Gary Lewis

Yes, I'm home after church and the luncheon that followed. And I ate too much. Anyway, glad you joined. And Jim is right about the map, we can put you on with a city or zip. I'm curious to see where you are as I've been on Lake Powell several times, so know something about Page and that area. As for support, we may take you up on that. Heretofore I've paid all the fees, which don't amount to a lot. But if we go to another forum platform then there will be a cost and it will probably be time for me to ask for help for the whole thing.

Nick - Glad you joined. And thanks for the how-to on painting panels. That will certainly help. And a couple of other things. First, we ask that people go to the New Members Start Here folder and post an intro there. That's because we have our guidelines posted there and want to ensure everyone's had a chance to read them as we hold everyone to them. Second, we have a map (Bullnose Forum/Member's Map in the menu) and we can add you with a city/state or ZIP if you'd like.

The balancers on some of the Benz V6's were known to walk off and cause quite a bit of excitement, but hadn't heard about breaking the crank. Ouch!

Roughly 1/2". But my assumption is that the hole on the -K model isn't tapped where the -M is. I don't know, but it would seem odd to call out the hole diameter rather than the tapped size if it is tapped.

Cory - Your ID # of D9TE 9A589-HA is shown in the MPC as crossing over to PN D9TZ 9A589-K & Motorcraft # CM-3534, the same as Matt's new one. You can see in the snippet below that it says yours has a 1/4-18 pipe plug where the D7 version has a .59" hole.

Thanks, Bill. You are right, those are the conditions in which I'd be wanting to bypass the clutch safety switch. And your setup would get the desired result of being able to crank w/o pushing in the clutch and having one hand on the wheel. (It would require one hand on the shift lever to be pushing the start switch.) My approach accomplishes the same thing - left hand pushes the bypass button and then moves to the steering wheel while the right hand turns the key to Start. But yours is more robust as it is mechanical rather than electronic. Thanks, but I'll continue on which my plan and fall back to something else if it doesn't work.

You can decode the certification label on our page at Documentation/Specifications/Certification Label. That's the label on the driver's door jamb.

Yes, welcome! Glad you joined. To Jim's point, there were actually two different F250's - one Ford termed the F250 HD and then the one I call the F250 LD, although the "light duty" bit is my term and Ford never used it. But the HD's didn't come with a 302 and didn't get the 8-lug full-floating axle. So I'd guess that if your engine is original then you don't have the HD.

I don't fully understand what you are saying, Larry, but I do think I understand this statement "So, you'd want to run it on the server currently running the site for an optimized setup." We can't do that as our site is on Weebly and they don't offer a hosting service for things like Discourse. But I'm not sure that even if the two pieces of software were on the same server it would matter. I go back to the statement on Discourse of: To me that says that the only way to post on Discourse is to go directly to the forum and not through an embedment via an iframe. You can show the posts elsewhere, but you cannot post from elsewhere. Am I reading that incorrectly?

Well, seems that Chrome has less settings than Safari on iOS. I only found a setting to automate inactive tab archiving. Yep, that's what I found. Thanks.

Cool!

Chris, don't sweat it, we are testing. Larry, and anyone else that uses Discourse. What do you see when you are using the forum? Are you on the Discourse forum itself or is it embedded on another site? I ask because our Nabble forum is currently embedded on our Weebly website such that it looks like it is actually part of the Weebly site. In fact there's a redirect on the Nabble server such that you cannot log on there, you must come to our Weebly site to use the forum. So we've been looking over the Discourse documentation and embedding one on another website doesn't appear to be possible given this: That seems to us to be the death nell for Discourse as I really want the forum to operate as part of the whole website. But do you, any of you, know of anything that would indicate otherwise?

I don't know if the Magnaflows are directional. I'd call them and ask.

Can’t say about all platforms, but there are some app settings for “open new links” behavior, on Mac for Safari, Chrome and Firefox. On iPhone, Safari settings enable to setup opening and closing new links: Jeff - Thanks, but I use Chrome on my iPhone and can't find any setting like those on it. Am I missing them?

I like Magnaflow mufflers, although I don't know if they have one with those fittings.

Yikes! Extra jam nuts! And on the order of assembly, how 'bout getting the tranny & t-case on and finding the spacer plate?

I know what you mean. On my iPhone I wind up with a gillion tabs open and then have to go back and close them. I don't think that Discourse does that, but went back to see and it appears Chris has it down at present so I can't check. But my remembrance is that you have a reply button that opens up the editor window right there. Anyway, that's something to check on platforms we test.

I saw this article and thought of y'all. I think I've been there, done that on every one of the 11. Let me enumerate: Roadside repair with makeshift parts: Well, maybe the most memorable is the coil that failed on I-10 in AZ. We stopped late one night at a rest stop in the '72 F250 and the truck wouldn't start when we were ready to go. Just climbed in the camper and went to sleep, but the next morning I traced it to a bad coil. Split the coil with a chisel and found the primary wire had broken right off of the terminal. Repaired it with a piece of stranded wire, wrapped the coil in paper towels, and away we went. Bought a new coil at the next part store and used the old one all the way back to Kansas. Busted knuckles: Too many to list. But it was the busted lip that I remember best. The 15/16" breakover slipped and hit me in the mouth. Split the lip but didn't lose any teeth. Trapped tools: One of my favorite memories of working with Dad. We were replacing the ball joints in my '58 Impala and needed to compress the spring. We had some of the early ratcheting wrenches and made a spring compressor using them on all-thread. Worked perfectly compressing the spring, but when it was time to release it we discovered that turning the wrench over to go the other way with it trapped in a spring on an all-thread wasn't easy. We both realized it at the same time, slowly looked up at the other, and Broken hardware: Too many to list. Always on removing the waterpump on a small-block Ford. Sometimes on removing an alternator. But Jim's PST has solved that problem - for my vehicles. Not for my friends who don't know - yet. Buying the shop manual: I have the shop manual for my first new car - a '69 Super Bee (not Beetle). Bought it as soon as I bought the car, and used it frequently. And now I have more shop manuals, EVTMs, brochures, etc than I know what to do with! Disappearing parts: I have a list of parts I got when I acquired Big Blue. But finding the one I need is sometimes quite difficult. In fact, I recently purchased one that I know I have but couldn't find - until the day after I installed the new one. Endless parts search: Try finding the bedside trim for Dad's truck. It is NLA and if you find it there will be problems with it, which explains why it hasn't been snapped up. First rebuilt engine start-up: This has gotten even more concerning as the problems with cams have gotten worse. Back in the 60's we didn't have those problems, so my rebuild of a 216.5 while in HS was w/o drama. But the rebuilt 350 in the 80's was a bit concerning when the radiator hose blew off as soon as the pressure built up in the system. Ruined clothes: Janey claims that I clean trucks by rubbing my clothes on them. And while there is some truth to that I've learned to segregate my clothes into those for public display and those which only go to the shop - or maybe the parts store. I even have shop shoes, which don't get worn into the house where the carpet is. Inclement weather moving in: Yes, I have the garagemahal. But that wasn't always the case. Dad converted the garage for our house into my bedroom and a utility room. So all work was done outside, and I very well remember bringing that 58 home from college on a Friday night and on Saturday morning finding a puddle of antifreeze - in the snow. So I replaced freeze plugs, on the back of the block, in the snow that afternoon. Fixing what is not broken: Somehow Dad didn't teach me where to stop. He and my brother could go in and replace what was broken and move on. But I can't do that because I have a bad case of "while I'm in there" disease. So when replacing freeze plugs why not do them all? They are all the same age and you have the coolant out. And in the case of the rear ones you have the tranny out. (Luckily that time the snow tended to speed things up, plus the fact I had to drive back to school the next afternoon.) So, what stories do y'all have?

Apparently that one was used more than just in Canada. And the number on it can also be E5JE 9425-CA. (There are frequently multiple ID or casting numbers that cross to a single part number.)

My experience with POR15 is that is STICKS! I have it on lots of things I've built, like engine stands & engine hoists, and it has been on them for years with no flaking nor coming off of any kind. And those have had harsh usage. However, the engine hoist has been left where it got some sunshine and it is turning milky, as Mat said it would. So the base POR15 needs to be covered, and that's where the difficulty lies. Their top coat sticks well to the base if you hit it while the base is sticky, but it is difficult for me to brush on another coat during the time that the base is sticky. So I've gone to spraying a top coat of my choosing on while the base is sticky and that works very well - especially if the top coat is a different color than the POR15. As for Rustoleum, the products I used didn't get as hard as a POR15/sprayed top coat would have. That's ok as they won't see rough service, but the surface is a bit more delicate.

Prior to the change they used stripes, hash marks, and dots, and the EVTM shows which wires should have what. But Big Blue has stripped wires where they should be hashed or dotted according to the 85 EVTM. It isn't a problem and the wiring colors are the same, but you just have to realize that the book isn't exactly right for every truck on all those details.

Ok, so it was 2006. That helped me find a few hits. Thanks.

I’m surprised, since I heard that they are willing to insure an “antique” to its right value only if it does not take the road. Kind of “museum” artifact. Where’s the risk, fire and theft? Hagerty requires you to have a covered, although maybe not enclosed, place to store the vehicle. And to state that you don't drive it daily. But there's no requirement to give them odometer readings on an annual basis. And I have full coverage. Fire, theft, collision, etc. I did get a reduction for having a security system, although I'm not sure I did for the dashcam, meaning the front/rear cameras & the GPS system that tracks where the thing goes and takes video while it is running.

The wire colors are VERY consistent. In fact, if you go to Documentation/Electrical/Standard Wire & Color Codes you'll see the colors, circuit numbers, and applications. There is a minor glitch in the 1985/86 timeframe. The 1986 EVTM states that for that year and after the dots and hash marks previously used in addition to stripes changed over to all stripes. But it didn't happen on the stroke of midnight on December 31st. Big Blue, an 85 with a build date of May 85, has some of the striped wire harnesses that supposedly should have been hashed. As for staring at wiring diagrams, don't. Use the EVTMS. They break things down into systems and lay out the wiring for that system on one or two pages. Plus they have notes as to where components are located and how to troubleshoot the system.

Janey knows everything, there are no secrets. But both of us were blown away when I actually sat down and worked out what I'd spent. A thousand here and a thousand there seems to add up rather quickly.