ArdWrknTrk Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 Holy smokes. I had no clue that the pmgr solenoid would draw that kind of amperage. It looks like I need to go back to the board on this one. Sorry and thank you! Do you guys have any good tricks for landing so many leads on tge starter solenoid batt post and the battery terminal? Currently or in the near future, those two locations will need to host the battery-starter solenoid lead, the starter solenoid to starter lead, my winches hot cable, the MSD power wire, the truck harness power wire, and the leads that feed my two new fender mounted relays. Thats a lot! Most of those are size 4 wires with the exception of the winch (size 2), the feed to the truck, the MSD, and one of the two relays (size 10). We have 3G alternators. You can bring terminals to the hot to the fused post of the mega fuse holder. Actually, Gary and I both have power distribution centers. Mine is quite a bit less complex than his. 😂 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 We have 3G alternators. You can bring terminals to the hot to the fused post of the mega fuse holder. Actually, Gary and I both have power distribution centers. Mine is quite a bit less complex than his. 😂 Yes, exactly. We have the 3G and mega fuse holders, so some of the wires come off that. But I also have an aux battery on the driver's side and some wires come off there, including the winch and the inverter wires. I've included my schematic for that below. But if you want to see how the power distribution boxes are wired look in the first post here. As for the PMGR's relay, don't miss that I have a Powermaster and I think Jim is running one from DB Electric. Powermaster does their own thing and the pull-in current for theirs may be totally different from the standard approach that Motorcraft used, which is what the DB probably is. And I don't know that it was current draw or back EMF that caused the problem. But I do know that there was a significant problem and the massive fender-mounted relay fixed it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StraightSix Posted February 15 Author Share Posted February 15 Yes, exactly. We have the 3G and mega fuse holders, so some of the wires come off that. But I also have an aux battery on the driver's side and some wires come off there, including the winch and the inverter wires. I've included my schematic for that below. But if you want to see how the power distribution boxes are wired look in the first post here. As for the PMGR's relay, don't miss that I have a Powermaster and I think Jim is running one from DB Electric. Powermaster does their own thing and the pull-in current for theirs may be totally different from the standard approach that Motorcraft used, which is what the DB probably is. And I don't know that it was current draw or back EMF that caused the problem. But I do know that there was a significant problem and the massive fender-mounted relay fixed it. Gary, That is very interesting indeed. I recently gathered all of the manuals for all of my upgrade components as well as printed copies of the ford 1984 service manual for my driveline, factory ignition, etc and bound it all. The goal is to have all service information for factory parts or aftermarket upgrades available in a hard copy. Now that I have a gathering point for this info Im doing a better job of documenting the work. Ive been drawing hand sketched wiring diagrams for everything I have added and will continue to do so. A master service parts list would be mighty handy too. Ill certainly look to big blues documentation for inspiration. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 Gary, That is very interesting indeed. I recently gathered all of the manuals for all of my upgrade components as well as printed copies of the ford 1984 service manual for my driveline, factory ignition, etc and bound it all. The goal is to have all service information for factory parts or aftermarket upgrades available in a hard copy. Now that I have a gathering point for this info Im doing a better job of documenting the work. Ive been drawing hand sketched wiring diagrams for everything I have added and will continue to do so. A master service parts list would be mighty handy too. Ill certainly look to big blues documentation for inspiration. You might consider the approach I'm using. Knowing that any documentation I do may have mistakes that I'll find later, I've created documents that I then embed in the first post of Big Blue's Transformation thread. By doing it that way when I find errors and/or make changes those changes are immediately shown in the first post. For instance, recently I discovered that the charging and power distribution schematic didn't include a bunch of stuff, but it did include all of the detail for the passenger's side power distribution box. And that detail kept me from adding other necessary details. So I moved the PS PDB detail off that schematic and made it stand alone. Ditto for the driver's side PDB. And that gave me room to detail out the whole charging system. And then I print the individual pages or documents and add them to the 3-ring binder that lives in Big Blue's console. So no matter where he goes the info is available to fix or troubleshoot him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StraightSix Posted February 15 Author Share Posted February 15 Gary, That is very interesting indeed. I recently gathered all of the manuals for all of my upgrade components as well as printed copies of the ford 1984 service manual for my driveline, factory ignition, etc and bound it all. The goal is to have all service information for factory parts or aftermarket upgrades available in a hard copy. Now that I have a gathering point for this info Im doing a better job of documenting the work. Ive been drawing hand sketched wiring diagrams for everything I have added and will continue to do so. A master service parts list would be mighty handy too. Ill certainly look to big blues documentation for inspiration. Here are some photos of what Ive been working on. I dont recall how to fix photo rotation issues, they need to be rotate before uploading, right? Rocker arm shims installed Tracing out the valve cover spacer New ground bus bars on the front fender new relays and fuse blocks on the passenger side fender Never mind the ring terminals bolted down on the starter solenoid bolt, those are old grounds which have been replaced. Ill remove those and run a new ground from the starter solenoid body to the ground bus. I may land several of my leads ion the fuse for the alternator, that was a good idea I hadnt considered yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mat in tn Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 Here are some photos of what Ive been working on. I dont recall how to fix photo rotation issues, they need to be rotate before uploading, right? Rocker arm shims installed Tracing out the valve cover spacer New ground bus bars on the front fender new relays and fuse blocks on the passenger side fender Never mind the ring terminals bolted down on the starter solenoid bolt, those are old grounds which have been replaced. Ill remove those and run a new ground from the starter solenoid body to the ground bus. I may land several of my leads ion the fuse for the alternator, that was a good idea I hadnt considered yet. why is it that you needed to use 1/4" worth of washers to shim the rockers? and i have not shimmed them that way. I use the rectangular shims that fit inside the retainer channel. even then only12,20,30 thousandths thick. did you get longer rocker bolts to keep thread purchase in the head the same before torquing them on fewer threads? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StraightSix Posted February 15 Author Share Posted February 15 why is it that you needed to use 1/4" worth of washers to shim the rockers? and i have not shimmed them that way. I use the rectangular shims that fit inside the retainer channel. even then only12,20,30 thousandths thick. did you get longer rocker bolts to keep thread purchase in the head the same before torquing them on fewer threads? Hi Matt, Infact, that is actually 0.150" worth of ground shims. They do look an awful lot like washers though. They are greater in diameter than the width of the retainer channel. That tall shim pack is required because of the longer chevy valves. I did find longer bolts and with careful selection in washers between the top of the rocker arm and the rocker bolt head I was able to keep thread engagement withing 2 turns of the originals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mat in tn Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 Hi Matt, Infact, that is actually 0.150" worth of ground shims. They do look an awful lot like washers though. They are greater in diameter than the width of the retainer channel. That tall shim pack is required because of the longer chevy valves. I did find longer bolts and with careful selection in washers between the top of the rocker arm and the rocker bolt head I was able to keep thread engagement withing 2 turns of the originals. very good. I'm glad it was thought through. I see much that is not thought through and sometimes we get to fix it. as to the chevy valves, are they 2.02 in a 4.9 head? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StraightSix Posted February 15 Author Share Posted February 15 very good. I'm glad it was thought through. I see much that is not thought through and sometimes we get to fix it. as to the chevy valves, are they 2.02 in a 4.9 head? Thanks Matt. They are 1.94" valves. I wont pretend to be a 300 head air flow expert, but people on ford 6 occasionally talk like anything much bigger than a 1.94 may not offer much bennefit because of shrouding issues. You do occasionally see 2.02 valves but the require you to modify the combustion chamber. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StraightSix Posted February 17 Author Share Posted February 17 Thanks Matt. They are 1.94" valves. I wont pretend to be a 300 head air flow expert, but people on ford 6 occasionally talk like anything much bigger than a 1.94 may not offer much bennefit because of shrouding issues. You do occasionally see 2.02 valves but the require you to modify the combustion chamber. Hi everyone. Ive made a bit more progress. Ive finished (for now) working on wiring including rewiring my starter. I received my pushrods and I also finished roughing out the valve cover spacer. The spacer doesnt look like much but it was a suprising bit of work to cut it out with a jig saw. I will finish it with a diegrinder inside and out. There will probably be several hours worth of work in that. Im not really pleased with the mess of wires around the battery, starter solenoid and my two new relays. I dont believe any of it will be prone to ground out which is my first concern, but its a birds nest for sure. Ill have to think some on how to remidy this. I will remake my G3 harness soon, I may find an opportunity to incorporate a partial solution to this problem. The new starter trigger (10, red) is strapped down tight to the frame rails along with the starter ground and the O2 meter harness. I placed the batt-to-starter wire in its own dedicated loom and placed only enough tension on its zip ties to guide it down the frame. Im preoccupied with the idea of that large cable ground and causing terrible damage. I may revisit my strategy here as well, but it will ride for now I think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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