Gary Lewis

Radio Shack!? Those are antiques! Your assortment looks a lot like mine. I probably have more relays but fewer connectors. Anyway, it looks like you know what you are doing.

If I can keep it down a bit I think it'll help. Hope to get the air box finished tomorrow. And I plan to do the hoses as well, although those curves will be tedious. Been looking at the page below from the '96 EVTM which shows the PDB. As I mark it up the changes will show here. Right now I have outboard relays for the backup lights and fog lights and they are attached to the air box's bracket. They need to move to provide room for the PDB, so I think I'll move them into the PDB as shown. But I'm not sure what I'll do about the trailer relays. The '96 harness has them in a separate box, as shown, but I already have the one on the firewall that works. So I'm inclined to leave that alone and take the trailer relay box off. But I'd be interested in everyone's thoughts.

Glad you got it open. But you may find that you have to adjust it up a bit if the lube doesn't let it pop open when you pull the handle. Sometimes if the adjustment is too tight it won't release.

Big Blue's '95 F350's D60 rode on leaf springs when new and still does, although the springs are now 2005 SuperDuty U-code springs with a reverse shackle kit from Sky Offroad. And the ride is DRAMATICALLY better. I cannot stress that enough. Why? Not directly because of the TTB's as there's nothing wrong with TTB's - when sprung with coils. But with leaf springs the arc of the TTB tries to twist the springs and it just does not work well. Big Blue had 2" of articulation in the front, from 1" down to 1" up from the normal ride height. But it now has almost 8" - roughly 4" down and 4" up from sitting still. Just think how stiff springs have to be if there is only 2" of movement. Every bump comes right on through. And off-road performance has to be poor since the wheel can't drop more than an inch.

I see what you are saying about the calibration #. Looking at the parts lists I see that #1 and #49 both show the same thing: I'm wondering if by saying M/T for the 2wd if that also applies to the 4wd? Also, compare their EGR parts. Most are the same:

Yes, that’s the hard part. I was thinking Dremel. Hope it cuts it. Dane - You may have missed my post. It took maybe 5 minutes to cut that out. Anyway, after getting both of the O2 sensors installed I looked around for what the next item of business will be, and I think it is going to be positioning the power distribution box. But to do that I'll need the air cleaner box and the cold air inlet tube installed. As I said to Bill, I've been cogitating on how to insulate that stuff 'cause I want to get as cold of air as is possible to the engine. And if it is ever going to happen, now is the time. So, I insulated the cold air inlet tube and installed it. And I have the bottom half of the air box insulated, but since the top isn't done I've not taken pictures of it. Here's a couple of shots of the cold air inlet tube on the bench and then one of it installed.

Keep at it until it is right.

Yes, once they spin you are going to have to sacrifice them. I don't have a nut-splitter but some have used them successfully on this problem. I've used heat and PB Blaster, repeatedly, to get the nut to turn. But it usually ruins the bolt.

It wasn't me, Shaun. I had the exhaust system put on by a "professional". But, it took no more than 5 minutes to clean it up with a carbide burr in the Dremel. The pic below implies there's no metal showing, but if you look at it from an angle there is. However, the way the bung is made the threads are actually narrower than the bung at the bottom and I took the exhaust pipe back to almost the bung. But I ran an old O2 sensor in and there were no marks on it so I'm confident that it is clear. So I installed the O2 sensor and found the next locomotive. The pic on the left is at full droop and the clearance to the driveshaft is 2". The pic on the right is sitting on the ground and the clearance is 1". So, since the truck sits at about the mid-point of the articulation when on the ground it is very likely the driveshaft will hit at full compression. I think I'll be ok to go ahead and get the EFI system going, and can even drive it w/o worrying that it'll hit. But once I get it going I'll need to take it back to them and have them drop the system and move the bung.

I think the Dremel with a carbide burr may do it. I'm going to lunch and will come back and give that a try. I want to preserve the threads, so need to be cautious.

Haha, using the term Stepside just means he’s using the common term, lol. For the majority of people, even the Ford fans, the term Flareside refers to the 1992-up models that actually had the Flareside emblems on them. Given his statement about a "223 ford 300 inline 6" I'll stick with "He just doesn't know what he's talking about."

Well, things were going swimmingly so I should have expected one of Bill's locomotives. First, I pulled the cable off the speed control module and lubed it. And I wrapped it with electrical tape at the two spots on it where the outer covering had broken off. Hopefully that will keep moisture and dirt out. And I then put it back on the module and installed the module. Sure enough, it snapped into place where Bill said it would on the bracket. Next I laid out the two Bosch O2 sensors that I bought. Both Amazon and Rock Auto say that #15716 is correct for the front right sensor, but Amazon says 15717 is wrong and RA says it is right for the front left. However, as far as I can tell the only difference is the length of the wire, with the #15716 having 8" of wire and #15717 having 12". And since I'm making my own harness it doesn't matter. Given that I installed the right sensor. But when I pulled the plug on the left side I found the locomotive.

Interesting. I was going to say he's not a Ford guru since he called the truck a Stepside, which is a Chevrolet model. But then I found the statement that it has a "223 ford 300 inline 6" and realized he just doesn't know what he's talking about. A little searching found this statement by Numberdummy: "F350 9' Flareside (a Stepside is a Chevrolet ) bed is the same 1953/72." So maybe it isn't all that rare?

I, too, am amazed at the difference. And the way you shot the videos is perfect as I can stop one and start the other to hear the difference. For instance, at about 56 seconds you are on the left rear and I can go back and forth. Wow! Might have to do that to Big Blue!

Yes, welcome! Glad you finally came out of hiding. Where's home? I ask because we have a map (Bullnose Forum/Member's Map in the menu) and we can add you with a city/state or zip. Pics! We need to see pics! Maybe start a new thread in the main section on your truck? Or a thread in Projects?

Yep, did a lot of 66 and 110 too. So then you know what I mean, right? How in those blocks, and even inside RJ-11/RJ-45 jacks, the terminals are pretty exposed and easy to get a probe right up on them. Even a weak one will work there. Test light is cheap easy and fast. But if you don't sort it out that way it would be interesting to hear your experience if you did have a good tester... Sharing is caring lol I like Fluke and Klein ("small" in German - that was a joke.) But if I don't have to have something for this I'd like to save the money since I've spent a ton getting the EFI on - and I'm not quite done. However, if I do buy something else I'll report back, for sure. Yes, I know about the terminals in the various jacks and how you get close if not right on them. And I can get close or right on with this guy, but he doesn't have a probe, just an antenna. Given that, it is easy to see how he's fooled since all of these wires run in parallel and there's lots of cross-coupling. A probe would be better. But if I can use a probe I can use a test light.

Have you decided how often a truck can be entered? One year? Two Years? Five years?

Yes, and since BB drives pretty good w/o the sway bars I'm not sure I even want to try him with. We sure used the flexibility the system has w/o them in Colorado.

I went through this with my '84, but mine wasn't reading over-full, it was reading under full...like 1/2 or 3/4 tank when full. This drove me crazy because it would show empty but then only tank a half a tank worth of gas to fill. Anyway, I took the sender out, and I just kept bending the float arm and testing it over and over again until I go it close. What I did specifically was start with the tank empty, then put in 10L (2.5 gallons approx), and kept adjust the float arm until it sat right on the "E", or a hair below it. Once I did that, it also read full properly. The down side of this was that I bent the float arm downwards enough that I ended up having to also bend the pickup tube down even lower as well (or the truck would have run out of gas before it read empty). After all that, it worked great. That was a fairly tortuous path to take to get a gas gauge reading properly, but they were all brand new parts, and I was lucky enough to have made all of these float adjustments while the bed was removed, so I didn't have to drop the tank. I thought I was being a real keener by checking the new sending unit before installing it...I made sure that it worked with my gas gauge before putting it in the tank. What I didn't know then, but I DO know now, is that I should have also compared the new sending unit to the old sending unit to make sure the float range of sweep was relatively the same between the two. I could be way off base here, but I think that some of the aftermarket senders are fine electrically, but just not bent/formed correctly. That's very good info, Cory. And it makes sense. Thanks.

So, you know what a 66 block is? (At one point in my career I was responsible for DuPont's communications across the SW of the US. And yes, we had a few punch-down or 66 blocks, racks, multiplexors, etc.) Anyway, I like that small (pun intended) tool. I think I'll return this one and if the test light doesn't work order that one. Thanks!

Yes, I think it'll work - much better than the DVM, which is slow to respond. And yes, the thing is frustrating. It beeps for everything. And, it apparently responds to wavelengths since you get different intensities as you move along a wire. But I haven't given up on it yet. I am going to play with it a bit more and see if I can figure out a better way to use it.

Thanks, Dane. Yes, I'm trying to trace wires. On my wooden work table I have the whole set of harnii for the 19986 CA-spec EFI system. I don't seem to have a picture of it snapped, so I'll try to paint one with words In the middle of the table is the power distribution box (PDB) that will have the various relays and fuses. Coming off to the right are ~65 wires that go towards the ECU but are cut. (I have the ECU connector with ~9" of wire sticking out of it so can, laboriously, match color codes and determine pin #'s.) And to the left are the several harnii, with one to the engine with injector & sensor wires, one to the MAF & IAT sensors, another to the speed control, another into the cab, etc. While I can clean the insulation on each of the ~65 wires and probably determine the colors, I was hoping to put this gadget on a wire and follow it through the harnii to its end. Not so as I get beeping all over the place. As for the diode function on my DVM, it isn't loud enough to easily be heard. So what I'm thinking of doing is connecting my 1A bench power supply to the wire, connecting the ground of my test light to the power supply's ground, and poking the probe of the test light into the ends of the wires until one lights up. That should work, but I thought it would be magic if I could wave a wand over the wires and have the beeping get loud on the right wire. Instead I get beeping on all the wires.

There are two different senders - the Bullnose ones and the later ones. But if your readings are roughly right you didn't get the later senders as they are completely backwards. The Bullnose senders run from 10 ohms at Full to 73 ohms at Empty while the later senders are something like 16 ohms Empty to 160 ohms Full. Yes, backwards as well as different. If you want to "calibrate" your fuel gauge you could replace your ICVR with an adjustable voltage regulator and adjust it until your fuel gauge reads Full when one of the tanks is full. But that will also "adjust" the other two gauges, the coolant temp and oil pressure, down a bit. And, you can't adjust each tank. To adjust each tank w/o impacting the other gauges you could put a very small resistance in the wire to each tank. For instance, you could try a 1 ohm or a 2 ohm resistor in series with the sending unit. That will bring the upper end of the reading down a bit but probably won't make much difference on the bottom end as 1 or 2 ohms vs 73 ohms won't make much difference. However, the resistor has to have a least a 1 watt rating. I've measured ~.5A in the gauge circuits at full scale. And wattage is current (I) x current (I) x resistance ®, so .5 x .5 x 2 = .5 watt.

I bought a Harbor Freight Cen-Tech Cable Tracker Model 94181 today and I'm underwhelmed. I thought it would be wonderful to trace wires in the EFI harness going on Big Blue, but so far I've not been able to prove anything with it. The instructions say to connect the red lead to the wire that you are testing and the black lead to ground. But the harness is on the bench and there really is no "ground". So when I use the receiver I get beeps all over the place. In fact, I know the wire I'm testing is in this group of wires 'cause I can see the right color code, but all of the wires in that bundle cause the receiver to beep. Anyone have any experience with this tester? Or, for that matter, does anyone have a better suggestion for tracing wires?

Maybe. But that's a bridge I'll approach later. I'm not even sure the sway bars will help so I'm not sure I want to worry about a disconnect. Having said that, I was reading an article today where they were testing new full-sized trucks for overlanding and they said one of the trucks they tested badly needed the sway bar disconnect feature.