Gary Lewis

Perhaps the choke is coming off way too soon, which would kill the engine. Or, maybe it has a vacuum leak and needs lots of choke. The choke on that Eddy is on the passenger's side. Big black cap that can be adjusted by loosening three small screws. IIRC, CCW is rich and CW is lean, but there's a line on the cap and multiple lines on the carb. Should be close to the middle or index position if everything else is right.

Very nice price for a clean truck. The Pacific NW seems to be the place to buy them.

Jonathan - Even halfway through a fresh cup of java and having had a good night's sleep I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around all of this. So, I'm going to "think" aloud. First, I have a hard time reading your table so will re-post it here so it is more easily seen: So that means we need to determine what the actual colors were for those 10 "D" colors in the chart. I've added your guesses to this table to try to consolidate so I can, maybe, get my head around it. Blue (brt) - 1982: probably 3P Medium Blue Irid Blue (lt) - 1983: probably 32 Bright Blue Caramel - 1982: probably 5G Dark Caramel Metallic Charcoal - 1983: probably 9V Light Charcoal Metallic Silver - 1982: probably 1G Silver Metallic White - 1982 White - 1983 Black - 1982 & 1983: probably 1C Raven Black Red - 1982 & 1983: probably 2K Candyapple Red Tan - 1983: probably 9Q Light Desert Tan Note that I didn't add the white. I'm not convinced that it was the same white for both years as Ford wouldn't have issued a new part number for the same tape stripe kit. Something changed, and since the other colors in the stripes appear to have the same fairly explicit names, I'm guessing the white changed. What we need is a 1982 or 1983 Ford Light Truck Facts Organizer, like I have here for the 1981. That would probably help a lot on the whole XLS thing, and I'm happy to buy one if we can find one at a reasonable price as I'd like to add it to my library. But, right now I don't see one being advertised. Perhaps our eBay guru can find one? But, in the interim I'll fire up the "microfiche tower" and see if the 1982 or 1989 versions of the master parts catalog shed any light on this.

Obviously the whole wiring thing is suspect since, as Pete points out, there's not supposed to be a wire from the solenoid to the coil. And, the "brain" is probably the DS-II ignition box, and w/o it I don't understand how it can run at all unless someone did put a point-style distributor in. So that area needs explored, for sure. Since the filter stayed full the whole time maybe it isn't the fuel system. But the fact that he rebuilt the carb and, apparently, after that there's a problem raises red flags in my mind. So once you understand the ignition system and prove it is good then check out the fuel system. But the engine sounded good while it was running. So hopefully there isn't much wrong. Good buy!

Congrat's!! $900 is a good price and you shouldn't feel badly about paying that. As for the engine, it sounds good. So if it died I'm going to guess that it ran out of fuel. Maybe a bad pump? Or hose with leaks between the pump and the tank? Or just out of gas? Can't wait for the pics!

Jonathan - At first blush your logic holds. However, in the morning sitting with a fresh cup of Verona and a fresh mind I'll work through it again and respond.

Mark - When Brandon was here the other day I took some pics of his carb's fast idle linkage to try to explain better what I've been saying. Here's a pic with the choke completely closed, like when the engine is cold, and you can see the fast idle screw is against the fast idle cam in : And here's what the linkage looks like with the choke fully open and no fast idle: Here's what happens when the engine cools and the choke tries to set. But the fast idle screw hits the fast idle cam and won't let the choke close fully: And here's a close-up of the cam and screw. The cam, which is trying to rotate counterclockwise due to the spring of the choke, has hit the screw and can't rotate any further until the throttle is opened and the screw lifts off the cam. Then the choke will close fully and when you release the throttle the fast idle screw will come down on the cam and hold the throttle open slightly.

That's the sure-fire test - show the wife. In my case I'd get a "what are you thinking - oh, you aren't!"

Sent the seller a note asking if I can preserve the pics. Beautiful truck.

Its been fun, doing what can't be done.

Yes, you should have taken a pic of me doing research. Things are getting packed in the Garagemahal, so I thought that was a neat solution for seldom-used pieces of equipment. And Brandon is right, that plastic fitting fought us tooth and nail. The keys were heat and lubrication. The heat let both the rubber grommet and the plastic fitting give a bit more, and the lubrication let them slide past each other. But the result was worth it.

Other than adding the Ford ball for the linkage and removing the other Chevy piece it is ready. But, the fast idle is set high as I wanted it up for the pics I took. However, you'll need it up for the cam break in, so I'd leave it there until you are read to adjust the idle mix, idle speed, etc.

Good catch, David. And, it appears to have had, or maybe still has, fog lamps. So, probably has the fog lamp bezel and switch. Maybe easily worth more than $900 for the parts - assuming they are usable.

Yes, batteries can act strangely. Haven't seen anything as bizarre as a light blinking on and off, but I have seen the voltage change abruptly. When we had the '72 F250 we had a 9 1/2' self-contained camper on it. New truck, new batteries, new wiring. And I've seen the lights change brightness many times in an evening, from bright to brighter and back to bright. All of the lights would do it at the same time. I checked the circuits and connections out completely - there were no bad connections. But the voltage would change so quickly you could see the light intensity change. Like maybe bubbles were forming in the electrolyte and then letting go, which changed the voltage. I don't know what the cause was, but it happened and frequently.

2 whole miles? Can't wait to find out.

Just happen to have a picture of one of the finished products. But I'll leave it to Brandon to tell how long it took to do that. And, just for clarity, the "microfiche tower" needs some 'splaining. Bill/Numberdummy and Chris/ctubutis left me with two microfiche viewers when they were here last fall. But those things are bulky, so I put them on top of the powdercoating/paint booth. And, when I need to use one, which is rare, I pull out the 8' step ladder. "Microfice tower".

Certainly worth a look. You've probably seen Pete's post that the Bullnose Bronco's are headed up in price according to Hagerty. But, if the engine is bad you are looking at a min of $2k, so it gets 'spensive quickly. And, with the engine not running you can't tell if anything else is good. Still, if it is close then it might be worth a look.

Nice truck, but that interest rate was AWFUL! I'd forgotten how bad it was then.

The guy said he doesn't know the source, but he had it on his truck. I hope we find out. I've never seen one on these trucks, but that doesn't mean there wasn't one.

Nice looking truck.

The guy that has that one for sale emailed me that he will be happy to check for part numbers, but can't until Tuesday. Meanwhile I'm going to look mine over and find out where the numbers are, if they are there, and let him know to make his hunt easier.

Cool! May some day own a Bullnose Bronco, but if they are going up I'd bet the pickups are as well. Maybe not as fast or as high, but up nonetheless.

As shown on Fuel Systems/Air Cleaner Housing #'s there were three housings for the 351-4/B: 1984-87 E4TZ 9600-P 1985-86 E5TZ 9600-E 1985-86 E5TZ 9600-H with was replaced by E7TZ 9600-J So if one of those was a dual-snorkel then it was either for the 1984 - 87 range or the 1985 - 86 range.

Interesting! I sent the seller this message: New message to: teamshelley2016 I'm sort of an historian for the 1980 - 86 Ford trucks. In fact, I have a website about them: http://www.garysgaragemahal.com. I've never seen a dual-snorkel air cleaner on them so am intrigued. Are there any part numbers on the base or the snorkels? If you don't know where to look I can look at mine to see if I can find where the #'s are. Thanks in advance, Gary

That is the right part number.