Gary Lewis

Thanks, Steve. I'll keep that in mind. This one will work for the moment, but I do want to find one of the later ones at some point.

Have you read what's been discussed in this thread? http://forum.garysgaragemahal.com/2-Spacer-lifts-Feedback-on-alignment-tp59239p59324.html

It sounds like the accelerator pump mechanism is assembled incorrectly. Do you have the check ball and weight in correctly? And, by the way, welding wire is much too hard to be running through the orifices in a carb as it can enlarge the orifice. I use a strand of very soft copper wire.

In this case the graduate was outside in cap & gown all the friends drove by in their cars, honked horns, left cards or gifts, etc. But I did see on TV where some schools are doing the actual graduation such that the family pulls up in a car, their graduate walks up to the dean/principal/head master and is handed the diploma. Must be a nightmare getting the graduates all lined up in the same order the cars are in. Anyway, my flap wheel doesn't cut quite like that. But it is pretty effective. I didn't get quite enough gap in some places so the weld didn't penetrate completely there, but it did most places. And I'll weld it all from the back as well. So I'm not afraid of grinding the weld down to the original metal. There's still going to be lots of meat in the weld.

To me the factory shop manual is the first priority, even though many of the sections are on the site. The EVTM would be second, but we have the '81, '85, and '86 on the site, and they are a really good sampling. The Master Parts Catalog might be helpful as well, as Jim said. But there are two of the digital ones being sold: HiPo & Forel Publishing. If you get interested we can talk about the differences.

Sounds like the needle valve in the carb is stuck closed. That would keep gas out of the carb.

Ok, then 3175 is the rating of the front suspension. But we don't know which piece is the limiting factor - springs or axle. But while I don't have the rating of all of the springs figured out, I don't see one that is 3175. There's a 3100, but you have to have one heavier than that or your rating would be 3100. So I'm guessing that you have the 3250 # springs. But, what is your question? What you need to do when you put the 351W in? The World Products Sr heads are cast - right? But the Professional Products intake is aluminum, which is lighter than the original cast iron. And the headers are lighter than the cast iron exhaust manifolds. And is the serp pulley setup lighter? So I'm guessing your engine won't be much heavier than the 302 and you'll be fine with the original springs. But, what is your specific question?

After the graduation drive-by I checked to see how a piece of that aluminum channel would work as a coil mount. As it turns out, not well at all. The piece in the pic is just the right size for the coil, but is about 3" shy of getting to the stay. So, on to the factory coil mount. Turns out I have one with a stud for mounting the coil twisted off and the "toe" that bolts to the exhaust torn out. Perfect for experimentation. And with a little cutting, a little welding, and a little grinding I now have a slightly smaller coil mount. This one measures 3 3/8" left/right, which is slightly over half of its original 6", and allows the coil to fit nicely. I have a bit more flap-wheeling to do, and then I'll drill it for the coil and weld nuts on the bottom. At that point I'll mount it on the truck and see where to cut, bend, grind, and drill on the leg so it can attach to the stay. Once that's done I can finalize the stay's plan and make the final one. Then it is time to blast the stay, the DS-II coil mount, and the EEC coil mount and powder coat them.

Hopefully it is a different one as that one is said to be "in the mail".

I'll let Jim answer that side of things, but on the headlights you might want to read this thread: Lighting Upgrades. And don't miss the link in the first post to the update post toward the end.

Ok, I watched the video. Do you think there will be 'nough documentation on Big Blue? And, here's a couple of shots of the prototype stay. Had a piece of that aluminum laying around that was JUST long enough so thought I'd see how it would work. Needs to be longer & obviously needs rounded corners. But it looks like it'll work for the dip stick, although the vice grips may fall off from time to time. So, what changes are needed? I'm headed out to a drive-by graduation celebration but will be back in a bit. So hit me with those thoughts. I'm thinking I'll mock up a coil mount and see how/if that will interface with the stay. Then if I can figure out how to make them work together I'll start making them.

Not quite, I believe he meant "I can get you more pictures if you request them, I am struggling to upload them here on Craigslist. " Yep, that was my understanding and thought Dane had asked.

Wow! I'm envious!

I'll watch it later. The mill is working on a prototype stay and making too much noise to let me understand what is being said......

I'm sure I'm certifiable, but I'm not so sure about being delusional. However, Jim has a point about those "wings" having too much overhang and working on the valve covers. I'd thought about that, but only briefly, and now that he's brought it up I agree. Also, there's the issue that the new plug wires I have are not long enough to route the way I was talking about doing it. There's just no way they are long enough. And I don't want to buy different wires. So, I'm back to a narrow "stay" rather than wider "wings". But, if I can incorporate simple plug wire retainers on it that would be slick. Given that, can someone post pics of their 460 plug wiring? Bill, your description is good, but I'm having a hard time envisioning those pieces and a pic would nail it.

Jim - You are right. If all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail. But read on... Bill - Thanks, but I'm thinking of something very different..... I'm starting to rethink the "wings" as I'm now calling them rather than "stay" since they have multiple purposes: mounting point for the dip stick; mounting point for the coil bracket; plug wire routing. And what I'm coming to is shown below. That suggests that the wires route through the wing but my thinking was that I'd use a ball-end mill and put grooves in the underside of the wing and run the wires in those grooves, with some sort of retainers. However, that requires the wings to be removed to change plug wires, and while that won't be too hard it would require pulling the coil on the driver's side - assuming the coil's mount is bolted to the wing. But, what about placing the grooves on the top side and laying the wires into them? And then I'd use some sort of retainers or a matching plate that screws down to cover the wires. If I used a piece of 1/2" aluminum I'd have enough room for the grooves as well as space on the edge for the dip stick's tab to bolt into. And, there'd be enough meat I could drill and tap it for the outside end of the coil mount to bolt to. Plus, there won't be any cross-fire as the wires will be separated and laying in aluminum. However, on thinking about it I don't like the idea of making the wings parallel to the ground. I think they'll look better at the angle of the valve covers. But I can trim the legs/ribs of the coil mount to match the angle of the wing, so that's not a problem. Thoughts? Suggestions? Other ideas?

Ahhh! I didn't see that one. Yes, that's what you need. But I need both as I have an '81 and an '85.

It is good that they are covering the damages. And in thinking about it more I doubt the torque converter has been hurt. They are very solid things and just tightening down a flex plate to the front of it would probably not hurt it, even if the flex plate wasn't the right one. As for the hoodie, did you get this one? That's cool! Or, maybe warm?

Nice truck. And were it a Bullnose I'd be interested. But the interior is jarring. Save for the little bit of red showing on the cap, there's not hint of red on the outside. But open the door and it yells RED! Still, it looks to be straight save for a few dings, and I didn't spot rust. And the 400 is a good engine - after a bit of work.

Nice truck, but that's a lot of money to expect to get with two pics. I take it you've requested more. Good man.

Vaughn - That's hard to answer as there weren't "302" and "351W" springs. Instead, the springs go by capacity rating, like 2500 lbs or 2650 lbs. And the certification label tells what springs you should have. But, as you can see from the snippet below from the page on springs (Documentation/Suspension & Steering/Front Suspension), there were a number of springs available. And what Ford did was to tally the weight of the engine, transmission, and accessories to determine which springs to install. So trucks with 351W's did get different springs than those with 302's. But an F350 w/a 351W would get a completely different spring than an F150 w/a 351W. Does that help?

Looks good, but it would look cool with snow on it. (Get it? Cool. Snow. Dad always told me that it was a bad joke if you have to explain it.)

Bummer! I hate it when I drop a fastener and can't find it. Happened yesterday for a while. Dropped one of the 8 x 1.25 mm bolts that go into the valve cover for the dip stick stay. Finally found it hiding in the frame, but it took a long time. Good luck!

Bruce - I think you've hit on a reasonable solution. Machine the dip stick stay's mounting points so that it sits parallel with the ground. That way the coil bracket will hit it squarely. And the dip stick will mount squarely. The question becomes if there is enough meat in the aluminum angle to allow milling it an angle and still have enough strength. I'll have to do some precise drawing to see what I think. As for the tabs, I could bend them up but I don't think I'd like the look as well as what I have now. And the driver's side is on save for needing a bit of adjustment. Oh, and the plan had been to put plug wire holders on the stay. Or, maybe to make the stay into a plug wire holder? Just haven't figured out how I want to do that yet. And I'm open to suggestions.

Not sure what other part number you mean, but the M-block takes a different flywheel than the W-block according to the MPC. Yes, there are two different W-block flywheels for automatics, and maybe that's what you mean - a 28 and a 50 oz imbalance for the W. But neither of those is correct for an M. I'm betting they put a W-block flywheel on an M-block. And if they are lucky they didn't mess up either the starter nor the torque converter. But I'd want some kind of guarantee in writing that for the next X,000 miles they'll replace either of those parts of it fails.