Gary Lewis

Cool! Searching the MPC for that lead me to a set of pages I'd not noticed before for Special Products. This is the US Usage set, but there's also a Canadian Usage set and they aren't quite the same. And there are pages on Cleaners, Waxes, & Polishes; Clear Vision Aids; Cooling System Aids; Motor Oils & Lubricants; Sealers & Adhesives; etc. Do y'all think we need this stuff on the site?

Nice!

Yes, the modifications most PO's inflict on their trucks are usually very poorly done, and frequently downright dangerous. Little did I know what I was getting into with Big Blue, but had been smoking some serious stuff when he worked on this truck. You have a beautiful truck, and I'm so glad you are keeping it original.

In a word, NO! Granted it has 4.10 gears, but the lack of clearance would hinder it. However, that beautiful paint would be scratched in a heartbeat.

Really nice truck. From what little I know of them those pull like a freight train, and get decent MPG to boot. But it is kind of expensive.

Unplugging the ignition is a good idea. If you do that when the engine is hot and not wanting to start you'll know immediately if too much advance is the issue. As for the timing, if you don't have marks nor an indicator then that could be a problem. Who installed that?

You are now on the map, and it looks like there are others in your area. You might look them up. As for the front suspension, I am not a fan of the ones on the 1980 - 85 4wd F250HD's. The combination of twin traction beam (TTB) and leaf springs is a very poor design in my book. The arc of the TTB's tries to twist the springs, and they don't like it. Mine had new springs and suspension bushings, and the ride was horrible. But you can read in Sky's Offroad Design Super Duty RSK Install what I did, and it made all the difference in the world. As said, prior to doing that I had 2" of travel, and after 8". And that's about the way the ride is - 4 times better. However, there are now people installing the later coil spring solid axle setups onto these truck, so if I were to do it again I'd research that. I like what I have, but that may be even better.

Trash!?!? . It would fly out the back.

Welcome! Glad you joined. Your enthusiasm shows! So, now we have two New Zealanders - you and Ken. But he lives down under and has a Bullnose there. So, where’s home here in the States? 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. You should start a thread in the main section on your truck. And include plenty of pics. As for manuals, the best are Ford’s factory service manuals. You can sometimes find them in print on eBay, or buy them on CD. But we have a lot of that info spread out across the site in the Documentation section. However, if your truck has 4wd I’m going to differ with you on a lift helping travel. An 85 F250 with 4wd will have about 2” of spring travel. Been there, done that, and got beat to death. What fixed it was a solid axle with SuperDuty springs and a reverse shackle kit. Now I have 8” of travel and a very reasonable ride.

(If there is any question about why I might clean this thread up and make it a locked how-to, this should answer the question. However, I'm the main/biggest contributor to the rabbit chasing, and it is fun. ) Yes, those videos are inspiring! But Janey and I certainly won't get into anything like what Bob has done. Nor will our son Bret and I. Still, they are good to watch to help understand what to do and what not to do. So, do you have a camera system on your B-II?

That's an excellent idea!

I'm blessed with a wife that enables me to do this stuff. In fact, as I type she's looking for a hotel room on our next jaunt in Big Blue - the Ouachita Trail. And I hope to have the mirror and cameras fully operational then.

Yes, too much timing can certainly cause problems. Which is why I like the DS-II since it has the retard feature. I think some HEI modules have it, but not the ones most of these distributors use, and even if it has it no one wires it up that way. And I don't understand "having a non std method of setting timing". Spark is spark regardless of what module generates it. So why can't you use a timing light and dial in the initial advance?

No, the illustrations and text are two separate volumes for the pickups and E-Series. But, when I was looking into the decal transfers for the Ranger, there was a page next to the part numbers in the text section with an illustration of the different decals available for the Ranger. So there does look to be some crossover between the text volume and the illustration volume. What I found interesting is that there were some decals listed that were only used from 1998-2001, and yet they were still listed in the 2003 copy. I have three different friends who own 99-02 Super Duties, and parts for their trucks show up in this catalog too. And most of the listings for Ranger say 96 on, even though there are MANY different parts between a 1996 and a 2003. This thing is just as confusing as the 80-89 version. LOL! Bill/Numberdummy wouldn't appreciate us being critical of the MPC's, and while they are so much better than anything else they certainly have their issues.

Bill - Yes, I remember that. Scott & John, you'se guys caused me to look at the Resources tab. It needs a lot of work. On the current subject, are you saying we need a How To folder within the Resources folder? Or do we have a How To folder in each of the pinned topics? I think we need to completely re-think the Resources folder before we start making changes. A lot of that stuff is way out of date, or shouldn't have been there in the first place - with my limited understanding of what the folder is for. Could I get one of you to take that on? Right now it says "Below are threads, or topics, that list resource links for various part of the Bullnose trucks. Click on the thread to access the links for that topic." But that doesn't seem to be what you are talking about doing with it.

Your ignition system probably does not have the retard feature. So you'll be limited on the amount of initial timing that is used. As for the starter, the "factory" starter for a Bullnose truck is the old, large style. But in the 90's Ford changed to a modern permanent magnet gear-reduction starter. Those are smaller and much stronger then the old style - and are the same size as your Powermaster, but a whole lot less expensive. I have a Powermaster in Big Blue, but it was on the truck when I got it. And I won't buy another one since PMGR starters are available in your local parts store.

Beautiful! I'm guessing he's got $100K in it.

My headlamp arrived from Amazon today. I really like it…my wife just ordered one for herself lol. Will come in handy as I have a lot of work to do under the truck soon. Thanks John. I might have to get a pair of those. I love the lights I have, but I'm always looking for some place to place it in order to get the light where I need it. Perhaps a headlight like those would do it?

Yikes! So now the MPC covers a single year and singleish series. But it has the illustrations and text versions together? Boy, things have changed. Except the bit about mistakes/omissions.

You are only ~6 months off - either late or early. But I'll take it.

As you said, it is a good price. And it doesn't seem to have the stress cracks that are frequently found. However, it does not "fit all Bullnose style Broncos and F Series Ford Full size Pickups from 1980 - 1986". That's due to two reasons. First, the radiators and radiator supports changed in '85. I believe that is an 85/86 support, but could be wrong. Second, within each year range there were three different radiator supports, as shown below:

At 1500 RPM I doubt you are going to be able to get it to stop properly. And even 800 RPM is pushing the dieseling range. So you are going to have to get the RPM to come down reliably. I have a similar problem with Big Blue and have gone to two throttle return springs, and even that hasn't truly solved it. As for the hard starting, it can be several different things. But since it happens only when the engine is hot I'll suggest two: Starter: As the bearings in the starter wear they allow the armature to get closer and closer to the field. Eventually the armature touches the field, causing a huge drag and heat. Heat causes both the armature and the field to expand, exacerbating the problem. So I suspect his is the real problem since when the engine and starter are hot the armature is already starting to expand. Timing: You didn't say what ignition system you have on the truck, but the good DS-II modules have a feature on them that retards the timing during cranking. This can make a huge difference, but it really shows up when the engine is hot.

I'm amenable to whatever, and can create the new folder and allow the author to lock the thread wherever we want it. But, it isn't intuitively obvious to me why it should go in resources. Again, I'm ok with that. Maybe we need a poll? As for archiving completed project threads into another folder, I'm planning to do that on my Pormido mirror camera system. That's because it was quite a learning exercise and I stumbled around a lot. And we chased a number of rabbits, which is great as it is part of our community, but the outsiders are just looking for the facts, Jack. So I plan to write up a new thread explaining how it was finally done. An "as-built" if you will. For instance, I'll explain that I'm using two 2 meter extensions for the front camera, and that I'd tried a 10 meter extension but it didn't work. Plus, I'll give them a link to the discussion about the error messages I got when I tried that, but won't go back over the long and gory details. And it'll be a link to that thread that I'll include in my review on Amazon of the system.

Maybe he means Flareside Truck Enthusiasts?

Good idea! Ron - I'm tagging you as you need to see this. See the "85+ Radiator in Earlier Support" tab on the page at Documentation/Cooling System/Radiator Support.