FuzzFace2

Truck is looking good. I did not do the waxing but I did wash my truck today, first time in a week it has not rained, also did the wife's car. I also find if a window is down a little the doors, mostly the passenger door, is easier to close also. I hate you on the almost 17 mpg Good luck on the door panels and color coat. Dave ----

I think you are right on the lawn & garden tractor part as they say mine is a garden tractor and does take implements. I could have picked up a rear tiller but because my tractor does not have a rear PTO, only a deck PTO, and the PTO could be $$ so I passed on it, kick myself now LOL. My tractor comes in 3 different model numbers: 2 are 22 hp water cooled 2cyl Kawasaki motors. The 425 has a carb, 445 like mine is F.I. and the 455 is a 3cly water cooled diesel. When I was a kid dad picked up a Craftsman tractor, that was set on fire and think why he got it, that had a geared transaxle with the high/low gearing. We did not need it for the small yard we had but was fun to drive around the yard. Dave ----

When we moved I told the wire "no yard equipment will be stored in MY garage" so we bought this shed. I wanted a larger one the wife smaller so this is what we got. It is a premade unit. You pick everything you want and where it should be placed on the shed the colors, etc. When done they call you to set up a day to bring and set it up, comes on a flat bed trailer. They only thing they ask when you buy it is if you have the room to get it where you want it and give you the dimentions. I had to make the ramp longer to get the tractor in easier, add the stairs for code and painted the floor & ramp. I also had water & power run to it when I upgraded my garage so I have an outlet and lights inside & out. One of my dogs likes to go under it guess it is cooler than in the shade by the house? Dave ----

I guess if you have to get thru a small opening then big is not the way to go. The smallest opening I have to go thru is the small roll up garage door to the shed I keep all the yard equipment in. No yard equipment is kept in MY garage! Dave ----

Mine does have a 60" deck but I have seen think 54"decks and maybe a 48" I just don't know the widest part of the tractor with out the deck. If it takes 3+ hours with a 60" deck I am not going smaller! Dave ----

If Jim is on a phone how would you do that? Don't think I have ever heard of it done on a phone but guess there has to be a way? Dave ----

What no gas gauge on that puppy Because mine is also water cooled I have temp gauge but only a ALT light for charging and 1 for PTO. Because mine is also what they call F.I., high psi carb, when you first turn the key on the prim light comes on and when off you can start, just like a diesel and they make my size in a diesel and the dash has the glow plug light but not used. Dave ----

Good to hear just throwing things out there that may bring up a "Oh damn I should check that". Good luck Dave ----

Nice new & shinny What made you get a tractor over a zero turn? Everyone tells me I can get done faster with a zero turn but I don't have that many things go around and you cant use a zero turn for plowing 20'x30' gardens. A radio headset and you can really enjoy cutting the grass I have an older larger brother I picked up used and after sitting on it for 3+ hours cutting the grass I sometimes think its too small. With power steering, adjustable wheel & spring ride seat, cruise control, cup holder and hydro drive / deck lift & 3 point hitch its a beast. I also have plows for the garden and 4way for up front but get no snow here to use it. Dave ----

So they did run out of the flex plate and the converter and came up good. I did not see or hear anything on the locating dowels on the motor to bell housing. If missing or loose in the bell or motor the center line of the crank & transmission could be off and this will cause the flex to crack. Also thinking is this housing new to the truck? along the same lines of the dowels if the housing was machined off center it could cause flex plate issues. I know when running a blow proof bell housing you need to check that the center hole the trany centers on is centered to the crank center line and use off set dowel pins to re-center it. Now I would think a transmission shop would have checked all this but could be one of them things that you don't check for everyday and over looked it this time? Was the same converter reused with each broken flex plate? If so yes I would change it just because but if it did balloon I have not known then to go back to normal size. I also have not seen one balloon at 3000 RPM but also have not been around them all that much. It is the smaller dia. high stall racing converters they put the anti-balloon plates on that run the higher RPM. Dave ----

I don't have one but FYI the single & dual tank trucks use different harnesses, it is not an add on harness. I did see in the 7x-79 truck area on another forum they used a add on 2nd tank harness wonder if this could be found and used on our trucks? Dave ----

Restored a couple years ago and looking like that? And what is a 2000 cam? Other than looking at pictures I don't see a $8000+ truck there do you? Dave ----

I have not looked at the wiring link but I don't see why it would make a difference if the large starter cable was moved to the other side of the relay on the fender with the battery cable and a 10ga wire run from the output of the trucks relay to the PMGR trigger lug. This way the relay is only supplying trigger power to the PMGR starter unlike it was with the Ford factory set up. My drag car's PMGR starter is wired this way and works great. Dave ----

Good you found it as I don't know how much help I would have been. My truck is an 81 with a 300 six and all I had to do was swap in the tach gauge cluster and it worked. So if anything had to be done at the ICM area to get the tach to work I did not need to do. Yea looking at the wiring on a phone can be hair pulling Dave ----

Cory, I am also envious of you getting 17 MPG, I am lucky to hit 15 but I also have not done anything to help it any either and I don't have over drive (yet). The waving, thumbs up and yelling "nice truck" is one reason I love driving my truck. As for leaks & drops mine is anti-rusting the bottom with a oil leak out the front of the motor that I need to look deeper into and fix. Other than that its great like yours. Creature comforts, I did most of them before the truck got on the road. The best has to be the delay wipers and if I was driving it this week, no work in 4 days so it sits in the garage, I would need them as it has rained everyday and why no work. I need to install a carpet also what do you have down now? I have bare metal floor with roll on bed liner now, not so much for road noise as it will help but when the front tires kick up a stone and it hits the floor bottom it sounds like someone shot a gun inside and it happens a lot more than you would think. Enjoy your vacation and putting miles on the truck & smiles on your face. Dave ---- ps I love your pictures you post with / from you truck. We don't really have anything around here worth taking pictures like that

Oh wow. Mine were actually about 8" too long, I had to cut them to fit. They're actually a little better today. I'm going to give them a little time to see if they settle in better. Yep so were mine, had to cut the end or they over lap and you cant have that under the door sill as it would not fit. Dave ----

Yes sir. You just reminded me of something. Another comment that somebody made was that the original door seals were some kind of rubber coated foam? This is why they complied much easier...obviously this issue didn't exist on the assembly line, right? So, one thing somebody suggested was to go buy new OEM door seals from a current model vehicle, and that they'll work much better (and of course be much more expensive). I don't think the heat was meant to change the shape of the rubber per se, but to help it find it's shape when compressed by the door. If the door seals never change shape, then there will be no choice but to cut and trim them. Going by some reports of the replacement seals never complying, then that may be the only solution. I went with the Fairchild kit based on what you posted. Now I did adjust the latches but they were removed for painting and installed to keep the doors from flying open when moving the truck around till the seals were installed. My drivers door closes pretty good its the passengers side that I have to slam. I use the door as much as the drivers door as I throw my lunch cooler & work tools in on that side. But I think it is more because the door is bent a little. I say this because I can see the upper rear inside of the window frame has hit the cab door opening and chipped the paint. Some day I will see about bending it back a little with the "body man's trick" and see if that helps on closing. The opening lines are not show truck but pretty good for a driver and I hate to go messing them up or chipping paint if the door hits the opening or fender. I don't think I could bring myself to cut the rubber just to get the door to close better where adjusting the latch may do the trick. Dave ----

I thought that wire was out by the ICM on the fender well? I could be wrong as when I added a tach to my truck, also a 300 six, it worked so did not have to go digging. As for the radio where were you checking for power? At the end of the plug that the radio wires plug in to or somewhere else? Now a WAG are you sure the junk yard radio even works? Maybe that was the last straw, radio stop working, and why the truck was scrapped? A few wires, speaker or 2 and a battery and you can bench test it. That is what I did to my Ebay radio did not even use the ant. and got a few stations. Now on the clock, depending on the year of the truck the clock came from and the year it is going into you may have to "rewire" to get it to work. IIRC there were 3 different ways & wire colors over the years but if I could do it I am sure others can also do it. BTW bench test the clock also. Dave ----

I have used flux core, CO2 & Argon mix. The CO2 gives a better weld than flux core and Argon gives a better weld than CO2. The CO2 fell off the truck so when empty I don't think I can get it filled. The Argon thank I bought as it made more cense as it would sit maybe for years before needing to be refilled. Why pay rent for something just sitting on the welding cart? I have never heard of brittle welds with Argon mix. My 81 F100 also have both doors cracked and that little brace were broken on both doors. Dave ----

Tabco did the same when I put in my order. They called me and said some of the panels over lapped by a lot and did not need 1 or 2 but sent a flat sheet I could use as a filler if needed. Bed is looking good. Dave ----

Haha so true. If you get a chance and want to, I wouldn't mind seeing your dash cover. We may be in the minority rocking carpet dash covers but I know when I was looking I was a bit overwhelmed by the different offerings from Covercraft alone and would have liked to have see a few examples actually in our trucks. Dash looks great I have the dash pad cover and I painted it to match the other painted parts inside but I am finding during the day light hours, I drive to work in the dark, the sun reflects off the top back onto the windshield making it hard to see. So I am thinking of getting the rug cover and if I can help it not use the Velcro also. Dave ----

All of my pictures I post are first uploaded to my web site and they show right side up on there but some of them when I post them on here turn sideways. Now what I don't remember is if I turn them before or after they are on my site? I want to say before but will have to make sure I turn them before uploaded to my site. Dave ----

I have pulled trailers of all types & sizes, some with and other with out WDH and different trucks. I have never used air bags or air shocks for that matter to level off the power unit. The thing I don't like about the bags is you are putting all the weight on the rear axle & tires vary little is moved to the front as the trucks & trailer frames are not 1 like with the WDH. If you were to scale all axles you would see this, the front & rear axle weight would stay close if not the same with air bags because all you did was push the rear of the truck up on the rear axle. As for WDH set up, once you have it set for that car / truck & trailer combo it stays the same, never changes. So the next time you go to hook up count the links and set the bars and done. If you have more that 1 trailer that you tow with that car / truck just get another set of trailer brackets and again once set up with that combo the links on the bars stay the same but could be different than trailer #1. With my car trailer and the 86 K5 diesel Blazer I did not need a WDH and it towed great. A 8 person pop up hard side camper w/elect. brakes no WDH. When I towed my 21' TT but did use the WDH, trailer was set up for it, but did not do a lot of towing of it. Now the only thing I have towed with my 02 Durango is my car trailer and from the second I put the trailer on the ball I knew I needed the WDH as the hitch would drag pulling out of the drive and that was with out a car on the bed. It never crossed my mind to go with air bags with this truck as I have always used WDH and had different bars for the different trailer weights I might pull. I also feel the WDH will slow sway as you have 3 points of contact with the trailer, ball and the 2 bars. You can also add 1 or 2 sway control bars if you need them. Only the TT's did we use 1 sway control with as they have big flat sides that wind hits to cause sway. My car trailer being a open deck the wind does not push it around as much so I don't run sway control on it with the WDH. Oh I also pulled a 2 car open deck trailer, converted large boat trailer, with a 76 E350 (460/C6) and did not use WHD or sway control so a lot also has to do with what you are using to pull with and what is being pulled. Dave ----

Thanks I may have a full seat from a buddy around the corner. He has 2 trucks and is using the best parts to make 1 good truck. I did ask him when he was done to let me know what he had left over and he may want for it. It could also turn into my next project., Cab is in pretty bad shape, no motor or trans, frame what I seeis in good shape. It does not have a bed but someone showed me a flare bed only for not much money a few weeks back. Work has been really slow and hate to spend the money on a bed and not have a truck to fit it on. Sorry for the hi jack Dave ----

Nice project should be able to get out of its own way I like the seat, did not know the big boys had them cut like that. I now wish I did not trash the base from my parts truck as I could have mod it to do the same as I may need it for the next upgrade to my project. Dave ----