Gary Lewis

Matthew - That's a bummer! But hopefully you'll have the tires on tomorrow evening. Angelo - They look good! Love the pan on the tranny.

Welcome, Bill! Glad you joined. Where's home? I ask because we have a map (Bullnose Forum/Member's Map in the menu) and we'd be happy to add you if we had a city, zip, etc. As for voltage drop testing, we do have a tutorial: Documentation/Electrical/Voltage Drop Testing. But Jim's directions are correct. But I'm guessing that you have a worn out starter. The bearings/bushings in the starter wear and the clearances get really small when the starter is cold, but when it gets hot the clearances go away and the starter's armature drags. This causes the engine to crank very slowly. You can take the starter into your local parts store for testing, but their test doesn't always find the problem since the starter is cold. But it is worth a shot. However, if you are replacing the starter you may want to consider a permanent magnet gear-reduction starter. Ford went to them in the years after our trucks were built, so you could get one for a later truck. They have more power than the one your truck probably has.

Wow! Anti-climactic. And we wanted to know. But, I don't understand the "when the truck is operated at high rpms, e.g. 65 to 70mph". If I remember correctly, and our calculator backs me up, it'll be spinning right at 3000 RPM at 70 MPH. Is that considered "high rpms"?

Guess I ought to add the RKE section to the '96 EVTM.

They are what Scotty recommended. As for the pics, I'm just looking to see how your plug wires run and are separated and supported.

I think your assumption that it doesn't really matter as long as you are within the tolerance is accurate. But remember that the way I located my shock towers was to bolt the tower in using the original 2-bolt holes, snug the shock's lower bolt up to align it, and swivel it up into place while the truck was sitting on the ground. And it turned out that the shock tower was in the perfect spot.

Wasn't aware of that, Bill. But, guys, while I have your attention, could you post pics of your plug wire routing? Why, 'cause I now have spark plugs installed! Autolite 24's, to be exact. But boy, do those heat shields make it fun. I probably don't have the shields lined up perfectly, but they are both on and the plugs went past them, eventually. The old rubber-hose trick worked and kept me from cross-threading the plugs, but access is pretty poor. Reminds me of changing the plugs on a '57 283. #7 on them was just about like #8 on Big Blue. Oh yes, I got the radiator isolators in. A little Armor-All on the stud and they popped right in. And I got the T6 ThermaShield, (T6F0.50SV) 4-ft Stick, 1/2" on order. But, I didn't seat the dizzy today. I want to fill the crankcase, install a filter and the oil cooler, and spin the oil pump to prime the engine, so there's no reason to seat the dizzy just yet. But I can still route the wires - using your pics to help. Oh, and I can't properly install the oil cooler until I have a radiator. And, probably have the AC installed as well. Plus, I shouldn't forget that the oil pressure gauges aren't connected yet. So there are still lots of things to do.

I like that, Jim. The dip stick OD is .450" so I'll order the 1/2" piece and run it down from just above the perch to where it goes into the pan. Or at least to where it is well past the headers. But, where the tube goes over the perch is about 2" from the header, so I'll slip a piece of convolute over the ThermaShield Wrap to serve as a cushion. And, I wonder about using it over the the fuel line if it gets close to the exhaust. Even though it'll be recirculating into the tank, it can't hurt.

Oh wow. Mine were actually about 8" too long, I had to cut them to fit. They're actually a little better today. I'm going to give them a little time to see if they settle in better. Have you tried the talcum, Cory? That lets the thing slip a bit when it hits rather than just being squished.

Reflective sleeve had better be pretty thin or it will be conductive. As for the brake line, you actually did point out a problem - the brake line was on the edge of the crossmember. Not where it should have been. So I tracked the problem down to the clip on the left, and put the one on the right in its place: And then reshaped the line, clipped it in, and it now lays inside the back of the crossmember. The red arrow shows where it was on the edge previously, and the red circle shows the clip. Thanks for catching that.

I think "special" is good. And, we are gradually getting not only the most documentation but the most correct documentation.

You found an error in the 1986 EVTM. I've now changed the page on Tach's to show the 1985 EVTM's page, and have crossed out and indicated that the 1986 EVTM is wrong there. But want to leave the error so we could see it. Here are the two side by side, and it is obvious:

Boy, that's an understatement! This pic shows the routing with the bend on the handle's tab as it is in the previous pics. I think it is as good as it is going to get as at the bottom it threads the needle between the header and the perch. However, at the very top of the pic it is touching the perch, and any movement of it away from the perch causes it to touch the header down below. We've discussed that securing it to the frame or perch. like with a rubber-lined clamp, is going to cause it to continually flex, which isn't good. But that may be better than sawing into the perch. Or maybe a high-temp sleeve that could be slipped over it? That spot is ~1" from the header, so it'll get hot but won't be touching.

I need to say that differently. All of the cab harnii have the Bk/LG wire to the tach. But the V8's don't put a ground on it.

Both engines, meaning the six cylinder engines and V8 engines, get the tach signal via the DG/Y wire. But only the V8's have the Bk/LG wire back to the tach that tells it it is an 8. What I'm not clear on is just exactly what part of that page is the "engine harness". May have to do some looking.....

Let's see if these pics do it, Shaun. But, parallax is a pain so I measured them: 12" for the '85 towers and 14 1/2" for the '95 towers.

Yes, the wire to be grounded is out on the fender liner. And it is grounded by the engine harness, the one that has the ignition, oil pressure, and coolant temp wires in it. And I agree about the radio. It may not have been working. I'd bench test it and the clock.

I was going to say the exact same thing Jim. Two things probably happened at the same time. JBG started making the braces, but the demand probably decreased during the same time. I think the braces were only for 1984-1991 right? That's a pretty small window of trucks (still on the road today) in the grand scheme of things. I'm not sure about market saturation. There are 56K members of the Facebook pages I'm on for these trucks, and while maybe only 1/4 of those members have trucks which came out with hydraulic clutches, that's still a big number. But if JBG is undercutting the price, that's a killer. So folks would certainly want to think that through before jumping into the business.

You can't go wrong for $400. Go for it!

I was going to sandblast some of it but I was bored and needed an excuse to be in the garage since I lost a friend yesterday and needed to get my mind off it. Thanks Gary. It's coming together slowly. Thinking about ordering rubber soon. 325s are going to look sweet on the back. That's tough, Angelo. I've lost several and it is really a bummer. I'll add you and the family to my prayers.

That's a serious truck! But when you buy it, just hook onto that trailer. For things to look at, check out the wiring. One of those pics appears to show wiring under the hood in progress. See if it was done well or poorly. That will tell you a lot about the way the truck's been treated.

Cool! I hope to add a security system to Dad's truck, if not Big Blue, so am glad this is working out.

Welcome, Jonathan. And good luck!

Thanks, Dane. So far I've not seen a need for '92. But I'll ping you if I do. In this case Jonathan has a '95 water hauler and we are hoping that the '96 diagrams work for him. And I'm going with '96 EFI on both of my trucks eventually, so needed some of the diagrams.

Looks good, Angelo. Hard to get all that paint off, but looks like you did and got new paint on.