Gary Lewis

Don't know much about the Ultramat. Will have to check that out to see what it is. But Vernon sent Big Blue with one of the Coverlay covers, so I'm pretty sure I'll use that. Powder coated HVAC parts? INTERNAL HVAC parts. Wow, there's no competition. Seriously though, that truck is going to last forever!

Yes, will have. And, that filter sure hangs out quite a ways. But, I don't want the bolt to back out, and that's the direction the weight will rotate it. So I'll Loctite it and hope for the best.

Jim - If the six is so well balanced then why do the carbs work loose? Whisler - I removed the non-functional rear tank on Big Blue quite some time ago. But that sure limits travel when you have a thirsty 460. Do you plan to replace it?

Yes, I was actually thinking of the banjo bolt. Even though my springs better have lots more than 3/4" of travel.

Think I'll try it.

Only a slight chance of either earthquakes or tornadoes. Yes, but they tend to be very precise problems, meaning a tornado devastates a town or a neighborhood. Ditto an earthquake, at least here. But hurricanes tend to devastate a whole region if not a state.

What about using Loctite blue when installing the adapter?

Jonathan - There's a whole lot in your post, so I'm going to attempt to dissect it and respond to each point. To do so I'll put your points in blue and mine in green. I agree that most wouldn’t “enter” through a homepage if they find Garagemahal via google or one of your friendly Facebook tips. But if they like what they see they might navigate there as a starting point to see what else is available. It probably isn’t very practical or beneficial for recruitment, but would it hurt anything? I'm not against doing it, but it could hurt things. The forum is currently at URL garysgaragemahal.com, which is the home page. But if we create a new home page it will get that URL. So anyone that has bookmarked that URL is not going to where they expect to go. On the other hand, there would be an easily-seen link directly to the forum on the home page in your scenario, so maybe it isn't a problem? I’m not crazy about pop ups. Even legitimate ones. They smack of spam, or commercialism at the very least. Also, the first time I visit a site I am looking for something. I would likely dismiss any pop ups. I don’t want to be distracted or re-directed to sign up etc., before I even know if the website can help me, or has what I’m looking for. Of course I have not seen an example of what you are proposing, but in general I don’t like any pop up that I didn’t launch myself by clicking a link. I know what you are saying about popups. And you are probably right. But my thought was that for the first visit they'd get a popup that pointed them to the menu and, therefore, the documentation. However, your next point may cover that.... One tweak that could help draw attention to the documentation side would be to label the hamburger stack “documentation site menu” or something to that effect. I don’t know if you are able to populate the space next to the hamburger stack, but it is currently blank. You could add “return to Forum” on the top link since I believe that is the only forum related link in the menu? I don't know if it can be done, but something that points to the menu might really help. Except it won't help much on the forum since, as Steve pointed out, it auto-advances to the forum, meaning it skips over the top and people don't see the menu. And I'm not sure what to do 'bout that. If you want info for new members, maybe make a “new members start here” link above the topics? I agree that too many pinned folders and threads above the active topics isn’t good, but I think a new member orientation/tutorial area could be an important link. I'm not sure I understand what you mean. We have a New Members Start Here folder, but you must mean something else. Where would the link go? And it would take them to a tutorial?

They are considering it. They have a brand new town house with hurricane-proof windows, doors, etc. And they have plenty of provisions. But they also have a reservation at a hotel in Bradenton, near her parents.

Woo Hoo!!!! Paint!!! Can't wait to see it.

I believe Darth and Big Blue remind me of the advertisements regarding pets at shelters which are: looking for their Fordever homes. Considering that this past April it was 25 years ago I bought Darth. He was purchased to tow our 30' 5th wheel trailer. And I think the 3 day a week part time "mechanic" that Gordonsville VA Ford had, may have retired to Florida as the workmanship on Big Blue reminds me of what I found on Darth. Holley accelerator pump lever wasn't even touching anything, oil filter base bolt was loose, heater return fitting had apparetly leaked, the swivel fitting was brazed together, timing cover bolts were loose. Between them and the oil filter base, the 1982 Horizon I drove up there with a tow bar on it was well lubricated by the time I got to Suffolk. The gentleman I bought him from knew nothing about working on him and wasn't too good at driving him either, both front fenders were bent and the dually fenders were cracked, and the back part of one was in the bed. Yeah, I think he retired to Florida. I took the oil filter adapter off Big Blue's engine today to ensure that I don't sell it with that on. (I may put Huck's water/oil cooler adapter on.) Anyway, I looked at that bolt and thought "Maybe I'd better get the impact." But instead I tried and it spun off easily - too easily. Is that a problem with 460's, that the adapters loosen?

I'm as ready as I'm gonna be. Dorian seems to have slowed down, so it's really wreaking havoc on my work schedule. I'm off Monday because of the holiday, and now Tuesday is up in the air. I'm basically on call from Monday night until the storm is out of Florida. Originally I was off this weekend until Tuesday, but I was told to come on Sunday on overtime to help stock the hospital. So as of right now I have no idea where I'm gonna be during the storm. As far as supplies go, I have everything I need, except now with this extra Sunday shift, I will drop below 1/2 a tank in my truck so I will need to find gas before I go back to work next week because I don't want to dip into my 10 gallons of reserve nor do I want to get stuck in a line just trying to get gas. People are going nuts here, even though we're as far inland as you can get in Florida. I've got the F350 as secure as I can get it. With no front suspension I'm really worried about it falling, but I've got three rows of jackstands up front holding the truck and the rear wheels are blocked as solid as I can get them. I threw a tarp over the cab and held it down with about 10 bungie cords, so hopefully that doesn't get blown away. I hope your family stays safe down there, it's grown into a very bad storm and will devastate the southeastern part of the state. People are starting to compare it to Hurricane Andrew. Yes, it is going to cause widespread devastation. And the slowdown is bad news, for sure. I hope you have everything secure and it leaves you alone. The kids are still right in the bullseye.

These old mirrors needed a place to go, and I'm happy to see them spend some time on I-40 for Bullnose MPG testing! They might decrease drag, but they'll also decrease your rear view...lol. I just cleaned them up. They're not perfect, but they'll look just fine at 60mph. Those polished up great! They are gonna look good on David's truck. Nice thing to do, Cory.

Cool! I like that avatar, and the pickup therein.

Good observation, I’m up to date. And I'm up to date. I don't know what else to do. I can't find anything via searching about it. And it works on some and not on others. Making it smaller seemed to help a bit, but I can't make it any smaller. So, I guess y'all can download it if you want.

Congrat's! Now you know the valve doesn't work, what are you going to do about it? Many, myself included, have just run on one tank. As for the MPG, yes when you get everything dialed in, including the cold air hose to the air cleaner, which was a good find, it all adds up.

Yes it is, Jim. And, while the shop BADLY needs to be cleaned, while I was doing the cleaning I realized that there was a bolt hole open. After a bit of thinking about it I realized that it is the back bolt for the little factory crossmember that is right behind the front spring's front shackle. The front bolt hole just holds the crossmember against the frame, and since there's no need for that crossmember with Sky's much bigger one just in front of it, that bolt hole doesn't need to be filled. But the rear bolt hole holds the frame liner to the frame as well as the crossmember on, so it is needed. Having said that, it is just a 7/16" bolt, and the ones that came with Big Blue were G5's, which have a max torque value of 37 ft-lbs. I did a double-take on that one, but that's right. So I pulled out a 31/64" (.4843") reamer and took the holes out for a 1/2" bolt. The G8's tapped themselves in nicely and torqued down to spec, 106 ft-lbs, very nicely. I think that's an upgrade. And, I'm thinking about tack-welding them. Thoughts?

Sorry, I misunderstood. Glad you followed the directions. If you just have too much fluid but think the fluid is good, I'd stick a suction gun's tube down the filler tube and suck some out until it reads correctly. Or, you can pull the inspection plate at the bottom of the flywheel, rotate the crank until the 1/8" pipe plug shows up, and loosen it to drain off some. I'd do that LONG before I pulled the pan if the fluid is good. But, if you want to replace the pan, meaning you are a glutton for punishment, then do a search of this forum. The topic has been discussed quite a bit very recently. To do that search, scroll up to just below the blue pickup and you'll see an empty field with a spy glass in it. Type in something like "transmission pan", make sure the Everywhere button is pushed, and click Search. That will return every post where "transmission" and "pan" were used, and there are plenty of them.

It doesn't sound like you are checking the level correctly. In Driveline/Transmissions/Automatic Transmissions/General Automatic Transmission Service you'll find: If the fluid is very red and doesn't smell burned you are probably ok. However, if you ever drop the pan and experience the MESS you'll make I'll bet you won't go back on with the pan until you put a drain plug in it.

Jonathan - Thanks. But what browser are you running? It doesn't work properly on mine in either Safari or Chrome. In Safari I can eventually get it in landscape mode after tapping the screen several times, which highlights some of the characters as if to copy them. Ditto Chrome, but in Safari it is usable. But on Chrome it goes away if you scroll.

I'd never heard of it until I decoded the door tag. I figured it was rare when my Google search only turn up uses of the C5 on some ford cars. Never the F150. Will be needing to do something about the tranny. Not sure if I want to rebuild or replace. My daily driver has a stick and I enjoy it but for this truck I'll stay with an automatic. I figure that I'll probably just rebuild. Ford's Master Parts Catalog, which most of our documentation comes from, shows the C5 was used in these trucks for several years, including '84. (Taken from Driveline/Transmissions/Automatic Transmissions and the Application tab.)

Ok, see what you think. NE Tarrant County would be Grapevineish, so that's where I put you. Can move you (on the map) if you want, but we aren't in this for precision as we don't want people showing up on our doorsteps uninvited.

Welcome! Glad you joined us. Where's home? Perhaps you are nearby and someone can help you? As said in my email response to your question about having posted in the wrong place, you are right. This folder is for introductions. And we ask that people first read the guidelines in this section, and then post an introduction message. We are a small group but we want to get to know each other, and we frequently call each other by our first names. So my suggestion was that you edit your post, copy the text, delete, and then tell us about yourself and repost. Then, start a new thread in the main section and either re-type your message or paste it in from the clipboard. But, retyping would be good as you could then unlock the Caps Lock key and use both upper and lower case. And a paragraph break or two. I say that because I find it hard to read and comprehend what you wrote. But, if you just paste what you wrote back in I'll do my best with it. And, toward solving the problems, have you found the 1986 EVTM (in the menu Electrical/EVTM/1986 EVTM) and all of the wiring diagrams? All the wiring for the '86 trucks is there. But the '86 was an oddball to the rest of the Bullnose trucks as most of them got the 2G alternator, with no regulator on the fender. But we need to know if you have the 1G with the fender-mounted regulator or the 2G with the integrated regulator.

Howdy, y'all! Glad you joined us, and glad you back into these trucks. We have a member's map (Bullnose Forum/Member's Map) and I'd be happy to add you if you'd like. C5? That's rare. I'd often wondered if that wouldn't be a good tranny to have.