HBF comes out of retirement

Well, some moss and redwood leaves found a home and moved in, but I have slowly been evicting them...Now time to seal up the windshield so if I get around to repairing the floorboards, they won't rust out again!  

Deep cleaning after the evictions...  And, evicted these guys too...

It's a Tremec...

I'd suggest you remove the kick panels and covers, even the cowl drains and scrub the biofilm out of there.

Maybe even phosphate treat the exposed metal before sealing it back up.

Tremec!  Used the google machine and yep, that's the one and there is a note saying, "Case had no drain plug."  So, apparently I am not going crazy!

Yes, I pulled the cowling, vents, duckbill drains, etc. and flushed them extensively so they are working well and shouldn't build up water again.  The solution to pollution is dilution (on a double sump wash rack of course to prevent seed spread and oil going into the Chesapeake.)

And, speaking of crazy, a co-worker checking out my truck thinks I'm crazy for my floorboard modification.  What do you guys think?!?

I think I'm with your co-worker.  Did you fix the original source of the water that rusted the floor out?  Did you clean the flaky rust off and paint the floor with something like POR-15 to stop the rust.  Did you somehow seal the floor to the new sheet of metal you laid in there?  If not water will get in when driving in the rain.

Not yet...I am pretty sure water was coming in through the side vents (no A/C model) and the windshield.  

The mouse nests had filled up the side vents and the duckbill drains, so water would pour into the cab  from the side vents.  When I had the vents removed and filled the cowling with water try to unclog the driver's side drain, water was coming into the cab through screw holes like a little cherub in a water fountain!

And, there is water coming down the firewall so, I suspect the butyl tape is leaking.  Once, I get that sealed, I'll plan to tackle the floorpans.  For now, I threw in that matting (one of those things for an office chair so roll you can roll around) because it was the toughest flexible material I had readily available and I am keeping HBF in the garage.

Ahhh!  Ok, so it is temp.  

Does anyone have a good idea how to replace the little retaining ring that holds the temperature lever on the heating unit?  Ford is telling me the part is obsolete.  Google the part number?  Pull one from a junkyard?  After a home remedy if that will be the easier solution.  If memory serves, the plastic groove has worn out and the little metal retaining ring wouldn’t secure in it.  But, that was 15 years ago...... is this a known problem?

Would you consider a stamped steel axle push nut?


This assortment is from Dorman.

If there's too much taper for one of those you might try a push on washer.

I am hoping someone will correct me if I am wrong, but it looks like the stud that the retained ring goes on to is broken off just above the arm. The only cure that I see, besides replacing the whole controller, would be to try to put a sheet metal down the center of it with a flat washer to hold the arm in place.

JMHO

You may well be right Steve!
And if so, you have the right solution as well.  

I dont know about you Jim, even on a computer, the angle of that picture makes it hard to tell how much of the stud is really there and how far the taper goes down.

Well I've only got a phone, and I don't have one in the attic to compare it to.

I do know my '87 non-A/C selector arm was plastic... before I had to remake it in carbon fiber.
Now it's held on with a push washer and the sheath retainer is held with zip ties and more epoxy.

Pressed down and then the swing arm popped off.  Thanks gentlemen!!!

Well, the stamped push nut did the trick!  After driving it for several years with it popping off and then sitting at my folks' place for about 10 years, I finally got the darn thing fixed!  Thank you!!!

And, I also worked on the cowl a bit over the last couple of weeks...  The reason the floor boards were rusted through appears to have been because the trough under the cowl seems to have been rusted through.  Initially I figured it was the butyl tape so I filled in the gaps with silicone.  Which, might have fixed some leaks but if so, it was never identified.  Anyhow, I slobbered in silicone in the cowl trough in some obvious dime sized holes and then slobbered more all over...





And, then, I came upon a box of some type of sealer and slobbered in more over that!

But, then the water still leaked in around the floor vents.  So, I removed them, lined them with silicone and siliconed the screws and put them back on.  Still letting it dry before I do another test.  But, at this point, I am pretty confident that very little water will work its way into the cab.  And, if so, there are still plenty of holes in the floorboard to drain out!  (Seriously, I will try to make it right!)

And, while doing this, found two more mouse nests.  Who wants to join me in a new thread about critters building homes within your bullnose?!?

And, thanks to this site, I might have figured out that way back when if I parked my car facing the direction the winds blew during a storm, it was less likely to start up versus when I parked it with the bed of the truck into the prevailing winds...The post about the DIY cowl and garage door rubber is brilliant.  But, I happened to have some vinyl baseboard left behind by the previous tenants, so instead of going to the hardware store today, I tried using it:





Hope it works!  And, BTW, I'm not a rancher, but don't bulls and cows face their rears into the wind so the weather is a bit more tolerable?