The Camano Experience

Scott - Well explained. Thanks!  I think I could do that. That sure looks like it’ll be clean and solid.

When you get this done maybe we can use these pics and write up to create a page on it in the Documentation section.

I guess I misinterpreted that he was bolting the plastic double din cage to the welded structure.

My bad...

Jim - Dave's correct that the bolts/threadlocker were just to bolt metal to metal - reconnecting the dash support together in place of the spot welds but I think's it's important to make people aware of that concern when using threadlocker near plastic so glad you mentioned it. Prior to putting this truck back together and using a lot of threadlocker (switching all the bolts that I can to stainless and they need the lubrication) I'd never thought about it with plastic.

Dave - yes, it would definitely be possible to replace the humped piece with a new flat custom made piece instead of cutting and welding. At least for my own abilities, using the original piece left less room for error and ensured that the ends lined up correctly. I will say that I cut out a humped piece from a scrapped dash just in case I wanted to swap it back so if one doesn't have access to a parts truck, then custom making one would leave the original intact for that option.

ArdWrknTrk wrote

I guess I misinterpreted that he was bolting the plastic double din cage to the welded structure.

My bad...

Jim not a big deal.
Also I installed my radio not long ago and before that I had to graft that area of the plastic dash from my non-ac trucks dash to the ac trucks dash I wanted to use so kind of knew of the area he was working in.
Dave ----

Gary - I believe these are the part numbers for the spade terminals. Going off pictures and references in different listings so I can't guarantee it's entirely accurate.

*Female:  E7EB-14474-EA, D8BB-14474-BA, D3AB-14474-DA, A14889
*Male: E7EB-14421-AA, D20B-14421-BB, A14890, A20815

Female: Dorman 638805/85348, E8EB-14474-VA, NAPA 725277
Male: Dorman 85349, E7EB-14421-AA, NAPA 725276
Female: Dorman 85353, E7EB-14474-CA, NAPA 725286
Male: Dorman 85347, E7EB-14421-EA, NAPA 725282


The * ones are the ones I am pretty sure are the same as the cab light connector.

I ordered the Napa barrel terminals so I am going to see if they work better than the ClipsAndFasteners.

This afternoon was getting more little pieces added to the truck but primarily installing the hood release.

I am installing a locking hood release (tumbler disabled as previously mentioned) in place of the non-locking one it had.
Unfortunately the grommet was all cracked and partly missing on the locking one as well as the end loop being pretty rusty and about to fray.

The non-locking cable was in great shape though so decided to see if I could use the cable from it.

Just now I did a search to see if anyone has done this and funny enough, I found what sounds to be a very similar process from Shaun over on FTE in 2011.

The process-

The lengths of the cables are the same so no problems there.

The issue comes with how the cable is attached to the handle. The NL (non-locking) release has the handle and cable as a single unit whereas the L (locking) release uses a small ferrule on the cable that fits into a slot in the handle.

Removed the NL handle from the housing by placing it in a vice until it cracked. I then pried it apart until the housing was gone. The cable sheathing is adhered to the housing so it took a little work to remove it but it all came off cleanly.
Next was to cut the end off the handle where the cable is attached. While on the NL unit it's a hexagon shape vs a pill shape like the L unit, fortunately it will fit in the L housing with a little filing.
Lined up the two cables with the inner cable pushed all the way in and marked where to cut the cable off the NL handle. Part of the handle will remain as this is the new ferrule. Unfortunately I didn't get any photos of this.

The L unit cable has a retaining ring piece adhered to it that we need to get onto the NL cable.
You can see it here in the vice:


My hope was that I could heat it with a heat gun while pulling on the cable and the cable would slide out of the ring piece easy peasy. No such luck. It did come apart but it left some of the sheathing in it.



I used a drill to clean it out. It was a bit of a pain because there is a fine line between the ring spinning and crushing it in the vice. Eventually it was clean.



Here you can see the ring next to the previously cut off handle (now ferrule) that it needs to go on.


I picked up some loctite plastic glue (all types) since I didn't want to rely on just a friction fit.

Even with the ring cleaned out, dry fitting it wasn't happening.
Because having some valleys (like the crimp marks in the sheathing) are a good thing for the glue to bite into I didn't want to shave the sheathing down smooth.
Instead I used a 7mm tap/die to thread both pieces. This allowed the ring to thread on there while still retaining valleys for the glue.
Applied the activator/glue and then threaded the ring so the end of the sheathing was flush.

I have no doubt the glue would have been enough but I wanted to put some adhesive heat shrink on it anyways.


While it was out I applied a few drops of oil into the sheathing.

The rest is just placing the ferrule in the housing and handle, bolting the two housing halves together, and installing it all in the truck.



I never paid attention to it before in any of my trucks but I noticed the dash flexes quite a bit when pulling the hood release.
Has anyone done anything to prevent this?
There is a hole in the dash support with a speed nut in it that I don't believe is used for anything (at least on my truck) that lines up pretty closely with the side of the brake support. I am thinking about drilling and tapping a 6mm hole in the brake support bracket close to the firewall and installing a brace.

Thoughts?

The part about the retaining ring is interesting, I couldn't recall what I did to fix that, nor can I even recall writing the how-to that you mentioned. I'm glad I did though, and I'm glad it was able to help you. I wish the pictures weren't broken, I've lost all of them by now.

Yeah, I wish a lot of the FTE photos were still around-lost a lot of good info. For example I would be interested in seeing the threaded piece you talked about.
I didn't even think to search for another post on this before I dove in but should have if nothing else to know what was inside the plastic non locking housing. It would have helped with the "oh, I sure hope this works and I didn't trash a good part" feeling after I heard that first crack in the vice

kramttocs wrote

Gary - I believe these are the part numbers for the spade terminals. Going off pictures and references in different listings so I can't guarantee it's entirely accurate.

*Female:  E7EB-14474-EA, D8BB-14474-BA, D3AB-14474-DA, A14889
*Male: E7EB-14421-AA, D20B-14421-BB, A14890, A20815

Female: Dorman 638805/85348, E8EB-14474-VA, NAPA 725277
Male: Dorman 85349, E7EB-14421-AA, NAPA 725276
Female: Dorman 85353, E7EB-14474-CA, NAPA 725286
Male: Dorman 85347, E7EB-14421-EA, NAPA 725282


The * ones are the ones I am pretty sure are the same as the cab light connector.

I ordered the Napa barrel terminals so I am going to see if they work better than the ClipsAndFasteners.

Scott - I'm not sure I understand.  Please explain so's I do understand.

Looking in the MPC I'm seeing stuff I'd not seen before.  Here's an example.  Would this help in the documentation?

Scott - Really good how-to on the hood release.  Well done!  

As for the pictures, one difference between FTE and here is that FTE doesn't house the pics.  They have a link to the pics so when you load the post the pic is supposed to get loaded as well.  But if the pic is gone from its original place it won't load.  Fortunately on here Nabble houses the pics themselves, so when you upload one you can then remove the original and the posts will still show the pic.

On reinforcing the dash, I've not done that but have noticed the movement when I release the hood.  More of a creaking and groaning than obvious movement, but it surely is moving.  So anything to reinforce the dash would be welcome and surely can't hurt.  Please show us how you do that.

Like the barrel-type wedgelocks, I was just trying to find the spade style as I need to replace the female connector for the cab lights. Having that page in the documentation would be great, especially if we can find some photos to go with them. Again, the ones I posted I can't guarantee. I was just going off what I had in the truck and then pictures in listings I found. Cab light male: Cab light female:

I'll do some research on what is in the MPC and work on how to present it.  But please take plenty of pics as you work through it and maybe we can match them up to part numbers for documentation purposes.

Gary Lewis wrote

As for the pictures, one difference between FTE and here is that FTE doesn't house the pics.  They have a link to the pics so when you load the post the pic is supposed to get loaded as well.  But if the pic is gone from its original place it won't load.  Fortunately on here Nabble houses the pics themselves, so when you upload one you can then remove the original and the posts will still show the pic.

That's great!

Interesting - did a search for D3AZ 14474-G, which the catalog says is a "Snap on (female)-for 18 or 20 gauge wire", and found a hit on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Female-Blade-Terminals-20-18-D5AB-14474-FA/dp/B0040CVTTU.  And this pic:




Maybe this won't be too hard.

Having those part numbers will be great. While it would be quite the endeavor and possibly impractical :), having a catalog that matches the connector purpose and location (like "Cab Marker Lights behind drivers kick panel"), to the Ford part, to a current offering would be nice. Just dreaming.

So. About that flexing dash I mentioned when I tested the hood release. I checked on a parts truck and it didn't have near the movement (in Camano it's a LOT) although I could see how it could cause some overall creaking like you mentioned Gary.
Then it dawned on me that I haven't installed the parking brake yet which will connect the dash to the firewall  

Of course this was after I came up with an easy solution. Well not as easy as installing the parking brake but...
Turns out that a little heat and some bending will turn a spare passenger side dash support brace into a perfect brace just to the right of the hood release handle. On an automatic at least.

Before bending:


After bending (and a quick blast to make it show up in the next photo):


Test fit:


The next step would be to drill a hole through the brake support and bolt that end of the new brace to it.

So there you have my solution to a non-existent problem.

That said though - I've been planning to mount the GVOD control box to the brake support so I was always going to drill two holes in it to bolt that on. I figure since I already have the brace I will install it but move the GVOD control to the inside (it will easily clear the booster rod) and use the brace bolt as one of the bolts for it. Plus I think I can use the brace itself as a mounting point for the brake controller.

This post can be ignored by 99% of readers as it is really getting into the weeds over trivial matters. That and it deals with some specific non-factory parts that aren't particularly common. Debated whether or not to even post it but figure it might give some general ideas to someone.

I took the modified dash support mentioned above and marked, drilled, and tapped the hole in the brake support. Tapping it was entirely unnecessary and if done again I would just drill it out for 1/4 bolts. Once I got that hole in, I lined up the GVOD control unit and did the same for the second hole ensuring there was plenty of clearance on all four edge sides to connect the wiring.

Added some foam to the back of the gvod unit and bolted it on the inside of the brake support.

Next I installed the additional support and tightened it down. Even though with the parking brake installed there wasn't a lot of movement, after adding this it was rock solid.



The rear bolt is longer than the front one. The reason for this is that after the nyloc nut holding the brace I am installing a remote flasher holder.
It hasn't arrived yet but looks like this:


This is to accommodate the taller led flasher for the hazards.

The front bolt will be used to mount the brake controller.
The brake controller is a remote unit that comes with a slip in mounting bracket. I needed something at a right angle but like the modified brace, I wanted something that came from these trucks. The bracket that holds the 'black box' to the center brace support gusset worked perfectly with little modification (aka flattening out a bend).

Here is the bracket after already being flattened some:


And here it is with the brake controller bracket after being cleaned up:



These bolted together and attached to the controller like so:



Installed a star washer to prevent any rotation and bolted it on. Test fit the wiring and this position allows it to connect directly to the factory trailer connector as well as allowing the control knob to reach the cluster bezel cubby.



[Just to prevent any confusion - in the Factory Trailer Wiring thread I started yesterday, I said that the brake switch spliced wire was brown but as seen in the photo above, it is yellow. I only said brown to avoid having it be the same color as the yellow on the factory wiring harness. ]

Would some zip-ties, rubber bands, or bread ties have worked just as well? Yes and no doubt be easier to work on in the future when one of these components needs replaced.

On another topic-

Ever since Shaun posted the NOS CB mic, I've been intrigued by that offering so picked this up the other day. The primary reason was the bucket seat mic holder.



I've already coated the brackets but I am wanting to coat the case. Before I go scraping this sticker off, do any of the numbers matter to the point of needing to put them back after? Any other numbers/letters are stamped.

kramttocs wrote

This post can be ignored by 99% of readers as it is really getting into the weeds over trivial matters. That and it deals with some specific non-factory parts that aren't particularly common.

You are becoming Gary, by osmosis!  

Good find Scott!

kramttocs wrote

Yeah, I wish a lot of the FTE photos were still around-lost a lot of good info. For example I would be interested in seeing the threaded piece you talked about.

It has been a long time since I touched that assembly, but I believe it was something I had laying around from an old lawn mower.

Here's a link to my old Flickr which has a very blurry pic that shows the original small piece at the end. I thought my cable was broken there but it doesn't seem to be. Maybe mine was broken or cut down the line?I'll dig around when I'm bored and try to figure out what I did. If I can find the memory cards from back then, maybe we can work on a How-To using the pictures I took and your more recent info?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/1980f100rangerlariat/with/5842737365/

ArdWrknTrk wrote

You are becoming Gary, by osmosis!  

My father would have said "If that's a compliment I thank you."  

Scott - Good documentation, and well done.  

In fact, with the numbers off the CB unit documented here I see no reason to preserve them.

So the brake controller itself is mounted, but the remote will go in the recess to the right of the steering column?  Seems like a really good plan to me.