Gary Lewis

Yes, that's what I did on the test I ran. But today I decided to be a bit "cleaner" in my approach and employed the round file. It is tapered and I can turn it by hand to both clean up the hole from the bit as well as to enlarge it. Makes for a very tight fit.

Am I reading that right in that you drilled the hole .004 to .006" smaller than the O.D. of the Nutsert? I don't know how you got the nutsert in the hole without beating on it. I drilled as close to the O.D. of the Nutsert as possible but never under. Bill - Thanks for the pics. And I fully understand about getting the red plate and the terminals out w/o breaking the catches. Did that on the PDB I put on the passenger's fender as it didn't have the 5th relay spot populated with terminals and had way too many fuses. One of those boxes might be a good option as they'll attach to at least the PDB if not the air box. Not sure either of my 4-relay boxes will. I appreciate knowing what the options are. And, I see what you mean about the wiring and the proximity to the engine. I may have to use some of the high temp loom to protect things. But placing the ECU near the firewall looks easier than cutting on the kick panel. As said, I have to solder wires to it anyway, so what matter how long they are? John - Yes, I'm drilling undersized. But the step I didn't tell you about is the round file I then use to open the hole up so the nutsert is a tight fit. It takes a bit more time, but ensures that I don't have a bigger hole than I want. And, the nutserts get a very tight grip that way. One thing I didn't say about my use of nutserts is that I will always use anti-seize on bolts going into them. I don't want to take a chance of the bolt seizing and then spinning the nutsert.

It is nice. And the link worked for me.

Three in one day! Still think you need a commission.

$92.50 with free shipping isn't bad at all.

Yes, quite a collection. Will be good to have it clean. And something like The Right Stuff will work nicely to make the gaskets - if you can't get real ones.

When you are intending to drain the swamp it is so easy to get side tracked by the alligators! I was planning on seeing if there's enough slack in the big yellow wire coming across the radiator support from the other PDB, but to do that I needed to pull the main battery and tray out. And in doing so I found that the dummy that put the later model tray in slipped a nut inside the fender to hold the top of the support arm. After a lot of work figuring out where to put what wrench to hold the nut I finally got it off. Given that I decided to put an 8mm nutsert in there. Let me say that in spite of my previous problems with nutserts, I'm in love with this tool! My guess is that I didn't properly "set" the ones I installed earlier. But with this tool it is easy to tell - you just keep tightening and pulling until the movement stops - and then I give it just a bit more. And the results are quick and solid. After installing the one for the main battery box I installed 8mm nutserts for the EFI air box, so it is ready to go. Then I made two of the spacers to hold the air box properly on the fender. The third one will have to wait until I know if I'm going to need the plate to mount the battery isolator. But it looks like there's enough slack to mount it where I want it, I just have to take apart the run across the radiator support. And, along the way I took this pic. Looks like the hole is already in use, so I'll have to do some re-routing:

Ok, made the change to say "12 .110 and 28 .060". On the relay boxes, can you post some pics on Big Blue's thread? As said, I have two 4-relay boxes, but want to consider the options.

I like that, Gary! I'll get you a good picture of my wiring harness this evening sometime. Thank you John - There's no hurry. Take the pic at your leisure as I have a lot of work to do before I need it. Ok, here's the new "Here's what you are removing" page. Effectively it is the harness I showed earlier plus the other half of connector C610, and we will include that picture as well. Please let me know if y'all agree. And here's the new "Here's what it will be like when you are done" page. Note that I've added the choke heater and the wiring to the EEC for the 4.9L. And the writeup will say that the things highlighted in yellow are what they are adding. Plus, we'll also need to suggest wire sizing for the run from the megafuse to the starter relay in the writeup. And, a megafuse size. But not in the schematic. Thoughts? Upgrades? Concerns? Suggestions? I want to get this version "right" and use it as a template for the next versions, so now is the time for comments. http://www.garysgaragemahal.com/uploads/6/5/8/7/65879365/waving_orig.gif

Tease!

Ok, I just put it in the Large Pin/Weatherproof set of tabs. Right?

You probably didn't hurt the isolator as you had the output of the alternator grounded - if your theory is correct, and it seems like it probably is. So the input of the isolator never got to 12v. Now, you didn't do the alternator any favors, but if it didn't last long maybe you didn't fry some of the diodes in it.

Bill - Thanks for taking all that time to write that up. I made a number of changes and would like you to vet it before I go farther. If I have the pics right then I'm going to try to use your verbiage for explanations. But, now that I've made changes it won't be easy to marry the explanations with the pics. So, if you want to give it to me again.... Note that some pics have legends that should pop up if you hover over them or click on them. In other cases I put the explanation in text before a section of pics.

Agreed. The "w/o shunt & w/o ammeter or voltmeter" version won't have C610. The "w/o shunt but with voltmeter" will have C610, as will the "with shunt & voltmeter" version. I'll see what I can do a bit later today to get a potentially final version of the "w/o shunt & w/o ammeter or voltmeter" version to get that nailed down. If we can all agree on that then moving on to the other versions will be easier. Yesterday I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out how to use the schematics we have to tell the story, but just couldn't get there. Finally the three-step approach seemed to work: Here's what you have Here's what you are removing Here's what it will be like when you are done

My only recommendation is that you put the 12v continuous on yellow/white trace on the alternator side of the megafuse. That way if the fuse should blow the regulator will still see the output of the alternator and not go bananas.

You are good to go.

Ty - Which fuse link did you cut out? John - Pics, please! That would help with the write up for the 2G.

I found the harness shown below and added some labels to the pic, so maybe we can use it in the write up. And I measured the wires, as best I could, and referred to this table to come up with the wire sizes: Big yellow wire going to the right from S202 is .115" in diameter, so should be a 10 gauge wire Orange/black wire coming from the alternator to S202 is .115" so should be a 10 gauge Shunt is .085", and while I can't find a good match in the chart, it appears to be smaller than 12 gauge but not as small as 14. Given that, I'm going to suggest that we recommend that the shunt be replaced with a #10 wire. Thoughts?

With Scott's help I think we've figured out that I have the fuel pump, tank selector, and trailer lights relays on the firewall. And I do have two 4-relay Ford boxes that I could use, maybe one on the side of the air box bracket? I'll just have to wait until I get closer to doing it to lay it all out and figure out where things can go, physically. But I think I want the ECU's power relay to be in the PDB. That's 'cause many of the engine functions need power from it, so it would be easier to have it in the PDB and then send power into the cab rather than have it in the cab and send power back out.

You are making good progress peeling that onion. Well done. Soon you'll have a mess of onion rings!

Thanks, Shaun. Now I know what I'm looking for.

If you shorted Terminal 2 to the case, and assuming the case was grounded, the connection with the most resistance would overheat. And that could easily have been Terminal A. But is that black spot on your wire to the battery where it goes over the cap paint or a burn? So maybe you didn't fry anything and can space things up and be ok. But the black of the top of the isolator where the nuts touch is plastic, right?

Makes sense. But I'm not running EGR, so there's no hot tube. I'll need to find that bracket, for sure.

Yes, and 38 is 12 and Fuse Link L is 16 gauge. And our shunt replacement supports both 37 and 38. But I don't think we should size by the fuse links. They are purposefully undersized by two notches to be the failure point, and we don't want our shunt replacement to be a failure point. Bill's point earlier was very valid. The later trucks had the cab fed by a #4 wire running from the battery to the PDB on the driver's fender. And they don't have any electrical loads that our trucks didn't come with. Granted that wire is probably 6' long and our shunt replacement is maybe 1' long, so that changes things somewhat. Tomorrow I'll see if I can measure the size of the shunt and the big yellow wire for #37 at C610. Since we are just extending that wire then using whatever gauge it is would seem appropriate.

Ok, I took the two off of the large pin tab and see that they are on the mixed tab. But on the weatherproof, please tell me which ones are which and I'll separate them. And, by a "removable front harness", which wires do you mean? Not the engine harness as it already has a connector. Sorry, I'm a bit lost.