I am working on my daughters car and I had her "help" with this repair by having her do the ordering of parts from Rock Auto. She did things correctly.
We ordered rear struts for her car.
The parts that arrived were a completely different make and part number, and to make it even more fun, one of them is faulty on top of that... it's leaking and has easy compression and very slow rebound.

We ordered SACHS parts, and TRW arrived. I know SACHS and TRW are under the ZF Friedrichshafen umbrella since 2014.

We are trying to return these parts and the automated return process is dubious in the questions being asked and things they want us to do.

My main question revolves around the swapping of parts by Rock Auto.
We specifically ordered SACHS struts.
What arrived are TRW struts.
The TRW parts do not have ANY corresponding numbers or identifiers relating to the SACHS parts ordered.
The TRW parts are not even shown, listed, or available on the Rock Auto website for the car in question.
There is no corresponding information telling us that TRW might be substituted in place of SACHS.

What do you make of this?

I will be finishing a car with a bare painted floor for a race car style interior.
In this case the color will be black if that color presents certain options.
What paint do you recommend for this interior floor?
Durability is the most important aspect.
Thanks, and have a great day.

I'm thinking about getting an action camera for some car based video nonsense.
I just don't know what the market has to offer in terms of real world results and user opinions.

I know about GoPro, DJI, AKASO, MOVO and a few other brands...I just don't have direct experience with the newer offerings...newer being anything since the year 2000.

One thing I require is the ability to use a quality external microphone.
I can't tell you how disappointing it is to open a potentially fun car based video only to be accosted by the overtaking wind blowing sounds ruining pretty much the whole video experience.

I don't need all sorts of GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth things "helping" me to run the camera.
I would like to spend my money on quality lenses, image stabilization, external mic.

Because this will get mounted into the wind as I drive, I also want a nice camera protection box (likely a diver's waterproof box will work well here)
Let that replaceable box eat the debris the camera has to endure while driving instead of the camera itself getting battered.

Anyway, if you have any real world experience with these items I would like to hear about it.

Thanks, and have a great day.

I am wondering if anyone has a really nice "FORD" oval for the center of the grill on a 1980-1986 F-series truck (Bullnose body style)
Specifically, this is for a 1986 F-150.

Original part number: E2TZ-8213-A.

Dennis Carpenter sells a Chinese replacement...but I want to find an excellent original if possible.

Thanks, and have a great day.

After searching other websites, I was, once again, face to face with just how good this forum really is compared to a lot of what is available on the web with similar content.

For years I have been a member here and I have witnessed many questions being answered in a good manner, and with useful details and direction.

Thank you to all who make this the reality it is.

I am working on a modified 1986 351W, in a mild street truck, with Edelbrock heads and intake and I don't know anything about what is actually inside this engine.
With all the available info on the web I have become a learn before leaping tuner if I am able.
Even with my knowledge and experience I still like to listen for the current "best" situations if I can find useful results.

My search was basic and in looking for a good timing curve for a 351W with Edelbrock heads and intake and a mild cam....I thought this would be simple.

I was able to find numerous threads where the original question was something like "What is good timing for my 351W" or "What is a good initial timing for my 351W" or something to that effect.

As I read through the many threads, I realized none of them ever answered the question about timing.
Dozens and dozens of threads, from all the regular Ford, Mustang, Truck, or other sites, as well as more general hot rod type sites, yet nobody answered the timing question with any usable numbers.

They all devolved into something that talked about other stuff like "you don't need the vacuum advance, get rid of it" or "why ask such a simple question" or rambling about how their car runs great while never answering the question.
My favorite was a guy diverting to all sorts of questions about what literal distributor was being used...as if the distributor used makes any difference on where the timing is set to get the engine running right, when the question was literally about what timing should I set my 351W.

I realize my searches might not have been looking in the right area, but that is not my point.
My observations of searching for a pretty simple, straight forward question about timing lead me to many, many, many threads that never answered the question at hand, not even indirectly.
This made me think how great it is around here because you will almost always get your answer.

Thanks again to Jay and his great website and for all the really great members who do take the time and invest the effort into answering the questions asked...It means a lot to at least one person.

For now I'm going to set the timing at 35* total and see where the initial falls. (with pump gas, which is all this motor likely needs, I'll likely end up somewhere between 32-36*)
With the rebuilt Duraspark distributor we put in I think the advance springs it came with are super stiff so that will have to be altered too.
While I'm in there I will see which slots the arm has and then modify accordingly.

I am working on an Autolite 4100 carb and am wondering when they changed the accelerator pump styles?
One style has the basically open chamber with the small one way flow diaphragm.
The other style has a casting in the cavity that channels fuel into the chamber while using a check ball and a limiter screw. (what I'm working on now)

I have rebuilt these before (both styles) but have never researched when these things changed.
I started looking around the net and can find reference to the check ball style accelerator pump cavity, but only in the 2100, so I figured I would ask here because you guys know all the stuff.

This is turning into a frankencarb, but still, I would like to know the basic date of the main body of this 4100.

Thanks and have a great day.
 

My friend recently purchased a 1986 Ford F150 4x4 style side and I'm helping him get it running and driving again.
This is a 351W, automatic truck and the engine has received some modifications that are unknown to us at this time....but I see Edelbrock intake and alum heads and headers.
We are told this 351W was removed from a 1969 Mustang, but we have yet to verify that.

This engine is also wired to (what appears at this time) both an MSD 6AL box and the factory Duraspark box.
I'm guessing they built in a "safety" where if the MSD failed, they could hook up the Durspark, but that is just a guess on my part.
I say this because all the wires, from both boxes, still run in the harness (covered by tape and such) and the MDS distributor has been converted to have a factory Duraspark 4 prong connector, otherwise why not remove the unused unit.....and yeah, they used the dang blasted blue scotchlok crimp connectors...so that will have to be fixed.

The truck was last registered in 2011 and has been sitting (according to seller) in the garage unused since that time.
Apparently, they had some issues with getting it running so the story goes.

I intend to pull the distributor and prime the engine prior to cranking things over and starting the engine.
Yesterday we installed a new battery and were fiddling with the various electric components...and things work!
Elec windows go up and down, auto locks open and close, wipers, lights...and so on.

When we got to trying the heater blower motor though I noticed a very high-pitched whine/tone coming from the MDS box that was directly related to the blower motor, including a change in sound with a change in blower motor speed.
With the blower motor off, but truck powered up, there is no extra sound from the MSD box.
But turn on the blower fan and the MSD box sounds like a geiger counter.

I'm currently guessing a few things.
1) The wiring is jacked on this truck and they connected some things together that should not be.
2) The blower motor is failing and arcing when running, causing a lot of RF feedback in the wiring harness.
3) They have both the MSD and Duraspark systems joined in some manner, and powered by the same 12V lead as the blower motor/resistor/controls causing feedback.

We noticed this last evening and were just about done for the night anyway, so I just stopped and decided to figure this out next.

At this time we have not seen, or had, the engine running as it was purchased in a non-running state.

Any helpful hints might lessen my investigation and diagnostics time...and would be greatly appreciated.

I'm just hoping I don't open the wire harness coverings to find a mess of ruined things by enthusiastic electricians with knives, crimp connectors, and black tape.

Just last fall I purchased a set of wheels and snow tires to put on one of my vehicles for winter driving.
I also purchased a full set of black lug nuts to fit the application and look good with the black wheels.
I installed these using hand tools and torque wrenches....not power tools to hammer away at the black finish.

The company name of the box is DYNOFIT.
It says right on the box "Automotive Parts, High Quality"...Hmmmmm.

Well, the nuts did hold the wheel on just fine so no issues there, but after one winter, with less than 2,000 miles driven, they are SUPER rusty and look like 20 year old lug nuts.

Be wary of DYNOFIT if you are thinking about purchasing black lug nuts.