Gary Lewis

Jim - Do you have a recommendation for a source for the roll and the end caps?

Jim - I was wishing I had some of the orange today. The way I was installing the adapters with an 8mm bolt inside as a driver scared me away from using red for fear of locking the bolt in the adapter and the adapter in the bracket. And, apparently I locked an adapter to a bolt with blue, so my worry was reasonable. But the use of a pencil as a driver was a breakthrough. Given the taper of a pencil it digs in when driving, but backs out easily. So I put one in with red and it worked. Bill - The tolerance is tight. The pic below shows my first attempt, which broke through the side. To start that one I used a small center drill to create the hole, but I saw some flex. So on the 2nd one I used a much larger center drill that probably didn't flex as much so put the hole closer to the center of the bolt. And that time the drill didn't break through. So, you would use your new lathe? Or do you need me to make some for you?

I agree that coming up through the taillight would be the way to go. And it looks to me like it would be easy to run wires along the inside of the "gunnel" w/o them being seen, so you should be able to get to the front half of the bed, making it even better! Unfortunately, I realized today that BB has a bed liner and there's no access to that portion of the bed.

You got even more done than I guessed at. Good job! It is looking good, and thorough.

84/86 F-150/350,U150 E4TZ 7506-A //undercut one end, knurled other

1985 through at least '89 for all but the diesels.

I made that one larger. See if that helped.

Note that this fuse panel fits all F-Series from 1980 through at least 1989, all R's from '83 - 89, all B's from their intro in '84 to '89, and even the A's from '86 through at least '89.

To be honest, I'd forgotten about yours, Scott. Sorry. I fully intended to save it to a page in the documentation section, but forgot. Shaun - Can you do the integration and then show me what changed? What to add?

I like approach #2 best as it is a one-time fix and let's me tell my offspring that the A/C system is from a 1990 F250. That way they'll be able to replace the compressor if/when the time comes w/o reaming it. So I'm going to see if these 4.8 bolts M10 bolts are easily drilled and tapped and will report back. But wait, there's more! Talked to my brother, who agrees with all of us that the 1990 system is the way to go. However, he suggested I talk to his son who has done a bunch of A/C work. I did and he said he'd bet that the compressor is fine. So he recommended that I put the system together and bring it to him - along with a new receiver/drier and oriface. He'll flush it, replace all the o-rings, which he has, pull a vacuum, and charge it. We'll then see if the compressor is good and, if not, recover the "freon", replace the compressor and go again. Back in a bit with news on the adapters...... Ok, got some of the adapters made. I say "some" because I'm not sure how many of them are salvageable. One is installed with blue Loctite and it stayed. Anther was installed with blue but it backed out with the 8mm bolt I used to install it and won't come off the bolt. Yet another is stuck in the 10mm die and is probably a write-off. But, a fourth one was successfully installed with red Loctite using a wooden pencil to drive it. The pencil threaded in fairly well to the 8mm threads and then backed out nicely after the Loctite set up. So I'm happy with it as well as the other that stayed with blue Loctite. And here's the compressor installed with two of the bolts tightened down. Hopefully tomorrow I can make two more adapters and get them installed and move on.

Hard to say w/o knowing how things are bypassed. But you've gone this far, why not fix it right?

My nephew, an engineer and someone that has done quite a bit of A/C work, thinks the VOV is a good idea. He's seen them work nicely in other vehicles, but hasn't done one in a Ford. Having said that, he isn't a professional A/C guy. So I'm anxious to see what your neighbor says, Scott.

Phil - We've enjoyed several holidays in Europe, including Germany, and have been doing it since about the time your truck was new. So we may have a head start on you. As for where next in the US, how 'bout Oklahoma? Perhaps in Sept of 2021? Hope to be having the truck show then, although it is doubtful for this year, and maybe we can get a bunch of the guys to come.

Ok, time for an update. First, the bolt size to hold a compressor to a 1990 F-Series C-II bracket is different than for an E-Series Saginaw bracket. The C-II bracket takes M8x1.25 bolts, and the Saginaw bracket takes M10x1.50 bolts. Further, the M10's won't pass through the FS10 pump I have, although it wouldn't take much reaming to make them fit. So I see two approaches: I like approach #2 best as it is a one-time fix and let's me tell my offspring that the A/C system is from a 1990 F250. That way they'll be able to replace the compressor if/when the time comes w/o reaming it. So I'm going to see if these 4.8 bolts M10 bolts are easily drilled and tapped and will report back. But wait, there's more! Talked to my brother, who agrees with all of us that the 1990 system is the way to go. However, he suggested I talk to his son who has done a bunch of A/C work. I did and he said he'd bet that the compressor is fine. So he recommended that I put the system together and bring it to him - along with a new receiver/drier and oriface. He'll flush it, replace all the o-rings, which he has, pull a vacuum, and charge it. We'll then see if the compressor is good and, if not, recover the "freon", replace the compressor and go again. Back in a bit with news on the adapters......

The stake pockets on Dad's truck aren't easily accessible from underneath. In fact, the front one doesn't go to the floor as it is grafted onto the side of the bed. However, there's a hole on the inside of the front pocket towards the top where wires could come out. And there's a hole on the front of the rear pocket near the top. So it may be possible to drill from underneath into the rear stake pocket and come out that hole near the top. But then you'd have to get through the middle stake pocket. I wonder if you could get into the middle stake pocket from the bottom and then fan out from there?

I'm not sure exactly what you are asking. No I can't get a piece of tube the correct dimensions to replace the 4x4 without adding something. It can't be over about 3.25" wide at the top to fit in the channel, and it needs to be 4" wide below that to support the outer 3/4" of the sill and to more-or-less line up with the outer edge of the door. And no I can't just make the door sill flat without the channel to fit against a flat tube. If I cut the outer step off and raise that surface the bottom of the door will hit it. And if I cut out the entire sill to lower the main part of it I won't have anything left to attach the replacement rocker to. I could use 3/4" tall tube on top of the 4x4, but a 3/4" square tube doesn't spread the load out as well as a wider tube and it makes a smaller target to weld to. And using a full tube adds material where it isn't helpful. And I'm not going to double up the tube I cut. I'm planning to cut one side off a 1x1 square tube, making it into a 1" x 3/4" C-channel and welding that to the 4x4 (unless you mean welding the 1" x 3/4" "C-channel" to the 4x4 is doubling up). I might get some "hate" for this, but I think that mounting a roll cage to the body is way under-rated. Is it as strong as going to the frame? Of course not. But it will take a pretty bad roll to rip it up to the point where it's not protecting the occupants. I think what I have is a lot stronger than any hard-top vehicle with no cage. Clearly that's not saying it's good enough to meet tech inspection in a race, but I don't race. It's going to hold up fine in an off-road flop, and will be better than my pickup in a freeway rollover. I think what Dave was asking is if you could use a piece of channel that is 3/4" high and whatever wide. That would keep you from having to cut the bottom off of a piece of tubing. If you found a 3/4 x 3" piece of channel it would seem to fit perfectly.

Shaun - Please check out this page: Documentation/Body/Hood Latch. And let me know what needs to change. As you'll see, some of the images turned out to be larger than others if you are using a desktop device to view them. On a mobile device they are big enough that they are full width anyway, but on a desktop they are only as big as the original pic. I'm not pleased with some being bigger than others, and can fairly easily make them all the same size if that's ok with you. But, then the question is, do you want them to be full screen on a desktop or maybe 2/3 screen or 1/2 screen? Also, you may notice that I Photoshopped the first pic in Step 6. It was soooooo dark and begged for lightening up. See what you think of that as well. Anyway, it is your document so please tell me what to change. And, I'll move the how-to into Resources after we get things finalized on the Hood Latch page.

Sometimes a rest is good for us. Draining the tranny might be a pain, literally, but maybe welding up the pan and filling the O/D might not hurt so much?

I hope there's support on other forums that tell you how to jet them 'cause running an air-cooled engine lean isn't good. Better to be a bit rich than lean.

True. But that connection could be out of the floor or sill area and have a loop and then go up into the bed. Perhaps that is one of the things a switch in a Highliner would be good for.

Subscribed, but have no answers.

Wow! That's good illumination. It appears to be even and thorough. I may well want to do that on Big Blue - after I get a number of other things done and him on the road. And I might put a connector on the side of the underhood light and use its mercury switch to bring both the to-be LED in it as well as those strips on. I wonder if those strips would work nicely under the "gunnels", if you will, in the bed? The bed light on the back of the cab provides little light, but those strips might be ideal. And I could bring them on with the bed light.

Pretty nice truck for the price.

Chris - You may not have seen his how-to here.