Gary Lewis

Pretty!

Yeah I 100% agree here. Adding to the list today I just disconnected one of my brake cylinders to start replacing it (driver side) and a few drops of what sure looked like muddy water dribbled out. No idea what's up, the fluid in the reservoir looks normal but I know this stuff is hygroscopic. I think I'm going to flush the entire system when I bleed it. It's worth a few extra bottles of fluid to make sure I don't have ANY water in the lines. Pulled the parking brake cable today, the new one hasn't arrived but I wanted a look at the old one. Sure enough the braided/armored section is pulled away from the end fixture at the brake. Worthless. List of things wrong with my driver's side wheel: - Everything List of things wrong with my passenger's side wheel: - Bad parking brake cable - Bad bearings (literally an eighth inch of play, totally worn down and burned) - Brake cylinder stiff and heavily rusted. No fluid leaking in the dust boots but I'm sure that wold have been next... - Wheel studs a hot mess - Shoe liners literally cracked in half and corners fallen off - Adjuster rusted frozen and useless How this truck stopped at all is a huge mystery to me. The weird thing is, while it was a huge pain getting out some of the frozen bearings (I had to dremel slots in them and cold-chisel them out, even a torch wasn't doing it) all of the work involved was actually not that hard - or expensive. Spring kit, bearing kit, two parking brake cables, a pack of wheel studs, some gear oil, and two cylinders. I think I'm only out $180 for both wheels. Imagine driving a deathtrap for $180 and 4 hours labor... You are doing it right - fix it while you are there. And brakes are a big thing - just not all that expensive.

Man, that would be so much FUN!!!!

Do those connectors require a specialty crimper? Some of the kits I see come with a crimper. And the kits are fairly expensive!

Oh I know, but my soldering iron doesnt have an adjustable temp its a 900*F iron that is always 900*F when fully heated. Its why I get my solder ready and tin the iron first to improve heat transfer so I can quickly get the solder in before putting too much heat into the wire itself. If I can find a quality adjustable soldering iron I might pick one up for use at home as I also want to get an adjustable DC power center so I can bench test electrical circuits during assembly John - Thanks. The crimper does a great job of crimping both the wire as well as the insulation ears. I highly recommend it if you are going to use these connectors. Pete - I don't know that I did machine language coding on an 11, but I sure did on many 8's. In fact, I remember what a 7402 is. Rusty - I see. I love my Weller soldering station. It is so much better to use than my Weller or Craftsman guns. Just turn it on and w/in a couple of minutes it is hot and ready to go. And now an end-of-day report on the connectors. I do like them, but I did have a self-inflicted problem today. I apparently put one terminal in upside down, which seems to have tweaked the retainer pin. That meant I couldn't get the pin to latch, so in the end I broke the red safety plate out to allow me to remove the pins. Then I put them in another shell and was good to go. But I'd really like to figure out how to properly remove the red safety plate on the male shell. I can do so on the female shell, but not the male shell, so I can't easily get the pins out of the male shells.

Only one pic today, but it is significant. All wiring to the truck's harness under the hood is done. In the pic you can see seven connectors: one that comes from the engine harness; one that goes to the fog and backup lights; one that goes through the inertia switch and thence to the tank selector relay; and four that go to connectors like C727 for the VSS signals, C321 for switched power from the W/LB H wire, C323 for the tach signal and 8-cylinder ground, & C325 for switched power from the R/LG wire as well as coolant temp and oil pressure feeds to the gauges. So the next step is to mount the ECU under the dash and determine how long the wire runs need to be. Then I can extend the ~3 dozen wires to the ECU.

Well, I take that back. My dial is sitting at 600F for small wires. Anyway, I got the IWISS crimper in this morning so I did a trial crimp and then soldered it. Perfect! (But I did forget to tin the wire before crimping. )

I like the way you think! 4.10 gears is on my list for the next upgrade to Lucille. Our calculator says you'll be spinning at 1935 RPM @ 65 MPH with 31" tires, 4.10 gears, and an AOD. But 5000 RPM shift points will be at 47, 77, and 113 MPH.

Rick - I agree with you about the # of changes. Man, you'd think that in a single year things would be fairly constant, but they weren't. If you look at the 1982 4.9L ratings I posted earlier there were 5 different torque ratings for the same engine in the same year, from 234 to 257 lb-ft, and at three different RPM ratings - 1200, 1400, and 1600. What in the world were they doing to get all of those changes? Even the 5.0L had three different ratings that year, and at two different RPM's. So it makes it very difficult to say which one had the most torque as you'd have to specify the year, the application, and whether it was a 49-state or CA-truck. Anyway, I agree the AOD should be fine. I've always thought an AOD and 4.10 gears would be a great combo. Thought about it for Dad's truck but then realized there's not an AOD for the big-block bolt pattern so went with the E4OD to get the OD.

Nice. And not a bad price. But "only" 288K miles? That's a lot of miles. On the other hand, 170+ pictures is a lot of pictures. Didn't look at very many of them, but what I did shows a nice, clean truck.

Pete is right. But a bit more explanation on the front. Ford had a limited-slip option for the front, but fortunately very few bought it. My understanding is that with it when you are under power in slippery conditions you go forward, regardless of how you turn the wheel. In fact, one said "You don't want to send your wife or daughter out in the snow with it." I've not tried it, although I do have an electric locker in front on Big Blue, so if I get out in the snow some day I will just to be able to say "Yep, they were right!" I have a Detroit TruTrack in the rear of Big Blue and really like it. That's one of the helical-gear style units and I agree with Pete - nothing to rebuild or wear like the clutch packs in others. However, I will say that it is always watching and will come "in" at the slightest provocation. One day when it had just rained and the oil in the pavement had come to the top it came in as I was turning a corner. That meant both rear tires turned, which caused the rear to step out a bit until I backed off the throttle. Not a big deal, but something to watch out for. You could go with a selectable locker in the rear, but then you have to know when to engage it, and then both rear wheels turn at the same speed, making cornering more difficult. The TrueTrac takes care of that, automatically.

Let me know how that works cause I am leaning towards soldering my terminals as well after crimping but I am a little apprehensive with the rubber weather seal and how it will handle the heat of a solder iron heating the terminal that is crimping it up to 800 - 900 degrees to quickly fill the terminal with solder. You don't need to heat to 800 or 900 degrees. Wikipedia says "Alloys commonly used for electrical soldering are 60/40 Sn-Pb, which melts at 188 °C (370 °F)". My Weller soldering station has a dial calibrated in degrees F, and I usually keep it around 450-500 as that allows it to melt the solder quickly on smaller wires w/o melting the insulation. But on things like that ~#12 wire I cranked it up to 700 as that reduces the time to melt the solder, which reduces the heat transfer to the rest of the wire. As for the seal, so far I've not crimped the seal into the insulation crimp. Instead I've had it a few inches down the wire until after soldering and then slid it up against the insulation crimp. And in every case it has gone into the connector w/o sliding back. Nor was it harmed in the soldering process. But as said above, one illustration I found shows crimping the seal to the insulation, so that would have it subject to a bit of heat. However, since even the insulation doesn't melt I'm sure the seal won't either.

Careful with the "old" bit. I'll be 3/4 of a century old in 3 months, and one in this conversation is a year ahead of me. But I understand, I don't drive quite the way I used to either.

I thought about preserving the harness I took off of Big Blue, but even it had been repaired and some of the connectors had the tabs broken out. So I've cannibalized it to get connectors so the EFI system can plug neatly back into the '85 harness. I even cannibalized a DS-II module to get a connector, but since it had gone wonky and gave poor spark above 1500 RPM I didn't feel badly about it. Yes, I save everything. Sure comes in handy at times.

Wow! Nice machine, and a killer deal.

Good info. Those are supposed to be 3" wide, according to the MPC. But you are right, it would be good to know for sure before buying them. Do you have a part number for your shoes?

Thanks. That helps a bunch. And thank you for sharing it with us. But the $180 is actually $280 with shipping. And from the experience of one of us where he found a pristine dash pad in a salvage, carefully removed it, took it home and supported it well in storage, only to find later that it cracked, this one will too. If it is already cracking it is dried out and pickling it in Armor All won't keep it from cracking more in future. To me, used dash pads aren't worth it. A Coverlay cover is going to set you back 1/2 of what this one will and looks very good. I'm very pleased with the one I have on Big Blue. But a new dash pad will cost you twice what this one will, although it isn't likely to crack. And that's what I'm going to put on Dad's truck.

Interesting. I wondered why they don't ship there. Now I know.

That is a myth that just won't die. The 5.0/302 V8 actually produces more torque than the 4.9/300 six. The AOD was used in the F-Series trucks from 1980 all the way up to 1993. Rick - I'm not trying to debate about the AOD. I'm just trying to make sure we have facts. Yes, when fuel injected the 5.0L did have more torque than the 4.9L. But for 5 of the 7 Bullnose years many of the 4.9's had more torque than the 5.0L. And even in '85 they were still selling the 2V 5.0L which put out 250 lb-ft. In other words, we can't really give a blanket statement that the 5.0L had more torque than the 4.9L w/o knowing the year and the application.

That only works if I log into facebook, and many on here don't use it. Can you tell us what the cost is and something about it?

Maybe I can help. Here are spec's from Ford's 1982 dealer facts book. You can find this info on the pages in the Documentation/Engine section. First, the 4.9L specs: And the 5.0L specs:

Thats good, I hate going behind my boss cause he prefers soldering everything even computer terminals when the manufacturer clearly states to just crimp with weather proof crimps then heat the built in shrink tubing to create the weather proof seal. But when I have to go behind him I end up cutting back 6 inches from the terminal he made up before I get to clean wire as he just loves pushing solder into the wires lol. Big reason why I have grown to hate soldering terminals cause I used to solder everything, even crimp fittings I would place them and solder them without crimping. Now I crimp and only solder to keep the boss from complaining about using crimps and not soldering. Only time I will solder regardless is for vial circuits such as alternator wires, battery wires, fuel pump wires, etc. But non vital circuits like turn signal indicators or dome lights I will just crimp alone as they arent as picky if the connection isnt the best. I started soldering in 1957. I turned 10 that year and got a crystal radio kit for my birthday. Over the years I've soldered connections in many other kits, like my KnightKit R100A ham receiver, Heathkit ham transmitter, Heathkit oscilloscope, etc, etc, etc. In fact, I've soldered chips and transistors into many commercial computers, including DEC PDP-8's. And I built my own 8085-based microcomputer - and all of the connections were soldered. So I'm very comfortable soldering. And yes, along the way I've had a cold solder joint or two, but I've learned why that happened and make sure it doesn't happen any more. Plus, I know not to continue pushing solder into a joint as I've seen how far it can go up the wire. Given that, I tend to solder all of my connections on my trucks. And so far I've not had a failure. I do want to try crimping the terminals in the waterproof connectors, but joints in wires and to terminals like that ground will continue to be soldered - even if they are crimped.

Those are sorta listed correctly - it is a pulley for an 85/87 351W w/a block heater or in a truck with over an 8500 GVW rating.

That harness is missing a connector, but at least they told us what engine the dizzy came off of. If you have a source for the missing connector they you might be able to make it work.