Tag Bullnose Ford

Howdy folks, Ed here. Welcome back to Bullnose Garage, and this is my project for the weekend. This obviously is a brand new stereo system for the truck, and this is a $15 head unit from Amazon. You see it’s got the old retro look. It’s supposed to have Bluetooth and hands-free calling. We’re going to see if it actually works for $15. I don’t know, there’s not even a picture of it on the box. It is super crazy light, like there’s nothing to this thing. But for 15 bucks, you know, we’re going to see if it’s worth your time. So I’m going to put that in, see how it goes.

The other interesting thing as part of this project this weekend is this speaker right here. It is by far the most expensive thing on this entire table. You can get a 5×7 speaker from Amazon for like $10 or $15. This one here was about 80 or 90 bucks, but the reason is because it’s actually a dual voice coil speaker that has both left and right channels built in. It’s specifically made for old vehicles with a dash single dash speaker like my truck or older car. So we’re going to see if that’s worth the money once I get all this stuff put in. And these are obviously like just cheapo JVC 6 and a half inch speakers, the cheapest ones I can find on Amazon. So at some point in the future, I’m going to put a real stereo system in this truck that’s really nice with some subwoofers and amplifiers and the whole bit. For now, I just want to be able to listen to Pandora while I’m driving, so that’s the goal I’m trying to reach today. Let’s see if I can get there. Stick around.

Hello! All right, so the first thing is to get this door panel off. It’s pretty simple. There’s a screw here that holds this on, and then there’s a bunch of these little clips back behind the door here that go into the panel, and then the door clips onto these. If you’ve got an older truck like this, I highly recommend going out and getting you some of these clips. I’ll put the link in the description. Before you get these, these break pretty easy, and if they do break while you’re taking this off and you put it back on without using these clips, the door is going to flop around a little bit and rattle. It’s just going to add to the general cacophony these old trucks make. So, uh, get them secured, and they’re pretty cheap. They’re not very expensive, so make sure you do that. All right, let’s get this thing off.

All right, there we go. And here you can see where those clips just pop in here. Especially if you got an older door panel, you don’t want to be too rough with these. This is actually pretty nice plastic, so it doesn’t break real easy, but it’s possible. So you just want to be careful taking these off. Here is the speaker. These speakers as well are aftermarket. They’re Polk, and they don’t sound too bad, but since I’m doing the entire system, I’m just going to go ahead and replace some of the speakers that I know, so I know what the RMS and the wattage are of them. That way, I can match them to my head unit and not have to worry about them. But like I said, these are pretty good speakers, actually. They sound pretty good, so I’m going to save them, but I’m not going to use them for this.

If you’ve never done stereo installation before, it is really simple. All these speakers just have two wires, a positive and a negative. You just have to make sure that you wire the positive to the positive side, the negative to the negative side, and that’s pretty much it. It does get a little bit more complicated when you start talking about crossovers and amps and, you know, different capabilities of head units and RMS wattage and all that stuff. But for the most part, if you’re just swapping out some stock parts, it’s real simple. It’s got the two plugs here. Whoa! They’re pretty old. Come on, there we go. Yeah, busted that off. It’s okay, it’s just the mounting point. If I want to use it again, I could maybe super glue that. They’re pretty old, but otherwise that still works. It’s still connected to the speaker, so it would be okay.

So while I got the door open and off the panel off, I’m going to go ahead and pop that new speaker in. For those of you curious, this is a set that I got from Amazon. They are really cheap. They’re like 25 bucks, JVC CSJ 620. We’re going to see how they sound. They got pretty good reviews. They’re just a cheap speaker I can use until I get the real thing put in this truck, you know, once I’m done with the engine and everything else. So let’s see how they go. This one’s actually missing a couple of screws. I’ll go see if I can find some that’ll work. When you’re working on old vehicles like this, a lot of times you’ll find missing screws and stuff because this is behind a panel you’re never going to see it. I don’t really care that they’re different colors. I don’t really care that this one here is a little bit crooked. Like I said, you’re never going to see it, so it doesn’t really matter. But having the screw in there is a good idea because it’ll stop things from rattling around, and like I said before, in the cacophony of noise these old trucks make, anything that you can stop from rattling is always a bonus. They are loud enough as they are. Let’s get the old radio in, so I’m going to go check to see if it works.

Okay, it is possible it’s the speaker itself, but it may also be the wiring. So to verify whether it’s the wiring or the speaker, I am going to swap this speaker to the other side of the truck and see if it gives me the same problem. If it does not give you the same problem, that means it’s a problem with my wiring. So if it’s a problem with the wiring, it’s probably here in the door. It may actually be these connectors that are back behind here, just old and corroded and not giving a really good connection. If that’s the case, then I can swap the ends out and put new connectors on. I’ve got those. So, uh, but yeah, we’re going to go see on the other side if this is a speaker problem or a wiring problem.

Okay, so, uh, I can’t let you listen to this because YouTube will give you a copyright strike, but, uh, it’s coming through fine on this side of the truck. So I’m going to swap this back over to the other side, run it again, just verify that I think it’s probably the wiring, and then we’ll go through the troubleshooting steps over there to figure out why the wiring over there might be kind of janky. Yeah, so there is clearly a problem somewhere in this wiring. So the easiest thing to do is just cut these off, assume that these are the problem, cut these off and replace them, and we’ll see if that does it. Normally, I like to do solder connections for most of this stuff, but because this is just a really kind of cheap, almost temporary repair, temporary for a few years, I’ll just go ahead and crimp like, you know, everybody else does. They’re doing car audio.

Always nice when your first instinct is correct. That’s awesome. Here we go, classic hits 101 gold. Now for the rest of this, you got to pull apart the dash, and there’s several screws up underneath here that you got to use to take. You take the screws out, and then you can pop this top off, and then these dash panels will come out so you can get behind here and do what you got to do. That’s it to the top speaker here and also old trucks. All right, best get to the speaker up here and to get back behind the radio, obviously. So let’s go ahead and get started.

Interesting story, when I first bought this truck, I had a hell of a time trying to get it registered in New Mexico from Texas because I bought it in Texas. One of the problems was the VIN number, and for some reason, I’m not sure if all the ’85 or Bullnose trucks are like this. In this particular truck, you can’t see the VIN number and the dash plate through the windshield, and I suspect it’s because this is an aftermarket windshield, and it’s got this black border all the way around it. Now, maybe not, I’m not sure, but for whatever reason, you can’t see the VIN number from the outside. So I had to actually take this dash panel off, the top dash pad off, before I went to the DMV so that they could actually see the VIN by crawling into the truck and looking through the top.

So you don’t have to take all these screws out of here. I took a whole bunch of them out because I wasn’t sure which ones I had to take out, so just took a long, and that piece comes off real easy. And so there’s my radio, pretty rough. That’s actually going to be a problem. All righty then, uh, let’s see what we got here. Well, there’s a ground there. Ooh, is there no antenna adapter? There may not be an antenna adapter. I may have to go buy one of those. And here is the wiring harness, and that one there is cut. I’m not sure where that used to go to or what that does. Power, ground, and remote is here, and that’s what the harness is still there, but all of the speakers have been cut at some point, and I’m not sure if this center speaker is wired in. I’ll have to dig into that, open this up and take a look at it. And see, it also looks like I’m going to have to get a new mounting for this. If the original harness was back there, I could rewire it back in, but it’s not. He just cut this. Whatever the original harness was, he just cut it. Yeah, see, there’s four, these are the four speaker wires that went to the center speaker. He just cut them. He’s like, I need that, just cut them, which means I got to rewire them. He probably, he may even pulled them out. Who knows? Hell, he may have rewired this whole thing.

So first of all, I got to get the mount for this so this will go in here and mount correctly, and I got to wire these together. This has been rewired. Okay, guys, so let me talk briefly about the situation that I found here. When you’re working on an old vehicle like this, especially if you’re doing wiring, changing out the stereo is a prime example. You never know what you’re going to find. So the previous owner, at some point, whether it was the one before me or somebody even before him, looks like they wired this whole thing. So these speaker wires are not original to the truck. Looks like they’ve also disconnected this top speaker here completely, and here’s where you can see originally where it wired in, and they just cut them. They just cut those wires, and unfortunately, they didn’t leave me the old harness, so I don’t have a harness that I can plug into my harness piece that I bought from Amazon. Don’t do that, guys. Please, if you’re wiring a radio, don’t just cut the wires. Unplug the harness and leave the original harness. Go out and buy the correct harness adapter for your vehicle. They’re not expensive. They’re like 10 or $15 at the worst. That’ll save you so much time and energy, and anybody who comes behind you, it’s just a courtesy, you know?

Now this radio is probably changed 20 years ago, so who knows what they were thinking back then. But now what this means is not only do I have to rewire this top speaker completely, but I have to figure out what I’m going to do in terms of these speakers because do I just do like they did and just wire it directly into the speaker wires, or do I actually build a harness? In my case, I think I’m just going to wire it directly into the wires, and the reason is because I think when I upgrade the audio next time on this truck, which will be a serious upgrade, we’re talking amplifiers, crossovers, the whole bit, I will probably, excuse me, I will probably rewire all of these to be new wires. And so when I do that, I will build a harness when that happens. But for now, I just want to get this working, so I think I’m just going to go ahead and cut these and rewire them directly. The power and the ground and the remote are all still hooked up, so I’ve got the wiring harness for that that I can plug into the radio harness and do that on my bench.

In addition to the screws that you have on the front here, there’s also some screws back up in here in the air vent area. You got to be careful with these because you don’t want to drop them. This dash pad is slated for replacement too at some point, but that’s in the future. And then once you got all the screws, it just comes right out. Oh, yep, there are those wires you cut right there. Yeah, all right, we’ll get something in through there, and we can rewire this speaker. I want to save that because I might be able to use that. Is that this? Because if that’s this? Yeah, okay, all right, of course, here we go. Okay, is that this? It is this. All right, so that means that I can use this when I do my audio upgrade next time. I don’t have to worry about trying to find that harness somewhere. Let’s see how this works. Not bad. So this is clearly the original speaker. I can use this harness, so I’m going to use it. Interestingly, also, this is only a single voice coil speaker, so it’s never designed to have stereo. So no matter what I was going to do, I was going to have to rewire part of this. Well, it should sound way better. We’re going to find out.

So here’s the new one. It’s a D572 5×7 from Retro Sound. It’s dual voice coil, got left and right channels going into the same speaker. We’re going to see how it does. They are not paying me for this. I bought this with my own money. It’s the only one that I can find that was reasonably priced. I’m kind of excited to check it out. And there she is, my new center channel speaker. As you can see, it’s got a connection for both left and right, two separate tweeters there to do left and right channel. Now, obviously, you’re not going to get great stereo surround sound from this because it’s coming from the same location, but I’m hoping it’ll bounce off the window, the windshield, and give me a little bit of more full sound than what came from stock. So let’s see how it fits. Factory, pretty much. Now, obviously, I got to wire it, run new wires, and all that jazz. But yeah, as a matter of fact, it came with wires. I think I might just be able to use these. They may be long enough. Oh yeah, yeah, that’s what we’re doing. We’re using these. I just got to make sure that I mark them.

One nice thing about older vehicles is that the dash is way simpler than in new ones. Man, I know some of these newer trucks, you have to want to wire something from up top here down through the dash, you have to take half the dash apart, run it through the door panel, come back in. It’s not quite that bad, but there’s still, I got plenty of room back here, so I’m just going to keep this wire the same length. I’m not going to worry about cutting it. It’s just open all the way through here. There’s just nothing. Oh, 1980s, you were a fun time. All right, that’s good. Putting it back in was actually easier than taking it out, so cool, that’s in there. I am going to wire this. The front goes to the dash, and the rear goes to the doors, which is kind of odd, but I think in this truck, in this case, just the way I need to go.

All right, so real quick, guys, I’m going to go over the wiring. This is the radio that I bought, and this is the harness that I bought for the truck. And there’s only two wires that these two connect to. One is constant power, and one is switched power, and that’s it. So constant power is the yellow, switched power is the red. The black, the ground actually goes to a ground that’s inside the truck. It’s not part of the actual wiring harness that comes from the truck. You have to ground it to a wire that’s in the truck there, so I’ve got that plugged there. This is an antenna wire, which the ’85 doesn’t use, and also this is an antenna wire, and this is a dimmer wire, and the radio doesn’t use a dimmer. So all we got is just constant, switched, and ground, and I’m going to go into the truck and hook up the ground now.

So this is the ground that I was talking about that’s already in the truck. It’s just simply bolted to a chassis bolt back here. Well, not really chassis, but there’s some metal framing back in here, and that’s all it’s bolted to. And I know it works because it worked for the old radio. Most vehicles that I’ve worked on have a ground built into the wiring harness for the radio, but this one doesn’t.

All right, and with that, we should be ready to test it. Just for now, I got power. I got power. Try again. 29% financing for 60 months plus $1,000 bonus cash. Don’t miss the B-Tough sale. Oh, perfect. Okay, so I’m going to turn that down so you can hear me. So the screen is really dim. I don’t know if there’s a way to make it brighter or not. That’s just a thing. This screen is really kind of dim, so that is what it is. As far as sound goes, it actually sounds pretty good. Let me see if I can figure out how to pair a phone with it, and I will be right back.

There we go, BT on. Okay, does it work? My God, old school. She’s an ’85. Paint’s a little… um, yeah, that’s a preview of something that’s coming. Uh, yeah, hello? Hey, sorry, what’s up? Nothing, I’m just actually testing my hands-free calling in my truck, so how do I sound? Okay, yeah, you sound fine. Okay, cool. For she’s rated the radio.

All right, guys, so I figured something out. Got her all mounted up nice and tight into the bezel. Doesn’t move or rattle or nothing, and I don’t have to use a mounting plate that you would buy from Amazon or from O’Reilly’s or any of those auto part stores. This radio is light enough, this particular model is light enough that it will mount right into this without any problem. It’s still super light, right? And here’s how I did it, a little bit of down-home engineering. Okay, so the metal bracket that comes… Make sure you guys can see this. Yeah, you can. So the metal bracket that comes with the radio right here, right? If you, uh, it’s just slightly bigger than this. This bezel is just a little bit, but the radio front around here is also just slightly bigger. So what you can do is you can sandwich this in between this metal piece and the radio bezel itself right here. The problem is that this metal piece won’t move forward far enough to clip into here like it’s supposed to because this bezel here is too thick. So all I did was put a couple of screws in here on the top. Right now, you think, oh my God, don’t screw your radio. Well, the thing is that there’s so little electronics inside this thing that there’s plenty of room in here. These screws aren’t even touching any of the boards or electronics or anything inside the radio, and that holds the body of the radio from moving back and forth, right? It’s not going to move.

Okay, now here’s the other thing is that the radio is actually just a little bit too thin this way for this opening, so it slides up and down unless… uh, let me go get something real quick. I’ll be right back. Unless you put something in here to keep it from sliding up and down. So all I did was I put a piece of airline tubing that I use for my airbags in my other truck, slit it right in there. Okay, that goes up from down to up. Sorry, I got this in my mouth. See, it goes down and up and down, right? It moves. Well, take a piece of air hose, get it to the right size. It’s a little bit tight, which is what you want. You pop that in there, push it down, and now it’s black. It matches everything else, and this doesn’t move up or down at all. It is not going anywhere, and I can just pop that right back into the truck, and away we go. And this isn’t going to rattle on me or move, and when I go to push the button, that’s going to have nice solid feedback. Not to worry about it rattling or moving around on me. That is great. I had no idea it was going to turn out that way. I love when things like this happen.

So there you go, guys. If you happen to get this particular radio and you have this particular dash piece, you can do this the exact same way with just a couple of screws and some air tubing. The more you know.

All right, guys, here we are paired. Now you can see that the… you can’t really see it. It’s very, very dim right there. You can kind of see it. Let me turn it down a little bit. Okay, but that’s how it looks. I’m pretty happy with it. Obviously, you can’t hear it, but it sounds good, I think. So I’ve already used it to make a phone call, and according to the person on the other side, I sound pretty good. I’m imagining that this is the little microphone here. I have really no idea, but I would think so. Um, yeah, I mean, so the interface is not great. It’s got a lot of glare, and it’s really kind of hard to see, and the background illumination is nowhere near bright enough to see in the daytime. But for my purposes, I think it’s going to be fantastic for $15, and pretty simple installation is definitely worth the money and your time to do. I do think it looks nice. I love the look inside the truck. You know, I’m super happy with that. It’s so nice to have Bluetooth that I can listen to music on my phone now. I’ll probably never use the radio again, really, because the radio reception around here is not great anyway. So yeah, I’m super happy with that.

All right, guys, well there you go. Weekend project officially a success. Got everything put in. I’m really happy with it. I think for 15 bucks, you can’t go wrong. Yeah, it’s got a couple of issues, but man, it’s $15. It works pretty good. It installs super simple. It’s a huge upgrade for me. Bluetooth hands-free calling, yeah, definitely worth it. The front speakers that I put in, the JVCs, they’re pretty nice. They sound really good for $25. They can’t be beat. And then that dash speaker, you know, I’ll have to listen to that for a while and figure it out. Right now, it sounds really good, but I didn’t have one hooked up before, so anything I put in there is going to sound better than that. But yeah, I don’t know if it’s worth the 80 bucks I spent on it, but we’re going to find out. Regardless, it sounds way better in here. So, guys, hopefully you learned something today. I know it’s a simple radio installation, and a thousand guys do them. There’s probably videos all over YouTube, but this one’s mine. At least you get a chance to see one of those vintage radios in action, the really, really cheap ones from Amazon. Yeah, I think it’s probably worth it. So, uh, yeah, if you got any questions, comments, concerns, gripes, internet ramblings, stick them below. Thanks again for watching, guys, and we will see you next time. She’s rough around the edges, but she’s doing fine, tinkering away, getting things to shine. No G, she’s considered divine. Thanks again for watching. We will see you next time. Thanks again for watching. We will see you next next time.

hi folks Ed here welcome back to Bullnose Garage and today I have a question for you what do this wiper motor this washer pump and this wiper washer switch all have in common they’re garbage and it runs for just a second and it turns off and it’s really inconsistent making those clicking noises that’s actually a way for you to know that there’s something going on with your motor if that module clicks like that all right so clearly that stuff is garbage today I’m going to replace all three of those things on my bullnose truck right here and I’m going to show you how to do it on yours the easiest is probably the washer fluid pump which is just a basically you pull out the old one and pop in the new one then we’ve got the wiper motor and that wiper motor is a little bit tricky cuz if you buy one from Amazon it uh seems like a direct replacement but it’s not quite you got to do some modification to it to make work and I’ll show you exactly how I did that to mine so you can do it to yours and finally a great upgrade is one that I did on the interior for the uh wiper and washer switch and I changed it from the old high low style to an intermittent style which is a really great modern upgrade for these old trucks so stick around and I’ll show you how to do all of that today hello let’s take a look and see all the bits and pieces that make this system work so first of all we’ve got your uh wiper motor right there that uh links to the wiper arms there and there and there’s only one motor for both uh there’s a linkage back there that controls them uh there we’ve got our sprayer nozzle on the 85 F150 there’s only one and then the line obviously comes down and goes to the reservoir which I’ve already got emptied you can see here down there that is the uh fluid pump and it just uh hooks up right there and pretty easy to replace so what I’m going to do is I’m actually going to take the entire Reservoir out get it good and clean uh it’s pretty gross in there and then uh go through and start doing the replacement I think the hardest part of this is going to be hooking up the motor and uh getting the cowl off so there’s several Phillips screws that you can see there that you got to take off to get this cowl off so first things first we got to get this cowl off and it’s not too difficult but there are a few steps you’ve got to know uh before you can just go ahead and pop it off of here so the first one I’m going to do is take off these wiper arms to do that get a screwdriver underneath this little bit there pull that up pop that out set that back down like that and now you can just wiggle it off of here get my screwdriver out of my hand so I can use both hands here there we go and this side will obviously be a little bit more difficult just cuz it’s uh you got to reach further but it’s the same idea pop that out set that down wiggle wiggle wiggle wiggle wiggle wiggle oh it’s so hot wiggle something loose that ain’t been wiggle loose in 20 years wiggle wiggle wiggle there it goes almost took you guys out okay now we’ve also got these screws here to remove and we have to take off the anten mount anten mount’s pretty simple try to get under here and pop it off you can see this is already a little bit loose I’ve already taken the screws loose from underneath there we go oh that puppy’s already loose and then you just uh unplug it me let loose here there he goes there are several Phillips screws under here for the cowl and you just have to kind of go and take them out some somebody put a different screw in that one got a little following behind somebody else’s work all right here we go handy dandy correct tool for the job there’s some damage going on there so I’ll to be honest here and say I don’t know how this came from the factory but this truck is been around the block a few times so whoever had it before me has done some stuff to it and there’s some zip ties and some other stuff in here so I’m going to have to cut that off so that I can start working on uh getting the cowl off and uh replacing these lines take care of your truck you have to pull it from underneath the uh the trim here I’m a onean show so I got to do it myself I said this before guys I will say it again I am playing the learn as we go game I have watched videos on this and done a lot of research but I’ve never actually taken the cow off myself it takes some real wiggling and if you don’t want to scratch the paint on your cowl guys you have to be more careful than me I don’t know that I care that much about my paint cuz I’m going to repaint all this anyway but that’s going to be a real pain to get back on there without scratching the paint when I do it later you may take your hood off if you want to do it without scratching the paint for sure okay guys this is the ever popular 10 mm and this should be the only thing holding this Reservoir on and there we go we want to take this locking ring out and then just pulls right out of there okay guys so when I pulled mine out of here the uh the pump came out but the impeller and Gasket is still stuck in there so I got to figure out how to get that out of there uh but you know I got a pick set that I think I can get in there and uh yoink that out with all right guys here we are like a one week later I think I discovered that my wiper switch uh right there is actually faulty I think that’s what’s causing both the wiper motor and the uh the washer uh pump to not work correctly so I went out and got a replacement actually I got an upgrade so this is an intermittent wiper module uh my truck doesn’t have one from the factory so I’m going to go ahead and uh while I’m doing this add intermittent wipers so uh this whole setup is about 80 bucks from eBay uh that’s about the only place you can find them they got to pull them from another truck somewhere so uh but this one looks like it’s in pretty good shape and uh yeah let’s see how it works so to get to uh where this switch is so I can replace it you got to take both of these knobs off off uh my wiper switch knob has been broken for a long time so it just pops right off uh my light headlight switch though is actually still uh got good retention here so you have to find this little Notch uh that’s right there slide a tool back in there behind there like a hook and compress a ring back in here that’ll pop this off once those are off uh then you can come underneath here and I’m not sure if you can see or not there are uh a few Phillips head screwdriver or screws screwdriver a few Phillips head screws right there uh that’ll help you get this Dash panel off um and in my case I’ll probably have to move my tack cuz it’s after market uh sometimes you’ve got to remove this uh steering wheel uh shaft shroud right here but we’re going to see if we can do it without without that mine’s a little bit more complicated cuz I got some extra stuff there we go or to really get it out of the way in a future episode I will be doing this here part again because I have a new um gauge cluster that came out of a different truck and it’s got a tack built in and I really really want the factory tack so that’s why I grabbed that I’ve had it for a couple of years and haven’t put it in yet that’s the story of my life all right and now you just kind of rotate that out of the way all you got to do is get to this all right guys now I’m not sure how well you can see what I’m doing here but I’ve got a bunch of aftermarket goop and stuff up under here that has been added by somebody else so it’s probably going to be a little bit harder for me to get to this and do this than it would be for you guys but here is the old switch it’s just got a plug here so we take that plug out and we get our new one now the new one obviously has a lot more stuff and there’s some considerations you got to have here now the new one should just plug right into the same socket as the old one should it’s pretty rough but they are I mean they are going in there there’s no doubt they’re going in it may just be oh yeah that’s what it is I don’t know if you guys can see that or not but the the uh length isn’t the same on the housing so it’s not going to go in all the way that right there is as far as it’ll go so there we go all right I’ve also got to find a place to stick this ground so there should be plenty of places under here uh I just got to find a good one oh man my hood releas is bust maybe I should fix that while I’m down here it’s always something yeah that’s going to work this guys this is why you never throw any screws or nuts away and if you happen to go to a garage stale or an estate stale where they got buckets of this stuff you may want to pick it up all right now that solves two birds two birds that solves two problems now I got to find a place to tuck this thing yeah all right guys um so I I’m continuing to troubleshoot this um let me turn it on for you okay now if I touch this I’m not sure you can hear it but that works but now you hear that noise let going from this box so either I got a bad box from eBay or what I think is more likely is that my wiper motor is actually not not working correctly um so I I bought a new motor and anticipation of this I thought it was a motor originally so now my line of thinking is probably that the motor is actually what caused my original switch to to go out so uh I’m going to replace the motor and we’re going to try again so before I go through all the work of replacing the motor and going through all the linkages and everything I’m going to test the new one uh plugged into the truck so hopefully this solves the problem because if it doesn’t uh then I don’t know what it would be other than this box being bad so here’s the pump working try that what am I missing here all right guys here we are a couple of weeks later I’m sorry about that family obligations and such uh but I’ve got another day to work on the truck today and uh did some research while I was out and uh I think I got my my problem figured out I think I didn’t have a good ground I think is what’s going on you have to make sure you have good grounds when you’re doing this stuff um or else you can cause all kinds of issues and uh right now as you can see I’ve got a good ground I know for sure that this right here is a good ground I got a couple alligator clips here going to the ground stud on this old motor which is plugged in and if I try to turn it nothing happens and as a matter of fact the little module under here I don’t know if you can hear it or not making those clicking noises that’s actually a way for you to know that there’s something going on with your motor if that module clicks like that so if I get in here and remove this plug and come down here to my new motor plug it in get the ground strap hooked up correctly and now there we go slow fast and intermittent one thing that I didn’t know because I’ never had intermittent on this truck before uh right here is actually in the middle of the uh uh the movement of this if I turn it to the left this rotation here is what causes the intermittent to happen and the further you rotate it right is uh how it goes faster and then right here this next click that’s off and the next click to the right is slow and the next click to the right is fast and I didn’t know that’s how that works so last time I was a little bit confused as to why you know I didn’t know how it turned on how it turned off I was having it turned all the way to the left thinking maybe if I had it turned all the way to the left that it wouldn’t go at all but all this is is the slowest intermittent setting when it’s all the way to the left like that so yep and that was explaining why this box down here was making all kinds of weird clicking noises and stuff um if the motor doesn’t run correctly this box will do all kinds of weird clicking and everything uh but it’s actually a great indicator of uh of an issue so what that means is that now both my wiper motor and my uh wiper fluid pump are good to go so there’s also this little CI kind of thing here and mine’s in pretty rough shape so I’m going to take it off here and give it a quick once over and evaluate it and see what I want to do with it now let’s see if that comes off looks like there’s also some sealant stuff under here so yeah all right there we go yeah you can see how rough that piece is under there I may want to paint that clean it up paint it before I put it back on all right now there’s a linkage back there that connects the motor to the uh the arms underneath here where the wiper goes there you go that’s it yeah so I got to figure out how to disconnect all that all right guys I’m not sure how well you can see this clip right here that’s what’s holding everything on and so I think what I’ve got to do is get a screwdriver in this little part right here pop this part open this way then move the whole thing off passenger side goes in front driver side goes in the back and there is the clip so let’s take a look at these and see if they are indeed different okay so here’s the old one and here is the new one and take a look yeah yeah they are different yeah the old one’s got a much longer pin so I’m not sure if I’m guessing I’m going to take that whole entire arm off cuz those arms look like they’re they’re about the same uh in terms of length and uh jog right there so I think I just take this there’s a there’s a a bolt there a bolt here I’ll take those arms off and swap them and that should hopefully should take care of it okay quick update for you guys uh I got them both off they are index the same um so if you look they have the same kind of uh holes although they aren’t they don’t have the same Return To Zero location and they are actually a little bit longer but I think oh you know what what I’m doing I got them back to back that’s the that’s why they oh yeah but they’re still they’re backwards right right hm not sure how that’s going to work have to put it in and try it um the other thing that I noticed also is that uh the hole on this one is a little bit smaller than the hole on this one so I may have to file out the inside of this just a little bit to get it to fit on the on the uh Mount pin over there all right well it took some filing and I had to use some torque to get it on there but the old arm is and pin are now on the new motor so let’s get this in the truck and zeroed I’m going to plug it back in I cuz I when I was trying to get this on here um it moved the motor a little bit so I want to get this back in hooked up real quick set it back to zero and then uh I can get it mounted back up so another thing I want to try to do is reuse this ground strap right here it’s uh got this fitting here that goes in that should give me a good solid ground to the body of the truck um and it’s nice and short doesn’t get in the way so hopefully we can reuse it I’m not going to tighten this until I’ve got the mounting done in the back so I can see what this it look like all right that actually looks right all right all right guys I apologize if you missed a little bit uh my phone died on me while it was uh in the middle of putting my wipers on I think it got too hot for the phone out here even in September it’s like 93° outside in New Mexico anyway future editor Ed note here don’t make the same mistake I made and put your wipers on before you put your cowl back on because I had to take those wipers back off again to put the cowl on yeah that was a pain clip uh that Clips down and holds them in place you just have to make sure that uh you get them in the right spot when you put them back on so that they they wipe correctly uh but the the motor goes back to zero automatically and so you just wait for it to go back to zero and then you put the wipers where they belong all right guys so here’s the deal this right here is the old uh sprayer and it’s a dual head so well it’s a single head but it’s dual uh dual sprays okay that’s what came with the truck the kit that I got from Amazon are two single sprays and so if I wanted to use these I could either uh just do a single spray point it toward the driver’s side keep it in the same location and go from there or I could actually drill holes in the cowl on either side and then pop these into the new holes and then run the lines and have a dual spray set up if I wanted to um but I’m going to be honest with you guys and and I think I blew some air through this uh it’s fine and I will tell you this old hose is way better than this new uh hose I got from Amazon I mean it’s just way thicker and it’s still uh in pretty good shape it’s it’s Supple for being uh from 85 if it’s original it may not be I don’t know but uh yeah it’s still in really great shape so I’m just going to keep the old hose and I’m actually going to keep the old sprayer nozzle too because I think uh it’s going to be just fine I think it was just the pump that was the problem uh then I’ll keep this for a spare if I need to but I’ll tell you that the quality of this is nowhere near as good as the quality of what came on the truck and I’ve been learning as I’ve been doing this that that happens quite a lot uh the new stuff that you can buy from Amazon just isn’t as good a quality you know for a long time I was thinking that uh you know if you’re going to replace systems in an old vehicle like this that you probably ought to go through and just replace the entire system with new stuff uh cuz it’ll be better brand new but but the longer I do this the more I go through it the less I think that’s true I think you may be better off keeping some of the old stuff on there because I think it’s just better quality especially the older stuff from like the you know uh prior to the the ’90s and the 2000s uh when a lot of this manufacturing started getting moved over to China now no dig against China well maybe a little dig against chn but generally the newer stuff is not as high quality so there you go take that for what’s worth the the amount for the nozzle is actually on the cowl I can’t Mount that nozzle until I get the cowl back on the truck but I do want to paint this piece first it’s pretty uh pretty rough and uh it doesn’t look nice so while I’ve got it off and I’ve got the opportunity I’m just going to go ahead and clean it up and hit it with uh some bed liner actually some sprayon Rustoleum bed liner that I’ve got um I don’t actually use that for bed lining cuz I don’t think it’s tough enough for that but it is tougher than regular spray paint so uh I’ll hit this with that and that way it’ll be nice and clean and look nice and I’ll put that back on there but before I go through all that I’m actually going to test the nozzle real quick for you guys and go hey look at that beautiful all right here we are the next day and here’s the piece all painted up just uh cleaned it up hit it with a primer hit it with uh uh the rustolium bed liner and then a real quick top clear coat satin finish and uh it should last a long time the cow is tricky especially for just one person and I’m fortunate in that my paint’s not in great shape anyway so if I scratch something up or or uh ruin quote unquote ruin the paint it’s not as big of a deal if I had just got done painting this thing I’d be much much more careful obv obviously why would that not work what’s going on there is there a kink somewhere okay so even though I tested it before with the with it out of the truck and it worked fine now when I’ve got it back in the truck only one side’s working and it’s not working great so hooking That Thing Up and unhook it it’s a real pain in the ass because uh you have to get underneath the cowl and uh try to hook that that hose up to uh the the spray head so what I’ve done is I’ve uh made this little extend and that way when I plug this in it should hang below the cowl and I can actually plug and unplug it down there what have to reach up into the cow to get that done let’s see if uh that works out for me okay well this hose is not the same size I don’t know if I can get that on here or not let’s see almost come on need to go down there good and tight almost there hey look at that all right yeah that’s not going anywhere good oh that side’s blocked so something got in there either got in a hose or when I was uh working on the uh pump there something piece of debris or something got in there and now it’s jammed up inside here okay nope still nothing there there we go all right we got air coming from both holes now good good oh now let’s see if this fitting is going to be big enough for this hose it may not be oh no oh you know what though I think I can make it work maybe we’re going to find out and then when I’m driving down the road later and it all goes to hell I know who to blame just myself as always where’ my hose go there it is that feels like success to me and now if I ever have to mess with that thing there my connection is beneath the cowl inside the hood of the inside the uh the engine bay so as long as it doesn’t come unconnected get up there toward the top where I can’t get to it yeah you know even if it does that new hose is thin enough it’ll actually go through the hole in the cowl which is the problem with the hose that came with the truck it’s too thick to go through uh that ho that hole in the cowl so yeah yeah I’m happy with that I’m going to go inside and button up the inside of the truck I’m not going to bore you guys with that uh it’s pretty simple just putting things back together in there so I think I think we’re done hopefully you learned something today um I know when I went out to look in how to do this there were some videos but nothing quite this in depth so I’m hoping that uh that uh you know you learned something and that maybe this can help you do your own thing especially when it comes to swapping out that motor um and changing the arm around uh I read on Amazon where I bought this thing I’ll put the link in the description for it where um you had to do some modifications but the the the descriptions weren’t real specific as to what modifications you had to do it was most just folks complaining about the fact you had to do a modification so at least now you guys know exactly what sorts of modifications you you got to do you swap that uh the arm around on the back of the motor there you have to I had to file the motor itself uh the mount point on the motor I decided to file the mount point of the motor rather than the arm because that arm uh is original to the truck and I have no idea how I would get a replacement for that um whereas that motor was fairly cheap on Amazon so if I screw it up well okay I use another motor so uh yeah I filed the the mount point on the motor and then got it down to where it was it was almost there and then I used the uh uh the bolt on the back to sort of torque that down and and seat everything real good and it seemed to work just fine got the clip and everything on there uh it went back to zero in the right spot just get your wipers back on and uh good to go there as far as replacing the the water pump or not the water pump I’m sorry the uh the washer pump Ah that’s that’s pretty simple uh there’s not a whole lot to that so uh yeah you just pull the old one out put the new one in and if that’s your only problem that’s like a 5 minute fix there’s nothing to that so yeah again guys hope you learned something if you did please give me a like And subscribe I really appreciate that help out uh helps me out a lot I i’ think I’ll get a hat but I’m not wearing mine today cuz I don’t want to get it messed up uh this is my working on the truck hat so uh anyway thanks again so much for watching guys we will see you next time fine take a r away getting things to shine she’s considered Divine thanks again for watching we will see you next time thanks again for watching we’ll see you next time

I have the power. Hello, all right folks, enough of that cheesy nonsense. Ed here, welcome back to Bullnose Garage. Today we’re talking alternators, specifically swapping out the stock 1G alternator for a 3G. As a bonus, I pulled a 3G alternator from my 351 Windsor donor vehicle, and I’ll be using that as a visual aid today.

If you’ve had your truck for a while, especially if you’ve added accessories like lights, new headlights, a better stereo, or maybe an electric fan, you’ve probably noticed that the 1G can struggle to keep up. This is where the 3G comes in. It’s got more power, better reliability, and fewer headaches. So let’s dive into why you’d want to make the switch and how to get it done.

So why do we want to ditch the 1G? Well, the stock 1G alternators from these 1980 to ’86 trucks were fine for their time, but they’ve got a bit of a reputation for being underpowered. They typically put out around 65 amps. It’s okay for a truck back in the ’80s mostly, but once you start adding aftermarket accessories like extra lighting or modern electronics, the 1G just can’t keep up. And then there’s the wiring. The 1G alternators have external regulators and use fusible links, which aren’t the most robust system. The connectors can overheat and melt, and nobody wants that under the hood. It’s like running a garden hose when you really need a fire hose.

Enter the 3G alternator. This upgrade for the mid-’90s is substantial. The 3G alternator is internally regulated, so it ditches that problematic external regulator and fusible link setup. The big deal though is the output. It’s much higher, anywhere from 90 to 130 amps depending on the model. That’s a big leap over the 1G’s 65 amps. What’s great about the 3G is it’s not just more power; it’s more stable power. You’ll get better voltage regulation, which means your truck’s electrical system is happier, especially at idle. With the 1G, your lights might dim or your stereo might cut out when you’re idling at a stoplight. The 3G helps prevent that. And if you’re running a winch or big off-road lights, it’s pretty much a must-have upgrade.

So right here I’ve got the 3G alternator that I pulled for my 351 Windsor donor vehicle. Let’s take a closer look. One thing you notice right away is this connector here. This is the voltage regulator. Unlike the 1G, which had an external regulator mounted on the fender, the 3G has it built right in. Another thing to note is the size. This one here is a 90 AMP version, which is just slightly larger than the 1G but should still fit in the same bracket with no major modifications. If the mounting points are correct, however, this one won’t work directly for a bullnose swap because the mounting ears aren’t correct. This one has three mounting points. What you need is a version with two mounting ears directly offset at the 12:00 and 6:00 positions. This is a side mount alternator, and you’re looking for a pivot mount alternator.

So how do I know this one’s 90 amps? Well, the 90 AMP models like the one I’m holding here have four vent holes in the rib sections on the front. If you’re looking for the higher output 130 amp version, those typically have two vent holes and are physically larger. That means the mounting holes in the 130 amp model are spaced further apart. So depending on your bracket setup, you may need to make adjustments for a proper fit. Also, keep in mind if you’re running a single V belt system, the 130 amp version might not work out. A single V belt can only handle about 100 amps before it starts to slip. So if you want to run the 130 amp alternator, you’ll need to upgrade to either a serpentine belt setup or a dual V belt system to handle that extra resistance.

Speaking of that, if your bullnose is running a V-belt setup like mine, you’ll also need to swap the pulley from the 1G onto the 3G. If the 3G has a serpentine pulley like this one, it’s pretty straightforward. Just remove the nut that holds the pulley onto the 1G, slide the V-belt pulley off, and do the same on the 3G to remove it. If it has a serpentine pulley, you’ll probably need a shim to move the pulley out just a bit so the belt doesn’t rub on the case, but those are pretty inexpensive. You can then pop the V-belt pulley onto the 3G alternator and tighten it down. That way everything stays compatible with your existing belt system.

And lastly, the output terminals. This heavy-duty charge stud here is where your main power connects. If you’re upgrading to a 3G, you want to run a heavier gauge wire from here to your battery or solenoid to handle the higher output. Now the good news is that even with all that that I just said, the swap isn’t too complicated. But like any job, you want to have the right parts and prep work done first. You’ll need the alternator itself, like the one I just showed you, but with the right mounting setup. The 3G alternators we’re looking for came off a bunch of Ford vehicles from the mid-’90s. To help you out, I put together a list of vehicles you can source a 3G alternator from, which I’ll throw up on the screen right now. Take a look at these vehicles. You’re looking at anything from the 1994 to ’95 Mustang, which had a 130 amp alternator, to vehicles like the Ford Taurus, Thunderbird, and even E-Series Vans. Other options include the Lincoln Continental and Mercury Cougar. You can pick these up at junkyards, and they’ll bolt right up to your bullnose with a little bit of wiring work.

Now, like I mentioned before, if you’re running a V-belt in your truck, you’ll also need to make sure you swap the pulleys. Get that done before you start the actual swap. You don’t want to find out that you forgot when you’re trying to wrap a V-belt around a serpentine pulley. That’s no fun. Now, if you’re not interested in sourcing a 3G alternator from a junkyard, there are plenty of aftermarket options available. Companies like PA Performance and Tough Stuff offer brand new 3G alternators that are designed specifically for older Ford trucks, including bullnoses. These aftermarket models often come with higher output ratings too, sometimes over 200 amps, and they’re built to handle modern accessories. And what’s great about going aftermarket is that many of these kits include the upgraded wiring, a pretty install V-belt pulley if you need it, and even instructions on how to make the swap as easy as possible. Now, they do cost a bit more than a junkyard pull, but it’s a solid option if you want peace of mind with new parts and you don’t want the hassle of digging through salvage.

All right, so you’ve got your parts. Time to get the old 1G out of there. First, disconnect the battery. That’s always the first step when you’re working on anything electrical. Then remove the old alternator. There’s usually a couple of bolts holding it to the bracket, and you’ll need to disconnect the wiring harness. Now, I’m not going to get into how to physically remove the alternator in this video. It’s fairly simple, just a couple of bolts, and there are several videos out there that will show you exactly how. It can be a bit of a pain to get down there with a socket, but just keep at it, and you’ll get there eventually.

Once the old alternator is out, bolt the 3G into place. It should fit right into the existing bracket with minimal fuss so long as you have the right model. If it’s a little tight, some folks have had to grind or modify the bracket slightly, but usually it’s nothing major. Now for the wiring, like I mentioned, the 3G has built-in regulation, so you won’t need the external voltage regulator anymore. Ditch that thing. The external regulator is typically mounted on the passenger side fender inside the engine bay. It’s a small rectangular box with a wiring harness plugged into it. You’ll wire up the new alternator using the 3G harness, so make sure you grab that from your donor if you go that route. If you’re making your own harness, the main thing to get is the power wire from the alternator to the battery or starter solenoid and the smaller wires for the ignition and dash warning light. This is also where you upgrade the charging wire. Go ahead and run that new 4 gauge wire from the alternator to your solenoid or battery, depending on your setup. Put a mega fuse in line to keep everything safe in case of a short.

Once it’s all wired up, double-check your connections. Make sure everything’s tight and secure. Then reconnect your battery, fire up the truck, and check the voltage at the battery with a multimeter. You should see somewhere around 14 volts, give or take. If it’s good, you’re in business. Take a spin around the block, turn on your headlights, crank up the stereo, maybe even turn on any accessories you got, and you’ll notice everything runs smoother, especially when you’re idling. And just like that, you’ve upgraded your charging system to handle pretty much anything you can throw at it. That is until you run your huge set of off-road KC lights while you’re cranking ACDC at your 2500 watt stereo.

So there you have it, the 3G alternator swap. It’s one of those upgrades that makes a world of difference in how your truck runs, especially if you’ve got a lot of electrical demands. More power, better reliability, and less chance of ending up on the side of the road with a melted connector. If you’re thinking about tackling this job, go for it. It’s a solid weekend project that’ll pay off every time you turn the key. Guys, if you learned something today, if you enjoy the content, give me a like, give me a subscribe. I really appreciate that. I’m not trying to beg, but it really does help me out. If you have any questions, comments, concerns, gripes, internet ramblings, stick them below. Thanks again for watching, guys, and we will see you next time.

Howdy folks, Ed here. Welcome back to Bullnose Garage. You know, when I first got my Bullnose and started looking around at some of the modifications I might want to do to it, there are so many options out there that I wasn’t even sure how to begin wrapping my head around them all. You’ve got all kinds of different engine options, transmission options, axle options, modification options. It can get really overwhelming. So I think what I’d like to do today is sort of a 50,000 foot view lightning round of all the different engines and transmissions that either came with a Bullnose or can be easily swapped into a Bullnose to give you guys an idea of what some of the options are out there for your build. I’ll also talk about some of the axles, some of the other components, and some of the more common modifications that people make to Bullnose trucks to, uh, you know, make them better. So stay tuned and we’re going to do it.

All right, we’re going to start with engines in no particular order. Let’s start with the Ford 300 inline six or four part nine meter. This bulletproof straight six was available from 1980 to 1986. Known for its low end torque and durability, it’s a workhorse engine, perfect for heavy duty use, and it’s what I have in my truck right now. Then you’ve got the Ford 3.8 liter Essex V6. It was only available in 1982. The 3.8 liter Essex V6 is a compact engine with moderate power typically found in the F100. It’s not as popular as the other options just because it doesn’t really have that much oomph. Next, you’ve got the Ford 255 V8 4.2 liter. It was offered from 1980 to 1982. This small V8 was aimed at better fuel economy, but it’s often considered underpowered compared to the other V8s. Now we’ve got the Ford 289 V8 4.7 liter. While not originally stocked in Bullnose trucks, 289 is a popular swap for those running a piece of Ford’s performance heritage in their build. And now we start getting into the bigger boys. This is the Ford 302 Windsor V8 5.0 liter. It’s a mainstay from 1980 to 1986. 302 Windsor is well loved for its balance of power, reliability, and widespread parts availability. You can find 302s everywhere in all kinds of vehicles. They’re really easy to get a hold of. And next we’ve got my personal favorite, the Ford 351 Windsor V8 5.8 liter. It was also available throughout the Bullnose years. And the 351 Windsor offers more torque and horsepower than the 302, making it a popular choice for towing and heavy duty tasks. It’s also the choice for my build in my truck.

Now we’ve got the Ford 351M or modified, the V8 5.8 liter. This engine was available from 1980 to 1982, mostly in trucks and heavy duty applications. It’s essentially a truck-tuned version of the 351 Cleveland. And that brings us to the Ford 351 Cleveland 5.8 liter. And this one didn’t come stock in Bullnose trucks, but it is a popular swap for those seeking high RPM power. The Cleveland’s large port heads make it a favorite for performance builds. It’s basically a performance 5.8 liter. Now we’re getting even bigger. Ford 400 V8 6.6 liter. It was available in the early Bullnose years. The 400 is similar to the 351M, but it’s got a longer stroke, so it offers more torque for heavy duty needs. And now we’ve got the big boy, the Ford 460 V8 7.5 liter. This big block 460 was available in Bullnose trucks from 1980 to 1986, typically the F250s and 350s. It offered massive torque and power, making it ideal for towing and heavy hauling. It’s also used for huge performance builds.

Now let’s move on to a couple of diesel engines. You’ve got the 6.9 liter IDI V8 diesel. It was introduced in 1983, and this international harvester diesel engine is known for its durability and efficiency. It offers serious pulling power for diesel enthusiasts. And then a step up from that is the 7.3 liter IDI V8 diesel. It was introduced in 1988, so it was not in stock Bullnose’s, but it is a popular swap for Bullnose trucks because it provides more displacement and power from the 6.9 liter with similar reliability. There you go. There’s the engines.

All right, moving on to transmissions. I’m going to start with a bit of a tease. That’s the BorgWarner tease, beginning with the T18. It’s a four-speed. It’s a heavy duty manual transmission available from 1980 to 1986. The T18 is known for its durability and low first gear, perfect for off-roading or heavy loads. Next is the BorgWarner T19. It’s also a four-speed, but it’s synchronized. It’s available in the same years as the T18, and the T19 offers synchronized gears, makes it a bit smoother in operation while retaining the T18’s toughness. Now we’ll move on to the new process NP435 four-speed. It’s another heavy duty four-speed manual known for its strength and ultra low first gear, also called Grande Gear. Available in Bullnose trucks throughout the early 80s, including 1985 because it’s in my truck.

Now we have the SR-OD. It’s a four-speed with overdrive. It’s a lighter duty transmission. It was available in Bullnose trucks during the early 80s. It offered the overdrive gear for a little better fuel efficiency while on the highway. Now you’ve got the T170FT. It’s a four-speed with overdrive. It’s basically the evolution of the top loader. It’s available in the early 80s, and this transmission was another overdrive option designed for light duty trucks, and it offered a smoother drive at higher speeds. Now we move on to the ZF5, the S542, and the S547. Both are five-speed heavy duty manual transmissions. The S542 was introduced in 1987, with the 47 following later. Both are popular swaps for Bullnose trucks, offering your overdrive gear and improved durability over older four-speeds, especially in diesel applications. And that’s where I’m going, not the diesel part, but I’m putting the ZF5 in my build.

Now we’ve got the ever-popular Mazda M5OD, the five-speed. It was not stock in Bullnose trucks, but it’s very common in some of the following years. It’s a common swap for those looking for a five-speed manual in a Bullnose. It’s got improved shift quality and overdrive for highway cruising. It’s a great transmission, but be careful if you swap it in because it’s not really built for a high horsepower application, because you might blow it up. Now we move on to the automatic transmissions. We’ve got a C6, which is a three-speed heavy duty trans. Available throughout the Bullnose years, the C6 is a robust three-speed automatic known for handling big power and towing heavy loads without breaking a sweat. Now we move on to the C4 three-speed. It was a lighter duty three-speed automatic. The C4 was available in earlier Bullnose models, offering a simpler and more compact alternative to the C6. Now we’ve got the AOD, the four-speed. It was introduced in 1980, and the AOD is a four-speed automatic with overdrive, designed for better fuel economy without sacrificing performance. And now a popular swap in, the E4OD, which is a four-speed automatic with overdrive. It was introduced in 1989, so it’s not part of the stock Bullnose lineup, but it is a popular upgrade for Bullnose trucks, especially with the C6 or AOD because it offers a stronger option with overdrive and better highway performance. The E4OD is what I have in my donor vehicle for my 251 Windsor.

Moving on to carburetors. You’ve got the Motorcraft 2150. It’s a popular two-barrel carb used throughout the Bullnose years, known for its reliability and ease of tuning. You’ve got the Motorcraft 4180C, the four-barrel carburetor, often found in the 5.0-liter and 5.8-liter engines. It offers better performance than the 2150 with improved fuel delivery. You get the Karner YFA. We use mainly on the 300 inline 6. The Karner YFA is a one-barrel carburetor that’s simple and reliable, perfect for the torquey six-cylinder.

Now let’s move on to suspension and axle systems. Two-wheel drive Bullnose trucks all got the twin I-beam suspension. It’s durable and offers a smooth ride, but it can be tricky to align and it definitely has its quirks. The four-wheel drive equivalent of that, the twin traction beam suspension, offered similar durability with the added complexity of four-wheel drive components. Along with those, you’ve got the Dana 44, which is a common front axle in four-wheel drive Bullnose trucks. The Dana 44 is known for its strength and ease of service. You also have the heavier Dana 50, found in heavier-duty models. The Dana 50 front axle offers increased strength for those needing more capability in their four-wheel drive trucks. Moving to the rear, we’re going to start with the Ford 7.5-inch. This rear axle was common in lighter-duty Bullnose trucks and Broncos. It offered adequate strength for fairly light-duty applications. Moving on from there, you can move into the Ford 8.8-inch. It’s a popular rear axle option. The 8.8-inch offers a good balance of strength and weight, making it ideal for most applications. And then, we move up to the 9-inch. Available with earlier models, the 9-inch rear axle is a legend in the off-road and racing world, known for its toughness and aftermarket support. The Dana 60, it’s the go-to for heavy-duty rear axles. It’s perfect for towing and off-road use, offering unmatched strength in the Bullnose lineup. The Dana 70 was found in some heavy-duty trucks. The Dana 70 offers even more strength than the Dana 60, and it’s ideal for the most demanding tasks. Moving on to the Sterling 10.25-inch. It’s a heavy-duty rear axle found in three, four-ton and one-ton trucks.

So now for the fun part. Let’s talk about some of the more popular mods and upgrades that you can do to your Ford Bullnose. I’m going to start with the Crown Vic Swap. It’s a popular front suspension swap. The Crown Vic Swap lowers the truck and improves handling with modern suspension geometry. Basically, you take a Crown Vic and you put the front suspension in your truck. The Saginaw Power Steering Pump Swap. Those whiny power steering pumps are a pain in the ass. This swap replaces the stock Ford power steering pump with a Saginaw offering improved reliability, easier steering and less noise. Rear Disc Brake Conversion. Upgrading to rear disc brakes improves stopping power and reduces maintenance compared to drum brakes, making it a popular swap. Front Bench Seat Replacement. Swapping the stock bench seat for bucket seats or a more modern bench can improve comfort and interior aesthetics. Tilt Steering. I’d love to have tilt steering in my truck. Adding tilt steering to a non-tilt truck can improve driving comfort and make getting in and out a little easier. Adding air conditioning. Adding AC to a non-AC Bullnose can be a challenge, but it can dramatically improve your comfort, especially in hot climates. Me, I live in New Mexico, so I made sure to buy one with AC from the factory because that’s a tough swap. Headlight Upgrade. Pretty simple. Upgrading to modern headlights such as LED or HID improves nighttime visibility and safety over the stock steel beams. Just make sure that you upgrade your wiring harness when you do it. Altimeter Upgrade. Swapping to a higher output altimeter is a must for trucks running additional electrical accessories like lights, winches or upgraded sound systems. And finally, the Borgeson Steering Shaft. This upgrade replaces the stock steering shaft with a Borgeson unit, improving steering feel and reducing play, especially on older trucks.

All right guys, there you go. There’s all the engines, transmissions, carburetors, axles and other miscellaneous mods that you can do to your Bullnose to make it better. But listen, I’m not perfect, so if I missed something, drop something in the comments and let me know. Guys, I hope you learned something from this video, and if you did, give me a like, email, subscribe. I really appreciate it. Hey, head to my merch store, grab a cool hat. Thanks again for watching guys, and we will see you next time.