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Front lighting

The LH marker/turn lamp did not work at all, and the RH one only worked for the turn signal element. I took the lens off of the LH marker and discovered there was no bulb in it at all. I could not get the new bulb into the socket, so I unbolted it from the grille. Unfortunately I broke both of the studs in the process, so I had to drill out the studs and replace them with bolts. The spring-loaded contacts at the bottom of the socket were not moving freely, which explained why I couldn’t get a new bulb in. After some PBBlaster and wire brushing, I got it cleaned up enough to accept the bulb. The RH side I managed to only break one of the two studs, so I only had to drill out and replace one of those. There was a bulb in the socket, but it was very discolored and obviously not in usable shape. It was also corroded into the socket, making it very difficult to remove. I sprayed it down with PBBlaster and let that soak. To remove the bulb, I put some heavy duty duct tape around the end of a tube and taped it to the bulb. After working it around for a while I finally convinced it to come out. A pass with a wire brush shined all the contacts back up, and the new bulb went in. Both the marker and turn lamps work now.

I was pretty sure the dimmer switch was bad, so I ordered a new one in the last batch of parts. I tried cycling the switch a bunch of times to see if I could get it working. The low beams worked, but the high beams did not. When I was trying to unplug the original dimmer switch, it broke and fell apart, so it was good that I had the replacement. The new switch worked the same as the old one, low beams worked but not high. I knew one of the bulbs was bad, so I had ordered replacements for those also. After replacing both bulbs, they both work on high and low beam.

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Bed wiring harness

The rear harness plugs into a socket on the frame, Unfortunately, someone had cut all the wires and used butt connectors to repair that. A couple were connected, but most of the wires had torn apart. I spent a couple of hours stripping wire ends, and splicing in soldered connections to make it all work again. I don’t have a way to check the reverse lights yet, but the brake/turn and running lights are working again,

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Accessory belt

A friend set me up with a belt tensioner, so I started to figure out what to do with it. Originally it went on the upper right on the engine, but that is where the alternator is now. I was happy with the battery wiring to the alternator and starter, so I didn’t want to move that. There are two mounting holes in the front of the left head, but they are not in the correct plane for the belt to line up properly. I mocked up a mount using some long bolts, and got the belt path worked out. The tensioner needs to be oriented so the 3rd mounting hole is up in the air with nothing behind it. The tensioner is too strong to be supported by just two bolts screwed into the head, so I am going to try to make a bracket that will bolt to the front of the left head. My plan is to use thickwall tubing (actually an old alternator mount spacer from an SBC) to space it out 1.5″ from the head. I’m not sure if the bracket will pick up that 3rd mount hole, or if I will cut that off. The belt works out to be about 60″, and that looks ok as far as what lengths are available from the parts store.

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Regulator…take 3

At first I thought the Gasoila had sealed the joints properly, but then after a couple of days it sprung a leak again. I went to the hardware store and got brass replacements for the two hose connections and the plug. I also got yellow sealing tape that is designed for use with gasoline, instead of the white teflon tape that I had tried before. Don’t use the white stuff with gas.

When disassembling things to put the new fittings on, the line from the regulator to the carb cracked. This will have to be replaced, but for now I cut the line shorter. Unfortunately that meant it was really a little too short for the distance, and I could only use one mount screw for the regulator. New hose is on the shopping list.

During some of my electrical tests, I had the key on, and I noticed that the fuel pump was running a lot, and not sounding like it was meeting with any resistance. I checked the fuel pressure gauge on the carb line, and…it was pegged at 15+ PSI. I’m not sure if the regulator has failed, if there isn’t enough fuel left in the tank, or if the gauge is bad. I ordered another gauge, and will go from there.

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Engine wiring cleanup

The fuel regulator ended up wanting to be right where the ignition box was mounted. Additionally, the wiring looms for the ignition were looped around the carb and just laying on the intake.

I decided to move the ignition box to the left inner fender, and leave the regulator alone on the right. The looms were long enough to be able to tuck them behind the engine, and then behind the fender mount point on the inner fender. This hid them and kept them safe.

The green wire is still TBD, so it’s not tucked away. It is the signal to turn on the fuel pump and ignition box power relays. Currently it’s connected to the old coil+ wire because I assumed it would only be active in the start and run positions of the ignition switch. I discovered it’s also active in the accessory position, which makes no sense to me. I’m still deciding how to get a better circuit to drive these that is not active in that position.

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Tail pan

The truck did not have a rear bumper, but PO included an aftermarket tail pan that fills the space where the rear bumper would go. I decided to put it on to see what it looks like. I’m still not crazy about having the fuel tank there without protection, but I like the look. I think the solution is going to be installing a different fuel tank that fits better in this chassis.

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Regulator installed…mostly

My parts order arrived, so I was able to install the fuel regulator. I installed it on the right hand inner fender, which is competing for space with the MSD box. I am going to try to move the MSD to the left inner fender, the wires look like they will be long enough. For now, it works well enough to try.

After hooking everything up, and adjusting the pressure down to about 6 PSI, the engine started right up and ran well. Unfortunately, the fittings were weeping fuel from the regulator. I had tried teflon tape on them, but it wasn’t sealing well enough. After a few retries with the tape, I decided to use Gasoila, a thread sealer that is specifically made for use on pipe threads for gasoline and propane. This has to cure though, so it’s sitting on the workbench now.

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Cooling fan

The truck came with a bunch of parts in the bed, including two electric fan setups. Both of these appear to have come from junkyards.

One is a dual-fan setup with straight blades. This one has a fair amount of damage to the plastic shroud. It will work, but it’s a little beat-up.

The other one is a single large fan that has a shroud that is 24″ x 26″, with a fan diameter of 21″. Looking up the numbers on the fan, this is a 2020-2024 Ford Explorer piece. The connector has 3 wires on it, two very big ones, and one smaller one. After some research, this 3rd wire is a PWM signal wire. The fan was originally controlled by the engine computer, and the width of the pulses on the signal line control how fast the fan runs.

I found a controller that I bought that is supposed to allow me to connect a temperature input to it, and the signal wire 

will tell the fan the right thing to do.

The fan is fairly large, and is actually taller than the opening in the radiator support, but the frame is below the support, and that gives some extra room to work with.

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Alternator

The alternator is mounted on the right side of the engine using a bracket made by ICT. When I wired the battery, I did some research on the alternator to see what I needed to wire up to get it working. This alternator had the big heavy cable from the battery, and also two smaller connections provided in a plug at the top. These are labeled “F” and “L” on the case. After doing some research, I found Dirty Dingo’s excellent writeup on alternators.

The good news is that the writeup explains everything you would want to know about alternators commonly found on LS engines. The bad news is that this two-wire interface depends on a computer managing it to set the output voltage. It defaults to 13.8 volts (limp-home mode) which will sorta work, but that’s lower than you want. It’s not an easy retrofit to a non-computer setup. I am going to try to get one of the other alternator models that are easier to retrofit. I’ll hook this up in the meantime, but eventually it will need to get replaced.

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First startup

After putting some fresh gas in the tank, I hit the key and it fired up after some cranking. It ran great:

…for about 15 seconds, and then it started running rough. On restart it was running even worse. I took a quick look at the engine and noticed that fuel was running out of the sides of the carb. The fuel bowls were overflowing.

My first thought was that the needle valves connected to the bowl floats were leaking. After a little more investigation I figured out that they were being overwhelmed by the fuel pump.

I took a closer look at the fuel pump setup, and discovered that there was no regulator. The Edelbrock carb is expecting something around 6psi coming in, and this pump was putting out 15+ psi.

I ordered a regulator and some other parts from Summit, but based on the UPS tracking, the package disappeared after it arrived at one of the UPS hub sites. After a few days of no updates, I contacted Summit. They offered to refund or re-order the missing parts. I asked for a re-order, which they did immediately, and shipped it out via FedEx expedited shipping.