85lebaront2

Before I retired from NNS we had some Freon leak detectors the Navy has through out their ships in any confined location where a leak could occur. We had to calibrate (more certify their accuracy) them before they could be installed. The Navy had just started using a new refrigerant (and I do not remember the number now) that could be both a refrigerant and a fire suppressant. Our Metrologist (calibration specialist) was a retired USAF bootstrap Major and he was good at his job which involved a lot of record keeping. When these units came up, all he was going by was the chemical formula which on most fluids or gasses is what you need. Organic (hydrocarbon) compounds, you also frequently need the structural formula (where the hydrogen and other atoms attach to the carbon string). He and the technician and chemist trying to calibrate these were tearing their hair out. This lowly former USMC Staff Sergeant, googled the refrigerant and found 4 I think different structures and one was completely different in characteristics. Guess which one the Navy was using? When I showed Greg (the metrologist) and Gary (our supervisor) what I found, Greg's comment was "I guess I should have paid more attention in organic chemistry". Once a pair calibration standards were ordered and received, the alarms calibrated perfectly.

Brandon, how about the accumulator tank, it should also be cold. If the line going in is cold, but the one coming out isn't, believe it or not, you are low on refrigerant.

I wish I had the fan my 430 in a 1958 Country Squire had, 7 blades and it was pretty big also. That would move some air!

Welcome to the group! You will find us to be a helpful bunch when it comes to keeping our trucks on the road.

Ford in their infinite wisdom "used one size fits all" gas V8 radiators from the 1984 change through the 1997 F250/350 models. This meant the a 302 and a 460 have the exact same radiator. Darth has only really given me a problem one time in the 28 years I've owned him, about 3 years ago, stuck in a mess trying to get through the Downtown Tunnel between Portsmouth and Norfolk VA. It was one of those days where the two sides of the approach road were really backed up, temperature was probably a little over 100° and humidity was in the mid to high 90s. Never boiled over, but, temp was well up into the high end, computer had advanced the timing and raised the idle. Any time I was sitting not moving I was in Neutral so I could raise the rpm higher my self. My NASA wind tunnel emulator (fan) was definitely moving air as you could hear the roar at around 8-900 rpm. I think that was the hottest I had seen, before that was one time going up US301 SE of DC towing our 30 ft 5th wheel where you are pretty much driving past shopping centers on both sides from Upper Marlboro to Bowie. Every time we were stopped at a light and pulled away, the fan sounded like a jet taking off for maybe 1/2 mile then it would taper off.

Gary, Jim has Darth's old air cleaner so he should have a picture. Here is what it looked like installed: The heated air motor is closer to the main body on Darth's, maybe it was for a 351 HO model.

Rewire them. Since the engine harness is plugged together near the left side mount bracket, it will pretty much be a build it and plug it in. It becomes a matter of switching where the signal goes to the computer, Reference is circuit K24, SYNC is K44 they go to pins 24 and 44 respectively at the SBEC 60 pin plug, but before that they go through a 10 pin (4 large, 6 small) connector from engine harness to front end harness and another 3 in a 6 pin connector. It would be a matter of making a new harness for those and also having to make one for the throttle body as it's seven wires come right out of the front end harness just behind the TB and it will end up closer to the radiator.

It is a 4 pin connector of which only 3 are used. I believe it was gray. I do not have one to be an exact match, but I believe they were the round pins. Probably similar to this one: The red lock comes out and the round pins are held in by the stepped tabs,

Ok, here are some pictures. First the approximate angle the engine sits at installed. Second, back side of the engine, I didn't have a bare one so the integrated turbo exhaust was on the head. Hopefully the diagram will explain it. On the distributor, there is an adapter housing that bolts where the cam position sensor would go. The changes are first, the vane with the hole is the master and the reference HEP is what is used for ignition timing and will be on a TBI system or turbo. The SYNC HEP is the one used to synchronize the injectors to the valve timing and as such is roughly 180° opposite the reference HEP so that the injector pulse occurs on the intake stroke. The labels on the HEPs are as they are originally configured for counterclockwise as they are on the bottom side of the plastic housing. Assume the rotor is in line with the #1 cap tower, the Reference HEP has a solid vane just entering it, the SYNC HEP has the window in the vane just about to enter it as the first portion of the vane has passed through. When the direction of rotation is reversed, the vane position has toe be changed so that when the rotor is lined up with #1 tower, the above scenario but in a clockwise direction since the angular travel from Reference to SYNC is not 180° the functions of the two HEPS have to be swapped and the Reference HEP has to be placed between the rotor positions for Cyl #4 and Cyl #2. As built, the distributor has a straight portion that is used to attach a splash shield and the cap has a vent on that side. Looking down at the distributor #1 tower is at 10:30, #3 at 1:30, #4 at 4:30 and #2 at 7:30. When reconfigured, with the HEPs connected reversed but mounted normally, #1 is now at 4:30, #3 at 1:30, #4 at 10:30 and #2 at 7:30. With the HEP board rotated 180°, #1 is now back at 10:30, but #3 is now at 7:30, #4 is at 4:30 again, and #2 is at 1:30.

I have dealt with FWD performance before. I have never actually met Cindy but when Karen, my first wife, passed away Dec 30 2005, I mentioned it in a thread either on Turbododge.com or Turbo-Mopar.com. She sent me a very nice sympathy note in an email to me. The rods I ordered from her through FB messenger arrived yesterday bushed for the 0.927" Venolia pin, ARP bolts installed and ready to go into the short block. Meanwhile, I did a trial fit using the Stratus head to test a theory. One on the major issues in these hybrids as they are called, is oil flow and the returns to the sump. On the original 8 valve head, the ports are all on the back side (what would be the right side in a RWD vehicle) like a 300. Since these engines are OHC there are no push rod holes, but on the front side there are 3 large and one small oil returns, supply is the left front head bolt hole. The 2.4L DOHC head has it's oil returns as 1 strange one in the front (intake) side and 3 directly behind the 3 center rear headbolts, supply is left rear head bolt hole (more on that later). With the head placed on the block, the 3 rear oil returns are outside the rear of the block, just barely, inner edge is at or just in from the surface of the block as seen here: My thoughts (I wish I had a Bridgeport) is to use my angle grinder to smooth the small bulges on the back side of the block at the head bolt locations and make a drain channel from square steel tubing. Using small bolts and some good high temperature and strength epoxy, attach it to the block, flush with the deck and then run a drain line into the crankcase. This will make the oil return a permanent metal part and do away with the snake nest of hoses that most of these conversions have for oil returns. Oil supply, plan is to drill an angled hole from the upper portion of the left front head bolt location in the block (which is one of the DOHC dowel pin locations) to the existing oil passage for the SOHC head and plug the top of that passage as it is outside the head gasket area. In the head, there is a cross passage from the left rear head bolt hole almost all the way to the left front head bolt hole. This feeds all the head supply to the lash adjusters and cam bearings. I will remove the plug on the back side of the head and extend that passage to the left front head bolt hole thus providing a route for the oil supply from the block. The existing front of the block oil drains will be plugged and the center one will probably be where I will connect the PCV valve so it will be pulling air from the crankcase and creating a down flow in the oil returns. The distributor on these is on the front of the block centered between # 2 & 3 cylinders. This puts it barely clearing the bottom front of the head and under the intake manifold. This is not a fun place to get to. There is a company that sells a distributor relocation kit the puts it on the end of the intake cam, like a number on Japanese engines. he also sells a set of terminals as the original Chrysler system uses a flat tab on the plug wires that becomes the internal portion of the cap (and you thought GM was cheap). His terminals snap into the cap like the OEM wires, but have posts instead of wires so any nice 8mm wire kit can be used. The distributor relocation requires some distributor changes as it reverses the rotation. The shutter vanes have to be relocated so the leading edge of the vanes coincide with the rotor being at one of the 4 towers. There is one vane with a hole in it that is unique to the turbocharged engines and they also use two Hall Effect Pickups, a reference and a sync, the latter is on the turbo models as they were the only multipoint EFI systems at that time. These have to be rewired in the harness as the trigger sequence is what times the injectors. The system has to see the window's double pulse first in the reference signal and then in the sync signal and since the HEPS are not 180° apart, close but not exact, the pulse timing tell the computer where #1 is from that. Similar to the narrow vane in the Ford TFI distributors being the #1 cylinder ID.

BB's rims (stock) are the same diameter/width as Darth's, 16X6 K which tells me that as long as the rear duals don't (a) rub the sidewalls loaded or (b) get rocks wedged between them I could go to wider tires. On the 215/85R16 LR D, I could crawl under Darth and look at the spare sidewall.

Interesting, if you remember I had gotten 215/85R16 LR E tires on Darth simply because the tire store has plenty of them in stock since the school busses use that size. Mine aren't off road tires as I don't plan on overlanding, driving on sand would be more likely for me. What I find interesting are, in order: Front axle BB - 3850, Darth - 3900 Rear axle BB - 5922, Darth - 7400 Rims both show 16X6 K, no different designation for the style, BB's are pretty standard, Darth's are dually Front springs BB - 7, Darth - J Rear springs BB - K, Darth - K Front tires BB - LT235/85R16E 44psi cold, Darth - LT215/85R16D 58psi cold Rear tires BB - LT235/85R16E 80psi cold, Darth - LT215/85R15D 65psi cold Dual Since the rear spring codes are the same, unless Ford changed the codes between 1985 and 1986, that would indicate the BB does indeed have 1 ton rear springs with the load difference being a factor of the axle rating and tires (single vs dual). BB at 5922 lbs is 2961/tire, Darth at 7400 is only 1850/tire On both if you add the axle ratings, the result exceeds the GVWR, go figure.

I have Monore shocks on Darth, partially because I own stock in the parent company from when my employer was part of Tenneco. The other reason is they offer an excellent product and warranty. They warrantied my Monroe front shocks I had on Darth for roughly 20 years. Sears shocks were made by Monroe and Sears no longer sells Sears branded shocks and had to replace them with Monroe Load Handlers from Advance Auto.

I seem to recall when I was rebuilding a 10.25" Sterling for a friend, in the installation kit was the option for an "assembly bearing" an outer pinion bearing that was clearanced to a slip fit on the pinion shaft to be used while setting the pinion depth and roughing the preload once the gear pattern looked good. Once I had a good pattern and the pinion depth shims were securely in place, I used it once more to get the crush sleeve mostly collapsed. I then removed the "assembly bearing" and put the new outer pinion bearing on and finished the preload setting using the old nut which I had cut the upset threads out of to get my bearing preload (just a few inch-lbs) then took the yoke back off with a puller, installed the new seal and yoke (old one had a lot of pitting where the U-joint caps go) and the new nut. Got it properly torqued and then set up the ring gear preload. Give me a 9" any day over one of these!

Yes, after inter coursing with it for several hours, I finally had enough, took a 1/4" NPT tap to it and installed a 1/4" NPT Allen socket pipe plug. After that I replace the right front lower control arm as the inspector said it was just barely ok last September.

Ok, update on the 2.5L Hybrid. I caught the owner of FWD Performance on FB yesterday evening, They have a set of rods with the correct bushings and already set up with ARP bolts. $275 including shipping. I will not be surprised if they are a balanced set. She will ship them tomorrow (Monday) from Tomball TX. I have dealt with her business before so know the quality. The other head arrived Friday, but due to fighting with a stripped drain plug hole in the 2009 Flex I didn't get to open it and look at it until yesterday. He sent everything except the little hydraulic lash adjusters which I can pull out of the Stratus head. I have the integrated turbocharger exhaust manifold that was used on these engines which limits you to the small Mitsubishi turbo. He found me a custom manifold that uses the flange for the older Garrett Air Research or Mitsubishi turbos that were used from 1984 and 1989 until the advent of the 2.4L turbo with the integral turbo.

Yes sir, sure will. I believe the opening is the same from 1980-1996. There were lots of different rear windows both factory and aftermarket. The factory rear sliders are the nicest imho. You are correct, I have a power sliding rear window from a 1996 in Darth.

What else do you expect from horrible fate.

That was the 1978 Olds Delta 88 Royale, the one Matt was driving when a drunk sailor made a left turn in front of him. totaled the car but all Matt got was a bruise from the steering wheel. Bonneville essentially replaced it.

Actually her normal car was a 1980 Bonneville Diesel. She had decided to take the Horizon as it was easier to load for the weekend.

Darth is very comfortable on smooth roads, get on a rough one and you can definitely feel the 1 ton suspension. Not long after we got him, late wife and I were Campmasters at the 960 acre Pipsico Scout Reservation, I had come directly from the Shipyard in Darth, Karen had left earlier in the 1987 Horizon. When we got ready to leave, Karen said "why don't you go on ahead with the Horizon and I'll follow in the truck" That was before Matt and his friends named the Dually "Darth Vader". She wanted to get cigarettes in Isle of Wight County where they were cheaper so asked me to wait there. I left, she secured the Campmaster building and gave the ranger the keys and started home. I had left probably 20 mins before she did, she got to the tobacco store maybe 10 mins after I did. I asked her how the trip was and she said. "it's a good thing they weren't running radar, I was going along and looked at the speedometer and was doing 80". This is a 2 lane country road, VA 10 running along the South side of the James River. She had no idea of the speed because it just didn't seem that fast.

That was probably the portion of the switch that powered the fan and AC compressor and was operated by the mode lever.

What specific application do you need it from? My favorite salvage yard owner is in Ft. Lauderdale FL right now with his granddaughter at the AAU Karate championships. He might have something.

That's right. The DS-II tester would definitely be one for loan and return in that discussion.

Gary, I thought the Mac was the one I have.