Gary Lewis

I just saw the same post. Sad! One fire starter is the 2G alternator that came out in '86. They, or the the connections thereunto, are suspect. But my guess is that a lot of the problems are due to fuel system leaks. For instance, some of the carbs have vulnerable places, like accelerator pumps that can leak externally.

Been there, done that. Was very upset with myself. In my case it was the thermostat that slipped. But at least you have the right perspective. It'll work out. And at least the radiator and core support fit correctly. Well done.

Yes, I think you are right.

John - The writeup on the brake bleeding tool is at Gary's Brake Bleeding Tool, and there are lots of pics. But I don't bleed through a port. Instead I put about 3 psi of air pressure on top of the fluid and crack open a bleeder valve. Initially you'll get a lot of air and have to make sure the master doesn't go dry, but after you get the most of the air out it goes quickly. The only possible problem is the size of the cap. Measure yours and tomorrow I'll measure mine. And, I'll make sure I have the plastic piece.

John - I can't find that part in the illustrations. Maybe I'm missing it, but.... However, I'm sure I have at least one that I don't need. I'll ship it to you, but my shipping place won't be open until Monday. However, I could also include the air pressure regulator and fittings that allow you to bleed the brakes with just air pressure - assuming you have compressed air available.

Yippee! You are now in the same boat as I - you'll need to keep a list of all the "upgrades" so when someone has to go to the part store they can get the right part.

Matt - You are now on the map. You don't happen to know Paul in Castle Rock? He joined yesterday and here's a link to his intro.

Good point, Shaun. I missed that as well.

You can add Big Blue to the list. The shot below is from your gallery, but you are welcome to use any pic(s) you have.

Congrat's! The red-headed step child wins! And Clay has to get honorable mention for his perseverance through all of the troubles he's had.

Yes, it isn't uncommon for the casting to crack if someone has really cranked on the fitting. I think those are tapered pipe threads, and you can really generate a lot of force by overtightening.

Wow! 1600 welds! But it sure is looking GOOD!

Welcome! Where's home? I ask because we have a map (Bullnose Forum/Member's Map in the menu) and could add you if we had a city or a zip. On the lights, the catalog doesn't give any measurements, so I don't know. Hopefully someone else will come along that does. But it doesn't have to be a Bronco as the pickups would have them located in the same places.

Yes, there are a lot of members running around in the FOG. And you are certainly one of them.

He said "Shift Knob" in the title. I missed it. I think Shaun said a few of the early, like 1980, manual transmission shift knobs were screwed on or had a set screw. But an '85 should have a pressed-on knob like you said, Jim.

I just saw this cartoon and thought I'd share it with y'all, and then realized this is New Year's Eve. So, Happy New Year! Let's hope 2021 is MUCH better than 2020. Anyway, does anyone know who this might resemble?

Well, I'm very, VERY confused. As you can see in this post on the How To Calibrate A Speedometer, Big Blue's speedo came pretty close to being correctly calibrated, although it does have a waver to it that isn't right. But I've had it in and out several times and every time it has been ~5 MPH slow at anything over about 30 MPH. So I'm sure it'll still be slow when I put it back if I don't adjust it. But, why? How can it read low when it appears to be read correctly on the lathe? That tells me that something's amiss in the drive/driven gear combo. But, the odometer seems to be working correctly. I think I'm going to jack it up 5 MPH on the lathe and give it a try. Thoughts? Better ideas?

That is ODD! Don't think I've ever seen a vacuum gauge marked that way. But you might want to hook it back up. Having there, staring you in the face, is likely to change your driving habits. The pedals, shifter, and tranny cover look great. Well done!

Excellent! Should be an easy swap. And, if you had my setup, you could pressure-bleed the system with air pressure.

Good! I need to spend some time going back over the web site and fixing all of those pages that have others below them.

Well, the plot thickens. Today I pulled Big Blue's speedo off and tested it, only to find that it reads 69 - 71 MPH at 1150 RPM. You might think that's good since it is supposed to read 69 at that speed by my calculations. However, that doesn't explain why it reads ~5 MPH slow at anything above about 30 MPH. I'll take that up in Big Blue's Transformation thread in a bit, but for now let's stick to the tests I ran today. After getting that result on BB's speedo I thought I should test several speedometers to see how they read. And as I was gathering them I realized that I have a NOS one, as shown below. So I pulled it out as well and tested 8 different speedometers. My thinking is that they should all read 69 MPH at 1150 RPM since you should be able to pull speedometers off the shelf and put them in service and get similar results. IOW, the speedometers should not differ in their calibration due to year or application. Given that, I was somewhat surprised by what I found: Oops, I wasn't ready to post that. Yep, the NOS speedo read 69, as you can see below, although the angle at which I took the pic tends to make it look a bit lower than that. But the part that surprised me, beyond Big Blue's being pretty close, is that all of the speedometers but the NOS one could be sped up or slowed down by pushing on the cable a bit. Apparently that moves the spinning part of the coupling closer or farther away from the part that drives the needle, and some speedometers were a lot worse than others. On top of that, while most of the speedometers were somewhat stable in their readout, Big Blue's would bounce up or down at random times w/o me moving it or pushing on the cable. I'm thinking the bearings in it are pretty worn. Thoughts? Observations?

The changing idle speed may be one of several things. My first thought is a cracked vacuum hose that is opening and closing as the engine moves a little. So I'd try moving the hoses around as the engine is running to see if you can make it do it. Or, spray carb or brake cleaner in some places where there might be a crack and if so the speed should pick up as the cleaner gets sucked in and burned. But if it really is regular, like every two seconds, then I wouldn't think a cracked hose could do that. Probably something to do with an electrically-controlled device, like the EGR that shows in your pic right behind the carb. To test that you could pull the vacuum hose off and plug it.

You are now on the map. But I don't think I've been to Baildon. I've been up to Grimsby several times so have been in the region. And, to show what I know of the UK, Baildon is near Leeds and, therefore, Leeds Castle.

Well done, Bill! Clean and functional.