again). Even with a jump box, it’s weak to start. It only does this when hot, once it cools, the truck starts no problem. I guess I’ll do them 3g upgrade anyway at some point. I already have the parts, but no big rush.

Oh, and this is something I’m stoked about…went and picked this up this evening.

I think you may be right - starter.  What happens is that the bushing on a starter wears and lets the armature get close to the windings.  If it touches then the drag goes up dramatically.  But when a starter gets hot and everything expands it can touch when it won't when cold.  And when it touches it gets hotter, so it expands more, which means it touches more, which....

So if it starts fine cold but not hot I'd start with the starter.

And that's a really nice tailgate!  

HUGE difference!





Mills Furniture & Appliance is in Arjay, KY. Apparently they bought a new 1986 F250, and then decided to replace the tailgate with a lift. This gate has been stored since 1986! It did get scuffed good at some point, but that’s just some character. Their truck had a 302 so the gate has an Electronic Fuel Injection badge on it.

Any idea of how to coat the inside of the gate to help prevent rust now that it’ll be outdoors?

Also, what year truck is the old gate off of? (Edit: the rusty one is the one I’m wondering about).  It’s got the metal bars that hinge to support it instead of the cables and I know that’s not there correct trim plate.

Yes, that's a huge difference.  

I used Fluid Film to spray inside things, so it would probably work for the tailgate.  It is oily and creeps in everywhere.

As for what year the 'gate is, I dunno.  I say that because the 1980 - 82 'gates had the straps and the '83 and later ones had the cables.  But there wasn't an EFI'd engine in 1980 - 82.  

But you can go to our page at Documentation/Exterior/Bed, Tailgates, & Components and then the Tailgates followed by Changing Tailgates tabs.  But while it is fairly easy to put a later 'gate on an earlier truck, it might not be so easy vice versa.

The 1980-1982 trucks had the metal supports as Gary said, but that trim panel is correct for 1980-1984 trucks with XLT and Lariat packages.

OK, so the particular rusty gate that was on "Larry" when I bought it was likely off an 80-82 XLT/Lariat truck, but that panel is correct for 80-84.  Any thoughts on the value for that panel?  I've heard they are hard to find.