First post here:

I will have a 1986 F150 with the 302 EFI and 4sd Manual that runs great and will be purchasing tomorrow. The motor is freshly Rebuilt and the interior is pretty sharp. My biggest issue is that the wiring under the hood is hacked up pretty bad and I am missing a few components. First off The truck came factory with Heat/AC but one of the previous owners cut or plugged all of the related wiring out and vacuum lines so yes I don't have a defroster either and in NC that is a concern with the weather. It appears that all emission related components are missing or disabled too. I will attempt to upload some detailed Engine shots so someone can chime in and let me know what I need. I don't care if the AC works and really don't have a use for it but heat would be nice and I definitely need to have a working defroster. Back in High School I had a 1980 F150 with the 351C and the previous owner rigged the Heat and Defroster to a toggle switch. I would like to do things right and be able to use the factory controls in this soon new to me truck. Thanks

 

 

Welcome to FTE! That sounds like a fun truck, but it will take a bit of sleuthing to figure out what has been done, and some work to fix it.

Pictures will help with the sleuthing, but before that you can tell us about the engine. Does it have fuel injection or carb? If carb, then it is probably a 4bbl w/an aftermarket intake. Which one and what carb?

Heat is easily fixed. You need one vacuum line into the cab close to where the passenger's fender goes onto the cab. The line should come from a plastic manifold on the firewall and run to a tee/check valve. One side of the tee then goes to a ball or can-shaped vacuum reservoir, and the other into the cab as said. But, in the same grommet where that goes into the cab there will be one coming out going to the fresh air vacuum motor right there in the corner.

That should get the sleuthing started.

 

Pictures have to be hosted somewhere on the internet, not on your PC. Then you copy the URL of the picture, click on the little yellow postcard icon, and paste the URL into the pop up.

But, I host mine right here on FTE in my albums.

 

I just figured it out and updated my posts thanks. I just added a 4th image with black arrows drawn to what I believe to be the incomng/outgoing vacuum lines and a yellow arrow to the tee. Is this correct? if so it looks like I just need to hook up and/or check the wiring and fuses.

Based off of these pictures can you tell what components I am missing besides the radiator reservoir and air box/filter assembly?

 

You do have the fuel injection system, and I'm not up to speed on it so will let someone else reply as to what may be missing there.

As for the heater, the things you pointed to are the heater hoses, which take hot engine coolant and run it through the heater "core", which is in the cab. In fact, the two heater hoses that go up to the firewall are connected to the inlet and outlet of the heater core, which project through the firewall. And, on a fuel injected engine the coolant also heats the incoming air, and the yellow arrow is pointing to a tee in the line that branches off to the FI system.

The lines I was taking about are vacuum lines, but don't seem to exist in your pictures - unless that is one hiding behind the gray connector in the last picture. They would be about 1/4" in diameter and the first one would come from the engine's intake manifold toward the rear and go up to the plastic manifold on the firewall that the tail of the yellow arrow is pointing to. If you have an automatic transmission one of the other fittings on the manifold would have a hose to it. And then one fitting would have a hose that runs down toward the passenger's side fender, down near the gray connector that's laying on the heater hoses. There it would have the tee/check valve and do as said before.

HOWEVER, you may not have factory air! I don't see a spot for the vacuum lines to go into the cab. And I don't see the fresh air vacuum motor. So I suspect you have dealer-installed A/C and, IIRC, that doesn't use vacuum. Instead, all of the controls are done with cables. So, please post some pics of your dash, with the A/C vents showing as well as the HVAC controls. We can ID it from those pics.

 

WOW! Someone sure hacked up the underside of that hood! Good luck!

 

Just bought the truck paid $1600 and here is a picture of it sitting in the driveway. It has the 4speed manual transmission and is 4x4. I promised my wife I would take her out to dinner tonight so as soon as I get back I will post pictures of the Vents and interior. Thanks

 

One thing it looks like you are missing is an air cleaner. But, maybe I'm missing it in the pic?

 

Does NC require and still inspect for emissions? If yes, you may have a hefty bill in from of you to get a plate.
What happened to the AC compressor and condenser?

 

NC requires emission inspections on 1995 and newer vehicles. So I am lucky on that one. I will be registering this truck in AL anyways. I am military and am stationed in NC.

 

Here are the requested pictures hopefully they will be helpful.

The air box and cleaner are missing in the pictures but I have the assembly.

 

That's factory air. And, those are vacuum controls. So you are missing the vacuum lines to the little manifold on the firewall and from there on. Tomorrow I will take pics of my vacuum plumbing and post, showing what is needed. But you also have some parts missing so will have to go to the salvage.

Now, as I think about it, if the main need is defrost you should already have it. These systems default to Defrost mode with no vacuum. And it looks like you are plumbed for the coolant to go through the heater, so if the fan would run it should come out on the windshield. Does the fan run? If not, have you checked the fuses?

 

Thanks for the help so far and pics of your rig would be great!!. I was planning on a few trips to the ole junk yard to get a few odds and ends anyways. And what fan are you talking about? I will check all the fuses now though.

 

Love the shortbeds! good looking find! Glad you (and I) don't do emissions anymore!
If you not interested in AC anymore. I'll swap you for a non AC dash controller.