Gary Lewis

Update - the BW 1345 and the 1356 take the same 4wd switches, so the wiring to them must be the same. And Big Blue's switch grounds the wire.

Yes, it is grounded in 4wd, and I believe the 1356 is the same.

The inner lip on Big Blue is straight and vertical. Should work great with the "A" clamp on the inside of the lip, and depending on height would work on the outside. It goes under the lip now, but I'm doubting it'll go under the lip with the rail level.

That sounds like fun, Dave! I'm glad things are starting to open up.

I suspect the up leg is 3/16" thick, which will mean it is too thick. But I can make it 1/8" with the mill. And if I put three of them on per side instead of two and have the 1/4" foam tape under the rail I'm hoping the combo will be plenty solid. Or, if the height is right I might be able to put the up leg on the outside of the lip of the bed rather than on the inside. However, I'm not sure the height will be right. We shall see.

I like it, Cory! Should last a good long time, and be easy to work on should you ever have to - which I doubt. And the license plate and light looks great. As for the ground, the '81 EVTM shows that they used the frame as ground for the lights. You didn't have that?

We had a funeral at church today and I just got home, too tired to work on the truck. But I did confirm that the "A" clamps appear to be the right ones for the job. Tomorrow afternoon I hope to drill them to take a 1/4" bolt, loosen the toolbox bolts to get some clearance, and then install those two clamps in place of the "D" clamps on the driver's side rail. But I also got in the 1/2" x 1/4" closed-cell foam tape I ordered, so will put a strip of that on the inside edge of the bedside under the rail so the clamp isn't the only thing trying to support the inside edge of the rail.

That is really NICE!

It will look a whole lot better, even though it is missing the end. Anyway, one piece at a time you are creating a really nice, clean truck.

Congrat's!!! Beautiful truck, and beautiful pic.

There's no one page to help you. Sorry. That's because there are a jillion different combinations of engine, year, accessories, etc. (We recently had a conversation about trying to create some pages for this, but haven't even gotten started.) But on the wire routing we do have something. Try the page at Documentation/Electrical/Wire Routing.

Yes, that was my point. Not that the bolts themselves won't take it, but will the grate? And yes, I am the master of "more is better".

The filler neck looks great! Well done. And I understand about holding it rather than mounting it to paint - makes a big difference. And it is no shock that the LMC bumper doesn't work. Others have reported the same thing. But you found a solution? A washer? You used the washer inside to capture the tip of the bumper?

I think you are right. A goes up and D goes down and there may not be enough lip to bolt D to. Plus A gives an easy way to adjust the gap between the bed and the rail instead of using the plastic shims - of which have 1/8" in front and 1/4" in the rear on either side. I actually have two of the A clamps, so that would be a fairly easy test. They aren't drilled on the part that goes against the bed, but that isn't an issue. I could put those two on at the tailgate end in place of the two rotating clamps and see if I can level the rails at that point.

Well, as Jim says, progress is good! So it is pretty sure to be heat that's causing the problem. And, you've proven it isn't the fuel, so that makes it easier. You've now gone a long way to insulating the carb from heat via conduction, so the next step would be a thermal shield like your friend suggested. I think someone on here or FTE had similar issues and one of those made a big difference. And they don't add much height.

Jim - There are stops and there's a current-sensing circuit that turns the motor off a few seconds after it hits the stops. As for the rails, it looks to me like there are two problems: getting the rails leveled and then keeping the cover from hitting the toolbox. I think I can deal with the latter by shimming the toolbox, but we'll see what needs to be done when I get the rails leveled. On leveling the rails, the clamps I have are either a wonder of engineering or just bizarre. They are the ones I've circled in red in the illustration below. And the bit that I've highlighted is a rotating joint, so as you tighten the bolt the clamp gets longer, which pulls down hard on the inside edge of the rail, which causes the rails to tilt. I'm thinking I need the clamps I've circled in blue so I can level the rails, drill the inside lip of the bed, and clamp the rail at that point. Let's kick this around a bit as Pace Edwards is closed for the weekend, but I think I can call them on Monday and get them to send me the other clamps as the ones they sent just don't work for this application. Thoughts?

I'm into overkill, so I'd probably go with more bolts and clamps. But 4 should work.

That's good to know.

The bolts and clamp portions go through the grating. It locks the location of the welder into the 1x3 inch opening of the grate. The welder is against the front frame of the trailer. It cannot slide anywhere the way it is captured on the grating. And the clamps to the frame should hold it both in position as well as upright. Also below the deck is a piece of angle the width of the welder. It spreads the load over the grating that width and also locks the clamping bolts in place so the clamps cannot come off. How many 1/2" bolts do you have holding the welder on? I think I read that there are two, and that doesn't seem enough for the welder.

Got the bed cover installed, although I think I'm going to rework it 'cause the rails sit at an angle. But first, I cut the rails and the part that engages the cover module to the right lengths. That part turned out very good, and the cover operates well. Here's a shot of it closed, and while it is hard to see, the module is back under the lip of the toolbox by 1" and is up against a 1/8" piece of weather stripping that prevents it from rubbing on the tool box. But here's the problem. I think this is mainly due to the rail having weather stripping on the outside, none on the inside, and the bed side having a dip on the inside edge. All of that combines for a 1/4" drop across the rail. So I'm thinking about placing a 1/4" strip of closed-cell foam in the little dip on the bed side, in hopes that it will squish to about 3/16" and cause the rail to level out. However, I currently only have ~1/8" of space between the toolbox and the top of the cover, but I can relax the bolts holding the toolbox a bit and get a bit more. So it is going to be close. Thoughts?

Good points, Jim.

I have no idea what the capacitance of the thing is supposed to be, but I'm pretty sure it is any electrolytic capacitor. They may give you some to try and you can just clip them on to see if it helps.

Yes, that's what is on the coil, and the one on the regulator should be the same. Don't know if the parts stores carry them as I've not every replaced them, but they can probably get old and die. So that would be the first place I'd look.

The V8's used a condensor/capacitor on the coil to cut that noise, and all of them did on the voltage regulator. Do you have those? This page from the '85 EVTM shows the one for the regulator. And the one for the ignition system is usually mounted on the coil with the lead going up to one of the terminals. They are about 1 1/2" long and as big around as your pointer finger, with a bracket around them to ground them and one wire coming out.

Yes, it looks good and should last forever!