After the fur kids and I ate I pulled the old tractor motor out f my garage to the house to power wash it before I send it back for the core charge and when done went back to my garage.

Went to the hospital to see the wife and she is doing a lot better.
When I left yesterday a friend walked me out so I would know how to get back to the room without walking all over.
Well the elevator to take takes a code that I dont have So I was going to ask at the information desk when Mary called me to say they were moving her to a different area and room.
Turned out it was easy to get to even without help. Even got to the room before she did. She i feeling so much better that she even ate some poor tasting hospital food
Doctor told her she may be going home Monday but at this time I dont see that happening because of the pain she is in and the drugs she takes of it.
Got to food shop in the morning and then will head back up Sunday. Also going to see when the UPS store is open to take the motor to for send back.
Dave ----

 

Glad to know she is recovering and improving. I hope they keep her there as long as needed, I feel like when my wife had hernia surgery they sent her home too soon. But you know they want to crank 'em in and out for insurance reasons.

This was on Pete's Javelin. I had never seen this happen before:


We were standing around looking at it, somebody says "you gotta ask Dave, he's the AMC guy". lol. Just in case your ears were burning! But to me that's not an AMC question, the cooling system are kind of universal whether Ford GM Toyota AMC whatever. I think his cap might be faulty and not allowing it to suck from the overflow as it cools, causing it to pull vacuum on his system. He said he would try a new cap and see that solved it.

 

Mary is feeling a lot better as she called me 6:45 this morning and she sounded like her self.
Hates that they get her up every 2 hours to ask how she is doing If they would just let people sleep as the body heals when sleeping most of the time.
She did say she sat up by herself as she could not before without a lot of pain so that is good.
We will see when they want to send her home but I do think Monday is a day or 2 too soon. You are right "get them in n out ASAP".

On Pete's cooling system I think you hit it on the head. That cap is not letting the system pull coolant back in from the over flow / recovery container.
I am sure when he replaces that cap with a normal one all will be good.

Now if the lower hose looked the same way I would really worry that the spring was not in the lower hose and that can cause over heating problems when driving.
Because the lower hose is on the suction side of the water pump it can suck the hose closed and stop flow and over heat.
New lower hoses dont came with the spring so you have to re-use the old spring in the new hose.
My pickup hose new & old did not have a spring so I had to go looking for a new hose that a spring even if it did not fit the truck just for the spring.
It was fun trying to get this spring in the new hose as the hose id not straight but I knew the spring had to be in the hose.
Heading out to food shop then when home see about moving the trailer back under cover as Tony did not feel safe doing so.
Dave ----

 

Did my weekly food shopping this morning and I have not seen so many men in the store at the same time
Some were getting food stuff but most for flowers. Some of the food guys did have flowers too.
My normal check out lady was not working today, they must have given her the day off for mothers day

Mary said I need to wash the walker and shower seat for home so it is getting close for her to come home
Dave ----

 

Sounds like they are moving along with the goal to have her home tomorrow! But I am glad it sounds like she is doing much better. One of my wife's problems was that she didn't want to take her pain meds, she watched too many stories about people getting addicted to opiods so she would say "no, I don't need it" and then yelp in pain from doing something like moving her leg from the couch to the floor.

Yes I know what you mean, i went to Walmart last night and stopped at the card aisle, there was probably 5 of us guys in their shoulder to shoulder looking for just the right card.

Pete's lower hose was fine, I did look at that. Assumed he had a spring inside it giving it support. I remember having to force a spring into my lower Mustang radiator hose a couple of years ago. Like you said no longer provided in new hose! I used a string and was able to pull it through my two curves.

I checked the opening next to the heater box on the parts truck, and it is open also, except it has a grate over it. So it looks like mine is fine except that the grate got broken or removed at some point in it's past life.


I got everything on the drivers side of the wiring harness pushed through the hole, except for the cruise control wiring which is separate and goes through it's own hole.


I did not remove the headlight or wiper switches, only the *****. I did not remove the radio, I did not remove the instrument cluster, and I did not remove the AC/heat control panel. Do any of these have to come out before the dash? I figured on most of them I can just leave in the dash and remove as an assembly and then take them off later if needed.

 

Mary was the same on the pain meds but she finally gave in, told me so, and that is when everything started to "click" and she was able to "recover".
I think she will find out today when they are kicking her out. Yesterday she told me she needed the walker & shower seat when she gets home so I got them out and washed them to get ready when she does come home.

I will have to check my truck for the "gap" at the box and firewall as I dont remember it being there?
The head / wiper switches are ok as the harness is still plugged into them.
The radio if the truck has door speakers that harness runs across the top of the dash to the doors. I cant remember if there is a plug at the doors, dont think there are so you will need to pull the wiring from the doors to the dash for it to come out with the dash.
The HVAC has a cable and vacuum connections to the box. My parts truck the HVAC controls and radio was removed so dont know how it would come out but I think you need to remove the HVAC control from the dash, it is a BITCH, and it would come out with the box if you were to remove it.
Noe I know there is a vacuum plug tucked up by the glove box, maybe remove it if not already, and that may undo the vacuum control from the box and I thing then you can undo the cable and the dash should then come out.
It has been so long since I messed with any of this and a lot of my parts truck was removed, not in a good way, before I bought it and my truck was a non-AC truck so a different best, no vacuum.
Dave ----

 

Sorry to hear about the wife Dave. Hope she's improving and will be able to come home soon.

It was a busy weekend here but mostly fun stuff. Saw the blue angels flying around. Took a crowd by boat over to the base and anchored up with about 100 other boats.

Spent most of Sunday cleaning up and doing laundry from the crew staying over. Also, some piddly odds and ends in the shop. Finished the evening out by going through a gazillion boxes, crates and piles of spare motorcycle parts. Was able to sort everything into four large totes and stack them in the corner. I got rid of a ton of trash/parts that I will never use and aren't worth giving away. Basically cleared up a whole wall of crap. Felt pretty good to get that done. I had been putting it off because it's such a pain in the butt the drag everything out, sort and figure out what goes to which bike.

Yall have a good week.

 

Thanks
The wife called this morning and said they are looking to send her home. I just texted her if she heard anything on a time and not yet so I wait.
She said they are waiting on PT and maybe after that she will be cut loose?

Sounds like you had a productive weekend. I have a hard time getting rid of anything for something I own just in case something happens as most of my stuff you cant get parts for so as bad as it might be it maybe better than the part on the car / truck.
Other than getting the rest of the grass cut and housework most of my time was taking care of fur kids and at the hospital with the wife.
I was able to pack up the core motor and I took it to the UPS Store at 8am. Cost $230 to send it with $700 insurance as the core is $650
Dummy me left paperwork on the counter and had to go back
Just chilling till wife calls to come get her
Dave ----

 

James that sounds like a great way to spend the afternoon, sitting on a boat kicking back with a cold beverage and watching the air show. Good deal on the Spring Cleaning. I have not made as much progress and you but I do have a box of stuff to get rid of, hopefully I can move some at the next swap meet which I think is this Saturday coming up.

Dave that sounds like typical hospital. I think my MIL was told what day she was going home, and got herself ready by lunchtime, and then did not get to actually check out and leave until after 7pm.

I made some progress on the passenger side but I have a few wires left; there is a green & red & black set which appear to be going underneath the heater box, but I can't see or reach them from the engine bay. The other wires to the right, also. I can't see where they go either. I probably need to get underneath the truck to see and reach them but it started getting cold and windy and sprinkling a little, so it looks like the weather is taking a turn & I didn't feel much like laying on the ground under the truck in it so I am putting that off for another day.

Passenger side floorboard / firewall.

Also (no pic of this, sorry) it appears the connector for the wiring harness going from the dash to the back of the truck is different. This comes out of the main harness near the dash, exits via the firewall with all the other wires, and then has a connector directly underneath the brake vacuum booster. On the parts truck, it is a curved connector, and on the blue truck, it is 2 square connectors. So I need to look into that a little further, I figure one of two options. Either I remove the wiring going from the firewall to the back of the truck, or else I will need to look at individual wire colors and cut & splice. Doing the whole rear harness is probably the best bet since the wiring at the back of the blue truck looks like a rats nest. Although on the bad side, I did cut the wires for the fuel tank sending unit (because at that time I had no idea I would be trying to keep the rear wire harness).

 

Dave, I hope the wife made it home in good spirits. I'm sure you are busy getting her settled in.

John, one of my least favorite things is working behind a dash. All those mechanical and electrical connections. All the clips, screws and fasteners. It's mind numbing.

 

Dave How are things going with your wife now that she is home?

James I hate working up under a dash too. I can't really see up close anymore, even with reading glasses it is all fuzzy. Plus the way you have to contort your body to get yourself in a position to get up under it in the first place. One thing I will do when I take the dash out is lay it on the work bench and spend a few days going through it, cleaning all the connectors, checking all the wires, etc, so that I can be sure everything is going to be good when I reinstall it so that I won't have to ever climb up under it again!

 

Wife is doing better each day. Still in pain but also better each day on that too. They say up to 2 weeks on the pain.
Thing is she really is not eating. She says everything has a funny taste and with her tummy not feeling well it is even harder to eat.
A lot of that is from the operation and the meds she is on now that she is home.
She is getting out of bed and moving around walking from the bed room at 1 end of the house to the kitchen / great room where the TV is.
Yesterday I did swap the easier to work TV from what she calls "her bedroom" to our bedroom as we have adjustable beds so she can adjust to feel better.
Only thing I dont like about the TV swap is it is a smaller TV now in our room and it is hard for me to see it now

She did say I can go to the club cruise tomorrow at 2pm to 4pm but I want to check with her before I go to make sure she is ok.
Same for Sunday's cruise at the Food Hall. I dont mind 2 hours being away but Sunday is a little longer but we will see.

John I cant remember what them wires went to, been way to long since I did this stuff on my truck.
Wonder if 1 set is for the fast idle solenoid and AC clutch? They dont look heavy enough to be for the blower motor.
Can look at my truck tomorrow to see if we can figure what they are as I cant see mine being that different between the six and the v8.
Wife has to be feeling better as she is on the phone with a girlfriend like she always is and I made her 1 egg scrambled with cheese for lunch
Dave ----

 

Dave I checked the opening to the right of the heater box in your F100 and it is like mine, has an opening, but with a grate covering it.


With the thew new temperature sending unit on my 289, it kept reading high, even though my laser temp gun was finding all the spots fine (I checked top of manifold right by the temp sender, I checked the thermostat outlet, I checked the upper and lower radiator hoses, and I checked my radiator cap which has a built in thermostat). So that was leading me to believe that sending unit just reads high for whatever reason.

Sitting at a red light in Clayton for a couple of minutes. When driving it points between E & M.

I drained the coolant, put the old sending unit back in, refilled the antifreeze and now the gauge reads normal.

Sitting at a red light in Smithfield for a couple of minutes. While driving it usually points to the T.

So I guess that confirms it is either a bad sending unit, or a generic sending unit that is not specifically calibrated for the resistance range used on my old Ford.

 

I like where the temperature gauge is now. There has to be something wrong with the other sender to peg to the hot like that.
Also good that you were able to look at my truck to see where the wires go to when they pass through the firewall to the engine bay side.
IIRC 1 wire was to the blower resister on the HVAC box and the other would go to the kicker solenoid on the carb and then to the low psi switch on the drier and then to the compressor.

We had a pretty good turn out at the 2 rehab centers for being during the week and at 2pm >.
I wanted to go to the Benson cars & coffee but ai overslept and being I am doing all the feeding of fur kids and getting Mary breakfast I would have been rushed so felt best to miss this one as there will be others.
After everything settled down here I ran the tractor around the yard, cut about 2/3's of it. The grass is looking vary ugly and if it was not going to be so hot next week I might run the aerator or detacher or both?
I have to look as I think I can attach one to the tractor and the other to it and pull both at the same time.
Dave ----

 

That was really helpful to see the wiring on your truck. I took 2 pictures, one of the black, and one of the green. I see in one of my pics that your green has a connector that splits it out to two greens. I remember one was hanging off, which would have been the one for the throttle solenoid thingy, and the other I wrote down goes to the accumulator.

With shows at the two different old folks homes Thursday and Friday, then the cars & coffee & swap meet Saturday, and then food hall on Sunday, it will be car stuff 4 days in a row meanwhile I have not gotten anything else done including pool cleaning. The Benson event was nice, and we appreciate that they provide coffee and donuts. Not too many other "cars and coffee" events actually have that. But I was the only one selling stuff. And since it's the same 40 or 50 people each month, I'm not finding too many people needing to buy what I'm selling! I sold one item and I gave 3 things away, so at least I have 4 fewer items than I left home with.

The vented kick panels are looking great. They were already in good shape when I got them, none of the vent grates were cracked, they were not chalky or dry rotted, but they needed a good cleaning. I ran them through the dishwasher twice, once with the vent closed and again with the vent open, so that way everything got blasted good. After letting them dry for a few hours I sprayed SEM blue mist. That stuff goes on easily and covers great, it is realy good vinyl paint. But at $25 a can it sure better be the best vinyl paint I ever bought. It took some effort to get the sliding panel completely covered because the grate fins always cover some of it, so it was spray some, let it dry, slide it a little further, spray more, etc, but eventually got them both 100% done and I really do like the color choice and the way they came out.


Now the seat belt covers that go up behind your shoulders are another story. These are the original ones from the parts truck and they are quite chalky & dry, but not to the point of being cracked. I sanded them and just got blue powder raining down from my fingers, that's how dry they were. I washed & scrubbed them in warm dish water with a few drops of dawn and they came out looking better.


After letting them dry real good I felt them again and the back hump part, the side that would be getting baked by sun coming the back window, was still very rough, so I sanded it a second time. Again, blue powder just easily rains down as you sand. So I'm kinda in a quandary, if I insist on sanding until it no longer feels dry and porous I will probably be doing this over and over and over until there is nothing left. But on the other hand if I am too lazy to sand it if it really needs it, and try to use the vinyl paint on loose dry plastic, it's not going to work because the paint is sticking to dry plastic that itself is loose and dry and ready to flake off.