Gary Lewis

Ok guys, lots of good info in your posts. Thanks. Basically it is looking like I have two options: Either the complete underhood '85 system or the complete '90 system. I say that because the '90 evaporator will not fit in the 'Bullnose housing. Both evaporators have the same tube spacing, but the Bricknose unit has a tab for mounting the receiver/drier and it won't go in the Bullnose housing. To do the '85 system I'd have to put the serpentine pulley/clutch unit on the '85 FS6 compressor. Bill - will that work? And, I'd have to make a bracket to hold the FS6 in the FS10 cradle - and I don't know that it would be easy to align the pulley. To do the Bricknose system I'd have to replace the underhood HVAC housing with the Bricknose unit. I'm leaning to this approach for several reasons. One is that when I get the EFI on it I can say it is a '96 engine, A/C system, fuel system, power steering system, and hydroboost braking system. (I know the Sag is from a van.) Nothing has been kludged together. Another reason is that the FS10 is apparently the better unit. Plus, the Bricknose condenser is 1.17" thick as opposed to the .882" thickness of the Bullnose unit. Thoughts? On the left is the Bricknose evaporator in the Bullnose housing with the tab hitting the housing. On the right is the Bricknose housing with the notch for the tab. Also, the green arrow points to something on the side of the Bricknose bracket. What's that?

Scott - Do you know who Archion is? His name is Matt Vose. Real nice guy.

None of the VDO gauges (at least in the "Vision" series) work with the Ford sender ohm range. So I will be dropping the tank to install a new sender. That will be a whole nother adventure I'm sure. Yes, they are wide-band. Not sure anyone makes narrow-band gauges anymore, although I had one on the old race car. But it was built in the 90's. Not a great deal of information you could get out of it. What sender are you going to use?

That's why I'm glad I found a motor with the correct bracketry, as my only other choice would have been to upgrade to the serpentine bracketry and an FS10 compressor, which meant custom A/C lines. I do have the compressor, evaporator, condensor, and all the lines from Huck, the 1990 half truck. So, assuming the Bricknose evaporator fits in a Bullnose HVAC housing then I can go that way. If not, will a Bricknose HVAC housing fit a Bullnose? And, while this system has had paper towel plugs in the major ports, it has obviously been apart for a couple of years. And I don't know that the compressor was good. Nor do I know the condensor nor evaporator are good. However I can find that out when I pull a vacuum on the system. So, what do I really need to replace before pulling a vacuum? Edit: Or, come to think of it, will the clutch/pulley combo from the FS10 compressor fit on the one from Big Blue? If that's the case I could make a bracket and use that as the system is complete and works.

Ok, I've captured what we have said so far here: Documentation/Interior/Carpet. If we have more examples please let me know. Rick - Can you point me to a picture in the forum of your carpet? I can add a link to it. Later I may add a spreadsheet as the list gets more complex.

Whisler - Missed your post. I do have glasses I wear for reading, so maybe we are brothers? At least in Christ. Phil - I may have more tee shirts from Germany, I've lost track. Seem to have at least one from every country we've visited save for the UK. And we lived there so you'd think I'd have one of those. So, where have you been in the States? I've been to many, many places in Germany, including having seen the ampelmännchen, gone down the Danube, driven along the Main, and even visted Rostock.

That's a good thought, but you can't really do that with A/F guages, there is a "free-air" calibration procedure that pairs the sensor with the gauge. Once they are paired, you can't mix n match. I would have to go through the calibration procedure again, which involves pulling the sensor out of the exhaust system (they must be in free air to calibrate properly). I haven't really done any driving, except around my yard. The numbers tend to change so fast that comparing one to the other "on the fly" is difficult. Once I get it on the road, I'll know more. I forgot that you have to calibrate them. So no, that won't work. I'll be anxious to see what you find when you get it on the road. Those are wide-band O2 sensors, right? Edit: I forgot to ask if the Vision series of gauges have different ones for the different fuel senders on these trucks. But I'll go look

Yes, it looks wonderful! Glad you found the right #. I need to capture that somewhere.....

Gary, that's correct, there's one sensor in each exhaust side, about 24 inches past the head. I know a lot of people only monitor one bank of a V engine, but I just can't bring myself to completely trust that. And in fact you can see just at idle that the banks are .3 off from each other. Not a huge difference, but it is different. Do the readings stay off as you drive? Or do they come together? I’m wondering about a difference in the sensors or the gauges themselves. Maybe try cross-wiring them to see if it is the sensors or gauges.

A buddy had one at his station and why I thought of it. The wheels that went under the car or truck did not swivel they were steel with a nut & bolt thru the out rigger. This did not fold up so he would push it out of the bays along with some other equipment when he opened up and push it back in a closing time. Not fun when it been snowing all day to push that stuff back in This would have been back in the 80's so I don't know if they had folding cranes back then? Dave ---- I think I can cut the legs off and re-use them, which will make it a lot easier. Not sure when I'll do this, but glad we had the conversation as I now know what to do. Thanks, y'all!

Looks good! The Innovate gauges go to the different banks of the engine?

Try it and let me know how it goes. But even if that works for you, others won't know to do it, so I need to fix it.

To test the vacuum advance, pull the hose off the carb and suck on it. With the distributor cap off you should see the plate inside turn as you apply vacuum. As for constant vacuum to the vacuum advance, there are two schools of thought. I don't like to have vacuum at idle and then have it come in as you apply throttle. Others like vacuum all the time. But on the 300 six with the Carter YF or YFA, there is frequently no port that gives full manifold vacuum, so you have to use the one they supply. In any event, you shouldn't need vacuum advance to get it started. It sounds like your timing is late. I'd put it at least at 8 BTDC, if not 12.

Jim - My SiL and I had a good conversation about this today. Basically the issue is that many of the menu items requires you to hover over them if on a desktop or touch them if on a mobile device. Touching them should do the same as hovering, meaning expanding the menu. And then another touch is the equivalent of clicking on it. But apparently on yours one touch is the equivalent of clicking. TJ, my SiL, suggested that you click on the three dots and ask for Chrome to be in desktop mode. And while that may work for you, surely there are others with that problem. So, I need to go through the website and rework things so there are no pages that can be clicked with other pages below them. And that's going to take time. But, I'll do it!

Ok, Bill. I should have the system from Huck. I think. Perhaps I can ressurect it. I'll go looking tomorrow or Monday. Thanks.

Sure looks like a lot of work, Dave. But it will be worth it in the long run. You are going to love it. And, you are problem solving quite well.

Rob - It does look like a new one is in the offing. Shaun - I knew I was going to have to replace the clutch and pulley, but assumed it would bolt to the bracket. So it is the FS6 that is the right compressor? I wonder what I did with the one off of Huck? Surely by '90 they'd gone to that compressor. I'd planned to use the clutch and pulley from it, but may have to put a new compressor in.

You can see who has them online by searching for the part number. Go here and look your application up and get the two-character code: Documentation/exterior/Exterior Trim & Moulding. Then go here and find the part number by using the two-character get the part number: Documentation/Exterior/EXTERIOR MOULDING RETAINERS

I currently have outriggers on the back on which the rear wheels ride, and they can be widened. But I can't imagine needing them set wider than 48". In fact, I'm not sure they can currently go wider than 48".

It looks like the inside of Big Blue's tires are ~60" apart. But the outside of the engine stand is 34". So if the H were at least 36" apart on the inside it would work. And since each leg is 3" that would mean the outside would be at least 42" across. Given that, I could rebuild the shop crane in an H, and might make the outside of the legs be 48" apart. That would make it usable on smaller vehicles and yet allow max stability. Or, I might be able to make the H adjustable width-wise. Not sure that would be very helpful, but it would allow for minimum storage space. And in any case the legs would still fold up.

Well, my SiL helped me put the A/C system in place today. And, there's a problem - the compressor doesn't mount to the bracket. Thoughts? Make an adapter bracket? New compressor?

Jim - The last time we found this it was on the page called Interior. I made that page non-clickable and it seemed to fix the problem. So I just made Electrical non-clickable. Please see if that works for you.

Sounds like a fun game. As for adding you, happy to do so but where?

LOL! Maybe so.

Steve - I think Clay said the tranny shop had checked crankshaft end play but not runout, and that the runout was excessive. As for the rebuild, I bought Rusty with a "newly-rebuilt engine". I didn't pay to have it done. And when I asked who built it he said "my cousin".