Gary Lewis

Not sure where yours is, Jim. But we had a discussion recently on this in the aptly-named 460 Engine Crossmember thread. That link will take you to my pic of Big Blue's crossmember, below, and then some of Bill's pics.

That's a lot of truck for $6k.

Sorry. Check it out now. At least I think that's what is supposed to be there.

Yes, so glad you are making progress!

To me it makes no sense to have a pickup and not be able to put things in the bed. And a hard cover would prevent tall things, for sure. Having said that, one of my best friends had a Lightning with a hard cover, but he had NO intentions of EVER using it as a truck. Anyway, I like the roll-up covers with aluminum slats. That's what I have on Blue and will have on Big Blue. Yes, you give up a little bit of space up front for the cannister, but otherwise the bed is quite useful, open or closed. In fact, if/when I get the spare out of the bed there will be more space in Big Blue's bed than in Blue's bed. Forgetting the cannister, Big Blue has 76" behind the toolbox and Blue has 66". (But Blue has the massive rear seating area with a flat floor, so in reality it is more practical.)

Jim - I'm not following you on the overhang. But the tonneau slides in a track, so it would be hard to keep it from doing that. As for height, the rear isn't high enough to prevent reaching into the bed fairly easily, although getting into the tool box is easier by standing on the step bar. But I frequently reach things in the bed w/o climbing up or opening the tailgate. In fact, I rarely open the gate. On the radio, I can actually reach the bracket by taking my watch off and reaching up behind the HVAC controls. It leaves scratches on my hand, but I can get there - with difficulty. So I think I have it mapped out: I'll bend the top of the bracket down and then tack a piece of angle on there. With it installed I'll slide the radio in with a bit of paint on the tip of the screw. That should put a spot on the angle and show me where to drill the hole. And if there isn't enough room I'll put a larger piece of angle on.

Yes, there are different output yokes. And unfortunately it isn't easy to figure out the part number you need. And even then finding one might not be straight forward. However, a 4wd shop will know. I worked with one locally that knew immediately which one I needed based on my u-joint's dimensions. However, as Jim said recently, there are u-joints that have one axis bigger than the other. We have u-joint sizes listed on the page at Documentation/Driveline/Driveshafts. You can measure your u-joint and determine the size from that page. But I will confess that I find that page very confusing. So maybe the best thing to do is to measure your u-joints. And measure the yoke you have to see what u-joint size it needs. Then go to Transamerican Wholesale's page and see if they have a crossover u-joint that will do the trick. Or Jegs. Or any of several others.

Good job! So that's the trick - SPOT-X. Good to know. And your window looks great.

Wow! It has been 4 days since I posted in here. But, I did get a few things done today on Big Blue. First, I've been thinking about it and I believe Jim is right - the best way to secure the tailgate is to have the rear bumper built that was designed quite some time ago in the Rear Bumper/Spare Tire Mount Thoughts thread. It has a place for the spare tire and the High Lift jack and would prevent the tailgate from being opened unless the tire support was swung away. I have it drawn up in TurboCAD and had planned to have a friend that runs a fabrication shop build it. But he has been ill, so today I was referred to his sister that is running the shop at the moment. I hope to talk to her on Monday and then some time next week take the file and drawings over to them to see if they'd be willing to build it. But, I need to go back over the plans as I don't think I incorporated a lock in it, and that's needed now. Next, I pulled the Mission Control switches out, revised the schematic to incorporate the new DPDT switch for the OX locker, and swapped switches. It works! Now the locker is actuated when you push the top of the button forward, so the natural, or off, position will be with the tail of the switch pushed in, like most of the others. And, if anything the LED on it may be less glaring, so I may get lucky with the LightDims. Then I turned to the rear support for the Sony radio. You may remember that I ordered the bracket shown below, which slides on a brace in the dash and is supposed to take a screw on the back of the radio through that oval hole at the top. Unfortunately the screw on the back of the radio hits right at the top of the bracket rather than through the hole. And, the bracket needs to go back about 1". So, now I'm pondering what to do. I could modify the bracket, maybe by laying that center tab down where the red line is and tacking a piece of angle to the top. A piece of 1 1/2" angle would probably be tall enough to let me put a 1/2" hole through it for the rubber tip of the screw. Anyone have a better idea? Also, as I was pulling the dash cover off I dropped one of the screws and it went into one of the A/C vents. I could see it in there but it wasn't going to be easy to get out. And, as I was using the light to shine in there I realized that the register was filthy! So I pulled that one and the one on the right side and cleaned them. Here is a before and after:

Seems like everyone is getting busy! Is this a sign that Spring is right around the corner? I hope so!

Dane - He did get close, that's true. But it worked. Dave - I think I'm with you. The lack of packing the powder, meaning it'll always be ready, and the fact that you don't have to take it in to re-charge has a lot of appeal to me. Still on the fence and looking for input, but I'm thinking of the Element E50 and the Quick Fist Heavy Duty Mount

Yes it is interesting and would have been nice to see it in action putting out a real fire.Now one thing to know about the dry chemical units is when installed in a car or truck as you drive down the road the vibrations pack the powder.Now when you go to use it all you get is the blast of air and no chemical because it is 1 big solid packed block. That is why every so often you should remove the unit and shake it up to break up that solid block.I do have to say I did buy a dry chem extinguisher and have not 1)removed it from the box, 2) have not shake it since I put it in the truck over a year now. I should do that later and check the 2 I have in my garage.I also could not find any 5lb in local stores guess you must have to go through a fire prevention store?Dave ----Dave - Amazon has the 5# dry chemical extinguishers as well as the Elements one. As for the Elements extinguishing a fire, how about this:

To say Big Blue's AFR bounces around would be a huge understatement. But I have it set for mid-14's at a steady cruise at ~65 MPH with no wind on level ground. Note that I didn't say "14.7" as that's way too precise. And the conditions make a huge difference. But 14.7ish is a good target as that supposedly is the ratio to allow all of the fuel to react with all of the oxygen - assuming you are running pure gasoline. This page says that 10% ethanol lowers that to 14.04. Then when I ease into it for a slight hill or to compensate for a bit of wind it'll creep up to into the 15's or maybe to 16. And about then the vacuum will go low enough to allow the metering rods to pop up and the AFR will drop, and if I'm pushing it a bit it'll drop to around 13. But when the pedal gets down very far and the engine starts to really wake up the AFR will be closer to 11 - 12. As for your timing, it will change the AFR 'cause it will change the amount of power the engine is generating. In Big Blue's case a bit more timing leaned things out a bit. Last, I saw 17:1 at times on David's 1986 300, and it was turning in excellent MPG and drove well. So we left it alone. However, that was on my old AFR meter and each meter reads differently, so don't think that you can't lean it out a bit more.

Hard to tell in the pic, but it does appear to be leaning in. However, don't look at the front tires after backing up as they do wonky things. Only after going forwards a few feet. As for getting the camber bushing/eccentric out (camber is the measurement, the bushing or eccentric causes or adjusts it), it can be a huge pain. I had to use a small drift to get under the ears that stick out and wound up breaking one ear off - and that was on a brand new bushing that had zero miles or rust on it. I'd soak it with PB Blaster or some such for several days before trying it.

Out to the shop now and I discovered two things. First, the 5 pound extinguisher I have in the shop needs recharged. Second, a 5 pounder is a nice fit in the cab corner, and could surely be easily attached to the end of the storage unit. So that's a reasonable option, and while it is initially less expensive than the Element unit, the latter never needs to be recharged and obviously these units do. Here are a couple of pics showing how it would fit. What are your thoughts?

I know we've discussed fire extinguishers, but it doesn't appear we have a thread specific to them. So here 'tis since I need one for Big Blue. I think I have a 2 1/2 pound one in the shop, but I'm reading that those are usually too small to do very much so I really ought to have a 5 pound unit. And I know that years ago when my mower caught fire the 2 1/2 pound one I had just slowed the fire down, but didn't come close to stopping it. In doing my research I ran across the Element Fire Extinguisher. It is said to run 50 seconds as opposed to the 9 - 11 seconds a 5 pound unit does, and leaves no mess. Do any of you know anything about them? Here's Jay Leno learning about them:

I'm looking at the dates, and if it says "80/" the "/" means "to the end of the catalog", which is 1989. Then I look at Cyl & CID, where with the exception of the IDI I'm finding "6&8" and "all", so they fit everything.

Nice truck! Almost a twin for my '72 Camper Special, although mine was in Grabber Blue, a lighter and brighter blue. Otherwise, very similar.

I have two of them (in the 2wd 1984, and the 4x4 1980), and I'm happy with them. You'll need a 1983-1986 hydraulic clutch pedal set. They are plug and play install. In case you need to buy the pigtail for the back-up switch, I used LMC p/n 47-0901. You could snip one off a truck at the junkyard easy enough as well (if you have one close by). I am running a 1984-1986 Bullnose clutch master cylinder on both trucks, with 1988-1991 hydraulic lines and slave cylinders. After 1986, the master cyl mounting holts went diagonal, and since my '84 was originally a hydraulic clutch truck, I wanted to keep that part correct in case I ever swap a Bullnose trans back into it. I'm using an M5OD crossmember in both trucks, but I don't think you necessarily need to. I know other folks have simply moved their existing crossmember. I also welded a 4spd stick on to the M5OD shifter stub to keep my interior looking somewhat period correct, but still used an M5OD shifter knob...not that it matters much. Here is the stock 5spd stick installed in my 1980 4x4. Not 100% sure what I'm doing with this one...I might swap a 4spd NP435 stick on to this one as well. The 4x4 shifter is on the floor (1988-1991 style) as that is what I had to work with. I may modify that later to put the 4x4 shifter in the tunnel cover (so that it looks more Bullnose). Cory - Good points. Very helpful. Didn't you put a firewall brace on one of the trucks?

John - I see 24F, 56, 61, 62, 63, 64, & 64A as optional batteries. Any one of them will fit, and some have more CCA's than others.

Nice truck, and a ton of pics. But the "Sold" thing is strange. The brown top does make it an unusual truck. Kind of like Dad's Candy Apple Red top over a Maroon bottom, but I think I like the brown better. And speaking of Dad's, his also had the 351M/C6/3.50 combo, and it was driven all over the US, including pulling a trailer at times. So it is a very workable combo.

Went with the ones from Amazon just due to the delivery time of Monday vs 10 days from now. Not sure I'll be ready to install them Monday, but am pretty sure I will be before the 10 days is up. Looking at the inputs for things being opened there are three: Door Trigger Input (+): This is the purple wire and expects to see ground until the door is opened, at which point it'll see 12v. So I'll connect it to the Black/Light Blue wire of the courtesy lights. Door Trigger Input (-): This is the green wire and expects to see ground when something is opened. So I'm going to run it out under the hood and perhaps put pin switches on the tool box doors. Hood Pin Input (-): This is gray wire and it expects to see ground when the hood is opened. So I'll run it out under the hood as well and may put a pin switch on the hood.

The Iwiss crimper would be a good addition to your tools, and it would do a good job of this w/o soldering. To my way of thinking, a good crimp will do as well as a good solder job. I prefer solder as I've done that for probably 65 years, but a good crimp fuses the wires and the terminal together and it will work nicely. However, it takes something like the Iwiss tool to make a good crimp.

It is very nice. And since the MPC shows two storage units for the 1980 and later trucks with a D8TZ prefix, this should easily fit the Bullnose trucks.

Rosin core solder. And a soldering gun.