Hey guys,

New to the forum here, but i bought a great Econoline cargo van 150 1989 with less than 60k miles at an auction. I'm doing some minor repairs and wanted to know if anyone had an owners manual?? I can't find one anywhere I look.

Im planning on making this into an adventure camper van. O

pen to suggestions and clever ideas if anyone has any.

Thanks for any help!
--
Cowboy

 

 

@im50fast thanks for the info, ill try to reach out to her ad title better!

 

I got my shop manuals off ebay

or try

 

vettex2 is right for both Owner's manuals or Shop Manuals. Your 89 was before pc computers and pdf files making a free, printable copy very unlikely (unless some patient soul did a page by page scan) I did a pretty exhaustive search on Scribd and the web in general. Saw nothing earlier than 1992 for manuals.

 

Thanks guys! i found some on ebay. ordered an owners manual and a repair manual.

Maybe i should post the 1978 owners manual i found in the junk yard on there..

 

Hi Wcwinans, I have been gone for a week or so and just got back. I saw your message but it appears like you found the manual you need. Great looking van for a 89!
This is the Ford service manual for your van and is next best to a paperback ford manual which would be much more expensive.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/FORD-1989-B...9aU6TQ&vxp=mtr

Here is another book you should get as it will supplement the service manual

 

Thanks for all the info annaleigh! I'll start that thread about what to look at when buying a second hand older van.

So I got it back to my place about 2 to 3 weeks ago. I ordered the service manuals and they came in yesterday (Monday). Over the weekend though I started to replace the thermostat and there is a crazy bolt i was able to get out, but when i was reinstalling the thermostat the ratcheting wrench i bought failed. I had to use a dremmel cutting tool to remove the wrench and probably cross threaded the bolt in the process!! This was supposed to take less than one afternoon and I've had the engine open now since Saturday. Tried today again. removed it all and bought new bolts. Pretty sure its cross threaded... The haynes manual says to remove the alternator and vacuum pump and brackets to access. I watched a video online where a a guy with a 1989 f150 didn't do that. I've never had any mechanical training, just more of a DIY guy.

The reason I started to replace the thermostat was my engine temperature was always reading cold and I couldn't get heat to the front of my van. Heat kind of blew in the back though. basic research before the books and talking with people pointed to replace the thermostat and it should be not hard. After having a friend over this morning to help and back to the same spot with a bolt almost in, but cross threaded. He suggested that I do a heater core flush in conjunction with a coolant flush.

My engine is the 5.0 v8 with automatic 4 speed transmission. Under the van, the transmission said ford metric if i remember correctly.

What would you do for this situation? Helicoil? take to a shop?

 

bolt stuck in the housing, most likely cross threaded and good access is blocked because of the alternator, vacuum pump and bracket.

 

Well,, that had to be the bottom bolt didn't it?
Here is a thread I started when one of the bolts broke off while I was replacing my thermostat. Though yours did not break off there is a section on how I used a angled set of pliers to start the lower bolt.
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...ng-bolt-3.html

What would I try? If i remember correctly the lower intake is aluminum. There is not enough space to get a thread tap tool in there.

Here are a couple of suggestions to try..
Try a self tapping hardened bolt... I don't remember if that bolt is standard or metric thread. You can use the old one to find out. depending on the side, say if it is standard, you might be able to use the next size larger in metric. If it is metric them check the next size up in a standard thread bolt. I suggest going between metric and standard because often you will find a bolt just slightly larger in one or the other but smaller then if you just went up in size say in standard or metric.
Here is an example f a self threading bolt (just an example)
https://www.grainger.com/product/21G...180328014430:s

Another option which you may not have room for is to use a short tap tool. They make short ones. even with a short one you may have to cut/grind the shank off so you can make it short enough to get it in the space. You would probably have to grind it off on the thread cutting area. Remember though that you can use a small open end wrench on the threaded part to turn it. They make 3 different types of tap tools. One is tapered for starting the threads but will not cut threads all the way down in the bottom. They also make a bottoming tap which will so you will need both. Since you are cutting aluminum you will have to be very careful and go slow. I would try the bolt idea first. If using a bolt, refer to my thread about the broke bolt. You may not have enough room to get a second bite on the bolt with some wrenches. different brand wrenches might be offset differently. In my case I had to use two different wrenches to get mine tight.

 

You should not have to remove the alternator, i didn't and my engine is a 5.0 also. If you cant get one of the above ideas to work, you may wind up having to remove the water pump and timing cover. You don't want to get into that at all cost if you can avoid it. If it comes to that then I would replace the water pump and timing chain/gears at the same time.
I have been dreading one day when my water pump goes out. The bolts are steel and they are threaded into aluminum. They tend to corrode and are known to break off when trying to remove them. IF you wind up having to remove them there are some tips..
With the pump and timing cover off you would have a straight unobstructed access to the cross threaded hole in the intake for the thermostat housing bolt.
The only other way would be to remove the lower intake itself and you really don't want to have to do that either.

A tip for the future when yo have to replace the water pump one day is to do like Jimandnena did here in this post. cut as much of the ears off of the water pump as possible before you try to loosen the bolts. Since you would be replacing the pump it wont matter if it is damaged.
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...sing-bolt.html

After I broke that bolt on the thermostat housing I broke the ear off of the other side before trying to remove the bolt. it came right out them.

BUT lets hope you can just get another self threading bolt to go in!

 

I'll look into those options, hopefully I wont have to change the pump!

Finally I got it to work and I don't believe the bolt ended up being cross threaded all the way because once I got the bolt past the part where I had to cut off the other wrench, it started turning smoothly. So maybe the wrench made it go in at a weird angle midway through.

What I did was move the ac compressor unit (mine does not have ac) to the side which gave me enough room to get an open face wrench in there. It's only about three long bolts and a nut involved in removing. I was able to then turn it enough with an open face 1/2 in wrench. link to youtube video that gave me the idea here,
Finally, Ill be doing a radiator flush tonight or tomorrow.

I have a couple questions now. If this doesn't fix my problem of the engine running cold, how should I check to make sure the engine temperature gauge is working correctly or what would you do next? Is the engine running cold a big deal or is that fine? Anyone have any recommendations on products to do a coolant flush or tricks? What about a heater core flush? I ask because my heat doesn't work too well as it is now. Only the rear vents seem to blow air, diagnosis? Also what if anything else would you check before i put most of the stuff back together?

On a side note, I would see these white specs appear on the engine once I had the coolant unit open. They looked like salt, but were oily (almost like fat left over after cooking bacon, ya know?). Does anyone have an idea of what that could be? (picture attached)
--
Cowboy

 

Have you felt of your upper radiator hose after taking the van around the block to warm it up? What's it feel like? Usually a thermostat that is stuck open is easy to see when you pull it out. I'd bet your sending unit is bad if that hose it hot. Also what is your outdoor temp in your area when its reading cold? Once you get the engine heating up you should turn your heat on in the van and then feel of the heater hoses to see if they are both pretty hot. If just one is hot and the other is cold or warm then flush that heater core.

 

Glad you were successful and didn’t have to resort to any drastic measures..
I saw that pulley where the ac compressor was supposed to be. I used one of those till I got my new compressor.

As to your questions about the temperature gauge, lets see what the new thermostat does first.
Some more questions. You said: “ Only the rear vents seem to blow air.” So no air is blowing out of the vents on the dash? If so that could be several things but lets take one step at a time.
If the rear blower is working but no heat, it is not uncommon for people to disconnect those heater hoses under the van. there is also several controls for the rear unit but again lets take one step at a time.

As to flushing. It is recommended to use distilled water when filling the system. (someone correct me if I am wrong here) but since you have something floating in the existing coolant, I would use tap water and a hose to flush it to start with, several times. After flushing the cooling system I would then flush it twice with distilled water then add antifreeze and fill the remaining with distilled water.


Before doing the final fill with antifreeze i follow Spaznauts info and check the heater hoses then if they are both hot, i would do the cylinder gasket test as shown in the video above. Right now you don’t know what those white particles are. They could be some residue from a block sealant someone put in to seal a head gasket or radiator leak. There is also a coolant called G-05that is known to show up as white particles. There are additives that help to lubricate the water pump that can do the same. So for now just flush it and use the block tester that you can get as a loaner tool from any part store. You will just need to buy the test fluid.

Also now would be the time to replace some of the hoses.. I am sure you are replacing the small bypass hose that connected to the thermostat housing and goes to the water pump?

The heater hoses, I haven’t changed them yet on my 88 yet because they have a snap on connector at the heater core. I haven’t found the stock hoses yet with the connectors. You will probably need to buy standard hoses and then adapters.
You will also have 2 small hoses that go to the throttle body. on my 88, one of them ties into a T in one of the heater hose lines. I believe it is a 5/16th ID hose (don’t quote me on that) buti have not found the stock hoses for that either. you can replace them with just a piece of standard hose. Just make sure you have enough so that it doesn’t kink.


Your hose might be a little different because these have already been replaced but here is an example of the hose to the throttle body

 

I realized that I didn't post the photos of what I was talking about earlier. Here they are.


White spots appeared on the thermostat housing. They looked salt like, but were oil like when touched. A day later they seemed to be salty and maybe dry. You can see the distributor cap has the bottom corner missing where it gets plugged in. It was an accident of trying to access the tough bottom bolt on the thermostat housing.


Once the a/c mount? was removed, an open face wrench was able to be used to access the bottom bolt of the thermostat housing.


I assembled everything back and put water into the radiator several time to flush it out. Then I went to start my engine to circulate the water and now it won't start... Could this be because of the distributor plug in that got a piece chipped off? or i saw a small nick in one of the wires going into the distributor and covered with electrical tape (it was pretty small). I don't know what to do now.... I tried jump the battery because I had the door open for a while, nope. FYI it's been raining here for about a week strait and it's about 41 degrees F outside now and I've been working outside under a popup overhead tent like structure.

So should I look at the distributor/spark plugs and run down to the autoparts store to get silicone grease and some of their tools? What else should I do?

Obviously, I'll have to get back to the engine running cold problem later. Thanks for all the info spaznaut and especially annaleigh!