1981 straight six manual 4x4 project

[salans7]

Thank you very much Gary. The main thing I wanted to look for was whether there was anything different between the DSII harness and ones with a feedback carb. That’s the big deal before I dive into a full wire swap.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but there were at least some feedback emissions systems in 1982 (F100’s and California truck’s?) and I see no mention of it in the MPC. It says 6/8 ALL. I know the 1985 harness will be different than the 1981, but it needs to RUN. I can deal with some hiccups in connectors and wire colors, but I don’t want to reinvent the wheel, especially with the starting and ignition circuits. Based on what you posted I think it’s worth going for it. I might dive into it tonight. We are planning an out-of-state trip and are wanting to take the truck. I would sure like to ditch the janky wiring if at all possible. Speed control would be great, but isn’t going to be possible for this trip.

For what it's worth, from what I can tell the connectors for my DSII harness seem like they'll match my harness which was originally mated with an EFI 302. But without the ignition module, I can't verify for sure, and am in the same worried boat that there will be multiple differences keeping me from running my DSII harness with my main wiring harness originally used with EFI.

[Gary Lewis]

For what it's worth, from what I can tell the connectors for my DSII harness seem like they'll match my harness which was originally mated with an EFI 302. But without the ignition module, I can't verify for sure, and am in the same worried boat that there will be multiple differences keeping me from running my DSII harness with my main wiring harness originally used with EFI.

I bought an 82 F150 351W in Kansas which came with a feedback system and an ECU under the driver’s seat. I pulled the ECU and associated wiring, and plugged a DS-II harness in under the hood. Worked great.

[Ford F834]

I bought an 82 F150 351W in Kansas which came with a feedback system and an ECU under the driver’s seat. I pulled the ECU and associated wiring, and plugged a DS-II harness in under the hood. Worked great.

Very good news for me! 😁 Hopefully Shaun will be in luck with the EFI wiring as well, since the connectors are the same... thanks for the good info!

[salans7]

I bought an 82 F150 351W in Kansas which came with a feedback system and an ECU under the driver’s seat. I pulled the ECU and associated wiring, and plugged a DS-II harness in under the hood. Worked great.

Very good news for me! 😁 Hopefully Shaun will be in luck with the EFI wiring as well, since the connectors are the same... thanks for the good info!

I'm gonna go out tomorrow and match the connectors up so that I can cross it off my list.

[Ford F834]

I bought an 82 F150 351W in Kansas which came with a feedback system and an ECU under the driver’s seat. I pulled the ECU and associated wiring, and plugged a DS-II harness in under the hood. Worked great.

Very good news for me! 😁 Hopefully Shaun will be in luck with the EFI wiring as well, since the connectors are the same... thanks for the good info!

Well... I never got to the main harness last night... I was trying to charge my AC first, and change out the passenger door while I waited on the vacuum draw down. Things did not go well. No AC = no trip in the truck this time ☹️.

The dryer unit that I bought vanished into thin air. I reluctantly decided I would use the old one. I went to put on the new hose for the straight six engine application and it was way wrong. It had a totally inappropriate 90* bend at the compressor end. (Silver lining... it looks like it’s the correct one for an IDI). It is very tight, and I had to tweak the dryer tube, but I managed to stretch the hose from the 302 compressor donor across the 300 and hook it up. When I find (or replace) the missing dryer, I want a different hose. There must be something better than this in current production:

Next came the task of figuring out how to change the compressor clutch wiring from the York single pin to the two prong plug. I hooked up the vacuum machine, and other than the resting needle position being above zero, it seemed to be working (Autozone loan program tool). When I went to fill it, refrigerant started spraying out where the yellow hose connected to the manifold. Problem 1, an obvious leak. Problem 2, refrigerant could not enter the system. Turns out the R134A adapter wasn’t opening. This meant the hours of vacuuming and leak testing were meaningless... 😩 I borrowed another adapter from the bricknose parts truck but it still wouldn’t take much refrigerant. Pressure valve wasn’t working. Borrowed that too... finally got voltage at the clutch and it sounded horrible at first. It started to settle down so I decided to run it. It took 4 cans (12oz) minus what leaked out of the manifold (I finished the job with a cheap-o Walmart refrigerant dispenser. The air started to feel cool, then the compressor started to grind and stalled the engine. I’m guessing it was just bad (JY take-off) and/or dirt from the old dryer finished it off. Either way I’m sunk. I have two other compressors but I’m not inclined to try them without a new dryer, correct hose, and a working pump/manifold set. I don’t have time with everything else I need to do and leave Friday. We knew it was reaching, and just about everything went wrong that could.

But... while I was wasting hours of time with the vacuum sucking on a broken valve... I did change the badly damaged passenger door. The replacement came from the Kingman junkyard and was just a bare shell. I had to move all of the glass, weatherstrip, door handles and latch, key tumbler, mirror etc., out of my old door. This took a minute especially since I had never taken the glass out of one of these before. Then I found out just how not fun it is to align one of these.... it takes 3 minutes to remove one, and almost two hours to get one back on in kinda the right spot. And hopefully you don’t care about the paint 😅. Funny, there were already a bunch of crescent shaped scratches from where a PO had aligned this door on the donor truck. I recognized immediately where they had come from once I started trying to work the bolts via the gap between the fender and the open door. It’s not pretty, but it does look better than the smashed one. It also closes a heck of a lot better and hopefully won’t chew up the striker sleeve any more. And the biggest motivator, the glass can now be rolled up and down without pliers! Yay.

[1986F150Six]

Well... I never got to the main harness last night... I was trying to charge my AC first, and change out the passenger door while I waited on the vacuum draw down. Things did not go well. No AC = no trip in the truck this time ☹️.

The dryer unit that I bought vanished into thin air. I reluctantly decided I would use the old one. I went to put on the new hose for the straight six engine application and it was way wrong. It had a totally inappropriate 90* bend at the compressor end. (Silver lining... it looks like it’s the correct one for an IDI). It is very tight, and I had to tweak the dryer tube, but I managed to stretch the hose from the 302 compressor donor across the 300 and hook it up. When I find (or replace) the missing dryer, I want a different hose. There must be something better than this in current production:

Next came the task of figuring out how to change the compressor clutch wiring from the York single pin to the two prong plug. I hooked up the vacuum machine, and other than the resting needle position being above zero, it seemed to be working (Autozone loan program tool). When I went to fill it, refrigerant started spraying out where the yellow hose connected to the manifold. Problem 1, an obvious leak. Problem 2, refrigerant could not enter the system. Turns out the R134A adapter wasn’t opening. This meant the hours of vacuuming and leak testing were meaningless... 😩 I borrowed another adapter from the bricknose parts truck but it still wouldn’t take much refrigerant. Pressure valve wasn’t working. Borrowed that too... finally got voltage at the clutch and it sounded horrible at first. It started to settle down so I decided to run it. It took 4 cans (12oz) minus what leaked out of the manifold (I finished the job with a cheap-o Walmart refrigerant dispenser. The air started to feel cool, then the compressor started to grind and stalled the engine. I’m guessing it was just bad (JY take-off) and/or dirt from the old dryer finished it off. Either way I’m sunk. I have two other compressors but I’m not inclined to try them without a new dryer, correct hose, and a working pump/manifold set. I don’t have time with everything else I need to do and leave Friday. We knew it was reaching, and just about everything went wrong that could.

But... while I was wasting hours of time with the vacuum sucking on a broken valve... I did change the badly damaged passenger door. The replacement came from the Kingman junkyard and was just a bare shell. I had to move all of the glass, weatherstrip, door handles and latch, key tumbler, mirror etc., out of my old door. This took a minute especially since I had never taken the glass out of one of these before. Then I found out just how not fun it is to align one of these.... it takes 3 minutes to remove one, and almost two hours to get one back on in kinda the right spot. And hopefully you don’t care about the paint 😅. Funny, there were already a bunch of crescent shaped scratches from where a PO had aligned this door on the donor truck. I recognized immediately where they had come from once I started trying to work the bolts via the gap between the fender and the open door. It’s not pretty, but it does look better than the smashed one. It also closes a heck of a lot better and hopefully won’t chew up the striker sleeve any more. And the biggest motivator, the glass can now be rolled up and down without pliers! Yay.

And as Jim [and Gary] has been known to say, "progress is good!"

[salans7]

And as Jim [and Gary] has been known to say, "progress is good!"

That sucks about the A/C Jonathan, but the new door looks good!

Not to hi-jack, but I checked my DSII harness against my 1986 chassis harness and everything matches up like it should, so I am good to go.

[Gary Lewis]

Well... I never got to the main harness last night... I was trying to charge my AC first, and change out the passenger door while I waited on the vacuum draw down. Things did not go well. No AC = no trip in the truck this time ☹️.

The dryer unit that I bought vanished into thin air. I reluctantly decided I would use the old one. I went to put on the new hose for the straight six engine application and it was way wrong. It had a totally inappropriate 90* bend at the compressor end. (Silver lining... it looks like it’s the correct one for an IDI). It is very tight, and I had to tweak the dryer tube, but I managed to stretch the hose from the 302 compressor donor across the 300 and hook it up. When I find (or replace) the missing dryer, I want a different hose. There must be something better than this in current production:

Next came the task of figuring out how to change the compressor clutch wiring from the York single pin to the two prong plug. I hooked up the vacuum machine, and other than the resting needle position being above zero, it seemed to be working (Autozone loan program tool). When I went to fill it, refrigerant started spraying out where the yellow hose connected to the manifold. Problem 1, an obvious leak. Problem 2, refrigerant could not enter the system. Turns out the R134A adapter wasn’t opening. This meant the hours of vacuuming and leak testing were meaningless... 😩 I borrowed another adapter from the bricknose parts truck but it still wouldn’t take much refrigerant. Pressure valve wasn’t working. Borrowed that too... finally got voltage at the clutch and it sounded horrible at first. It started to settle down so I decided to run it. It took 4 cans (12oz) minus what leaked out of the manifold (I finished the job with a cheap-o Walmart refrigerant dispenser. The air started to feel cool, then the compressor started to grind and stalled the engine. I’m guessing it was just bad (JY take-off) and/or dirt from the old dryer finished it off. Either way I’m sunk. I have two other compressors but I’m not inclined to try them without a new dryer, correct hose, and a working pump/manifold set. I don’t have time with everything else I need to do and leave Friday. We knew it was reaching, and just about everything went wrong that could.

But... while I was wasting hours of time with the vacuum sucking on a broken valve... I did change the badly damaged passenger door. The replacement came from the Kingman junkyard and was just a bare shell. I had to move all of the glass, weatherstrip, door handles and latch, key tumbler, mirror etc., out of my old door. This took a minute especially since I had never taken the glass out of one of these before. Then I found out just how not fun it is to align one of these.... it takes 3 minutes to remove one, and almost two hours to get one back on in kinda the right spot. And hopefully you don’t care about the paint 😅. Funny, there were already a bunch of crescent shaped scratches from where a PO had aligned this door on the donor truck. I recognized immediately where they had come from once I started trying to work the bolts via the gap between the fender and the open door. It’s not pretty, but it does look better than the smashed one. It also closes a heck of a lot better and hopefully won’t chew up the striker sleeve any more. And the biggest motivator, the glass can now be rolled up and down without pliers! Yay.

Bummer about the A/C, Jonathan. But at least you got the door on - and can roll up the window!

[Gary Lewis]

That sucks about the A/C Jonathan, but the new door looks good!

Not to hi-jack, but I checked my DSII harness against my 1986 chassis harness and everything matches up like it should, so I am good to go.

Shaun - Good to see that the harnii pluged together.

[FuzzFace2]

That sucks about the A/C Jonathan, but the new door looks good!

Not to hi-jack, but I checked my DSII harness against my 1986 chassis harness and everything matches up like it should, so I am good to go.

Jonathan, that dose stink about the AC.

Is the truck an 81 in your sig?

If so and using the newer compressor, the 81 should use a York, here is what I had to do to get a complete sealed system on my 81 using the newer compressor.

You have to use a 81 dryer as the newer one will the fit the evap, different thread size so you have to use a dryer for the 81 to fit the evap..

So now on to the hose, you cant use a newer hose that would of fit the newer dryer as it will not fit the old (81) dryer, different thread size.

What I found was the old 81 hose that fits the old (81) dryer also fit the new compressor.

But ........ the hose runs totally different than the newer hose would, compressor to and across firewall to dryer. I don't remember how the York hose ran as I never had that system on my truck, remember all my AC parts came from my parts truck and the motor was sold before I bought the truck.

I don't have a picture of how the hose runs but it kind of goes across the top of the motor.

I also had to "tweak" the dryer & hose to clear the hood when closed but was not much.

As for the vacuum pump & gauges I bought new from HF.

The more thinking I did on the pump I did not know what I would be getting if I did the "loan-a-tool" if it come pull a vacuum. Same on the gauges if I could have even gotten a loaner.

My gauges only hooked up to the low side, guess I needed adaptor for the high side? But I was able to pull a good vacuum and it held for an hour while I did the electrical wiring side.

I did use a lot of cans of 134 before it would blow cold but the low side reading where in the green other wise it was to low. I would have to go back through my posts to see just how much if you need that.

Dave ----