Gary Lewis

As for what I did, I drove Big Blue about 300 miles to Hinton, OK. Reported on it here: https://forum.garysgaragemahal.com/Big-Blue-s-Sugar-Creek-Loop-Trip-tp151934.html But this was a good shakedown cruise in prep for the Moab trip. Found a few things that I need to look into, including that the Sony stereo forgets my iPhone but not Janey’s. This one has me baffled, so if anyone has an idea please let me know.

Glad you got what you wanted for it. Sad but happy - bittersweet.

Today we drove to Hinton, OK to drive the Sugar Creek Loop, which is a 93 mile route on public roads. But, they aren’t your normal public roads as they have deep cuts in red sandstone, deep sand in some places, and several shallow streams to cross. I have more pics and a video I’ll post when we get home, but here are some observations about the truck: - The Sony radio is bonkers! It forgets my iPhone almost every time I shut the truck off and I have to re-pair it. So I was wondering if maybe the keep-alive connection is bad. However, Janey used Google Maps to take us to the hotel and it played through the Sony - and her phone hasn’t been paired with it again in a year. - The AFR meter is throwing E8 error codes again after we’ve been on the road for a while. But it will work again if I turn the key off and back on. Last time it did that I had to replaced the O2 sensor. - The TrueTrac really got a workout. I didn’t put it in 4Lo nor lock in the hubs for the sand, but there were times that I put it in 2nd, throttled up to 2000, and just kept the rear end behind me. And now for a couple of observations about the trail: - The cuts make for very interesting views and drives. Some are so narrow that there is now way two vehicles could pass. And the sides are so steep no vehicle could climb them. - Road 1170 had a closed sign and we found out why when we got to the end - there was a large sandstone outcropping across the road that has clearly been a barrier to many. There are lots of signs of attempts to climb it and signs that some didn’t make it. I put Big Blue in 4Lo, locked the hubs in, and putt putted up it without spinning a tire. Moab here we come!

Glad you can use it, Jeff. 👍

That fits 1980 - 86 trucks w/a C4, C5, or C6 tranny and any engine.

Rick - I hope it goes for quite a bit 'cause I know it means a lot to you and I know it is worth it. I'll be watching.

Jeff - There should be a way to copy the html and use that to paint the page w/o having to recreate it. But if I were to recreate it I'd just do it in Weebly. Just as you outlined but instead of pasting into Word I'd go straight to Weebly, and then Jim wouldn't have to download the Word doc. The page would open w/o that extra step.

Good luck!

Jim - I think what you need is D5AZ 4670-A Slinger (pinion shaft oil). But here's a snippet of the page to make sure:

Yes, I think you answered your own question. That black wire goes to ground and if it was spliced into that you'd be good. As for engine bays, look at Big Blue's. It is CRAMMED!

Yep. Big Blue has a 150A fuse and a voltmeter in place of the ammeter. Some day I may put a larger alternator in and all I'll have to do is to replace the fuse. By the way, as part of this test I plan to use the new hand throttle to map out the current output of the 130A 3G alternator vs engine RPM. I'd like to know that so when I'm winching, which I've done plenty of times, I'll know how far to rev the engine up to get max output.

Chris - I'm not sure I understand the question. But forgetting about wire colors, the diode should go across the A/C compressor's coil, with the cathode being on the plus side and the anode to ground. That shorts the back EMF off the coil to ground when the clutch is released. Without the diode that energy is sent into the truck's electrical system. But I've never seen a wire in a Ford with two different markings: "blue with yellow hashes on one side of the same length of wire, and black with yellow hashes if you rotate the wire". So I can see how you are confused - I am as well. It doesn't feel like I answered the question(s), so try me again?

Yes, I want to validate my assumption. And yes, Fuse link J is normally between the shunt and the battery, and it isn't going to like 130A. As for Big Blue, he doesn't have a shunt.

Welcome! Glad you joined. What part of Oregon? I ask because we have a map (Bullnose Forum/Member's Map in the menu) and we can add you with a city or zip. You are right, this is the place for help. We can help you and I'll bet you can help us.

Wow! That’s a DISCOUNT!

The only reason I'm thinking about this now is that I have the harness laying on the work table and Jim mentioned the carbon pile load tester. I put 2 & 2 together and realized that I could fairly easily test my assumption that the shunt can't carry more than about 70A w/o burning its insulation or some other failure. But I don't have the ability to directly measure the small resistances we are talking about here. From my testing it takes about .100 volts across these ammeters to get them to swing to full scale. Doing the math: R = E/I = .1/70 = .0014 ohm. I cannot measure anywhere near that small of resistance. But I can measure current and voltage so I can back into resistance, which I will do.

That is good news. Bummer you have to do the work, but at least you'll have the money to do it with.

Yep, Bill, it does have an alternator. And your comment reminds me that the police package for them bypassed the bukhead connector as it was a weak link to/from the ammeter.

My plan was just to test the shunt the way it is, but your comment made me think about that more and that may not work. I say that because the harness has a relatively small wire feeding the shunt, meaning the Bk/O wire from the alternator, as shown below. It may be as much of a limit as the shunt itself. So maybe I need to take the splices, S202 & S203, apart and just test the shunt by itself. And if I do then I'll probably crimp connectors to it.

Dave/Fuzzface2 has put A/C in a non-A/C truck. You might want to read how he did it here.

Gary, when I equipped Big Bro for his Big Tour, I installed my iPhone with a solid arm and "clamp" style support. I am wondering about the "magnet" style support, while driving on trails or gravel roads with heavy vibration. Jeff - You have a good point as I don't know for sure that the magnet will hold. I'll have to think about that.

How a US guy can go anything else than AWOL? I could choose something different than American Way Of Life, but you guys? I think the official translation is Absent With Out Leave. But I think I like yours better.

The shunt is just a smaller piece of wire that is designed to drop the right voltage across it at a given current through it that will send the ammeter to full scale. If you use a larger wire to replace the shunt then it will take more current to peg the meter. While that seems reasonable at first blush you’d quickly find that then the ammeter doesn’t move much, if at all, with normal loads. For example, the 1G alternator on Dad’s truck failed me on a trip to visit him. But it was daytime and I had the windows down so there was no load other than the ignition. And the movement of the ammeter was so small that I didn’t catch it until the battery was so low the engine wouldn’t run. As for the load, that will hopefully be the carbon pile battery tester. And it should be slowly adjustable from nothing up to over 100A.

Yes, I've heard the same thing so I plan on downloading maps for all of the trails we've discussed. And then if we come up with others I can download them off the wifi at the hotel. My iPhone has 256 Gb of storage, of which I've used 79, so I should have plenty of room. Probably won't get to that until after the trip to Sugar Creek Loop this week, but as soon as that trip is over, and assuming we don't find problems needing correcting, I'll be downloading maps, checking out what tools and gear I have loaded, etc. In other words, getting ready!

As many of you know, I don't think the shunt in our Bullnose trucks is up to the output of any 3G alternator, much less that of a 130A unit, so I'd like to test that theory. And I have the leftover shunt from the harness I made for Big Bro laying on the worktable. But I need a source of stable power and I need an adjustable load. I can use Big Blue's electrical system as the power source but have been struggling with coming up with an adjustable load. Fortunately Jim has just reminded me that I have a carbon pile battery tester, and while it didn't work when I first tried it maybe I can figure out what is wrong with it and get it going. As for the process, I think hooking the shunt up in series with the battery tester and placing that combo across Big Blue's battery would be the starting point. And I'll put my clamp-style ammeter around one of the leads plus wire a Bullnose ammeter across the shunt. And then we'll start ramping up the load in 10A increments. Right? If so, that leaves deciding what will be the symptom that says that's the limit of the shunt. I can think of several, like the insulation melts off or the thing starts smoking. But what about taking temp readings of the shunt with my infrared thermometer? Is there some point where we could say "that's too hot"? Ideas? Thoughts? Suggestions?