Gary Lewis

E3TZ 6754-D TUBE ASSY. (OIL LEVEL INDICATOR) 83/85 F250/350 - - 420 CID Diesel "Before ser. no. 173532"

E1TZ 13008-A R.H. (Right Hand) 81/86 F-U100/350 81/82 E100/350

I ordered 3A fuses today. Thought that would be more useful than 1A and the wiring is plenty heavy enough to handle that. Another thing I did today was to strip the tape off several harnii so I could get to wires to splice or strip out unneeded wires. Man, that is no fun. Somehow I always seem to be working on the tape that's under another layer. And I got the alternator installed, the PDB mounted temporarily, the charge cable installed, and fuse links L & M cut out and replacement wires spliced in. You can see all of that here, with the splices shown on the right in the big yellow and black/orange wires. Speaking of the big yellow wires, I discovered that there are at least two different sizes of them in our trucks. I have a harness out of 1985 F150 that had a 351W, A/C, power windows and locks, etc. So I pulled it out and thought I'd snag the yellow wire from Ckt 37. But it was smaller than the one in Big Blue. So I moved on to the harness out of Brownie, the 1982 F150 w/a 351 2bbl, A/C, but no power windows or locks. And it had the right size wire. Here's a shot of the two, with the wire from from the '85 on top - it is a #12 wire. And the wire from the '82 is on the bottom and it is a #10. Also, note that the bottom wire is tarnished. That appears to be from being very close the fuse link. I cut farther down the wire and it wasn't tarnished. Apparently the fuse link got hot. And then I found this: As for how I did the splicing, and not to re-open the crimp vs solder debate, I did both. I find that wrapping #10 wires over themselves to create a splice is hard to do and it makes a big lump in the wiring. But I have #10-12 butt crimps, so I stripped the plastic insulation off them, tinned the wires, put them in, crimped them with my HD ratcheting crimpers, then soldered them and put the adhesive-lined heat shrink on them. Here's a shot of a crimped butt connector: Here's the soldered crimp: And here's the heat-shrink applied:

Is that between 39 and 41? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fawlty_Towers

Surprised that you are still traveling with the virus. But that may change.

So the downstairs is done? You are making good progress!

I wonder if the drive gear, the one on the transmission or transfer case (you don't have a signature so I don't know if your truck is 2wd or 4wd) is stripped. If so it might spin the cable when there's no speedo attached, but the drag of the speedo might cause it to slip. Pull the cable from the transmission or t-case and check the driven gear. And peer into the transmission/t-case and check the condition of the drive gear.

Yes, and it is raining at the mo and is supposed to rain off and on all week. Anyway, good luck on fixing these problems, and hope that resolves the issue as well as doesn't uncover more.

Ok, either I'm losing it or one of the other admins is working this at the same time. I edited the name and moved the 86 Flareside 2wd thread into the Ebay et al folder. And when it went the other out-of-the box threads disappeared. And then they started coming back - in the Ebay folder. Anyway, that was the morning Cory forgot to drink his coffee.

Most of the bags I've seen are rated at 5000 lbs. So you could take a lot of leaves out and still have the same capacity.

Do you mean this?

Seven leaves, Sam. The same spring pack that Bill/85lebaront2 has on Darth, the crewcab DRW truck. These things are so stiff that I had a complete 400 on a pallet set 1/2 in the bed and 1/2 on the tailgate and it barely dropped. But thanks for info about the air bags and cradles. It give me hope.

Good point. I don't think I have any 1A mini fuses, but I'll get some. I'm anxious to get started tomorrow.

From my research, Daystar cradles are needed to allow full articulation or droop when using air bags. Bob pointed out that limiting factor when I started considering air bags to pick up the load capacity on Big Blue after I remove some spring leaves. Otherwise the air bags constrain the suspension. So I inquired about them at 4 Wheel Parts and Cory, the manager, said they use them routinely and they work well. I asked about the statements from the air bag manufacturers that using cradles voids the warranties, and he said they haven't had any problems.

Sam - Glad to see that they were fairly simple to install and that they smoothed out the ride. You'd had the airbags on before, right? Is it the airbags or the cradles that smoothed out the ride?

Made some progress today. Got all of the connections within the PDB made. And, along the way I found an error in the wiring plan and corrected it. Then I fired up the lab power supply, connected the test light, and put it through its paces. It passed with blinking lights. And tomorrow I start installing it on the truck. So, here's the wiring diagram. Note the fuse sizing. What are your thoughts? And here are shots of the fuses and relays installed as well as the wiring. The 30a breaker is for the low beams. Yes, 30 amps is overkill, but I wanted to use the breaker, so....

Any chance you have a bad cable or bad ground?

Jim - I agree, it may well be the PS pump. I've just not run into that. I'd suggest taking the belt off for a test, but as we know, that would just cause the C-II pump to puke fluid all over everything. So I'm not sure what to suggest. Randy - I'll bet the clunks are due to the radius bushings. They aren't all that hard to replace, and sure made a big difference on my '82. As for fixing one thing and having more pop up, yep. That's the onion-peeling drill. Some day you'll have enough for a Bloomin' Onion.

Shaun - Got it. Thanks. Dave - The tranny looks good. And I agree with you - I've not seen that shifter before.

I don't know any answers, but I would like to know as well. On Big Blue I'm going with headers, and my old horrible exhaust system with cherry bomb mufflers will bolt back on to break in the engine and then get the truck to an exhaust shop - which hasn't been selected yet. There I'll have a mandrel-bent system put on, and it will include Magnaflow mufflers.

Shaun - I like it. But is everything going to be black?

That IS a big ship. For sure! But it is the truck I like. Sure looks good! And I'll bet you get both the starting and vibration issues sorted soon.

Yep, that diode should work well. And at $.43 from Digikey they are cheap, except they don't have them in stock. Yes, a fuse is sounding better.

Those look great, Jim! Especially for the way you flog it. Sure isn't too rich.

You are causing me to THINK, and that hurts: 1. Yes, that looks would work, but I don't see the need for a schottky diode. Those are just fast diodes. As for amperage, just enough to pull in the relay, which is less than an amp. 2. Yipes! To protect the diode it needs to be larger than the fuse. But unless you are going to be pushing a lot of buttons at the same time, 3 amp may be enough fuse. At 500ma/relay, as many are, you can do ~6 at a time. 3. Yes, I know you didn't have a #3 identified, but it is there nonetheless. From memory, the headlights are served by a 16ga fuse link. (L?) (Don't you wish that was a fuse? With the load being carried by the headlight relays that fuse could be fairly small. ) You really can't protect your wiring here unless you make it #12, which is enough to carry the current supplied by that fuse link. But, Ford didn't really protect the wires running to the headlights as they are way smaller than the fuse link. So maybe that's a risk you have to take. Your wires will melt, but long before the switch burns, in my estimation. Yes? No?