Gary Lewis

LOL! I Googled "President Bill" and then Amazon told me about others I was following up on them. Here's what my screen was showing when your note came in: It took me a bit to find Rob's notes about the Highliner, so I'm going to put a link here. In it is this pic:

LOL! I Googled "President Bill" and then Amazon told me about others I was following up on them. Here's what my screen was showing when your note came in:

Yep, saw the reply. On the Highliner, I think that may be a Christmas gift. My interior decorator and I discussed colors thereof using Rob's pic from this post since Eddy Myrtle has pretty much the same colors as Big Blue. She doesn't think the light blue would look right for the Highliner and suggests either the dark blue or just leave it black. And, I have to start thinking about a CB.

Yup. Pump will be here between the 21st and 28th.

Someone could easily go into business making good money. Buy alternators at $4 and sell for $50.

Ordered. Thanks, Jim.

DeWayne/93F3507.3, who works at Skiatook Auto Parts, said that when he looked up a Sag for a '95 E350 w/a 750 that the part number listed fit a WHOLE BUNCH of trucks and you just reused your reservoir. So basically that tells me that all they did was to change out the reservoir. Given that, for $55 for a new one with reservoir delivered vs more than that after tax for a rebuilt w/o a reservoir it seems like a deal. I'm seeing them at $130 - 140 + shipping from Rock.

Jim - Interesting question about the Highliner. WelderScott was just here to do his show entry. With that done the conversation turned to the bumper, which he's going to discuss with his very close friend (my friend as well, but I'm not as close to him as Scott is) and see if it can't progress a bit. And then to HiPo LEDs, and then to mounting a CB. I showed him the Highliner page and Rob's installation thereof and he's sold. But, what color? I think leaving it black may be the way to go. But, if I'm spraying all of the other interior parts, that would be the time. Thoughts, y'all? As for the eccentrics, yes they should come out fairly easily as they've not even been wet. But I need to do that before they form a bond with the rest of the suspension. And the lift makes it easy. Oh, and don't miss my ? in your Saginaw/u-techcenter thread. Looks like a good solution to my leak? Bill - I've done all sorts of WOT runs in all sorts of gears, including 4th. I'm relishing the break-in process.

Wouldn't that be exactly what I need? New, right? At $55 for new vs $50 + tax for a rebuilt.... Here are shots of the new vs the installed one. Looks like the difference is the return, which is easy enough to accomodate.

Yes, much! Our son called a few minutes ago and he seems to be receptive to meeting me in Colorado next year to drive the trails around Ouray. Hooray! So I need to get him in shape for that. But Janey and I want to do some places around here this fall/winter, so need to keep that in mind as well. So yes, the winch, inverter, and compressor. And the interior, inc carpet for the rear wall. And new door panels that don't rattle on bumps 'cause they cannot possibly stay attached to the door with the large speakers and the fact you have to slam the doors due to the new weatherstripping. And the dash cap. Plus the kick panel vents. Oh yes, the radio bezel with switches for various things, like the OX locker, compressor, battery parallel, extra lighting. And/or the Highliner with the switches up there awa a CB. But, getting the wiring up there for those switches seems difficult, so probably the radio bezel is the best way for that. Oh yes, the Arduino! These fuel gauges are a pain. And, sooner rather than later I need to finish the alignment, which Steve has volunteered to help with. And getting the A/C going. Plus the power steering and t-case leaks. I need to revise the Word doc and put some thought to priorities.

Yep. And having two different-sized belts is going to cause problems. So I machined that sheave to be the same size as the other and found a matching crank pulley.

Yep, but years ago I also bought one from a specialty shop. Turned out to have two different-sized sheaves and I had to machine it.

That is a BUY! I paid almost that much for a dual-sheave pulley alone.

Chris - You didn't scare me off. You helped me understand how hard it would be to move the website itself, meaning the documentation portion. (Some might not realize that there are two different sets of servers being used here - Nabble's servers for the forum and Weebly's servers for the documentation. Oh yes, and now a third - AWS servers for the New Bullnose Test Forum, although that will go away once we migrate off Nabble.) Through that effort I came to realize that while Weebly is not where I would go if I had to do it over again, the migration of the documentation to another site would be extremely painful. So I thank you for the help. But, I may well be able to use help from you and Matthew going forward. I've never managed a server, and find the AWS console to be mind boggling. I don't want to scare Pedro off so I'm not ready to add others to the access list, but at some point I'd like others to look at the settings and see if they are reasonable or if they need to be tweaked. Also, is there a way to cause AWS to back up the site? How often? Is there a cost?

Morning, Jim. That is hard to say. Let me think by typing: Radiator Support: The original radiator support had been hacked up so he could run the hoses to the engine oil cooler in a bizarre way because he put the cooler in the wrong spot. Jonathan gave me a replacement. In fact, he brought it from Arizona on one of the show trips, probably two years ago today come to think of it. But, as he'd discovered, it was covered with little cracks here and there. Maybe 10 - 15 of them. I examined it closely to find them, wire brushed the paint off where they were, and then welded them up and ground the welds smooth. Then had it blasted and painted. That probably took at least a week. Crossmember: For some reason he cut a big chunk out of the engine crossmember. So when I got the D60 I had them include the crossmember. But it took a LOT of searching to find someone that had the right crossmember and would include it. Then there was the consultation with WelderScott on how to cut the hole in a uniform way w/o leftover saw cuts, which it had. And how to cut the piece out of the D60's crossmember to put in. And then all the cutting and grinding and fitting. Then Scott came over and welded it. But even after that there was the work of reaming out the bolt holes and tightly fitting bolts where he'd left them out. Man, that is hard to estimate, but I probably had a month tied up in that. Fuel System: I'm not sure if this counts as it was prior to the "transformation", but when I got the truck the wiring for the fuel system was badly hacked, with both the inertia switch and the resistor wired around and the oil pressure switch having been removed. That took probably two weeks as I had to find out what had been done, which took a lot of testing, then figure out what I needed to do to put it right, order parts, and then add them in. Probably two weeks right there. Engine: This is a BIGGEE! The engine was supposedly only a few months old when I got the truck, and it had been "being built" for four years prior to that. It had an edelbrock intake, carb, and water pump, and supposedly an Edelbrock cam. But it dropped a cylinder at idle when I first got it and then was probably dropping two later. So, like a ninny, I assumed there were valve problems and had Huck's EFI heads redone and planned to put them on awa the plenums and go EFI. But it turned out that the engine had apparently been pulled from a salvage, prettied up, and put in Big Blue. And it was badly worn. BADLY! So that mean I needed a whole new engine, and it took a lot of time to determine what I wanted, get it built and shipped in, etc. But it was a short block and that meant more work than if it had been just swapping heads and intake on the old engine. This was at least a month. So now we are at 2 3/4's months. And I know there are things I'm forgetting. Did he leave off the speed control servo and hack the wiring? Dunno. He probably is the one that installed the speaker in the door panels so I have to replace door panels and speakers, but I've not done that yet so it doesn't count. Given that, there's at least 3 months of work fixing handiwork. And let's say I'm 15 months into this, so 20% of the time was caused by him.

Dane - Yes, I'll have to lube there as well. Hopefully mine will be quieter and won't wave anymore. And, the speed control will then work properly. I'm stoked about the speed control working. It certainly didn't previously, maybe because of a lack of a servo under the hood, and possibly because of a few wires missing in the wiring to it. And then I ran into wiring differences when I put the earlier harness in to it. So to have it work at all was a good feeling. Bill - I think your plans on the injectors and timing for starting the new engine are good. I'm assuming you have stock injectors in now and don't want to introduce any changes for starting the new engine. Right? On the AFR, I didn't realize there would be any change as the engine breaks in, so that's good to know. Given that there's little value in playing with jets and rods at this point with only 150 miles on the engine. But at what point is it pretty much done with changing?

If you have the dark argent grille then I think you'd want headlight doors to match. The problem is that there are no "dark argent" headlight doors per se, as shown below. However, what Ford called the color might be different from year to year. You may want to try to find a paint that replicates the dark argent of the grille - and document it here.

Welcome, Dan! Would you like to be on our map? Bullnose Forum/Member's Map in the menu. Please tell us about what you do. I'm sure you can't share information about upcoming vehicles, but maybe from what you tell us about your job we'll know what questions to ask.

"That moment" doesn't happen very often. Well done, Shaun!

So, it happened got an M5OD tonight now working on getting more parts so I can complete the swap. This car has to be my best farm truck hauled so much. Now it is an waiting game on collecting parts. Need to get: -New Clutch - Firewall reinforcement bracket (Thinking Bronco Graveyard) - some fresh drive shaft U-joins (maybe) and we will be ready to rip in no time That's a nice clean transmission. You are really going to appreciate the overdrive. It has really changed Big Blue's attitude.

I lubed the lower speedo cable when I found the old one was damaged and replaced it. But I don't know that the upper one has been lubed. May do that one of these days - after a few other things on the punch list. On the AFR, it goes rich as the engine breaks in? I'm not doubting you, but why? Does the increased compression and efficiency do that? I wasn't aware of that.

Bummer!

The last time my crew cab ran was October 2013, so you are with sympathetic company! 😇 Of course, it does not help when other projects cut in line 😅. First my ‘81 now the ‘95 F Superduty. Function before perfection seems to be a theme with my fleet. Yep, Big Blue cut in line on Dad's truck. But, I'd come to the realization that Big Blue could be useful and fun, and would take less time to transform than it would be to finish Dad's truck.

Josh - The seat looks great! Well done. On the battery voltage, if it is only 13.4 volts when running then you may have a problem. The 1G alternators don't put out much current at idle, so if you are checking the voltage at idle then it may not be a problem. But it should come up to about 14.4 volts at 2000 RPM if you don't have the headlights on, the blower motor on, or some other high-current draw. If it doesn't then it may be a bad batter. Or a bad regulator. Most of the time it is best to replace the regulator when you replace the alternator. Did you?

Ok, we are home from our ~100 mile jaunt and it is time to report. But, in summary, all went well. This morning I dialed in a bit more choke 'cause I thought it was lean as it warmed up. Then I loaded up the spare tire and some tools, and some spare relays. After that I installed the Innovate MTX-L Plus wideband AFR meter that I got for a birthday or Christmas - last year. Then I putt putted around to the front of the house, during which the AFR was ~10:1 and the engine was struggling to run. Oops, my assumption that it was lean was apparently wrong. Then Janey got in and discovered I'd not put the little seat belt in for the inboard end of the passenger's belt. No problem, I have it laying in the shop - and then could NOT find it. Oh well, I moved the one for the middle seat over. Finally we got on the road - and the AFR was quite rich for a long time. Finally the choke came off but even then it was still idling at between 10 & 11:1 AFR, and the exhaust burned your nose. So, when Janey went in the first quilt shop I pulled the air cleaner and tweaked the idle mix. It took ~3/4 of a turn in to get it to 12:1, and the RPM came up as well. With that tweak the power from idle is much improved, even between 1000 and 1500. As for the AFR elsewhere, at cruise it runs in the 14's. But ease into it slightly and it will climb up to the low 15's, at which point the metering rods come up and it drops into the 13's. So it may be slightly lean, but it doesn't bog at all and I don't think it is a problem. Janey thought that it rides better than it used to and that it is quieter. I agree that it is quieter - in fact now I can easily hear the noisy tires, which were masked by the engine previously. Oh yes, the speed control works! However, it oscillates up and down. But, after noticing that I realized that the speedo is moving up and down even though the speed is steady. So I think that's the problem, not the speed control.