Gary Lewis

That is a strange one. But you actually use your flashers? The flashers not just the turn signals? It should mechanical given that shifting gears can change it. And since you have an AOD, I assume you mean moving the shift lever rather than the tranny shifting gears on its own. That suggests that the turn signal switch may be the culprit, and the fact that turning changes things seems to support that theory. The turn signal switches are quite complex and can do a myriad of things. But aren't cheap. It would be good if you had a spare to switch out.

I think it is doable. And I don't think it would be terribly heavy. I'm going to guess the bed weighs 400# as a friend of mine and I carried one and I was in my late 60's at the time. (He was much younger and bigger, cut you can't carry the right side of the bed from the left side.) An F150 frame won't be terribly heavy either, and a camper shell can be aluminum or fiberglass, so not too heavy. The adventure trailers I've seen have long tongues, so you will have to think about whether you want to vee the frame in the front or use another material that might be lighter. But the axle looks to be slightly to the rear of center of the bed, so you could put a toolbox on the front to give yourself some tongue weight. And you'll want to remove some leaves from the springs to soften things up. To save weight you could look at replacing the axle with a trailer axle. Those 8.8 or 9" axles are pretty heavy given the size of the bearings, differential, load carrying capacity, brakes, etc. Personally, I don't think you have a lot to lose. I'd give it a go.

Yep, it looks like some TLC in the wiring department is in order. That ground doesn't look very grounded. And the bird's nest hast to go. Good luck!

Well done! Now for the real project.

Yes, that's dedication! But Megasquirt is another EFI system that I don't think will have much benefit if you don't plan to make significant changes to the engine. Having said that, if you do plan to make significant changes the SD system won't like that, so something's gotta change.

Thanks for the response. But you may have missed the email that Jim sent you asking you to post an introduction in the New Members Start Here folder before posting elsewhere. That's because we have a copy of our guidelines posted there and want everyone to have an opportunity to see them since we hold everyone to them. Plus, this is a community and we like to get to know each other. So please go to the New Members Start Here folder and introduce yourself.

Yes, Dane, I'm really glad I found it. But I also realized I had something else that needed doing - the horn wire. In the pic above there's a coil of yellow wire that was from the '96 harness and ran from the horn relay to the horns. Apparently they were in the right front instead of the left front as there was a lot of wire so needed to be shortened. And, it needed to have a connector between the PDB and the wire to allow me to remove the PDB and associated wiring. So I fished the wiring to the bull horn out of the front of the truck and disconnected the original wire. I connected the '96 wire to that and at about 24" back put a 1-pin connector pair in. Then I covered the horn end of that with convolute and then snaked it back along the fender liner, leaving it in a handy place for when I put the PDB et al in. And I also put the battery charger on the starting battery just so it'll be "hot".

That's a really clean installation of everything. And that may be the best for aftermarket gauges that I've seen. As for EEC-V, I'm approaching the goal post on this quest. But it isn't for the faint of heart. If you got all the harnii from the donor truck, and I sure hope you did, it shouldn't be too bad. The problem is that the ECU on the donor truck is going to be in the driver's kick panel, and yours is just to the left of where you put the gauges. So you'll either have to modify the truck to get the computer where the harness will stretch, or extend the harness to where your computer is now. I'm doing the latter and it is really fiddly. But in my case I think it'll be worth it since I'm coming from a carb to a sequential fuel injection system using a mass air sensor. In your case, if you don't change the cam, intake, or exhaust you might not see much difference to your speed density/bank fire system.

I'd put the overload back. As Shaun said it doesn't change the ride - unless you bring all of the others down on top of it with a heavy load. With it out I'd take out 1 other if I wanted to be able to carry things, and 2 if I wanted the best ride. Which one(s)? I wouldn't take out two adjacent to each other. So I'd compare the spring lengths to Shaun's and mine in that other post and see if some "stick out" as being odd. But probably not, so you'll just have to pick 1 or 2.

Well, I was wrong when I thought I was wrong. I got to thinking about the lack of grounding on the shields for the ignition & misfire circuits. I had checked for continuity at all the grounds I could think of in the system, but something was nagging me. So I pulled out the Ignition System schematic from the 1996 EVTM and discovered that the shields on both circuits are grounded at the distributor. But the engine harness, which includes the wiring to the dizzy, is already installed so I couldn't test at that connector. However, the ground runs through C101, so I was able to test there and discovered that both shields are grounded there. Now some of you may be thinking I should just go ahead and ground the shields again at the ECU end to ensure they are well grounded. However, that is sure to cause "ground loops" since the voltage at that ground is almost sure to be different from the voltage at the distributor. That means there will be a current through the shield, and that is called a "ground loop" - which is a no-no in low voltage systems like the EFI system. In fact, here's part of what Wikipedia says about ground loops: So I'm glad that I checked.

Amen! Yes, you have to pull leaves from the middle to change the ride.

I think you are off on the timing. Very late timing will make it run very poorly, if at all. So I suggest you put the timing light on and have someone turn it over. If it shows to be right there then maybe the damper has slipped, so find TDC on the compression stroke and check that your timing mark is right.

Well done, John! Looks really good. However, tell us about the plastic cover on the steering shaft. Did you ever get your old one apart to get the cover off? If so, how did you do it? Can't wait until you get everything back together for a test drive. I'll bet it'll be nice and tight.

I was wrong! I should have said to jumper around the oil pressure switch, as shown in the diagram but not across the inertia switch. NOT across 85 and 86, which will do nothing. I think what I'd do is to temporarily install a pushbutton switch across the oil pressure switch, push it with the key on and everything clear of the fan, and see what happens. I think the starter will engage as somehow things are connected to the R/LB wire going to the starter relay. That's just a guess, but that's my guess. If it tries to start then jumper from 30 to 87 with the same switch and see what happens when you push it. If it tries to start the issue is on that side of the relay. If it doesn't try to start the issue is on the oil pressure switch side of the relay, which I think is impossible - unless there's another wire from 86 on the relay going some place else.

Yes, that would work - if it is wired as shown in the diagram. But jumpering 85 to 86 would also work - if it is wired as shown. I think there's some error in the wiring because if it is wired the way the diagram shows then jumpering across the oil pressure switch can't power anything else. I think there's a change in the wiring to the pump, not the trigger wire of the relay. And if I'm right, then jumpering 30 to 87 will also cause the problem.

Ok, I reread the post to which you linked and I like that diagram. And if you have wired it that way then the push button switch should prime it like you want. Also, wired that way it can't cause the other problems you are having. So I'm guessing that it really isn't wired that way. Have you checked to see that it is exactly as shown?

Wonderful write ups! Very well done! Neat and clean. But I agree with Jim about the resistor. The vehicles with warning lights did use a resistor in case the bulb burned out, but the vehicles w/o didn't have the resistor. So it isn't needed. HOWEVER, another member just had a start/no-stop situation and it appears he was using a non-Ford alternator that was feeding power back into the system via that excite wire. In his case he put a diode in that wire and solved the problem. But it is possible that a bulb would have sufficed. And the resistor probably will as well.

There are two types of bushings: rubber, like Ford used, and poly, which most aftermarket companies sell. The rubber ones are softer and isolate better. But I've used poly for my rebuilds. I've not bought springs, but I bought some spring liner material from Eaton Springs and they really seemed to know their business.

The wires you can't ID: in C-321, wire 33 a white/pink wire. That's the neutral safety switch wire. See Page 30 of the 1986 EVTM in C-323, wire 147 a Purple/Light Blue wire. I see that wire for a DS-II system, but it doesn't appear to be used in an EFI system. in C-323, wire 144 an Orange/Yellow wire. I see that wire for a DS-II system, but it doesn't appear to be used in an EFI system. As for the W/LB wire, it should be fine to tell the system to turn on.

And I thought Big Blue's wiring is getting complicated! At least it uses Ford color coding. Anyway, if the diode works and you are going with the lights then I think you have it well in hand. Good luck!

This post shows the sizes of the springs that were in my pack as well as those in Shaun's pack. And you can see which ones I took out. Made a HUGE difference.

Note that I used quotes around "efficient" since it was used in the same sentence as "460". I don't think that I'm going to break any records, but I do hope for a bit of an improvement. Those two 19 gallon tanks seem to empty relatively quickly, and this thing is going to Arkansas on an overlanding with my son in October, so any improvement will be appreciated. And I finally found the stuff I was looking for, or close enough, that will get here in a reasonable time. Ordered 25ft – 1 inch Split Wire Loom and this Heat Shroud Aluminized Sleeving for Ultimate Heat Shield Protection Barrier with Hook and Loop Closure - 1" x 36". The split loom will let me cover the run from the PDB to the ECU, and while 1" is slightly too big as it measures more like 7/8", it'll give me a bit of extra room. It is rated at 257F, which I think will be enough as the run stays pretty well away from the exhaust. However, Ford used some kind of aluminized insulation for the run from C101 at the PDB to the engine since it runs right above the exhaust. So I'll use the "heat shroud" to cover the convolute in that run, just like Ford did.

Glad you had a good outing. Even happier that the brakes impressed you.

Thanks, Jim. It is certainly bringing Big Blue a lot closer to my vision for him. That vision includes a system that is fairly modern and can be maintained by the "mechanics" whose first line of defense is a code scanner. But there's also this yearning to see how "efficient" I can make a 460. Maybe actually pass two gas stations in a single bound? Anyway, thanks!

Danielle - Thanks for the input. But you've apparently missed the email I sent you asking you to post first in the New Members Start Here folder to introduce yourself. We request that as the place to start since we have the guidelines there and want everyone to have a chance to see them because we hold everyone to them. Please let me know that you've read the guidelines.