Thanks for replying to both threads Bob.

I added the question to both since I wanted to have the info in this one as my "build" thread and the other one was strictly about the fuse panel.

I know it's redundant, but that's why I did it.

 

I checked the brake lights today. They weren't working. From another thread I just read, I learned the ignition switch has to be On or Acc for the brake lights to work. Mine didn't.

I went to short the wires on the brake light switch... and one of them was not hooked on. Wish everything was so easy to fix.

Oh, and I found some 2A fuses online and they'll be here Thursday. I was surprised I couldn't get them at any of the local auto parts stores or Walmart. They have them online, but not in the stores. I guess there's little demand for glass fuses any more.

 

ya , ill be going with a later ford fuse box eventually on my 64, for that and the fact the ford STUCK the fuse box on TOP OF THE HEADLIGHT SWITCH!, why make things so hard to work on.
sweet truck!, that truck has a bunch on nifty mods already done, only out there thing i saw was the previous owner stuck frog light under the bumper instead on 67-72 tailights..how odd, its so clean its crazy...rhino bed line the floor pans and under carriage and she should last a long time..just my 2 cents

 

Thanks AJ.

I don't know why those lights are on the back and the front, as none of them work. At least, I haven't found any switch to turn them on/off. But they're the last thing on my list of electrical problems to troubleshoot.

I got some Herculiner to do the bed. Now that I'm living where salt is used on the roads, I may seal the under carriage as well.

 

Still waiting for the 2A fuses to arrive, I pulled the blown 20A fuse from the heater slot on the fuse panel along with the PO's bypass fuse installed around it. The glass fuse had exploded inside but the bypass fuse was still good. I replaced the original 20A but still no heater blower.

I checked the power to the 2A slot and now I know why the PO didn't bother to put a fuse in there. There's no power to that fuse slot. I'll have to pull the panel off the firewall to see what they did there.

Can anyone tell me what the two unfused bus connectors on the left side of the panel are used for in a stock truck. The PO plugged in two doubled up wires in each of them, I assume at this point to power the add ons. Were any wires plugged into them at the factory?

 

Well, I almost caused an accident the other day. These mirrors are mounted so high that I failed to see a car coming from the right at a stop (he had no stop) and pulled out into his path.

So that got me thinking about how to change the height. Yesterday, it hit me like a ton of bricks. Ouch!

Maybe I could modify the original mirror mounts to accept these new mirrors. Today I spent more time trying to polish the original mounts than I did mounting the mirrors. I took it for a spin, and they are just right.

I will still get some round convex mirrors to eliminate any blind spot, but I really like this set up.

 

I got some adjustable convex mirrors from Walmart for cheap and attached them. I prefer to have the mirrors positioned vertically, so I turned them around to mount the bubbles. I think I'm going to like this.

 

Joe, Nice truck.. Do you know from what year Mustang the trans is out of? Also what gears are you running in the rear diff ? Thanks Ken. I have a 66 with 3 on the tree behind a 352 and I'm looking to upgrade.

 

Thanks Ken.

It's out of a 1985 Mustang. The PO had it rebuilt.

The differential is the stock 4.10:1. It winds out pretty fast 1st thru 4th. I can ride around town at 30 mph in 4th most times. And the overdrive 5th is very nice for highway driving. I've rarely had it over 2,000 rpm and it cruises at 55 at about 1,200 rpm.

That said, I still get only 11 MPG, maybe because of the cam?

NOTE:
Since you brought it up, I started wondering what the T5 gear ratios were in the 1985 Mustang. Then I found this:

 

From one Joe to another... Nice truck!

 

Thanks Joe.

 

Yesterday, I finally got around to taking out the bench seat (with my wife's help) so I could start troubleshooting all the problems I believed were caused by the rat's nest of wiring under the dash.

And, since I had the seat out, I installed new seat belts and troubleshot the gas gauge sending unit. My gas gauge would never show fuller than 3/4 after a fill up, and the tank had over 3 gallons left when the needle hit empty. The float was sealed, no gas had leaked in. I moved the sending unit arm up and down and got various results. After a while, it would show full as it should, but wouldn't go lower than 1/4? This made no sense to me. Then, for whatever reason, it started to work correctly. That made me think perhaps the trouble has been a bad ground to the sending unit. I removed that screw, cleaned off 52 years of corrosion and reinstalled with a clean star washer. The tank is full, and it is showing full. I will watch it carefully as I get closer to where I think it should be showing empty, and report on it then.

But, that's not really why I pulled the seat out.

I have put off crawling under the dash for a year. But, several things were inoperative when I got the truck. A couple of them were not that important in the Peoples Republik of Kalifornia, but in Virginia, windshield wipers and heaters are kind of important. So the epic saga begins...

I started with the heater. I've already got the new hose, which the PO removed and discarded. I've yet to buy the valve, but RockAuto and Amazon have it. I made my own hose bracket out of some scrap material I had in the shop. And I still don't know if the core leaks, but now that I have the hose, I can check that. I checked the blower motor for continuity to see if it was shorted, and it's fine. I was hooking up my meter to check continuity from the blower motor to the switch when I found the problem. What really kind of upset me on one hand, and thrilled me on the other is what I found to be wrong. The wire from the fuse box to the heater switch was stuffed up into the rat's nest. I hooked it up and BINGO! The blower motor works in both speeds. How could I have gotten so lucky? But wait... there's more.

I went for the wiper motor switch next. It's right next to the ignition switch, and there's a power wire from the ignition switch ACC post to the wiper switch. Of course, if you install the ignition switch upside down, the wire isn't long enough to connect the wiper switch too, so you just leave it dangling under the dash. I rotated the ignition switch 180 and plugged in the wiper switch, removed the wiper blades which appear to be original equipment, and the wiper motor hums sweetly, again, both speeds. Some fine workmanship from the PO.

I still have lots to do, but those were my main reasons for crawling under the dash. There are more empty connectors under there, but I don't know yet where they go, if anywhere.

And there are no pics, as I don't take them while standing on my head with a brake pedal in my shoulder or a gas pedal on my ear.

If anyone is still reading this, I would ask for help figuring out how the PO has wired the turn signals/emergency flasher. I will start by saying all exterior lights work correctly. When I turn left, the left turn indicator flashes properly. When I turn right, both indicators flash. When I pull the emergency flasher, only the right indicator flashes. It seems this should be a simple wiring problem, but I haven't figured it out yet. Any suggestions will be appreciated.

 

I checked the heater core for leaks this morning. I hope I did it right. I fitted hoses onto both core pipes, ran water through the core and it all came out the second hose, none in the cab. So, I've given the core a clean bill of health.

I should receive my new heater hose valve Thursday, along with my new wiper blades.

I also added about 4" of wire to the windshield wiper switch power connection from the ACC post on the ignition switch. It was stretched tight even after I gave it all the slack I could. So now, there's no stress on the wire.

I also ordered some correct size 2A glass fuses for the dash lights. I shorted out the fuse holder with a pair of needlenose and all the dash lights work. I got the truck with no fuse in the slot, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I think my pliers are rated higher than 2 amps and I'm pretty sure they're slow blow. But I didn't release any smoke from the wiring, so I'm happy with that.

 

For flasher lights, make sure the bulbs are good. 1157 have two filaments and one could be broke. Just a thought.
Good thing you didn't release any wiring smoke, it's a beeaaatch, to get back in. I don't know if you can even buy any wiring smoke anymore. Damn EPA.

 

Thanks Robert, but the exterior truck lights all work as they should. Both front and rear lights blink correctly for right turn, left turn and emergency.

My problem is with the dash indicators. For a left turn, everything is correct, for a right turn, both indicators blink, for emergency, only the right indicator blinks.

I thought maybe with all the other wiring mistakes I've discovered on this truck, it might be simply that the PO had hooked up the flashers incorrectly. But today I noticed that the factory connections are correctly wired to the flashers. So, I still don't know what's wrong, but the truck is legal to drive.