Gary Lewis

The 2nd one at $29.95 isn't bad, esp with free shipping. But the first one is way too expensive!

That's a very nice price.

Yes, the 1356 has the oil pump problem. The 1345 doesn't. Rebuilt my 1345 and checked that out when I did.

The 1345 should bolt right in.

Yes, that's why I used a 3' 2x4 to support the front of the hood. That held it part way open and got the maximum clearance. Plus it took some load off the hinges, which allowed me to loosen the bolts and slide the hood forward a bit.

Yeah, I think I like this better. And, it'll be easier to run the wiring this way as well.

Yes, but it is a pain. I loosened the hinge bolts to get a bit more room and then supported the front of the hood with a 3' long 2x4 to get the right angle.

We are thinking alike as that is the back side of the front flange. And if I can I'll move it left a bit to be more shielded. As for room elsewhere, there is one other place I thought of just now, and I like it better. (Don't know why I didn't think of it before.) It is inside the frame and back of the axle, roughly as shown below although it can go back about 2" more by bending the brake tubing just a bit if the cable will allow. That allows the cable to go forward along the path of the spring and just move up and down on the end. And, it is about 6" higher than the engine crossmember with no danger of being hit by the axle. Or a rock for that matter. The only issue is the exhaust and it is probably 9" away from the header. But I could put a shield beside it to reflect the heat away.

If the nut loosens you might try a Nylon lock nut. But it looks good!

It really DOES look black. But I can't find HW, much less HW3 as a color code for any carpet.

Apparently I didn't order the cable that goes between the OX actuator and the locker, but I turned the shop upside down looking for it, twice. And along the way I put some things away, so it wasn't all wasted. Then I moved on to placing the actuator. The minimum cable length is 36" and the next step up is 48". But you have to accommodate the movement of the suspension so it can't be directly above the diff. In fact, with the connection on the left side of the diff the best cable routing to allow full suspension movement would be to make a 180 degree bend. And with a bit of measuring it seemed like 36" would be on the right side of the engine crossmember, but on the bottom of it. Reading the installation instructions I found "The actuator is designed to be mounted outside the vehicle and will resist the harsh environment." Well, how harsh is "harsh". So I called OX and the tech I talked to said that the place I've found would be good. "The unit is waterproof as are the connections, so unless you park in a pond for 48 hours you'll be fine fording streams." The pic below shows roughly the spot. I'm going to order the 36" cable and then let it determine exactly where I put the actuator as there's some question as to where their measurements start and stop. As you can see in the pic, it can go up ~1", but I was just using an existing hole in the crossmember to hold it. And, if the cable is long enough, as it should be, the actuator can go to the right just a bit and tilt up more, which gives more clearance to the axle. Speaking of clearance, as best I've measured the shocks will bottom before the axle hits the bump stops. In that case there will be ~1" of clearance at full compression between the axle and the actuator. But I'm going to pull a shock loose tomorrow to make sure that's the case. Thoughts?

I ordered two of the 12-pin versions, with pins. So I'll have a spare. It goes nicely through the opening on the left at the top and rests snugly under the speaker bracket, that is the rusty thing you can see through the hole. The clock connector goes back through the hole in the upper right, as will the 1/4" pair of connectors for the pink wire that goes back to the relay box above the inverter. That way I won't have connectors behind the switches, which is important as there isn't enough room for them. In fact, the wiring I've already put on the switches hits the dash a bit, so that tells me that it is all going to fit, but tightly.

Ok, time for new connectors. I've been fiddling with unsoldering the wires from the pins on these and it ain't working. I finally had the 2nd one almost done and it slipped, the soldering pin hit my finger, and the pin went flying into the nether reaches of the shop, only to be seen again when I no longer need it. So I'm ordering new connectors just like these, obviously with new pins. But they won't be in until Monday, so I'll move on to other projects, like maybe installing the OX locker motor and cable. I'm bummed because I had high hopes to get this part of it done today, but it'll be much easier to use new pins. And UPS is still showing no status on the new radio. It left PA on the 12th and as of 5:40 PM yesterday it was still In Transit.

All short beds are the same length and all long beds are the same length. The beds themselves. Regardless of the # of tanks.

Congrat's!

Thanks, Bill. But I think I have it worked out. If the weather was different and I could get an Amazon delivery tomorrow I might do it differently, but given the mess in Texas most of our orders have no delivery date shown. For instance, the tracking on my radio via UPS keeps saying "Check back tomorrow" and "Weather notice". I want to be able to push the connector through an opening in the upper left corner of the dash behind the bezel, and none of the Ford connectors with enough connections would go through there. So I found these connectors that I'd previously used and am repurposing them. They use .094" pins, so should handle the current being drawn by the various things, the largest of which is the OX locker, which is supposed to be fused at 10A. Would you agree?

Rick - That is VERY helpful! Do you mind if we put it on a page in Documentation? Also, would you have a source for the barrel nuts?

Let's see if this answers the question. This is a pic of Big Blue's underhood light, with the pic rotated to make it easy to read the ID #.

Well, I've come to the conclusion that installing 12 different 1/4" connectors, 9 of which are to the switches, each time I want to remove the bezel is not going to work. Even for me it would be a major pain, but for my offspring it would be a nightmare. Part of the problem is that the pinouts of the switches isn't intuitive, and part is because it varies by the type of switch it is. So you have to look at the documentation to figure it out. Given that, I'm going to be looking for a connector pair today. I need 9 pins going to the left, so hope to find a suitable pair from the harnii I have. But that should make installation far easier and let me do the majority of the soldering on the bench.

Numberdummy says they are 385417-S .. Barrel Clip / Obsolete: https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1213109-79-hood-letter.html JBG has some: https://shop.broncograveyard.com/Ford-Letters-Emblem-Barrel-Clips/productinfo/28209/

Pretty sure they have pins, and we have something about them, so I'll go looking. In this post Dave says the pins are .125" but his retainers didn't work. And beyond that I'm not finding anything, yet... But the next question you'll have is the spacing, so read here.

Your hood seal is GONE. Keeping a bunch of water out of the carb would be a good move. (You might put a rubber washer on the air cleaner nut too) Good point, Jim. Carl - Go to our page in Documentation/Underhood/Cowl Seal to see how to use a garage door seal to make a cowl-to-hood seal for very little money.

Well done, Carl! And now you know.

That is GROSS! YUK! Good luck.

That kit looks like it would work. Hope I don't need it, but it is good to know it is there. As for the instructions, Dad used to say "When all else fails, dig the instructions out of the trash." Yep, it is in my DNA