Gary Lewis

Yes, absolutely. Since the lug nut should be torqued roughly twice what the drag should be the nut should not rotate. Perfect!

Had some time yesterday and today so I added some documentation: Bronco Roof: There was a request for the bolt size that holds the Bronco's roof on so I added a page at Documentation/Body/Bronco Roof. We may have the world's only "straight" copy of the roof illustration as all of the digital master parts catalogs I've ever seen have it crooked. Whomever scanned the MPC in way back when messed that page up and apparently all of the MPCs you can buy are copies of that scan. 8.8" Traction-Lok: There was also a request for info on that rear axle & I discovered that we didn't have that section on the site. Now we do at Documentation/Driveline/Axles & Differentials and then the Rear Axles & Differentials tab, the Instructions tab, the Ford 8.8" tab, and finally the Ford Traction-Lok tab. Dana Limited-Slip Front Axle: While I was scanning the 8.8" info in I also scanned the section on the Dana Limited-Slip (yes, that's what it is called in the MPC) front axle section. It is at Documentation/Driveline/Axles & Differentials and then the Front Axles tab, the Instructions tab, the Dana 44, 44HD, & D50 tab, and finally the Traction-Lok tab. (I guess I fixed Ford's mistake. )

Good luck! And if you want to brainstorm the math then give us some measurements and we'll see what we can do.

Not sure I understand. You have dual 2.5" pipes to the muffler and a single 3" out? If so I don't think I'd go down to 2 1/4". I'd go to a muffler shop and have them graft on either a 3" or at least a 2 1/2".

Congratulations!!! Such a good feeling. There are always the little details to work out, so the exhaust issue is to be expected. Shame about the lack of a vacuum leak. What are you going to do?

Jon - We didn't have the section from the factory shop manual on the site for the Traction-Lok diff. So I added it on the page at Documentation/Driveline and then the Rear Axles & Differentials tab, the Instructions tab, the Ford 8.8" tab, and finally the Ford Traction-Lok tab. It says: Minimum rotating torques required during bench check after assembly or in vehicle with one wheel on the ground for original clutch pack. 41 Ft-Lb/30 N-m You aren't really going to be able to test that directly by placing a torque wrench on a lug nut because that's assuming you are on the axle itself. However, you can test it if you measure the distance from the center of the axle to the center of the lug and do some math. And you'll have to make sure the torque wrench is directly in line with the two centers for that to work. Also, note that on Page 8 there's a table that shows what the tag on the axle should read depending on what gear ratio you have. That might tell you if you have the original axle or not. But there's another number on the tag that we can cross reference as well if you want.

Yes, the two IDI’s run but have issues. I bought them as buildable cores / critical spare parts for the future. Sadly these things are getting hard to find, and new replacement parts are disappearing too. These are for a rainy day and I will probably rebuild one and have it ready to drop in the water truck to replace the used/running 6.9 when it gets tired or develops problems. Having your water supply depend on such old vehicles isn’t the best plan but here we are… You can’t see it well in the picture, but that bed has a short wheelbase frame attached to it. This is the eventual plan for the ‘81. The burro ruined the long bed and I wanted a short wheelbase 4x4… I was going to chop the frame and use the flareside bed that I have, but this presented itself. I dunno, the short styleside box is pretty nice I may just sell the flareside. The frame came with both bumpers, the front one is super straight. I wish it was painted instead of chrome but I’m happy to have it. Also not visible is a good core support that I needed due to the burro damage on the ‘81. All this came from a local guy thinning his stash of parts and he provided delivery. You can’t beat that especially when you are spending your time building a house! I will update the house thread soon, it’s inching along as I have had some ick lately and not able to do as much as I want. Manually moving dirt back into the foundation trench made by the backhoe is rough but good exercise I suppose 😓 That’s a great score and you have lots of options. 👍 Sorry about the ick, but you’ll get there.

Yes, you can make your own. Like Jim described or if that doesn't seem to work I've slipped a piece of brass tubing inside the vacuum line and then vacuum hose over the tubing.

Way to go, Jonathan! Two IDI's and a bed with bumper? Wow! How's the house coming?

I've not done that, but I've done far worse. So I understand. Glad you caught it.

Good move on the vacuum lines. And labeling them is an excellent idea. What labels do you use? I have a Brother label printer and bought some shrink tubing label material. Used it a bunch on my EFI work.

Very nice, and not a bad price.

That looks really good! On the vacuum line, can you tell us the # from this illustration?

Gary - Just had a call back from Hagerty. They cannot insure Big Bro: • I sometimes carry stock (a trailer is also considered as carrying material); • Big Bro can be out of home more than 3 days (we sometimes go to our chalet and could stay there a week or two). I suppose that Hagerty's US coverage rules are different than here in QC. Maybe. But maybe I'm not staying within the requirements as I sure don't keep the trips down to 3 days. But I'm pretty sure that wasn't a requirement when I went with them.

Yes, welcome! Glad you joined. Would you like to be on our map? Just need a city or a zip.

Wait! Just because I'm OLD and have lived in the UK doesn't mean I've been knighted. But you are right that we find issues with the Ford documentation frequently. It is the best we have, but it certainly isn't perfect.

Dane - Thanks. Jim - We will get there, don't worry. But thanks anyway.

That may be the shortest intro yet, but welcome to the forum. Glad you joined. So is "AK" Alaska? If so, where? We have a map, which you can see at Bullnose Forum/Member's Map in the menu, and we can add you with a city or zip.

Thanks, Bob. Yes, it is progress, but not as much as I'd planned for the day. Had hoped to get the AFR gauge bezel off so I could drill it on the bench and the PC it black like the bezel on the other side. But that's not going to happen. So now I'm wondering if I can drill it in the truck and leave it chrome. Luckily I've not ordered the clear/white tape for my Brother label maker as if I leave it chrome it'll need to be clear/black tape. I have a work day at the church building tomorrow, so maybe Wednesday I can see how to do that.

Good to hear from you! Radiator looks good. I left my polished radiator alone, meaning w/o paint. I just couldn't scratch it up to paint it, and I know it'll transfer heat better w/o paint. On the exhaust, I don't think I'd use the cones to pull things together. I'd first talk to Flowmaster and tell them the problem and ask for their recommendation. As for a Black/Orange wire, go to the salvage. A lot of Ford vehicles have a long Black/Orange off the alternator, and I've used those. And in '85ish Ford changed from dots to stripes. The EVTM implies it was between '85 and '86, but it wasn't. Big Blue is an '85 but has stripes where the EVTM says he should have dots or hash marks. So just go with the Y/White stripe wire. As for the breaker vs fuse, I don't think you can go wrong. I'm running a fuse but if I'd had 150A breakers handy I might have gone that way.

Cool!

He is good!

Well done on that letter! And I know what you mean on the tires/wheels and steering. My SiL has an 83 with wide wheels and tires on it. The guy he bought it from thought they were cool, but they not only look wrong they seriously degrade the steering.

Not making much progress, but some. I pulled the AFR meter's bezel off today thinking I'd disconnect the meter and work on the bezel. But there's a lot of wiring that would have to be fed back through things up under the dash in order to get the gauge out. So either I find another home for the switch and the LED or just drill the bezel in place for the LED and the switch. Then I wired the relay board up to pull in a fender-style starter relay and it wouldn't do it. Turns out they apparently put the on-board LED in the on-board relay's coil circuit. And since I'd removed that LED the relay wasn't coming in. But when I wired in another LED the on-board relay came in just fine and it pulled the starter relay in. However, the clack that starter relay made suggested I find out how much current it is pulling 'cause it sounded like a lot. Turns out it is "only" 3.5 amps, which is well within the 10A capability of the on-board relay. But that got me to wondering what kind of back EMF that starter relay generates and what problems it might cause. I tried to measure it with my min/max DVM but it didn't seem to catch it, and I was loathe to drag out the 'scope. So instead I dragged out the left over 10A diodes that I bought when I put one on the air conditioning compressor's clutch to protect the ECU, and made one to fit Big Blue's starter relay. You can see it, the snubber diode, in the bottom center of the pic on the right. But as I started to pull the nut that holds the trigger wire on the starter relay it occurred to me that the nut & stud right above it was hot, and touching the socket to either of them while on the trigger stud would engage the starter. And while the tranny was in neutral and the park brake set it would have caused a quick reaction on my part, so I pulled the starter relay fuse out of the PDB and worked w/o surprise.