85lebaront2

Most auto parts stores only have OBD-II testers. Look at the 1986 EVTM here: http://www.garysgaragemahal.com/electronic-engine-control1.html and look at the connector, there should also be a single wire next to the large 6 pin one that needs to be connected to retrieve codes my old Snap-On MT2500 and my Snap-On Solus Pro both have that wire provided and I believe that is the one that needs 12V applied to read codes. Here is an alternate method, using a test light (1987 up have a check engine light and it can be done using it): https://www.fordtruckzone.com/threads/how-to-retrieve-trouble-codes-on-your-eec-iv-system-without-using-a-code-scanner.659319/

On the VV carb, if it is the feedback version and you are scrapping the rest of the feedback (probably either and MCU or EEC-III) system, then yes a small 2150 Motorcraft or a Holley 2300 is a good choice. The 255 V8 was also installed in 80s T-Birds, my neighbor had one and when it wore out he rebuilt a 302 for it. I had it's ancestor, a 260 in a 1964 Falcon. One of the issues with the 255 (shame it isn't a 1954 Mercury 255) from what I remember, the ports are extremely small to help with emissions and allegedly fuel economy. In a car it wasn't too bad, in a truck, I think I would rather have a 240 6 cyl. If you do not have a feedback system, the VV, properly adjusted runs well and I stuck one on a 1957 312 with a Borg-Warner T85 w/OD in a 1958 F100, damn thing would get over 20 mpg.

Ok, Centurion, took Ford trucks and redid them, they used to build a serious beast before Ford started building Excursions. You need to look at the certification label, on Crew Cabs it is on the back of the left front door just above the latch. If not, maybe it will be on the rear door post on that side in case they simply extended the cab. It will in all probability say "Incomplete vehicle manufactured by Ford Motor Company". Once you have located that, maybe a picture of it can help. The rear axle on a 1984 will be a Dana and they were the same length for single or dual wheel trucks, it wasn't until the Sterling 10.25" debuted in 1985 that the wider track width (and full width inside of the bed) was available.

Chad, I don't know if this will help you or not, first he is running a twin disc and second he has a scattershield since he does race the car (drag racing). Here is what he sent me: I run a Mcleod steel flywheel and RXT twin disc, holds up to 1000 hp, damn nice clutch Its pretty much a Hi bryd I fabricated. Used a modern driveline pedal linkage n master cyl. Actuates a Wilwood external puller slave, that pulls on a modified factory fork and throw out bearing. The bell is a TKO scattershield. Lots of easier solutions, but TKO bell is unique in dimensions, didnt want to risk hyd leaks of a hyd TOB, and the external slave has better reaction times than internal hyd TOB. Lots of trial n error in getting ratios to work. A number of years ago I helped another friend swap a 1972 Lincoln 460 into a 1986 F350 wrecker, he had a problem burning up clutches as the factory one was a 10 1/2" (same size I had in my 1966 Shelby) we got a 12 or 12 1/2" clutch and had the flywheel drilled for the correct pattern. Only issue after that was 1 clutch fork and a clutch housing broke.

There is a friend on FB that has a 1967 Mustang street rod with a built 460, if you are on there his name is Chris Austin and he frequents the Ford groups. If you aren't I can ask him what he is using,

It won't be pretty, but, the actual hot idle compensator appears to screw into a brass tee, two hose fittings and one female NPT on the side. A brass tee with three female NPT ports, two hose to the NPT thread in male and the valve in the third port.

I don't know on a 390, but a 429 should fit and will take a good sized clutch (429 SCJ possibly).

The later door has a shaft that it swings on. This is a 1995 case, the small opening goes to demister duct for the side windows but could easily be covered. I don't have a picture on the 1990 case.

Ok, first, the blend door is the one the cable works, it adjusts the temperature. The door that fails is the mode door, it selects face or floor. After it is in "floor" position another door the one with the two hose actuator controls partial or full defrost mode. I personally would try to find a newer inside duct assembly if I were going into it Ford made an improved design on the later trucks. I don't know whether it started in 1987 or later, but the 1990 parts truck had the newer design.

Ok, as the axle moves up in relation to the frame, (a) the track bar will push the axle to the right and (b) the drag link will push the knuckle out at the front as in a right turn, BUT the track bar being shorter and at a greater angle will move the axle to the right further than the drag link, so the truck will pull to the left. This will be more evident at higher speeds as the tendency to pull to the left will result in the truck tilting slightly toward the right which will result in more downward motion on the right side moving the axle further to the right and giving more of a pull to the left. Is it possible to lower the inner end of the track bar or raise the outer end so it is closer to parallel to the axle?

Excellent! good to know. I got lucky between P-n-P and Pete's I have two of those Chrysler PDCs from different cars.

Gary three things on track bars, first, if it doesn't make a handling difference, why do race cars have adjustable ones? Second, when I was helping and crewing an MG Midget for a friend, it had quarter elliptic rear springs, a half length spring that was bolted to the body by what would be the center of a semi elliptic spring and the eye attached to the bottom side of the rear axle, the top had a link that ran to the body above the spring so the axle moved straight up and down. It used a track bar to keep the axle aligned side to side. We had a suspension guy (circle track type) come and look at the suspension one evening. He had the driver, suited up and in the seat with the car supported on jack stands, rear ones under the axle. He had us make an adjustable length track bar and then set it exactly parallel to the axle at static load. Third, 1955-56 Packards had trailing arm torsion bar rear suspension (bars went all the way to the front) and had a Watts linkage rear track bar system so there was no side shift going up or down. On your steering linkage, from what I remember of the pictures, both tie rods angle down, right side from the pitman arm, left side from the center of the truck. Darth's do also, but Darth being a 2WD means he has twin I Beams that cross pivot so are longer than the tie rods effective length (center to knuckle) so the effect pretty well cancels. On BB since the knuckles are a fixed distance apart, any vertical motion will change from toe in to toe out very easily, further at the present track bar position as the axle comes up toward the frame, it shifts slightly to the right meaning the left front wheel will toe out more than the right one. I know that a 4WD front end is a compromise in alignment unless it is full time. It has to be able to drive well in both conditions and one of the issues is toe in, under power it will toe in more then it will just rolling in 2WD, hubs unlocked, locked is more drag and ,more tendency to toe out, under power, more tendency to toe in. Tires, the desired size tire on the proper rim places the center of the contact patch at the center of the king pin axis (even if you don't have true king pins like Darth does). If the contact patch is not centered then you get torque steer under power (ask how I know this) with a live axle you shouldn't get as much as either independent or twin traction beams as a lot of it is caused by the CV joints at the inner end trying to straighten out under power, however if the contact patch is outboard of the king pin axis, and one tire has less or no traction, you better have a good grip on the steering wheel as the side with better traction will want to turn you the opposite way.

This is the first day since last Thursday we haven't had gusty weather, CBBT was on level 3 restrictions Friday and Saturday.

I got one from a toyota I think or something put up but its too big for fitting im currently looking aftermarket. I found LittleFuse actually sells these POWR-BLOK Modular Power Distribution pieces to build your own. I need to do some more digging to see if they sell generic boxes in different sizes to fit those modular pieces. If not I think I could get a weather sealed plastic project box for electrical projects and fit it inside that and just make what I need. I really personally dont need 10 relays 8 would give me two more relays than I need and would allow me to fit four more auxliary lights which is about the only electrical add on I am contemplating of doing. The link that Im on currently. https://www.littelfuse.com/products/fuse-blocks-fuseholders-and-fuse-accessories/powr-blok-modular-power-distribution.aspx I really like the idea of having ATO/ATC fuses to match the OE so I only have to keep a few fuses in my glovebox of the same type. Nice, they make good products! Now the magic question, where do you buy them, do they sell direct or only through another source.

Jim, I don't suppose you have been able to bag a wild Nauga and skin it yet. Hopefully PETA hasn't decided they are endangered after so many years of GM using their hides.

It is, only reason I would want water/dust proof is I tend to wash under my hood once a year and I dont cover anything so for me it would be preferable to at least be water proof. I do like it because it isnt priced too horribly its not too big at 7.7" x 4.7" x 3.2" dimensions and it does have the ability to hold 10 5-pin relays, 15 ATC/ATO fuses and 3 of those square fuses it looks like not sure the name but I know they make those mini mega fuses that might be ok to use. Only thing I am partially concerned about would be running a charge wire into this box to connect to the fuse on the under side and then have my sniper wiring coming through here as well, many swear about RFI being a big problem but many also claim if you hook the positive and ground directly to the battery you shouldnt have a problem with RFI. Rusty, if you are willing to look at other than Ford for PDCs, several come to mind, Some GM products have a pretty nice modular unit that the harnesses are attached with bolt on plugs and it is at a minimum relatively dust proof. Another is the one I am using on my 1986 Lebaron convertible, it is used in a number of Chrysler vehicles in the 90s and early 2000s. It has provision for 9 maxi fuses and 10 micro fuses, 4 large Bosch mini (square can) relays and 8 micro (small rectangular can) relays both of which are rated 10 amp NC contacts and 20 amp NO contacts. Stud is the battery connection, each relay and fuse section is covered with a snap down lid.

Gary, I may be totally out of line on this, but I still feel the angle of the track bar may be causing problems, particularly when one side of the suspension travels up or down, it will change the steering linkage geometry. For years the 4WD axles had a single "drag link" to the driver's side and a long tie rod from one spindle to the other. From what I remember of your front end pictures your tie rods sit at a bit of an angle which means as the axle travels up toward the frame the toe will go from 0.3 in to a toe out condition while at the same time the track bar is pushing the axle left which will act on the whole system as if you turned the wheel slightly right (axle moves left but steering stays straight so the left movement of the axle pulls the left spindle in and pushes the right spindle out). Even though BB isn't lifted, the tie rods are at a bit of an angle, maybe a dropped pitman arm might help and possibly a track bar pivot dropped to put it horizontal at rest. Not owning a 4WD, but having had a 1958 F100 with a "live" axle up front means I have dealt with some strange behavior, mine was lack of caster due to replacing the 223 6 with a 312 Y-block and as the front went lower the leaf springs de-arched and that truck would wander and even get the "death wobble". Once I put some caster in it (half length helper springs from Pep Boys on the back half of the front springs) the problem went away. Darth is a 2WD, but since he has the Twin I Beam front suspension does have some of the quirks, not badly because I had a real good alignment done 26 years ago, lane keeping is excellent other than the fact that king pins have more turning resistance than ball joints (but they last a lot longer!) so he doesn't respond as easily to small changes in road angle as a car will. Can you play with your AutoCAD program and maybe see what the suspension changes are as it travels both straight up and down and angled (as in a curve where BB will lean somewhat). Good luck with it!

Gee, 10 years, I have had Darth for 26 years, it will be 27 in April.

The 1996 PDC I have in Darth has separate fuses for the trailer stop and turn lights and the running lights are fed from the marker lamp system (DRW has a separate feed for them through a relay even back to the original 1986 wiring) I modified it so I have a set of relays, L & R stop and turn, running and reverse and battery charge. The battery and reverse light relays are in an auxiliary relay box, I used one for the 4 wheel anti-lock brakes so I have the stop and turn also. I went into the PDC and cut the wires from the turn signal switch to the two 10 amp fuses for L & R stop and turn trailer lights. I used them to power the relay coils and pin 87 of the Bosch relays then goes back to the PDC and through the fuses. This way the load on the truck flasher is always the same and I can actually hear and feel the relays with the hood open. Relay box is on the back of the PDC bracket and everything plugs in rather than being hard wired. Since I have a 1999 Crown Victoria lighting control module, the flasher circuit is built into it.

Jim, that is why my konvertible has the biggest alternator Chrysler used on the 2.2/2.5L engines and a nice 1996 Stratus PDC (gets rid of the fusible links except the alternator one and the relay cluster on the left side behind the engine computer) I have a pair of fans from a Ford Contour, modified to be pushers, they take probably 40 amps themselves and have a low and high speed. FWIW, the 1994 Taurus 3.8L I had used a 50 amp fuse for the fan, and yes it moved some air. House wiring, house has 200 amp service, which handles everything including the heat pump. Garage has a completely separate 200 amp service.

Gary, on fog lights, both of my Flexes have the factory fog lights, they are low in the front bumper cover (below the actual bumper bar) and seem to work very well. When I brought the whit one home the CBBT was pretty well socked in so I turned them on, definitely helped.

Hoping to get this installed: .030 over 460. 9.3:1 compression and a mild cam.

There are uprated ones available, I can't recall right off who made them, as for lasting, mine has been on Darth for 9 or 10 years, I have changed one regulator and one set of brushes in that time. I bought it and the cable from a fellow in CA on FTE who needed the money, it had never been installed. Running a V-belt you may want a slightly larger pulley and possibly the "soft start" regulator to prevent belt squeal on startup.

I was asked why I am going to dolly my Lebaron convertible to a shop an hour and a half or more away to have an exhaust built for it (2.5" pipe, high flow cat and low restriction muffler). I have been dealing with them through now 4 generations they do some of the nicest custom work I have ever seen. I had a 1977 F150, originally a 300 with a C4. I built a nice Camper Special 390 and had a design I wanted for the dual exhaust. They built it exactly as I wanted, nice mellow sound until you stood on it, then it would "crack". The truck would get 16-17 mpg on the highway and had lots of power. I had bought a pair of Corvair turbo mufflers as they are a nice free flowing 2.5" in and out oval muffler. They put them both on the right side, H pipe before them and left side muffler in front with the oval vertical, back over the axle and out exactly where the original tailpipe had been. Even used the original hangers.

Do they make girdles for C6's anymore? I had a friend tell me that the pan I have on it being heavy cast aluminum helps really stiffen up the case of the trans itself. I don't mind nice firm shifts. Quicker the better. The shifting in the trans currently is a real quick 1-2 that you can feel real nicely, no chirping unless its wide open. 2-3 is definitely a right now thing as well. I have some videos of it going down the road, it definitely would toss your head back. Yes I have a B&M super cooler plumbed in front of the radiator. I want to put a trans temp gauge in to monitor heat, if I have to I'll move the cooler and put a fan in front of it. The pan does help, the girdle was maybe 1/2", if anyone makes them it would probably be B&M or similar.