I checked my coolant percentage again and it was only 12%. I think I did not drive it enough to circulate the water out of the reservoir and mix it up in the system. Now I'm thinking that I the 60% was incorrect. I'll try to drive it around more and for longer periods of time before checking it again.

 

After driving it around about two hours yesterday I tested the coolant percentage and it is at 55%.

Everywhere I looked it seemed that the parts store said my instrument cluster took either 194 or 161 bulbs so I bought some of those. I took it out today and of course they do not take those and they are those really tiny bulbs but can only find them for sale with the socket. There are two types (grey and beige) and they connect and mount slightly different. They are crazy expensive so I'm only replacing what is burned out. The high beam indicator bulb and socket was missing and the only local in stock ones I can find is at an Oreillys hub store a little drive from me at $46 for a 5 pack. Nobody else locally has them nor has the beige type in stock. (I need one of those too) I put it all back together and I'll just order the correct ones online.

 

I have a roof leak at the rear. It is dripping down from where the rear body panel meets the side. It would be nice if it was just the third brake light and it looks like it is leaking. If it ever stops raining here in Ohio I'll reseal it. Judging by the outside look of the drip rail it might be coming from that joint also. If sealing the third brake light does not fix the leak then what is the best way to tackle the rail leak? Chisel out the caulk and reseal with seam sealer and paint? I have never worked with that stuff. Does it need to be tooled or is it somewhat self leveling? Also would it make sense to fill the the rail all the way to prevent water from standing there? (unlike Ford did)

 

I just used 3M Marine Adhesive Sealant fast cure 4000 UV on my high top with good effects so far. It was recommended by a professional automotive sealer.

 

I assumed that because there was a bulb missing in the top center of the instrument cluster and my high beam indicator didn't work that had to be it. It is not because all of a sudden it started working tonight and it is down near the trip odometer reset. What is that missing bulb for? What is interesting to me is that I saw a used one on eBay that had the same one missing. After reinstalling the cluster on Saturday my right turn signal indicator quit working. The next day the left one quit working. The next day after that the left one started working again. Now the high beam indicator works? Has anyone had these intermittent bulb issues?

 

A lot of questions you're asking here can be easily discovered simply by downloading, saving and using as a reference the original owner's manual for your year etc: https://www.ford.com/support/owner-manuals/

 

Yep. I didn't think to check it and I even have a printed one. Duh. According to the manual there is not an indicator light at the top center so maybe it is for something special that is not on a normal Econoline.

 

The cluster housing for any one year will be a somewhat common part to Ford, made in huge lots well before they're needed. Once a run of a certain F- or E-Series fully assembled clusters are ordered the common housings are sent to final assembly to be populated and readied for installation in an assembly line vehicle.

That being the case there very well may be some holes present that aren't used.

 

My headlights were out of adjustment so I wanted to remedy that. The adjuster screws were seized in the snap in nuts so I pulled out the bubs and buckets to get them out and free them. Everything went back together fine and I measured, put masking tape on my garage door and marked off 25 ft back all in the daylight. Then tonight when it was dark I tried adjusting them. The passenger side adjusted fine but the driver's side won't adjust upward enough. When turning the screw in I think it is just bending the sheet metal tab on the bucket. Do I need to pull out on the bucket a tad and then push down to "rotate" it a degree or two? When I assembled them I noticed some white plastic pieces that look like maybe the bucket "slides" on when making adjustments. I tried to rotate it a tad but it seemed to always go back. It has been many many years since I have messed with sealed beam headlights. Surely JWA you have messed with these before since you used to own a body shop.

 

Buy new Ford headlight adjusting assemblies, lubricate the threads with something like "open gear lube" before replacing your existing parts. Using a grease or similar can slow rust or corrosion from forming on them but the "open gear lube" is best, IMHO and experience anyway.

If the headlight buckets have been bent as is typical of heavy handed adjusting you can try hammering them straight or buy new aftermarket versions. If you like tromping around scrap yards mostly every year E-Series from at least 1997 forward with sealed beam lamps will work. Be sure to maintain the Teflon strips mounted to the core support so the buckets are free to slide as they're adjusted.

Also be careful with the retaining rings that you don't over tighten the screws--that's quite easy to do. I use just a dab of dielectric grease on those to they're easier to remove should that be necessary in the future.

 

I think this is my main issue. Maybe there is rust or some other friction on the bucket preventing it from sliding.

 

The turn signal indicators and high beam indicator in the dash cluster have been working great. Maybe they were not working good before because the van sat for so many years. Since the back lighting bulbs were so expensive I only replaced the burned out one with a Dorman 639-115. It comes with the bulb base/holder but even though it looked like the OEM one it would not light up. I then swapped the new bulb into the old OEM base and it worked great. Gotta love aftermarket crap. Now that bulb is noticeably brighter than the rest. I do like how bright it is though so I might the $50 on the other 5 bulbs.

 

I fixed the hot start long crank issue by replacing the fuel pump assembly. For more details about diagnosing it can be found on the other thread I started here.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...ngine-hot.html

 

Now about those exhaust manifold studs and gaskets.... What a nightmare project. I hope I never have to do those again. For the passenger side I had to remove the AC compressor, motor mount and motor mount frame bracket. Removing the starter might have helped a little more but I did not do that. I also removed the seats and of course the engine cover/doghouse. There were some studs that were broken right where the nut was and there were several that were broken below flush with the cylinder heads. Some studs came out completely with the nut and some the nut came off. Basically every type of scenario there is. Getting the manifold out was a puzzle. Turn it this way and that way and then it would drop clear. I heated the studs that were sticking out with an air acetylene torch and then removed those with one of those stud removers that resembles a drill chuck. Lucky for me none of those snapped off any further. The two that were below flush I ended up welding a washer to the stud and then a nut onto those using a 110V wire feed welder converted to flux core. I tried with MIG and it just did not penetrate deep enough and would snap off every time I put the wrench on them to crank them out. A higher output 230V MIG would work good though I'm sure. I bet I went through 15 nuts trying this. Without the welder I don't know what I would have done. It might have been possible to get a tiny angle drill in there with screw machine length drill bits but it would have been really close. The driver side was a breeze compared to the passenger side because there was so much more room between the frame and the head. Also I did not have to remove anything. The manifold to Y pipe studs on both manifolds broke when removing them and they were a bear to remove to replace. I welded larger nuts on those and then while they were cherry red still carefully poured cold water on them trying not to get to much on the manifold. It took many times using this method to get them out. Looking back I should have bought new manifolds to avoid this. When doing research on why the manifold to head studs break so often I ran across a few ideas that made sense to me. One was to use stainless steel studs instead of the grade 8 steel as it allows more expansion when the cast iron manifold heats up. Ford switched to stainless many years later so that says something. The manifolds are a "log" style and when they heat up they also expand lengthwise and puts sideways pressure on the stud. (I forget the technical term) Because of this Ford also now uses hard washers under the nuts to allow some slip. I bought some grade 8 washers and also put anti seize on both sides of the washers. That may be for nothing but I don't see how that can hurt anything other than altering torque values if using a torque wrench to tighten. Good luck getting a torque wrench in there anyways. I used Seal-4-Good header gaskets. On the passenger side the new studs can't be threaded in until the manifold is in place which makes it extra fun. The new studs needed an E Torx socket to drive them in. This is all I can remember right now as it was a couple of months ago I did this.