It's been a while! Internet service problems have been keeping me offline for the most part for a few months now, finally got that all sorted out. Truck's being a nuisance again. Got the on-board air all mounted and plumbed, only to find out the pressure switch for the compressor is shorting out, and it's pretty spendy to replace so I still don't have air.
Built up this switch panel for my overhead console for my compressor switch and gauge, and the far right button is a manual override for my 2nd battery isolator.
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Just realized I never posted the stuff about my battery isolator that I said I would. Put the drivers side inner fender and battery box from the 6.5 in my truck. Had to move the charcoal canister over a little to clear it. Second battery is grounded to the engine on the front exhaust manifold bolt. From there I ran the + cable across the fan shroud and down to beside the radiator, where it hooks to a Ford starter solenoid I mounted to the core support, and from there goes down to the starter post. Also have a wire coming up from the starter solenoid up to the Ford solenoid, so that when the starter is engaged it draws power from both batteries. There's the starting side of things, now on to the charging side. Took a wire from the alternator post, over to a 70amp relay mounted on the drivers fender, then from the relay to the second battery post. The control circuit of the relay gets its power from the second battery, and is grounded through my upper oil pressure switch, which on these years normally serves as a failsafe for the fuel pump relay. Just ziptied the fuel pump plug out of the way, so if my fuel pump relay goes out I can still plug it back in and make it home. Now with the relay grounded through the oil pressure switch, whenever the engine is running the battery is connected to the first battery and the alternator through the relay, allowing it to charge. Now the second battery is isolated unless the engine is starting or running, so if I leave my key or lights on or anything, only one battery dies. I also added a wire from the relay/oil pressure switch circuit, to a manual button in the cab that is grounded. This way, if my first battery goes completely dead for some reason, I can push the button in the cab and get enough voltage through the relay from the second battery, to trip the starter solenoid and start the engine, effectively "jump starting" myself.
I'm guessing this probably sounds a little confusing the way I wrote it, so I'll look for the original thread I got the idea from and post a link later.
+Cable across the fan shroud
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Ford Starter solenoid (ignore the mess of 3 braided 12 gauge wires, I wanted a 10ga wire for the solenoid but ran out, so this is in there temporarily)
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And the relay on the fender. Right wire goes to the battery post in the picture, wire going down goes to the alternator, and wire going left goes to the oil switch and manual switch.
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Now onto my tire problems. Driving down the highway a few months back, must've hit something because I ended up blowing out 2 of my ST Maxx's, and unfortunately they were the two with the most tread left on them. Got 2 free old used tires from a friend's dad so I mounted them on the front, but then a week later we went to paint my wheels and noticed a small bubble in the tread on one of those, so I mounted my spare there instead. Threw the tire with the bubble in it in the bed of the truck, and 5 days later it completely blew up, just sitting in the bed with no weight on it. (Glad I pulled it when I did) My two ST Maxx's that were left were getting pretty bald, and my alignment went out which totally tore up my spare and the remaining free tire I had on the front. A friend had these 8 lug wheels with "decent" tires laying around, so I gave him $100 for the set and threw them on.
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Started to try to align it, but went to adjust the camber and noticed the control arms weren't really moving when I adjusted the cams. The bushings were so far gone that it was just pushing the rubber out the sides instead of moving the control arm, so I went ahead and bought a new bushing kit for the front end, and that leads us to today. Spent 8 hours out in the 106 Degree heat fighting with control arms, and now have the drivers side done. Now that I know what I'm doing, the passengers side should go a little easier.
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While I'm at it I'm going to swap my the lighter torsion bars from my old frame onto my truck, because I don't really need the HD bars and I'm getting tired of it riding like a tank.
*Edit* Almost forgot, I ran into a bit of a problem trying to remove the lower control arms today. The rear lower control arm bolts have to be pulled out through the front, but the flange on the front differential is directly in front of them, so I couldn't find any way to pull the bolts out without removing the whole front differential, which wasn't going to happen. I ended up just cutting off the heads and pushing them through the back, then using the bolts out of my old frame.