I just ran across a truck today in the junk yard; I didn't look at it closely BUT the JY-added sticker on the outside said it was a 1986.

The dash as I recall was 1986 and not 1987 (which makes me think the sticker is right although I need to go back and verify this).

For some odd reason I looked at the certification label, it had a production date of 12/86!

I have to suspect Ford had a continued run of building MY1986 variants for some reason, perhaps to meet already-paid-for demand?




86 dually (Kevin) - The VIN will give the Model Year for which the vehicle was built to be sold, if you could give us that, that'd be cool, thank you.



If it is the truck in your Gallery of which we are speaking, that looks like a 1986 variant (based on the squared wheel openings as well as the ribbed tail lights).

Nobody is tryin' to slam you or anything, it's just that Bill spent much of his working life dealing with Ford parts at Ford dealerships and is one of the most knowledgeable people on FTE about this kind of stuff.

IOW he takes it kind of personally and, if he's right, he's trying to tell you that you've been smoked by whomever told you that your MY1986 truck has a 1987 fuel system in it.

Having my own copy of the 1980/89 parts catalog, I can verify that he is correct in his statements about the "Before/After" build dates and how they're listed in the catalog.





Ford runs lots of factories. And, while factory screw-ups do occur, the purpose of a factory is to become efficient at performing the same action (building the same vehicle) over and over and over again.

There will necessarily be significant assembly line changes to build 1987 models as opposed to 1986, such an error - if it were to occur - could not have been made easily nor unintentionally.

Add to that, I'd expect the US EPA and/or NHTSA to get on their case if they built Model Year X vehicles with Model Year Y components.



EDIT: Come to think of it some more, I believe it was in 1987 when Ford flip-flopped the resistance in the sending units to how the gauges read (low or high).

I believe for several decades it worked something like - low resistance at the sending unit equated to the needle reading on the low side.

Then, around 1987, Ford flipped it - low resistance now equated to the needle reading on the high side.

This was for ALL sending units, not just fuel.

If it is the case this change happened in 1987, then there is no way in Hell you could have a 1987 fuel system without also having 1987 Water Temperature and Oil Pressure sending units and associated dash circuitry to match.




EDIT 2: I just went and verified this on Rock Auto's Web site, the change happened in 1987.

One can go verify this themselves, I compared 1986 & 1987 F150 with the 302 engine's Fuel Tank Sending Units:




1986 Variant:

1986 FORD F-150 Fuel Tank Sending Unit






1987 Variant:

1987 FORD F-150 Fuel Tank Sending Unit


So, somebody somewhere is blowing smoke....................

No, Ford didn't have different wiring & electrical systems for the 302 vs the 460, at least not in this regard.