ckuske

It looks like they changed their mind??

Here is a picture of the new components for posterity:

Got the Borgeson shaft installed, and the BlueTop is in. I hope to take it for a nice drive in the next day or two. Even just moving the wheel while it was on stands, there was a huge difference. I decided to check the transmission fluid level while the engine was warm in the garage - it is low. Like maybe 1/8" on the dipstick when hot and in park. So, I'll be filling that and seeing if one quart is enough - and then see if the behavior of things changes. I know the AOD takes something in the range of three gallons so I don't know if one quart in the pan will help, but we will see. Oh by the way, I hate my rebuilt C2 pump from Cardone. I plan on swapping it out with the Lee one that has the Saginaw internals...

Vacuum related maybe? (vacuum motors being actuated, etc)

I saw some Youtube videos of people doing horrible things to their wiring and trying to force the connector through parts of the column etc. De-pinning is the way to go!

No smoking guns on the AOD thing yet. I wanted to take it to a local shop to get the fluid changed and the TV pressure verified. I think the pressure is too high (I didn't trust the gauge that I bought cheaply off Amazon), but I can't find a correlation between high pressure and shudder from a standstill so far. My truck is currently on stands as my Bluetop steering box arrived. I have that installed, but I'm waiting for the Borgeson steering shaft. It was supposed to come yesterday but it got stuck in the FedEx system about 40 miles away. The next big thing is to take the bed off and freshen up the frame and crossmembers. But now I think I will take it to the transmission shop before I start on that...

Here are some updated pictures of the for-sale version:

Wow, that's impressive! You truly knew how those machines worked. And the PDP-8 is legendary. I wonder if your OS would boot in a PDP-8 emulator? . On the machines you worked on, did they normally have a tape or paper tape loader? Or did you have to boot the machine by hand putting instructions in via the front panel? I know the PDP-8 had more features as it matured. Most of my current work is in Embedded Linux but I also do some cloud hosted stuff in AWS, and of course there's always a little Windows/Desktop programming too. What a change in a pretty short amount of time! The system I've developing for right now is an quad core ARM 64-bit processor with 4 GB of RAM that barely uses one watt of power.... But, that being said... have you ever heard Boyle's Law of Software (told to me by a Sperry/Honeywell engineer that helped design all the current Flight Management Computers on airliners)? "Software is like an inert gas, it will rush into a vacuum and occupy all available space"

Well apparently I was looking on the wrong page, then! (It was a third-party site) Good to know!

I write boolean and ternary statements all day, so I agree with you! :) I just looked, you can use "AND" or "OR", but there is no "NOT" for example. Drat. I remember the Netscape 4.x days, using Trumpet Winsock on Windows 95... sigh Good idea on shudder etc

I'm starting to dig into it. When you Google anything about "torque converter" and "stall", you get lots of stuff about the stall speed, which is a different thing from my basic understanding so far. If anything, it makes sense to me (which is always questionable) that the torque converter is locking up too early, causing the engine to lug and stall. But, I am not an expert. Some pages mention the engine stalling as a symptom of a bad torque converter or a transmission problem in general, though...

Ok, I did my timing chain homework. There is so much junk in the way to see the timing mark clearly, but as best I can tell, there is maybe 2 or 3 degrees at most of slack in the chain.

Yep! When I was younger, I wanted everything in the truck to look newer. Now I'm trying to make it look older, and am spending good money on that, haha.

Hi Guys, Thanks! It's a stock radio with the internals replaced with the Aurora FMR - pricey, but it was a good alternative to me. You can set the radio settings via a file you put on a USB stick. The radio has Bluetooth, Hands Free, and the cassette still works too! https://www.tech-retro.com/aurora-design/home.html The speaker patch, it was there from the previous owner. I'm not sure where they got it from, but it looks pretty good considering its a patch! Someday I hope to get it restored here by a place in the San Fernando Valley, but I need to strike gold first.

So, I thought I'd catch everyone up over the past few months: Code 31/33 is intermittent on KOER. No KOEO or Continuous codes. Need to look at wiring back to EEC again for shorts and missing insulation at very rear of engine (its really hard to get to). Put new ACC Carpet (Code 833, Ocean Blue) in LMC door panels (painted with SEM to Dark Harbor Blue) Installed Coverlay map pockets. Replaced instrument cluster lens Some pictures of the interior: Set Radio EQ via app and USB key (FAT32). Much better now! EQ was flat. Raised bass and treble. Replaced the rest of the rubber vacuum lines/fittings with silicone hoses (4mm ID). Replaced fuel sender with LILAND GLOBAL SUFD36 after looking at the one purchased from RockAuto. (They look to be the same) The existing sender went bad due to gas being inside the brass float. I bent the arm slightly down so the gauge reads a little higher than the actual amount in the tank (to give more reserve). It reads way past full, and doesn’t go down for a very long time. After putting the sender in, I refilled the tank and got a strong odor of gas and noted gas on the top of the tank. The ring wasn’t tightened all the way. I bought the Spectra FG75A also - will try that one next. Bought the rest of the material necessary for painting rear portion of frame.

Yep, will do if that ends up being the case (gosh I hope not)

All good! The extension I had made things too long so I couldn't even put the socket over the nut without hitting the radiator with the wrench

Hi Jim, Oh no, I didn't take it that way at all. I understand where you are coming from, and it's good advice! Keep It Simple, Stupid! (me, haha) Don't worry. I just ran out to the garage to do it, and the socket is too short or my extension is too long - so I just ordered a extension set where there are some shorter ones. I'll try again tomorrow!

No arguments on your position, Jim. . Might as well do it so it can fall off the list of possibilities. I'm getting ready to tear some stuff down and I'll make it a point to do this at that time. I have just been procrastinating lately and have been focusing on just enjoying the truck before I take the bed off and work on the frame/rear end. (I'm going to start that next week)

I'm way overdue on replying after doing the timing chain test. I'm still going to do it, but after stepping away from the problem, I am almost thinking it isn't an engine problem at all. I mean it still can be I suppose, but hear me out: This behavior only happens when the truck is in gear. In park or neutral, I can rev it all day with ZERO stumble/hesitation. Could something be wrong with the transmission, or more specifically the torque converter? When it engages, perhaps it's engaging too early etc? The shift behavior is good, smooth, etc. But the "only in drive" thing seems like a clue. Just a thought. I'll post project updates in another post...

For those that like to purchase from eBay instead (who on here doesn't like eBay?), I've put a listing here: https://www.ebay.com/itm/195964016384

Ok, I've updated the site, here: https://bullnosecreations.square.site If/when they are ordered, I will need a little bit of time to get a batch printed up. (A week at most, but just a heads up) Thanks for asking, and for your interest! PS - Those pictures are of the prototypes. There won't be Sharpie writing on the ones you receive

It was pretty sure that was the case, but I don't trust myself to intuitively know and I'd rather double check with others. The whole peer review thing... Thank you!

Hi All, Since I saw Blue Top is going out of business, I purcahsed a steering box the other day. I figured (here comes the layer of the onion) that I should swap our the steering shaft at the same time. So, I bought a Borgeson. They (well, CJ Pony Parts) have a good sale going on right now, here: https://www.cjponyparts.com/borgeson-steering-shaft-telescopic-steel-ford-truck-1980-1991/p/BRG000985/ Ok, enough of that. Here comes the question. My truck currently has 20" wheels with some skinny tires. My plan was to install my stock 15" wheels with 235/75 R15 (stock) tires as my next plan of action - until I bought the Blue Top instead. I wouldn't think so, but changing wheels and tires wouldn't affect the length of the steering shaft that I'll need to cut down, right? I am going to install the shaft now, then later move to the 15" wheels. I would think only lifting or lowering via a suspension kit would affect it. But, I've never done it before and I don't want to make a $300 mistake based on a faulty assumption! Thanks

They certainly can be! I've been extremely busy at work and just haven't gotten around to adding the page to the site so they can be purchased etc. I'll get to work on that. Is the color of the example (which are now on my truck) good for you as well?