Gary Lewis

LOL well, not really. But it's not off by much. I was too tired and cold to deal with it at the time, but it looked like about 1.5" on either side. I guess my options are to add a spacer to the frame, maybe via some square tubing, or to remove the bumper and weld in an extra mounting rib in the right location. It should be easy, I have the old one, but I'm not a very experienced welder so I might do better taking it somewhere. It can't cost that much - I had a guy tig up an aluminum intake manifold for me once and it was only $75. I would have to do something like that even if I had kept the old one. Not only was the old one in rough shape rust-wise, but it also had a bunch of welds let go along the plate the ball normally attaches to. Somebody added an aftermarket Class III hitch to Rocky so I don't plan to use the ball for towing, but it's always handy knowing that attachment point at least "works". Question for you guys, is there a preferred brand or style of rock slider / side step? This is one case I'm not into the original factory option, I want something more modern. Looking at the frame from underneath it seems farther from the edge of the cab than on my other later model trucks. Attaching anything directly to it would need quite an offset. So I assume this will need to be bolted to the cab floor or something? Wondering if there's a "just do this, its easy and solid" option here. I have a used pair of Westin Platinum Series step bars on Big Blue. But as light as the tubes are they are certainly not rock sliders, although I wish they were. I had to make the mounts that attach to the frame but initially used the original brackets which attach the bar to the mounts. Here are some pics, although if you are interested I can take more. But, suffice to say that there was a LOT of fabrication. In this first pic you can see the rear brackets on the left and the front brackets on the right. And each pair has the original bracket on the right and my beefed-up version on the left. Basically, what I did was to put a second side on each and a piece of angle that bolts to the bottom of the mounts. And I did that because in the recent trip to Colorado we attached a winch line to the step bar and wound up bending the bracket. That won't happen now. And in this pic you can see everything powder coated. On the left are the front mounts that attach to the frame, and on the right are the rear mounts that attach to the front spring hanger for the rear spring. And in the middle are the brackets that attach to the mounts. They slip over the ends of the mounts and bolt to them top and bottom. And the step bar itself bolts to the bracket.

At WOT now I would say anything above 1500 rpm I get a little at 1500 rpm and lower, truck will pull from 1000 rpm, but I back out of it not to hurt the motor. That is with vacuum advance disconnected. It was really bad when hooked up. I need to throw a light on it again to get the numbers as I don't remember them but think it is set to 14 BTDC. At 16 BTDC pinging was really really bad. If ibackeddown to 10 BTDC I had to crank it more before it would start / run, now I just tap the key and it fires right up. Dave ---- Sounds like the springs are really light in the centrifugal advance. Check timing by running the R's up a couple of hundred at a time from idle and we can compare to what we found on David/1986F150Six's engine a few years ago. We got it dialed in nicely.

It would look good, but I have one from Snap-On that my son bought me, so I'm not in the market. But that one is cool!

This is going to be quite the project! I’m ready! Let’s go! Seriously though, it will be quite the project, but worth it in the end. So hang in there for a long slog. 👍

Or got lucky Took to work again today, 1am 34°f and worked great. I need to find time to look into the pinging at load. Still have a little with vacuum disconnected & plugged. Dave ---- Glad you have the choke working well. But it sounds like you have too much initial advance. Or you have too much centrifugal. At what RPM does it ping?

The Pormido kit came in today. I'm going to document what I do on it in this thread.

Got the Pormido kit in today. More on it tomorrow, but there are a few things to connect.

Have you found the page here: Documentation/Driveline/Brakes? Might click on the Overall and then the General Brake Service tabs and see the section from the factory shop manual there.

Glad it worked so well. Thanks for following up.

Yeah... Me too! Yeah, I found them at https://www.transmissionpartsdistributors.com/ for $6 for a 2-pack. I don't know what I'll do with the other one, I bet this is the original pin and the truck's just turned 30 this year. I'll lose this new pin before I ever get a chance to use it, I'm sure. If somebody wants this second one, Venmo me the postage and it's yours. But I really do think if you own a grinder and a hacksaw or cutoff wheel, a 1/4" drill bit could be repurposed to make one. You would't even waste the bit. Just cut it off the back end! Good tip on the SEM texture, I hadn't noticed that in my searches. It's a little pricey but cheaper than replacing these parts. I'll give it a go. Did a few final tasks today before it gets cold later this week. I replaced both tail light housings. One was broken and the other was dull. They came as a pair so why not? It went OK but the new housings didn't like the old screws, I heard some ominous crackling when I installed them. I have a few bulbs to replace so I'm sure I'll be in for some fussing around when I go to do that. I also installed a new tailgate handle. The tailgate's had a rough life but I've decided to keep it as is for now. I'm VERY hard on my truck beds and being a bit beat up to begin with just suits me. Eventually I'll deal with the rust in the bed and either DIY coat or Line-X it, depending on my budget at the time. For now I just wanted to get it to open and close properly. Well, I got it halfway sorted out, the old handle was definitely bent, but those little plastic clips Ford used for every push/pull (locks, latches, handles, etc.) never seem to be reusable. They always snap when I try to bend them even slightly to release them. I should have guessed this would happen but didn't order the clips so... Finally I installed the new bumper. Well, halfway. Old: New: Why only halfway? Well, Ford must have made a change here in the 80's because while the chrome-head bolts that go through the back lined up, the main "frame" bolts installed from inside did not. This replacement came off an '83, I think (it was a long day at the junkyard when I pulled it). Apparently the frame on those was wider? Or something. There's about a 3" gap between the bumper's mounting brackets and the frame rails it should bolt to. I really want to keep this bumper so I guess I'll have to gin up some kind of spacer. Maybe I have some scrap square tubing floating around. I think you may have the wrong bumper mounts. But, it sounds like you know how to make it fit.

I think you are right, Shaun. I didn't look closely enough.

Was you, Gary? LOL! Well, that isn't very representative of what I found. First, the suspension is so soft that even pot holes don't bounce you. It felt like rubber bands were used for springs, and what I read said the suspension was designed for traversing plowed fields. Second, the brakes couldn't possibly cause you to hit your head. They are probably adequate for the speeds they designed the vehicle to hit, which isn't very fast. But, with the shift lever coming out of the dash and having a bizarre pattern I guess it is possible that the driver hit Reverse?

Ring finger on my left hand has a bandage on it from stuffing it into the wheel on the bench grinder. Does that qualify?

I'd not thought about hitting the gas, but I can see that hitting the brakes would be the last thing to do, so hitting the gas would be good. The analogy about skidding on snow is appropriate. And yes, dropping one tire while the other goes up can be a major problem. My new truck, and probably a lot of the Jeeps and other vehicles, have inclinometers that should warn you about an impending debacle. But, at what point are you going to tip? How do you tell in advance? This discussion, and seeing that FJ roll, makes me even more cautious. And I already was pretty cautious. In fact, our new-found friend with the 4Runner said he could easily tell who was driving as my brother is a lot less cautious than I am. I laughed it off saying "It's my truck!" But the fact is that I've always been more cautious than he. Anyway, I'm looking forward to more videos! Lots of fun second-guessing lines, suspension, lockers, etc.

We have a new page: Documentation/Body/Lock Cylinders & Keys. It basically contains the information from this post, but I've put the info into a pdf so it can be searched.

Yup, me too. Although my master cylinder doesn't have the float so there was nothing to connect, electrically.

Sounds like you are going to have some time to attend to other things. The front hubs might be a good place to start. As for the gas tank, if it isn't dry I'd consider Stabil. Wouldn't take much.

LOL! Yes, it is where you started, and that's surely well past where I started. Sounds like my 33's and essentially no rocker guards wouldn't make it either. (Have visions of turning the step bars into rocker guards at some point, which is partly why I reinforced the mounts so dramatically.) As for the angle, having now seen the FJ go over I'm leery. I don't think I'd have gone where you did.

You never know what you are going to find with Youtubes since literally anyone can make them. Personally I prefer to read what the factory had to say about a subject since their techs used their documentation. There are two such documents here: Documentation/Fuel & Air Systems/Carburetors, Chokes, & EFI/Holley 4180C.

Sounds like you got pretty close.

To me, the trick is to know when I'm starting to make mistakes. Sometimes I'm so far into it that I don't realize I made a mistake two hours ago and should have stopped then. Anyway, glad you are making progress. And the idea of using a drill bit for the pin makes good sense. But you got yours done with the purpose-made pin? None of my trucks have had that foam piece, but I like it and wonder if something like that couldn't be made for any of the transmissions? On your plastic trim, I think the soft stuff is just the plastic that's been killed by the UV. I've had a lot of door panels that looked like that, and my solution has been to use 60 grit wet-or-dry and keep it wet or the stuff clogs the sandpaper. You want to sand all of that stuff off, and that takes a lot of sanding. But it leaves it smooth, which isn't right. In the last I've just pained them with SEM, but they now have the Texture Coating, and that's what I'd use. I think a couple of the guys on here have and you might find their comments by searching the forum.

He was handicapped by open diffs, a stiff suspension and lack of experience. I had one locker and slightly more compliant suspension, but otherwise was similarly handicapped! It was actually a Saginaw. It was on the Jeep when I bought it. It always had that annoying whine, but it always worked, so I never got around to replacing it. And he was (good-naturedly) jabbing at me every time I stalled my Jeep, so I had to take advantage of the one time he let me get back at him! I mentioned that we were both handicapped by inexperience! Tire pressure was a part of that. We also had quite a bit of highway driving to get to and from those trails, and had no way to air back up. I was running ~30 psi (or whatever full street pressure I ran in those tires). I don't know what he was running, but I'm sure it was a lot higher than I'd recommend now. He did winch twice on the first trail. The first time was to get up that little rough patch in the very first scene of the first video. That was due to him having an incompetent spotter! I was trying to get him up the same line I had taken, well to his left. That worked for me with a rear locker, but with his open diffs he needed to move over to the right side. (By the way, look at the picture below to see how much this trail has changed!) I had intentionally stayed away from the right side because this was Lesley's first time on a shelf road and she was NOT amused at seeing I-70 1500 feet below her! Steve's second winch was right after the end of the first video. I'm sure we could've got him up, but he was ready to get past that section and took the quick way. At the end of the second video he wasn't stuck at all, but he was set up for a line I didn't like from my perspective. It looked like he was going to drop his left front off a rock while his right front climbed the bank. That's a good way to roll (like the FJ-40 in the Black Bear video) so I stopped him. He was able to back up and take a new line a little to his left. Glad you like them! As I said, my plan is to get all of my 'wheeling trips to date loaded. I don't know how long that'll take me (it's not going to be a real high priority). But I'll get there. That little climb that the green Jeep was struggling with in the first scene of the first video has changed over the years! The video shows it in 1993. 25 year later I ran that trail in my Bronco. I reported on it here in this thread, but here's a picture of my Bronco coming down that same section! https://forum.garysgaragemahal.com/file/n13166/DSC_7790_SpringCreek.jpg I guess thinking back on it, the suspension on both Jeeps was somewhat stiff. But I didn't catch that. Still, airing down would have been a big help, and your locker surely made a huge difference. However, glad to see he did make it through, albeit by winching a couple of times. Been there, done that, and it was due to the same kind of incompetence. I've never heard a Sag pump make that kind of noise. Initially I thought it was the t-case. But it was obvious it was the pump as you were turning around. As for stalling, both of you did several times. But it was funny that he stalled where you did. Seriously though, that is a big pain! Until I blew out the carb's idle circuits Big Blue stalled several times, and it is kind of scary to lose the power brakes and steering on the side of a mountain. Speaking of the side of the mountain, I thought that looked like I-70 below. Janey wouldn't have liked that, either. And wow, that section of the trail has really changed! I would never have recognized it. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't like the angle your Bronco is at, and it might be worse in Big Blue.

And I removed it from my post. No hurry on the answers. Just curious. And, waiting on more videos.

Neither of my 2 80's (11/80 & 2/81) F100 trucks had them on the radiator support. If the truck had it on the support did it have the one on the fire wall also? Dave ---- Dave - The answer is yes, at least in Big Blue's case both his radiator support and cab had a buck tag.