Gary Lewis

My father used to say "Ain't that a revolting development." I used to think I understood, but as of this morning I HAVE IT! After the conversation with René yesterday I thought I'd test Big Blue's HVAC blower motor. The plan was to take it out and oil it and then see what difference that made. But it dawned on me that I might want to take some benchmark measurements first to see if I'd made any improvements. However, when I did I was dismayed, or maybe revolted, by the results. Here's what I got as well as some calc's to go with it using the as-is harness in the truck: Test 1: Battery @ 12.5V, positive terminal to motor @ 11.15v, negative terminal @ 3.2v, and current @ 10.2 amps. WOW! Effective voltage to the motor is only 9.3v??? That's only 74%! And 95 watts. Test 2: Battery @ 12.8v, voltage to motor @ 8.4v, and current @ 8.6A for 72 watts Test 3: Battery at 13.7v, voltage to motor @ 8.5v, and current @ 8.6A for 73 watts Note that some of the differences in the readings might be due to having introduced a different meter to read battery voltage, and directly reading voltage to the motor instead of reading the negative side and then the positive side. But nevertheless, there are PROBLEMS! And I thought I had that covered, at least on the negative side, with a relay. But then I wondered what would happen if I jumpered the motor directly to the battery using the light test jumpers I have, which might be 18 gauge. And here are those results: Test A: Battery @ 13.0 volts and presumably that's what the motor saw, but I doubt it given the leads. The current was 14.3 amps, which calculates to 186 watts. Test B: Battery @ 13.5v and current @ 14.5 amps for 196 watts. And I'll tell you, the air flow in the cab was night and day different to what I've been getting! There's nothing wrong with the blower motor that a little bit more juice wouldn't solve. So now I'm going to be checking the wiring. I thought I put a relay in the ground circuit, but if so I must not have wired it correctly. And I certainly need a relay in the power feed.

I really cannot say because all I know is part numbers, and I can't tell from a part number what the difference is. However, I can say that since the "E2" bit of E2TZ means that it was designed in 1982, that it is fair to say that Ford changed the crossmember somehow then. And, I've heard that the frames from the 1979 and earlier trucks were quite different than the Bullnose frames, although I don't have any proof of that. So I think it is unlikely that the 1979 and earlier parts will fit your truck.

Yuppers. You simply cannot trust what they write. I was just thinking that having mentioned Copilot time after time in such negative terms that maybe Microsoft will get the point. But they are probably using Copilot to watch for comments and its response when I asked it to summarize what we'd said about it was laughable. It twisted things so badly to make them positive you couldn't recognize anything. So it would be a poor tool to use for monitoring.

Yes, it might. But I missed your edit. Do I need to go back and look? I'm going to email them this morning and then call later today. I'll explain about the forum/website and include some info about Big Blue. Then I'll point out that you've ordered from them and let me know that you are pleased with both their shipping and their product. And that you mentioned that they are in Tulsa. We shall see what transpires.

That's scary! But what it is saying makes sense. Especially the closing statement: And it fits with what I've seen - that at least Copilot will not adhere to the guidelines you give it. Period. So you cannot trust the results. Ask Michael Cohen.

Billet 4x4 is in Tulsa??? Right where we were the other day? I'd heard of them, but never noticed the 918 area code. Doesn't look like they have a store per se, just a sales office. But I might call them and have a chat later today just to find out about them. Maybe they'd want to be involved in the show. Anyway, hope you can get the clamps installed. Having a leaf catch can't be good, and having the cross member loose might be worse. How much snow are you supposed to get?

Yes, Jim, you will be busy. But please be careful! And yes, it'll take a while to get things warmed up. It is supposed to go down to -2F tonight, but get up into the 20's tomorrow afternoon. I have a Bible lesson to prepare tomorrow for Wednesday, so maybe I can do that in the morning and try to warm the beast up in the afternoon. Driving it would warm it up faster, but the roads are packed in the neighborhood and I don't want to take a bunch of snow into the shop to melt and cause a mess. So I'll just let it idle and see what happens.

It would be neat if it was actually a thermometer.

I suspect you have a bad u-joint in that front axle. So I'd lock one hub at a time and see which one causes the vibration. If one does cause a vibration I'd lock the other one in, by itself, and engage the transfer case to prove that everything else is smooth. If that is smooth you'll know where your problem lies.

I hope we get that kind of heat. I can always turn it down, but heretofore that has never been needed. I think tomorrow, after I cycle the thermostat a couple of times to ensure I have the system full, I'm going to pull the blower motor and check it out, lube it, etc. As for LEDs, I'm hoping that I'll not see them die, save for a few with infant mortality.

That certainly IS cool!

Thanks, David. Yes, Vemco instead of Napco. At least it had a "co" in it. And yes, this looks kinda like a Highboy. And they had divorced t-cases as well.

Good to know about the 'stat. I'll expect nice, hot air for a change. As for everything failing at the same time, it happens that way. All of the almost 80 fluorescent bulbs in the shop started failing at the same time, and that fits perfectly with the statistics problem I had back in school. Everything has a bell curve predicting when it'll fail, and when you have a bunch of the same things they tend to fail at roughly the same time. So now I have new LEDs that'll all fail at the same time - but maybe many, many years from now.

So what 'stat do you have? As for the sender, you are lucky if it didn't leak. One of my friends brought his 91 F150 over some time ago and its sender was squirting oil. And other friends just had their sending unit fail on Sunday - squirting oil. Anyway, glad you caught it and got it fixed.

A couple of updates. First, Shaun/salans7 provided us with pictures of transmission and t-case linkages/shift levers. So I put the t-case ones on a new tab at Documentation/Driveline/Transfer Cases. And the transmission ones are on a new page at Documentation/Transmissions/Manual Transmissions/Manual Transmission Shift Levers. Second, today I scanned the Radiators section from the 1985 FSM and put it on the page at Documentation/Cooling Systems/Radiators. But now that I've done it I see that there's a lot of bleed-through from the other side of the page, so maybe I can re-scan it tomorrow. And, as you'll see, I discovered an error in the specs. It shows the torque spec for the 460's thermostat housing to be 23 - 28 lb-ft. But the Engine section shows it to be 10 - 15 lb-ft, and at 15 Big Blue's got quite solid so I'm sure that's correct. So I struck through the wrong numbers and entered the correct ones.

Jim - That makes sense. But if it is rich I'm doubting you still have a vacuum leak. As for what I did to my truck today, I changed out the thermostat. Scotty had recommended a 180F but it wasn't letting us get toasty in the cab very quickly, so I changed it out for a 195F since we plan to take in on a trip in a week or two. Things went pretty smoothly, but there were some high points and low points. The first high point was in draining the system enough to pull the thermostat out. Luckily I have one of the nice drain valves that Scott found, and that made for a mess-less draining process. A "middle" point was in using the heater hose at the heater core to fill the system to get all of the air out. That went pretty well, but since I have a vacuum-operated shutoff valve on the other hose and it was closed since there was no vacuum to open it, I probably didn't get the system quite full. I thought about using the Mityvac to open the valve, but I was holding a hose and a funnel with one hand and didn't dare let go of them to go get the Mityvac. So it is what it is. The "low" point wasn't very low, but it sure could have been. I wondered what the torque spec is for the thermostat housing bolts, so went to the shop manual. Found it in the Radiators section, and was blown away that it said the 460's bolts are to be torqued to 23 - 28 lb-ft. So I started tightening and found that my gut feel was that 10 lb-ft was enough. But I could tell that I was squishing the gasket up until 15 lb-ft, at which point it got solid, so I quit. Then I checked the Engine section of the FSM and found that it said the spec is from 10 - 15 lb-ft. So I scanned the Radiators section in and put it on the Radiators page, but marked it up as shown with the Engines specs.

My bad! I think the NAPCO conversions on the E-Series vans had two diffs, but apparently not on the pickups. I saw two driveshafts but didn't think about one being input and the other output to the front.

Yes, cut the engine cross member and I cut the frame to accommodate the L&L headers. (But only a little bit. ) I'm not at all worried about where I cut the frame, but the cut on the cross member was very concerning. However, given the prep and welding that Welder Scott did it is no longer a concern.

That's not a bad price at all. And I'd go with Ford actuators 100 times before going with the cheap Chinese ones. Been there, done that, and wasted my money. They weren't strong enough to operate the locks, but the Ford ones operate them with a resounding THUNK. The only thing I got for my $40 was good boots, which fit the old Ford ones perfectly.

Then disregard all I’ve said. It doesn’t seem like you have a vacuum leak or it would be lean, not rich. And with the float level not leaking out the inspection hole it isn’t that - unless it is the secondaries. And I don’t know how to test that. So, is there any chance the new PV is leaking? Maybe through the valve and not the diaphragm?

Yes, it is a lot of money. And a surprisingly complex system with two front diffs and driveshafts.

I'm not really sure what this means? Our days start out with a little frost (high 20's) but no colder than we have already seen this season. https://www.holley.com/products/fuel_systems/carburetors/street/parts/0-80508S The only real change is a quick change secondary spring cap and a slightly stiffer spring due to heavy truck with an RV cam. I've checked the flap closes, the fast idle cam comes into play and that when I get a squirt from the accelerator pump the choke is free to move, with only coil spring pressure holding it shut. The center hung float was set by measuring with a scale while the bowl is inverted. It has the unintuitive nut & lock screw float valves. I cannot blow through the seat in this position. There is no 'window' but if I remove the level plug I just get a little wetness, not any gas really flowing out. The little plastic baffle is properly in place under the gasket. After having hosed down all around the base flange & spacer with ether looking for leaks I sprayed some Teflon dry lube on the choke/fast idle linkage and the secondary lockout arm and rod. I did not have a propane torch in the Advance parking lot that night, nor the next morning when I got off and drove home. The accelerator pump gap is set to fifteen thou per almost every rebuild kit and tuning book I've ever read.(remember the days of setting points gap with a match book?) I did not check for volume of the pump shot and I did not disassemble or change the cam hole the screw is in. From how it's acting, if this carb had a PV in the secondary metering plate I'd say that was blown too. But it doesn't, and I didn't get a 'bang!' when this apparently happened. I was merging onto 95, noticed the sign of running out of fuel and switched tanks. The truck sputtered and coughed as it came back to life. Couple of miles later I get to the light at the bottom of the ramp and it loads up and dies. Have a hard time getting it started because it's flooded. Now it is acting 'fat' but I'm not sure why. Sluggish to accelerate, burbles and hangs as it returns to idle. Edit, im overlooking something, and I'm not sure where/what I should be looking for next. 🧐 I can get a propane torch if you think that will make it act any different than a can of starting fluid would. Jim - Just for clarification, I was assuming it is lean, but you said it is fat. Even when starting?

And now you can take multiple high res pictures so we can add them to the page. 👍

He did it when Big Blue was in Florida. Check out the post here: https://forum.garysgaragemahal.com/Big-Blue-s-Transformation-tp28014p29309.html

I'm not sure he has a hammer, but he sure has a Sawzall. And he used it on my frame!