That oil leak reminded me of what I did today. Again, not to my truck, but with and for it. I went back to the '86 from which I got parts on Saturday and got both doors, tailgate, dome & cargo lights (did it the way 81-F-150-Explorer said in his post), cruise control, under hood light, and the DS II wiring harness to replace the one I created.

So, how did the oil leak remind me of that? Because I had a hard time getting the ignition harness out since the oil pressure wire ran under the valve cover. Oh yes, did I mention how oily I got getting it out?

 

Under the valve cover? Two questions. How in the world did it wind up there? And how much of an idiot did the previous owner have to be to not realize that was wrong/do something to fix it?

Sometimes, people amaze me..

 

Well, it isn't too hard to get it under the cover since it runs right past the front of the cover - or maybe I ought to say "it should run right past the front of the cover". Luckily, for me, the bolts were so loose I don't think it did the wire any harm, although the whole harness awa the driver's side of the engine is a mess, as you can imagine.

As for the PO, I'm not sure exactly who reads these posts so won't comment regarding his mental state since there are a few parts left on the truck.

 

You make a point, and on that note, I suppose it is possible for somebody to inadvertently install a valve cover without realizing that the wire was underneath it. What I fail to understand is how it went un-noticed, and why it was left that way.

But, the point is that the wire is okay, and that you've got yourself a Duraspark II harness plus your home-made harness just in case the factory DS II harness has been damaged.

 

Today, I ordered my DUI distributor and new wires from Performancedistributors.com !!! Looking forward to getting that and putting everything together. Oh, and then driving it with it's new giddy-up

 

replaced u-joints in the axle shafts that will go on my refurbished dana 44. kinda scary how dangerous removing the old ones is. I was pressing them out using a ball joint press with out all the attachments, and had one blow out the cap, loud enough to scare the wife... then I had the joy of removing the remnants of the cap.

 

Today I pulled the tarp off of her to get her some sun. For a 31 year old truck I haven't touched in a few months, and for one that hasn't moved under it's own power in over a year, she still looks beautiful. Makes me kind of sad that I can't drive her.

 

I finally set my timing, idle and mixture. They were all significantly off. The truck drives much better now, which is good, since my DD is in the shop.

 

Just changed the voltage reg. which fixed my ammeter/lights flittering problem.

 

Hey Dyingtolive, If you replace you oil pan gasket try using on of the 87-96 300-6 gaskets that felpro sells. they are all one piece silicone gaskets. My dads old 85 that is now mine had one put in about 15 years ago because he kept goin through the multi piece one's left and right, but once he used the one piece gasket it never leaked again.

 

I installed the "new to me" weather strips, both the on-cab and on-door, that I took off of the donor '86 truck yesterday. And, I put on the liberated striker bolt with plastic sleeve. Haven't driven the truck yet, but from what I can tell from just shutting the doors, there is a HUGE difference. Need to get the glass run and door anti-rattle strips to get the full effect, but maybe this will get me by for a while.

 

Hey, thanks man! I'll keep that in mind if I wind up having to replace the gasket.

 

Installed the tach/trip instrument set as well as the clock. They work!

The only issue I had was the '86 clock's plug was different than the '82s harness connector. Pulled the wires/terminals out of the plug, put heat shrink on the terminals to insulate them, put them in the truck's connector, wrapped it all with tape and it worked perfectly. Oh yes, 3 of the 4 wire colors matched so it was easy to figure out which went where.

 

Since all the damn liquid salt/brine they have been using on the roads around here have been doing a number on my muffler, the outer shell is hanging down like a keel, I'll be replacing it today along with swapping the 96 tailights I put on a while back out for the stock design, that being said...

 

Magnaflow?