Gary Lewis

Thanks, Bill. But I'm not sure I appreciate the term "professional" being associated with my work. A friend of mine had is Honda Goldwing in to the Honda shop for a tuneup. The "professional" checked the valve lash and then the points gap with the same feeler gauge w/o wiping it down. So my friend and I have this running joke about "professionals". As for the smoke, I plan to let it out in small quantities. I'll fire up systems one at a time before installing the ECU. But I did find a number of leads on that part number, as shown below, just in case I need to replace the smoke.

I don't think it is critical at all. And with my toolbox mounted I can't accurately measure at the top, but I'd bet mine is more like 1 3/4". Anyway, hope you get those bolts in. You are doing a great job and I think you are going to be very happy with the results.

Well, I think this is another milestone - the harness is in the truck. Not everything is hooked up yet and there's a fair bit of work left to do, but this sure feels good! Here's a shot of the wiring going through the firewall. I have yet to put the heat shield on it and then the convolute, but if fits in there nicely. And here's a shot of the PDB in and bolted down with most of the connections made. The cable going off to the left goes to the MAF and IAT sensors but obviously isn't connected yet as they've not been installed. Hanging on the hood hinge are the speed control and ignition module connectors, and before bolting the speed control in and connecting it up I need to make a mount for the ignition module down below it. Then there's the connector laying in the air filter box bracket at the 10:00 position. That's C110 that goes to the O2 sensors, and I have to make that cable up. I did, however, discover a mistake as I was installing this. I had two male connectors facing each other for the VSS connections, so had to graft a female connector on. That let everything connect up nicely, although the extra length to the wiring makes a ball of snakes to the right of the PDB. Last, here's a pic under the dash. Several things to connect there, but that should be easy. The hardest bit will be to bend that cable to make a 90 degree turn and go up to the ECU. But I think it'll work.

From the fact that he works in Durango, I'm going to guess that's with D&RGW.

Looks like 1.30"/33mm for the top of the box, and 1.58"/40mm at the bottom. I tried measuring those dimensions on Big Blue, but it ain't easy. However, they are different, top and bottom.

Congratulations!!! Seems like you are making really good progress, both on the truck as well as the job.

The Crane instructions are on our page at Documentation/Electrical/Ignition and then the Instructions and Crane Cam Instructions tabs. And I'll say again, I don't think the timed vacuum port on the YFA gives full vacuum. I know that's strange, but I've run into it on more than one carb. So while I advocated ported vacuum for vacuum advance, I don't think it works as well as manifold vacuum on some distributors. I believe, w/o proof I might add, that the vacuum advance units Ford used for the engines with the YF or YFA carbs were more sensitive than those for other carbs. So the one in the HEI may not work well with the limited vacuum I think will be seen on the YFA's port. My first move would be to put a vacuum gauge on the ports and find out if I'm wrong. Does one port show essentially 0 at idle and ~21" just above idle when running in neutral? If so, call me crazy and go with it. If it doesn't have full vacuum above idle then it may not work with the HEI's vacuum advance. In that case I'd switch to manifold vacuum. But please let us know what you find!

Nice, but man that is EXPENSIVE!

Looks good, Angelo. Didn't know you could go with different headlights that way. So these don't hold water like a lot of them do? And they hadn't gone to relays by then?

If it isn't going to line up I think I'd bolt it down and drive it to some place more level. Then adjust it there. Perhaps you have the frame in a bind somehow and getting it on all fours and driving it might relieve that.

Ok, thanks Matt.

Yes, the later ones apparently did have the diode. The '96 EVTM shows it, for sure. Which is why I could see that I needed it. I traced that DG/O wire right to it, looked at the '85 harness and realized it was AWOL. So I added two. As for changing plugs, don't forget I have the topsider creeper, which will make it a whole lot easier. But I'll see what I can do on the plug wires, thanks. But don't forget that I have several thousand miles on the engine already.

Yes, the body lines. But my body man said he adjusts the cab to the bed with the cab mounting bolts - tightening or loosening them to get alignment. Then he adjusts the fenders with shims, both at the rear where they mount to the cab and on the radiator support.

I think you'll be fine tightening it down while watching the space to the bed and the alignment of the creases to those on the bed. And, as you said, you can always adjust it again later.

Glad you got it figured out. Is the truck running well now?

You'll need the timing cover off the old engine - assuming it is in good shape. As for the intake, are you going with an aftermarket one? That's something I might buy new. The old valve covers will work, assuming they aren't beat up, but it is always nice to have new cast aluminum covers that look pretty and seal better. Concerning removal and installation, the 460 is a beast, so I'd make it as easy as possible and pull the radiator and radiator support. But I can't speak to the rebuilding of the tranny as I have no idea what your skill level is. Personally I'd have it rebuilt and beefed up.

I don't recognize that, but I've only been around two 351W's in these trucks. Where might it have gone?

As of today I believe everything is ready for the installation of the PDB & ECU wiring. But, let's walk through what I did today step by step. This morning I installed diodes, plural, on the A/C compressor circuit and connected the sense wire from the ECU to it. The first diode is on the connector to the compressor. I pulled the pins, twisted the legs of the diode around the pins, soldered them, and put them back in - after making the holes in the connector a bit bigger as they weren't quite big enough with the addition of the diode's legs. But I like the diode as close to the source of the EMF as possible, so this should be that. Anyway, here's what that looks like. That's a 10A diode, which should be more than adequate for a 4A clutch. Then, realizing that I'd gotten a total of 10 diodes in I added one to the wiring in the engine harness where the DG/O wire is that goes back to the ECU from the A/C clutch. This is just a safety, and grounds to the ground in that harness, Ckt #57. And that connector let's me pull either harness off w/o messing with the other one. About then Amazon delivered both the 1" convolute awa the 1" x 36" heat protection for cabling. I measured and the run between C101 and the engine could use an 18" piece, so I cut it in half and put one half on that run. I'll use the other half to protect the run between the ECU and PDB where it is above the exhaust at the firewall. Anyway, here's a shot with the heat shield on the run to the engine. Seems to fit right in with all the other shiny stuff. Last, I tapped into the MIL and 4 Low light circuits and ran them to a connector near the ECU's new home. I know about the MIL light, but it'll be interesting to see what happens when the transfer case is put in 4 Low. Oh yes, I tested them by adding battery power to Fuse 8, which powers both circuits, and then grounding the pins in the connector. They worked! And speaking of "adding battery power" to a fuse, I should explain. I have a little battery that is really for setting trailer brakes in a disconnect condition. But I use it to test circuits when I don't have the main battery connected as it is quite portable. However, I needed a way to tap into the fuse box one circuit at a time and wound up adding wires to a blown fuse. So I plug it into the fuse box, connect the wire that goes to the downstream circuit to the battery, and do my testing. In this case it let me see that the lights work as they should w/o worrying about other circuits that might not be ready.

Even the 5.0L EEC has the same resistor. But at 1.1 ohm, there will be VERY little voltage drop. For instance, let's assume that they are just sensing that you have voltage in Start. Let's say they pull in a relay that takes 250 ma in the coil. E = I*R do E = .25 * 1.1 = .275 volt drop. So if the battery pulls down to 11v in starting the system would see 10.725v and the relay would pull in easily. But if it is electronic, meaning a transistor is sensing it there won't be enough current draw to cause even that much voltage drop. So is that wire sensing or using voltage?

Progress! (Beat you, Jim. ) The difference in shims was to get the radiator support, and therefore the fenders, aligned. You may or may not have to go back to the same ones depending on how things tighten down.

You need to get familiar with the EVTM. From the Charge & Power Distribution - Gasoline page at Documentation/Electrical/EVTM/1986 EVTM I see that the W/LB wire is only truly hot in Run, but is sorta hot in Start. The difference is that it is fed straight off the Run terminal but is fed via a 1.1 ohm resistor in Start. But if your system is only sensing power rather than using power from that wire then it'll work.

Several thoughts. First, pulling the cab isn't too bad - if the mount bolts come loose. But that's not always the case, so you may have to cut them. Then jack up the cab, somehow dealing with the wiring, roll the existing frame/bed combo out from under and roll another trailer under it to take to the scrapper. Second, I really think the trailer axle idea, with electric brakes, would be great. However, you could leave the current rear axle under it long enough to test it, and if you still want to reduce the weight and add brakes you could then change out the axle. But bear in mind that the rear axle on that truck may have bad bearings or stuck brakes, and if you start rebuilding it you can easily be looking at the all-up cost of a new trailer axle and electric brakes. And yes, there are electric/hydraulic trailer masters that would allow you to use the rear brakes that are on the truck, but by the time you buy one of those and rebuild the surely-bad brakes you could have bought an electric brake package. Been there, done that and will never do it again. And changing out the axle won't change the weight distribution. Speaking of that, if it weighs 1500 then you'll need between 150 and 225 lbs of tongue weight to fit in the 10 - 15% guideline. Other than the frame sticking out in front, the thing will be fairly well balanced. And the more frame you have sticking out the less tongue weight you'll get when you load the trailer up due to geometry. I'll guess an aluminum toolbox weighs around 50 lbs, so it seems reasonable to think that you could add one to the tongue and a reasonable amount of tools or equipment in it and come in w/in guidelines.

My remembrance is that the YFA doesn't have a full-vacuum port with no vacuum at idle. IIRC you'll get a max of 10 or 11" of vacuum from the port. You'll need a manifold vacuum port to get full vacuum. And with your manual transmission you'll probably be fine with that. (I don't like manifold vacuum with an auto.)

Right. And the light on the side of the truck is the "marker light", which shows in the schematic Jim posted. As shown it is a single-filament bulb and doesn't blink with either the turn signals or flashers.

Ok, you are on the map. And you appear to live very close to where they took us out on a float trip out of Durango. I know we crossed into NM as I saw the state line sign as they took us back in the van. But that was 25 years ago or so. About 1 1/2 years ago my wife and I stayed north of Durango in a B&B for a week. Road the train one day, shopped in town another day, rented a Jeep in Ouray, etc. Love that country. Have ridden the train probably 4 times, been back to Ouray with Big Blue last fall, etc. As for my Ian, he's half of a set of twins. His sister's name is Isla. Not sure why the kids picked those names, but they are pretty cool names.