FuzzFace2

Yes, earlier year, when we met at your home! OK GTG! Thanks guys. I picked up a timing light so I just got to get the truck in to install the AFR gauge and go over timing more. Don't think I will get to it this weekend cold & raining calls for staying in the dry warm house. LOL Dave. ----

I would to say vans have the long dip sticks out the front so if the oil pans are the same and the motor was changed it could be a van motor / dip stick. Are the 2 trucks 4x4? If so maybe that's why? Dave ----

But it take 2 times as much alcohol than gas to make the same power and what if the 10% listed on the pump is on high end of teens? I am going to pick up a timing light later today and hope it warms up some, was 25*f when I went out at 2am and is only 28*f now. Maybe I will move the Javelin out so I can fire up the heater in the garage? I have other things that I can also do to the truck today. I will got to the bottom of the ping. Dave ----

I know its a BIG step when they move under their own power well done At least you did not have the issues I had even moving it in / out of the garage, broke the Z bar pivot on the motor side both moving in the garage and the first drive. Do you know what you are doing for a bed yet as I think you said you don't have all the needed parts to put the flare side back on. Dave ----

They make door bars that swing out just for door slammers. Dave ----

Ethanol must have some part in the pinging? We do have non-ethanol gas but to go through the trouble of getting it and may be some where were I cant get it I want to tune for Ethanol. Still working on the "way rich" part, got to get the AFR gauge installed. As for the oil guess I will just dial back the timing if that is the cause. Dave ----

I have a Propane Construction Heater dual temp, think 30,000 / 125,000, in my concrete floor & wood walls 3 bay garage. It heats it up pretty fast, it does have a little smell in the garage but none that stays on you to take into the house or store if you have to run down the street for a part. I got it through Northern Tool, don't see it listed now, and run it off I think its a 40lb tank. I cant remember if I used it when it was say in the 30's in the garage but its been pretty cold and did not have any tool sweating that I remember. I would start the heater then back in the house to make a cup of tea and head back out and the chill was gone. Little more time and I can take off my coat to work and I could cut the heater back to its low setting. The down side of any fire type heater is you cant do anything with flammable vapors or BOOM! Dave ---- ps: my garage dose not have insulation (yet)

When I first got the truck on the road the pinging was worst and I adjusted the vacuum back a good amount to stop most of the pinging. I did think about adjusting it again as it is easy to do and as said would keep the timing earlier. It did start with just a tap of the key when it was up pretty high, still not bad where its at. Before the adjusting yesterday it would ping at about 1800 RPM @ 45 MPH in 4th gear -back roads. After I got a little pinging at about 1400 /1500 RPM @ 68 MPH in 4th over drive - high way, did not ping at the 1800 RPM/45 MPH so going in the right direction. Do you remember when working on David/1986F150Six's what octane was used and if it had ethanol? I am using regular so low octane and it does have ethanol. I have run a tank(s) of mid grade octane and had no pinging before I did the adjusting yesterday so octane dose make a difference in my truck. I am also guessing the blow by has to be making pass the rings and a part cause of the pinging also even if I don't get any oil smoke out the tail pipe. A little more time and a good timing light we will get her dialed in Dave ----

I fussed with the truck today but did not get the AFR gauge installed as much as my son wanted me to. I have heard more pinging of late and wanted to see where the timing was set at as I have not checked since I bought the truck. With the cheap flash light battery powered one I have it was up around 16* to 18* bumped it back to about 12* to 14*. It is a lot better but still hear a little pinging so will bump it back a little more. Factory should be 6* but I am sure I can go a little more. I need to get a timing light with dial back to do it right. I also looked into the PCV to see if that is why I am getting the milk shake on the oil fill cap. It looks like it is working as it should but I also see I have a little more blow by than I would like. When I first got the truck I checked the compression and I was happy with it so don't know why the blow by. Dave ----

I am running the Xtra Vision's in my pick up and I do a lot of driving at night. I also run the Xtra Vision's in my 02 Durango, H4 bulb from the back, and they also don't last too long but I will take changing bulbs over not seeing The XV do put out more light than the normal non-halogen. As for the Silver Stars, me being cheap I cant bring myself to pay $26ea for a bulb that has a shorter life than the XV bulbs at $18ea. Have to see how long the XV last and maybe next time go for the SS's Dave ----

Well after the weekly trash run I did a little fussing on the truck. First I have been getting a lot of pinging again, most likely junk gas, but wanted to see where the timing was set at. All I had for a timing light is my crappy Flaming River flash light battery powered one I got for the drag car, no power in the engine bay on drag car for a normal timing light. Well not being able to see any marks we (son was helping) had to find & mark the balancer and a few of the points on the number panel. Son said at idle of about 800, no vacuum, it was about 16* to 18* that he could see, no wonder why it was pinging! Bumped it back to about 10* to 12*, factory is 6*. I still have a little pining so will bump it back a little more just to be safe till I can get a good dial back timing light. When you say "3psi" should that be 3hg as in vacuum? I did check the PVC and it seams to be working as it was pulling a vacuum. I put a few wraps of tape around the PVC as it was a little lose in the grommet. I also checked to see if I was getting a vacuum on the fresh air hose into the motor on the valve cover. I can feel a vacuum but it is not great. I also seem to have a little more blow by than I would like. It is the first time I had the PCV out of the cover with motor running but other wise the motor runs great and had good compression when I checked when I first bought the truck. I also have a AFR gauge but had a few honey do jobs so will have to install it to see where the carb tune is at. More work is needed to dial in the motor better. Dave ----

I appreciate the rest of your post, with your observations and comments. But this one sentence is where many people get confused about how automatic lockers work, and it gets them thinking about them the wrong way, leading to people thinking they understand them but really don't, so they find automatic lockers unpredictable. The locker locking was not what made your tires make noise. It was the fact that it was UNLOCKED that made your tire (singular) make noise. Going around a corner you're only driving the inside rear tire, the tire with the least weight on it. Any little power will slip that tire and it will make noise. But the locker isn't engaged (yet). The Ken Brock impersonation come from when that spinning inside tire catches up to the outside tire. That's when the locker locks. And at that point you can spin BOTH rear tires so things get fun (or not ). When the Lock Right was for a lack of a better word "free wheeling" or coasting around a corner you could hear the locker ratcheting or clicking and no tire noise. As soon as you gave it any power it would not ratchet or click and the tires would make noise. At that point when not ratcheting or clicking and the tires would start to make noise to me the axles are locked and act like a spool at that point. Weather 1 tire is moving faster to catch up or the other slowing down a tire still need to slip as they are in 2 different arcs and only happens when locked. Unlocked they are free to move at different speeds around corners. I also thought any time a locker was under power the axles were locked like a spool. That is why a locker in a rock climber can have 1 tire in the air and the other tire will get power 100% of the power. Put both tires on the ground and they share power so both have 50% of the power going into the axle housing. I will say I knew what I was in for before I installed the locker in the short wheel base car with no weight on the drive tires. I can also tell you if 1 tire has little to no traction it will "bulldozer" turn big time. Drag racing there must have been a little water under 1 of the tires and when the light turned green and I hit it and the car turned right to the start tree! After I got it under control I thought I spun a axle hub as the axle and hub are pressed together with a large nut but both were still in good shape and why I guess water. I will also say I don't think I would ever install a locker in a car or truck I would be driving in ice & snow because of how the Lock Rock works but I like the 2 LS I had from the factory in my trucks on ice & snow. Just my .02 Dave ----

Yes, I'm talking about the ratcheting kind of lockers. Detroit Locker, Yukon Grizzly, LockRight, Aussie Locker, Spartan Locker, that type. Limited slips aren't lockers and I don't use the term "locker" referring to them. You are certainly entitled to your opinion, and as long as you're talking about your own vehicle, my opinion (or anyone else's) doesn't carry any weight. But an automatic locker is nothing like a tight clutch-type limited slip. A clutch-type limited slip ties the two sides together, just like a spool, until the torque exceeds the slip torque of the clutches. If it's set up tight enough it is effectively a spool. That's almost always a problem on ice (even the limited slip in my truck that was too worn out to start on the top of that hill was too tight for coasting around a corner on ice). But if it's set up really tight it can even act like a spool on the street. But like I've been saying, an automatic locker will always freely allow one tire to turn faster, so you never get that kind of bind going around a corner with one. You might hear a clicking from the clutches, but there won't be any bind. That's not to say automatic lockers have good street manners. Lot's of people don't like them on the street, and as I said earlier, I don't really want one in a truck that I'm letting my kids drive. But their bad manners have nothing to do with the bad manners of a tight limited slip. When you go around a corner the locker unlocks and lets the outside tire go faster. But that means that it's only driving the inside tire. That gives noticeable torque steer which some people find too annoying. Having one wheel drive also means that it's really easy to spin that tire if you get on the power too much (and "too much" might be really just a little, depending on conditions). When you do spin the inside tire it goes faster (duh!) and it will soon be going the same speed as the outside tire. Once the outside tire isn't trying to go faster than the inside tire the locker will reengage, and there's no slip, so it will reengage abruptly. That sudden load can easily break the outside tire loose as well, making the back end kick out pretty abruptly. That's the bad manners that make me less willing to have my kids or wife driving it, especially in the snow. But automatic lockers are completely predictable if you understand them. And if you are able and willing to adjust your driving to manage the lockers quirks they aren't bad on the street (personally I think they are much easy to live with than a clutch-type limited slip). But not everyone is able to drive to a locker, and even fewer are willing to. So they definitely aren't for everyone. An open diff really isn't much worse than any traction-aiding diff in most circumstances. An open diff will give you twice as much force pushing you forward as the tire with the least traction is capable of providing. The best that any traction-aiding diff can add is the additional force that the tire with the most traction can provide. And in most situations that difference isn't huge. Where the difference is significant is in things like rock crawling where one tire might be in the air, or on ice when one tire is on pavement, or in drag racing (and from what you said above I'd group your needs with that) where the driveshaft torque tries to lift the right rear tire. It's places like that where limited slips, lockers and spools can provide enough benefit to outweigh their downsides. A rear locker wouldn't be particularly bad for your U-joints. You are much more likely to break an axle shaft with a locker than you are anything in the driveshaft. It's just that the U-joints in front axles are the weak link there. So breaking an axle U-joint with a front locker is a pretty common thing. And locker-induced failures aren't likely to happen on the freeway. They are generally due to torque overloads, and that can't really happen at 75 mph. Instead they'll happen when you dump the clutch, or start bouncing the truck trying to climb up a rock. So I don't think you should be too worried about a rear locker for those safety concerns. But I'm still not saying that you'll like a locker. I think a TrueTrac sounds like a really good fit for that application. I have had LS in both my 86 K5 Blazer and my 02 Durango in the snow and even pulling a trailer (Blazer) and never did I feel un easy on how the trucks were going to react even around corners. I have a Lock Right locker in my 75 factory v8 AMC Gremlin, 92" wheel base car. I have only tried moving it in snow because I had to and even with both back wheel "locked" it was not moving but I think that was mostly because no weight over the rear drive wheels. Driving when dry out any "little" power around a corner would lock and the tires would make noise. That's not cool with the police around. I have driven the car in the rain and that was a lot of fun "not" if you were not ready for it around a corner. Ken Brock had nothing on me in the rain I also run a Detroit Locker in my 70 AMC Javelin drag car and has worked great in the car. I figured if I ever went to a spool in the drag car I would use the DL in my 70 Javelin street car. A lot of weather to run a locker or a LS for me had to do with what I was going to do with the car or truck and ease to install. The 86 & 02 trucks were factory installs, the Lock Right I installed as was the Detroit Locker, both for drag racing at the time. Dave ----

Curious, what route did you go in the halogens? I had to replace a head light bulb on my truck and being they should be replaced in pairs I did so. I went from Wagner's halogen sealed bulbs to Sylvania halogen sealed bulbs. The Wagner's were a whiter light and the beam was a little more centered and farther down the road than the Sylvania's. I also ran relays with both sets of lights so apples to apples. I have used a name brand high end light with the bulb in from the back side in my 86 Blazer and on low beam could not tell they were on most of the time. high beam they were better than the factory sealed beams, cant remember now if the factory were halogens or not? I will not go with that type of bulb again if I can help it. Dave ----

Both of my 81's did not have the clutch switch and if so I would have most likely jumped it out as part of the rebuild. When I was learning to drive I was told on ANY stick car or truck push the clutch to the floor before turning the key. On my work truck we leave them out of gear, air brakes set, and even knowing it is out of gear I still push the clutch in before starting it when I am sitting inside the truck. Dave ----

What Gary said I always use a larger box wrench over the end of the wrench to get more lavage. Might have to make something like that with scrap I have around. Dave ----

After running my truck with 2 coats of roll on bed linter top & bottom of the floor for a bit and then installing (used) carpet I say carpet all the way all the time! It cut down on so much road noise its not even funny. I cant say about the road noise and rubber mat as I never drove the truck that way but I can't see it being much different than the bed liner floor. I also hear the rubber mats don't last all that long before they start to crack. If worried about muddy or wet feet on the carpet get some cheap floor mats. Someone also gave me used carpet floor mats that match the carpet but I would have found something that would of worked. Maybe hit the junk yard and see what you can find in the cars or trucks there. Dave ----

As for the look, maybe you could put a bag over it? Now that is funny right there I guess I never really went through the post for that master swap and the valve / line as I never wanted to do the swap. Dave ----

Its just me where I can just un-bolt and bolt back up with out changing other parts like the brake line because of the fitting size. I know some said you can get the fitting off a JY truck but I cant get to JY's. Yes he did say "rust" and the newer master would not rust LOL. Yes my master has rusted a little but so far no leaking lid. It's just me (OCD) I don't like the look of the newer master in the older engine bay. Dave ----

I am here Jim is right the hinges can be moved up/down & in/out. Now if you adjust the top hinge in to close the gap, may not need to move much because of where the hinge is to the top of the door (pivot point), it will kick the bottom of the door out also (pivot point again). Cory is also right on what he posted. Roll window down all the way, I would open the vent window so as not to "bend it" and then bend the top of the door in as needed. The vent frame will make it a little harder to bend the door frame but it will bend. You could remove the vent frame but you will need to remove the door glass to do so and that is a lot of work just to bend the top of the door frame. You may want to try a little of both, adjust the hinge and bend the door. Just know on the hinge you will need to loosen both upper & lower, upper more than lower, to get the top to move in. It's up to you what one to do first? Because I am some what lazy I would try the "bend" first then the adjust the hinge. BTW I think my right door sticks out the same way in that upper corner but I have not seen any rain water come in when driving the truck. Good luck Dave ----

I have HYB's on my 81 F100 4x2 flare side I got through LMC. I was ordering other parts at the time so why not right LOL If for my everyday SUV I would check with the local parts store and get a middle of the road price shock. On an 86 K5 Blazer w/6.2 diesel I ran Rancho's with the factory suspension but I found they were a little to stiff and broke the mounts. Had 1 front mount and the same rear mount 2 time break. Truck also had 230K on it when I sold it so guess that not bad over 16 years I know guys say go for the newer plastic type master but I like "KISS" and went with the stock master. I also had to replace the booster at the same time and got both from the local parts store (AZ). I was also pressed for time as I needed to use the truck so did not want to fuss making it work. My brake system was drained and parts replaced as part of the rebuild so the fluid was new and clean. Dave ----

That carpet does look great. As for the vents my truck also came with them but were pulled as part of the rebuild. I still have them as I was thinking of re-installing them but now with the AC working I don't see the need to have the windows open when raining. Before the AC I had to have the heat going, yes even in the summer, to keep the glass clear what a PITA that was. I also don't want to drill any holes in the truck after all the work I did to it LOL. As for the wind noise do you have the rubber strips that fit between the pillar & roof corner and door? I hear the later 80's trucks had them and people that have installed them say it makes a difference. I have yet to install mine that came with the rubber seal kit I got off Ebay a while back. I do get some wind noise but I just turn the radio up more Dave ----

I think on the 302 motors that is just an inslated cable holder to keep it from the exhaust pipe. On the 300 six there is the same holder for the power to starter but there is also a ground cable with a tab bolted to the same frame bolts to ground the frame. Dave ----

Other than Detroit Muscle Technologies I don't think any one makes anything for our trucks. I have used DMT kit on my 70 AMC Javelin and the fit was great. Give DMT a call as they may not list the kit on line but may have them. Good luck Dave ----

As far as I know you can prime them the same as any other engine. I was going to prime mine but didn't bother Gary. Mind you, mine was only inoperable for 5-10 years, and not 29 lol. In my case I decided that it was probably going to cause me more grief trying to dislodge the distributor and get it all back in there and timed properly. Worry on priming the oil system after pounding on the top of a piston that the rings are rusted to the walls? I would of worried more that I would break off the top piston ring land when pounding on it! Also how did he know what way to turn the crank when pounding on the piston? He could of been forcing it up when the other guy is pounding it down. Dave ----