Gary Lewis

Yep. We were going east with the wind coming from the south/right. So, please remind me what all pieces you added to Darth, and what vehicle you got them off of?

I used liquid tape on the connection to the inverter. But I'd sure like to find boots for these many connectors.

I have been successful lowering the front tank enough to get the sender out by using ratchet straps and by just unthreading the all-threads that holds the ends of the straps together. And IIRC I put a piece of plywood under the tank and then my floor jack under that. But it is scary to work under there with all that gasoline evaporating right there in front of you. On the rear tank, I think if the sender is in and you cap the filler neck and the vent you should be find grinding. But I'd do as you suggested and shield things.

My nephew sent me a link to the McMaster-Carr catalog which has a 1 1/2 x 3 x 12" piece of acetal for $64. So, the $64K question is, will it be enough? I think so, but need to do some work measuring and drawing the thing up. Maybe tomorrow. And now for a report on today's trip. We drove 171.7 miles and used 13.3 gallons for 12.9 MPG. That's basically the same as last trip even though we have new tires at 50 instead of 35 PSI. But I don't know for sure that the tires are exactly the same size, so I need to check that. Last, a report on the Air Charge Temp, meaning the inlet air temp. On this truck the air enters the inlet tube behind the grille and next to the radiator. Then it goes into the air filter box which is on the driver's fender - roughly behind where the Bullnose coolant recovery reservoir is. And that's where the temp sensor is. Up to that point I have it insulated, but from there it goes through the MAF and then the inlet tubing to the throttle body, and that isn't yet insulated. Nor do I have a way of measuring that temp. In any event, we drove the truck for an hour at 97F ambient and stopped in Pawhuska at The Mercantile. The truck heat-soaked for about 30 minutes, and then I came back out and started it up and took the log below. At startup the ACT was 126F, but I let it idle for 4 minutes and the ACT climbed to 142F, which is exactly what Bill has been talking about - the hot air off the radiator must be finding its way back around and is getting sucked into the air intake. Then after 4 minutes we started moving and the ACT started coming down, although you can see one spot where it came back up as we waited to turn left at a stop sign. After about 15 minutes of driving directly into the wind the ACT got down to 102F, which is pretty good considering that the ambient was 97F and the pavement was scorching. But then we turned east, across the wind, and the ACT started coming up slowly. And after 16 minutes of driving it was up to 106F. I guess what this is telling me is two things: Even having the air inlet insulated it takes quite a while to get the ACT down close to ambient after heat soaking. And if it isn't insulated it'll take a lot longer. Given that, I want to get the inlet tubing after the MAF insulated as well to help the ACT come down as quickly as possible. I need to consider installing the pieces Bill added to try and keep the hot air from wrapping back around. In fact, I wonder if that might have something to do with the rise of the ACT after turning across the wind.

Very much like choosing tires.

Bob - How right you were to say "play with your new GPS a lot". We are taking BB on a jaunt today and I want to know if the turn-by-turn is going to work via the Sony stereo. So I set up the route. Multiple times. And each time it insisted on straight-line routes, across fields and lakes and the Drummond Ranch. I checked what I thought was every setting and still when I pressed GO it gave me an error message saying in Driving Mode with the map I have selected it can't do turn-by-turn. And then it routed me in a straight line. Finally I called Garmin and Christopher had me poke around in all of the settings. Sure enough there was one called Automatic Maps which "Enables maps based on route activity". It wasn't turned on and the system was using the Topo Active map. But that map allows people to contribute and since Garmin hasn't validated all of the updates they don't allow t-by-t in Driving mode for fear of being sued if someone has an accident. So I'm starting to get familiar with the Montana. But boy, is it complex. And capable.

That's a really nice truck! And that dash bezel itself is worth some money. I'd clean it up and drive it as is.

I think you'll also find that the tab that orients the pump/sender combo is in a different place between the Bullnose & Bricknose tanks. So it isn't easy to mix and match. And, since the resistance range is both different and backwards on the Bricknose sender, using one of them on a Bullnose gauge gives totally wrong readings. But you can correct that with a Metermatch. Still, it is best to use a Bullnose pump/sender in a Bullnose tank. (I say that, but I'm running '96 tanks and pump/sending units, aka fuel delivery modules.)

Yes and no. The OP has an '85 and the schematic below is from the '85 EVTM. But you have an '84 and I'm not sure exactly when the clutch lockout switch was introduced. There wasn't one in '81, but if my memory serves it was introduced in '84. So yours may or may not have one.

I like that radio! Looks great. And Jeff, no hard feelings about the carb. I hear Holleys have gotten a whole lot better from back in '69, but that one was so bad that I don't want another one. (On the other hand, I'm not running a carb at all now and loving it.)

Thanks, guys. I'm a happy camper with these tires.

I'm glad you responded, Jim. I almost tagged you 'cause I thought you'd know. Sounds like I don't want UHMW. I didn't think I knew anything about acetal, but looking it up I see that that's what Delrin is and I've heard good things about it. But my first search hasn't turned up anything in the 1" x 3" x 12" range. I'll keep looking.

Let me update that idea. Instead of aluminum I think this would be an ideal opportunity to use UHMW Polyethylene. That's Ultra High Molecular Weight. This 1" x 3" x 12" piece would be just right I think. My understanding is that the stuff machines nicely, and as it has some "give" it'll be better against the side of the truck awa the jack itself. Have any of you worked with the stuff?

Ok, here's an idea I've had. Brackets made out of aluminum and machined to fit against that rib running down the inside of the bed and then going below it - maybe 6". There would be nutserts in the rib and in the side below that. And the bracket would be counterbored so the nutserts would fit back into them to ensure the bracket sits directly against the side in order to carry the weight of the jack. Thoughts?

I had way too many problems with the Holley on my brand new 1969 Super Bee to ever like them. Leaking bowl gaskets, blown power valves, etc. My preference is for a carb that holds gasoline in with metal rather than a gasket or fabric. I like the Carter/Edelbrock carbs. I grew up on Carters, so when Edelbrock picked up the manufacturing rights to the Carters that was my go-to carb.

Thanks, guys. I think the tires are the right size, although our son pushed for 35's instead of 33's. But his mother objected as getting in is already enough of a challenge. And as I told him, 35's will hurt the MPG and we have a lot of driving to do. And, speaking of the tint, the guy ran out of the stuff and didn't get the piece across the top of the windshield installed. So I need to take it back and have that done before October as it'll help Janey a lot.

Yes, with the cover that mounting approach won't work. But thanks!

Got the truck ready for our jaunt tomorrow, and now need to set up the Garmin for it. But while I was getting things ready I did some thinking about mounting the Hi-lift jack. First, I tried it in the space under the cannister for the bed cover and it is a nice fit. But I don't quite know how to secure it there and I sure don't want it bouncing around. Maybe if I mounted it to a couple of pieces of wood and put another piece of wood on top I could get it to just the right height to slip under the cannister tightly? Anyone have a good idea? Also, note the weights on that spare tire! That's pretty much what all of the Coopers looked like. And then I tried it on the bedside. This is a much handier location, but that jack is heavy and it needs support. The mount for the Jeep Gladiator uses the mounting track that Jeep put at the top of the bedside and hangs the jack from that. I could put nutserts in the rib you see on the side of the bed to hold studs that would go through the holes in the jack, but those wouldn't come close to holding the jack up. So I'd have to find a way to support it from below, maybe off the tire bump in the bed. Ideas? Here's how I'm carrying it now, and it is surely going to be in the way when we want to load up. So I would like to find a better way.

I think the majority of my terminals would be easily done with the boots from Amazon that Nickelplate posted. But not three of the four battery terminals as they have 2 or 3 wires and they aren't flag-style, which is offset to the side. Instead mine are straight through. Here are some pics of the situation. Left, below, is the main battery, and right is the aux battery. You can see that the ground on the aux battery has three wires, but I can easily move the one with the tab, which is for the winch, to where the one next to it goes on the frame. So 3 out of 4 would need straight through boots. Or, maybe I should go to a military terminal on the posts and that way I'd only have one wire on each connection? And the relays below the battery pics need boots as well. The one on the left is the aux power relay that provides power to the inverter and other things when the key is turned on, and its boot needs may be straight forward but the terminals are Magnalugs. And the relay on the right is the Cole Hersee Smart Battery Isolator which has two Magnalugs on a spacer. I suppose I could probably figure out how to put the two Magnalugs back-to-back, but that creates a different boot problem. Every time I sit down to order boots for this monstrosity I wind up throwing my hands in the air and walking away.

That's a recipe for looooong fills at the pump.

Thanks, John. I really think I'm going to like the tires. I'm trying to work out what pressure to run. In the pic below you can see the cardboard I've run over trying to get an "impression" regarding the amount of pressure across the tire. I've done both 60 and 50 psi and there is very little difference. At 50 the edges were slightly more defined than at 60, but not dramatically more. With the front axle weighing in at 3720 lbs yesterday I am thinking about trying 50 psi on our jaunt tomorrow. That gives 4700 lbs of capacity in the tires interpolating from 80 psi at 3750 lbs of capacity. So I'd think that the 1000 lbs of head room would be quite adequate for now until we really load the truck up for the trip. Thoughts, y'all?

I like those boots, but would like to find some that are similar but have the cables coming in from both sides as both batteries have cables like that. Then I could use the ones in your link on the other connections and have matched covers.

.... Interesting that my wording was so much the same 6 years apart. I guess I'm consistent if not creative! I thought it was interesting that you'd had the same conversation back then. So you've been over this ground before.

All the Bullnose tanks I've seen have the clip for the inner hose. But did your truck even have a vent hose inside the larger hose?