Gary Lewis

I'm with Dane. Impressive! But I don't want to do that. Man, having that many parts to put back together, correctly, would be a huge challenge. Keep up the good work!

I'm with Shaun. I've never seen a hole shaped like that on the radiator support brackets. But to answer your question, I think you need a bushing. Or bushings since you don't want the bushing to go all the way through as the force from the bolt is supposed to clamp the two halves together. Maybe call Energy Suspensions?

I took a 80grit cookie on my angle grinder and knocked the under side of the flange down then came back with a flat file and trued them all up to one another to be flat and level. Then I came back and filed a bevel into the back side they seem to clear the head just fine on the driverside. I need to mock up the passenger side see if they clear there too if not I can file them down a little more. This is what I have photo wise of the under hood black on the parts. Back side of the crank pulley, it appears there is grey primer bleeding through with the flash but considering I sprayed 3 heavy coats on it there should be none. But I am thinking of a way to suspend it so I can paint both sides with a heavy coat tomorrow to blend it all in. This is the AC bracket back side and the back side of the AC crank pulley, I sprayed a second heavy coat on the AC bracket as it was the first I painted and I went a little thin I think as it had varying textures. This one is hard to tell due to the flash but its the powersteering pump bracket, the AC compressor head bracket, the AC compressor brace, the AC compressor bracket spacers, the AC compressor bracket tensioner and the fan spacer. Everythign here was painted with Underhood black but the fan spacer which was painted with a heavy coat of aluma blast cast aluminum paint to bring back that fresh cast aluminum color and get away from that dull dark gray finish. And a photo of the fan pulley, I was able to paint the back side then set the pulley on a spray can to paint the pulley groove and the face of the pulley so this pulley should be fully cured by tomorrow and may or may not get another coat depending on how it cures. For me I am not real happy with how its coming out cause its either change in textures where I touched the part to flip it to primer the other side such as with the back side of the powersteering pump bracket or the paint is just not providing a smooth sheen and part of me also thinks the sheen is way too little. I know its supposed to replicate the OE finish of 10% - 15% gloss but even the OE would reflect a little and this paint only attempts to do that when you put a super heavy wet coat down on the verge of running. Sounds like you have the header flange trimmed nicely, at least on one side. And the Alumablast looks really good. But I can't tell about the black. Just no way to take a pic of black and get the gloss to look right. Good luck.

Well, at least you have a date for them shipping. Hopefully they will. On the headers, I don't think you've hurt them at all. But before you ship them out do you still need to trim the bottom of the flange a bit where it hits the angle of the head? Show us some pics of the painted parts, although pics don't really tell much about gloss.

I can understand a 351W. Makes a lot of torque and are plentiful. And getting that power would be far less expensive than doing an Essex V6.

Well, do you have a tilt steering column? If so, it is possible that the piece in it is broken keeping the linkage from pulling the ignition switch to Start. I had that problem with Big Blue. So put a pair of pliers or vice grips on the link that runs down the column to the switch and pull up on it when the key is in Start. But make sure the tranny is in neutral and the e-brake is set! The other good possibility is the clutch switch. You can bypass it by installing a fuse in the connector that plugs into the switch.

Chad - I'm surprised that the hole is that much bigger. Looking at the documentation I don't see any bushing used. Can you show us some pics?

Dane - Thanks. And on the air cleaner, I don't have one of the 460 air cleaners to show. Maybe Bill does? John - I really like the new layout. And while it took ~2 days for this one, now that I have thought through the how-to I think I might be able to do others more quickly. However, I'd really like to get back to working on my trucks, plural, so may give the website a rest for a bit.

John cleaned his up. Not sure who else did. As for the later version, I put one of those in Big Blue since they are sealed at the top and I was losing coolant on the rough and steep Jeep roads. Fixed that problem. But it did take some adapting - especially since mine is on the passenger's side.

Welcome, Jonathan. I'm trying to convince Janey that since this truck was born on my birthday, June 8th, that it is meant to be. She asked "What are you going to sell?" Ouch!

Looks great, Alan!

Dane - The one at Dennis Carpenter, shown below, appears to be the 1980-84 version where the hose goes in via the hole at the top. What that person is looking for is the 1985-86 version where the hose goes onto a fitting at the bottom. And yes, we have a page on them, and you can see the part number of E5TZ 17618-A, but I can't find one to purchase.

Everything from BaT is on that page now, inc the video and 141 pictures. Enjoy!

Maybe you can measure the play and someone else can tell us if that is normal. But from my memory Big Blue's only moved 1/4" or so there.

I had someone ask me where to get a new '85/86 coolant/washer reservoir, and I couldn't find one at the normal places. Many say they have it but what they show in the pic is the 1980 - 84 unit where the hose goes in a hole in the top. But I thought someone on here posted that he'd recently bought one, and I cannot find the post. Help! Do you know where to find one? Do you know where that post is?

Vertical movement in the column itself? Or in the steering wheel? Maybe take a short video to show us what is going on?

You are right, Shaun. And there are pics of the bed in the comments. I've downloaded the bed pics and the Marti report and will see what I can do about the others as I'm tired of waiting on the seller to get back with me. And I've created a page for it at Documentation/Picture Gallery/1983 XLS Survivor. So far just the Marti report and the bed pics are in there, but more to come awa the verbiage describing it.

Can you show us some pics of the column? What I'm trying to ascertain is if the column itself is broken. If not, I'd repair it. As far as I'm aware there isn't anything available aftermarket. So you are really going to need to fix yours or find another. And either tilt or fixed will work. I like the fixed column as there's a part in the tilt columns that breaks if you use the steering wheel to hoist yourself into the truck, which I do all the time. And that may be why the PO butchered your column as when the part breaks you can't start the vehicle, or can't start it reliably. The part itself is readily available, so repairing the column isn't that hard if the column's housing isn't broken.

I should add that I, too, have a console by Classic Consoles and love it. I was skeptical at first as I thought it would be a problem folding the seatback forward, but it isn't. One of the best additions I've done.

The factory service manual (Documentation/HVAC/HVAC Systems and then the 1981 FSM & the A/C-Heater Systems tabs) shows the procedure below:

Excellent!

When/if we get the green light to capture the pics I'll ask about the bed and the Marti report.

Bill - The shop manual doesn't say anything about it that I can find. I'll have a look at the '86 emissions manual. Jonathan - I like your idea about making the clickable pages stand out, but I don't know how to do it. I just placed :-) in the title of the original Air Cleaners page, and sure enough when you actually get to the page it has those characters in the title, which isn't what we need. Then I put :-) at the end of the Page Name and the URL doesn't show that nor does the menu. Speaking of the menu, that's really where we want the clickable pages to be different. So I'll research that. But perhaps the best thing is to do away with them completely?

High Bid USD $14,250 (Reserve Not Met)

I've thought I wanted to build up a flathead to be different. But I'd not really thought about the Essex in the same light. However, the Split Port Induction system might make it interesting. It wasn't used on our trucks, but probably could be added. Or, you could go with the supercharged version. But, you could also go with a Coyote.