BBslider-

Yeah you're on the right track there. In the sobering clarity of the morning light, I realized that the answer to the question of "how the HELL did I end up here?" was simply that I relied too much on the diesel techs when I found my F-350. While that might sound like I'm passing the buck a bit, that's not actually my intent. All I'm saying is that I specifically remember asking two separate techs, most intensely the one who conducted the pre-purchase inspection, if there were any glaring issues with the truck *from a diesel perspective*. I recall telling them that although I knew how a diesel engine worked, that this would be my first foray into diesel ownership. I told them of my inexperience and asked for their assistance. I then asked them to examine the truck thoroughly, which they stated that they would be glad to do. By that point, I had read enough about the 7.3L specific issues to be somewhat conversant in them, though without the benefit of any real experience with said issues. I inquired about injectors and was told that #3 and #8 didn't do so well on the contribution test but that they passed the buzz test without incident. Therefore the tech wouldn't know if there was a problem unless he removed them. I asked him questions about other systems too. For example I asked for verification that the vacuum pump was working properly. Fast forward some 20-30 minutes later and by that time I had asked an entire laundry list of questions. One of which was in regard to the fuel filter. Hell, in retrospect I don't think that at the time I even knew where it was, but hell it must have one, right? So I asked anyway. And I distinctly recall him telling me that it was "fine." Ah ... I digress. You get the point. I relied on that assessment and the one that would come shortly after I purchased the truck as my eyes and ears when I should have looked closer on my own. And that's where the rub lies. Lesson learned.

Salvage yards. Yes, there are several in the area, mostly in the South of the city. I rarely make it down that way however, so I'm only scratching the surface of what is available. However with the demands of family life, work, etc. I think I'm doing quite good to get out as often as I do really. There is one yard that I visit primarily due to their customer service, friendliness and yard policies, which are far more customer oriented than other yards. However if the situation warrants, I will travel to one of the lesser (and bigger-named) yards. I did that recently because they received a whole rash of F-250s, F-350s and Crown Victorias. So much so that it was worth the annoyance to examine those offerings. The most important aspect of going yard hunting that I'd like to shed light on, and one that most all of us are likely already aware of - but that I'll state anyway, is that like the stage play of the same name, success in yard-picking is "all in the timing". I monitor the websites somewhat regularly and if something interesting crops up, I try to get out there quickly. For example, I don't think I would have found the two spare powered mirrors that I have found recently if I hadn't done that, nor the fuel filter housing that I pulled on Saturday. However those trucks had literally arrived at the yard within days prior, so I was one of the first to have a look. So. You get the point: even if yards are to-be-had in your area, you must stay on top of it, else you'll miss out on the opportunity. Hell, this was the haul I made when I went to the local wrench-your-wallet outfit:


And on the way to the cashier a guy tried to buy the rumble seat off of me because it had all of the plastic coin collector pieces-n-parts and was in good condition. His buddy wanted the mirror. I couldn't believe what I was hearing, but they were offering cost + $10. I chuckled on the inside at that proposition, but smiled, thanked them and walked away just the same. If I had arrived only 30 minutes later, those parts would have been unavailable. So there you have my $.02 on the subject. That and $8 will get you a cup of coffee at your local shop.

Anyway thanks,
Jerry

EDIT- I forgot to mention that I agree that the fuel filter housings aren't that complicated ... it's more the concept of having missed something so glaring, so obvious, and for so long that has the bee circling my bonnet like a gulf coast hurricane...oh well, you don't know that you don't know. I'd be genuinely disappointed with myself if at the time of purchase I HAD known but didn't bother to check the bowl and just let it slide for 4 years. That would be a different animal altogether. But I digress...

 

Hi Jerry,

No one got cute. Ford actually sold that translation harness, with the official service part numbers being 1C3Z-14A411-AA and 1C3Z-14A411-BA (left and right hand sides are different, due to different wire color coding for mirror controls), to assist dealership service techs and customers alike in replacing damaged mirrors, or upgrading from non towing mirrors to towing mirrors. From 1999-2001, the trucks were built with white round connectors, as were the mirrors. From 2002-2007, the trucks and mirrors were built with the gray rectangular connectors. Since Schefenacker (the OEM mirror supplier) built all new mirrors made after 2001 with the new gray connector, a solution was needed to mate a new mirror to an older truck that would otherwise use the same mirror. Mirrors get damaged and need replacement, so Ford made the translation harness to make it a faster swap.

That was VERY SMART of you to dig down deeper into the door and pull out this translation harness. The only "cute" part of what your photo presents are the non sealed pink butt splice connectors. Those are not Ford, and therefore those indicate that the passenger side mirror was likely replaced TWICE... first with an updated mirror having the gray connector, and then second, with another mirror having NO connector (probably obtained by a person who cut the mirror off the donor by the wires, and did not have the forethought that you had of digging deeper into the door to recover the harness connectors.

If you don't like so many connectors, you can make your own translation harness that would go directly from your truck's white round connector to your mirror's gray rectangular connector.

The first image below is the most important: The correct diameter male PINS that correspond to the female sockets in all the different Ford Super Duty mirrors released from 2002 through 2007.





There it is, all in one shot. The Ford Part number, the aftermarket part number, the UPC number, the contact pin diameter, the wire gauge range, and the aftermarket supplier. This is the best deal on this style of wedgelock pins. A box of 25 will fill all 10 cavities in both left and right connectors, with 5 to spare.

The remaining photos are procedural:



Note the wire coloring between the driver's side versus the passenger side. This wire color code remains consistent with all Ford Super Duties, but I still labeled my round shell connectors, just in case I forgot.

The white round connector shell mates to the what exists in the 99-01 doors. The grey rectangular connector is what is found in 2002-2007 doors, and mates to 2002-2007 mirrors.

The two red pieces are the terminal assurance retention devices for the yet to be terminaled grey connector shells... ie, the red things are the Wedges in Ford's Wedgelock wiring connector system.





Stripping and crimping comes first. It is critical to use a crimping die that folds over the open flags of the uncrimped terminal, such that the flags wrap over and dig through the center of the wire strands when fully crimped. The cable retention crimp over the wire insulation is a separate crimp operation. In this particular instance, I used "D" to pre crimp the bare wires, and "C" to cinch the insulation jacket wrap, and then "E" to fully crimp the bare wire crimp initially folded over with "D". We want to see a bit of bare copper peeking out on both sides of the bare wire crimp.

An automated machine crimp would wrap the flags around the insulation retention crimp, rather than dig the flags into it. However, in general, hand crimped terminals do not have the consistency of machine calibrated crimps, so I have no problem with the extra contact that the wire retention flags might make piercing through the skin of the insulation.





Because hand held crimps are generally not as reliable as calibrated mechanized crimps, I back my crimps up with just a little bit of solder wetting, limited to the wire to terminal contact area. I don't want solder wicking all the way up the wire, as that will make the wire to stiff and not resilient and flexible when wrangled and retained away from the window glass track in the door.





As the previous photo showed, I run a fairly hot (but temperature controlled) iron, to get the solder to wet through quickly and get that heat away again. Still, the insulation jacketing that Ford used in the doors is not high heat rated. To keep it from deforming, I use aluminum clothespin style heat sinks. I started with one, and then added second one once I observed how soft the wire jacketing really gets when heated.

These heat sinks really work. When placed to close to the point of solder, they actually interfere with wetting, pulling the heat off the very parts you want to wick the solder through. Another case of a good thing being too good sometimes.





All leads crimped and soldered, ready to insert into the 2002+ gray connector shells. I walked out to the truck, where the 2002 mirrors were already installed, to visually match pin for pin where each color went.





Terminals pins inserted, but before installing the red Wedge locks...





TEST, DON'T GUESS.





Every circuit worked, so in goes the red Wedge lock to keep the pins in place.





Round to rectangular OSRV (outside rear view) mirror adapter harnesses completed.

There's room in the grey shell to add 7 more circuits, for turning signals, running lights, defrost, and who knows, maybe a puddle light or a 360 degree camera system. Imagine having a 22 pin connector like the 2011's. I wouldn't know what to do with all the possibilities!

One more thing: You don't have to retain the white round connector shell like I did. Instead, you can cut the corresponding round connector shell off from the door wiring, socket terminals and all, because you will need to change the sex of the wire terminals in the door from female to male anyway. If you chose this route, then the male pins identified in my first photo above can be directly crimped to the wires you blunt cut and stripped inside the door, once the original white shell was cut off.

Personally, I like the round white shell better than the rectangular gray shell, because the round white shell is a SEALED design, whereas the rectangular gray shell is not. Plus, with the original white connector still on the door wiring, one can retain easy backward compatibility in case the new mirrors get clobbered... meaning one can always pick up a set of older 99-01 mirror take offs cheaply on Craigslist (because everyone wants to upgrade to the '08 up style) and plug and play them quickly back into the doors using the original connector sans the adapter.

 

Y2K- Good information again, stuff that everyone can use. Thank you for your continued contributions, they are valuable.

Don't have much time to reply at the moment, but a few things come to mind:
1) I'll have to stick with my guns and say that someone was indeed attempting to be cute here, as it was the butt-connector business that I was referring to when I made that statement. And I haven't even mentioned the fully connected light gray connector that I found in the middle of all of this mess, upstream of the butt-connectors. It was clear to me that the wiring from the black connector to the mirror was factory (or at least re-made to factory configuration). As for the unsealed connector stuff that you mentioned, who knows why that was done ... perhaps the twice-replaced theory you propose is correct, and maybe they just needed additional length. Fun in a way to speculate, but in the end I don't care really if to speak openly. I prefer to just chop it off and be done with it.
2) I mentioned in my post (in the form a question, thus: "Could this be a mirror from later on, say 2002 or 2003, when the connector changed?") that this mirror was likely from a later model, so good to know that I was on the right track there...
3) I agree that handheld crimps don't offer the quality and precision of their machined counterparts, but it's all I have. And I have several of them to choose from, so I would be ok I think if I went in the same direction.
4) However at this point, once I can lay-hands on a couple of wiring diagrams I plan to eliminate these gray connectors altogether. While I'd like the options that the larger connectors offer (and that you nicely delineated) I think I'd prefer to remain in the as-it-was-originally camp and just go with the white round connectors. So the plan - again, once I know which wire does what - is to remove the 2-pin black-housed connector (which I think goes to the door speaker) and the black wrapping, cut the wires just shy of the gray connector, ditch everything downstream of that, cut the wires just downstream of the black connector that is on the mirror "loom", then solder in enough wire at both ends to compensate for the length between the white, round connector, mirror-side (which is male IIRC) and the mirror mounting location on the passenger door. Ergo, re-establish the 99-01 factory configuration, sans the 02-07 transition/adaptation.

As you've noted the wiring color differs. The (what I am assuming is the) 99-01 passenger side wiring is yellow-green-purple, while the wiring on the later-model-year-mirror that I got from the salvage yard is yellow-white-orange. So as I've said I need to determine what those mean prior to doing any real soldering. Nice Weller BTW.

Anyway thanks,
Jerry

 

Jerry, it goes without saying that it is your truck, your project, and you must suit yourself to your satisfaction.

But you did ask for advice, and in that spirit, I want to try and save you from yourself here on this narrow sub topic.

All you have to do is unplug the gray connector halves, and plug in the black connector from the mirror to the gray half that has the white connectors attached. Then unplug the white connector halves, and plug the mirror + connector ensemble in to the white connector on your truck, and you are done. No wiring diagrams needed. No soldering needed. No extending wire lengths needed. No hunting for more wires of the correct color code to extend the wires needed. And the cute pink butt splice connectors will automatically be eliminated, because they were unplugged and removed in your first step. And it will all look factory.

No cutting or resplicing needed. You literally have a plug and play situation there. The mirrors could have been up and running in the time it took for you to type the post. Literally, a two second job. That is the beauty of your VERY SMART move to dig deeper into the door and retrieve that constellation of connectors.

I wrote my write up on mirror connectors a few years ago, and just copy and pasted a few parts of it here to help you visualize the history (this is a history thread, isn't it?) of the evolution of these connectors. Same goes for my write up on the fuel line drain hose... I wrote that a while back, and just pasted part of it here so you could see it. We haven't gotten to the fuel leak on your passenger side hard line supply to the head yet which you may not realize you will have if you don't do something about it, but we'll get there while you are in there fixing your fuel bowl.

Believe me, every single one of your concerns and discoveries have already been explored and written about. The cutting of the fuel bowl heater harness is nothing... a lot of used trucks you will find have eliminated the factory fuel bowl altogether. It is all here in the archives, every topic. Except for cab vents. You'll have a new chapter in the archives all to yourself on that topic, should you find success with your yet to be disclosed solution.

But everything else that you have mentioned thus far (ok, other than the holes in your roof and A pillar hiding behind the gasket... that's a new one on me) has been written about previously, often extensively, in the archives. You no doubt find the same is true in the CVPI forum world. I met the man at Ford who instigated and led the creation of the Mercury Marauder. He had a fascinating life story, was extremely passionate about cars, and got hired by Ford surprisingly late in life, which I also thought was really neat... that he never stopped pursuing his dream career, long after most would have given up. So I occasionally would browse Panther forums until Mercury shuttered. Same sort of thing there as here. Topics come up that have already been resolved, but it is hard to know that without spending a lifetime searching.

If you cut out the entire gray connector as you proposed, then you will be cutting off your nose to spite your face, because it means that if you should run across a set of nicer tow mirrors, such as the ones with running lights and turn signals built in, at one of your salvage yards, you would have to redo the work that you previously undid after it was already done for you. Instead, you can just unplug the gray, plug in the black, unplug the white, plug in the white of your truck, and viola. Done.

 

 

The weather forecast indicates that we aren't due for any of the wet stuff for a few days. Therefore I decided to get started on the bed tonight after work. There wasn't a large amount of daylight remaining, but the plan was to complete the scuffing portion of the prep. Didn't quite make it that far, but more on that in a minute

Here is where I started:


I decided to give this new cup brush product an evaluation:


I'd never used one of these, so I was curious to see how it would perform. The short answer (at least for me) is "not well." Within 10 seconds all of the bristles had flung outward such that the only effective use-case scenario was to hold the grinder at an angled position, almost at a 90 really. Ergo you were virtually in a cutting position, not grinding. Naturally, when you did that the bristles began to dislodge and fly all over tarnation. This bristle-shredding process continued until all of said bristles had left the building. And dontchaknow that such balding occurred prior to finishing the first pass over the entire bed. Therefore I had to stop the proceedings because the cup had become simply unusable:


And so here is how far I managed to get today:


In the final analysis, what the cup managed to touch, it did ok with; however it suffered catastrophic failure prematurely. For that reason and the general usage difficulties I encountered, I don't recommend this product. Thumbs down. I'm gonna return to my tried-and-true flap discs. That said, since this particular product required a 7" grinder, it at least gave me an excuse to buy one of those beasties. That was the highlight though, unfortunately. Mind you, I didn't expect this cup to make it through the first pass unscathed. I also realized going-in that there would be areas that I just couldn't get to with that setup. Such areas will require manual scuffing (I did manage to address most of the rust thankfully). However I didn't expect this. So again, for me anyway, it's a can't-recommend.

Anyway thanks,
Jerry

 

In keeping with my preference to finish the bedliner sub-task prior to any rain, I resumed work on that aspect of this overall project tonight after the day-job stuff had concluded. I had hoped to finish entirely, even if that meant working into darkness again. However I knew going in that such a result wasn't too likely. Why? Because this bed had so much rust. And gheez but was I right. Granted, the bed was and is not rotten, like I have seen some truck beds in the midwest/north become (YouTube videos). Mostly surface rust, but it definitely needed resolution. The point being that it was time consuming. Not overwhelmingly so in the bigger picture, but WRT finishing before sundown, yes. However I couldn't just gloss over it. Nope. I grabbed my Craftsman angle grinder with a flap disc and attacked not only the rust in the middle/back of the bed (the section of the bed that I wasn't able to get to yesterday) but wherever else I found it for that matter. In the end, that meant that most of the bed had been taken back to bare (or pitted) metal. There were only a couple of areas I couldn't get to, even with sandpaper-in-hand, mostly where the front of the bed meets the bed wall. But I did manage to at least knock the rust off of there too. Once that was done, I took a DA and sanded down the entire lot one more time. Then it was time for the leaf blower to do its thing. I followed that with a wiping down with paint prep/wax-n-grease-remover. After allowing that to dry, I then applied primer. A funny thing happened on the way to finishing that last step ... I had removed so much rust and paint by the time I had finished with the flap disc and to a much lesser extent with the sander (it flaked-off a few areas that had loose paint) that practically the entire bed needed to be primered. The "funny" aspect being that I began the primer step by searching for exposed metal and applying a "sssst-sssst" on said metal. However I found myself squeezing so often that I laughed at what I was doing. Heck it just made more sense to lay down a continuous pattern. And so that I did. Well for the back 4/5 anyway. Although it's less than ideal, I decided to defer applying the bedliner until tomorrow. So this is where I ended the night:


In case you're wondering, the back half is black primer because I finished the first can on the front half. As I was reaching for the second, I remembered that I had this black primer in the very back of a storage cabinet, waiting to be used. With the notion of using older stuff first, I decided to do just that. It was bigger than the first (gray) can, but even so the bigger can was just large enough to complete the remainder of the bed.

So. The plan for tomorrow is to do some cleanup to clear whatever deposits itself between tonight and then, followed by the application of the bedliner.

Thanks,
Jerry

 

Jerry, if you have to do the same bed scrub to the 2000 as you did with the 1999, you may not need to give up entirely on cup brushes for the crevices where flap discs are less suitable.

I've obtained excellent results with wire cup brushes. Keyword = wire, as in metal. Not plastic fiber. Wire cup brushes are available in roped braided, or knotted wire, as well as fine bristle wire. Another key factor in the success I've had with wire cup brushes on an angle grinder is that the brush be speed rated for the rpms of the grinder. I have 11,000 RPM grinders, so I make sure that the brushes are rated for 12,000 rpm. Perhaps another key factor is where the brushes are made. Twenty five years ago, I bought a handful of USA made Milwaukee brand cup brushes, which were about $40 each back then (25 years ago), long before Milwaukee was bought by a Chinese company (TTI), where all of their manufacturing has since been moved to. I'm still using those same cup brushes today, two decades later, and they are still cups, not windmills, unlike your 10 second plastic deal.

One would think that wire cup brushes would result in scratches and swirl marks in the sheet metal, but that isn't the case. With the right touch, sufficient rpm, speed matched components, and quality manufacturing, the finish from a wire cup brush can be glass smooth. So don't entirely give up on your original idea, even though you made do nicely without it.

 

 

Jerry, would that 2001 that you are scouring from happen to have the plenums, up-pipes, manifolds, and turbo collector on it? I'd be pretty interested if the price was reasonable. Just let me know when you get some time. Thanks. i am asking because I would liek to upgrade my E99 to a Late 99 as far as that stuff goes. They breathe a little better. Also, the uppies are much cheaper to replace. Thanks! Nice work on the mirrors by the way.

 

BBslider- As of yesterday that 2001 still had the turbo on it, though the intercooler piping has been scavenged already IIRC. It appeared that the up pipes were still there however, as was the collector. Heck, I think that this is the case with the 2000 dually too, as its turbo was still present as well and I don't remember thinking to myself "gheez someone wanted *that* exhaust, didn't they?", which usually means that it was still present. That said, I wasn't looking at that stuff specifically, so to speak openly I just don't recall. I'd imagine that is the case though. I have no idea what that stuff would run, though I could call and ask Kat tomorrow. She's off on Sunday but knows what she's doing, and will have an answer. In the meantime I will send you a PM with a link to this salvage yard's website, and you can look through the parts prices section to see if that would help you get a feel for how they price things until I can talk to Kat. If this stuff is still there next weekend (which I'd imagine it would be) and you decide that you want it, I can pull it for ya, no problem. Glad to help.

Anyway thanks,
Jerry

EDIT: Both trucks were running a stock turbo setup, FYI.

 

Eh, it turned out ok. Better than it was that's for certain, so the new owner will have that as a plus. Hopefully it'll help it sell.

Now that the bedliner sub-project is complete, it's onto re-installing the interior. To review the action item list from an earlier post:

1) Prep the bed and apply the bedliner
2) Re-install the interior, to include determining if I need the connector for the overhead display (I *do* need that connector)
3) Figure out why the friggin pressure/boost gauge isn't working
4) Once #3 is complete, re-install the driver's A-pillar trim and gauge cluster panel
5) Test drive and sell.

So I'm closing in on it. Hopefully I can get to the interior today/tonight. That should go pretty quickly I'd think. The stumbling blocks there consisting mostly of finding all of the friggin' parts/components/fasteners (funny how stuff finds a good 'hiding place' even when you are careful to label and bag everything!) and cleaning the carpet. So I suspect that this will be a multiple-day project if I want to get it right, which I do. Also, I offered to grill today and my wife took me up on it before I even finished the sentence, so...

Anyway thanks,
Jerry

 

 

Jerry, thanks so much! Sorry, been in the middle of calving season which means extremely busy. I'll get back to you this evening or in the morning.

 

No rush on this end. Just followin' up, as I said I would.

I began re-installing the interior last night. Managed to get all 4 door panels back in and verified that the radio and speakers work (after I re-installed the dash bezel). The headliner is also in, though not installed. I want to clean up the running light wiring on the passenger side just a scoach after I removed the overhead module's wiring from that loom. Obviously I need to complete that prior to installing the headliner from the 2000. Such wiring cleanup is not really necessary for operation, but I prefer things to be tidy if possible. I didn't get much further than that because I connected the batteries and let the truck run for a few minutes. I also connected to the truck with AE. Experienced a weird result though when I tried to run the buzz test. It gave me some type of "Unknown Error" BS. So I played around with that for a while, not noticing that darkness was upon me. And with that I had to stop the interior re-install and help the wife. Hopefully I can finish this up tomorrow night after work, TBD.

Thanks,
Jerry