Gary Lewis

Yes, like the carbs on most bikes in the 70's. I was given one of the VV's in the 80's and that was my first thought - like a bike carb. Unfortunately I no longer have the carb, and have kinda wanted one just for show.

Chris - The 1985 radios are the same as the 1986 radios, which are shown on pages 127 & 128 in the Electrical/EVTM/1986 EVTM/Radios. In addition, on Page 129 you can see the page number and even which figure in which you can find an illustration showing each connector. And the 1996 radios are shown below. Oddly enough, both of these are from Bill's EVTM's. The 1986 is his, and the '96 I took pics of is his. And I took pics from his because my brand new 1996 EVTM is WRONG! It is probably a Chinese clone and "hinges" on the top instead of the side, has the wrong stuff in the right place, and leaves a lot out. It is going back.

Chris - I'm not sure what you mean by "switch cover". Do you mean a knob or the bezel, like this:

I actually have an 81, 84, 85, 86, 87, and 96 EVTM - although the 86 is in electronic format. But, I figured the best bet was to look at the 85 and the 96. So, I've now brought them in from the shop and will peruse them during the Cotton Bowl tonight.

Actually, I've not yet bought them - but I will and I will buy from Daniel. In an email to me on Dec 27th he said: So, I'm confident that he has them. In fact, he shows them on this page. But, if you click on Buy Them Now you'll get something that starts with: So, send him an email at consult@danielsternlighting.com. He is very easy to communicate with, and he knows his stuff.

I will, but they are in the shop and I'm in the house dealing with church issues - like creating my lesson for the class I'm teaching on Sundays. However, I hope to be done this afternoon and get to go play.

Sent you an email re my availability. But, I should also say that the dizzy is curved for whatever spark advance Tim found that my engine needs. However, your engine has EGR and mine doesn't, and that changes the advance curve requirements since the flame front doesn't travel as rapidly in the diluted mix when exhaust gas is added. So I'm not sure that it would work well for your engine. Perhaps those that are more familiar with curves for engines with and without EGR can comment? I know that Bill is quite familiar with that situation, and there may be others.

Thanks, Bill. That would explain why I couldn't figure out how it worked. So now I don't need to draw it out on one page instead of trying to wrap my head around three pages in the EVTM. But, while I could change the wiring to get them to blink out of phase, as explained by Daniel here, I think I'd rather use Daniel's DRL-1 module and make them flash in phase. And, as a bonus, I'd have daytime running lights, as shown here.

Or, buy my TMeyer distributor. Tim makes it and puts an HEI module in it so there's no need for a Duraspark module, just the coil. I have serial #1 from Tim and have powder coated it and sent it back to him for use on Dad's engine. Tim then ran it on the dyno for a few pulls and then brought the engine to me. However, I'm now going EFI on that engine and will use a 460 dizzy, so that one is for sale. I'll sell it for half of whatever Tim is asking for a new one, and I've read that all we will have to do to make it work on a 351W is to replace the drive gear, which we can take from your existing distributor. But, we should confirm that with Tim.

Good luck! I'll keep you in my prayers that all goes well and there are no injuries.

Dyn - I'm glad to see that the Cibies work as well as others have said. I can't wait to put them in, although I'm not going to do that until I pull the engine out and re-wire as I don't want to run the heavier bulbs on the stock wiring. But, I believe the only way an LED H4 replacement bulb can give the right cutoff and light distribution in a reflector housing is for someone to make an LED that is shaped exactly like a filament on a halogen bulb. That's because the reflector housing has been engineered for the light source to be in exactly that position and have exactly that long, skinny shape. And since I don't think it is physically possible to create an LED that has the same shape and light emission as a halogen filament I do not believe it is possible to have a replacement H4 LED do what it is supposed to do. If you think about it, the shape of the filament is a point-source when viewed from the side and a wide source when viewed from the top. And it throws as much light up, back, and down as it does forward. So the reflector has been engineered to focus that light into the right beam. But the current replacement LEDs emit light in very different directions than the halogens. Looking at the from the side, they emit light ahead of and behind the filament, which is the focal point of the reflector. So the vast majority of the light they emit cannot go where it is supposed to go because it hits the reflector at the wrong angle. Which is why the big boys, like JW Speaker and Truck-Lite, have gone to complete units for the LEDs. They get to design a whole new reflector to accommodate the light output pattern of the LED, and add a lens that shapes the beam. That approach does work since everything is engineered for the LED - just like the reflector housings we currently have were engineered for the shape and light output parameters of a tungsten bulb.

Chris - I have both an '85 EVTM and a '96 EVTM, and will look later today to see what connectors they show for the radios and let you know.

Bill - Those look great! Are they cast as I've read?

I'm not blaming you, at all. And the plan was to KISS. But, as all of my plans do, this one did a bit more than creep. However, with the expectation that we will use Big Blue for some long-distance driving and pretty significant overlanding then I think the creep is justified. As for your brake cables, I assume you have already flooded them with some kind of lubricant? This seems like the appropriate application for WD40.

In looking at the EVTM that some nice guy supplied I haven't gotten my head around that. I fully understand what you are saying, but since I have to look at more than one page to put it all together it hasn't clicked. But, I'll draw it out and that should do it. And, I think the wiring is original on that part of the truck, so it should be working.

So Ron is actually selling some? Cool!

Bill - I've looked but haven't found that pic. Where is it? As for the exhaust, I'm planning to use the manifolds and exhaust system off of Huck. But I don't like the glass packs so will insert a 2-in/2-out Magnaflow.

Been thinking about how I'm going to paint or powder coat things on Big Blue when I pull the engine and it dawned on me that the valve covers I bought won't work. They are the OMC King Cobras and are for the non-EFI heads. But I'll be going with the EFI heads. Looking around I haven't found much in the way of neat valve covers for the EFI heads, but a couple of posts seem to say that the factory covers are cast aluminum and clean up very nicely. Does anyone know about that? Also, some suggested that the lower plenum isn't a good match for the EFI heads and the upper and lower plenums don't match each other, so all should be gasket-matched. I realize that I have those items to check out, but baby it is cold out there right now, so does anyone have any experience there?

Good idea!

So, what else have you made?

That is a good looking truck. But, that price is a bit high - to say the least.

Dan is a very strong proponent of a relay harness, and has a page dedicated to them: http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/relays/relays.html. Note the table of voltage vs lumens.

Hmmm. Ron???

Welcome!! Glad you found us. And, I like late-model Bullnose. I'm going about that in a slightly different way by upgrading most things under the hood to later model specs. But your approach might be easier.

Looking good, Ron!!!