Gary Lewis

Yes, it is beautiful. And I did post about it in Big Blue's Ouachita National Forest Trip It was a great trip and we hope to come back.

As said in the other thread, POR15. I'd use two coats to make SURE you get full coverage. And if there is any chance of getting UV light in there coat the 2nd coat with a spray black of your choice while the POR is tacky. If you let it cure nothing will adhere to it. Make sure you take the lid off the can with the proper can opener, not a screwdriver as it'll bend the can and the paint will be ruined. And put a layer of waxed paper or Saranwrap between the lid and the can or the paint in the groove will glue the lid to the can. Don't ask.

I agree - POR15 them. And the only reason to sand is to knock of any loose rust. POR15 adheres to rust and stops it in its tracks, so you don't really need to get all the rust off. But, you MUST degrease it to make sure the POR will adhere.

Welcome! Glad you joined. Nice trucks, even though they are somewhat worse for the wear. Where's home in the frozen north? I ask because we have a map (Bullnose Forum/Member's Map in the menu) and can add you with a city/province or postal code.

Nice!

Yes, when I saw the pic I was thinking the same thing. And I agree, while in there go ahead and replace it. But I think it was the 351M/400's that had the horribly retarded cam. A guy I know with a stock 400 put a straight up timing chain on and was blown away with the difference it made.

John - I don't have a steering stabilizer on Big Blue, but have considered it. And my research found this article in Motor Trend: What does a Jeep Steering Stabilizer Do? You should read it, but I thought that this question and answer speaks to your question: Pretty much what I've found is that a steering stabilizer is frequently added to a vehicle that goes off the beaten path, and it is mainly there to keep the bumps in the trail from giving the driver problems. And in my limited experience there have only been a few times when I thought "Man, I wish I'd had a steering stabilizer on here." But for on-road use, the statement from Motor Trend that speaks loudest to me is "Really, a steering stabilizer is often a mask that minimizes other problems. If you don't have those problems to begin with, there's no need to mask them."

Jacob - That's a very good offer! If someone were wanting to do that the ability to get all of the parts would be outstanding. Hot Springs? Spent a night at Hot Springs Village about 2 weeks ago and ate at the Home Plate Cafe. We were driving Big Blue through the Ouachita Forest.

First, you shouldn't pull a harmonic balancer that way. It will usually cause it to come apart. Instead there's a harmonic balancer puller that screws into the tapped holes in the balancer and pushed against the end of the crankshaft. But when I searched just now for "harmonic balancer puller" I saw some Youtubes about getting them off w/o a special puller, so maybe you could look for those? As for the slack, I don't think that is enough to worry about. If I remember correctly the factory shop manual says 1/2" is ok. So how much do you have? As for brands, I like the Cloyes true roller timing chains.

Bill - That makes sense. Thanks for the explanation. But, I have another question for you. In the 1985 EVTM, left below, the "common rail" of the horn pad switches goes to ground. But in the 1996 EVTM, right below, it is a separate wire and goes to the speed control module as the "return". Did you just ground that line and use ground as the "common"? As for what I did today, I did two things. First, I powder coated the MAF casting, the attaching nuts, the new thermostat housing, and the plugs that came with it: I was particularly pleased with the way that casting came out, so here's a pic of it before blasting and then one after both blasting and PC'ing: Next, as said previously I pulled the speed control harness out, inc both C305A's. I think I have it mostly figured out and labeled. For instance, the plug in the middle goes to the clutch switch's connector and the open wire will go to the ECU and speed control module as Brake On/Off (BOO). And the W/P wire will supply switched power to the AFR meter. But I'm not yet sure what I'm going to do with the three wires to the horn relay plug. Pretty sure I can actually do away with both of the yellow wires as the horn relay in the PDB will have power and I'll take its output on to the horns. But the wire that is supposed to be Dark Blue is Tan. And there's an unused DB/R. So I have a bit more study to do to make sure I'm looking at this correctly. And I'll need to refer back to this post as there's a spreadsheet there that supposedly maps the female C305 from the dash harness to the male C305A then to the female C305A and finally to the male C305 to the steering column.

Welcome! Glad you joined. Would you like to be on our map? You can see it at Bullnose Forum/Member's Map in the menu. Sounds like you got a good bargain on that truck. A straight body is well worth the price you paid. I hope you'll start a thread to document what you do to the truck, either in the main section or in Projects. Your choice. Either way, post some pics.

Bill - It is interesting that it doesn't have the IAT in it. Then why does it have the "E" and "F" connections? And on a different subject, I pulled the speed control harness this morning, and ran into some anomalies: First, someone had tapped into the harness for power to the AFR meter. Don't know who that might have been (), but I suspect I can find another source of switched power for it. Next, someone had tapped into the Brake On/Off (BOO) LG wire, and I'm not sure where it goes - yet. But I suspect I can sort that as well. Last, I also added a relay in parallel to the factory horn relay, as discussed in this post. The issue was that the speed control uses the factory relay in some fashion and replacing it with a Bosch relay didn't work. And I wanted the security system to be able to honk the horn so added the one shown in the drawing below to do that. And, as luck would have it, adding that functionality to the '96 harness will be easy. Note the DB wire going to Keyless Entry in the schematic from the '96 EVTM below. I'll change that to "Security System" and file that page in the new Big Blue's Documentation folder.

Chass - Welcome! Glad you joined. But would it be ok if I moved this to be your own thread? No prob, but it is just cleaner. What part of Oregon? I ask for two reasons. First, we have a map (Bullnose Forum/Member's Map in the menu) and we can add you with a city or zip. Second, you may find you are close to another member. Looks like your truck is outfitted the same way Big Blue was, with the emphasis on was since he's changed quite a bit. I look forward to seeing the pics and following the progress in a new thread. But are you towing from Oregon to Florida??? Wow, that's a long way and lot of gas!

Looks like the consensus has it - no pins.

I thought we had that. No? And this is one of the units with the IAT sensor in it. Right?

Well, that's interesting! David found a JAGUAR OEM MASS AIR FLOW SENSOR MAF MODULE UNIT, which is PN XL3F-12B579-BA and looks like the one below. I think it is used as I see paint pen lettering peeking out at the bottom of the pic, but for $14 delivered I couldn't go wrong so I ordered it. However, the new Cardone MAF sensor is due in today and the Dorman thermostat housing came in last night. So since I have powder coating stuff laid out in the shop I'm going to go ahead and PC the aluminum MAF casting and the thermostat housing & bung plugs today. That way I can put the PC stuff away and have everything ready to go.

That's interesting. I can't seem to find any references to retainers for it, and since it came with adhesive I'd be inclined to think it didn't have any pins.

POR-15 is good stuff. But I can't get a good coverage with just one coat, so usually put two of the base on. However, since the base is not UV stable and will turn chalky over time I like to top-coat it. But, I've given up using POR's top coat as it is usually brushed on and the brush marks get pretty bad. Instead, when the base coat is still tacky I hit it with a spray can of black. That covers completely and adheres nicely - w/o all of the brush marks.

As I think about it, with all the problems I had with C305 and C305A due to the mis-matched harnii I think I'll modify the one that that is in there as it is known to work. I don't want to have to go back through that again.

You've had quite the experience! And, you figured out why the shop went out of business. But it looks like you've also figured out how to do your own work, and do it well I might add. On the POR-15 cans, put a piece of wax paper or Saran wrap between the lid and the can before replacing the lid. That way it won't stick. And always use a proper paint can opener, not a screwdriver, to get the lid off. Anyway, glad you got the truck driving so well. When set up properly these trucks really do nicely.

Welcome! Glad you joined. What part of CA are you in? I ask because we have a map (Bullnose Forum/Member's Map in the menu) and we can add you with a city or zip. Looking forward to seeing the pics!

If you go with a 3G THEN you can clean up the old wiring. Remove the regulator from the fender. Get rid of the undersized charge wire, etc. 'Cause wherever you go you can get a replacement. I don't know about the Powermaster, but a bog stock 3G puts out as much at idle than a 1G does at full tilt. Your lights will stay bright. The HVAC fan stays spinning rapidly, etc.

Ahhh! Now I see, said the blind man! And yes, it might be easiest to use the C305A harness, w/o all of the speed control stuff, to get the three wires from the horn pad. And I have plenty of those harnii, so I might as well. On the air flow, I'd be surprised if the box is more restrictive than the air cleaner itself. And I wonder how that air flow rating compares with the throttle bodies. I'm cogitating on how to insulate the "cold" air intake as well as the hoses after the MAF sensor to keep the air as cool as possible in the heat of summer.

Bill - If you don't have a lot of changes to make, and you shouldn't, then I'd think you can swap engines w/o a creeper like that. The hardest part will be pulling the doghouse as you called the upper plenum, and that's just four bolts. But the thing really is nice for getting to the back. Oh wait, you will have to get to the back to remove the fuel lines. Right. That's not easy leaning over the fender. But your air cleaner box customization looks good. Very functional and solid. Not much to report on Big Blue today. Brandon/Bruno2 came up to do some media blasting and powder coating so I spent time working with him. It was fun. But, I did pull the driver's captain's chair so I could get up under the dash easily. Then I pulled the speed control amplifier and the speed control dump hose and harness back through the firewall. And I did a trial fit of the ECU up in the amplifier's spot and it will go - at least far enough that it won't be seen w/o looking up from down low at it. I also have been doing a bit of looking at C305 and C305A in the EVTM, and I'm thinking I can pull the C305A's out and plug C305M into C305F and then remove the speed control wiring harness. However, I'll have to break into the wiring to pick up the DG/O, LB/BK, and DB wires and feed those to the new speed control and also take the DB on to the horn relay in the PDB. Sound reasonable?

Big diff from northern, VA. Used to live just into PA outside of Wilmington and frequently drove into Falls Church.