ckuske

Please post your opinion of the quality if you get a chance... thanks!

Unless I can't recall properly (which is entirely possible), it seems LMC has a new vendor for replacement door panels. If these have been discussed, I apologize. https://www.lmctruck.com/1980-96-ford/door-parts/fd-1980-86-door-panel-sets Has anyone tried these? They look identical as far as I can tell to original panels or those made at Dennis Carpenter that are made with the original tooling. They look better than some others I have seen where the speaker grille looks to be a separate panel that they place onto the main door panel. Or, I have seen others with holes for the speakers rather than slots. I have been holding out for the ones from Dennis Carpenter but they have been out of stock for months and months, I have emailed them and have just been told "keep checking every couple weeks" which I have dutifully been doing with no luck yet... I will probably hold out for the Dennis Carpenter ones a bit more, but these LMC ones are the best I have seen so far that haven't been made with the original tooling. I have no idea regarding the quality/thickness of the ABS though...

What length bolt do you have in there? Any chance it is bottoming out before tightening the exhaust manifold to the head completely? The factory used studs, but most of us use bolts when replacing. I'm not sure on the length, and I'm afraid to remove one to check haha. It is a good suggestion though - if I have to dive deeper (I thought I'd fixed this before and found out I hadn't) I will be sure to let you know! Thanks for the suggestions, I'll check the PCV system out!

A little update: Last time I ran the truck to temperature, the oil smoke coming from around the valve gaskets had gotten worse... noticeable for sure now. I retorqued the bolts to ~50 in/lb, tried again. Still smoking. Geez! I got frustrated, and ordered some Fel-Pro PermaDryPlus gaskets. Put those on, did the whole procedure. Still smoking. Now I am just getting plain mad... lol. I took a walk, calmed down, and started it one more time and really paid very close attention to the area the smoke seemed to be emanating from. ("Above" the last bolt on the exhaust manifold, passenger side. I started recording video, sticking my phone down there to get as good as video as I could without burning myself. Then while recording, I saw a clue. I noticed a teeny tiny air bubble coming and going between the bolt, the washer on it, and the manifold. I did some Googling and confirmed my basic understanding of engines (which is still nil compared to most in this forum). It seems like 90% of valve cover leak issues are due from debris on the gasket, overtorqued covers becoming warped, etc. But, there are a few issues on forums where the gasket is dry and there is still smoke coming out. I got my torque wrench out and tightened the exhaust bolts. The suspicious bolt turned about half a turn before it even felt snug, then maybe a 1/4 turn to hit 24 ft/lb. Two other bolts turned a bit also. All of that narrative to say... the smoke is much much reduced. There is still a whiff sometimes but it is hard to pinpoint and I am hoping it is residual that will go away. Besides that, I'm trying to save some money up for the brake job. I'm not going to bother chasing the carb issue now, as the truck will just sit and get the carb damaged again while waiting for the brakes to get done before I can get it back on the road.

I got the KOER test to run. The latest codes are: 20, 83, 93, 3, 4 I'm a bit stumped on the 3 and 4! I called the carb shop that got the truck fixed about four years ago. Described the symptoms. Bill (the owner) was gracious enough to give me some things to try. He thinks the diaphragm on the carb may be leaking fuel into the intake. The carb was rebuilt ~4 years ago, and hasn't been used much. He thinks ethanol has probably eaten the rubber away in the diaphragm and other bits of the carb etc. This would explain the O2 rich from the HO2S, the low idle, and stumbling. He said as a test to try clamping off the vacuum hose from the power valve to the EGR - I did that and saw some improvement. So, the carb may be at fault. He said I can either bring the carb to him, or bring the truck. To save labor $, how hard is it to remove/reinstall? There are lot of linkages etc and I'm a bit nervous I'd break something or not reattach properly. Any special tools needed? Or, I may just chicken out and have the truck towed to him (it's currently registered as PNO, and I need my brakes done also...)

Right, it appears to work fine. When I replaced it, I just removed the four screws on the housing, removed the old pump, replaced it, then put the four screws back in to secure the housing to the carb again. The plunger returns properly when pressing down on it. I think all is well, but I am grasping at straws. I'm going to try and run the KOER again today and let it warm up a bit longer and try the WOT test by going from idle to WOT a bit slower (not a jab, maybe try over two seconds or so and see if that computer is still OK with that, and see if some codes go away) Either way, there is still some work to be done.

Thanks for the tip on the lowest number! After I replaced the accelerator pump, the leak stopped so I felt good about it. But, the throttle response seemed to be worse. That could just be my association of when it got worse, but it may be coincidental and there is something else at play. I remember having a hard time holding the housing to the carb body while trying to get the screws started - maybe the spring isn't seated right against the diaphragm???

Thanks Jim! I couldn't take it, so I ran the KOER. Not great results: 43, 72, 73, 73, 42, 83 When I try to run the Dynamic Response test, my truck died three times before I got it to stay running through it (and I didn't give it as much throttle which caused its own problems, see below), and I got the codes above. Most of these (especially 72 and 73) I can chalk up to the dynamic response test not being run properly. Awhile back the accelerator pump started leaking - I replaced it myself and I'm pretty sure I ordered the correct one but I am wondering if I need to take that back apart and look again? It wouldn't address my "miss" issue, but could address the truck dying when I pour a good amount of throttle on...

Accurate! Gary always comes in "clutch" as my son would say.

Got my new MAP sensor in the mail (2 days early!). I plugged it into the harness, tested with a vacuum pump. My meter immediately started recording a signal (~150 Hz). Old (barely used) MAP didn't report any signal on the green wire at all. Ran KOEO - Code 11. Cool, let's proceed. Started the truck - started with about 3 seconds of cranking. So much better than the last time I tried! Let it run until it got warm. There is still an occasional stumble/miss, it "feels" fuel related still but nothing like it was before. It only does it on higher RPMs (like high idle). When I kick the idle down, it is diminished. That makes me think fuel delivery, but??? I think the truck needs to take a trip to the carb shop again. Turned the truck off, hooked up the EEC reader. KOEO still 11 (yay), Continuous codes also 11 (Double yay). I'll run the KOER in the next couple days but I'm feeling good at the moment! If I get the "miss" diagnosed, I'm ready to shut the hood and move on to the rest of the truck finally.

Just putting my recent thread here in here so I can look through this all later, or others can laugh ;) In other news, tried to start the truck after finishing the wiring and clean KOEO. Wouldn't start... started for a second, died. Start for a second, died. Repeatedly. It was acting like it was starved for fuel. It finally started after my battery was almost dead. When it did start and stay running, it had a serious miss and RPMs were wondering all over the place. I was afraid I had munged something in the wiring work. I ran code reader again - KOEO still clean, but continuous memory now says MAP sensor is bad... (Code 31). Probed the connector. Power is good (5v), ground is good - no pulses coming out of signal wire (0 Hz, should be around 150 Hz with normal atmospheric pressure). Signal wire is outputting 2.5 volts. I assume this sensor uses pulse code modulation... It *was* working... Ordered a new one, hopefully that gets it running smoothly. Will check signals again (and vacuum line to be sure) before I even try to start it...

That's a good idea! I'd like to do it myself but there is a tradeoff for me of time to complete vs money. My son wants to drive my truck before he graduates high school and I have 1.5 project years left (I'm on year 4!!!!)

I don't mean to hijack this thread, but I will anyway. Sorry Tom. One of this things on my to-do list is to work on my sliding rear window. Some of the rubber in the channel is gone, other parts are very brittle and things just don't slide correctly. I will first try to fix it up myself, but has anyone taken their window to an auto glass shop to see if they can/will restore it? Or do you think they'd just laugh at me? It seems most shops are just "remove and replace" for windshields, but I'd like a pro to work on it possibly as they'd have a better idea on the right sizes of replacement rubber, which products to use, etc. Thoughts?

Thanks Gary! More unobtainium though, drat! Found them one place online in Canada but they said they were out of stock. Thank you for looking!

I have to take a second look but I guess I can shave off the key on the wrong side - I'd still be better off than I am right now...

I looked on the better connector (where the replacement fits) and that is D84B-14489-AA. So I'm assuming the other side is D84B-14489-BA. I'm hoping there is a "R/B" for these? Coming up short.

Thanks Gary, I'm hunting! In the meantime, I got two of the connectors I wanted to replace in the mail from Rockauto. These are WPT-374 in the Motorcraft catalog. I appreciate the diligence of Ford Engineering, but the bad news is only of the two connectors fit into the two solenoids on the passenger side (sitting on the valve cover). The WPT-374 fits on the Thermactor Air Bypass Solenoid but not the Thermactor Air Divertor Solenoid. The connector key is on the wrong side for the latter. Basically I need the same connector but with the key on the right hand side of the connector, not the left (key on the left works/fits for Air Bypass) I just poked around and see a partial number on the offending connector: "14489 BA" (no dash). Help? I can't find it doing a 10 minute Google.

Thanks for looking Gary, always appreciate a sanity check. I'll keep my eyes out for one, maybe it'll pop up on eBay or something. In the meantime, it will be fine the way it is.

Hi Jim, Yes, it does! And, it looks about the same size. The only other difference is the oval surround near the pins instead of rectangular, but the oval shouldn't cause a problem. I had actually found this connector in the catalog - WPT-119. Here's a link... I guess with Amazon's return policy I don't have much to lose but a little time! I still have a few more connectors to do that didn't have the major wire damage, but all the biggies are done. Just ran the KOEO test and it passed! (Code 11). I'm a happy guy at the moment. This is what keeps you going, just like an occasional hit on a slot machine haha.

OK, I have 7 of the 9 wires done. I have found a couple more thermactor solenoid wires that could use the same treatment. Those connectors are in pretty bad shape also, I found these online and ordered a few even if they were pretty pricey... ($30 each!) I also noted the MAP sensor connector is not great. I cannot find this same one in the Motorcraft catalog, and I've looked in the MPC and can't find it? Is anyone willing to help find it to see if there is a Motorcraft part ID associated with it? (WPT-XXX style) The engineering number is E43B-14A464-FB Pics below, thank you! I feel like I'm beginning to understand how a surgeon feels when they open someone up and get more than they bargained for...

The wire on the connector was skinnier than the old connecter - maybe 20 or 22 gauge. Definitely thinner. So I took the pins out of the new connector and am going to solder thicker wires onto the pins... don't want any nasty surprises where the solenoid is flaky or something because not enough current is getting to it...

Well, my theory was correct! I got my connector off eBay and WPT-597 is the correct one! Got a new solenoid as well for $15, seemed worth it. I'll replace the hoses to/from the solenoid while I am at it. I have the other wiring pretty much stripped/prepped to be soldered, but is has been about 95 degrees in my garage this week so I worked on it as much as I planned (I should be used to that by now) I hope to post finished pics soon... the heat is now sticking around for the rest of the week.

No worries, thank you Bill! Good luck on your hunt at the Pick-n-Pull! I'll let you all know if the connector I *think* it is works out or not. It's in the mail from eBay this morning.

Well no leads really... I found a WPT-597 on eBay for $15. (Much cheaper than on Amazon, FYI). It sure looks like it. I guess I have spent more on things that haven't worked. If I get really desperate I suppose I can just put blade connectors on the wires and seal the connection somehow but that's not really how I intend to do things...

Appreciate it! I snipped the zip tie that was holding the wiring to the part so I could get a look at the engineering number. E4AE-9C915-CA (Vapor Canister Purge Valve) Now maybe I can figure out the part number for the male connector now that I have this knowledge...