Gary Lewis

It was a factory fill tube extension, not sure why the 2002 had one and the 2003 did not, unless the 2003 used to have one before I bought the truck. Can't say for sure. Either way, it screws onto the valve cover, and there's a tab that keeps it from spinning when you loosen the oil fill cap. But apparently the fill tubes don't like to be removed because the tab is what broke off and went down through the valve cover. Here's a picture: Yes, that must have been a relief! So now the two trucks are alike, at least in that respect. And you found that the valve covers are clean. Not a bad result.

Brandon - How's this?

There's no doubt I warped the floor a bit in places. But who cares? It isn't like it is flat and now has a bump in it. They put so many stiffening creases in it that there's no way to tell that it is warped. And, I had steel evaporate on me. The front screw hole for the threshold got a bit bigger as I heated it, and it was already much too big to take a screw. Luckily it was one of the last places I worked and I had the technique down by then. So I got it plenty hot with lots of brass on the steel and the rod red and dropped a blob onto the hole just as I pulled the torch back. It hit and flowed out but then cooled enough that it didn't do as it had before and wick away from the hole. That spot is certainly warped, but it is under the threshold and won't be seen. Who was it on here that said he coats all screws that penetrate the floor with sealant? I'm absolutely sold on that process having seen how the threshold screw holes were rusting. Ford really did a poor job on things like that, although I'm sure the other manufacturers did the same thing.

I don't know that this valve fails to one position or the other like the 3-port valve does. It may be motorized and stay wherever you leave. But I would agree that it appears to be in the Front position at present. I would disconnect the plug and use small alligator clips to put power to 5 and ground to 4. That should cause the valve to go into the Rear position, and you should be able to determine that because 1 and 2 will be connected. Then reverse power and ground, with power to 4 and ground to 5. That should put it in Front and then 2 should be connected to 3. But I don't think it will switch. These valves are the nemesis of this system and frequently fail, and in weird ways - like pulling fuel from the front tank and returning it to the rear tank.

Yes, it worked out really well. Thanks for the suggestion! I forgot to say that the steel where I was brazing is THIN. It was really, REALLY easy to get it red, long before the brazing rod was red. In the past when I brazed it has been the other way 'round, with the rod easy to get red and the steel not there yet. It turned out that I had the heat down too low, so I turned it up and moved back a bit. That still got the floor hot pretty quickly but also got the rod hot. And things started to work. As for strength, I'm confident it is far more than adequate. I ground some of the spots down a bit and it doesn't grind very easily.

George Strait songs have a little more bass than I care to hear. It's not good bass response either. My system is tuned mainly for rock music, as is my box. Def Leppard and other 80's hair bands sound great in the truck. Feels like I'm front stage sometimes. I'm into rock, but 60's rock. I have a Cerwin Vega sub on the shop's sound system and I stream Sirius 60's on 6 at the highest bandwidth setting. Sounds pretty good. Anyway, thanks. I think the floor came out nicely and it is now well sealed, top and bottom. Then with the sound deadening mat adhered to it there's not much chance of more rust developing.

How 'bout some pics? And measurements? Show us how tight it is. As for the holes being in a different spot, it sounds like you got the wrong radiator. Did it mount in the radiator support correctly?

I'm glad it didn't go down the oil passage into the sump, but I'm not sure from your description what it actually was. Was it aftermarket? Did it break? How did you fix it?

Your system should be wired as shown below, which is from the 1981 EVTM: Documentation/Electrical/EVTM/1981 EVTM. I would check to see that the brown/white wire has power on it when in the Rear position. If so and the valve doesn't switch then the valve must be bad.

Rob - You are on! I'm not sure when I'll get to that point, but as you'll see in my recent post, I'm going back with new weatherstripping when the time comes.

Today was a big day. I'll record the stuff that happened up top in text, and then show the pics. First, I got the sound deadening material in. Boy, are those boxes heavy! And, I got the replacement FDM for the front tank. Plus, I got the Amsoil ATF from the t-case. So I can really make some progress. And, I got the transmission cover cleaned up so it'll be ready to install tomorrow. Yes, Shaun, that one. Next, the brazing went pretty well. I got all 5 of the rusted holes and the 3 screw holes brazed shut. And, I got two coats of POR-15 on the rusty parts of the cab floor, including the brazed spots on the underside. In fact, while I was under there I realized that the floor pan had some surface rust starting in a few places so I POR'd them as well as the spots I brazed. And as I had more POR in the paint cup I painted the supports for the step bars as well as a large part of the frame in the driver's side. But, as I was closing the can up just now I realized that the lid is bent to the point it isn't going to seal well, so I need to put the remainder in a jar. And I might as well use some of it to paint a bit more of the frame while I'm at it tomorrow. Ok, here are some shots of the brazing of the floor on the passenger's side as well as the front threshold screw hole: And here's a shot of it after two coats of POR-15, although it was still wet so it is shiny. Also note that the door weatherstripping has been removed. It was in the way to put a lot of POR in that channel to ensure that it is well sealed. So when this goes back together I'll install the new weatherstripping that I got from Vernon. Here's the under side of the threshold screw holes and you can see the rust I was talking about, so all of that now has two coats of POR-15, as do the spots where the paint was burned from brazing the rust holes: And, for grins, here's the driver's side, which didn't have much rust on the floor. However, both cab mounting bolt caps were significantly rusted, and they, too, have two coats of POR-15 on them. So, tomorrow it'll be time to lay down some sound deadening material!

That's the one Gary! Thanks. So they want you to replace 7/16" rivets with 1/2" bolts, I guess? It makes me curious what size rivets I just drilled out? Were they 3/8" or 7/16"? The holes are 7/16". I assume they reamed the holes during assembly to get the 7/16" rivets in all of the holes? Surely they didn't all line up perfectly if the rivets and the holes were the same size... I guess the simpler question would be: Do the 7/16" holes indicate that the rivets were also 7/16"? The rivets swell to the size of the hole, and would go larger if they could. They are in tension every way from Sunday. But bolts won't fit that tightly or you couldn't get them in. So I think the approach depends on which crossmember you are talking about. Anything associated with the front/engine crossmember needs to be TIGHT or you may well have movement and noise on turns. So for those I reamed the holes as said in the TSB and used at least the size bolt called for. In fact, in the case of the huck bolt I went one size larger. Spring perches also get a lot of force. But the crossmember at the front of the gas tank maybe not so much and might well be fine just slipping the largest bolt that fits w/o reaming it.

In about '85 they changed to plastic. They last far longer than the cardboard ones.

Ok, I must go digging through the documentation and see if there is a recommended bolt size when replacing rivets. I know on the ones I just drilled out of the frame and crossmember, the holes are 7/16", so I'm going to try and use 7/16" bolts just so that they are as tight as possible in the holes (same as the rivets are/were). As for the welding, yes I will grind where and when I have to, but I was able to weld over some of the rust the other day, which was cool, so I was just curious if I could do the same over Ospho. The reason I was curious is that since I'll be adding some plating, I'd like to Ospho the steel first if possible, but I didn't want to make it more difficult to weld over/through. Maybe I'll do some test pieces first and see how it works out. I plan to remove and repair the crossmembers this weekend, and get to work on the frame rails themselves next week. Installing the Bullnose frame horns is of little conern to me...that's a pretty easy job. I'm more concerned with my patching and plating. The frame and crossmembers have some thin spots which I plan to beef up with some new steel. I'm just going to lay some 1/8" plate over the thinner areas to strengthen them. What about this TSB: http://www.garysgaragemahal.com/96-15-11-frame-rivet-replacement-with-bolts.html?

Right. I knew you knew, but I was just trying to lay it out for him. But the tank selector valve's contacts for the sending units don't appear to be closing at all since he's not seeing the blinking signal in either position.

Christian - Let me see if I can explain the circuitry on Page 106. First, the fuel tank selector switch is double-pole double-throw (DPDT) and it reverses the power & ground connections to the tank selector valve depending on which way you throw it. In Front it puts power on the brown/white wire and ground on the orange wire. In rear it puts power on the orange wire and ground on the brown/white wire. And it looks like from your readings that it is working. That is supposed to run the motor of the tank selector valve to open the supply and return ports to the right tank, and to connect the right sending unit to the gauge. We can't tell with electrical tests if the ports are being selected correctly, but the electrical connections to the sending units aren't. I say that because the blinking you are seeing on the yellow/white wire is coming from the instrument cluster voltage regulator, through the gauge, and down to the tank selector valve. But, if the valve is working correctly that blinking signal should go out on the dark blue/yellow wire in Front or the yellow/light blue wire in Rear. But it isn't. If you are confident that you are testing with the wires firmly connected to the tank selector valve, and if the gauge doesn't work in either position, then at least the electrical part of the tank selector valve is bad. So if you want your gauge to work then you'll have to replace the TSV. But we don't know about the ports in the valve. It is doubtful that is working correctly either. But even if you replace it you don't know if the in-tank pumps are good. Are you ready to test them?

Scott - You might have something there with what is preventing him from hearing emergency vehicles. Jim - You are right. Most manufactures use a very small bit of damping material right in the center of each panel. And none of them do anything as extreme as what Shaun did. It isn't cost effective and adds weight to the vehicle. But that's not to say that what Shaun did doesn't work. I'm sure it works very well. It just isn't cost effective for manufacturers to do that. In fact, the latest trend is to noise canceling technology where they introduce the exact opposite sound into the speakers, just like is done in noise-canceling headphones. But can you imagine the problems that will occur when "audiophiles" change out the speakers? As for Big Blue, I'll be doing it the American way - if X is good then 2X is twice as good. Having ordered 72 sq ft of sound deadener and the same amount of insulation, I'll have plenty to work with. But I think the priorities will be the floor, the door outer panels, the roof, and the back wall. The insulation came in last evening, and the sound deadener is to come in today. So if I get the holes in the floor sealed this morning then I hope to get the floor and the mount covers painted this afternoon. That way I can install the mount covers and the transmission cover, with seam sealer, tomorrow and get started installing the sound deadener.

Yes, it did. And it is still sitting on my desk in the shop. Do you need it up on the site or need it back soon?

Matthew - The Uno is what I've been thinking of using. But I've not found an output transistor shield/board that I like yet., although I've not looked in quite a while. Anyway, if you run across one please let me know. And, good luck!

I had it backwards, the mat is what I'm thinking of. I didn't use any type of insulation on my Ranger. I disagree with them when they say more is better, solely based on my personal assumption that the initial 25% takes care of the vibration, and anything else is just gonna start covering areas that aren't prone to vibration or heat. On my 2003 Ranger I have the entire floor covered, the back wall doubled up, the entire roof, and as much of the outer door sheet metal as I could cover. If I had to estimate, over 60% of the interior sheet metal in my truck is covered, and I feel it's way too much. If I could do it again, I would do maybe 40% at most in that truck. On my 2002 Ranger and the F350 I only plan to do around 25-30%. I can barely hear emergency vehicles in the 2003 Ranger, hence why I think more isn't necessarily better. Here's my driver's door for reference: Ahhh! You are differentiating between how well it works and too much of a good thing. IOW, while 100% coverage provides the best sound deadening, you think that is too much sound deadening as you can barely hear emergency vehicles. Right? Let's go back to how it works - by reducing vibration. There are basically two ways to reduce vibration - stiffen the panel or raise its mass. It is difficult to stiffen a panel that is already there, so the easy way to reduce vibration of a panel is by raising its mass. But a panel is inherently stiff at joints and bends. So there's really very little advantage to raising the mass of a panel at its edges where it joins another panel - like where the floor meets the sill. And a panel vibrates the most at its center, so placing the mass in the center of a panel or a portion of a panel is the most effective approach. Someplace I once saw a chart that showed the effectiveness of where to place the mass. In the center of the panel was by far the highest and as you moved towards the edges it went down exponentially to zero at the edge. I think that's where they come up with the rule of thumb to cover 25% of the panel, and put it in the center.

But did you look on the other page? The one in the picture is base part number 18599. Here are all of the part numbers for that part:

Also, go to this page and see if you spot the one: Documentation/Cooling Systems/Elbows.

Brandon - Does it look like this? I'm struggling to find it, but am looking.

Rob - Thanks!! Jim - Brazing will require me to get a large area red hot for a longer period of time than welding. Welding would get a smaller area to a higher temperature for a very short period of time. Bill - I missed your post. And I know the spacer you are talking about. Think I had one on a Chevy van. That might be an option. Thanks.

Excellent! Glad you are safe.