1978 F250 400 Dual Fuel

[Provience]

/Welp, got the head ground cleaned up. 7/16-14

and after a couple days it seems the Keyline isolator wasn't doing what I wanted it to do. according to the attached instruction manual, it was doing exactly what it was designed to do. It was keeping my batteries tied together 100% of the time after the initial charge, the coach battery having a resting voltage higher than the 12.8 cutoff meant that the coach/aux battery was backfeeding the main battery constantly. This isn't an issue, per se, but it isn't ideal for what I was trying to accomplish. just means every time the truck would have to charge the second battery from a generally low state of charge. It'd have to be down to 10% before it would reach the volt sensing cutoff and become isolated.

What I had hoped for/wanted was for the batteries to stay isolated every time the alternator was not charging, and that is where I guess marketing and advertising and me not thinking about how this box would work got me. In my head it would connect them above 13.3v when the alt was running and disconnect them at 12.8v when the lead acid battery was at rest/alternator not charging. If these were both lead acid batteries, it would work exactly like that and be easy peasy.

I still didn't want to use the relay triggered by the key as the factory designed it. While that would give a large available battery bank and isolation when the vehicle was off, it wouldn't give isolation if the key was on which is half the need.

Did some digging with the multimeter and some brushing up on my alternator functions and went ahead and tied into the alternator stator lead. This is the line that the factory used for the electric choke heater, as you also only want that to run when the vehicle is running and not just draining at rest.

Rather than find a thin nut to go below the push on stud connector, popped out the pin at the voltage regulator

and soldered a lead to trigger the solenoid on the other fender

instead of using the same holes that were there before, decided to drill some more holes. Not sure anybody can have too many small holes in their fender

and re-installed. Went ahead and kept the main lines crossed because I don't have any more ends handy and don't want to spend the $5 just yet to get another 2 pack

Now the batteries are tied together with the key in Run and are isolated with the key in ACCY and OFF. This will allow them both to charge and relax at their own voltages. The only minor disadvantage to this, if I set up a charger for just the main battery, it will not back feed to the coach battery. Should be good for 3-6 months without a charge so I'm not going to worry about it.

 

[Provience]

10 day update: working on the return for the LiFePo4 battery and going to toss the smart relay back onto ebay. Learned a bunch, not getting what I wanted or thought I would.

Starting off with robbing my posts from the WHAT DID YOU DO FOR YOUR FORD TODAY? main ford thread.

Cold snap came with a freeze warning, the fancy battery is freeze tolerant for storage and draw down, but not for charging except very low amperage, 2.5-5 amps. Can't control that with the truck, so put a heating pad under the battery and set up a timer for the night.

and twice over the past 10 days i've hit the tailgate with minimal/no load and it's tripped the BMS cutoff pretty lame, that was 95% of the reason for doing this, get better performance without wearing on the start battery with the gate.

Next step was to check the various batteries i've had in the garage for years for no real reason. This motorcraft is the one from the pickup, which hasn't been hooked up in apparently forever. Had to double up all of them. This guy won't rest over ~4v, another goes good and then rests at ~10.5v and the third made it up to ~12.5

Go duralast. Need to scrounge up 1 more 3/8" 4 gauge ring terminal.

Reaching out to see if I can take advantage of the 30 day warranty for the expensive battery, they asked why I wasn't happy with it and wanted to know what my load was. Couldn't find anything specific on the internet and the tommy gate owners manual just talks about the breaker, so under 150amps max. In my head I was figuring 100amps just based on the CB rating.

Got the chinese shunt meter out of the box. This thing is pretty neat "one of these days" i'd like to 3d print a hand hold style case for it.

Depending on which lead of the meter is hooked up to which side of the shunt, this will display amps in OR amps out of the battery, it won't do both. With the vehicle on and charging it won't show any current draw, unless you were able to outpace the alternator I suppose.

Resting/standby draw for all the jazz on this side is apparently 0.03 amps and 0.3 watts. which is lower than I expected to see.

Since it was hooked up, might as well play with it. Turning on the headlights gave me a 8.75 amp draw.

made a 10 second video so that I could see what the lift gate was using for power with no load. 90.12 amps at 11.38 volts. honestly, this should have been acceptable for the fancy battery. However, I can see how it would be too much if the gate had a decent load. Bigger battery ~100 ah LiFePO4 would have been the solution, just not willing to go that route when FLA/SLA is more tolerant to this without all the hassle.



and then turned the stereo on to "normal" listening volume, which is loud enough to not hear myself sing and to hear it well over the wind noise with the windows all down.

Slipknot ran around 46.9 watts.

and lil wayne with a more constant bass note 87.3 watts.

https://www.power-sonic.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Technical-Manual.pdf

random internet grab for SLA/FLA battery curve. group 24 battery should be ~90 amp hours, leaving 45AH ideally usable. Leaves me about the 10 hour draw down rate or 5 hours comfortable and solid listening to the radio without the truck running or leaving the lights on. Or about a half hour running the lift gate.



and I also took apart and cleaned up the gunk from the carb.

 

[posford]

You get around to sorting out the propane stuff yet?

 

[rattle_snake]

...and I also took apart and cleaned up the gunk from the carb.

Looks like a good time to shit can the carb and convert to EFI

 

[Provience]

Looks like a good time to shit can the carb and convert to EFI

No cost amd an hour of cleaning and it runs great again. EFI would have needed some damn sensor or something

 

[Provience]

You get around to sorting out the propane stuff yet?

Nope....probably should do that over the winter though

 

[posford]

Nope....probably should do that over the winter though

OK. I just picked up a very similar old dual fuel setup that came off a Ford 2.8 and will be going onto a 5.8, so we'll see how that goes

 

[Provience]

OK. I just picked up a very similar old dual fuel setup that came off a Ford 2.8 and will be going onto a 5.8, so we'll see how that goes

Awesome, should go good. The propane stuff is way more versatile for cfm than carbs or throttle bodies etc.

 

[Provience]

Finally cleaned up and reorganized the tool box. Took 3 quarts of oil to get it mostly quieted down. Took about 2 months to lose those 3, so I'll keep the oil back there and check it when getting fuel.

I haven't had the transmission kick down hooked up since I put the 4v carb on. Opened the hood to adjust the choke and figured I'd cut up an aluminum can and make an extension link out of it. The can is folded several times and flexes enough to be fine figure it will work until it doesn't

After adjusting the electric choke for winter, I had to manually close it the other morning to get the truck to start, I went ahead and started making a mount to go back to a manual choke.

This is from some door wearer strip seal gasket thing. Leftovers, however it is grooved and should work well for holding the cable.

Clamps good and the back rail helps hold it all straight and into itself.

Grabbed a strip of aluminum from the scrap pile, drilled some holes to mount it to the carb base and used 2 pair of pliers to roll 2 of the sections for added stiffness.

One of them little nylon bushing things would be pretty tits for this connection. Until then, it works

And it opens fully, ensuring I was able to have the handle pushed in fully in the cab and have pressure on the cable pushing the choke open was key. It takes very little to go from open and working proper to slightly close and preventing the secondaries from opening.

Popped off the e choke and put it in the box with the spare carb. Firewall mount and carb base mount keep the cable moving easy and secure.

Put the washer box back in place, filled with water and it doesn't spray. Didn't look any further into it than that, maybe a few weeks from now. That'll be nice for winter though. Need to find a 1/2" or larger plug somewhere so that I can fix that melted hole in the top.

Little stuff this weekend.


edit: note taking.

Ford E4OD / 4R100 Control and Swap Info

bought a 1991 E4OD 2wd transmission with torque converter and 460 bellhousing, unknown mileage. Mechanical speedometer drive.

Early E4OD Range Sensors are Prone to Failure​

E4OD transmissions manufactured prior to 1995 had an issue with the MLPS, or “Range Sensor”. It was determined to be inadequately weather-proof, allowing water to enter the connector and corrode the pins, causing electrical problems. It is always recommended that this sensor be replaced with an updated 1995 or newer style, if it has not been already.

Atomic 2760 Atomic Transmission Controller, Stand Alone

There is no reason to settle on just three gears or the kickdown linkage of an automatic transmission with the number of electronically controlled four speed automatics that are available these days. MSD will take the mystery out of setting up or programming an automatic trans with the Atomic...

www.holley.com

holley wants $900 for the complete controller

US Shift wants $950 for their complete quick 2 kit, but that is including $170 for a throttle position sensor and $115 for a neutral safety switch/manual lever position sensor. $665 for just their controller and wiring harness, then i'm on my own for a TPS, which should be easy enough, and replacing the MLPS.

E4OD has a wider split than the C6, and everything that goes along with it is much cheaper and easier. The one in the motorhome has been trucking along just fine.

• 1st: 2.71
• 2nd: 1.54
• 3rd: 1.00
• 4th: 0.71

C6
2.46/1.46/1:1

 

[Provience]

Hooked up the trailer and bought a bed liner for thr other truck, came with a camper shell for a 80-97 pickup. Going to stick it on the 78, see if it bugs me. For now, I'm excited about it

The wife has got some idea in mind for filling this gap, not sure what it is because I missed whatever she said and now won't repeat it light steel frame and some rubber or fabric and some magnets is my thought

Picked up the shell stuff at night and used the trailer. Really set in how many lights I've got that don't work right. Brake lights didn't work at all, wouldn't even trigger the trailer brakes.

First light on the corner was broken and the bulb was deep in the fender.

Glue, spring clamp and 2 hours of time got the corner back to working.

Turn signal bulb was worse for the wear, fortunately it just needed a potato, pliers, screwdriver and a new bulb that I had 1 of in the glove box.

Thus rear marker revived with a good sanding to the contacts

Reverse light bulb doesn't pass the multimeter test and had some heavy corrosion on the ground contact, cleaned it up and got power. Bulb coming in tomorrow whenever the wife goes to the store. Dark at 6pm here, no reason to go out at night

Brake light bulbs were good, no power though. The switch at the brake pedal makes contact, ground is good, no 12v to the power side at the pedal. Out comes the cluster again, guess this explains why they highjacked power right at the fuse panel

The 2 flasher relays in there, one is a 536, other is 552. Not sure why there is two. Wiring looks factory or at least period correct to both of them.

edit: other flasher must be for the hazard lights, that switch doesn't work. no power at the flasher would do that and would explain why it is a larger relay

 

[Provience]

And there's the plugs the relays live in. Thr black one in the back is where the 12v+ wire from the brake switch heads to, it's then paired with the 12v+ for the relay.

No power present there

But there was power present at the orange wire for the foreground plug!

Easier to pull my orange wire and red wire out up here instead of figuring out why i wasnt getting power to the red wire the normal way

Stripped and wrapped

Soldered and retaped.

Huzzah! I now have pedal activated brake lights, fully functioning turn indicators at all 4 corners and marker lights that do things.

So many lights that the right dash indicator now stays lit when I turn on the headlights

Oh well, can't win them all.

 

[87manche]

check the grounds for the lights.
I had a jeep that did that and it was grounds at the bulbs.

 

[Provience]

check the grounds for the lights.
I had a jeep that did that and it was grounds at the bulbs.

I think you nailed that one, it fixed itself on my commute. At some point it turned off, used the blinker and it stayed on for a minute extra then shut off. By the time I was at the parking lot, I could use the blinker and it would behave.

Only remaining issue is the driver side rear combo light. Only activates the low light circuit and uses that for everything. Blocks low light instead of keeping low light on and blinking brighter above it. Brake pedal activates low light, doesn't make a change if the parking lights are already on. Somewhere a wire is touching where it shouldn't and not where it should. Easy enough

 

[Provience]

alright, maintenance. Looking to eliminate some of the leaks so that once the engine and trans come out, they can go back in without leaving a mess everywhere I stop.

Power steering pump has been losing fluid for a bit. sometimes worse than others

The old return line was pretty fragile on both ends, 3/8" line so swapping that out

Precision 28401425 should have enough O-Rings for this guy

My old puller finally gave up the ghost doing the power steering pulley on the other pickup, used the tool loaner from orielly. works pretty darn well, not worth owning as long as they have them handy in town

once the mounting bracket bolts were off, it popped into 2 pieces at least it was a clean crack I guess

The pressure outlet/relief/regulator is the only thing alignment wise keeping the reservoir on to the pump

spring, relief valve, adapter

a

and some gentle taps around the edge to slip the pump out

5" Clamp was plenty enough to put some pressure on the body and the back of the pump, handy awl to push in the access port to the lock ring and pop the ring out

Gentle tap on the shaft to send the guts out the back

..

 

[Provience]

and all the guts explode everywhere

There's some areas will a little of casting cracking and such, but nothing that looks like heavy pitting or any body loss at a level that concerns me for this truck.

Be nice if replacing this slows/eliminates some fluid loss

used the side of the mallet to set the new one in place, didn't measure the shaft for wear or anything fancy like that

Springs go into the holes, slides go flat side to the springs. A bit finicky to get them in place all the way around.

It is important to note that the Stator (not the correct term) is on backwards right now. This will be very obvious once installed, no assist from the pump and a sweet noise There is a relief notch on one side, not present on the other. That relief aligns with the drain/suction port on the back half of the case. Important detail

Alignment pins go into the pump body first, then set the input shaft over. Here you can see the pins are in the wrong location of the Stator. They should be in the other set of holes It makes a bunch more sense if you play with the stack when it is all out.

and tap the reservoir back into place

did some weld on the inside

and some on the outside, grindered flat for the adjusting bracket clearance

...

 

[Provience]

Doesn't matter what color it is, everything looks better after some sort of paint

and reinstalled.

and as mentioned earlier, great failure on the plus side, it takes about 15 or 25 minutes to pull it all apart and put it back together once everything is clean and you know what you are doing.

The second time, it fired right up and possibly steers better than it ever has before. Significantly better than when the pump was internally backwards

need the rain to not be rainy so that I can spend some time taking the dash apart again.

Kenwood KMM-BT732HD going in. Need something with crossover control

Rockford Fosgate amp is having issues, rather than take it apart and see if I can fix it, got a new amp. Stereo Integrity SIQ 75.4. Plan is to use this instead of the 1 old and 1 cheap one and just have a 2.1 style setup

Being able to do time alignment and individual channel gain should make a significant improvement to the sound quality. Even if it doesn't, having 4 working channels instead of 3 will be pretty sweet

 

[holdmypocket]

I was digging in my garage looking for my old stock PS pump bracket so I could send it to you but it looks like you're all good (not sure I even have it at this point)

 

[Provience]

I was digging in my garage looking for my old stock PS pump bracket so I could send it to you but it looks like you're all good (not sure I even have it at this point)

I appreciate the thought

When I took it apart and it came off in pieces my first thought was "finally, this is the excuse I need to get my TIG all set back up"

and when I was going back together it was "oh yeah, stupid fawkin bracket, lemme grab the flux core box and crank 'er real quick"

just how it goes most days