FuzzFace2

Is the 2"difference in the out put shaft and why they cant be swapped? If so and you are rebuilding the trans then you could use the tail housing the matches the out put shaft if the housings bolt to the main case. Dave ----

I didn't see where anybody else asked, but does this 1984 F150 have front or rear factory swaybars? My 1984 F150 did not have any swaybars originally, and I found the truck to be really unstable even without pulling a trailer (the body roll was terrible). Combine that with worn spring bushings, worn twin i-beam and radius arm bushings, and a steering box with a ton of slop and these trucks are sketchy on anything but the best straight and flat roads. That '07 1500 would more than likely have factory front and rear swaybars. In the 80's they were still options, but they were mostly standard equipment by the early 90's. I would say that the 07 1500 is likely a much more stable truck. You missed my post Cory That is the big one to start with, level trailer. Then weight on the front of the trailer, front heavy / rear light of trailer. What do you have the rear & front tire PSI at on your truck? When ever I pull my trailer vary far I max the PSI on the rear tires and up a little on the front. This will stop tire side wall flex. Check that 07 Dodge and I bet it has sway bars front & rear, what dose your truck have? Also what size and load range tires dose it have? I am guessing 16" and maybe a LT tire load range and bet you have a 15" car size load range tire on yours. What is the wheel base of his & your truck? I seen a post where a user had issues, vibration, pulling a open deck trailer with a newer Ford but did not with the his older trucks and a buddies. I dont remember what the outcome was. Maybe a WD hitch may help? Could add the sway control to it. I have yet to pull my car trailer with my F100 with a 300 six and NP435 trans but I plan to use the same WD hitch that I use with my 02 Dodge Durango when the time comes. The Dodge dose not use sway control but the WD hitch dose help in that some. Dave ---- ps I am also a steering wheel holder LOL and have pulled all kinds of trailers from when I started driving (16) and never had one that swayed really bad. Dave ----

It was a long day! The Javelin did not want to start, out of gas. Ever try and put gas in a tank that the fill is below the rear bumper behind the plate out of a gas can with out spilling half on the ground? By the time I got it running, the tires blown up and moved to the house garage the trash dump was open. We were over full with trash because they were closed last week for the holiday so did the weekly trash run. I wanted to do the timing cover gasket to fix the oil leak as it was getting pretty bad. The balancer gave me a hard time coming off. First had to figure out what puller would work, then what thread size fit the holes. I was hopping not to open the cooling system but the puller threaded part would not clear the radiator. I first just pulled the radiator up and put 4x4 blocks under it but I could not get the wrench to budge the balancer so in preping for the air tool I had to remove the radiator. I was then able to get a good push on the wrench,it was a fight all the way off. The old gasket was vary hard so no wonder it leaked. Got it all cleaned up, new seal in the cover, gasket glued to the cover and Right Stuff at the oil pan as I did not want to rip the rubber gasket out and then try to install the new one. Everything installed and running. I did not check for oil leaks just yet. When it first started I had a tick like a lifter and I never had that before. Oil was down a little but not to the point of lifter noise. I added ATF as a cleaner and let it run some to get it up to temp. As it was running the tick was less & less so hope its gone. I will change the oil in the morning and if I have time some other things before I do a quick de-grease of the motor & under side before I wash the truck for a show at 12pm. If it is raining and the show canceled I will do the oil change and maybe the de-greasing but will look into the recurving of the Dist. Dave ----

Picked up the timing cover gasket set, Dist. spring kit and vacuum advance unit Wed. It lucked out I dont have to work Fri. so the plan is to do the gasket and if I have time maybe pull the Dist. and change up 1 spring and the vacuum unit. I say time because I have a show New Years day meeting up with my car club at 11:30 and driving to the show as a group. Enough here time to make my hot tea and move cars around to get the truck in my garage. Happy New Year all! Dave ----

Little late FYI the AC harness is a add on to the normal factory harness. It then feeds out through the firewall to the needed places in the engine bay. Wish I got pictures of the AC harness when I had everything out of the truck. Dave ----

That is the big one to start with, level trailer. Then weight on the front of the trailer, front heavy / rear light of trailer. What do you have the rear & front tire PSI at on your truck? When ever I pull my trailer vary far I max the PSI on the rear tires and up a little on the front. This will stop tire side wall flex. Check that 07 Dodge and I bet it has sway bars front & rear, what dose your truck have? Also what size and load range tires dose it have? I am guessing 16" and maybe a LT tire load range and bet you have a 15" car size load range tire on yours. What is the wheel base of his & your truck? I seen a post where a user had issues, vibration, pulling a open deck trailer with a newer Ford but did not with the his older trucks and a buddies. I dont remember what the outcome was. Maybe a WD hitch may help? Could add the sway control to it. I have yet to pull my car trailer with my F100 with a 300 six and NP435 trans but I plan to use the same WD hitch that I use with my 02 Dodge Durango when the time comes. The Dodge dose not use sway control but the WD hitch dose help in that some. Dave ---- ps I am also a steering wheel holder LOL and have pulled all kinds of trailers from when I started driving (16) and never had one that swayed really bad.

No I have not will check it out soon Thanks Dave ----

Was he just out of the large cap dist. or he dose not do them? Cant you use the adapter the large cap uses to fit the small body to run the large cap? Thought that is all Ford did? Wait the dist. that uses the adapter screws to the dist. the small body dist. uses clips right? Dave ---- Took the truck out the long way to the parts store to order the spring kit and a vacuum advance, if the dist is pulled to do springs might as well do the vacuum can as I think it is for a car and not a heavy truck and may have different spring rates to start with. This way I hope the truck one puts me in the ball park come time for adjusting it. When I first started out motor cold, timing set to 10*, vacuum to dist. it would ping and got worst as the motor got up to temp. I pulled over and pulled the vacuum line and plugged it and that seam to stop the pinging but still want to do a little more testing at 10* and them bump it up 2* at a time till I get pinging, note deg. and back if off so it stops and report back. I also ordered the timing gaskets. The dist parts should be here today they said but will pick them up Wed. with the gaskets. Dave ----

Was he just out of the large cap dist. or he dose not do them? Cant you use the adapter the large cap uses to fit the small body to run the large cap? Thought that is all Ford did? Wait the dist. that uses the adapter screws to the dist. the small body dist. uses clips right? Dave ----

Two questions. 1) Are you running an OE stock smog head? I assume you are. 2) Is the 51* total at 3,000 rpm a cruise setting or is it what it flashed to when reving to 3,000? If you are going down the road pulling in 51* total timing at 3,000 rpm with light load I dont believe that is too much to cause pinging with OE heads. My 351W with the economizer vacuum valve pushes my light load advance at idle to 54* I think it is at 750 rpm idle with no sign of pinging. I look forward to hearing what you find when you go run the truck around with the 10* initial and full cw adjustment on the vacuum advance. That is one thing I think I am going to have to fine tune on my truck is the vacuum advance as I know mechanically its going to be limited to 32* - 34* advance to prevent ping under load. Not sure how far I can go with vacuum advance to dial it in. Are you running a new distributor? I hear a lot of the new distributors are not that accurate on the mechanical advance aspect. The guy who will be recurving my 85 mustang 302HO Cardone distributor informed me of that said that he will have to start off by welding the spring notches up and recutting them to get them where they need to be for my engine build. Temp wise on the thermostat it can have knocking with too much timing and a 195* thermostat or a carbon up cylinder with a 195* thermostat that bumps compression up. I have installed a failsafe high flow 195* thermostat installed in my 302 build since I am going aftermarket EFI, but I am making sure the recurving of the distributor is taking everything into account from the deletion of all emission systems, the use of higher compression aluminum heart shaped chambered heads and a aftermarket roller cam. Why I will just be letting this guy work his magic on my distributor then I will take over fine tuning the light load advance via the adjustable vacuum advance. Rusty, 1) First this is a 300 six motor if that makes a difference. I would think it is a smog head as the motor I think came from a car based on the exh. manifold I pulled off after the 81 head pipe would not fit it. I am running EFI exh manifolds and factory pipes less cat. Also the motor color, gray, I dont think was used on 81 truck 300 six motors? So yes on smog head, no smog equipment on motor, EGR blocked off. 2) I dont know if you would call that "flash" at 3000 RPM but was not driving down the road LOL It was 51* at 2500 RPM and I believe it was in by 2300 RPM from what testing I did. With vacuum hooked it either CCW or CW the pinging was really bad. With vacuum disconnected it was a lot less but still there. As Gary pointed out mechanical is coming in at 1500 RPM and at 45 / 50 MPH I am below that in OD. So I will work on getting this up to about 1700 / 1800 RPM with out vacuum and see if that stops the pinging with out vacuum then move on the vacuum advance. Thanks Dave ----

Gary you are right this needs to be done in stages. I did not look at the readings all that close yesterday but you say "1500 RPM" and I was getting pinging below that and even above that with no vacuum. If runing down the high way at 1800 RPM (or a little more) and floor it I would get pinging. I would like to get the initial timing back up to 168 but 148 would not be that bad either but I know that 10* its at now is going to kill power. At the 16* the truck started so nice cold & hot. Cold tap the pedal to set choke, not even put fuel in the intake, tap the key and it fires right up, hot dont need to hit the pedal just tap the key. I also have a little dieseling at the 10* that I did not have at 16* and the idle RPM is lower now, that is strange? Guess I have a little work ahead of me. Need to get that spring kit and and may pick up a new vacuum advance unit for this truck as I am sure the one one it is for a car. Thanks Dave ----

Thanks as every little bit helps if not me maybe someone else. I dont have "big iron heads" but 1 long iron head on this 300 six motor. Like you I do have the EGR blocked off and I have heard that a working EGR keeps the combustion temps down. I also have a 195* stat and hate to go colder as I have "milk shake" going on on the oil fill cap & the dip stick tube and think running cooler would only make it worse? Thanks Dave ----

I am making my rounds and have not gotten over there yet. It is not the valve cover but the timing cover at the top. I replaced the valve cover, side cover & oil pan gaskets before I put the motor back inthe frame and thought that would fix all the oil leaks. Then again the dirt & grease was so thick it was hard to tell where any oil was leaking form. The gasket between the block & cover must have a opening. At idle it does not leak but bring the RPM up and sure enough I can see where it is being pushed out. I tried to tighten the bolt close by but it did not move, think I tried before but did not see where it was leaking from. I was going to see about the gasket swap next weekend but I have a show on new years day. Maybe if I am off or out of work early Friday I can get on it and be done for the show? Dave ----

I had time and help from my son to get the timing curve I have now so lets see if I can get it posted up. Idle is @ 800 RPM, timing @ 16* BTDC, vacuum @ 19 HG steady. No vacuum hooked to dist. Idle 800 RPM - 16* 1000 RPM - 18* 1500 RPM - 24* 2000 RPM - 24* 2500 RPM - 24* 3000 RPM - 24* Vacuum hooked to dist. and adjustment all the way CCW Idle 800 RPM - 16* 1000 RPM - 16* 1500 RPM - 24* 2000 RPM - 24* 2500 RPM - 32* 3000 RPM - 34* Vacuum hooked to dist. and adjustment all the way CW Idle 800 RPM - 16* - 18* 1000 RPM - 20* 1500 RPM - 26* 2000 RPM - 30* 2500 RPM - 51* 3000 RPM - 51* It looks all timing is in by 2200 to 2300 RPM Vacuum to dist. starts at 1600 RPM - just starts to move vacuum gauge vacuum to change timing starts @ 2300 RPM @ 11 to 12 HG vacuum to change timing @ 2200 RPM @ 9 HG with adjustment all the way CCW vacuum to change timing @ 1900 RPM @ 2 HG with adjustment all the way CW I bumped the timing back to 10* BTDC and left the vacuum hooked up, all the way CW to see what happens when I take it out next time. I will plug off the vacuum if pinging get bad like I did before. Even with the vacuum disconnected I had pinging with timing @ 16* BTDC So where do I go from here Thanks Dave ----

Yep, top and bottom. There is a rivet at the bottom front, two on the engine crossmember, and one up above. I'll be putting bolts in those spots. The 4x2 frames have two holes (each side) at the front for the sway bar bracket (the one that always gets bent up on half tons). But of course the holes in the 4x2 frame don't line up with the holes in the 4x4 bracket. One of the holes is really close, so I may be able to trim the bracket to bring it in line with that existing hole. Tracked my timing curve to post up so I can get the pinging under control. Also tracked down the oil leak I have, timing cover gasket at top is bad. Will order the gasket set & dist. spring kit tomorrow. Dave ----

Today I had some time and my son was around to help me so I did some tracking of my timing curve so I hope to get a handle on the pinging. I have a post going on here and once I have a plan I will post back here what that will be. I need to order a Mr. Gasket dist. spring kit #925D and maybe a vacuum advance for it. I also see my oil leak has gotten pretty bad so I took a can of brake clean the cleaned the area I think it is coming from. I tighten the side cover bolts a little but dont think it is coming from it as it is coming from higher up. Once clean I ran the motor and got the RPM up and sure enough found the leak .......... top of the timing cover I will order the parts tomorrow and hope to have the timing gasket set and springs for next weekend but just remembered I have a car show so dont know when I will be able to get this done? ​​​​​​​Dave ----

So that's not much unless you are starting at 10.5:1 LOL We are what 8.5:1 so that would be 9:1 even I dont see that as an issue. Now I dont think I have heard of the EFI head raising the compression but think I seen it posted the chamber is shaped differently so the flame front is different, slower? Dave ----

Yes I have used them in the past with satisfaction. They also answer the phone, a rarity. Try calling Flaming River sometime, on the other hand. Grumpy folks. As to the JBG acronym, IDK. Just thinking but if the door is the issue I would think one way to check before pulling everything apart would be are both heater hoses hot? If both are hot then I would guess heat is not being pulled out of the water through the core. You did say you flushed the core both ways and that was good. So if you have flow and the hoses are both hot then a guess the door could be the issue. Dave ----

I got a question? I have heard the 240 head dose up the compression but I have not seen by how much. You are the first to say it will raise it too much. So what dose it bump it up to that is too much? Dave ----

The only electric pumps I have used is the Holley Blue pump with regulator. All used with Holley carbs and all in racing not street use so cant be much help there. Now I have seen it posted on the other site of the little square Facet pumps with no issues. https://www.google.com/search?q=napa+facet+fuel+pump&rlz=1C1KMZB_enUS571US571&oq=fauset+fuel+&aqs=chrome.2.69i57j0i10i13j0i10i22i30l3j0i22i30l5.10407j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 Just wire it up with all the safety steps installed. Dave ----

My bench top I got from HF the table moves up & down, can swing left & right 360* if you want and has multi speed by moving the belt to different pulleys. The table also has slots for a vice to hold the project I have had it years and has done me good so far. A table saw would be nice at times my have to look into this set up unless I can find a table top one, if they make them, for cheap as I dont see the need for the saw other wise. Dave ----

Terry, The original Flareside tailights were made by Grote, and up until recently Grote was making new lights almost identical to the originals. Look up Grote part numbers 52802 and 52812. Unfortunately, Grote obsoleted them earlier in 2021 sometime so they are no longer making them. If you check with heavy truck parts suppliers and Ebay, Amazon, etc, I'm sure you'll still find some kicking around. They are 'almost' identical. The wiring pigtail is different, but you can cut your old plugs off and splice them on to the new lights. You'd have to do this anyway to get the factory original rubber grommets that go into the rear stake pockets. The other difference is that the driver's side light has a bottom window to illuminate a license plate. I simply painted over mine with satin black and it matched perfectly (it's on the bottom of the housing so nobody will see it anyway). Here is the lens on the bottom of the driver's side light I'm talking about: I simply masked it off and painted it satin black. Matched great. Once installed, they look factory original, and they're way brighter than the originals, even with bulbs. The new 'fresh' plastic lenses are much nicer. An important note about the Flareside taillights that a lot of people don't know is that they came from the factory with NO ground wires. The taillights are grounded only through the three mounting studs to the bed itself. I think Ford may have run a dedicated ground wire later on...either in 1985 or 1986, but the earlier trucks definitely did not have it. Best thing to do is run a ground wire...either to a ground wire on the truck, or to the frame (that's what I did). You can attach it to one of the mounting posts and hide it somewhat. You don't necessarily need it, but I think the lights will work better and be more reliable with a ground wire. JMTCW. You can see my ground wire below: As for the LED taillights, I'm not much help with those. I did buy two sets of these Grote 52802 and 52812's for both Flaresides, but as of this past summer they were getting harder to find. I did the same thing on my flare side as Cory did with the tail lights. I spliced the pig tails from the old broken lights to the new ones so I had the part from light to bed and the plug so I could plug into the tail light harness that I had to make from a style side tail light harness. I also painted the clear part for the plate light. The only thing I did not do was paint the inside white (do not use high gloss) like the factory did IIRC. I use normal bulbs and I think they are pretty bright. BTW there is a plate bracket made just for the flare side and it has a place to mount the plate light. The plate light was used on a few different cars it was just in a different color but you never see it when on the truck. A member makes & sells the plate bracket and fits great till I moved my trailer hitch brackets then I had to cut it to fit around the brackets Picture is before the mod to plate bracket. Dave ----

I was going to say the same thing on the light switch, not all had them on the right side but the wiring was there IIRC. Also good job on the re-wiring. It always takes longer to do the job right Dave ----

That may not be the thread for this, but this thread is, so... The plan this winter / spring is a pretty major redo of the front suspension (among other things). The goal that started all of this is getting my radius arm mounts up higher. I lowered them a long time ago to fix my caster problems, but they are now a limiting factor. I high-center on them pretty frequently. But raising the radius arm mounts isn't something I can just do. I don't know if you're familiar with the concept of a snowball in projects like these??? So the way it goes is... Raise the radius arm mounts to gain clearance. . But that won't get my U-joint angle low enough, so the other change planned is to rotate the differential forward to raise the pinion. In addition to improving the U-joint angle in the double Cardan joint at the transfer case that will also let me get the angle in the single Cardan U-joint at the diff closer to zero, which will help with the driveline vibration I now have in 4WD. However rotating the axle forward will mess up my caster even more than just raising the radius arm mounts will. And remember, I did that to fix a caster problem originally. So the plan now is to cut the inner "C"s off the axle ends and turn them back to fix the camber. Oh, and putting a skid plate under the transfer case seems like a good idea now too. (I'm sure you have no experience with scope creep like that!) You may want to rethink the "C" cup change after rotating the axle. I say this because the caster & camber is built into the axle not the "C cups". You raised & lowered the arms / C cups and that rotated the axle getting the angels back where the factory had them. If you rotate the axle up for the pinion you have changed the caster / camber and moving the C cups back so they line up will do nothing to the caster / camber angels. So besides maybe moving the C cups so they will line up with out binding when you rotate the axle pinion up you will need to cut the ends off the tubes and rotate them back where the factory had them and weld them back on. Now you might be able to cheat by marking the tubes at the center section, pull them out / rotate them back to factory spec for caster / camber and weld them to the center section. I know sounds easy right? I just did not want you to go through the C cup change and find the truck was all over the road because the caster / camber angels were way off. Dave ----

So I have to pull the dist. and pull it apart to check if the springs I have will work, great Dave ----