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The tires on the diesel are beat:  Looks like we're staying with the 16.5s for another round, which means theyre overdue for a cleaning & polish. Lets gooo!  cleaning...  ...polishing...  ...and clean!  ...and looking good!
Thats all fine and dandy, but the tires are beat. So its time for new rubber!
 ...and installed!
Predictably, the one vehicle youre not working on gets jealous and decides to break. In this case it was the turn signal switch in the column of the '90 Bronco. The book says the column has to come and be disassembled to do this job, but i had another idea. First up, lower it to make some room  Turns out if you de-pin the connector on the end and remove it, you can pull the switch right out of the column
After de-pinning & removing the connector on the new switch, i was able to fish the new one down thru the column, and get it installed  ...putting the connector back together...  ...and done! Column repaired.  Used the new aluminum bed a few times now to haul stuff, and im already tired of the spare tire being loose back there. Not that it moves around, just that its big and always in the way. So i took the time to remount the original tire carrier that was in the bed  Simple and effective.
So i studied my wiring diagrams for a bit  ...and then came up with a plan to improve my old wiring, while also simplifying it. Step one involved moving the wiring for the pump away from the water tank since the pump is now on the frame rail  From there i was able to break down my old sloppy wiring harness, and make a nice clean one to take its place. My old wiring harness:  ...and the new one:  So with that done i replaced the float in the tank since one of the wires was frayed  put the nozzle back in the intake...  ...and powered the system back up!  water-methanol injection V.20 is now complete! Now to just drive the truck and get it tuned! Working on getting the tank mounted:  I started making a bunch of straps to suspend the tank in the frame:  ...and then:
So with 7 brackets all bent up, i grabbed a piece of scrap steel sheet, and made side shields, and a lower panel, to keep road debris from hitting the tank
...with that done, it was time to reinstall the tank and hangar!
This shows the feed line from the sump in the tank, to the failsafe solenoid:  Ultimately, i decided to mount the pump in the underside of this xmember:  ..and with the pump mounted and plumbed, its time to start on the wiring. This is the original harness i ran down the frame years ago, with a wedgelock connector on the end so i could plug in the extension harness:  ...and this is th eenxtension harness. Originally the harness ran up the bulkhead of the bed, but with the dump bed conversion done years later i had to make and extension harness to run down to the end of the frame rail and then double back along the underside of the bed. Well, with the new tank location we wont be needing this anymore:  ...and this is the wiring harness that was inside the toolbox under the water tank. With the new pump & tank locations, now is the perfect time to take this apart, clean it up, and lay it out a bit nicer  So now its time to dig into my 10-15 year old wiring diagrams, reverse engineer this system, and clean up the wiring!  Its time to reinstall the water/methanol injection in the F250!  Originally the system was installed in the tool box where it was safe and out of harms way:  But this time, with the aluminum dump bed i dont want the tank in the bed anymore, so i need to come up with a new place for it. So since we swapped the 38 gallon tank in place of the rear tank, that means that technically i dont need the front tank anymore. So, out it came!  This frees up a ton of space to install my 12 gallon tank:  I took the original fuel lines and made a stubby line to connect the two ports on the diverter valve, so i cant accidentally dump fuel under the truck. This will suffice for now, until i do the e-fuel conversion  Mocking things up, this is the plan for the water tank location:
It looks like its sticking way up but its not too bad. In its current temporary place its flush with the bottom of the frame rail and clears the bottom of the bed, so this will work, altho i think im going to lower it an inch or two, just for some extra clearance. Now to get a hangar designed and built.... Made a bit of a goofup, seems i designed my sending unit float arm to occupy the same space as the tank rollover vent, so the gauge would only read 3/4 full. So back out it came!  Pulled the rollover valve out, and you can see the problem:  this was a simple fix though, i just added a bend to the swing arm to move it over and away from the rollover valve:  ...and as a finishing touch for the bed, i removed the original 'unleaded fuel only' sticker, and replaced with a new one:  With the bed done id like to get the truck inspected (as i have work piling up that i need it for), but after 15 years, the Banks exhaust i had on here was falling apart and had been patched back together multiple times. Well finally the muffler rotted out and broke:  As a quick fix, i just eliminated it and threw an elbow on there so i could drive it to the exhaust shop
Its a total brodozer look and i hate it, but it was sufficient to drive to the exhaust shop to get a proper exhaust made anyway  So now ive got 4" stainless all the way from the downpipe to the tip, along with a new stainless muffler as well   Nice and quiet, for a 4" pipe anyways. So from there it was just a matter of stopping and filling up the rear tank, so next week i can finally drop the front tank out of the frame rails  I bet you didnt think this would fit, but it totally does, and with room to spare:  And the new rear tank holds an honest 38 gallons  Its way out of inspection (was due in august), and i still need to get my water/methanol injection reinstalled, but at least she's a driver once more!  The next part of the project is lighting. I need to wire up the bed, but i also need a place to put my license plate, trailer plug and reverse lights  I spent some time staring at that space, and started thinking about just building a panel to house my lights & plate, similar to what a traditional dump truck might have  Mocking up in steel:   Brand new Ford wedgelock pins.....  ...means i can rewire a new trailer 7-way, to plug directly into the truck's harness  ...and this gray 8-pin connector is the plug for the original bed's tailllights. The plan is to rewire the bed lights to plug directly into this using some more wedgelock pins and connectors  Running wires  ...and with all wires ran, the panel is now installed!  |
