Rembrant

Holy smokes on the price... Is that one of the ones for mounting inside the bed on a Styleside?

Well done David and Barry both!

Gary, no sir...I don't need to know that badly at all. I was just curious. I already have the bar, and it will either fit or it won't. If it doesn't, I'll find another one, no big deal at all.

Yes, pretty much Gary. I wonder though, what was the original Bullnose part number used before the E9TZ-C? That part number obviously replaced an earlier version. And what was the difference with the HD or Snow Plow option? Heavier springs and/or Quad front shocks?

Hey Gary, I finally got a set of the factory brackets that I was originally looking for back when I started this thread. The front swaybar I have is from a 4x4 F150...year unknown, but I believe 1991. I've read several times previously that the swaybars were all the same, at least the 7/8" front bars. What changed was how they were mounted, apparently? I was looking at the parts list, and it looks like the E9TZ-5482-C fit all 2wd F150 and all regular F150 4x4 trucks. It's a bit confusing as there was also the E0TZ-5482-A before it, that fit both light and HD 4x4 F150's... Is it safe enough to assume from this parts list that the front bars were all the same on the half tons? Or, at least later on by the time the E9 bar came out they were all the same?

It was the release bearing. When I grab it with my hand and shake it, it moves all over the place. No doubt that's where my rattle came from. It stopped when the clutch was engaged since that put pressure on the bearing. It sucks because my clutch disc still had plenty of life left in it. But I installed Luk everything including the slave cylinder (I always replace internal slave cylinders no matter what) so hopefully I'll be trouble free for awhile. All I have left to do is bench bleed the master (mandatory on Rangers) and then gravity bleed the slave and all should be good. Yep, M5OD-R1. The shifter is a Hurst. I love the feel of it, and I love the adaptability of shift levers. What I don't love, is that they either leak, or cause pressure build up inside the transmission. There's no in between. It's also very noisy without rubber spacers between the lever and the stub, but all the ones I've tried disintegrate on me so I just run it metal to metal. I've heard nothing but good regarding Core, but can't speak for whether they have the same issues as the Hurst. I just run Mercon V, but have thought about running an alternative fluid at some point. I went to see a friend of mine today that has a whole bunch of Ford trucks for parts, including about a dozen or so Bullnoses. Anyway...one of the Non-Bullnose parts trucks he has there is a '97 single wheel F350 4x4 with a 5.8 in it. First time I've ever seen a 3FT VIN...I didn't know they were building these things in Mexico. Interesting stuff. The very last of the old style trucks I guess. I would love to have that 351w though...that would have been a roller block. If I could do mine all over again, I'd drop a 351 roller in there for sure...

No, it's definitely notchy and hard to shift when it's cold, and when I say "cold", I mean anytime that it hasn't been run/driven in a while. After a fair amount of driving...maybe 20 miles or so, it gets much easier to shift and the notchiness goes away.

I was looking at this one a few days or weeks ago on Ebay. It sure has a wild looking set of headers on it;).

Shaun, So that is the M5OD-R1, right? It looks almost the same as the M5OD-R2. I see you have a short shifter on there like a Hurst or Cores? How do you like it? Can't help with your current issue, but curious what fluid you're running in that trans? My M5OD is notchy to shift until it gets good and warmed up. I currently just have regular old ATF in it...nothing special. Wondering if there was a better fluid that would make the thing behave a little better.

Welcome aboard Wolpe! Like a couple of the other guys, I too have spent some time in Germany as well. Some of the equipment we sell over here in Canada in manufactured in Radolfzel, so I've made a couple trips there for factory training. The first time, back in 2012, I rented a motorcycle for a day and spent some time running around the Black Forest. Very beautiful area. I've also spent a few weeks in Dusseldorf setting up for for trade shows, but I didn't get to see anything there except for the convention center and my hotel room;). Welcome aboard. Great bunch of guys on here.

This is another one of those parts that it becoming a somewhat hot ticket item. It seems like every week or two somebody is looking for one. The last few have been looking for AOD shift indicators.

No! Those scruffy-looking trucks staring out at me were making my schizophrenia act up. And mine, too. Yeah, same here. I haven't posted in my project thread in ages so I thought I'd brush the cobwebs off it this evening while everybody else is out partying for New Years Eve. Today's project was to rehab this old steering shaft that I bought from Steve83 a while back. The steering shaft on my Bullnose has a torn upper boot, which is starting to become more and more common on the old Bullnoses these days. This is another thing that I guess was improved in 1987 with the release of the Bricknose model. There is no rubber boot on the upper U-joint, and the rubber steering "coupler" (what we call the rag joint) is a molded/bonded piece of the lower assembly. The upper U-joint: The lower end steering 'coupler' (aka Rag joint): This was a $15 part and I think worth the trouble to rehab it. I need to take my truck in this spring for a Mechanical Fitness Test, and if the mechanic spotted that torn rubber boot on the steering shaft, it would likely fail the test. I did have one problem with the shaft that I had to repair. There is a small metal slider/spring inside the sliding tube, and the original one was shattered causing the sliding tube to be a little bit sloppy. I cut a new piece from a metal strap and it seemed to do the trick. I'll post pics of this if anybody is interested...I think the Bullnose steering shaft is the same (or similar) inside the sliding tube. Cheers everybody, and Happy New Years from Mrs. Rembrant and myself. We'll be taking it easy tonight, relaxing and watching some TV, and will probably be in bed by 11pm. Peace & Axle Grease!!

My 16 gallon tank gauge does the exact same thing Dave. Once it gets below about half way on the gauge, it slows right down. The last quarter moves even slower. I had to bend the float arm in mine to even get it to read full at all, so I know it's not 100% perfect. However, it does read full, and it does read empty, so I can live with that. I try to monitor my miles traveled anyway, so that will keep me in check regardless.

Has anybody happened to watch the Netflix miniseries 'Sharp Objects"? My wife and I started watching it a couple evenings ago, and this two tone Flareside keeps showing up in the background. I noticed it 3-4 times in the first two episodes. It must have been a member of the crew for it to show up as often as it did. Of course most people wouldn't notice. The series is taking place in a fictional town in Missouri called 'Wind Gap', but apparently most of it was filmed in a small town called Barnesville about 60 miles south of Atlanta. Anyway, just something that caught my eye this week so I snapped pics of it;). Maybe the Flareside sightings were totally random and not placed at all, who knows.

To get around replacing that little 'flag', I just had two new cables made up and had them connect under the bolt where that flag was. Two doors down from where I work is an electric shop that does all of the wiring for police cars and other service vehicles, so I got them to make the cables for me. They used the nice heavy terminals and heat shrink on the ends. I'll make smaller wires myself...probably up to 10-12ga, but I don't have terminals, crimpers, or heat shrink for the big stuff. PS: When I bought my truck, I installed a new starter solenoid (fender mount, original style replacement) and the bugger started sticking all the time. I replaced it with a Napa branded solenoid and that cured my problem, at least temporarily. I later replaced all of the heavy cables and grounds and have never had a problem since, and the truck still has the original 35 year old starter afaik. PSS: I grabbed a PMGR starter from the junkyard a while back from a 1996 F150 w/manual trans. I plan to put a kit in it and install it at some point. I know how to wire it for 12v+, but it would still ground the same as my original wouldn't it? Or does it require any 12v- modifications?

Gary, I will be investigating everything, but I'm starting to lean more towards it being a tire issue. The tires being a problem would be more probable then wheels, etc imho. Could a wheel be out of round? Sure it could, but a tire (or tires) being out of round would be more likely. I've been reading that tires developing flat spots is still a common issue, but one that should clear itself up once the tires get warmed up after a few miles. Anyway, we'll see what happens after a few days of sitting on a different spot. After that, I think I'll take the two worst ones in to a shop to be checked out.

Ok, so I just did a little test, and I put the end of a 1" wide straight edge very close to the center tread on each tire. I left a very small gap...almost touching the tire. All four tires have low spots...or flat spots. None of them have any high spots. On the worst one...the right rear tire, the flat spot is exactly where the tire was sitting on the floor. They right rear is the worst, but the right front actually has what appears to be two low spots. It was a bit hard to measure...it wasn't as even as the other three at least. Maybe that one has a broken belt. I marked each low spot with a paint pen, and then rotated the spot to the top before sitting it back on the floor. I'll leave it for a few days, and then check it again and see how they measure. I might take the two worst offenders to the tire shop and get them to check them on a road force machine and see what they see. A fresh set of eyes on a different machine.

Rick, I have a similar one from one of the local car nights last year. A lot of old guys flock to my truck and they'll often tell me about the one they had 30 or 35 years ago that was the same. Most people are keen enough to notice that the 5spd in my truck is not period correct, but this one old guy told me that he bought a Bullnose brand new in the early 80's and he claimed that his truck had a 5spd in it. I debated the topic with him for a minute, but he was certain that his truck had a 5spd. Finally, he lifted up his hand and started counting with his fingers and as he counted them off, he went "First, second, third, fourth, reverse", and with all five fingers folded down he looked at me and said "Yup, my truck was a 5spd". He wandered off down the line, and I just smiled and carried on myself...lol.

Haha, Jim whats the matter, no love for wooden floors and tailgate chains??>..lol. I'd say all of the regulars on here are on the extreme side of the enthusiast spectrum...lol. Hello, my name is Cory, and I have a Bullnose problem...

No one would ever know the difference except a very small group of Bullnose enthusiasts.

A couple members have done this. Dave for certain, and I believe Ken as well. You'll have lots of help on here for this.

That would definitely be cool Gary!

Dave, I have installed a couple Rostra aftermarket cruise control systems and they have worked very well. https://www.summitracing.com/parts/rpc-250-1223/ Even better price on Amazon... https://www.amazon.com/Ididit-Rostra-250-1223-Universal-Control/dp/B002VI9G6S The only kicker is that you have to buy the controller separately, but there are several to choose from, including ones that mount right on the turn-signal stalk, the same as the Ford dealer installed CC systems would have been. Installing them takes some creativity and you'll have to figure out how to get a brake and clutch signal, and you'll have to figure out a way to connect it to the throttle, etc. One of the benefits of this kit is that vacuum is not required...it is all electric. Anyway, if you go to the Rostra website, there's some good info on there. I will be installing one of these systems in my Bullnose between now and the spring, so I'll try to make some notes on how I get it all to work.

The Dakota instrument kits look like a much better fit imho....if you were going that route. https://www.dakotadigital.com/index.cfm/page/ptype=product/product_id=1215/category_id=437/mode=prod/prd1215.htm

That I can't answer. Since my truck didn't have factory cruise control I had already planned on an aftermarket system, and since all I needed was a speed signal, that is as far as I went with my research. I know with the aftermarket systems like Rostra that I have experience with, you can simply tap into a VSS wire to get a pulse/signal and it doesn't affect other users of that signal...in my case it was an ECU, but I assume all would be the same. I have zero experience with any of the Ford CC system outside of that sensor though...