Gary Lewis

It isn't just the low-end things. Look at the problems Boeing is having with quality control.

Please let us know what you find, Mat.

The AVS, or AVS2, certainly is a better carb than the AFB. You have to disassemble the Aluminum Four Barrel and either grind material off or add material to the weight in order to change when the secondaries open. But on the Air Valve Secondary you hold a screw, loosen the lock screw, and then turn the adjustment screw a bit more clockwise for later opening or CCW for earlier opening. Easy peasy.

Thanks, Bradley.

I thought you'd like that, Jeff. Here are my thoughts: I'll draw up a schematic showing how I think it can be done via a C610 harness. But that's going to look more complicated than it really would be given the way the schematic has the 4 terminals of C610 spread all across the page. Then I'll take a real C610 harness and make the needed changes and you'll see how simple it really is since C610 is really small. But I'm in the middle of another project so won't get to this for a while. In the interim I'd love to see everyone's thoughts on this.

Thanks, guys. But I don’t think you want me as your documentarian. I’m finding I didn’t do a good job on my own truck. 😩 Tomorrow I hope to get the power relay wired and check out the ground relay to make sure I’m happy with the connections and wire size. And then power it up for a test.

Have any of you tried this? >

That Summit carb has gotten good reviews from what I've seen. Rick, a guy on here, has one and loves it. And no gaskets below fuel level gets my vote.

Impressive! Got a note from TIE today and the two 50A relays are on their way. Given that I thought it might be time for me to do the work in the PDB, so I pulled it loose and got to work. That means I disconnected all the power feeds to the PDB, moved the coolant recovery/windshield washer reservoir to somewhere where it won't spill, removed the bracket that the reservoir & PDB bolt to, got the lower shield off the PDB, and started identifying wires. But that's where things started getting "interesting". First, I realized that I'd mis-connected the power wires to the PDB. Instead of connecting the megafuse, batteries, and starter to the bus of the PDB and the alternator to the other side of the megafuse, as shown below, I'd swapped them. So if the fuse had blown the vehicle would be running on the alternator, and if any of you have tried to do that you'll realize it doesn't work at all. Instant shutoff. So I'll just swap those wires when it goes back together. Next I found that the fuse slot I'd planned to use was already in use - it powers the fender-mounted starter relay. (That relay just pulls the PMGR starter in, and the main power to the starter comes from the PDB's bus.) But the yoyo that did the wiring forgot to document that. But after that it was smooth sailing. I've found the three wires to the blower power relay that I need to connect to - the fourth is already grounded as it should be. And I found a length of the Br/O wire to use and opened up the harness to get to where I need to tap in. But that'll have to wait until tomorrow as we have more errands to run this afternoon. Hopefully I'll get the connections made and get to test it out tomorrow.

You might benefit from reading our discussion about rethinking the 3G pages here: https://forum.garysgaragemahal.com/Rethinking-The-3G-Conversion-Pages-Process-td144886.html#a144965. And I know we'd benefit from your thoughts on it since many of us are quite familiar with wiring, 3G upgrades, etc. So having you tell us what you think would be very helpful.

That's why I was talking about options. If the C610 harness is good, then you could... But if it isn't then... I think I have a harness that is good and much prefer soldering on the bench than in the truck, so would go that way. But if the reader's harness isn't good then they'll have to do it another way. Jeff said he loves "plug’n play upgrades", and I think he is probably typical of truck owners. So if we can get it down to just unplugging the C610 harness and plugging in a replacement then I think a whole lot of people will want to do it.

What part do you disagree with?

Good point. And also eliminate the "150A" on the megafuse. Or maybe make that "Sized in accordance to the alternator output"?

I'm not high on grounding 654 in the dash as there's not much room to work there. However, it is an option and could be explained that way. My preference would be to salvage the C610 connector from the removed harness and splice on some wire to the short piece of Y/LG there and take that to ground. Then do the U there on that side of C610 for LG/R to R/O and, while at it, extend that wire to the alternator. Similarly, use the piece of Y for Ckt 37 coming out of C610 and put a ring-tongue terminal on the end of it to go to the megafuse's stud. All of that work could be done on the bench and then plugged in to the truck. In fact, that is something that someone could make up and sell - a kit with a voltmeter from Rocketman and a C610 replacement harness and you'd have a plug & play 3G.

Nice truck. And that's not a bad price.

You are now on the map.

Having slept on it, I think the megafuse needs to move up in the drawing so one of its lugs can be used as the terminal for the Y wire and the wire going to the starter relay. Just to make things as easy as is possible. And, I should redraw the wires so they have some color. That way we can refer to "the red wire" or the "yellow wire". Just things to fine tune as we revise the approaches, plural, to 3G conversions.

Bill - Yes, an aftermarket voltmeter could be added. But I don't like non-functioning things on my truck, so don't want that gauge to sit there and do nothing. So I personally prefer that the ammeter be converted to a voltmeter which, as you said, is a far better indicator of charging system health. But if someone wanted to go aftermarket they could use the Cleaned Up approach, meaning unplug and remove the C610 harness and just add their own voltmeter. Jim - It is a hassle to pull the cluster and swap the gauge out, but less hassle than stuck on the side of the road because the alternator quit and you couldn't tell. Been there, done that. And another hassle is wiring up the key-on relay. So what about an option to power the voltmeter with the LG/R wire instead of a relay? As you know, that's not my preference as I want to know the voltage at the battery and not in the cab, which fluctuates with the accessories that are on. But some may prefer that over wiring in a relay.

Thanks, Jim.

Amen, brother! Now if I could just find a gentleman...

Well spotted! I didn't see that.

Those are nice! If I didn't have the Hella's on Big Blue I'd jump on them.

The picture was taken with the stud resting against the shift lever, but has not been threaded into the lever as I haven't drilled the lever out to size. Once I do, the only thing that will be visible is the small center section of the stud. The studs I ordered are less than an inch on the 3/8-16 side so I'm not having to cut too far down into the lever and also so I don't have to cut the studs down. Sounds great, Shaun!

Just saw that this 1990 F150 sold at Barrett-Jackson for $30,800. Here are some pics, but it looks like things are getting 'spensive!

Yippee! But are you going to run the stud farther in, cut it off, or?