85lebaront2

Boy that worked for me at Preston and later owned it had an Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser with the 330 V8 and ST 300. We spent about 45 mins one afternoon going through the switch adjustments. After it was done he drove it and came back and told me when he reached the pitch change it was like opening a 4 barrel. I built some ST 400s for Corvette owners who autocrossed them. On those, we just used a toggle switch along with a modified valve body (changed 2nd from a start in first to start and stay in 2nd like a Ford), the latter after the owner of the first one lost it in a corner on a high speed event when it decided to downshift to 1st on him. Trivia for you, one of the reasons those mid 60s GM products (Buick. Oldsmobile and Cadillac) launched so nicely in normal driving, at idle (closed throttle) the stator was in high stall, as soon as the linkage moved, it went back to low stall making the car move quickly away, at roughly 3/4 throttle they went back to high stall which acted almost like and extra low 1st gear.

no slippage in L/U, lots in unlock, converter is designed for multiplication, clutch provides the efficiency for fuel economy. Might not hurt to add the ratios as it is an upgrade for the C6.

Looks good to me, I know what my gear ratios are and RPM @ 55 is just about dead on 1500. Using the 31" tyre rolling diameter I got 1503 rpm in 4th with the E4OD, 70 gives me 1912 rpm which also checks. Slippage for the C6 converter may be a tad high, Darth used to run around 2200 rpm at 55 mph without the 5th wheel.

Anyone else? Are the calculators understandable? Didn't try them, mine is electronic so adjustments are done by changing the count multiplier.

Very good, if I still had a gear driven speedometer. You might want to clarify one item, the $ in the charts, which I believe means the gear is integral with the shaft. Nice calculator program!

Jan, do you have twin traction beams on your truck or the monobeam (live axle) If you have the twin traction beam, the clearance is somewhat small due to the length of the axle from the pivot out to the bump stop. My 2WD truck only has about 1" between the axle beam and the bump stop. If you have ball joints, the camber can be adjusted with bushings at the upper ball joint, if not, the old rule a front end man gave me years ago on a 1987 F250 with the 7.5L engine was this: With the truck on a level floor, run it back and forth then check the camber with a level positioned on matching blocks at the wheel rim. It should be vertical. If not then, if both sides are off, I would carefully raise the front of the truck until the wheels are vertical to see how much it will take. If the truck appears level viewed from the side at this point, good indication the springs have sagged. Now you have the replace or add some sort of extra spring to solve the problem. Darth was a little low and slight negative camber, when I added my front sway bar mounts the extra amount from the brackets corrected it.

I did find in doing the work on Darth that there are different size rear brake cylinders. If somewhere in the past the rears were changed to a larger size, it can make them lock up easily. One other item, when you did the Hydroboost change, if you didn't keep the original master cylinder, is the new one the same bore size? I did run into a similar situation on a 1978 Oldsmobile Delta 88 Royale with the 5.7L Diesel. Gm in their infinite wisdom decided despite the added weight of the heavier block and extra battery to use the V6 running gear under these cars. First problem was a complete failure of the front pads at around 20,000 miles or less (it's been 40 years) the solution, under warranty (TSB) was to upgrade the front pads to the B&C body heavy duty (police package) pads. The other issue though that the change aggravated was the tendency to lock the rear wheels any time you made a hard stop. I solved it by putting the HD rear shoes on the car which were a harder composition. If your rear shoes are fairly soft, that may be what you are seeing.

Not today, but Saturday, I had some wheel bearing noise and an occasional clunk, not loud in the left front. I removed the wheels one side at a time, pulled the calipers off and spun the hub/rotor assemblies. Left had a small amount of noise, but had enough play that the outer edge of the rotor moved at least 1/8" when moving the outer portion of the hub up and down. Not having a pair of seals, I carefully removed the hubs and examined the outer bearings, and looked at the grease in the cavity. I packed some more fresh grease in the cavity and did the outer bearings, re-tightened the bearings and no more noise, bearings looked great, brakes and steering are better now too. Warm weather task, redo both sides, get the rotors turned and new pads.

On the cable, take the factory bracket off the manifold, open the throttle all the way and tie it open, then hook the cable up and compress the spring as far as it will go. With the bracket in the approximate location it needs to be, measure and mark this. Find a small piece of angle stock and make an extension to move the cable outboard and back where it (a) pulls straight and (b) opens the throttle fully. I personally agree with Lariat85, every Carter carb I have replaced a Holley with except for the Chrysler cars where the Holley had a long extended throttle shaft I have had to relocate the throttle cable to work correctly. If you were closer I could do it in an hour or less.

5 https://supermotors.net/getfile/1013709/thumbnail/45manifolf.jpg I know about the ones in the block, I haven't worked on a 6 in a number of years and didn't think there were any but couldn't remember if any were on the head. Must have been either GM or AMC I remember having some small plugs there.

I may be thinking of a different in-line 6, but are there some small core plugs on the manifold side of the head?

Thank you, and may it be a great day with all of your family.

Where? Pics? Phone # ? Other than cab and chassis builds that some of the customizers put older beds on (different track width) there were no 4WD duallies in 1985-86.

That is the pump setup I remember from my 1970 and 1971 429s, the pump mount actually slides on the upper bracket and is secured with three washer faced nuts that have "teeth" on the washer face so they won't vibrate loose. Unfortunately after the "gas guzzler" buy back during the bankruptcies, a whole lot of these big land yachts were crushed.

Gary, there is/was another company that also did some nice work, Centaurus I believe, they are the ones that did the 1996 I got the interior out of.

You have to remove the balancer, it replaces the spacer sleeve (the reason for the weird keyway setup on the 385 series engines) biggest issue in R&R on the pumps is the need to get the balancer key out before the pump will slide off.

The change to poly groove belts (serpentine) on the 460 was the same year as the EFI introduction, 1988 MY. I was trying to remember if any cars came with the Saginaw pump, all the ones I can recall had the older Ford pump almost directly under the Tecumseh or York 2 cyl A/C compressor. The exception was Lincolns, they used a GM A6 compressor. Possibly some of those late 60s into the 70s may have had a Saginaw. I dod remember that my 1970 LTD Brougham and 1971 Colony Park with 429s had a round pump that could have been a Saginaw. If you really want to get strange with it, the first few years of the 460 in the Lincoln, not the Continental Marks, had a crank driven Vickers vane type pump, very quiet and never had to deal with belts slipping or squealing. That, however requires a different timing cover, the pump replaces the sleeve behind the balancer.

Thanks Steve, I thought I remembered that being correct as to the location.

The problem with using a Carter AFB or AVS in place of a Holley is twofold, (a) the Carters are wider than a Holley, but shorter front to back so the cable ends up at an angle, (b) the relative position of the throttle and downshift levers are reversed so the downshift rod sits outside the throttle cable rather than inside. Did the Edelbrock kit come with a different mount for the cable? This would move it outboard so it pulls straight and might allow the downshift rod to be positioned so it does not interfere with the cable. The groove on the "stud" of the downshift lever is for an "E" ring clip, the hole in the front is for the extra spring, from there to the flat piece on the driver's side front carburetor mounting screw. The reason the Holley looks more logical, it is what Ford put on their V8s except for a few. I had one, a Lincoln 430, they used what was also described as a "Daytona" AFB, with a Holley bolt pattern and larger air filter circle. Even the Autolite/Motorcraft 4100/4300 are still based on the Holley dimensions as far as width and downshift rod design. For driving the truck, at worst case leave the downshift rod off until you get the rest of the linkage working right. Where in Fla are you, I have a friend (fellow Ford nut) in Gulfport MS who might be able to help you if you can get to him. He is a former Seabee and a pretty decent mechanic.

First item, the outer lever, if it is locked to the inner with a screw (Holley does this on their Ford linkage kits) will need to be loose so it can move back to allow the blue connector to be snapped over the ball. The ball should be installed where you have the downshift rod extension at present, remove that and put the ball there. Downshift rod attaches to the round pin on the outer lever. Once this is done, the outer lever is the downshift portion, it only moves about 1/2-3/4" back at full throttle. If the truck had the HO 351, then the downshift rod should be long enough to reach without the extension. If not then, prop the choke in the open position and with the downshift lever loose, open the throttle fully. If the downshift rod end, when pushed down and back (it moves down at the transmission end) will line up with the downshift lever pin, then connect it, if it is too far back, then the extension is needed. Here is a Holley 4180 setup, the throttle cable and downshift rod locations are reversed from a Carter.

Temperature sensor could be missing, I believe it is near that area also.

Yes, looks good sir! As for the lighting software, it worked well for me too.

Gary, it wasn't used until 1985, if you have the manuals for Big Blue it might be in there. I do know that there is no given adjustment for them, they come preset for full extension of the rear suspension. When I changed Darth's rear axle, I took the bracket off and lifted it up out of the way while I switched axles.

So, a bad valve, or the wrong valve, could easily cause the rear lock-up problem that both Jonathan and Jan are having. I'd thought that maybe by going hydroboost the valve was now the "wrong" valve. But if the front and rear brakes are still the original size the original valve should work perfectly regardless of how the boost is derived. Anyway, I've also updated the webpage on Brakes. Gary, the other item that can contribute to rear brake lockup is the brake load proportioning valve. It varies the pressure for the rear brakes according to the ride height of the rear suspension. If it is not working at all it may allow full pressure to the rear brakes, and may also, if not properly adjusted if disconnected and reconnected have the pressures wrong. If the truck has been lifted, it may reduce the rear pressure to the point the front brakes lock up first. I discovered in doing the upgrades on Darth, that in addition to different size master cylinders, the rear brakes have different size cylinders. In that case it becomes smaller = faster application and shorter pedal stroke, but less power applied to the shoes, larger = slower application and longer pedal stroke, but more power applied to the shoes. I have had my rear brakes lock, but not often and only empty if I really jump on them hard. Never had the fronts lock except on ice and snow.

I've been wondering about that thing. On my 84 is on a bracket on the frame almost directly below the master cylinder...next to where the oil dipstick is on my 302. I'm planning on re-doing my entire braking system this winter, including ALL lines. Wasn't sure what to do with this little device...replace or re-use. I don't remember seeing any wires going to it, but I haven't looked at it closely either. My truck isn't here right now so I can't even check it. Hopefully I can just clean it up and re-use it. The block on Darth had a brake failure warning switch, if either system (front or rear) lost pressure it would illuminate the brake warning light. It also lit up with the parking brake applied.