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Got a question: Big Blue seems to leak engine oil and transmission lube more if it sits than if I drive it. Where would you expect an engine to leak sitting still? The drips are coming from the clutch cover.
Got a question: Big Blue seems to leak engine oil and transmission lube more if it sits than if I drive it. Where would you expect an engine to leak sitting still? The drips are coming from the clutch cover.
Maybe. But I would have thought that all the lube would have drained off the inside of the engine and into the sump long ago as it hasn't run in two weeks. And yet the puddle seems to grow slightly on a daily basis.
Gary, I would not worry too much about the transmission lube leak since the 5 speed will take its place. Regarding the engine leak, remember [I believe it was your brother who said this] that the engine had exposure to gasoline and you have not driven it too much since correcting this. Perhaps the use of one of the oils which say "for engines with greater than 75K miles" might help rejuvenate the seals.
David - it was my brother than pointed that out. And, he's right - I believe the oil sits in the pan and below the level of the front are rear seals. So, when it filled up with gasoline the seals were directly touching it. So, I've wondered if some seal-swell, which I think is an ingredient in the high-mileage oils, might help. But I don't want to hurt the seals. Given that, I'm thinking I'll start driving it once I get it back together and take a day-trip.
Jim - I agree that the oil should not be against the crank seal when sitting still. But, the drips are from the clutch cover, so.... As for if the puddle is bigger or just spreading out, I don't know. That's really hard to determine. Maybe I can put a container under it to measure it.
Rowdy - Thanks! I never would have seen that. But, when you read it do you think I've put 13k miles on the 2015 or the 85? I got confused.
Well, this panel door thing isn't as easy as I'd hoped. But, I think I'm learning quite a bit.
Here's a really poor picture of the door with the hinges installed. Note that the pin on the hinge (red circle) is back, and that is causing the door to be too far to the rear, as shown in the next pic. To compensate for that I had moved the hinge further onto the door, and with that the door doesn't quite block the opening to the front.
Also, from this pic you can see that the door is warped - as shown by the red arrow on the right. I think I'm going to make an aluminum door and put the arm from this one on that door.
Here's a shot of the door in the rear position, and you can see that it just barely fits in the opening. But, I'm thinking that if I turn the hinge over so that the pin is forward in the above pic the door will move about 1/4" to the left in this pic.
And this shows that the door doesn't quite cover the front opening with where I have the hinge mounted, and that was due to it hitting the back when fully open. Again, I'm thinking the way around this is to move the hinge pin.
Well, I'm not sure that having something said about you on FTE qualifies me for being "world famous" but, as Dad would have said, if that's a compliment then I thank you.
You guys are scaring me on the heater door thing.
Being I have everything out but the heater box I should check it out now than after I have it all together and NEED to pull it apart.
If it is not totally broken what could be used to reinforce the hinge?
Dave ----
I don't think it will be easy to reinforce the hinge. While it is together I would see if you can lay a piano hinge, like Luke did, or a pair of hinges, like I'm doing, in and get them positioned so the thing operates. Then you know that bolting it into the duct will work.
But, I'll bet that you will find what I found - the offset on the hinge pin puts the pivot point at enough of a different place from the plastic hinge that the hinge won't function with both in place. If so, once you get the new hinge(s) positioned where you want them you'll have to cut the plastic hinge.
I didn't, initially, pay enough attention to where the hinge pivot point originally was. I thought I could compensate by moving the hinge and spacing the hinge from the housing. But for the door to cover the front opening and still fit within the housing when swung to the rear it needs to pivot pretty much exactly where it did originally. That's hard to measure on a door with a broken hinge, but with one still intact it will be easier.
And, with the housing out of the truck you can take the top off the housing and try your new door/hinge combo in the top and then the bottom. But with it in the truck it is extremely difficult. So, fix it now!
Gary, apparently Ford realized the "hinge" was a weak spot, my 1996 casing appears to have a shaft on the mode door. You can see the actuator attaches to the shaft underneath.
It was a weak spot for at least the 7 years of the Bullnose run, and probably longer. Rusty had a similar problem but I wasn't going to repair it. And we've had any number of people on here asking about it.
The plastic has X number of cycles, and even if you leave the lever in the same spot, once you turn the key off the vacuum bleeds off and the door moves. So there's no way to "baby" it. In other words, it will fail and it is just a matter of when.
Oh yes, something else I learned yesterday - the blend door that controls the heat is designed such that when it is fully "cold" there is still a significant path for hot air from the heater core to come into the air being circulated. I didn't measure it, but it seemed like the opening was 1" wide by 4" high. In other words, if you want the coldest A/C temp and the coolest Vent temp you need to find a way to turn the water off to the heater core. That's a topic for another time, and one we've discussed before, but I just want to document the "why".
I don't think it will be easy to reinforce the hinge. While it is together I would see if you can lay a piano hinge, like Luke did, or a pair of hinges, like I'm doing, in and get them positioned so the thing operates. Then you know that bolting it into the duct will work.
But, I'll bet that you will find what I found - the offset on the hinge pin puts the pivot point at enough of a different place from the plastic hinge that the hinge won't function with both in place. If so, once you get the new hinge(s) positioned where you want them you'll have to cut the plastic hinge.
I didn't, initially, pay enough attention to where the hinge pivot point originally was. I thought I could compensate by moving the hinge and spacing the hinge from the housing. But for the door to cover the front opening and still fit within the housing when swung to the rear it needs to pivot pretty much exactly where it did originally. That's hard to measure on a door with a broken hinge, but with one still intact it will be easier.
And, with the housing out of the truck you can take the top off the housing and try your new door/hinge combo in the top and then the bottom. But with it in the truck it is extremely difficult. So, fix it now!
Gary, I under stand just what you are saying on the hinge.
It looks like the hinge you are using has the pivot off set. If you could find a hinge that was not off set would be better.
I guess I should start looking for the "right" hinge so when I get into this I have it on hand.
I also need to check all the vacuum motors that they work as they should too.
Thanks
Dave ----
