grumpin

If you used either with the glow plugs, you might want to put a multimeter on the glow plugs and check for continuity. My 7.3 IDI always started better with the block heater plugged in before start. I got a heavy duty appliance timer and set it to come on 2-3 hours before I went to work, depending on the temperature.

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Nice! Great job!

Nice! I like Bullwinkle!

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Interesting! Nice pictures! I don’t think I can be on a ship like that with all those people. I did go on a helicopter carrier, but that was a little different and I was 20 or so years old.

Ok, new development. From more internetting, I was told there was another way to do this. Bypass the idler pulley completely and run the "upper" belt under the tensioner. See pic below: I am using an old cut belt here with two needlenose Visegrips holding it together below the tensioner. According to my measuring, it comes out to about 93.25", so I went out and bought a 93" belt and can confirm that it doesn't fit. I think I'm going to try a 93.5" belt on it. The good news is that if this works it will save me from spending a couple hundred on a smog pump delete kit, and it gives more than 180 degrees wrap on the alternator pulley, for what little that is worth. That’s cool! Actually looks better operational wise to me.

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I wouldn’t take that chance either. Install it and find out it slips. I’m surprised a shorter belt doesn’t work. Bummer!

Spendy, but low miles.

https://medford.craigslist.org/cto/d/prospect-1983-ford-250/7458824571.html Not too bad. Interesting place to mount the trailer brake control.

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Congrats!

Where does it leak? Mine doesn’t leak.

Mr. Peabody, that’s great! I called one of my helicopters in the Marine Corps “The Thunderbolt Grease Slapper” after the Tom Slick cartoon race car.

Well that's a good question Dane. The Toyota 4x4 box is a good match because it used a "push/pull" steering system like the old Ford pickups had. The steering box mounts to the inside of the frame, but the sector shaft pokes THROUGH the frame and the drag link runs parallel to the frame and connects to a ball joint on the driver's side spindle. Here's a picture I saved from one of the forums showing the drag link outside the frame. So the 1979-1984 Toyota 4x4 trucks were probably the most modern vehicle to utilize this type of steering...I'm not sure. From what I can tell, the Toyota steering swap was really common in the 1990's and into the early 2000's, but it has since been replaced with some better aftermarket options. Problem is, the aftermarket boxes have been unavailable due to Covid delays, and nobody could say when they would be available, so I went "old school" and scrounged parts to do the Toyota swap. The problem with THAT, is that the Toyota steering boxes and the associated parts that go with them are getting really hard to find. I was lucky enough to find them all, but it took a lot of scrounging. I was faced with two bad options lol. Wait for the aftermarket boxes to become available, with an unknown ETA, or try to do a Toyota steering box swap (which in basically an obsolete option in 2022) haha. Anyway, I lucked out. Ask me in a couple months how it's working, and maybe it will have been a terrible idea in hindsight. I'm pretty good at those, too. There are also complete front end swaps, and aftermarket rack and pinion kits as well, but I was trying to avoid both of those options. There have been some rumors floating around here in recent years that the qualifications for Antique plates and basic roadworthy-ness are going to tighten up by quite a bit, so I wanted to leave the front end as stock-ish as possible. The Ford C2 pump should run the Toyota box just fine, or at least I have read reports that they do. Well that’s interesting! That picture looks like a cool setup. I had an 87 4Runner, traded it for my truck probably 5 years ago now. It was getting hard to find stuff for it. Competing with a lot of the world for parts for the older Toyotas. Particularly South America is what I read and heard.

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Nice! Looking good! Why the Toyota box? Good fit for a 302?

https://eugene.craigslist.org/cto/d/albany-1980-ford-f150-cc-2wd/7457154005.html Lots of pictures and info. Man, I’d like to go get this for all the parts on it for $1800!

I’ve never had a straight six, but admire the access too. And that good ol’ low end torque!