Gary Lewis

We've been missing you! But now I know why - you moved to lower, slower Delaware. Everything there goes at a snail's pace - except for at that roundy-round place in Dover.

Just don't want you to hurt that beautiful truck!

The first pic shows a DS-II ignition module. And if I remember correctly the feedback carbs got the TFI ignition. Right, Matt? But maybe we need a better shot of the carb with the air cleaner off.

You are now, quite literally, "on the map".

Welcome! Glad you joined - finally. What part of GA? I ask because we have a map (Bullnose Forum/Member's Map in the menu) and can add you with a city or zip. I understand the drive/work thinking. I like working on mine, but in the middle of a project I think "This is never going to end!" But, so far, it has and then I enjoy driving it again for a while - until the next project.

Matt - If you are right that changes everything. We’d better make sure before going farther. Maybe we need better pics?

Yes. That is why Ford put that plate there. So put it back! It wasn't on there when I got the truck. So I scavenged the one off the cheap Chinese Carb. And the screw even worked! Guess I'll just let that one sit and use it for learning purposes and whatevr parts might can be used. lol May try the electric assist cap off of it to see if it helps make sure we're getting the choke opened fully all the time. I need to find my spacer I had to have for the chinese carb or trim the plate so air cleaner housing will fit down. Thanks for all the help. Hopefully if someone else sometime is having issues, they can learn from my experiences. I did read a LOT of posts on here and FTE, plus YT vids to get to this point. This year looks to be a year of figuring out all the things that the PO and garage that did engine install did that could have been done better. Refining and improving the old truck instead of letting it slide into a worse case of disrepair. The PO sold it because he couldn't afford to continue his "restoration" because Covid had him out of funds. There are always things to do to these trucks to make them better. Frequently it is better than the PO, or his ham-handed mechanics, made it. And after that you can make it better than stock. But there's always "better" to be had.

Nice truck. And while I don't think it is what I'd want for offroading due to its length, I do like the fact that it is MAF/SEFI, not SD/BF. While that wouldn't make a lot of difference on a stock engine, it certainly makes it easier to make mods and have the system compensate.

Well, that will work. BUT, you won't have left the old wiring intact so you can put a 1G in place of the Powermaster when it fails. If you really want the ability to put a 1G in place of the Powermaster when you are on a trip, which I think is an excellent idea, then you don't want to remove the old wiring. The shunt isn't a problem if you don't try to put more than, ~70A through it. So I would put a 175A fuse on the fender liner some place and run a #4 or #6 wire to it from the battery side of the starter relay, and run the same size wire from the other side of the fuse to the 1-wire alternator. Tape up the other wires for the 1G alternator so they can't short out, and you are done. Your ammeter will only show discharge as it is now only seeing the load going to the cab from the battery/alternator. But that won't hurt anything. Then when you get the voltmeter from Rocketman you'll need to add a relay under the hood so the voltmeter isn't on all the time and draining the battery. And you'll have to cut one wire and take it to the relay. But it is simple stuff and you'll still have the original 1G wiring for when the Powermaster fails you in Timbuktu.

No. Taking the ammeter out of the circuit does nothing for the shunt. If you leave the alternator charging the battery through the shunt you have a very real chance of melting the shunt, if not causing a fire. Let me say it this way: The shunt is not capable of carrying the full output of your new alternator. You must take the output of the alternator to the battery and not through the shunt. I encourage you to read the writeup on the Ammeter & Voltmeter tab on the page at Documentation/Electrical/3G Alternator Conversion.

Yes, it might be easiest to jack it up and place the ramps under it that way. And that should be very safe. And that breather ought to work nicely. As for the bluetooth receiver, I like that mounting location. Should work out very nicely.

Good! I'm glad it worked.

I missed that. Thanks.

Yes, lots of time with the hood up right now. And lots of time with me in the engine compartment - way too much time for my old knees. As for warranted, it only took one day of being up in there on my knees before I asked if I could buy one. And using it today proved its worth. I'm sold.

Thanks, Bill. I missed that. Or, more likely, read it and forgot it. (I think my memory used to be better, but I really can't remember.) Perfect. I will connect it there. Thanks.

Bruce - That's a slightly later edition than the one we have on the page at Documentation/Electrical/Connectors. That one says it is "MC-PIGTAIL2015A" and was revised on 8/6/2015 10:31:20 AM, while the one you linked to is "MC-PIGTAIL2016" and doesn't say when it was edited. Anyway, I added the 2016 version since the 2015 has 60 pages and the 2016 has only 52, so there must be some differences. Thanks!

$500 for a tailgate that has rust?????

Yes, it WILL crack. And probably during the $100 shipping. No way, Jose!

Very nice! And not a bad price. Plus, free shipping.

Not a bad price, but I can't figure out whether it is early (80 - 82) or late (83-86).

Wow! That's cheap!

One BIG word of caution. Your new alternator is capable of kicking out 150A. But my guess is that the shunt that feeds the ammeter is capable of handling about 75A. So if you don't change the wiring, at some point you are going to melt that shunt and potentially catch things on fire. As shown below, the shunt is between the output of the alternator and the battery. So if your battery gets a bit low the regulator is going to tell the alternator to do its thing, and that shunt will not be happy.

Bill - Please don't miss the question to you in the previous post. And now for my day's report and a realization. As said, after getting the Topside Creeper together I worked on the oil pressure and vacuum connections. Then I pulled the DS-II ignition modules and got the wiring out - as far as I could. Next up was the old speed control. I pulled the module/servo combo and realized that the vacuum dump hose and the wiring to the servo go through a grommet in the firewall above the large oval grommet that I'll use for the wires to and from the ECU. That got me to thinking about the wiring for the new speed control so I pulled up the schematic from the '96 EVTM. And that's when I had the "aha" moment. I'd forgotten that the new speed control uses the clutch switch instead of the vacuum dump. And when looking at the schematic I realized that the clutch switch and the brake switch (BOO) are in the same wire. No wonder a 2nd switch in the brake system was needed! But, I also see the feed to the safety switch is "Hot at all times". So I modified the schematic to show what I'm going to do - feed the safety switch from the speed control's fuse, which is #5 in the soon-to-be engine compartment fuse box. Which solves a problem 'cause that hot-at-all-times fuse doesn't exist because the fuse box that is shown is the in-cab one from the '96 truck and it doesn't exist. I keep thinking "How am I going to document all of this", and what I believe will work is to create pages like the one below that show my changes, and both print them and put them in the "Big Blue's Documentation" notebook I have in the truck, but also in a file folder called the same. Thoughts? Better ideas?

My first thought was to back off the choke cap one notch. I think that will open it up fully and drop the fast idle. And if it doesn't you can put it back where it was. As for the electric assist, it does use the 7v off the alternator. And the 1981 factory shop manual says: