Gary Lewis

I can't vote 'cause I don't know what you are going to do with the truck. Nor even what the truck is. And those are important questions. If it is an F250 4x4 with TTB's & leaf springs I'll vote for SAS (& RSK with Superduty springs) since it'll improve the ride awa give a better turning radius, both of which are helpful offroad. But if it is an F150 or Bronco 4x4 with TTB's & coil springs I might vote for a lift as you already have good articulation and ride.

Shaun - I'll lay others beside this one tomorrow in good lighting and figure out what I have. But you may just have the winning hand! Bill - So something is off .001+? That's not bad, but I'd bet the micrometer is correct.

I've added a "Thinking" emoticon: :nabble_thinking-26: But to keep the # of emoticons down I deleted the "Ninja". I hope that wasn't your favorite, but no one seems to be using it so I hope you don't mind. However, if you do please let me know which one you'd prefer I replace with "Thinking". Also, I have the ability to change the "Thinking" the emoticon as well as the size thereof, so let me know if you think we should have a different one or if it needs to be a different size. So, please let me know your thoughts.

Man, that is cool! Would make a good overlanding vehicle!

Hmmmm, the other day, I was storing and cleaning and found a NOS vacuum gauge. I believe it is smaller than the one currently in Big Blue. It is shaped like an old steering column mounted tachometer. John - These must a good example of the "very nearly" ones. They appear to work properly and I was pretty sure they were accurate, but the results I got on the metering rods was very confusing. Very. Then I thought "why don't you check them with a micrometer" and the truth was revealed. I wonder how many things I've made that weren't quite "right"? David - A vacuum gauge meant to be permanently mounted? Cool! Mine isn't designed for that, and its mounting is precarious - and ghetto. Oh yes, I forgot to say that I'm on the lookout for an instrument bezel that matches that medium duty radio bezel. I have one with the fog light switch holes, but it is in such good shape that I'm not sure I want to drill more holes in it to mount the gauges, as shown below. So if you come across a used one please let me know. I think that bezel is black rather than gray, but will check.

This morning I installed my ~50 year old vacuum gauge in a temp location for carb tuning. How do I know it is ~50 years old? I had it while I was in college and I graduated 51 years ago. In fact, the light I installed through the back of it was so I could strap it in that same location on our then-new '72 F250 and be able to read it at night. And, like I knew it would, it helped me tell when the metering rods come up. So I have a better understanding of what is going on. Then we took Big Blue out for a cruise, and I'm happy to say that installing the rest of the windshield trim and lowering the windshield wipers made a big improvement on the wind noise. Now the wind noise seems to be from the mirrors. But, Janey said the overall wind noise is noticeably lower. After that I installed the medium-duty radio bezel. Looks kinda like Darth Vader. But in that blank spot towards the top I'll install the Carling switch mounting bracket, shown below. Then I can mount the switches, including the one for the OX locker.

The truck in question is a 1980, and if I have my way I will find an early black bezel for it, which will have the old style radio with two knobs. Going to look for a radio in the coming weeks. A friend of mine has a bunch of these trunks in his junkyard. Cory - If several radios are available you might get more than one, assuming the price is reasonable.

Yes, I have a dial. And, I've set it to zero. But if I then set my micrometer to something like .020" and lock it the calipers will read .010". And if I set the mike to .060" the calipers will read .048".

Glad you found that. I'd missed it. Ordered. Thanks!

Yeah, he said "I'm going to take it for a spin now" and didn't come back!

I agree, Jim. I don't know how they can read off. But they do! Consistently. But a different amount depending on how close to zero you are. Doesn't make sense to me. I'm going to contact Mitutoyo repair today to see what the cost might be, but I think I'll be money ahead to go with new digital ones. And I'll check out the Shars units. Thanks. On the wiper arms, this link should take you to the AM Auto Parts page for wiper arms for a '91 to '97, which are said to use F5TZ-17526-B. Looks like a pair is $40 with free shipping. Thanks again.

Yep, my 390 in my '72 was strong, but not like the 460 in Big Blue. And two friends had the 360, which was just a de-stroked 390, and they were gutless.

Nice truck! But get your employee into a Bullnose. At least when we say "big block" we don't mean a wimpy 360. (Not that all FE's are wimpy, but the 360's sure were! Everyone I knew that had one wished they'd bought the 390 instead.)

They do read zero. And they came from Japan as they are Mitutoyos. I'm thinking of replacing them with Mitutoyo digital ones.

I doubt it is the headlight switch since it does it when you are moving and not sitting still. But it is possible it is the switch. However, I suspect a bad connection in the wiring that wiggles while you drive. Do both the low and high beams do it? If so then it is something common to them, and as shown below, that includes the black/orange wire coming to the switch, the switch itself, and the red/yellow wire to the dimmer switch. I'd turn the lights on and lay down under the steering wheel and gently move those wires and see what happens. Typically what happens is that a connection gets bad and that causes heat. And if you went with higher wattage lights that makes the connections heat up faster. So see if they get hot. If you find that is the problem then you need a headlight relay kit to take the load off the switch and the wires to it.

My 1990 cab came with J-hooks, but I can't tell you if they were original. Ok, Shaun and Bob. Thanks. May go to the salvage and see what I find. Unless Jim comes up with a cheap solution like he found. By the way, I had a horrible discovery today. My dial calipers LIE! As explained in the edit to the post about metering rods, I checked with my micrometer today and the metering rods are exactly what they are stamped. So now I have to replace the calipers, which I use daily.

Scott - I'm going to have to refresh my understanding for how to add emoticons. And, we should pick one to take off to keep it simple. How 'bout: Turns out that I can put the thinking face in pretty easily by going into HTML mode and pasting the code in: 🤔 But, as you see it is pretty small and no one else would know how to do it. So, maybe tomorrow night while watching the election returns I can figure it out?

LOL! Still remember quite well rewiring Brandon/Bruno2's trailer in order to go get Big Blue. Try placing a trailer between the uprights of the lift with only an inch or so on either side. And no way to get it up in the air. Anyway, so the little jumper screws into the other speedo cable and then into the adapter on the speedo itself? As for the weather, I think you have until next Monday.

That link should take you to my 1995 F350 filter. So that's probably the same as a '94. Just ate - your turn.

David - That's a good idea. See if you think I did it correctly: Documentation/HVAC and then the Illustration, Pics, Etc tab, then the Integral A/C tab, then the Pictures tab, then the Heater Core Insulation tab. Boy, that is COMPLEX! And where the pictures are is not accurate as that is a high output core, which could have been in the base heater, Comfort Vent, or Integral A/C. So the whole page needs to be revised. Any suggestions?

I had forgotten that, Jim. So it does make a difference! On the wiper arms, I'm not sure I know what years to go looking for. Do you know? This pair from Amazon is quite a bit more at $52.

Ok, made some progress but haven't taken it out to see if it makes a difference. First, I installed the windshield trim and lowered the wipers. But note how much of an angle the driver's wiper is at as opposed to the passenger's wiper. I looked in the catalog and the left and right wiper arms are the same. So I pulled that arm and put it beside another one I had. Note the difference in angle at the end. So I put the one on that has the same angle as the passenger's arm. I'll have to go for a ride to see if it makes a difference, but it can't hurt.

Jim - Are you laughing at me for not realizing. I hadn't even thought about it, actually. David - That's the rod goes from the lock cylinder to the door latch on the left door.

Take them off and go for a test drive! That would tell the tale. But I wonder if can they go any lower? And are there other wipers that might cause less noise? Also you can see the trim that is missing - might it cause noise?

First, you are now on the map. Second, you've run into the dumbness of this forum's software. It, like most forums, doesn't read the camera orientation information in the picture's metadata. So you have to properly orient your pics before posting. I do it by opening them in some photo editing software, which does read the orientation data and properly orient's the picture. Then save it and it'll show correctly. On the plant, the assembly plant list didn't change from 1980 to 1981.