I was thinking that a list of cheap and functional modifications would be a really neat thread. It would be helpful to have a link to a picture.

Here's mine:

Poor man's heated washer fluid system

Total cost:

$5.00 for hose and $.25 for the barbed fitting.

It works pretty good! It really makes a difference during a ice/sleet storm as long as the vehicle is warmed up and you don't run the washer real long.

 

I took a Sucrets container, and glued open cell foam to the inside, I trimmed it so the edge is a 1/4" inside the container. I glued this to an open spot under the hood. Now I have a place to wipe my oil dipstick when theres no towel availible. Container was free, foam was from packing material. Put 22 wiper blades on the F-150. I paint the frame and the top of the jack with Fluorescent paint, so I know exactly where the jack goes. Painted stripes on the jack handle, and lug wrench for visibilty at night. On my gallery I have a bed extender net and a flashlight/extingusher mount I made. Also made a bag out of scrap carpet for my drawbar. Made an LED flasher, and have the LED where it can easily be seen. It randomly flashes, no ones even tried to break in. Its powered off a 9volt, so even if the battery is down it still flashes. About $16 in parts. Have a black painted wood dowel in the slider window.

 

way back we used to take a windsheild washer bottle and a small jet into the top of the air cleaner or into the pcv hose filled the bottle with washer fuild when the engine was running it would almost totally stop a pinging motor by lowering the chamber heat..chevy used it on the turbo corvair. cost then about $6.00

 

I lubricate the driveshaft slip yoke/splines on my Ranger about every 20K or so. The shaft has to come off and the slip yoke assembly has to come apart to do this. For obvious reasons you want things to be re-assembled and put back on exactly the way they came off. Hence, marking is an important part of the job. Seemingly simple enough to do though, right?

Well, experience has taught me that even permanent marking pens don't hold up well to the large amount of touching and handling of the shaft and slip yoke assembly that this particular project entails. The solvent I use as a cleaner, and the grease being smothered everywhere, tends to dramatically affect the durability of the the so-called "permanent" ink. Let's just call it the incredible disappearing act. This can leave one very frustrated when it's time to start putting things back together, knowing that you took the time to mark things and yet you can find no such marks.

The simple solution is to get out your Dremel, and with a small "grinding wheel" tip you want to very slightly etch some true permament alignment marks into the shaft. You can see how I marked both sides of the slip yoke assembly on my Ranger's shaft:



Remember the shaft is balanced, so don't get overly excited with the Dremel. Just lightly scratch the marks on there.

The same trick is used for marking the flanges (driveshaft, TC/tranny, diff) so that you will always know exactly the way the shaft came off the truck.

To be sure, different applications have different kinds of driveshafts and slip yoke assemblies, but I would think this kind of tip is more or less universal in nature.

 

I do the same thing with a center punch, no metal is removed so balance isn't a problem.

 

I have a way to fix the leaky heater control valve that ford uses that is inexpencive. Take the old valve off the truck and buy a small water valve, some clamps and some hose and hook it up where the old valve was. When it is winter turn the valve to run the heater and when its not used close the valve and it will stop the coolant going to the heater core which prolongs the life of the heater core which I know is a pain to change

 

Anybody else have inexpensive mods that work?

Lets keep'em comming!

 

I had a car with an oil filter at a 45 degree angle. It spilled oil all over everything when it was removed. I took a heavy duty detergent bottle, cut the bottom out of it. Glued rubber strips to the inside and outside of it. When I unscrewed the filter the oil went in the bottle, not on the frame, etc. and down my arm.
A long time ago I made an Ice detector, I believe it was from HeathKit. It looked at the pavement and when it saw ice a light would come on and it chimed. Can't believe no one has that on a vehicle as an OEM. Had a car the headlights got real dirty on, used a 24VAC (works on 12VDC) Honeywell 3 way EP switch to divert the washer flow to the head lights, used a brake cable off a bike to pull squeeges across the lamps later on. Had a 4wd van, it was a PITA to lube all the front end parts, so I used remote lube tube for a cooling tower, all the zerk fittings were low on the front bumper. Same vans PS would slightly over heat in the city, made a bare copper radiator for the PS fluid.