'Rufus Maximus' - Build Thread

[Danny G]

Well gentleman I think I found the reason the PO couldn't swap fuel tanks or at least someone in the past took it apart to troubleshoot it and didn't realize that was a bad idea. The PO only had it a year so could have been anyone prior.







Also found why no dash air potentially. The blend door here was closed and when I pressed on it it seems to be missing a hinge point.

Asy cleaning up these gummy vac lines and labeling before I disconnect anything I am curious if these are supposed to be open or not.

mm

My secret weapon for cleaning these lines.. baby wipes 😂

[ArdWrknTrk]

There is a member that makes a 3D printed hinge repair kit.
I've never had to do mine, but it seems a lot easier than screwing around with pop rivets and a piano hinge.

I hope you can find that selector.
If you look in the MPC, the Motorcraft # will be listed alongside the actual P/N
It's usually easier to turn one up that way.  

[Danny G]

If I can't find a reasonable selector I may be able to fabricate something using the factory housing hopefully.

[Danny G]

Went ahead and ordered AC parts and the tank selector switch from Rock Auto. $70 for the selector switch there and $88 at LMC.

Got through the wiring under the dash got it cleaned labeled and sorted. Found some cut wires on the harness for the door switches. On the main harness in the same location, two wires at the light switch I believe to be the headlight power wires as there is added wires through the firewall related to this. For some reason a t tap was used to tie into the brake switch wire. I think this is the same spade terminal/red wire shoved into the fuse block. Most of the daisy chain of butt splices looks to be after market radio related. There is a zip wire running aft with one wire black with an orange line. May be a cargo light wire or something. I'll find out eventually.

Green wire to the high beam switch is torn open and was rubbing on the cab metal. I'll splice that as well.





A couple factory shut/short plugs on here. Wonder what options they were for. This pink electrical tape makes me feel like I need to open it up and look for shenanigans. Don't remember there being pink on my other factory harness lol.


Dash side mounting brackets and driver door armrest support went through the ultrasonic cleaner today then prime and paint with some gloss black ceramic. I was going to nickel plate these but didn't have the salt and vinegar I needed to do it. So black it is. The rest of the dash supports are resting after being treated several times with acid. I will clean and paint those tomorrow. I'll be able to work more in the heat tomorrow as I discovered that the rear door window fits a 5000BTU AC that I propped in there tonight while doing the wiring and cleaning.



I need to find a replacement firewall grommet or feed through style grommet for this oval hole the choke was punched through. Also... I need to find the correct chicken cable and mount for the truck, u less it didn't have one originally.

.

[Danny G]

ArdWrknTrk wrote

There is a member that makes a 3D printed hinge repair kit.
I've never had to do mine, but it seems a lot easier than screwing around with pop rivets and a piano hinge.

I think I may mess with this with just a piece of seal material like a flap of epdm or rubber in lieu of a hinge. Should be able to use adhesive to bond it or even maybe a flexible piece of plastic welded on. What's the worst that could happen right lol. Just need to flex a little bit.

[ArdWrknTrk]

T-tap into brake wire and holes under dash sounds like a trailer brake controller to me....

As for the plenum door, it needs to seal (both sides) geometry is pretty critical and access is impossible when installed.
There's more than a couple of threads about members adventures with that one, I think Gary even did his own writeup.

But if it's not attached at all now it can't be any worse, right?

[Gary Lewis]

I did report on repairing mine, but the writeup we have in the documentation section is from James191145.  You can see it at Documentation/HVAC/Blend Door Repair.  And there's info on purchasing the hinge that Chris/ckuske and his friend designed in there.  If I were to do it again that's what I'd do.

[Danny G]

Further workin on getting this ductwork apart and pulled back the carpet and I could smell that musty wet dog smell. I knew when I found any rust cancer this is where I would find it since everything else was clean for the most part. Door drains are salvageable. And so is this. It's not bad at all. Some grind work and some new coating and we are golden. Started digging out the old dry crumbly seam sealer as well so I can get that cleaned out and nee seal applied.

To be expected on these old trucks they just drove screws through the floor without any sealant. Water does what water does after that.
This access door though is rusted straight through. I'll need to find a replacement.

[mat in tn]

also pay close attention to the lower part of the cowl. with the duct out and firewall insulation removed, this is the time to find out whether the cowl caulking has failed and allowed rusting to get started. this can be a real pain the get seam sealer out through what access is available but still very important. treat to whole seam for rust before re sealing. the cab side of the cowl and firewall are one piece with the engine bay side of the cowl welded to it. this seam can rust through and often it rusts through to the interior. most common in bullnose trucks parked near or under trees and left to die. some die!

[ArdWrknTrk]

Yep.

Pull the rubber drains right off and flush the down out with a garden hose to remove the muck.
Look with an inspection camera, or a mirror if you don't have one...

[85lebaront2]

Make sure they actually put the seam sealer in the pockets. Darth had none on the right side, if I hadn't removed the heater ducting I would never have found it. I wondered why I kept finding the carpet wet on that side.

[Danny G]

85lebaront2 wrote

Make sure they actually put the seam sealer in the pockets. Darth had none on the right side, if I hadn't removed the heater ducting I would never have found it. I wondered why I kept finding the carpet wet on that side.

Are you talking in the crack itself. The seam seal on the driver side fit well was a fillet between the pan and the side wall but the crack itself between the welds was wide open. Fortunately clean in this spot I can see the gray primer in there.

I took a break from working in the cab and then fell asleep on the couch. I'm painting three of the main dash supports now. I'll have just the dash speaker support and the tubular ones left but I fly out Tuesday and am low on paint so they probably will wait until next weekend.

I got through the wire harness on the passenger side got everything cleaned and inspected. Was happy with what was there and started sleeving and labeling connectors.

I'll probably review the evtm for these wire colors under the mid dash after I'm done painting. I have a feeling they are radio/courtesy light related.



Also looking for a drain plug replacement but haven't found any. I swear I have found these in the past.

[ArdWrknTrk]

The cowl seams continue all the way down into the kick panel vents.
Behind the cover plate on each side, if the sealer is bad you will rot the floor, or worse the lower hinge mount. DAMHIK!

I have a label maker.
It might be a good thing to put a tag indicating which connector is which, because the EVTM only shows the wires associated with 'whatever' not ALL the wires in a connector.
Knowing it is is 'CXXX' helps a lot.

What drain plugs are you looking at?

[Danny G]

Technically if I depinned the connectors I could slide a heat shrink sleeve on there with the connector info but I'm content with the Dymo D1 labels inside the cab lol. Unless they start falling off.

The plugs I am talking about is the metal ones in the footwell that are held in with two screws and become giant rust spots.

I have to look tomorrow but I swear when I pulled back the carpet there was a cover plate over the transmission tunnel... I don't remember having one in my other automatic, though I could be just forgetting.

I'll pull that cover on the kick plate wall and look in that tunnel for rust. I was going to snake a hose down from the cowl and hit all of that with internal frame coat/encapsulator from Eastwood's. I was thinking that cover had a vent option on some models for floor venting outside air. But could be misremembering that too.

[Danny G]

I have decided not to replace the jute and "rubber" fire wall cover... If that was actually rubber. It holds too much dirt and moisture.

I will be using a combination of foil backed sound deadener and a closed cell foam. This should give me all the sound and thermal insulation I could ever need with a thinner, waterproof material that will also not hold dirt.

Closed Cell Foam (ccf) has an R value of 8 per inch. Typically 1/2" jute is around R2 - 3 from what I can find.

This means unfaced 1/2" CCF will be about R-4.

Under the 1/2" CCF I'll be using Siless hybrid deadener. It is 0.2" think. It consists of a 50mil butyl mastic deadener, followed by 100m OCF acoustic foam insulation, then a 50 mil mass load membrane. Typically butyl mastic deadeners are around 80mil this come in at 200mil.

[Gary Lewis]

That’s a good combo. Deadener/foam/deadener does a good job. 👍

[Danny G]

Ok thanks to the 85 EVTM in the documents section I have these wires  sussed out. They go to connecter C333 electronic radio.

They Yellow with Green line (which I can only see when I take a picture of it thank you Samsung) is always hot powered by fuse 8 as part of the courtesy lighting circuit.

The Yellow with black hash marks is radio power from fuse 11 when the key is in acc or run.

And lastly the blue with red stripe is the radio illumination control/dimmer. The light switch provides power to fuse 17 which then depending on the potentiometer output adjusts radio brightness.

So with that said I am going to cap these guys off I think as I currently have no radio and just add labels to the wires. I think I have a 3 wire plug in my electrical supplies. Maybe I'll make a new C333 connector.

[ArdWrknTrk]

Okay, those are not oval "drain plugs" on the floor.
They are to access the cab mounting bolts.
I don't know of a source for the oval plates themselves, certainly Raybuck, Tabco, or any of the usual suspects don't have them...

The drains I'm talking about are the rubber necks at the back of each wheel well, up behind the plastic fender liner.
They are at the bottom of the cowl pockets, and before the compartment formed by the kick panel cover plates (the ones that will fill up with debris and rot out three layers of metal, and your lower hinge mounting plate)
The slotted cowl found on bullnose trucks almost guarantees that  there's a lot of organic debris/mud collected there.
(I have good photos of these, and the garbage inside, with the fenders off my truck a few years back)

There is an option for fresh air floor vents on some trucks.
I'm not sure, but I think it depends on if you have A/C or not.

Good possibility that a pickup will have a blank plate where the shifter/transfer case stick should be on a 2x automatic truck.
Easier to stamp all cab floors with the hole and decide 2 holes, one hole, no holes in the plate as the cab rolls down the line....

Good luck! You're really going to town with this cab.

[Gary Lewis]

Yep, he is really "going to town" on this.  

[mat in tn]

Danny ,if you are painting the metal frame of the dashboard (as I do) pay close attention to the fact that it IS the ground connector for the gauges and more. it becomes very important to use "paint cutting" lock washers on all bolts and screws . where it mounts to the cab and where any wires are mounted. these are not heavy load carrying circuits and a little resistance goes a long way in driving you crazy later.