Gary Lewis

Welcome to the Bullnose Forum! Glad you joined! Why not get your father to join? (Don't let him tell you he's too old - I'm 74, and I'm not the oldest one on here. ) Nice truck! You must be proud. Please start a thread in the main section so we can follow along on your journey on this project. What part of oHIo? (Had a friend from there and he always told people he's from the state that is "o" on both ends and "hi" in the middle.) We have a map (Bullnose Forum/Member's Map in the menu) and can add you with a city or a zip.

Welcome, but did you get it off? Easily?

NO! Don't yank. Here's how to do it, but don't tell anyone. It is our secret. Ok? Actually, I'm going to put it on the website on the Speedo page as I frequently have to get a spare speedo and cable to figure it out. So now that I have, again, I'll document it. In the pic on the left the cable is locked to the speedo. But on the right I've pushed on the tab towards the speedo's input shaft, and that unlocks the cable. The trick is to be able to push in and then pull back gently. If you pull back before you push in the latch won't let loose.

It just pulls straight out. As for lube, I put it on the cable as I push it back in. You don’t want too much as it might come up the cable and make a mess under the dash. And maybe get into the speedo itself. So I just put a thin layer on with my fingers as I was pushing the cable in.

Yes, I do believe that the Timken 4250 is the right one for your Bronco w/a Dana 44 front diff. It was the correct one for Dad's truck. But your question about bearings confused me. You should have both an inner and outer wheel bearing. There's no reason to replace them if they are in perfect shape, but if they have any etching or roughness they should be replaced.

Glad the Sniper is working so well! On the speedo, you can pull the cable out from behind the speedo - unless you have speed control. If so you'll have a transducer in the cable about under the brake booster, and the cable you get from behind the speedo only goes to there. Then you break into there and pull the rest of the cable. As for lubing it, my recent experience is that I copiously lubed the cable with spray graphite and spray Teflon. COPIOUSLY. And I still had bouncing. So I then lubed it with Mobil 1 synthetic wheel bearing grease, and that helped significantly. It didn't fix it, but it was much better, and livable now. However, I don't know what it'll be like this winter. Hopefully it won't be too stiff.

Check to see if the orange wire does go to the computer on 49. And look for #'s on the valve cover and the computer. I think your truck is a combination of parts - that don't completely mesh.

I think your truck is more like the '85 EFI, shown on the left, than the '86 EFI which is on the right. If you only have the one wire (DG/P) and no orange wire then that seems to prove it. But, does your harness have the orange wire going to pin 49? And, do you have the calibration code for your engine? Label on the valve cover? Or, what's the # on the computer? If we have some of that info I may be able to figure out what you have.

Gary, I've had the rear swaybar installed now for a couple years and it made a big difference in my opinion, so I'm not expecting a huge difference with the addition of the front bar, but I'm hoping for some improvement. The truck was driving just fine, but if this tightens it up even a hair, then I'll take that. I needed to get an alignment to correct for my crooked steering wheel anyway. I know without any bars at all, there's quite a bit of body roll in these trucks in the turns (at least in the spongy 2wd's). It was a bit unnerving at first, but I've long forgotten about it now. The 1980 4x4 Flareside has factory front and rear swaybars...and the quad shock front end, so it's a pretty stiff truck as it is. Cory - Dad's truck was pretty stiff when I got it, and I discovered that in addition to the sway bars and quad shocks, it had the biggest shocks on it he could find. But when I put the Monroe Sensatracs on it made a huge difference. Turns out that you aren't supposed to put two of the same kind of shock on each side in the front. The tech at Monroe explained that they are supposed to have different valving, and I confirmed that by checking the MPC and finding that they have different part numbers. Anyway, I'm curious to see what difference you find with the front bar on.

Thanks for the pics, Dane. The text with the advert reads "1982 Ford F100 truck smogged and registered. Three on the tree trans with 300 straight 6 engine. Runs and drives looking for $5500 OBO." I suspect it'll be OBO as I think $5500 is a bit high for that combo. But it does look clean and straight.

I'm not sure about carving corners, but I can say that Dad's truck with the sway bars was much easier to drive than Rusty w/o sway bars. Otherwise they had pretty much the same suspension. Anyway, good work! You are getting things done.

You are making really good progress! I'm impressed! Is that wire you are holding all green? I can't tell, but I might be able to find it in the EVTM if I knew its color(s) and what other wires are in that connector.

You are wise to be careful and not twist the fittings off. Well done! And I think that 2.5 times what I expect in time is about usual for my projects. So it doesn't surprise me it too that long. As for the axles, you can snake a small diameter hose down to the bottom of the axle housing if you work at it. Then connect that to a suction gun and you can drain the axle that way.

Glad you found us! And glad it is helpful.

Also check your fuel lines. The rubber hoses from the tank to the hard line, and from the hard line to the fuel pump. And from the hard line to the switching valve and back to the hard line if you have dual tanks. The hoses can get so bad that they allow air in, which kills the pump's ability to move gas to the carb. I've had a truck die on me repeatedly until I replaced the hoses.

Yes, that is interesting. Thanks, Bill.

Wow! That looks beautiful!

I like those seats! They'll look great in your truck.

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Excellent! You are making progress, and as Jim says, progress is good!

Well, today was a qualified success. By that I mean I got the bed cover worked over but there is still a bit of tightness right at the end. However, it is acceptable. But before getting into that I did plug the air compressor into an extension cord and kept from 160 to 200 psi on the connections all day today. It would take about 30 minutes to leak down from 200 where the compressor shuts off to 160, where it kicks back on. And it dawned on me that it used to do that before I distributed its parts all over Big Blue, so I'm guessing that the slow leak is in the compressor. And I think I can live with it, so am calling the compressor installed. And now for the cover. I backed Blue up to Big Blue, as shown below, and used a quilt on Blue's bed cover as a temp home for Big Blue's bed cover. It is amazing that Blue's bed is the same height as Big Blue's. But Big Blue has more ground clearance and the cab is taller. Anyway, the bed worked well for holding Big Blue's cover and letting me inspect the end caps, and I replaced 10 of them. I took a whole lot of measurements and even drew it up on CAD, and discovered that the distance between the tracks is spot-on and required no change. What did require change was the alignment of the "slats". I'd assumed that they would self-align in use, but apparently not. So I spend a long time getting them all lined up, which I think had been the problem.

Yes, I think so. I say that because AC Delco says, with the bolding mine:

Glad you are finding the help you need. But I strongly disagree with those who say not to drain a transmission. You don't want bits in the system, and draining the system helps to get them out so you won't have any. That's because the place where you drain is well below "the system" so there's no chance of them getting there by you draining it - assuming you clean the pan well. And, you want to get new fluid in there as the friction modifiers in the fluid quit working over time, as do the chemicals that keep the seals soft and pliable. I have a story about that if you want to see it. However, you are in for a real treat when you drain that tranny. Try as I have to NOT make a mess, I have made a huge one each time I've done it. So I've vowed to NEVER drain one w/o installing a drain plug in the pan while it is off, if not replacing the pan with one that has a drain plug in it already. Also, while in there you need to replace the filter. And, the tranny itself holds less than 1/2 of the fluid. You need to drain the torque converter to get the rest of it. Pull the little cover in front of the torque converter and rotate the engine by hand w/a 15/16" socket on the crank pulley's bolt and soon you'll see a little drain plug.

On some systems I've worked on there's a removal tool that screws into the clutch hub and then pushes the clutch off the shaft of the compressor. And there's no need to evac the system - at least not on the ones I've worked on. But, have you tried placing 12v directly to the clutch? Just to make SURE it is the clutch that isn't working?

Yes, that is part of the reason you don't engage 4wd on dry pavement. Another is that the front and the rear travel a different arc through a turn, so they go different distances. Pretty soon there's a lot of bind that has to let go somehow. If you are lucky the tires slip. If not, the metal slips.