Big Blue's Transformation

[Gary Lewis]

Gary. I bent the bracket approximately 90 degrees.

So it was the bracket you bent? Or the pillar? Or both?

[ARM Ashby]

So it was the bracket you bent? Or the pillar? Or both?

Bracket only

[Nothing Special]

.... And here are your pics, although they are just screenshots as FTE doesn't allow you to link to the pics, so the quality may not be as good as the originals....

If you right-click on the image in FTE it gives you an option to copy the image which you can then paste somewhere else. I don't know if that would give any better quality than a screenshot, but it might be worth a try.

[Gary Lewis]

.... And here are your pics, although they are just screenshots as FTE doesn't allow you to link to the pics, so the quality may not be as good as the originals....

If you right-click on the image in FTE it gives you an option to copy the image which you can then paste somewhere else. I don't know if that would give any better quality than a screenshot, but it might be worth a try.

Ashby - Ok, I think I understand. Thanks!

Bob - I hadn't tried the copy/paste bit, but have now. Let's see how it works. I'm setting them both to have a width of 100% of whatever screen you are viewing them on, so they should be the same size.

Here's the file that I copied from FTE and pasted into Photoshop and saved as large as I could go on file size - 62KB:

And here's the screen-grabbed file, which is 123 KB:

Bottom Line: Little if any difference. The screen-grabbed file should be better since it is a larger file, but I'm not seeing any difference. Basically, you might as well screen-grab what you want from FTE as it is easier than copying and pasting, and might be of higher quality.

[Gary Lewis]

Ashby - Ok, I think I understand. Thanks!

Bob - I hadn't tried the copy/paste bit, but have now. Let's see how it works. I'm setting them both to have a width of 100% of whatever screen you are viewing them on, so they should be the same size.

Here's the file that I copied from FTE and pasted into Photoshop and saved as large as I could go on file size - 62KB:

And here's the screen-grabbed file, which is 123 KB:

Bottom Line: Little if any difference. The screen-grabbed file should be better since it is a larger file, but I'm not seeing any difference. Basically, you might as well screen-grab what you want from FTE as it is easier than copying and pasting, and might be of higher quality.

Now that Big Blue is drivable I'm going to take it easy for a while before diving into the power steering/hydroboost system to fix the leaks. So I've been cleaning up the shop a bit as it became a real pit during the last year while I worked on Big Blue.

But today I ran across the medium-duty truck radio bezel and the switch for the OX locker at about the same time, so spent a while thinking about how I'm going to mount that switch. Harking back to this thread, OX lockers come with a Carling switch that looks like this:

And I am going to put that (and five others like it for the compressor, driving lights, backup lights, battery parallel, and PTO) in the space at the top of this medium-duty radio bezel:

But the question has been "how"? Today I think I found the answer in the 6-switch bracket also sold by Carling. It will pop into a rectangular cutout in that bezel, which will fit nicely in the flat spot at the top, and provide a sturdy place to mount the switches. And, looking at the space where the clock currently mounts, there are openings where I can run the wire to the switches so that they can be connected and the wire will feed back behind the dash in as I install the bezel.

And for now I'll blank off the narrow window at the top. But, what I'd like to do some day is to put a readout there hooked to an Arduino and have that take the place of the aftermarket gauges.

[kramttocs]

Now that Big Blue is drivable I'm going to take it easy for a while before diving into the power steering/hydroboost system to fix the leaks. So I've been cleaning up the shop a bit as it became a real pit during the last year while I worked on Big Blue.

But today I ran across the medium-duty truck radio bezel and the switch for the OX locker at about the same time, so spent a while thinking about how I'm going to mount that switch. Harking back to this thread, OX lockers come with a Carling switch that looks like this:

And I am going to put that (and five others like it for the compressor, driving lights, backup lights, battery parallel, and PTO) in the space at the top of this medium-duty radio bezel:

But the question has been "how"? Today I think I found the answer in the 6-switch bracket also sold by Carling. It will pop into a rectangular cutout in that bezel, which will fit nicely in the flat spot at the top, and provide a sturdy place to mount the switches. And, looking at the space where the clock currently mounts, there are openings where I can run the wire to the switches so that they can be connected and the wire will feed back behind the dash in as I install the bezel.

And for now I'll blank off the narrow window at the top. But, what I'd like to do some day is to put a readout there hooked to an Arduino and have that take the place of the aftermarket gauges.

I like it!

In the past I've looked at the BlueSea Contura panels but that one you are showing has a much smaller footprint.

The ticker look of the Arduino display will be neat.

[Sac79]

I like it!

In the past I've looked at the BlueSea Contura panels but that one you are showing has a much smaller footprint.

The ticker look of the Arduino display will be neat.

Looks like a good plan Gary.

On a different note, how is the sealer in the shifter knob holding?

[Gary Lewis]

Looks like a good plan Gary.

On a different note, how is the sealer in the shifter knob holding?

Thanks, Rob.

Seam sealer has done perfectly on the knob. Not sure how easily it’ll come off, but it sure is staying on. 👍

[1986F150Six]

Thanks, Rob.

Seam sealer has done perfectly on the knob. Not sure how easily it’ll come off, but it sure is staying on. 👍

Gary reported:

As for MPG, I would have thought that running right on 14.5 would give good MPG, but we only got 10.6 MPG on the front tank, and that was mostly at 55 to 65 MPH.

But, it used to get 11 to 12 MPG in those conditions with a worn out engine and no overdrive.

Gary, have you checked the accuracy of the speedometer/odometer since the transmission swap?

 

[Gary Lewis]

Gary reported:

As for MPG, I would have thought that running right on 14.5 would give good MPG, but we only got 10.6 MPG on the front tank, and that was mostly at 55 to 65 MPH.

But, it used to get 11 to 12 MPG in those conditions with a worn out engine and no overdrive.

Gary, have you checked the accuracy of the speedometer/odometer since the transmission swap?

Somehow I missed this. Sorry, David.

The speedo is off about 5 mph at 65, but the odo is very close. So I haven't tried to fix it as fixing the speedo will mess up the odo. Need to calibrate the speedo I guess.

But the tranny swap won't make a difference since the speedo is driven from the t-case, and it didn't change.