Ok. I changed the title of the thread and I'm just going to keep going with this saga. I didn't buy a truck. I bought a puzzle/ challenge/ mystery/ adventure/ bucket of fun.
So, I did some cleaning of the front interior. Nothing fancy. Just going over the dash, door handles, armrests, steering wheel, etc. Just so it doesn't feel gross when I'm in there. I topped off the power steering (a little too much. That's going to make a mess), brake reservoir, coolant and checked the oil, finally. Yup it has plenty and it's black like diesels usually are after a few miles.
Put in a $200 order at Rock Auto for air filter, oil filter, fuel filter, new ignition and door lock cylinders (only one key and its "wore slap out"), and some other miscellaneous stuff. Ordered a cam position sensor since everyone was telling me that's a common thing. I'll just keep it handy.
Tonight, after dinner, I went out to tinker around with it. Decided to start moving stuff over from the Fun50. Pulled out my CB radio, Ram ball mount for the phone and bracket for the gmrs radio. Carried those over to the ship and sat there trying to figure out where and how to mount this stuff. I also want to put my good Tekonsha trailer brake controller in there instead of the El cheapo one that it already has. That's when the fun began. There was a rocker switch/fuse/cigar lighter power outlet thing mounted down low on the dash. Not connected electrically. Looked for screws and discovered that it was velcroed on with adhesive backed velcro. Rip. It's gone.
Next, I unmounted the cheap trailer brake controller. The wiring looked ugly because they had wrapped it with electrical tape that is old and was unraveling. I removed the lower valance from the dash so I could unplug the controller. That went OK. But the electrical rats nest that fell out of the dash is a source of entertainment. I'll just post the pictures and caption each one now.
Fuel pump?!? If this truck has an electric fuel pump, Ford would have put it's fuse and relay out in the engine bay. Is this a bad repair? Or was there, at some time in history, an auxiliary fuel tank in the bed of this truck with an electric pump to transfer fuel?
WTF? The brake controller was wired into the OEM trailer brake harness. There should be no need for this foolishness. Note the tag says 10amp max. But the fuse is a 25. These are wired into the light gray relay on the left.
Found the fuse for the mystery fuel pump. Note; I suspect that a lot of this leads to abandoned wiring. But fuses are still installed. Yikes!
Just an overall view.
What is this toggle switch for? Double pole, double throw switch wired to speaker wire going "somewhere".
Ok. The speaker wire travels under the carpet to the passenger side and through the firewall. I also discovered a red wire and black wire here that go through the firewall. The black is somewhat grounded by the screw to the left. The Red is cut and ends here.
Out in the engine bay, the speaker wire traveled toward the passenger headlight area and ended. Here, over on the driver side inner fender area, we find the origin of the red wire. Note the exposed splice. Remember the other end was cut and laying jnder the carpet in the passenger footwell. Fuse is installed here. This is tapped into a fairly large wire.
Enough electrical. This view shows where I have a fuel leak. I sprayed most of a can of brake cleaner on this stuff earlier. Maybe I'll see where it starts getting wet and dirty again. I know the black round thing is the fuel filter bowl assembly. Not sure what anything else is, yet. That rectangular thing between the fuel bowl and coolant hose is something fuel related. Brand new alternator lower right corner.
So, I'm beginning to think my adventures with this truck might be worthy of some videos in the "how-to" section of my YouTube channel. Somebody may benefit later. Even though it's not an RBV, the principles of going through a vehicle like this and exploring/repairing/restoring, etc. Apply to any vehicle. Newbies could maybe learn from this, if I do it right.
I'm still happy with my purchase. This kind of stuff is to be expected when you buy an older vehicle that has had a hard life. The fact that it's running strong and doesn’t seem to need anything more major than a set of tires is all positive in my book.
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