Gary Lewis

The FreeFind folks have given me new HTML for the search function, which I've implemented. Take a test drive of it and see what you think.

Yep, that's the guy. And I've added the part and ID # to the page here: Electrical/Radios. And, that says the # on the part should be E0TF 19A179-AA or -AB.

I like it. And, it isn't that far from me. But, I have too many trucks as it is. And, it is a 302/C6 combo.

Jonathan - Glad it is working. Please let me know what you think of it and its options. Chris - I have tried it with these results. And my searches were without the quotes. Search The Garagemahal: This search covers both the whole website as well as the forum. And I didn't find anything with all three words. However, that's possible since today's indexing was not complete when it ran out of storage space at 2044 pages. So it is possible that the page on 3D printing, found below, hadn't been indexed. And this thread wasn't in existence when the the indexing was done so it wasn't found. Middle: This search is a Nabble search and is, therefore, only on the forum itself. And it found both the 3D thread as well as this one. Google Custom: This only searches the website, not the forum. And, it didn't find the three words. I've sent a note to the FreeFind folks who do the search function that's at the top of each page to see what it will take to get full indexing of the site and the forum. And, to work out some of the details on placement, text size, etc. But first we have to decide if we like it.

Grounds are shown here: Electrical/Grounds. Or, you can go here: Electrical/EVTM/1986 EVTM/Grounds and see on Page 11 that G701 is shown in Illustration 3 on Page 67. Bottom Line: It goes to the firewall.

Have you tried clicking on the phrase "Search the Garagemahal"?

We've all "been there, done that" in one way or another. But I've never had a bad battery right from the get-go. Glad you got that sorted. By the way, do you have a keep-alive battery? I have a plug and a 9v battery that goes in the cigarette lighter to keep the settings alive while you change out the main battery. Comes in really handy when you have lots of pre-sets that are a pain to redo.

Jonathan - Again, please don't think I'm throwing stones. Trust me, I want our website to be excellent, and I'm open to all suggestions. On the other website, I think the menu at the top is a function of the site hosting it. It certainly is for our website as it is generated by Weebly as a function of where we place the pages in the hierarchy. In other words, we have a home page, which is the forum, and then levels 1, 2, 3, etc. Level 1 pages show in the first blush of the menu when you click the three lines (hamburger bar). And then Level 2 shows up when you click one of the Level 1's. So that is automagic and easy. But, anything else we do, or at least anything else I've found, is manual. And that's where the rub comes in - it get onerous and/or easily forgotten and I don't get it done.

I've moved the Freefind site search from the bottom to the top of every page - as shown below. It currently isn't easy to see as it is apparently partially blocked by the menu bar and the font is very small. But, I think I could sort those issues out if we like the function. So, please play with it. Turns out to be very useful as it only searches only our website, and it finds posts in the forum as well as pages in the documentation. Plus, it has a site map and other features I might be able to turn on if we like it. Having said that, our site is getting big enough that it may not be free to do the whole site. So, I need feedback on what you think of the function. If we like it then I can address both the aesthetics, maybe make it say "search the Garagemahal", as well as the size/cost.

Jim, and everyone - I've moved the Freefind site search to the top of every page - as shown below. It currently isn't easy to see as it is apparently partially blocked by the menu bar and the font is very small. But, I think I could sort those issues out if we like the function. So, please play with it. Turns out to be very useful as it only searches our website, and it finds posts in the forum as well as pages in the documentation. Plus, it has a site map and other features I might be able to turn on if we like it. Having said that, our site is getting big enough that it may not be free to do the whole site. So, I need feedback on what you think of the function. If we like it then I can address both the aesthetics, maybe make it say "search the Garagemahal", as well as the size/cost.

Jonathan - I hope I didn't come across as saying the idea is a bad one. I think the idea has merit. So I want to explore it to see what it entails, how it might help, etc. But, I think we need to keep in mind the "cost", in man hours, to implement and maintain it vs the ease of use. Said another way, a simple interface makes it easy to add pages (more of which later) but more difficult to use, and a complex interface reverses the effort - it makes it easier to use and more complex to implement or maintain. So, let's dissect the Pentaxians site: Home Page: Graphics on the home page that take you to Level 2, but also a Level 2 menu at the top that lets you drill down to Level 3. In other words, once you get familiar with the site it is faster to use the drop-down menu than the icons as there's only one step instead of two. Level 2: No graphics, but it has both the menu above and a listing of Level 3 things in tabular form. However, if you go to the Bodies page you'll see that the drop-down menu doesn't have everything that is on the page in tabular form. That means the tabular form was created by a man - who then has to keep it up. Level 3: Nice tables, but on the pages I explored there aren't links to lower levels. And no graphics. It wouldn't be too hard to implement the approach used on the home page to our website. As said, there are something like 20 things in Level 2. But, it would require some changes. One change would be to an approach I've started to use where there is no Level 2 for some categories. For instance, try going to the Emissions page. When you click on Emissions it drops down the Level 3 entries, but it doesn't go to a page. That's because I don't have anything to say about "emissions" per se so I didn't want to have a page to have to think of what to say. But, I needed a placeholder for all of the individual emissions topics, like inferred mileage and thermactor systems. So I'd have to create a Level 2 page for Emissions so the user can go to it in order to get to inferred mileage and thermactor systems. And then I'd have to remember to add things to that page when I add a new topic under emissions. That's where I get sloppy - keeping up all of the ancillary things that go with fancy menus. One thing I really dislike about our website is that you don't know where you are or how you got there. There's no map that shows everything around you with a You Are Here yellow star. That's why the early pages have a tabular menu at the top showing all the other pages at the same level, and the page you are on in red. But that quickly became onerous to maintain. Add a page to Electrical and you have to add another link to 29 other pages. So I quit updating the existing tabular menu when I added new pages, and now you can go to some sections and think you see all of the other pages around you, but there are more that just don't show as I was too lazy to add them. Or, didn't remember to add them. So the easier it is to add pages the more likely I am to add them. Conversely, if it is difficult to add a page due to the complexity of menus, then I'll probably give the new page a miss. But if we can figure out an easy way to do this, and one that brings in lots of traffic, then maybe I could be reminded of the necessity of doing the menus when I add a page. I really do want to make the website better. I just want to think through what the "cost" is before embarking on that mission. So let's keep kicking this around.

Gary hit the nail on the head! Not sure if I got the gaskets upside down or what. That passage actually extends up past the top of the lower manifold and the gasket isn't covering up the little bit that is exposed. The old rubber hose let me right to it. Guess I'll have to pay more attention to gaskets the next time.... For now I'm just going to have to deal with it or figure out a temp patch of some kind to keep stuff from getting in there and into the valve. Glad you found it, but sorry that's what it is as that's not an easy fix - as you already know. I thought perhaps there's a difference in the gasket for EFI vs NA, but checked the catalog and there isn't. Don't know what to tell you.

Interesting!

No, my dog doesn't bite. (But that's not my dog.)

1985 Bronco - If you have pics to use on the radiator support send them on. I'll schedule that when I can. Jim/Jonathan - We need to achieve a balance. On one extreme I could spend a whole lot of time making it easy for those who won't read the menu to find what they need. On the other, I could spend my time adding new pages and the site would serve those who will read the menu. But, if we can find a middle-of-the-road approach that doesn't take much more time that the current approach then we might have a good solution. But I'm having a hard time imagining what the "header shot of whatever is included in the subsection" looks like. Would it be something like a page with small pictures that are used as icons to get to the info, like: Cooling Systems a radiator? Driveline a picture of an engine, tranny, rear axle Electrical a picture of a battery or an alternator or maybe a lightning bolt Is that what you mean? If so, look at 1981 Literature. I can pack them much tighter than that, but we still have 20 things at the top level, so maybe 4 wide by 5 deep. But, then do we have to do that at the next level? Or, to put it another way, if you click on Electrical where should it take you? Currently it takes you to the page shown below, which is waaaay out of date since it shows 7 entries at the next level and there are actually 27 of them. In other words, I've not keep that up for a long time. So, my fear is that we come up with a plan that brings others in but is onerous to maintain and, therefore, won't be. But, if I had a helper, ......

Ooooooh! Pretty!

One pound each? Seriously, I was using old old scales, and I know they aren't the most accurate down close to zero. So, who knows.

Dad's weighs 28 lbs. Absolutely bare, meaning nothing on it whatsoever.

Sometimes "the catalog" fails us. And here's an example. Brandon/Bruno2 is over getting engine parts ready for painting. And in the midst of that he asked me to figure out which of the three "dipsticks" is the right one for his engine, which is a 1982 351W from an F150. That should be easy 'cause they are marked. So, we read the markings: E2TE 6750-EA; E5UE 6750-DA; and E3TE 6750-CA. Well, right off the bat we can toss out the E5UE as the "U" means it came from an E-Series van. But, to find the real one from the other two we went to 1994 version of the master parts catalog, which I have on CD: Well, anyone spot either of those #'s in the right-most column? Nope? Well, maybe Ford, in their infinite wisdom, changed the part number/identification number. So, we turned to the 1982 version of the master parts catalog, which I have on microfiche. Nope. Hmmm, what about the 1989 version? Bingo! The moral of the story is that you have to have a wide variety of documentation in order to figure out these trucks. Ford added and deleted part and identification #'s from each issue of the master parts catalog. So sometimes you have to try several times in order to find what you are looking for.

Not half-baked at all! I really want to make this work for everyone, and have even paid Facebook for advertising to get it off the ground. But, that cost me something like $40 and netted very little in the way of traffic, so I turned that off. And, I didn't take it that you were suggesting we move to Facebook. I was just explaining why I don't problem-solve over there. Chris said something to me recently that has me thinking. He said that he's been told that most of the traffic on FTE is one-timers that come on to get a problem solved and don't come back until the next problem comes along. And while I don't dislike one-timers, I really like getting to know people and helping them. But I have nothing against those who want to spend their time helping one-offers. That's just not where I want to spend my time. Anyway, I can move the search function to the top of the page and highlight it so people can find it. Let me think about that a bit. (And, if I come off with some bizarre responses blame it on Brandon's lacquer thinner fumes.)

I wonder how hard it would be for John to replicate those stripes?

I had full intentions of getting you the info yesterday. But I forgot. Sorry. Dad's 1981 F150 4wd drive rotors are 11 11/16" in diameter. And they say that the minimum thickness is 1.12". And the 1985 book says the same for minimum thickness. Is that what you need?

Jonathan - Interesting suggestion. And, let's do brainstorm that here for a while. First though, I do see the explosion of Facebook pages and I even have two myself. But, I don't want to do any problem solving on Facebook. Instead, my pages are just for pointers back to here, meaning this forum and the whole website. That's because long ago I got frustrated with answering everyone's repetitive questions on the same things. That was the impetus for the ill-fated FTE albums which were intended to answer the most oft-asked questions so we didn't have to re-invent that wheel each and every time. And then when the albums didn't work I created this website. But, I do provide links on the various Facebook pages I'm on when questions are asked that this site can answer. On the other hand, there's no way to find previous answers to the same question on Facebook, which is why I don't plan to problem-solve there. And, as shown on the chart below, people are finding the site. The chart is for Google searches from 1/1/2018 to today, and basically it shows that the "impressions", which means that this site was offered in the results of a search, went from around 300/day at the first of the year to about 1000 today. At the same time the number of people that have clicked on the resulting link has gone from about 20/day to 60/day. Meanwhile, the position within the search results has gone from about 13th to 10th. All of this is synergistic - as people click on our link then the placement moves up in the results, meaning more people will click on the link. HOWEVER, I agree that while the menu works and is nice and simple, it is a pain to use. Even I, who created it, sometimes have to do an internal search for whatever I need. (Many people don't realize that there's an internal search at the bottom of every page.) So, it would help to have a better way to find things - w/o searching. So, I like the idea of having a "documentation" page. BUT, it needs to be easily maintained or I may "forget" to do it. I started the site by having a mini-menu on each page, as shown in the example below. But that quickly became hard to maintain as the site went from less than 40 pages to over 400. Given that, if there was an easy way to see what is available, but one that is maintainable I'd be all for it. Can you point me to an example somewhere of what you have in mind?

If the lower plenum is corroded you may have problems sealing to it. Check the casting closely.

There's an exhaust passage in the head that meets the lower plenum. Or, at least there was on earlier heads and I think it was still there when they introduced EFI. So, the leak could be there. On the thermostat housing, the naturally-aspirated manifolds had two different bolt lengths on the Windsor. So make sure you got the right ones in the right places as you can't tighten the long one down in the short spot enough to stop a leak. Don't ask how I know.