Evan6ardner
Active Member
- Joined
- August 17, 2006
- Messages
- 50
- Reaction score
- 0
- City, State
- Austin, Texas
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- '01 Sport Trac 2WD
I wanted to quickly mention a few things as a PSA to the community having just completed this task.
http://bengrosser.com/howto/fordthermostat/
Few quick notes and if anything arises later due to faulty labor, I'll make sure to say what I did poorly.
1) Take the idler pulley off. Don't think about maybe maybe not...just do it. I think it'll help you get some room to move things around.
2) The STUPID retention clips on the sensors WOULD NOT go back in. I tried everything. I attempted to straighten them, to bend them, to grind them, to sharpen them.... I could not get them to snap around the sensors. I had some steel line that I used to hang my calipers on cars before. It is slightly less thick than a coat hanger wire but thicker than a paper clip. I was able to use this and feed it in around the sensor. One side of the sensor lets the wire go almost straight through . The other side of it requires that the line bends an curves around. It takes some patience, but this is what I used to replace the stupid clips. I then bent the end of the wire upwards so it wouldn't back out.
The sensors took me as much time as anything else in this stupid repair.
3) Not sure about you guys, but if you reuse your sensors within the new thermostat housing...it sure looked suspect whether they'd leak later. I took some blue/water RTV and placed a small bead around the bottom side of the sensors. I then put the sensor in and let it dry.
I also used a small bead of RTV around the edge of the raised ring/lip of the upper tstat housing piece. I didn't like how it looked to be somewhat warped (not perfectly flat) and as I tightened the 3 screws down in a circle and continued to tighten i could see a) the piece flatten out a little and b) the RTV smeared out just like I wanted so I think it'd help.
http://bengrosser.com/howto/fordthermostat/
Few quick notes and if anything arises later due to faulty labor, I'll make sure to say what I did poorly.
1) Take the idler pulley off. Don't think about maybe maybe not...just do it. I think it'll help you get some room to move things around.
2) The STUPID retention clips on the sensors WOULD NOT go back in. I tried everything. I attempted to straighten them, to bend them, to grind them, to sharpen them.... I could not get them to snap around the sensors. I had some steel line that I used to hang my calipers on cars before. It is slightly less thick than a coat hanger wire but thicker than a paper clip. I was able to use this and feed it in around the sensor. One side of the sensor lets the wire go almost straight through . The other side of it requires that the line bends an curves around. It takes some patience, but this is what I used to replace the stupid clips. I then bent the end of the wire upwards so it wouldn't back out.
The sensors took me as much time as anything else in this stupid repair.
3) Not sure about you guys, but if you reuse your sensors within the new thermostat housing...it sure looked suspect whether they'd leak later. I took some blue/water RTV and placed a small bead around the bottom side of the sensors. I then put the sensor in and let it dry.
I also used a small bead of RTV around the edge of the raised ring/lip of the upper tstat housing piece. I didn't like how it looked to be somewhat warped (not perfectly flat) and as I tightened the 3 screws down in a circle and continued to tighten i could see a) the piece flatten out a little and b) the RTV smeared out just like I wanted so I think it'd help.
