moonburn's Rattmobile Resto Thread

[moonburn]

Yeah, I was gonna use it for the gas and get some errands done, but they gave it to me almost empty. Go figure. At least I have gotten to do a lot more research today since I haven't really spent any time in the garage other than a quick cleanup. I just need the weather to warm up a bit so I can ride my bike in to work and leave the car apart in the garage. It's hard to get some of this stuff done when I have to keep it in relatively usable condition.

So, the updated project list is as follows:

High priority:

• Front crank seal (probably going to have to redo all seals/gaskets)
• ABS actuator [delete/repair] & braided stainless lines
• Put the stock fan back on so I don't kill my alt with this electric F150 fan

After that or in the meantime:

• Re-seal the rack, fit belt, and generally get PS back online.
• Figure out why my heater is INOP.
• Eradicate various electrical gremlins.

 

[moonburn]

Spent some more time poking around the engine bay today. See pics below. The OP gasket has been replaced, but now the front crank seal is leaking. It seems that I will have to re-seal the engine. At least autozone had the seal in stock so I will try and get to it this week before company comes for the weekend! I also ordered my braided SS brake lines from Driftmotion and should be getting an ABS actuator, fan, and glove box handle courtesy of modmonster2008! :icon_bigg:

So, like I said, I spent some time poking around and I found a few lines that have been d/ced and blocked off. I figured I'd throw them up and see if anyone can help me identify them.

Near the passenger firewall:

This guy caught my eye. The hose (see also below) seems to fit. I don't know why it's blocked off.

Showing hose above going behind the engine.

This little guy was also hanging down by the firewall. The T looked like it used to go to the stock boost gauge on one side and the thing below on the other side.

Near the master cylinder:

No clue what this went to.​

Found this guy hiding under the 3000:

 

[sweaver]

in the first two pics the hose runs to the heater/heater core it may have a leak.

 

[moonburn]

Well, it's definitely been a busy past 30 days. Between work, school, vacation and family life I got almost no work done on the car outside of buying parts. I took a lot of the big parts off so I could see the engine better, but not much outside of that. I did get to spend a lot of time working on it yesterday and a few hours today. See below.

I installed Driftmotion's braided stainless yesterday and tinkered with a few other loose ends. The stock lines were pretty suspect, so I'm glad I got rid of them. They went on pretty easily with only a few issues due to operator error. I was hoping that changing out the lines would enable me to bleed the front brakes, but no such luck. The hard lines were dry at the wheel well, coming out of and going in to the ABS module, so I made a note to check the Master Cyl and called it a night.

After running some errands this morning I decided to bypass the prop valve altogether and just bleed the Master Cyl. That was a PITA! I ended up having to remove the speedo mounting brackets in order to get the first line back in. I checked the fluid flow coming out of the ABS and it worked! Awesome! Still no fluid in the front hard lines though... Upon re-inspection I found where the PO had "blocked off" the front brakes. He had put a small upholstery/drywall nail INSIDE THE FLARE!:: angry :: :: angry ::

If you look closely you can see the cross hatching on the head of the nail.

I got the passenger's side line clear by flipping the hard line and running fluid through the other side to push the nail out since it was so far in there would be no hope of pulling it out. I'm still at a bit of a loss for how to clear the driver's side though. Does anybody near Fayetteville, NC have a power bleeder or some way to push this sucker out so I can finally have brakes? I'll also accept GFIs that don't require me dropping the $60 that Autozone wants for a suction style hand bleeder.

I'm so f-ing stoked to actually be able to drive this baby without worrying about greasing some small animal or child due to inadequate stopping power! I also got a stock fan and fan clutch so I can replace that F150 fan that may have already killed my alt.

 

[moonburn]

So I have still been unable to get the nail out of the driver's hard line. Yesterday I tried pulling it out by super gluing it to another nail, an idea of questionable intelligence, with no success. I went to the parts store today and got a hand bleeder and was unable to get the nail out with vac or pressure from the wheel end of the line. It looks like hooking the back end up to the master may be the only way.

Does anyone have any ideas on how I should go about doing this? I can't pull a hard line that long and flip it.

 

[Jay C]

At least you can admit that it was an idea of questionable intellect. Sounds like you have been doing a lot of work and it will be rocking in no time. I have been working on my car for the last few months but only like 1 day a week due to time constraints. It must be nice to at least start yours up and drive it even if it isn’t 100%.

 

[moonburn]

@ JayC: Lol, I know how that is. I haven't really been driving around too much due to the brakes being more or less inop, but I have gotten to spend a little time in the garage. This weekend was actually the most productive couple of days I've had! Fan and brake lines all in one weekend? Madness! I just gotta finish the job and move on to bigger fish like the oil leak! (PS would be nice too, but not at the top of the list, per se).

 

[sous]

push the brake and dont get your face there

 

[moonburn]

For more brake updates head to my Blocked off Brake Line Thread.

 

[moonburn]

My new(ish) door card and trunk/fuel door cables got here today and yesterday! They're still in the garage and probably won't be in for a little while, but it's nice to have them anyways. I still have to fix the wiring inside the passenger door before I hang the card and I want to put in new carpet once I pull this nasty crap out to do the cables. I found a carpet kit on Suprastore. Does anyone know if these are any good?

I am getting very excited as I am finally getting close to driving this beast! The oil leak really has to be fixed first though. I put in 2.5qts before I went around the block and still nothing on the stick. Remaining big issues:

1) The brakes would grab and not let go when I had it on the jackstands. I didn't notice so much when I was driving, but I could hear what sounded like dragging.
2) The pedal held firm while the car was off, but there was a very pronounced fade in pedal pressure after a few seconds while the engine was running.
3) I noticed a fried egg sized spot of oil in my driveway after only idling there for about 30 secs.

I put a piece of cardboard down overnight to see if I could figure out where it was leaking from and the only spot was right underneath the fan pulley.

 

[moonburn]

Finally got (almost) all the oil leaking problems finished! I ended up replacing almost all the front seals, cam seal, and a few others. I also dropped in a new rad since the old one was trashed. I rode around for about 30 mins and no leaks! XD! I do still have a fair bit of oil standing around the spark plugs, but only on the front.

The FR brake line seems to be leaking a little, so it looks like I'll have to tighten that up tomorrow.

I think I figured out the reason the PO had blocked off the heater lines.... The heat won't stop! I hooked them up and hadn't driven since and holy crap! There was also an extremely large amount of heat coming from under the shifter.... Guess I'm gonna plug that sucker back up until further notice.

Next on the agenda is to replace the CPS cover and O-ring and put on the brand new fan shroud so I can stop worrying about my quality pre-owned fan! I'm gonna end up dropping in a new battery too, but nothing really significant going on there. A few weeks out I'll be throwing down some primer so I don't have to subject my eyes to this torture any more.

Before:


After:


Window is disconnected for the time being, but I'm more sick of looking at ugly metal than I am of leaving that window up. I'm driving this bucket to work on Monday come hell or high water!