FuzzFace2

How were the wheels bolted back on the truck,n with the impac or by hand and torq wrench? Did they do the cross or circle when tightening the nuts? I would loosen all the wheels and tighten in a cross pattern. Before you put it on the ground get out your dial indicator and try and see how much run out you get on each wheel. Also when spinning look at the tread to see if it is in line and if not then the belts broke. What you posted sounds like broken belts in a tire, you only feel it a certain low speed. Dave ----

See there is a reason for everything or so they say I use a little wheel bearing grease on the rubber O-ring to hold it in place when installing the sender. I think I am lucky, will not know till I put gas in the tank, but the O-ring was still in place when I removed the sender and looked like it stayed in place when I put it back together. Dave ----

From the sounds of it I am happy my truck does not have factory trailer wiring. It's not hard to wire in a brake controller under the dash and run a 10ga blue wire down the frame rail the same time you run a 10ga red from battery to supply power to the travel trailer to charge batteries. For trailer lights I have one of them Tee's that plugs in between the trucks frame harness and tail light harness. Being I will run head light relays the few lights going thru the head light switch is nothing now. Dave ----

Yes you can see where it weeps out and before I removed it from the arm I shook it and could hear the gas in it. Because I had 2 old senders / floats I used 1 of the floats other wise I would have picked up a new one. Depending on the truck and it's condition, it's sometimes easier to just lift the bed off. Glad to hear that you're finally getting to drive the old girl Dave! I'd say a lot of Bullnose Flaresides have been saved from the crusher these past few years. I did not want to remove the bed and risk hurting the paint on the bed or cab. I also don't have a good way to attach straps to lift it. If I was to use the stake pockets it may bend them. I would have had to undo the fuel fill doors & hoses, again may hurt the paint on them. The only thing doing it the way I did is if the vent / fill got hurt as I was able to fill the tank at full blast before this and hope I still can. The only other thing is hope it does not leak or I will have to drop it again I did my part on saving a flare side even if I did add "my touches". I am going to try and get the truck out this weekend, I started yard work the other day I have to finish, and et some good pictures and up date the picture for my avatar. Dave ----

Marry X-Mass everyone :-partybud My family was here earlier in the week so today was just the wife and I so spent an hour or 2 in the garage. The rear tank sender stopped working shortly after I get it on the road so I worked on that toady. Know what it's like to drop the rear tank even empty? I checked to make sure the wiring was good by shorting out the wires so knew it was the new sender. Once out I knew what it was, the float was full of gas. I did test the sender and it works great. Swapped float from the old sender, drop unit back in tank and tank back up in place. I hope it dose not leak once I have fuel in the tank. Dave ----

I was just looking at air compressors and 110v welders to spec out the system. I do not have 220 run to the building yet, but I will run a 220 future. Electricity is not my forte, I design mechanical, pneumatics and hydraulics, but the electrical stuff I always hand off to someone in the trade. Dont know why, but ive always been confused by it, like I have a stupid spot in my head where all electrical knowledge goes to die. Good air compressors are also 220v When I first moved in to this house in NC my garage only had 2 8' lights so it needed more and no power for my compressor. New power line was run having 220v for the compressor. It has a plug so if I ever get a 220v welder, my MIG is 110v, I can just unplug the compressor and have 220v in my garage. If I had the room I could run an electric stove / oven. Dave ----

Glad it worked for you. Got a question with the 2x4's under the door how much of a gap at the top do you have? As the door goes up the top pulls a way and why I ask. Dave ----

And I'm sure you know this but for other's benefit, low range 2WD is great for moving trailers around the yard or driveway too. A lot less clutch slipping (or a lot less throttle with an auto trans) so it's easier to control. All good information. If I was to add a 4x4 Tcase I would do a full 4x4 swap but don't really need 4x4 down here like up north. I also would not be towing the trailer all the time so if setup better for not towing would be the way to go with this truck. I just don't want to run a higher first gear OD trans than what I have now with the T18 2nd gear, I drive it now as a 3 speed. Dave ----

Hey, it's all good advice, and I do agree. I'd actually prefer to not tint, but there are times in the summer that I've been driving this truck and it is really miserable in the heat. I'm just a little over 6 ft, so I have the seat all the way back, and the back of my head is about 1" from the window, and I'm tellin' ya it is just like a magnifying glass. The whole point of the truck was for it to be fun, and I'd like to drive it as much as possible. I plan to put AC in it, but that may not happen right away. The alternative to the tint is to leave the windows clear, and get one of the little retractable sun shades to put behind me. That way if it is one of those hot and sunny days, I can pull it down for protection. We'll see I guess. Now that I've got the old truck looking pretty good, I'm trying to tackle some of the other issues this winter so that the truck is nicer to drive in the spring. I hear you on cooking the back of your head thru the rear window and mine is tinted pretty dark in my truck. Hard to tell in the picture but looking thru and out the passenger door glass you can tell a little. Remember when inside looking out thru dark glass it is not bad, my Durango has factory dark tint on rear doors, back side glass and tail gate and it is not hard to see out when inside. Dave ----

Yesterday I used the truck for what I got it for .......... trash run. Loaded the trash in the bed and my brother & son in the cab and off we went. They were busy so did not get a picture so I guess it did not happen right LOL Dave ----

Jim not a big deal. Also I installed my radio not long ago and before that I had to graft that area of the plastic dash from my non-ac trucks dash to the ac trucks dash I wanted to use so kind of knew of the area he was working in. Dave ----

That does suck. I hope you got the names & numbers of the people that saw this and pictures of the damage of both truck & car. Pictures will show it was that car that did the damage then it is up to them to figure who was driving to take blame. I hate to say this but mom sounds like a dirt bag. Just be careful when going thru insurance. My guess you have normal insurance, and that would be listed as book value of what? Lets say book is $1000 and you have $800 worth of damage the truck would be totaled as the damage is more than 75% of book. You then lose the truck or you could by it back but it now has a "totaled" title and if you want to sell or maybe even keep it you could have issues getting plates. That is why I don't have normal insurance on my truck, if totaled I gat $11,000 and I get to keep the truck. (Hagerty Insurance) Good luck Dave ----

Well, now we know who the unknown soldier racked out on his basement sofa is, IRL. You have to be careful using anerobics around most plastics. One of their less pleasant qualities is the fact that they insinuate themselves between the polymer molecules and cause embrittlement. Plastics craze, crumble and self destruct when threaded fasteners wipe their load as they are going in. Putting the thread lock in the chassis hole, or using a screw with the dried (preapplied, blue or red dot) will help minimize this. Very well thought out, and a nice clean install BTW! Jim, I think the thread lock is in / thru metal and think has a nut / bolt set up? If not a flat head sheet metal screw into the metal frame would work too I think. On the part you removed, cut, flatten and welded why not use sheet metal cut & drilled to fit as that's what it sounded like you did? Looks good Dave ----

If the front was that bad the rest of the system cant be far behind. You said the booster is leaking so I would start with the booster & master replace. I would pull the rear drums just so I know everything is in good shape. As said if that far just replace the wheel cyl and rear rubber hose, if shoes are good leave them. Adjust the rear brakes so they are just dragging and do a good bleeding of the system. When you replace the master bench bleed it before installing it. Once you know every part of the system is good you can start to get it to work like it should from the factory. I am happy I went thru the brake system on my truck as the rear drums were put together wrong, missing springs and Ebrake cable on 1 side. By the time I was done I replaced everything for the brakes on my truck. Dave ----

I am going to place an order with LMC today for the other rods and see if I can make them work. I am thinking JB weld or epoxy for the all thread. I just need to find a decent spring. The bar is hollow where it the pedal is formed to hold the factory spring on, and there is a cavity ill mic out probably this weekend if I get a chance. I am at work today, then have tickets for the Rise of Skywalker tonight. Take pictures and post up what you do. I have 2 sets, 1 set was held to an over head shelf with Velcro so I know they "move" The other set I am thinking will be the same way, both set have rips. I bought a new set of the visor from LMC, need to paint them, and you use your rods. I did see they say if they fall down to bend the rods a little in the middle but don't say anything of the spring and I have not looked that close at it yet. I thought there was the spring, washer & cotter pin to hold it together? If it does have the "wings" holding the washer / spring could you take the wings off and tap the end of the rod for a lock nut. Then you could go as loose or tight as you wanton it and being locknut should not loosen up. Now I got to go dig mine out! Dave ----

Thanks when I have more time, family is here for the holiday, I will check it out better. Dave ----

All are welcome at my place. As for the ark, I havent gone and never will. Its a religious topic that could get heated so I will leave it at that. I will get the concrete forms put up this week, maybe pour soon. Just looked it up and it is about 600+/- miles for me. Thing is needing to take off time from work and if I would have any at that time. Throw out a reminder when it gets closer and I will see what happens. I do know I will have to run the rear 19 gallon tank also as the factor 16 gallon just don't cut it just going to work and back for a week. Dave ----

Gary, if it was on this coast I'd be on my way to look at it right now. I think a fella could make a pretty nice little weekend driver out of it for very little money. I think for the asking price it will probably sell pretty quickly. The truck itself is nothing very special, but I thought that a few of the rarer options were cool and worthy of a nod for those of us Bullnose enthusiasts! Nice looking truck, don't think I have seen that color on our trucks before. Then again all I see are blue ones Dave ----

Thanks guys, I would say my trailer with car is close to 5000lb, car is 3000+ and the deck of trailer is 21' and I have a tool box and tire rack up front. Because it is pretty flat around here I also drive my T18 / 2.75 / 28" or 29" tire as a 3 speed and with just the truck, no load, its not bad from a start. I will look for the ratios for the ZF & M5-R2, have them for the T18, so I can play with the numbers. Would be nice to get a transmission with a first a little lower than the T18 2nd gear and little above the granny of the T18 and have OD would be nice. I did find a wrecked 88 F150 with a newish 302 not far from me but don't know what transmission it has and cant reply to the add to ask. I might hunt it down to check it out as it may have hurt the motor / drive line it get hit so hard. Dave ----

What state is Louisville in? I don't want to "assume" where it might be and why I ask. Dave ----

I think that is the very reason he wants the ZF5 gear box. The Mazda tranny gets a bit of a bad rap in my opinion, but there's no denying that it is a much lighter transmission. In my truck with the 3.08 rear diff, the gearing is really tall, and you can feel it pulling away in first gear. Ford did sell them with this gearing combo, so I didn't do anything unusual here...but it's definitely a light duty set-up, certainly more geared towards fuel efficiency than towing. I think with 3.55 or 3.73 diff gears, the Mazda trans would be much better to work with in a "work" truck. I've seen a lot of guys around here put snow plows on these F150's, and I assume that would be as torturous on the truck as trailer towing, if not worse...lol. Thanks guys for the information gives me a lot to think over. Yes the lower (granny gear) of the T18 is nice for getting heavy loads moving and not burning up the new clutch. Could go with the M5-R2 higher first gear and a lower rear gear to get the first useable but need to run the numbers to see what the final ratio comes to. I say this also based on what was posted that a ZF5 might be hard to find for a 4x2 small block as they most likely be used in the F250> trucks so could not use the suspension as planed but not a deal breaker. So this brings up another question on the M5-R2 & ZF5 transmissions, I have not searched this yet, How to tell the difference between them when looking at them? I would guess the ZF would have a cover for the PTO where the M5-R2 may not? Some of the ZF's I have seen on the inter web had a plate saying ZF but what if it is missing? I don't want to do I think what Happen to Cory and looking fro a ZF and when found one it was the M5-R2but again if that is all I can find I may go that route. Does the M5 have the same rap of the ZF that the syncros could be worn and make it hard to shift or it is a lot better in that regard? Now to go back and re-read this post and all the links / data to get a grip on the information over load LOL Thanks Dave ---- added: On the shifting, yes I drive a big rig and to tell the truth it shifts better than the T18 in my truck now. I the work truck you float the gears only using the clutch for starting & stopping. I find myself starting to do the same in the pick up and that don't turn out so good LOL So a "truck shifting" ZF is not a big deal to me as long as it shifts as my T18 does not want to do all the time. I also hear you on looking for 2 trucks for the needed parts would be easier than 1 as for the way they were built. Right now the transmission is top on the list. thanks

I thought I had the information saved but cant find it The truck this will go on is a 81 F100 2WD flare side, 300 six, w/T18 and 2.75 9" rear gear. The T18 needs some help, wore out and does not shift well. I could rebuild it but I would not have over drive but I like the granny low for heavy loads and it will be a back up for pulling my car trailer. So the spit ball (question) is what years does the ZF5 for a small block that uses a speedo cable come in? Again would need to be for a small block 2wd truck. Would the front suspension from that truck also fit mine? I think they have the 5x5.5 wheel pattern like mine does. Mine still darts and does not return to center after a turn, think the new kingpins are still to tight. My thinking is if it will fit my truck to go with JDM drop beams with new ball joints so I can get the truck a little lower. So with that said I would be looking for a whole truck cheap so I have all the ZF5 & suspension parts other than the pedals needed for my truck and think would be cheaper than buying piece meal. On the pedals do you think just the clutch pedal / cross bar could be swapped from parts truck to my pedal bracket assy.? I think I seen between the 80-86 clutch set ups they are different but don't remember if anyone did just the pedal / cross bar swap. Sorry a lot of spit Thanks for any help you can give. Dave ----

Looking good. Being you removed the relays for head lights? did you wire in others? I don't plan to add any more power eating devices so no PDU. When I added the fog / driving lights I tapped into the light wire by the brake booster in the engine bay for power, the light kit has it's own fuses. I still need to install the head light relay kit yet. That is the only other thing that needs power and I think it gets it from the battery with a fuse. Dave ----

There is a slip joint plier type tool just for them clamps. They have little indents for the clamp ends to fit in and not slip out. https://www.geniustoolsusa.com/550810.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI-YDG89q85gIVAtbACh2IBwMaEAQYDiABEgJRfPD_BwE Google will post up a bunch of others - "hose clamp pliers" Dave ----

Thanks guys I am on stand by for work, read no work unless they call me, so I will get out and adjust the rod before I do some running around for the honey do list before family shows up Thursday. Dave ----