Gary Lewis

Chris? Is that you? What does Bill call his ex-girl friend? She That .....

Thanks. Removing the seal, and then probably having to replace it, would be far better than splitting the case.

Dave, I lucked out, and the new housing from Rock Auto (4 Seasons brand) was identical. Only difference is that it had a removeable plug on the neck and my original was permanently plugged. I got some more work done to the old girl today. Few more things to work on tomorrow morning and if all goes well by lunch time I will be cranking her over and see if she starts. If it does not I guess I'll do a compression test and see what it looks like. If the engine turns out to be no good, it's not a big deal to change it out. I basically had nothing to lose by trying it (other than my time). There is a small engine shop only about 1.5 hr drive away that has a freshly built 1986 300/6 in-stock for $1200 (with core). Cory - Good move on the thermostat housing. Hopefully the engine will fire and run well.

http://www.garysgaragemahal.com/transfer-cases.html

In '81 it would be either a 351M or a 400:

Cory - I'm not sure "keyed" is the right word. Borg-Warner's instructions (on this site awa the Ford FSM section) say it is splined. Jim - Yep, I saw it. I've looked at mine through the VSS hole and it ain't melted. As for how to get it out, the implications in the instructions are that you can get it out by pulling the output yoke, but they don't actually say that. What they say is before placing the rear case half on to put the gear on. Then after placing the case half on to put the seal in and the output yoke and its nut, washer, and oil seal. So that will be my first attempt.

Yeah, I track my MPG and doing it in clicks ain't gonna happen. I did the L/100K while we were in the UK, and at the time acquired some feeling for what was good or not. Have long since lost that. So I want my odo's in miles. As for the NOS speedo, here's what it looks like with its input at 1150 RPM, which my calcs say should show 69 MPH. I'm not going to use it so shoot me an offer via email if it is what you are looking for. But, there's no hurry as it will go back in the attic in its padded box otherwise.

This morning one of my Facebook friends mentioned someone doing a miles to kilometer conversion. (Don't worry Cory, I won't tell who that was.) And it dawned on me that my nice NOS speedo is a KPH unit and, therefore, has an odometer or two that read in clicks. Given that, my plan of sticking an MPH faceplate on it and using it in Dad's truck isn't going to work very well. In the pics below, the left one is an MPH speedo and the right is a KPH unit. You can see that the gears to the odometer are different sizes, and that's true of the trip odometer gears as well.

This morning I melded two speedos into one by moving the trip odometer with nice numbers and the nicely-painted needle from Big Blue's speedo onto the #2 speedo I'd tested. And I set the odometer to match the reading on Big Blue's speedo. When I got the truck back together we took it for a drive and the speedometer was wonderful - for a while. Perfectly smooth and quite accurate according to my GPS. But, the speed control wasn't smooth. Maybe not too bad at first but then it started to oscillate. Then I realized that the speedometer was starting to fluctuate. All I can figure is that the drive gear is slipping on the output shaft of the transfer case. It initially worked the other day but as the speedo cable warmed up it slipped. Then today with a well-lubed speedo cable it mostly worked but still slipped some as it warmed up. Does this make any sense?

The ability to poll is turned on. And I don't see anything that would prevent Jim from voting. In fact, I just changed my vote to "The driver should be Jim and the passenger should be Gary" and it took.

But is it worth $3,800......hmmmm Not by itself, but you could buy the truck for $3700 and have a nice gun safe for $100.

I think the poll is up in smoke, Cheech.

They aren't cheap, that's for sure. But they have a good feel and I really needed new ones, so I think they will be worth it.

Bosch 20" ICON Wiper Blade (2 Pack)

Congrat's!!!!! That's just a good feeling. And thanks for the lessons-learned list. It'll help someone. Looking forward to your thoughts after driving it a bit.

Congrat's!!!! I love free fixes!

Nice truck. But the gun safe is RARE!!!!

Hadn't really thought about that, John. But Jim's done it and I don't think I'm going to worry about it.

Testing to see if being subscribed and ticking the box gets two emails.

Yes, the larger clear spot is going to be welcome. And, the larger wipers even look better. As for the belt and braces approach, I can't see anything wrong with it and a whole lot right. The Teflon went somewhere into the cable as it sure wasn't left in my bowl. And there was a LOT of graphite on the cable. So the combo has to be "slick". The cable sure slid in there nicely, and I was turning it as I put it in to see if there was a tight spot. Turned very easily right down to the point where it engaged the VSS. I hope to get the speedo change done tomorrow and take the truck for a spin - both to check out the speedo and to see how the speed control works with the new cable and VSS.

I think you have a solid plan, but I do like the idea of replacing the ball joints while in there. You'll have the top joint busted loose to put the eccentric in, so why not do it "right".

I sorta "wrote" a new macro. Essentially what I did was to override the original null_to_false, then copied the original code from that macro below the overwritten macro. Then I changed the name of the macro to null_to_true. Then I went back to the save_alert_field macro and changed the call to null_to_true. And the way it seems to work is that when I start a new thread the box isn't ticked. But when I reply the box is ticked. And if I untick it in my reply the next time I reply it is ticked again. Kinda think that might tick people off. Basically, what I'd like is to figure out how to tick the box by default when I start a new thread, and when Joe Blow replies the box is ticked by default. But that however the box is ticked when I reply the system remembers it.

Looks like if you just go fast enough Big Blue's and Dad's speedos will end up spot on! I'm sure (from Ford's perspective) it was better to have the instrument a little optimistic. My speedometer seems very accurate with the stock tire size when compared to GPS. Jim - I'd kinda like to have a reasonable understanding of my speed as I go anywhere - not just at high speeds. Anyway, what I did today was to install the lubed speedo cable, which went in very nicely and spun easily until it engaged in the VSS, so I'm sure it isn't kinked. And, it is LUBED! Also, the 20" Bosch Icon wiper blades came in today. That size is just about right for the Bullnose trucks as there's less than 1" of clearance between the end of the wiper and the upper windshield trim. These blades fit nicely and are a big improvement over the 18" ones that are standard.

Right, Shaun. I'd not put the original bushing in and then take it to the alignment shop. You are likely to have to remove that bushing and order one of these Moog adjustable eccentrics.