kramttocs

I wasn't going to say anything but seeing all those wires coming out of the bottom of it did make me want to post another link to the ssVEC I do agree - having the Ford oval on there will be a nice touch.

I think they look bigger than they are. The smaller ones look like m4's and close to the fuel door bolts. The fender ones to core support are m6's. My scale judgment could be off though The others look pretty close to the fuel pump block off plate. The plate may not be applicable to your setup though. Trying to think of anywhere else that would have the thread sealant/lock on it. Thermostat housing? I can't place the rubber thing. Looks like something used to seal two interlocking pieces of a fresh air tube but I am not sure if any of these truck had round ones. I don't know the motors in that detail besides the 460.

Played around a little last night to see how the switches would work out. It's a quick, rough draft but the measurements of the 'stalls' and slots should be close enough for a test print. Ultimately the objects should be combined better and the front could be flowed around the stalls for a more solid fit in the cubby. Will be stuck in the house most of the weekend so going to see what kind of paint I can find locally to test for the letters/borders.

Nope, fine by me to have it here. I think it would be great if we can figure it out. In addition to the fuel selector switch, throw in a fan control and you've got a multipurpose/multi-state switch Not sure on the mounting. Pushing the square buttons take very little force and that force is pushing against a thick ledge of the plastic. Those levers have a bit more resistance to them not to mention the leverage of the arm. I don't think there will be enough room on top and bottom of the switch to tack an ear on there with a hole to bolt into the panel from behind. Or even tacking the switches together and putting ears on the sides. Hmm... Maybe making a back plate for the panel that would attach to the front plate with bolts and sandwich the switches between them? Afraid room might get tight really fast though. Like Jon mentioned, with the dealer a/c dash controls they cut the back 3/4 of the cubby off and the panel is clipped onto the remaining lip top and bottom. Doubt any of us want to cut the cubby off but it would give more room. Guess it depends upon how nice it turns out

I LIKE IT!!!!! I wonder how many I could squeeze in? Hmmmmmmm...... Haha, it looks great in the mind's eye, right? Would complement the headlight knobs on the left. I pulled a few of the switches from the jy not long ago to play around with for this but never got further than just eyeballing the size. Now that we have the main panel though, it wouldn't be hard to replace the button holes with slots.

Jim - just watched his video on inserts. Really good. I am printing a simple test right now to see how the plastic threads do in 6mm and depending upon that I will order a pack of the inserts or not. Jon - agreed, not a huge fan of the gvod dash panel. Your idea of the fuel selector switch is a great one and the shift indicator would be a nice relevant reuse-of-factory fit. I'd actually thought of putting a few of those fuel selector switches in a panel like this one for in the cubby but after looking at the back of the switch I don't think I could have squeezed many in there. Would be a great stock look though.

I agree completely that 6mm is way more than needed for this. The only reasons I went with that is that I have some spare 6mm x 100mm stainless threaded rods that I am using for the inner fender platform stand-offs and I am not sure how well the printer will do smaller threads as I've never tried it. I'll look into those inserts though - didn't even think about something like that. Thanks!

Good find! Will keep an eye on this for sure. Never put two of them side by side but pretty sure it's the same piece for both a/t and m/t. It's the metal sleeve that this fits into that has the cutout for the linkage arm. Really happy to see parts like these getting made for 7th gens.

That is a good price though!

Thanks Dane. Have the drawing updated to include the 6mm threads in the back and may start that one printing tomorrow after work.

Not sure how the floor pans differ (both in year or body style) but I know there was an 87-up TSB that included some reinforcement plates for the bucket seats in supercabs. May be apples and oranges but just wanted to mention it.

What size threads did you use? I was thinking m4 or m6. Shouldn't need much but wasn't sure how that small of threads would turn out even after chasing them.

My thought with the threaded rods would be that I could use plastic glue to permanently attached the rods to the panel. Then to remove or install it would be using the nut/wingnut on the back of the cubby. Since the panel is honeycombed inside, without the glue I am not sure either the screw or rod would be solid alone. Will have to add some solid material to the drawing in these areas for future use.

Uncanny So I actually came to the same conclusion and figure it's worth the risk. If nothing else, some black rubber plugs will take care of any holes on the back wall of the cubby. I won't be that picky. Looking at the back of one of my earlier attempts there should be enough meat to drill and tap into. Roughly in these spots: I'll drill a couple holes in the back wall, cut some all thread to length, and throw on a nut/washer. Will be much easier to remove without taking the bezel off also. Trying to blindly unscrew two tiny screws at the top might be rough.

It fits in tight and you have to get your fingernail under the left edge lip to remove it but that isn't flexing or bouncing up and down in a truck. It shouldn't take much to hold it since all the real force (fingers) will be pushing it in. Open to ideas but my plan is to see if it bounces out and if so maybe put two small screws into it coming down from the outside top of the cubby. This way the holes won't be seen if I end up removing it. Same goes for the wire access hole - going to drill a hole toward the back of the cubby on top to route them through.

As part of the 86 rebuild I am adding a few non-factory functions (some just for fun) that require controls. My 80 has switches and gauges all mounted under the dash but it also has the dealer added A/C which consists of a two knob panel that clips into the cubby/glove holder to the right of the steering column on gas trucks. This A/C panel is what initially got me thinking about mounting my controls there to keep with a somewhat factory look. Once I started looking around I saw that several people have mounted gauges in there, including Gary whose CAD drawings provided some helpful measurement, and they look really good. I picked up a 3D printer awhile back on sale for this purpose, although the kids have found many other uses for it, and finally got around to drafting something up last week. Went through a few iterations but here is the final-ish product: My printer is an entry level printer so even on the highest quality it's not perfect but I am happy with how the letters came out considering their size. I need to do some cleanup on them and then paint the letters and two borders. After reading Gary's instrument panel thread I was thinking maybe the Hi-Po fluorescent white? Although the actual bezel has silver edging and I don't want this to stand out. Thoughts? Yes, there are a lot more stylish buttons out there but I felt like these square ones really fit the 80's and were as close to a factory look as I can get. How I am using it: 1. Gear Vendors Overdrive (GVOD). a. The button is latching and will light when in automatic mode. Unlit will be manual mode. b. Overdrive led - will light when in overdrive c. Autodrive led - will light when the overdrive is set to turn on - either launch mode [gear 1.5] or at the default mph [4th gear] 2. Camera - momentary button that will display the backup camera on the head unit at any time regardless of being in reverse. Will light when button is pushed 3. Boost - momentary button that triggers the smart aux battery solenoid to join the two batteries regardless of voltage. Will light based on the status indicator of the smart solenoid i.e this button will light independent of the button being pushed if the solenoid is closed due to the voltage threshold being met 4. High - momentary hi-beam. Will light when pushed 5. Low - momentary lo-beam. Will light when pushed 6. Fog - latching button for my bumper mounted PIAA fog lights. Will light when on 7. Grill - latching button for my aftermarket grill fog lights. Will light when on. Not sure if I will use these or not yet but needed something else for this spot... 8. Trailer knob - this knob controls the output, boost, and test functionality a. Connected led - will light when trailer is connected b. Braking led - will light when trailer is braking Some more photos:

Did some very quick looking and seems like 60amps is a pretty common consensus for a 16ga fuse link replacement so I feel safe leaving it as is. As has been mentioned in this thread also, most of those threads have a comment somewhere about there not being a straight conversion. Since as you [Gary] said the fuse ratings add up well beyond 60 in this case so I don't know if one could even drop the fuse (that replaces the fuse link) amps down if they eliminate a few of the heavy draws. But... Fuse Link L - the headlight relays reduce a significant portion of the load Fuse Link M - the blower relay reduces a significant portion of the load. Additionally, are you keeping the aux battery connected through this circuit? I ask because if you are use the smart isolator with the boost functionality, you will be running a larger cable and can eliminate this aux battery load as well as the trailer lamps/brakes from this circuit. For instance I have a fused 1/0 running from the main battery to the smart solenoid and then a fused 1/0 from the smart solenoid to the aux battery and am leaving the Yellow wire disconnected from the solenoid (used to be the junction block) at C232. That way the 1/0 handles both the aux battery and those trailer circuits.

It was the 'Near Fuel Tank Selector Switch T/O' that was throwing me off with those splice locations. Correct. Granted, I had put together this change as my first foray into making wiring changes on the truck so I am interested in all of your findings and if I need to change anything. My post on this change is here and this is where the 60 was recommended: https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1570236-1-wire-alternator-and-voltmeter-rewire-diagram.html I hadn't really thought about it since then though so glad you started this thread. I am not sure the 60 is correct and now with the blower relay mod, it may be way off.

So you are talking about cutting at splices 102 and 103 and hooking them up directly in your fuse box? With going to the 1 wire alt I heavily simplified the left hand portion of C610 and I did connect the Y (cab power) to a 60 amp fuse in my fuse block. I didn't modify those fuse links though. Edit: post corrected/updated - I was incorrectly reading L and M as being under the dash - which did sound odd. What does T/O stand for in the location chart?

Same here. In the middle of doing a lot of electrical upgrades but I've never had any real fuse link issues and don't really see a problem with them so am leaving them in place both at the fender solenoid and at the junction block (now aux batt solenoid). A small portion of that decision is that if I cut the fuse link out I would have to splice a short piece of wire to reach my fuse block and I am avoiding inline splices where possible.

Confirmation never hurts Hooked up the smart aux battery solenoid tonight which will run the trailer so should be able to test this all soon.

Yep, well I think so. Essentially we are relying on one of the leds to not light up at a given time because it is directional and we are passing positive to its negative leg. Right?

Thanks Gary!

Ah. So I won't completely separate the new two leds. G+ will connect to R- and both will connect to one leg (whether the single wire or the double wire tbd) of the existing lead. G- will connect to R+ and both will connect to the other leg of the lead. That?

Since there are a lot of smart electrical guys on here.. My trailer brake controller has a bi-color led at the end of a long lead. Green = connected Red = braking What I want is to split out the single led into two smaller leds (a green and a red). I am not expecting the functionality to change nor do I need it to. Meaning I don't need the green to be lit when braking. It is a two leg led. There is a single wire going to one leg and then two wires going to the other. I've never messed with bi-color leds so have been watching some youtube videos in which I learned the + and - flip to light the different colors. With the three wires I have I am a little lost. I haven't cut anything yet or even hooked the controller to power so no actual testing has been done. Will I be able to cut the 3 wires, identify one that is + on Connected, one that is + on Braking, and then discard the other? At which point I can create my own ground and hook the two positives to the different leds?