Gary Lewis

We are happy you are here as well! Glad you joined. That sounds like a wonderful purchase, especially if you are able to drive it and use it. Let's see some pics, although you might want to read how to post them in the Bullnose Forum/Forum FAQs. And while you are looking elsewhere try the page at Bullnose Forum/Member's Map. We can add you with a city/state or zip. We will be watching in the main section for your questions.

I'll proceed with the assumption that the answer to Jeff's question is that the gauge lights work, albeit very dimly, but the gauges themselves don't. On the gauge lights being very dim, that is par for the course. The incandescent bulbs are weak, the inside of the gauge housing has grown brown from the heat so reflects little light, and the blue plastic filters have grown opaque. The solution to that is to pull the gauge cluster and replace the bulbs with the right LEDs and remove the filters. And I recommend the HIPO LEDs as they work great and don't care which way you put them in. But don't do that before figuring out what the gauge problem is as you may need to be in there for that. And there is one major thing that can stop the gauges from working - the instrument cluster voltage regulator, or ICVR. Unfortunately it is on the back of the gauge cluster so if it is bad the cluster has to come out. So let's test to see if that might be the problem. Take the R/W wire off the coolant temp sensor, or the W/R wire off the oil pressure sensor, and ground it. Then turn the key to On and the appropriate gauge should climb to full scale. If that happens the ICVR is working. If that doesn't happen then the ICVR apparently isn't working. But it cannot work if it doesn't have power. You can see from the schematic that power comes from Y on Page 22, and if you go there you'll find that Fuse Link W provides the power, and it is the blue wire on the battery side of the starter relay/solenoid. However, it also provides power to the radio, digital clock, windshield washer, & speed control. So if those things work then Fuse Link W is good. So if the gauges don't work and the other things do then it must be the ICVR that's bad. But do those tests before we get into how to fix an ICVR.

Welcome! Glad you joined. But I want to see pics of that rig. You might want to read up on how to post pics at Bullnose Forum/Forum FAQs though as it isn't straightforward. And while we are looking at other pages, we have a map (Bullnose Forum/Member's Map) and can add you with a city. A 10' camper is a load, so I understand the need for the air springs. And adding the 18' boat means that 460 is working. No wonder it is thirsty!

Wow! Looks good! Where you tripping to?

Looks great! Enjoy!

When you want to tag someone just use the dropdown under Assignment and make it Assign. Then put the person's screen name in the next dropdown. And leave priority at Normal.

Absolutely! And you're right about the iPhone's screenshots: They do not suffer the upside-down issue, the Forum always display them correctly oriented, no matter about the 3 ways you hold your iPhone when taking the screenshot (horizontal left, vertical or horizontal right. No screenshot allowed if you try while the iPhone is pointing down). Well, at 76 I can honestly say I'm an old man. And I spend some time on the forum, so I guess that's an apt name. And I'm glad to know that you don't have to rename files.

Yes, we do tend to chase rabbits. But we have fun on this "old man's forum". As for your pin stripes, I think the thing that Chris mentioned is the only way you'll get it done. Or just have someone paint the pin stripes on.

What is ironic is Ford was very proud of their new aerodynamic design for the 80's. Look at page 12 of the 1980 Brochure 1980 Brochure and look at page 02 of the 1981 Brochure 1981 Brochure And to paraphrase author, Douglas Adams: "It glides through the air, in the same way that bricks Don't" - Douglas Adams ----------------------------------------------- Yes, Ford seems to think they made big changes in drag coefficient over the previous years. But the big change came in '87 when they rounded the headlights and brought them out flush with the grille. Prior to that they were worse than the proverbial barn door as barn doors don't have recesses with which to hold onto the wind like our trucks do.

There's a Fairchance you are now on the map. Seriously though, you are in Smithfield.

Are you saying you have one for sale or trade, or you are looking for one? (When I was a kid we wrote secret messages and used lemon juice to make them visible. But I doubt that'll work here and am pretty sure my laptop wouldn't like it.)

I don't know, but I'm subscribed to find out. However, my understanding is that once you take the anodizing off you'll have to polish the trim when it tarnishes.

CJ - About all I can do is to tag Keith, like anyone can do. Keith - Any news about the gas door bumpers? Have you found the problem? Have you found a source for the right ones?

I just looked at the 1981 brochure on site, and it looks like you have the newer version already. I do have a scan of the older version. But its a lower res scan. Yes, you are right. I'd forgotten that the copy I have shows pin locks.

Ok, no open vacuum lines. Good! And I have now watched the video of the shakes. That's quite of bit of shake. But I'm not sure what you mean by "disconnect the line from the cruise control to the break-pedal". That should be a vacuum dump line that is closed until you depress the pedal. If that line isn't closed when the brakes are off then you may have a vacuum leak. So I would concentrate on checking that out. That line is a safety to kill the vacuum to the speed control, and while it isn't a good idea to cap it off permanently you can cap it off for testing.

Yes! Progress!

If you take pictures with an iPhone (maybe the same with other brands but can't confirm), no need for a Desktop software. Here is the trick: 1-Directly in your iPhone's pictures library, Modify your picture, rotating it 90° and save the modifications. 2-Again, Modify this same picture, rotate it correctly upside and save the modifications. Even if you feel to simply have reversed the first modification and went back to the original situation, some metadata were saved in the picture file itself. It will now appear correctly when imported in the Forum. Ok, testing that I understand what you are saying, Jeff. This pic was taken upside down on purpose. And when I initially previewed it here it was sideways. Then I rotated it on my phone and rotated it back. And now it is straight! I will have to caution that once the forum has uploaded a file it doesn't normally appear to re-upload it even if you modify it and try to upload. So the trick there is to rename the file. But in this case it seems to have worked.

I'm confused. In the first video it was idling at about 630 and 16 inches of vacuum and then it jumped up to maybe 680 RPM and 18 inches of vacuum. What happened to cause that? But in all cases the vacuum is very steady. VERY steady, which seems unusual. Where do you have your vacuum gauge connected? When you "unplugged the vacuum line to the cruise control to measure" did you plug the line or leave it open to suck air? If you left it open then it leaned out the mix and brought the RPM up due to the extra air. That may be enough to get out of the RPM range where the engine is shaking. As for the shaking, have you posted a video of that? I don't think I've seen it. But from the sound and the vacuum I'm not seeing any problems.

Tach looks good, even upside down. But the forum isn't doing anything with the pics. It doesn't have the ability to rotate them. It just posts them the way you take them, which is where the problem comes in as you've gotten used to "modern" software that reads the orientation data in the picture's file and orients before posting. Back in the day it was intuitively obvious to the casual observer which way was up on a camera and software like this forum has was enough. But then cell phones came along and people took pictures any which way. So forums had code added to orient the pic. But not this forum's software. So you have to properly orient the pic yourself before posting. I do it in a light version of Photoshop, but there are free apps that'll do it as well. As for the 383, I'll bet you'll like it. Recently sold a boat that came from the factory with a 377, which is a stock-bore 350 w/a 400's crank. Turns out GM still has those pieces and when they discontinued the 454 Mercruiser needed something with similar torque and GM dusted them off and has been selling them that engine for years. Gobs of torque!

What will work is a return-style fuel pressure regulator like this one from Holley. I used the chrome version on Big Blue for several years with no problems. Because the electric fuel pump is supplying more fuel pressure than needed for the carb it'll return some fuel all the time and therefore you won't have vapor lock.

I see differenceS. Jeff - Yep, that's the difference. And it was done with lots of skill and what now would be considered museum pieces. (I, too, sat at a drafting table and used velum, etc.) Ralph - Haven't see the late '81 brochure. Will have to look for one as it would be a good addition to the site.

I hope you make it, Chad! I really do.

Isn't it amazing what they could do w/o Photoshop?

That would help us give more accurate answers.

It is a 42-tooth sprocket on the cams? So you are off 1/84 or 4 degrees. That's a bit much to advance or retard the cams from what I remember. But I'm missing how you might get it lined up on the crank. Offset key?