Boy-Oh-Boy Was I lied To

[icanfixall]

About a month ago I was up in Frisco having dinner and talking about my truck cowl vents. Someone without a name told me if they are plugged up I really need to fix that soon. "Just pull off the kick panel and remove the small cover. Thats all there is to it". Well now... Thats still stinking on the stable floor..... Someone forgot that I have an E4OD BTS and the drivers side is a pita to just get to that inner cover. The top bolts were way too close to the parking brake carrage so that needed to come off. The most long winded jam nuts on that thing... Gees. Then I had to remove the E4OD cpu. That was another pita too. Every screw, nut and bolt was hard from start to finish. So job done and I cleaned the electrical connections in the cpu with contact cleaner thats harmless to plastic..... But not the rubber seal... It puckered up enough that I felt it wouldn't fit correctly so... A little C A glue and its fine. So... In closing, don't think getting to the vent covers is an easy job.... Nope, its a real ****** thats for sure..... As for he who told me this was an easy job.... No hard feeling towards you... I'm just funnen with ya.....

 

[The Warden]

So, how much stuff came out of the cowl vents?

 

[towcat]

guess you should take advice with a grain of salt when you are talking to guys who own bolt-action trucks
besides.....if you didn't get to go through hell....you would have thought you may have missed something

 

[icanfixall]

The drivers side was really full of bark and really black dirt. I don't remember where I could have "found" that. The passenger side was mostly bark with very little black dirt. Yes Calvin... You blot action guys have it sooooo much easier in the vent area but that parking brake.... Its a real pita to remove with the long threads and jam nuts......

 

[towcat]

gary-
the black dirt is decomposed bark.
at least we don't have a ecm to deal with on the driver's side.

 

[h2odrx]

Are we talking about those doors on the kick panel? some trucks had a vent there? something you could slide open and closed?

 

[towcat]

Are we talking about those doors on the kick panel? some trucks had a vent there? something you could slide open and closed?

all the trucks have a provision for a vent there. this is a carryover from when they made the stamping dies back in the early 80's. it's easier for Ford to have the line worker install a block off plates than it is to retool a die.
what started the conversation was gary's complaint on water drainage after washing the truck. what he has found is the cause of the drainage problems. fortunately, in Kali there is no road salt so the rotting out process in that area takes more than 30 years. the irritation of the drainage will get to you first especially if you have a nice interior.

 

[MeanGreen]

Guys,
There is a much easier way to clean these out. Unbolt the rear portion of the inner fender well liner where is attached under the rear of the fender (near the bolt that hold the bottom of the fender to the cab) Pull it down a bit, you will see a rubber boot that is about 1.5" wide and 2.5" long. You can squeeze this and it opens. You can also remove the boot and then vacuum or rinse out all the junk......I need to do mine. Thanks for the reminder!
Jerry

 

[Agnem]

This is the drain boot he mentions.

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Really though, I don't think that method will work well enough. Consider the junk that was found in this one.

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[6 Nebraska IDIs]

HOLY CRAP Mel! Was all that crap in the Moose Truck?

 

[icanfixall]

Yep Mell..... Thats what I found when I cleaned out the vents. It sure would have been easier to have removed the inner fender splash gard... Maybe next time....

 

[MIDNIGHT RIDER]

I finally managed to get the cowl-vent off of my 1985.

I had reason to have the fake-chrome wind-shield trim off and that gave me the clearance necessary to get it off without having to remove the hood.

I cut stainless window-screen and glued it to the bottom side of the vent, using a few strategically located zip-ties to help keep it snug against the little slats.

On someone's advice, I used clear silicone as the adhesive = not the best idea.

If I ever have it to do again, I will use plain old hot-melt glue from WalMart.


When I removed my blower-fan and kick-panels, I filled a couple five-gallon buckets with rotted crap.

 

[h2odrx]

some suggested while that was open to clean very good block off the drain holes and vents then spray some undercoating in there? do you think this would be a good idea?

 

[MIDNIGHT RIDER]

some suggested while that was open to clean very good block off the drain holes and vents then spray some undercoating in there? do you think this would be a good idea?

All I ever saw undercoating do was make a big mess.

I took a cheapie paint-brush, fastened on a stick, and primed/painted everything I could reach, after first taking a rag-on-a-stick, soaked with thinner, and swabbing all the contaminants that would prevent good paint adhesion.


I slowly/carefully dribbled, and let run down into, liquid paint in some of the places that were not accessible to the brush.