help to identify this tube/wire harness (under the exhaust manifold)

[LMHmedchem]

I was reinstalling the intermediate steering shaft and I noticed that there was some tubing that wasn't connected to anything on one end. The bottom end of the tubing has insulation like a wire harness, so I am not sure what it is. The loose end is white plastic.

From the top:

You can see on of the bolts for the exhaust manifold heat shield just to the left of the hose (the heat shield is
not attached at the moment). To the right is part of the drivers side upper control arm. The steering shaft has
not been reinstalled yet in this picture but it would go through this area.

From underneath:

From this view, the intermediate steering shaft is to the right of the hose an the exhaust manifold is behind it (above it).
The hose is not in the same position in the two pictures as I moved it over when I installed the shaft.

This looks kind of like an oxygen sensor, is that correct? I think that the end of O2 sensors are metal with small holes
and this does not look like that.

If so, where does it go? I don't see any obvious place for it to insert.

If not, what is it?

Thanks for the information,

LMHmedchem

 

[LMHmedchem]

I really need to make some progress on this. Today I tried to trace this hose to see if I could figure out what it was. I took some additional pictures so hopefully that will help.

This is a picture from underneath looking up at the drivers exhaust manifold. This shows more of the hose,

You can see that there is some tape and also some plastic insulation like is often found on a wire harness. You can also see that this hose goes through part of the frame that is under the axle. I don't know if that is one of the motor mounts on the right. The shiny metal behind the hose is a new exhaust manifold heat shield which I just replaced. The orange ring is on the telescope on the intermediate steering shaft.

Here is where the hose goes through the frame,

I went to the other side to try and pick up the hose and see where it goes and was very surprised to see this,

The other end of the hose is not currently attached to anything. Directly above this end of the hose is the column of the rack and pinion. I believe that what is below it is the transfer case.

This hose is quite short, possibly about a foot. I don't see anything in the area that looks like a fitting in search of a hose. I suppose it is possible that the hose has separated and there is more of it somewhere, but the above looks like a very clean cut end. I would expect a broken hose to be ragged. I also don't have any half hoses hanging about that I can see. I suppose it is also possible that this hose does not belong here and fell from somewhere else and got stuck here. I think that is highly unlikely because I don't see how it could have got all the way through the frame like that just by chance.

Can anyone go and look at this location (under the drivers exhaust manifold) and see if there is a hose going into the frame like is shown above? Is there anyone who has had their engine out who might know what this is?

I am reluctant to start this up without having it properly connected.

LMHmedchem

 

[shane10]

Is this for the v8 engine? If so, not sure how much help I can be, but I've got my hands full on the truck tomorrow and will look regardless.
Try getting some fresh eyes on it tomorrow as well, on a recent rebuild I had one loose wire that I could NOT find a plug for. Spent 20 mins looking over everything, came back the next day and saw a plug first thing on the side of the block. Sometimes we look so hard for something, that we don't see it right in front of our faces
Good luck

 

[fordysenior]

Maybe this will help:

 

[LMHmedchem]

Maybe this will help:

View attachment 343149

That is definitely it. This looks like it belongs in a metal clip just under the upper control arm attachment. The white plastic tip isn't inserted into anything like I thought it would be, so it must be a vent tube or something like that. I don't know what else it could be. I will try to get it back into the clip, unless the clip isn't there anymore.

The question now is about the other end which is just open. Has that come off of a connector like a barbed fitting? If it is a vent for something like the axle, there should be one on the other side as well. I will check and see if I can find it. Hopefully there is another side that is still intact.

LMHmedchem

 

[fordysenior]

Once it goes into the frame, it seems to head toward the front, I can't tell where it ends up -- I took some random pictures and couldn't see anything helpful. Maybe someone with the vehicle on jacks and better accessibility can help.

 

[LMHmedchem]

Now that I know where the white plastic end of the tube goes, I took off the wheel again to see if I could secure that end. The clip was still there when the hose goes but it was rusted enough that most of it was gone. There was a hole in that area, so I secured the tube to the frame with a zip tie.

Here is a picture,

The large bolt in the middle is one of the bolts for the upper control arm. I inserted a pipe cleaner into the end of the white plastic fitting to confirm that is is open. This has to be the open end of a snorkel vent, so I went looking for what it is supposed to be venting. This is a molded hose, so I hoped that the shape of the hose would lead me to the connection.

Looking from the top, I could see this very close to the other end of the hose, which comes out near the rack.

I could feel the hose back underneath and was able to pull it out enough to convince myself that this is where it connects. It really can't reach anything else. I was very annoyed with myself because I had this whole area taken apart with the intermediate steering column, power steering rack, power steering pump, oil filter adapter, and radiator hoses, and wiring harness all removed. At that point, I would have been able to just reach down with my hand and reconnect the hose. As it is now, I had to look around for a long time to find access. I was able to insert a long wire into the opening to confirm that it was an opening and to clean it out since it looked plugged.

After allot of searching and feeling around, I finally was able to see the vent connection from the drivers wheel well.

This definitely looks like a candidate for the disconnected end of a hose. This is on the top of the transfer case so it makes sense. I had to disconnect the outer tie rod end and swing it up out of the way but I was able to get a pair of long 90 degree needle nose pliers in there to get a hose clamp on the the hose and then get it down on the fitting. It took a while but I was able to get the clamp tightened down to secure the hose.

Well this is where the hose is going, weather it belongs there or not. I would have liked to get the clamp a little higher up on the hose but there was just no room to get a second tool in there to help.

The moral of the story is to always check the area carefully when you have things substantially taken apart. Look around for anything else that might be going on and fix it before you get it all back together.

Thanks for all the help and the pictures. Getting that picture of where the end of the vent was supposed to go really helped to get me moving in the right direction.

I don't know if there is a vent on the other side as well. Since the vent is on the top of the transfer case, it may only have one. I haven't had the heart to look on the other side yet. The passengers side of the engine bay is twice as crammed with stuff as the drivers side.

LMHmedchem

 

[fordysenior]

It did appear as a vent to me also. The top of the plastic piece rotates around, at least on mine it did. I noticed it was tucked up behind the bolt -- my thinking is that it is there to keep moisture or puddles from splashing up and sending water down the tube. I could get my finger up there and could spin the top piece around, but had only about a fingernail distance until it was against the metal plate.