Project Hazey

[joney]

^^^want to know too. if my ac ever kicked the can..... id be cooking!!! plus FL has moisture here its just dry heat

Exactly. Hot and humid here, not usually bad except July. I'm melting, said the wicked witch...

 

[Fix4Dirt]

Exactly. Hot and humid here, not usually bad except July. I'm melting, said the wicked witch...

himidity sucks with heat!!! i can deal somewhat with one or the other i prefer humidity on cold days love those days! when it rain sor even post rain! just not both!!

 

[DintDobbs]

@Fix4Dirt Yep, always one of the first things I check on any vehicle I buy! If it's not new, I'll ride it a bit and then change it, but if the coolant, transmission fluid, diff fluid, or oil needs changed immediately, I'll assume they all need changed immediately. These all have plenty of life left in 'em; I know the folks who I bought it from (loosely, done some business with them on my other trucks) and they take meticulous care of the vehicles they deal.

 

[Fix4Dirt]

@Fix4Dirt Yep, always one of the first things I check on any vehicle I buy! If it's not new, I'll ride it a bit and then change it, but if the coolant, transmission fluid, diff fluid, or oil needs changed immediately, I'll assume they all need changed immediately. These all have plenty of life left in 'em; I know the folks who I bought it from (loosely, done some business with them on my other trucks) and they take meticulous care of the vehicles they deal.

cool! especially with the sohc maintainence is everything! good owners can make or break the vehicle! so glad to hear they take good care of them!!!!

 

[DemonMudder]

No AC is hard here in July, HTH do you endure it in FL??

Vent at idle, 60 mph and the windows down otherwise
It still sucks though, but I've gone that way for the passed several years

 

[joney]

Vent at idle, 60 mph and the windows down otherwise
It still sucks though, but I've gone that way for the passed several years

I salute you. Just a year for me. Hey, I found out I can 'rent' (buy with right of return and refund) one of those vacuum manifold tester things for the AC from O'Reilly's ! Next step I think, after checking the relays and fuses. There is hope yet for it.

 

[DemonMudder]

Born and raised in floridas bipolar weather that gets hot as crap, not including the almost constant high humidity. Used to it, even wear jeans, a tshirt, flannel, boots, and sometimes a leather cowboy hat, switches up with a baseball cap. My standard attire, every single day, even if its 102°F
Everyone looks at me like I'm nuts, they'll sit there in shorts and a tshirt and complain about the heat

Hopefully it can be an easy fix for ya! Hopefully whenever I start messing with mine, that will be too

 

[DintDobbs]

Incidentally, the tires on this now are 255/70R16, which roughly equals 30x10. A 275/70R16 would go up to roughly 31x11, so width might be an issue with spacers, on the outside. Might go with 30.5-ish rather than 31, even after the lift, because I know from experience that there's not as much clearance under real-life conditions as there is when you're taking the measurements. I'm honestly more interested in width than height, but you know how it went with the Vulture...

 

[Fix4Dirt]

Incidentally, the tires on this now are 255/70R16, which roughly equals 30x10. A 275/70R16 would go up to roughly 31x11, so width might be an issue with spacers, on the outside. Might go with 30.5-ish rather than 31, even after the lift, because I know from experience that there's not as much clearance under real-life conditions as there is when you're taking the measurements. I'm honestly more interested in width than height, but you know how it went with the Vulture...

"more interested in width than height" famous last words!!!!

also many tires dont run ttue to size for example me 31s are 30.7s, so even 30.5 will be close to some of the 31s that run small. the only ones that are larger i notice are boggers and not many are true to size imo

 

[DintDobbs]

I'm not hacking this pretty girl up under any circumstance, so making sure things will clear is paramount!

I'm definitely leaning toward the 265/70 rather than straight 31x10 or 31x10.50; what I've got fits great, and that very small difference won't affect the clearance much, on 1" spacers. Not risking 1.5's on this one, since I know the 1.5's scrubbed just a tiny bit while steering in reverse with small wheels on the Vulture.

 

[DintDobbs]

Well, I traced that little yellow wire with the in-line 10-amp fuse to a small black box located underneath the left tail lamp, with a 4-pin trailer light harness coming out of it.

The black wire spliced into the red wire at the left goes into the box in the middle, and the four small wires at the left go to the trailer light harness. The other end of the black wire runs along the frame through any available loops to prevent sagging and catching, up through the engine bay, and ends with a splice to the yellow wire with a fuse.

So, Hazey was a pack animal. There were also foam ear plugs under the rear seat, but no stains anywhere on the carpet or floor mats to suggest lawn care... except for one little mark on the carpet near the head rest on the 60-half of the rear seat. Curious!

 

[DintDobbs]

Score on the battery though, Advance DieHard Gold with some kind of aftermarket connectors on the cables. Isn't 850 CCA a little overkill? Who cares, she cranks up nice!

Note the added yellow wire, this may be the reason aftermarket connectors were used.

On to the next... Subwoofer, then gauge lights!

 

[DintDobbs]

Subwoofer checked out, definitely looks like the original one still hangin' in there. Makes a nasty scratchy rattle every so often, but meh, not a high priority.

Miscellaneous fixes to day, including license plate light bulb, dome light (same issue as with The Vulture when I first got it - the light didn't work, but just because the bulb had somehow lost contact), little bit of work on the Vulture alongside (also some bulb changes), and tore into both dashes to get the gauge clusters out. Need to figure out what kind of light bulb is needed, if the light bulbs are even the problem; I'll have to play around with stuff, but it's hard to work in the dark, and got to work to morrow... Oh well, Thursday's soon enough!

Sadly, when tearing apart the Vulture's dash I somehow managed to break (yes, break) the T-case switch free from the inside of the radio panel. Broke the plastic with the screw still in it. Not sure if I want to make a custom bracket and keep it, or switch with one from the junk yard. Of course I can never fix some thing without breaking some thing else, that's the rule of the game!

 

[DemonMudder]

Subwoofer checked out, definitely looks like the original one still hangin' in there. Makes a nasty scratchy rattle every so often, but meh, not a high priority.

Miscellaneous fixes to day, including license plate light bulb, dome light (same issue as with The Vulture when I first got it - the light didn't work, but just because the bulb had somehow lost contact), little bit of work on the Vulture alongside (also some bulb changes), and tore into both dashes to get the gauge clusters out. Need to figure out what kind of light bulb is needed, if the light bulbs are even the problem; I'll have to play around with stuff, but it's hard to work in the dark, and got to work to morrow... Oh well, Thursday's soon enough!

The main guage bulbs are 194s, the smaller like check engine ones are size 37 I believe?

 

[Fix4Dirt]

The main guage bulbs are 194s, the smaller like check engine ones are size 37 I believe?

i just bought a set on ebay

 

[DintDobbs]

All the small ones (CEL, ABS, E-brake, seat belt, air bag, etc.) work, as far as I know - it's the big ones that light the gauges that are acting up. I know all the ones in the Vulture worked when bought, and with the other thrashing around it's been through, it wouldn't be surprising if like other bulbs they just lost a good connection. Hopefully I didn't damage the circuit board getting it out, I sorta knocked it around and might have heard a small cracking sound. Yeet.

I whacked on the dash once pretty hard on Hazey when test driving, to see what happened, and besides the one light that worked (top of speedo, could only see like 40-70 MPH range), one other came on. Thinking loose connections there too, because of that; but I'll know next time I go out there! Is it normal for the circuit boards to be curvy and wavy? I thought they were supposed to be flat...

 

[DemonMudder]

All the small ones (CEL, ABS, E-brake, seat belt, air bag, etc.) work, as far as I know - it's the big ones that light the gauges that are acting up. I know all the ones in the Vulture worked when bought, and with the other thrashing around it's been through, it wouldn't be surprising if like other bulbs they just lost a good connection. Hopefully I didn't damage the circuit board getting it out, I sorta knocked it around and might have heard a small cracking sound. Yeet.

Ebay or Amazon 194 bulbs or leds, should be all ya need then. Hopefully the circuits are fine

 

[DintDobbs]

Pulled a long night and decided to put my trucks back together now, in stead of waiting until morning. Nice to have gauge lights again!

Unsurprisingly, Hazey's dash cover had been abused prior to my purchase, and most of the little clips and the eyes for the bolts fell out when I took the panel off. The headlamp switch bracket wasn't even connected to the back, just wedged in place. And for the salty icing on the hardtack cake, I broke the black piece around the seal that frames the gauge cluster. The headlamp switch being somewhat loose doesn't make me happy, and with the clips all broken, it doesn't fit snugly to the rest of the dash. So, I'll add that to the list of things to nab from the junk yard. I hope the Limited doesn't have special interior colors, or I'll be in trouble!

P. S. @DemonMudder Yep, 194 was the type, thanks for that - but I still took it to the parts store to compare the size.

 

[DintDobbs]

Played with the air conditioner (hot, cold and defroster) the last couple of days, because of changing and extreme weather conditions, and heard a rhythmic clicking or thumping coming from the right side of the dash (behind the radio/glove compartment area), and am not sure (due to external temperature) whether or not the heater is engaging properly. Sounds like the blend door, if my knowledge serves me well. Guess I'll have to check that out and see what she's doing in there, because I don't want to be without the heater when winter comes around!

 

[DintDobbs]

No more word on the clicking, didn't check it out, but will wait for it to resurface before tampering (don't want to tempt fate!).

There was an excessive amount of resistance on the parking brake pedal when bought, and it didn't seem to engage well (if at all); adjusted both sides, and the left side doesn't seem to be grabbing when the pedal is kicked. After adjustment, the right side grabs just fine (for what little these parking brakes are worth any way) but the left side isn't doing anything. If I adjust it manually, it grabs, just not with the pedal. Fun fun.

I honestly dislike the parking brake design on these and would like to ditch it on both of my Ex's, and just run the parking brake cable from the pedal to two extra calipers on the rear brake discs. Essentially the same function as a line lock, except it would use its own line, and its own calipers. THEN it would stay put for sure!

I'm sure the parts exist to put an extra pair of calipers on Mustang 8.8's... May be I'll actually attempt this stupidity and see what happens.