Gary Lewis

Welcome, Brenden! Glad you joined. For all the FTE'ers, Brenden was XJPilot over there, but he says he's not been on much of late. I coaxed him over here from FaceBook by promising we'd be responsive and helpful. (So please don't let me down. ) Brenden - Your truck sounds great. How 'bout starting a thread in the main section and show us some pics?

Yes, get the alternator and at least the charge wire, which should include the fuse. And, you should also get the other wires to the alternator as well since you have some melted ones and will need to repair them. But I'm not sure what you mean about the mounting ear. The 3G's I've gotten have the same mounting ears as the 1G's and 2G's. As for the fusible link, you do have a burned one. But I can't tell which one it is, although it looks like it may be the big yellow one that connects to the ammeter shunt, as shown on Page 15 here: Electrical/1986 EVTM/Charge and Power Distribution - Gasoline Engines. If that's the case, then that is something you'll have to repair. The bussman fuse goes in the wire from the alternator to the solenoid. And, you have to bypass the shunt to the ammeter or it will burn up when the 3G start throwing its weight around. And, by the way, your images are too large to insert directly. But if you click the "Big Size" button they'll load just fine.

Dash looks great! And the description of the altered trim is what I thought you said. As for the A/C, go to the Integral A/C tab here (HVAC/HVAC Systems) and you can see the illustrations as well as some pics. Does that help?

LOL! You are REALLY going to have a pile of onion rings as you peel this one. Hope you like onion rings.

I've not heard of anyone repainting them, but from the instructions it looks like you might be able to remove the gears with the numbers on them. That might make it easier. But, not easy as there are lots of numbers to repaint. Like 60 of them? It might be easier to find a better odometer.

Google "engine degreaser" and you'll see that there are many spray foams that help. And, there are several videos that describe how well they work. I'd pull the air cleaner and put a plastic lid with a hole in the middle down over the carb to ensure no water gets in. And I'd use a spray foam as the instructions suggest.

Brian - Welcome! For what you got the price was good. Trucks that can be driven immediately are worth far more than those which need something fixed as you almost always find more broken than they tell you. On the alternator, I think you said you are going with a 3G, which is certainly what I’d do. The conversion page lists donor vehicles and you can get part of their wiring, making it a simple task. Again, welcome!

Does the 86/87 have 1986 gauges or 1987 gauges? What about door panels? And how 'bout the headlights and grille? But those changes he made make it an odd-ball no matter what the gauges, grille, etc are. Retired mechanic. You may be a big help here!

You are on the map. I used Dundas as that's where you said you live. And I always add an email link, but it is through the forum so it protects your privacy. But we haven't added phone numbers, although I could do that if you want.

Sully - Welcome! Glad you found us and joined. You seem to be either a fan of or a collector of 300 sixes. I've never had one, but am told they are a terrific truck engine. Do you have plans for them? You say the F250 is an 86/87. Does that mean it is an '86 with some '87 body panels on it? Or vice versa? As for your location, do you want to be on our map? (Bullnose Forum/Member's Map in the menu.) There's no extra charge, but we only put the city and not the actual address as we want to preserve everyone's privacy.

Yeah, I overlooked the E4OD as well. And, since it requires a computer to control it, just going with a carb adapter isn't enough. A Baumann Quick2, their cheapest controller, is $455 the cost start mounting. As you said, a manual needs the hydraulic clutch conversion, and I'd recommend the firewall stiffener when doing it, so there's more money. Which makes a big block C6 the easiest and cheapest solution - initially. But, over the long haul you'll pay some of that back with the poorer MPG due to the lack of an OD and the slipping torque converter.

Well said, Jim.

Is that the one that you reworked? Added and subtracted?

I assumed that is Bullhead City as I can't find a "Bullhead". And, I assumed that was permission to put you on the map - so you are. Looks like you and Jonathan are neighbors - about 30 miles between Bullhead City and Golden Acres.

Yep. The instructions are here: Electrical/Gauges on the Odometer Reset page.

Well, thanks to Steve!

Thanks to Vinny we have a new TSB/MIL Introduction.

Yes, we just returned last night from a rather extensive trip to Iceland and the Baltic. So now have to get ready for the show and all of y'all coming. But the plans to go to church with us on Sunday are certainly "okay". We are looking forward to that, for sure!

Or, summer on the back of a bike?

The auto trans gear indicator part is just held in place with a couple screws. 10 seconds to remove, and you can pop the manual trans blank in its place. Those parts are all interchangeable...EXCEPT maybe the 1980 truck stuff?....Gary will know, I think there is something different with them? 1981-1986 are all the same as far as I know. You could install only the tach in your existing instrument cluster, or you could swap in the whole cluster and just change out the auto indicator to the manual blank filler plate. Either or. I liked the fact that the extra instrument cluster gives me some spare gauges in case I ever need spare parts later on down the road. I bought a complete 1984 Bronco cluster for $75 USD. They come and go on Ebay, so the prices will vary. Might be a $20 item at a junk yard...some guys seem to have good luck with this stuff. Junk yards around here barely have anything older than 15-20 years, so the Bullnoses are long gone from a used parts stand point. Yes, the early 1980 trucks had a different pinout on the instrument connector. But that can be changed if you wind up with one of those clusters. Late 1980 through ‘86 were all the same. But, the dash wiring is different between a truck with idiot lights and gauges. I think this one has gauges, so a full gauge cluster with a tach will bolt/connect right in. As for the tach, they are all the same. But there’s a ground in the 8 cylinder’s engine wiring that tells the tach it is an 8 cylinder. So, any tach cluster with work with either engine.

Painless makes the harness and it is plug and play. But, it is expensive. If you can find a factory one from a salvage or someone on here then it'll probably cost a lot less. However, the factory wires are getting brittle, so watch out for breaks in the insulation.

This is a wonderful story! Your father purchased it new, and you will have it the rest of your life. Several things: Your pics aren't as big as they could be, and if you want them to be full sized you need to add width="100%" to the code that gets generated when you insert a pic. For instance, inserting a pic of Big Blue generates this code, but without the "" before and after: nabble_img src="After_Wash_and_Wax_Front_Quarter_-_Smaller.jpg" border="0"/ But to make it as big as possible I add the above text like this, although I made it bold for emphasis here: nabble_img src="After_Wash_and_Wax_Front_Quarter_-_Smaller.jpg" border="0" width="100%"/ On your speaker hole in the dash, Ron/reamer has a plastic patch or repair that you might like. See it here: http://forum.garysgaragemahal.com/WHYDTYTT-What-Have-You-Done-To-Your-Truck-Today-tp148.html However, what you have isn't too bad. Big Blue's is far worse. Steering box: Ford's design used the case for the front bearing, but after several thousand miles the case wears. You can buy a "rebuilt" steering box, like from Cardone, but they don't do anything about the worn case. However, both RedHead and Blue-Top bore out the original case and install a true bearing. So the box is really better than new. RedHead has gotten some bad reviews of late, but I don't really know if there's a problem. Blue-Top appears to be run by a previous RedHead employee and is getting good reviews, but someone recently said they were out of product when he contacted them. Interior: The interior colors are shown in Specifications/Interior Paint Choke: I'd try it the way it is before worrying too much about it. However, if you can find the right "stove", which is the sheet metal that goes around the exhaust, that would be the best solution.

Nice looking truck! Very clean with apparently no rust.

We'd love for you to come. And, as for the Subie, we have a 2001 Forester that we bought new, so have a soft spot in our hearts for them. Come on up! DS-II isn't that big of a deal - if you can find the right engine harness. There's a different harness for DS-II vs TFI, and you want one of the former. But each engine takes a slightly different harness. They are electrically the same, but the various sending units are in different places, as is the distributor, so the wire lengths are what changes. But you can make a harness from a different engine work by adjusting the wire length.

Sorry for the delayed responses. I've been on vacation in The Baltic (Russia, Estonia, Poland, etc.) and time and connectivity were limited. But, I'm home as of about midnight last night and can respond - although I may not be coherent for a few days. Yes, DS-II will work with your carb. The ignition itself isn't actually carb-dependent. But, the advance curve in the distributor is dependent on whether you have EGR or not. So if you aren't going to run EGR then you should try to find a dizzy from a pre-EGR truck. Or, have someone set the dizzy up for non-EGR. As for another thread, you should start one in the main section as this section is for intro's and doesn't get the views the main section does.