Gary Lewis

That is actually the cable for the little Ranger and Bronco-II from 83 - 88.

Thanks, I appreciate the offer. (There goes that excuse! )

Yes, the A/C systems are easy. Apparently not so the others, although I've not had to change one of those so don't know for sure.

Not too bad on some trucks.

Wow! And “Free local pickup from Houston, Texas”. Is that a pickup that won’t make it to the next town?

Not bad for $1500. Wish it was closer.

Glad you got her settled. Been there, done that, and it is no fun. And there’s no way they’ll ever understand where their stuff has gone. Maybe next year.

If you are pulling the pan I'd replace the rear main seal at the same time. The seal's cost is minimal and the labor cost for just getting to it will be significant.

John - I've made a number of changes to the page at Documentation/Interior/Doors/Door Locks. Please go see what you think. We change change anything. I tried to put the pictures/figures near where they are mentioned, but may not have done a perfect job, so check that out. And we can change the character sizes, bolding, etc.

Here's a shot of the oil pressure switch on the back of Big Blue's old engine. You can see the brass tee that screws into the engine, the steel tee on top of it, and the oil pressure switch coming in from the driver's side. But that isn't the standard setup as you'll probably just have the steel tee and a switch screwed into it. And the intake manifold is literally an inch in front of the brass tee. It is the light gray thing. The block is dark blue. And where they meet is where that engine was leaking. So you want to check out that area very, very closely. If you have a leak there then do a happy dance 'cause fixing that is far easier than fixing the rear main.

Yes, where the rear of the intake manifold hits the wall at the back of the block. I've had two engines where someone did a very poor job of installing the intake and there was a leak there. It is right in front of the oil pressure switch, and if either of those are leaking the oil will run down and look like a rear main leak. If I were you I'd pull the air cleaner to get access to the rear of the intake and the oil pressure switch. Check to see if there is any oil puddled on top of the block right behind the manifold. If so you have to figure out from whence it came, but it'll be either the switch or the intake/block interface. And while I can tell you are thinking "Please, not the intake!", I'll assure you that R&R'ing the intake is far easier than the pan.

So maybe it was in the cutaways and F-53 chassis trucks? Also, note the HP and torque values. IIRC, Scotty told me this one should put out 360 - 370 HP and ~500 lb-ft of torque. As for the reservoir, et al, it isn't likely to get sorted tomorrow. Janey's GLK turned on the MIL while I was gone and when I got home my scanner acknowledged that the light is on but couldn't find any codes. So we took it in today and shopped while they looked at it. As of 3:30 they'd not diagnosed the problem yet, so we came home. And that means that I'll probably have to go back for it tomorrow. But, I plan to work on it in the morn, so may make some progress. Perhaps I can get the PDB relocated. Then the next step will be to design the bracket for the larger reservoir. Ok, I got the PDB relocated. Removed it and took some tabs off of it to get it closer to the battery, and then painted it to prevent it from rusting. Just had to slot the holes ~1/2" to get it into place, but I had to shim up the backside of the bracket 3/8" to get it to sit level. You can see the 3/8" piece of steel in the shot below, so I'll have to figure out how to level it when I make the bracket for the reservoir. The piece of MDF in the shot above is another shim as the bottom of the reservoir is anything but flat. There's a pad under the windshield washer portion of it that is the lowest part of the unit, but the bottom of the coolant portion is ~3/4" higher. And since I don't want the whole thing just hanging from the ears, I need something to support the coolant part, hence the piece of MDF - just as a trial. In the pic below you can see where the MDF fits, but note that I've drawn an arrow to the discharge port for the windshield washer pump, so obviously I'll have to be careful where the support is. I'm hoping I can use a piece of angle with the flat on top to go under the coolant reservoir and provide the support. And, here's what it looks like with the old reservoir sitting in. Nothing is quite touching something else and the lid to the PDB opens - just. But I think it'll work nicely.

I'm getting the email and just responded to you. The email system on the site is broken in that it doesn't show to be sending but it is. As for the place to look, go to the menu above: Documentation/Interior/Doors/Door Locks.

I did move it to the main section, here: https://forum.garysgaragemahal.com/Door-latch-replacement-and-conversion-to-slider-locks-1981-F150-td104889.html. But I was also talking about placing it on the website here: Documentation/Interior/Doors/Door Locks. The forum and the website are technically two different things. And it is easier to find things on the website since they are supposedly in a logical place, Documentation/Interior/Doors/Door Locks. Does that make sense?

Amen! Once upon a time I tried to clean an old tank. I put a few gallons of fresh gas in it as well as a chain and sloshed it around for several minutes. Poured that out and did it again. A total of four times, and still was getting gunk out. But by then I'd invested quite a few dollars in gasoline alone, so I installed the tank. And sure enough I had fits with the stuff in it plugging up the carb. I finally had to resort to running two fuel filters back to back and that seemed to solve the problem. Since then I put in new tanks.

Do you read lips?

The main issue with the F250's is that they have leaf springs and TTB's. And those things don't work well together since the TTB's work in an arc so are trying to twist the leaf springs - and they do NOT want to twist. So if you want reasonable ride I believe you have only two choices: TTB and coil springs Solid axle and leaf springs I had 1" of compression on Big Blue before the suspension hit the bump stops when I had TTB's and leaf springs. One whole inch! So the suspension had to be extremely stiff. Now, with the D60 swap, I have 4" of travel when sitting on the ground, and a full 8" of articulation. And the ride is dramatically improved. As for coil springs, I've read that people are now starting to use the coil spring suspensions from recent F250's in earlier trucks. But I don't know what is required to do that. Nor do I know if a kit is available.

We have a winner! The Dorman reservoir is SEALED! Here's a shot of the old and new reservoirs. Which should I use? And here's a shot of the center area between the two chambers - sealed: Last, here's a shot of the coolant side holding water upside down with no leaks anywhere after 15 minutes.

Welcome! Where's home? 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.

Thanks. The signature is also explained in Bullnose Forum/Forum FAQ's. Hope that helps. On the tank, you should look at the page in Documentation/Fuel Systems/Fuel System Part #'s/Fuel Tanks. From that you can tell which tanks will swap. But the '85 tank should fit the '86 if the wheelbase is the same on both trucks.

Welcome to the forum! Glad you joined. You probably missed the email that asked you to go to the New Members Start Here folder, read the guidelines, and then introduce yourself by starting a new thread in that folder. Don't worry, about 1/2 of the new members miss that email. But we keep the guidelines in that folder for new members to see, so just want to ensure that you've had a chance to read them. Yes? As for the straps, they and the same. But the tanks are probably different. In 1980 the tanks had a small opening, but by '86 they'd changed to a large opening to allow the fuel pump to be installed there. And the fittings are different as in 1980 they used rubber hose but in '86 they used nylon line. So if you just want to use the straps it'll work. But the tanks aren't a straight swap, although it can be done. And by the way, here are your pics. They are two large to be put on the site w/o choosing the "big" scaling option, which I've done. But the bottom one needs to be rotated. The issue is that forum software doesn't read the orientation info in the pics, so you have to do that in another app if you don't hold the phone/camera in the "normal" position. Read about that on the Bullnose Forum/Forum FAQ's page.

Those are used in Parts List #4, which is for: F250/350 1980/on 6.25M,7.4M,8.2M rear axles with 12 x 3 brakes

Ok, so it was from a Lincoln. The Dorman replacement reservoir just came in, and I like it better than the one that came off of Huck. Not only does it appear to be welded all the way around, it is also welded between the two reservoirs. So I'll check it in a bit for leaks and, if there are any I'll use the flowable RTV on it. But I'm betting it is SEALED. As for the rear axle, yep its been messed with. (New bearings, gears, seals, Truetrac, rear cover, etc.) In other words, there isn't a bolt on Big Blue that hasn't been turned since it left the factory. And with the exception of the rear axle, there's not a bolt that I haven't turned.

One of my front axle sockets has been turned down in the lathe about .020" to serve as a driver.

Amen, brother! Speaking of "brother", I was telling Rick on the trip that the rear axle is probably the only thing I've not had apart. And then I realized that I have had it slightly apart. Vernon had the long-pinion upgrade done to the 10.25" Sterling as well as new gears and the Truetrac. And they added the TrickFlow cover at the same time. But, in true style they didn't adjust the main cap supports properly. So I made that adjustment. But other than that I've not done anything to the rear axle. And that is probably the ONLY thing on the truck that I've not "messed with". (Otherwise, why would there currently be 287 pages in his thread?) As for the alternator, I thought I got that one from you and was just wondering what it is off of.