Gary Lewis

Thanks Dave! It's coming along. I don't have to tell you how much work it takes, eh? lol. I'm moving on to bed building next, and then once that is done cab work...driver's side floor pan and probably both cab corners. I've been trying to come up with a good name for the old truck for 6 months, and it just dawned on me yesterday that the "Lincoln Flareside" would be appropriate! Lincoln Flareside! I like it!

That's great! I'm glad you are doing that. Lots of need for them.

That's an F250/350 4WD frame, and it differs from the 2WD version as well as the F150 versions. Good luck!

I was too slow responding! Your answer would sure make sense of things for me. I would still need a 90 adapter, but... Let's see if this helps:

The 460 crossmembers are different and they have a divot in them for the oil filter adapter. I'll look in a bit and see if I have a picture of that, but maybe someone else has one handy?

Even my 90's FDMs do the same thing.

Big Blue had the weatherstrip on the passenger's door but not the driver's door. So I added new weatherstrip to both doors, as shown here: http://forum.garysgaragemahal.com/Big-Blue-s-Transformation-tp28014p75073.html

Would have been a heck of a thing to put 600+ lbs on it and then drive around with no swaybars and the little 215 tires. It was sketchy enough to drive empty that way LOL.I think what we are missing is that Ford knew the base weight of vehicles and how that was distributed over the axles. And then they added the weight of each accessory that was ordered with the vehicle, using the table below. And somehow that was represented on the certification label. But what I'm seeing doesn't make sense, at least to me. Can someone help me? If we can sort it I could add the explanation and this document to the web page.

Mine is the same way, 204 and 147. It is odd. And my little 84 Flareside is way lopsided the other way. It’s like 27 lbs for the front and 635 lbs total.

That’s odd that the total is less than that of the front. This is bizarre. BB's label says F0403 and T0157. Like Darth's, the total is less, far less, than the front. And here are the appropriate pages from the '85 owner's guide. So, what am I missing here?

Yes, welcome Andrew! Glad you joined. And glad the site is helping. As Jim asked, where in upstate NY? I ask because we have a map (Bullnose Forum/Member's Map in the menu) and we could add you if we had a city or zip. As for blame, some of us buy-in large components, like an engine or transmission, but do a little bit of work ourselves. So when it comes to speedo gears that slip or fuel tank gasket leaks we have no one else to point to but ourselves.

Very nice! But, wow, $27K is expensive!

I'd never heard of it either. Looks like it would be easy to use. But it sure would be a pain to remove and go with something else if it didn't work. I guess I'm skeptical.

It is nice looking. Very clean. But $19K?

I'm planning to stay with the slide locks on Dad's truck just 'cause they are different. Not one of Ford's "Better Ideas".

I would have agreed and do for the most part. But I have CB’s in three of my vehicles. And I have been driving a lot the last year or so. The CB was very helpful navigating around road closures for fires and recently to find out why we were stopped in snow and ice. Obviously, someone was blocking the road, so more so to hear when we were going to go. And there is always some motor mouth going off and I change the channel or turn it off. But I have found them useful again. Chris - I didn't have any recent experience with CB radios to help me make a decision, but Bob/Nothing Special suggested that I do some research before buying so I did. And I found that Jeepers, and specifically the Jeep Jamboree, are going to GMRS. In fact, Jeep Jamboree is requiring that all participants have a GMRS radio this year. But my research also found that GMRS is good for shorter range communications than CB's are. And that the truckers don't seem to be changing. So CB is currently better for getting traffic reports and GMRS is the coming thing for offroading or overlanding where you are wanting to communicate with people close to you. And when I started comparing the units I found big differences. The GMRS radios are much smaller than CB's, and the antennas are tiny in comparison. It think my antenna is ~6" high and it adheres tightly to the cab roof with the magnetic base. So I put a BNC connector in the back of the cab beside the cargo light and can take the antenna off if I want. But since installing it I've forgotten about it and it just stays. Then there are the handhelds. The ones I got in the kit fit in your hand and have an antenna that's maybe 4" long. But they can easily reach the base station several miles away. So the small size and clout are quite a draw. And the sound is excellent. GMRS uses FM, so the sound is crisp and clear. So I think GMRS was the right choice for my use, which will be to talk to others when on the trail, and specifically to my spotter when negotiating a tight spot.

They represent the front axle reserve capacity in pounds, and the total vehicle reserve capacity in pounds. Think of it like this: The reserve capacity of the axles is the amount (in weight) that can be permanently added to the truck, before it would be considered to be over its rated empty capacity. For the guys like me with a little 2wd Flareside, you wonder what in the heck would anybody add to the front axle??...But it is referring to things like aftermarket bumpers, bush bars, winches, snow plows, etc. Total vehicle could be something like a ladder rack or boat rack, headache rack, tool box, etc. It's the way all manufacturers rate their vehicles. If your front axle reserve capacity is only 27 lbs (like it is on my 1984 Flareside), then I couldn't install a 150 lb bumper and then go complain to the Ford dealer about unusual tire wear on the front end. They'd look at my truck and say warranty denied. Cory - Where did you find that illustration? We have several on the page linked to above, but that is the best I've seen. May I use it? And do you which trucks got the info there? Was it just trucks that were already close to the limit?

I don't know is the honest answer. However, if you look at our page on Documentation/Specifications/DSO Codes you'll see that special order codes are supposed to be 6 digits long and yours are 5. Plus, the first two digits are supposed to be the # of the district sales office from which the vehicle was ordered. And since one is F0 and one is T0 then it can't be special order codes. However, if you look at the bottom of the page you'll see pics you can click on. One of those shows an example of codes in that box being the "Accessory Reserve Load" and it shows that the codes will be FO for Front and RO for Rear. I'm wondering if yours is Front and Total. Then yours has "260397" which would fit with a special order, and the district sales office would be New Orleans.

What;s the RJ jack for? For the microphone on the Midland GXT-1000 GMRS radio. Overlanding and offroading are going away from CB to GMRS, so I installed that radio and have two handhelds that go with it. So when my brother and I head to Ouray this summer we'll be able to communicate.

Sam - I'm glad the fluid change helped. Some times it makes a huge difference. As for the electrical manual, what one did you get? I have all of the EVTMs, but there were other manuals.

Yep. But that was written when there were no other options. Anyway, I'm just thinking outside the box - the mail box. Thinking about what I have left to do for Big Blue to be ready for Colorado, and not including packing, changing oil, etc: Finish the Mission Control switches & put the dash pad/cover back on. Then dim and balance the LEDs in the switches. Add relays under the hood for the fog and backup lights, and wire in the fog lights. Then add LED backup lights. Install the electric actuator and cable for the OX locker. Not that big of a deal as the wiring just plugs in and the cable screws in on each end. So the biggest part of the work is to drill the holes to hold it on. Put a new gasket in the midship tank Install the air compressor That seems doable! Man, it has been a loooong haul, but I think I'm going to make it.

If you were to go to a salvage you might be able to find one of the metal strips that goes under the rear window. That would hold the carpet and you could glue or velcro the edges.

You should have in the neighborhood of 18 - 20" of vacuum if all things are sealed and the engine is running correctly. And see if the pics here don't help with vacuum lines: http://www.garysgaragemahal.com/uploads/6/5/8/7/65879365/illustration_2_orig.jpg. And, by the way, that's Rusty.

LOL! Yeah, it is scary when you put it that way. With Amazon committing to buying 100,000 electric delivery vehicles from Rivian it looks to me like they are making a serious attempt at being "the" package delivery solution, at least for the US. At what point does it become redundant to have a postal service?