Rembrant

Simple mind, simple pleasures.... I got some vintage Ford jewelry for the front of the old Blue Mule. I've been looking for one of these "Ford Trucks" plates for a couple years now. I like my plain chrome front bumper, but at the same time I wanted something to put on there to break it up a little bit, ya know? The province did away with our front plates here 15-20 years ago. Funny story: So one day a couple weeks ago I'm scrolling through the online classifieds coast to coast looking for 1980-1986 Ford stuff. I see this ad on the west coast, a good 3500+ miles west of me for a 1980-1986 Ford truck grill, and the seller said he'd throw in this vintage Ford Trucks plate with it (Both had been hanging on the wall in his shop for decades). The grill wasn't a Bullnose grill at all, and appeared to me to be a 1979-1991 Econoline grill. So I messaged the guy and said hey, that's not a truck grill it's a van grill, and by the way would you sell that plate? He replied and said that a couple people already asked about it and he was thinking about it and had no idea what it was worth. So I emailed back with my offer on it, had a couple more exchanges with the guy and two weeks later it's in my mailbox. It's not mint...a bit dinged up and a couple whiffs of overspray on it, but it fits well with the other roughed up areas on my truck, and my front bumper isn't so bare anymore!

I'm only subscribed to a small handful of threads, but I was getting email notifications recently.

Super straight looking truck! Welcome aboard.

I just saw a NOS one of these tag lights on Ebay a few days ago.

Righto! I should have figured that out by the Sept '84 build date. That would make your truck a very early '85 model, and from what I understand the full changeover of the 302 from carb to EFI didn't take place until January or February of 1985. Send us some pictures of the engine bay when you get a chance. If this truck is as intact as it looks to be, it will likely still have the original feedback carburetor system. A lot of people convert this system back to the previous system with electronic ignition and non-feedback carb. If you plan on swapping in a 4bbl, then you're doing all of that anyway!!

Greetings from the Maritimes Greg! What part of Alberta are you in? I lived in Calgary for a couple years back in the mid-1990's. I still have a lot of family out there and my little brother is in Edmonton. Is it gettin' cold out there yet? I just saw a guy in Saskatchewan posting on FB saying it has already hit -30C there. Nice truck by the way, and welcome aboard.

That's NICE!!

Maybe there are no codes? Or are you pretty sure that there are? I'm not much help. I had one of these code readers briefly, and used it on my 1993 E350 RV a couple times. I don't remember much, but I do remember that it was pretty crude. If Vinny happens to see this post he would be the best guy to answer. He really knows the EFI engines well.

I like the cockpit switches on the center bezel Gary. Looking good.

Ain't that something? I love seeing a nice intact interior in a Bullnose like this. I bet this truck could be made to look very nice with a little elbow grease. I was trying to see the gear indicator...C6? Edit...it's in his signature, C5. My wife always tells me that I have to look..."just look" she says...lol.

Welcome aboard! That truck looks like a nice score. All still intact and the interior looks nice. Is the 302 carbed or EFI?

From Athens, Alabama...

Well done! That looks like it will work just fine.

For what it's worth, I've purchased three different Holley carb books. One of them was a decades old reprint, and the other two were much more recent. This one below I found fairly helpful. https://www.summitracing.com/parts/sad-sa216?seid=srese1&gclid=CjwKCAiAt9z-BRBCEiwA_bWv-HUzlGrXrbaOpl3D-bXVxhe3oPoJp3Pl-nmXr1Z_VcDFJ76akENWQxoCRNEQAvD_BwE They're not detailed textbooks or anything...they're almost more of a coffee table book if that makes any sense, but they're handy for a quick reference of basic how-to's and techniques. If you enjoy reading up on this stuff, it's worth the 15-20 bucks to have it. I now have a nice little collection of SBF and Holley books. Now that everything is running nicely of course I don't use them, but they're nice to have if I do need them.

I don't know how well this correlates to an '85 carbed 460, but I talked to Scott at Parkland Performance about mine (460 EFI) and the two things he suggested were to set the base timing to 13* btdc, and install a 180F high flow thermostat. Not sure what the timing advance is the EFI trucks...but Scott would have a good recommendation for what it should be. Edit: Below I'm referring to my carbed 302. Above I was referring to the 460 EFI in my RV (now sold). I'm no expert, but with a warm engine I set my timing and then played around with my idle mixture screws and idle adjustment, and a couple times had to go back and adjust the timing again. I was using a vacuum gauge, and I also had the benefit of having an AFR gauge installed. This was also with a new Holley 4160, which had previously been re-jetted from the stock #66 jets to #68. I could probably swap a set of #66 jets back in there now but it's running so well I don't want to screw with it.

That's quite the swamp buggy.

Digging up all kinds of old threads today! Troy, you painted both the dash and dash pad with the Dark Harbor Blue, correct? I'm planning to paint my AC dash soon (it is currently a tan from 1986). My god that interior is gorgeous!

This '81 has an odd looking radio bezel. Was this some sort of add-on radio face plate that Ford offered back then? https://www.fmstrucks.com/details/used-1981-ford-f-250/68497817

Right. Mine is rusted out as well, and Dr. Google brings up nothing on the YH-362 other than previous people like me looking for them. They are showing in the most recent NPD catalog, but price and availability is unknown...they must have had some NOS units? If they were reproductions I'd assume they would have a price on them... I haven't checked Dennis Carpenter or JBG since I don't really shop with either one, but I'll take a look just in case.

An overlay might be an option. When you get into their FAQ, apparently they will make them in black if requested (and for a fee, of course). I have asked the question, so will just wait now and see what the reply is. https://www.ebay.com/itm/1980-1986-Ford-F150-F250-F350-Truck-White-Heater-Control-Switch-Overlay-HVAC/401144834057?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

Scott, Thanks for the quick reply. I thought you were one of the people that had taken one of these apart, but I wasn't sure where to find the info. I checked the fitment up against the center/radio bezel and there's lots of room for some button heads...a good 1/4" gap there I'd say. I want to take the face plate off and see if I can clean/polish it so that it looks a little better. I also need to experiment with covering the dual fuel tank text and switch and see how good (or bad) it looks. I'm sure I can put some black tape over it but I think it will bother me even if nobody else notices it...lol.

Bringing this thread back to life as I would like to get this system swapped in for the 2021 season (and truth be told, I need some easy "bench-top" work to do for a while). I was revisiting some of my old documents and reading through my EVTM and the whole swap really isn't a bad deal at all. Something I am curious about though. On a factory AC system, there is the one vacuum motor that is on the engine bay side of the firewall. Can anybody direct me where to purchase one of these? Or tell me what it is called so I can search the interwebs.

Question for you guys that have serviced/disassembled these units. Can the face plate be removed safely? Can I simply grind away the white plugs and then the face plate can be removed? Did you use screws to re-attach it?

Welcome aboard! Beautiful truck!

Yes I did. I drilled new holes a little over 1" further rearward. I believe it was 1 3/16", but I didn't take notes so just going by memory here. What I did was get everything installed with the crossmember in place, and the transmission mount studs in about the middle of the slots, and then made new holes there. As I mentioned, the angled brackets for the crossmembers are a little harder to get your hands on. If you can get them, then great. I couldn't get them and ended up modifying my original angled brackets. See below...using some angle iron, I welded an extension on the upper part of the bracket (circled in red) so that I could drill two new holes (yellow arrows). Since you have to drill new holes for the crossmember anyway, I believe some people use their old crossmember and just move it back further. The main reason I went looking specifically for the M5OD crossmember was that I thought it would bolt into the existing holes. Just be mindful of the frame rails...you only have so much distance you can move rearwards before the frame rails start to angle upwards.