Gary Lewis

Yep. And your eyes water. The best thing I did for my garage was to find an old natural gas powered furnace. It was downdraft and I set it in the corner of the garage on 4x4's. The warm air came out and wafted across the floor. It was wonderful.

LOL! You should have underlined and made bold the "nailheads had lots of low end torque" YES! My best friend's father was a used car salesman, and one day my buddy shows up with a '63 with that 425. We went for a drive and at about 30 MPH I said "Hit it" and reached over and pulled the shift lever all the way down. Little did I know that 63's were PNDLR and the '64 my folks had was PRNDL. Yep, I yanked it into R and the secondaries opened. And the smoke rolled! I was afraid the tires would blow before he got it shut down. And, speaking of the '64, it had the Super Turbine 300. And the tranny in the '66 you were working on was called a Super Turbine 400 and not a Turbo Hydro, but it was basically the same tranny save for having the switch-the-pitch feature. Driven correctly those things were FAST. But floored off the line they were dogs. The trick was to turn to a non-existent station on the AM radio and practice giving it as much throttle as you could w/o switching the pitch, which put you in granny gear and you'd hear a click on the radio. Don't do that until you exit the intersection and you were GONE!

That's cool, Bill. It will be so handy to have that right there where you need it. And, by the way, that torpedo heater puts out so much moisture it can be a big problem. Many of my tools started rusting when I was using one in my garage in PA. Cold metal and high humidity means lots of condensation.

Rusty is going to be so proud! Those 31's will be just right.

I've not drilled an Edelbrock lever, but I have my drill bit sharpener out and may have to use it a few times. However, I do have several different balls with different stud sizes, so maybe I should see if I have one that will fit w/o drilling. Sounds like you impressed the Holley rep. Apparently those ideas paid off for them.

Olive Branch, MS. Janey's cousin, the owner of the two Chevy vehicles I've brought back here for restoration, lives there and we've visted. Loved this pic from the article. No mistaking those valve covers, which would have fit on the engine that sat under the Will Carter Four Barrel that got me started on their carbs.

Looks like FUN!

Look good, Nick!

Jim - Hadn't seen that. Where on the east coast?

Bill - It is a strange carb. I says "Edelbrock" and "Made In USA", but the casting is obviously from Magneti Marelli, which I thought meant it was cast in Italy. But this site says "Every Edelbrock carburetor is manufactured by Magneti Marelli Powertrain USA Inc". On the speed control, you may well be right. Or it may be an accumulation of things, inc the drive gear, the cable, ..... Scott - The Carter/Edelbrock carbs have a checkered history, with casting being done in several different places. I assume that quote above is accurate, but you may find otherwise. Jim - I think the plate is bradded onto the shaft, so taking it off wouldn't be easy. I could pull the carb, but would rather not. I do have a ratcheting tap handle, but the arms of it would probably hit the manifold, so it wouldn't be easy. But I got this ratchet that should make it easier:

Yep! Assuming my 2nd round of the vaccine doesn't do me in I'll give it a try tomorrow. Looks like I'll have to make the hole larger, but that should be easy. May want to tap the hole, which I might now be able to do since I just got the refrigeration ratchet suggested by Cory. Otherwise that tap handle wouldn't have been a problem.

I don't think the later ones will fit in our instrument clusters. But, I haven't tried so don't know for sure. But we've talked about how we might fix that tube. See if this might give you some ideas: http://forum.garysgaragemahal.com/Transmission-gear-indicator-E0TZ-7A110-B-like-new-but-damaged-cable-insulator-td81065.html#a81091

I guess I've never realized you could have that much traction on snow.

Good point. I just went back out and checked. Looks to me like the hole in the front will be perfect. After I took the pic I pulled the hair pin holding the speed control cable to the throttle cable and the throttle cable lines up nicely with that hole and seems to have a bit of slack left. So that would kill two birds with one stone - taking out the slack and getting more travel. Thanks!

I have an electric locker in Big Blue. That's because there may be a time I need to ensure that both front wheels will pull. But that's not likely to happen around corners, which is where the problem arises. Which is why I asked how this one broke. Looked like he was in snow, so I wouldn't have thought that there could be enough torque to break a yoke. Maybe he hit dry pavement?

Got several little things done today. First, I replaced the coupling nut with the copper stud extender on the battery isolator. Then I adjusted the choke one notch richer - and it is almost at the end of the scale, which worries me 'cause I've never had to adjust a choke that far. Next up was the EFI air cleaner box. I installed the plug in the hole for the PCV system, and glued it in with Permatex pipe joint compound. And along the way I cleaned up the top a bit more, and discovered a difference with the EEC-IV top. The latter has a stud that is apparently intended to hold the air filter in place while the EEC-V lid doesn't. Apparently they decided it wasn't needed? And, with the box out I decided it was time to trim another cold air duct as I wanted the turned entry to still be on there which I'd trimmed off. After quite a bit more measuring I trimmed the other duct and tried it out - perfect! It is a tight fit, but sure won't rattle or fall off. Here's how I trimmed it compared to the previous one: That done I lubricated the throttle shafts on the Eddy using the spray Teflon lube. I've been having trouble getting the idle to drop down to the 600 RPM setting where I want it instead of hanging up at 800 RPM. Even the additional return spring hasn't helped so I hit the shafts with lube to see if that would help. And, while I was there I realized I'd not checked to see that I'm getting full throttle. I'm not. Here's a short video showing how much I'm not getting. And when I looked at the slack at the pedal there looks to be ~3/8". So, I guess I'm going to have to make another bracket? Or modify this one?

I'm tagging Wayne/AZF250 as he's really close to Show Low and has an '86 F250 w/a 460 he wants to turn into a diesel. This looks to be the easy way to do it. Wayne?

Man, that is BROKEN! So, what were you doing that caused it to break? Or, did the u-joint fail due to lack of grease and take the yoke?

That's exactly the point, Jim, I'm happy. As for what I have, here's a comparison vs Shaun's. I don't know exactly how the length of springs changes the overall rating for the spring pack, but each of my leaves is a little bit shorter than Shaun's. Not a lot, but some. So my pack is a little bit softer than his. However, the overall effect is perfect. The ride is dramatically improved, the steering is better, and the truck sits just how I want it to sit. Shaun BB New BB Old #5 - - 53 3/4 #4 50 1/2 49 3/4 49 3/4 #3 46 45 1/2 45 1/2 #2 41 1/2 - 41 1/2 #1 - 38 38

Looks nice, Dane. Looks like something you should go get.

If you are doing some offroading you might choose based on gear ratio, with lower gearing usually being better: NP208 2.61 BW1345 2.74 BW1356 2.69 But, that doesn't tell the whole story as you need to multiply that number times the transmission's first gear and the rear axle's ratio. So, for Big Blue with a ZF5 and 3.55 rear gears that looks like: NP208 53.00 BW1345 55.64 BW1356 54.62 Not a huge difference, but enough to tip the balance when making a decision.

Good documentation. Thanks, Scott.

Dane - Yes, it is no wonder it rode like a buckboard. And that explains the weird rear-high stance it had before installing the SD springs and RSK. The rear springs didn't flex at all when you put it down on the ground from the lift. The tires touched and the truck stopped. So it went around with the rear in the air, and looked strange. Now, by removing two leaves and getting it down to what it should have in the way of springs the rear drops 2" when it comes down off the lift. And with the 4" blocks for an F350 instead of the 2" blocks for an F250 it sits level. And rides SOOOO much better. Jim - You are right, I technically don't have K-code springs. But I like what I have and they are staying. They work, in more ways than one, and both the ride and the attitude are just where I want them.

Shaun - That's good detective work! Yep, that's the place.

Jim - There was no add-a-leaf or anything like that. It was a normal-looking spring pack, complete with a label wrapped around it showing it was new. I assumed it was a new stock spring since I have box after box after box of NOS parts that Vernon bought. But recently Shaun showed his F350 spring and it had 5 leaves so I got to wondering if I had the wrong springs. And now Scott and Shaun have confirmed that I did. So, as Shaun said, by removing two leaves I've basically put the truck back to stock, although I did have to have the 2" taller block to make up for the SD springs and the RSK up front. And boy, am I glad I did! The thing rides so much better and bumps not only don't rattle your teeth they don't cause the truck to take a different line if you were in the middle of a curve.