Gary Lewis

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Congrat's!!! The nuts are "prevailing torque", which means that they aren't round and squeeze the stud to keep from backing off. So you shouldn't run a tap or thread restorer through them.

Welcome, Zane! Glad you joined. Nice truck! New to you today? Well, hope you will document your journey with it here. And if the speed control even works it must be in pretty good shape. Would you like to be on our map? You can see it at Bullnose Forum/Member's Map in the menu.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained... It took 2,774 attempts to arrive at the bamboo filament that made Edison's light bulbs a commercial success. Well, I don't think powder-coated wood products are going to be as popular as light bulbs so I doubt I'll try that many times. But it didn't cost much, so it was worth it. I forgot the spacer for the center mount. I was using a piece of pressed board that obviously wouldn't survive moisture. So I milled a piece of wood down to size, drilled it for the stud, counter-bored it to recess the nut and washer, and painted it. I'll get a pic of it tomorrow. Speaking of tomorrow, I should be able to put the whole thing together then. I just need to figure out how long each stud needs to be, cut them, and then put it together. And take pictures along the way.

Thanks, Dane. But I think you'll have to wait until tomorrow for the almost-final pic, and Friday for the final one. I say that because I just got the backing plates installed behind the rear holes and the seam sealer I used needs to cure overnight so I can take the studs out that are holding them in. And Friday because the wing/lifting nuts don't come in until sometime tomorrow. Boy was getting those backing plates in a BATTLE! The places where the backing plates go are almost, but not quite, unreachable. I'd realized that there was no way I could hold the backing plate in place from under the bed and simultaneously be in the bed and feed a bolt through into it. So I put short studs in the backing plates, gooed them with seam sealer, and gingerly put them in place - long end up. Then I got in the bed, checked the mark on the stud to ensure they were still pointing up, and gently ran nuts down on the studs until then were tight. And, luckily they were still pointing up. So I'll wait until tomorrow to pull the short studs out and put the new stainless studs in - with Loctite. But the spacer blocks are ready. Here they are after about 4 coats of paint and curing in the powder coating oven at 150F for an hour. And, speaking of powder coating, I had a thought as the paint on the blocks was wet - powder would stick to that wet paint. So I painted yesterday's spacer and then hit it with powder. That's it above the painted blocks. Didn't turn out all that well as it has goosebumps that are hollow. Apparently the paint came up in a bubble and the powder cured on top of it.

Mid-day report: The stainless all-threads and the nyloc nuts came in. And I got the front and rear spacer blocks cut out of 2x4. (Still haven't heard about the plastic.) Here are a couple of pics, but they are now getting coated with black paint. And if you are wondering what the recess is for, that lets the nut/washer combo clear the web of the jack's rack so it just touches the spacer block, not the nut.

Excellent! That would be so cool to have! I had planned to put a dual-snorkel air cleaner on Dad's truck with a "6.6 Liter 4V H.O." decal on it. But now I'm going EFI so don't need the decal. But it sure would have had people .

I've used sandpaper in a circular motion. Let me rephrase that - always going around the cover and not across the cover. That's because on all of the ones I've looked at there is a circular texture to them and I was trying to replicate that. That gives a satin sheen that seems to approximate the original, and you can go finer and finer on the abrasive to get the sheen you want. And I've not coated the result with anything, even though I could powder coat it satin clear. I didn't think it was necessary and I ran that cover for a couple of years w/o it seemingly changing. Obviously you are going to lose the lettering, but I think we have figured out a font that pretty closely mimics whatever they used, so you can recreate the lettering if you want.

I doubt it will be that predictable. It's hard to get an accurate reading of the torque-to-turn, so I'm thinking the two readings together just mean I'm pretty low in the spec. I suppose I could see where it lands after changing the pinion and only change the case shims if necessary. That's probably a better plan. That's kind of what I was implying. I think I'd do one thing at a time and see where you are at each step. And those tools are really neat! You've put a lot of thought, and work, into making this happen.

Thanks, David! I talked to the guy at Tulsa Plastics again at about 4:00 last evening and he said he'd find me something and would call back in 30 to 40 minutes. He didn't call back but I'd told him to take his time so I'm not surprised. Maybe today and we can go get the stuff today or tomorrow. Meanwhile I'll cut a new piece of 2x4 and see if I can get the size just right. If so I'll make another the same size and paint them so they don't look so much like wood. And so they might not soak up much water if they do get wet. Then I'll clean the back side of the bed's inside wall, goo up the backing plates, and put them in place so the adhesive can cure enough the bolts can be taken out. And this evening the all-thread and nyloc nuts are due, so tomorrow I can put them in place. I think it just might work!

Interesting that shimming the pinion deeper dropped the preload. Given that, won't removing about the same amount of shims bring the preload back up? IOW, you may not need to shim the case.

Thanks, Jeff. I'm not in a hurry either. Please keep asking though so he doesn't forget and throw them away.

Have you looked at our page on that? Documentation/Specifications/Axle Ratios (Hmmm, it says Ratios and yet speaks to the codes as well. )

You sound like you have a plan. I'd like to follow along as you implement that plan. Maybe start a thread in the main section or Projects? And, you are on the map.

Welcome! Glad you joined. Nice truck! What are the plans for it? And would you like to be on our map? You can see it at Bullnose Forum/Member's Map.

Got the backing plates powder coated: And while they were baking I drilled the holes for the front and back studs. And then I tried my hand at making a wooden spacer. Unfortunately it is 1/4" too narrow, so the paper in this pic is spacing it out enough to hold the block in place. But you can see the notch in it that fits the rib in the side of the bed, so that part worked out nicely. But I'm sure I'm using the wrong kind of wood and running the grain the wrong way, so I'm looking for suggestions. Here's a couple of shots of the spacer and you can see the measurements. And the blue dot on the end is where I'd need to drill it for the bolt to pass through, but I'm pretty sure the thing will fall apart if I do that and put a load on it.

Mid-day update: I ordered the stainless lifting points to use as nuts. Turns out that when you remove the base there's plenty of room for one down there. Thanks, Jim. And I made two 3" x 4" x 1/8" backing plates and welded nuts to them. After a bit of blasting and powder coating they'll be glued on the inside of the inside bedside with some seam sealer. And if you are wondering, the front and rear holes, where these go, are just below the rib that runs along the bedside. So the nut is 1" off the bottom edge and the rest of it goes vertically across the rib, as shown below with the backing plate in red. Also, if you are wondering why I didn't move the jack down a bit to stay away from the rib, that would have put the center stud on the curved part of the stake pocket. This was the best compromise.

Fog lamp instrument bezel? Yes, fog lamp bezel. Wonder if it actually controlling the fog lamps. And yes, a Classic Console.

Phones, Facebook, Instagram, etc are smart and read the metadata to re-orient the picture so you can see it properly. This forum isn't smart and doesn't read the metadata so does not re-orient the picture. Said another way, there is only one way you can hold any given camera/phone to have the picture come out right-side up on the forum. On my iPhone X it is in landscape mode with the on/off button on the top.

Ford used the same basic computer on everything from little 2.0L engines to my 7.5L, so needed some way to tell the computer when the additional load was coming on. But I can see that some people might not understand the need for nor the orientation of the diode, so that could cause problems.

Strange. But good catch, Shaun.

Nice! Even already has the ZF5. That is a well-optioned truck. But he didn't mention one of the rare options it has.

Yes, $9K seems high. But if you don't ask... Those door panels are GROSS! http://www.garysgaragemahal.com/uploads/6/5/8/7/65879365/face-with-open-mouth-vomiting-23x23_orig.png But a lot of cleaning and sanding would probably make the ready for SEM.

Yippee!!!!

Interesting. Ford's EEC-V system has an input for the A/C clutch and I could up the idle speed immediately when the compressor kicks in. However I like the 640 RPM idle even with the A/C on and didn't tell it to increase the speed. But there's no bobble at all in RPM change when the compressor kicks in. As for the tach, it sounds like it might be sticky, and/or need calibration. Mine shows 500 when it is actually 640, but then is pretty close from there on.