New member with a question

1986 f150 4.9l · July 5, 2019

Hi, my name is Hank, I live in Mid Missouri but I have lived in various parts of the country for job reasons. I am retired and finally able to work on an old pickup, just to be a daily driver. Although I am 77 I went to Texas and picked up a 1986 F150 Stepside, with a 4.9L engine and a 3 speed-C6 transmission. It had sat for a number of years.

I have been working on the truck a little at a time since last November and it is running very good right now. I changed the wiring to a DS2 system and I have been removing a lot of the old wiring. With the help of FTE people and the information on this site I got it done. I removed the bed, I have a new gas tank and lines etc, the rear shocks are replaced and the exhaust is new from the manifold with 2 1/2" pipe. I have cleaned the back and am painting the frame.

My question is in regards to the fuse block. I found the heater wiring had been shoved into the front of the fuse block next to the fuse. The entire fuse and porcelain, by that fuse, was burned and damaged. I removed the wire and am trying to find a new place that I could tie it back in. Since I don't seem to be able to decipher the fuse block wiring to determine which are wired fuse slots or are the hot ones connected to hot legs after the ignition switch I thought that help would be appreciated. Are there terminals I need to jumper or???

Sometimes I can't see the forest for the trees. If needed I am willing to add a small block or?

Thank you, Hank

Gary Lewis · July 5, 2019

Hank - Welcome! Mid Missouri? As in Rolla? Or? We have a member's map (Bullnose Forum/Member's Map in the menu) and I'd be happy to add you if you'd give me a town.

77 huh? I'm 72 and a couple of others are a bit older, but you may be our eldest statesman.

Sounds like a nice truck, but we are partial to pictures, so if you have some please share them. (How to post pics is explained on the Bullnose Forum/Forum FAQ's page.) But you'll also want to start a thread in the main section about your truck. There you can detail what you do, ask questions and get advice as well as encouragement, etc.

On the fuse block, you said:

The entire fuse and porcelain, by that fuse, was burned and damaged. I removed the wire and am trying to find a new place that I could tie it back in.

Do you mean the entire fuse block? And, the wires should come in from the back, not the front.

Can you post a pic of what you have? If it is as burned as I think you are saying you may have to replace the fuse block itself. I don't know how easy that is to do, but maybe someone else does.

grumpin · July 5, 2019

Hank - Welcome! Mid Missouri? As in Rolla? Or? We have a member's map (Bullnose Forum/Member's Map in the menu) and I'd be happy to add you if you'd give me a town.
77 huh? I'm 72 and a couple of others are a bit older, but you may be our eldest statesman.
Sounds like a nice truck, but we are partial to pictures, so if you have some please share them. (How to post pics is explained on the Bullnose Forum/Forum FAQ's page.) But you'll also want to start a thread in the main section about your truck. There you can detail what you do, ask questions and get advice as well as encouragement, etc.
On the fuse block, you said:

The entire fuse and porcelain, by that fuse, was burned and damaged. I removed the wire and am trying to find a new place that I could tie it back in.
Do you mean the entire fuse block? And, the wires should come in from the back, not the front.
Can you post a pic of what you have? If it is as burned as I think you are saying you may have to replace the fuse block itself. I don't know how easy that is to do, but maybe someone else does.

Welcome!

1986 f150 4.9l · July 5, 2019

Hank - Welcome! Mid Missouri? As in Rolla? Or? We have a member's map (Bullnose Forum/Member's Map in the menu) and I'd be happy to add you if you'd give me a town.77 huh? I'm 72 and a couple of others are a bit older, but you may be our eldest statesman. :nabble_smiley_good:Sounds like a nice truck, but we are partial to pictures, so if you have some please share them. (How to post pics is explained on the Bullnose Forum/Forum FAQ's page.) But you'll also want to start a thread in the main section about your truck. There you can detail what you do, ask questions and get advice as well as encouragement, etc.On the fuse block, you said:
The entire fuse and porcelain, by that fuse, was burned and damaged. I removed the wire and am trying to find a new place that I could tie it back in.
Do you mean the entire fuse block? And, the wires should come in from the back, not the front.Can you post a pic of what you have? If it is as burned as I think you are saying you may have to replace the fuse block itself. I don't know how easy that is to do, but maybe someone else does.

Hi Gary, I am located in Versailles, Mo, which is above Lake Of the Ozarks. I will check out how to get additional information in the main section and post my questions there.

The only fuse and terminals that were burned up were for the heater. The PO then took the burned wire off the back and tried to make it work by sticking it on a live terminal in the front of the block.

My question relates to how or if I can move the heater wire to another position on the fuse block. There are spare spots.

I will also try to get proper pictures of the truck and explain what I am doing.

Thank you for the response,

Hank

On Fri, Jul 5, 2019 at 3:03 PM Gary Lewis [via Bullnose Enthusiasts] <redacted_email_address> wrote:

1986 f150 4.9l · July 5, 2019

Welcome!

Thank you, it will be interesting and fun. Hank

On Fri, Jul 5, 2019 at 3:52 PM grumpin [via Bullnose Enthusiasts] <redacted_email_address> wrote:

Gary Lewis · July 6, 2019

Hank - I'm going to include to illustrations from the 1986 EVTM (Electrical/EVTM/1986 EVTM) below. They may help.

First is the layout of the fuse panel from the page on Fuse Panel & Circuit Protection. What fuses aren't you using? Speed control? Note that it also powers the feedback carb if you have one of those.

And then here's the circuit diagram for the fuse panel from the page on Charge & Power Distribution - Gasoline Engines.

1986 f150 4.9l · July 6, 2019

Hank - I'm going to include to illustrations from the 1986 EVTM (Electrical/EVTM/1986 EVTM) below. They may help.First is the layout of the fuse panel from the page on Fuse Panel & Circuit Protection. What fuses aren't you using? Speed control? Note that it also powers the feedback carb if you have one of those.And then here's the circuit diagram for the fuse panel from the page on Charge & Power Distribution - Gasoline Engines.

Hi Gary, thank you for the diagrams. I did find these earlier on this site and they helped fix a few other items. I reviewed the drawings again before sending this E mail and I believe I found a few items that I need to investigate. This information already helped me. Will let you know as soon as I can get back to it. Wife's projects come first.😀

I converted the wiring to a DS2 system which is the wiring and carb used prior to the emission items that were placed on the 85 and 86. One of the reasons for my changing the wiring is that the computer and the related wiring and sensors was a shambles and kept blowing #18 fuse.

I was thinking of using the unused fuse locations but I found out that there are no terminals or power feeds connected to them. The other choice would be for me to wire to a low amp draw fuse, such as the speed control you mentioned since the only items on that fuse are the speed control and a digital clock. I am aware that the heater had it's own fuse and it was 30 amps so I am not sure if that would be a good idea.

If I add a small fuse block should I run a separate power feed from the starter relay post, through the add on fuse block, to the heater. From a diagram I found it shows the hot going directly to the fan and the neutral goes through the fan switch up to the heater fan. If you or anyone has an idea on this it will certainly help.

FYI, I found the member map and found a member in Warsaw, Mo a little under an hour away. I am learning.

I am not sure if I should post all the information on my truck to the same site as my original post? I have not found another one.

Thank you, Hank

On Fri, Jul 5, 2019 at 8:43 PM Gary Lewis [via Bullnose Enthusiasts] <redacted_email_address> wrote:

Gary Lewis · July 6, 2019

All of your posts have been in the "New Members Start Here" folder and in your "New member with a question" thread. But troubleshooting or documenting your truck is best done in the main section called Bullnose Enthusiasts. More people will see it and stop to help you there.

But you are replying via email rather than following the link in the email which takes you to the forum. So you can't really tell where you are going. Try clicking on the link that looks like http://forum.garysgaragemahal.com/New-member-with-a-question-tp31322p31358.html and then post in there.

If you don't have speed control, 4wd, or any of the other things served by Fuse 6 you can use that and install a bigger fuse. However the white/pink wire for it isn't really big enough to support the heater blower, so you'll want to pull the fuse box out far enough to turn it over and replace the small wire with a larger one.

I have a fuse box out so I'll see if I can get some pics of the backside of it tomorrow and post them. That might help you understand how to work with it.

1986 f150 4.9l · July 6, 2019

All of your posts have been in the "New Members Start Here" folder and in your "New member with a question" thread. But troubleshooting or documenting your truck is best done in the main section called Bullnose Enthusiasts. More people will see it and stop to help you there.But you are replying via email rather than following the link in the email which takes you to the forum. So you can't really tell where you are going. Try clicking on the link that looks like http://forum.garysgaragemahal.com/New-member-with-a-question-tp31322p31358.html and then post in there.If you don't have speed control, 4wd, or any of the other things served by Fuse 6 you can use that and install a bigger fuse. However the white/pink wire for it isn't really big enough to support the heater blower, so you'll want to pull the fuse box out far enough to turn it over and replace the small wire with a larger one.I have a fuse box out so I'll see if I can get some pics of the backside of it tomorrow and post them. That might help you understand how to work with it.

Gary, I appreciate all your help. I have tried attaching pictures to a new post on the main site and I need to work on it some more. I have followed the instructions but am missing something.

I am attaching pictures here to get you an idea of what I am doing. Hank

On Fri, Jul 5, 2019 at 10:29 PM Gary Lewis [via Bullnose Enthusiasts] <redacted_email_address> wrote:

Gary Lewis · July 7, 2019

I'm not sure what you are doing wrong, but here's how I just added your pics to this post:

Right-clicked on your links, one at a time, and clicked Copy Link Address, which puts the link on the clipboard
Clicked the Insert Image button above
In the pop-up that appears I pasted the link into the "Or copy an image from the internet". BUT, you must wipe out the http:// that is already there.
Click Insert Image

But, your last four files are over the 1MB limit that this site will load, so while I left the Resize radio button on None for all the others, on the list four I selected Big Size so the site will reduce the size. And, you can see that those pics present smaller, though still big enough.

Also note that several of your pics are rotated incorrectly. Most sites don't have the smarts to read the metadata encoded in the picture to find the orientation and rotate it properly. So you will need to rotate those pics in a picture editor to get them to present correctly here.

However, many editors will automatically rotate an image on opening, so if you save it then it will have been corrected.