Gary Lewis

Welcome! Glad you joined. Maybe you can sort out the old man. Seriously though, how 'bout going to the New Members Start Here folder, read the guidelines, and then introduce yourself. We ask people to do that to ensure they've had a chance to see our guidelines as we hold people to them and wouldn't want you to get surprised.

That's cool! Good to know.

Cool! But the assist handles can be powder coated. The weather was nasty? Oh, that's right, I was in the shop. But, when I went in for lunch that 50' stroll was a bit damp.

Yep. And I can keep the foam insulation that's on there as w/a 1/4" bolt I'm not going to be cranking it down enough to break the plastic due to deformation of the foam. Plus, it makes alignment easy. Set the unit in place, drill the holes, pull it out and install the rivnuts. The holes will match.

Don't think that's accurate. The bolt is #1448 and the "nut" is 1474. According to our page at Documentation/Exterior/Spare Tire Carriers there's no such thing as an F250-only either of those. Lots of F250/350, and many F150/250, but no F250 that I can find. And, it is a very complex area. I've sent him a note via eBay.

Actually, I forgot it is two layers. So, maybe just use some #12 sheet metal screws into that first layer? Or, better yet, a couple of 1/4-20 nutserts?

As you've probably worked out, the PCV valve is a calibrated leak and you have to adjust the idle air/fuel mix to accommodate it. But now with it hooked up you have too much air and when you give it enough fuel to run correctly it idles too fast. That says you have a vacuum leak somewhere else. Maybe when you tighten up the intake bolts tomorrow it'll seal off? Anyway, congrat's!!!!

Well, I'd forgotten how much fun it is to remove/install the rear cab bolts. On Dad't truck I had to put a breakover on the bolt heads, prop it up against the back wall, and go under and tighten. Yep, that wasn't fun. And I see what you are saying about the stud arrangement. Drill the storage unit to let the head/washer pass through, set the storage unit in place, put a larger washer on top, and run a nut down. However, if I'm going to cut holes in the bottom to clear the head/washer of the bolt, why not just put other bolts/washers/nuts in a couple of other locations and be done with it? That way I wouldn't have to pull the existing cab bolts out.

I'm not seeing "major" in the disadvantage of pulling the cab bolts to pull the storage unit. I think it is easy, but maybe I should try to pull these and see if it is as easy as I'm making it. The spec's say to torque to 50 - 70 lb-ft in order to line up the body lines. Am I missing something? And on the plate, that would be a really long piece of metal, and to make it effective it would have to be very thick. Won't the 3/8" slab of plastic easily take the compression force? The cab bolt has a large washer.

I LIKE it!

Several things to report. First, I got the speaker wiring done and the Alpine speakers installed on the driver's side in the Highliner. Unfortunately the right Alpine speaker is dead, so tomorrow I have to troubleshoot that. And since it is a huge pain to pull those speakers I think I'll attach the right passenger's side speaker and see if it plays. If it does that will prove out the wiring and I'll have to pull the speaker. And I did some more looking and thinking about the mounting of the storage unit. It didn't sit level on the step at the back so I pulled the carpet back and realized that it is sitting on top of the rear cab bolts. Hmmm.... I've had a couple of thoughts: Bolt Through: Drill the storage unit to match the cab and bolt through it. The bottom of the storage unit is 3/8" solid plastic, and I'm sure it can withstand the 50 - 70 lb-ft torque rating on those bolts. But I should pull the foam that I added to the step, and I'll want to trim the carpet off around the step. Set Over Bolts: In this approach I'd drill holes in the storage unit large enough to clear the bolts and washers. I'd still want to trim the carpet but could probably leave the foam. Thoughts? Oh yes, I layed one of the handheld radios in the storage unit. Just fits.

Yes, they are growing! They must have been three there as it was six years ago and they are now nine. We got an envelope from them today with their Christmas list, and they are seriously into books, diaries, and Minecraft. Wow!

Congrat's!!!!! That is SUCH a good feeling! And, glad to see that there is a noticeable difference. Those are the really fun projects. On the video, the easiest way I've found is to upload it to Youtube, get the "embed" code, come here and tick the "Message is in HTML Format" box, and paste the code in.

Here's a shot of the storage unit sitting in. I'll secure it at the top with tabs that come down from the screw holes right above it. And I will probably run screws into the riser below to hold it down and back. In fact, I may cut the carpet in front of the riser so the storage unit sits down against the riser, which will lower it and reduce the interference between the seat back and the inverter. Note in the pic above that the inverter is sitting in the spot for it. But the 1 1/2" lip kept it sitting higher than it needed to be, so I cut the lip off. That dropped it down to where the seat back latches with a little bit of force, but not much. Probably when the seat's hardboard back dents a bit it'll fit nicely. And I'll probably cut some of the end out to clear the outlets as well as the fan's openings. That will let me slide the inverter to the left in the picture, meaning towards the passenger's side, and it'll give ~2" on the right side for air to come in for the fan.

This popped up on my Facebook page from 6 years ago today:

Yes, it is. If you note in the pic in the writeup (Documentation/Electrical/Windshield Wipers) that the E0TZ and AA are painted on, but that the 17C476 is stamped in. The one you found initially would have had a prefix and a suffix painted on it, but they are worn off or covered up. As the writeup says: Note that the module shown is the 1980 version, as shown by the E0TF prefix on the engineering number. There are at least three other later versions that will work - a 1984 (E4), a 1987 version (E7), and a 1990 version (F0).

Good point, Shaun. I'm looking at images online and don't see the stripes either. I think they uglify an already less than pretty truck as I'm not a fan of the Bricknose front end. (Sorry, Jim.) Here's one at Bronco Graveyard: Here's one on eBay:

I have a Borgeson steering shaft on Big Blue, but I don't know what model it is. The thing was mounted when I got the truck. Works fine.

I have no idea. But I'd bet that you are right - only one manufacturer makes them. One way to try to figure that out is to look at the pics the various vendors have on their web sites. If they all use the same pics you can be pretty sure they came from the same vendor.

Congrat's on the hunt! Hope all goes as well today with the installation. Shoot a video so we can hear it run!

Very nice truck. But I'm not sold on the stripes. I realize that was the silver anniversary package, but .... However, for that price for such a clean truck I'll bet they'd grow on me.

Jim - I'll reread what it says. But the only real load I'm anticipating is the inverter. The other stuff, like chargers for the various electronics, is trivial. I went back to my test of the inverter/compressor combo, which is here, and the telling phrase is that "the fan on the inverter doesn't come on, even after I ran the compressor from 150 to 200 psi three times." My guess is that will be enough air to bring the tires up to 35 psi from 15 psi, but I don't really know. Anyway, I'll make sure there's plenty of room for the fan to work.

Bill - It must just be the difference is size. As I look at it again I can see that the distances are the same but the "feel" is different, and that has to be the size. However, each is a different shape and is also 3D, which means it'll look different when they are all together than just drawing out the openings. So I don't think you can do any better than what you've done. Go for it!

Documentation/Electrical/Alternators and the Output Vs RPM tab. Scroll down to Pg 4 and following.

Can you move the three to the left a bit and then the power port to the right a bit? The power port looks too close to the one on its left. The way I lay things out is to figure the spaces, which is 5, divide that into the width of the panel, and use that as the spacing to the centers of the devices.