Truck wasn't heating up, so I knew I had a bad thermostat. No problem, it'* easy to change those. WRONG!!!! WTF, really, did it have to be this hard? Took me a good hour and a half. You can't get at anything. Look at the angles I had to use to get this bolt off.
DSC02844.jpg

The other one there was no way to get a socket on it. Even a wrench didn't fit on the open side. I had to use a box end wrench and I was able to get 1/12th of a turn on each stroke. And a gear wrench didn't fit. What a pain.

I had to unbolt the distributer and turn that out of the way. Otherwise I couldn't even get a wrench on it.
DSC02845.jpg

Finally got it all done, then moved on to the spark plugs. That wasn't to hard. One plug had a pipe in the way so I had to use a swivel. Otherwise, it went well. Old plugs looked worn but still clean. That tells me the engine is running good.

Next step was my heater blower. It was not blowing much air, and started to bark at me.
DSC02846.jpg

Ya, not hard to see why it wasn't blowing much air. I then looked inside the motor, looked about the same. Cleaned that all out and lubed the shaft end. Good air now, lots of heat, and no more barking.

yeah, I hate it when something that SHOULD be simple ends up being anything but.

I mean, talk about a joke. I thought I was going to have to take the water pump off. The belt tensioner was right in the way, I managed to get a extension between the pulley and the belt, and that was only with a swivel. The other bolt, no chance at all of getting a socket on it. I tried a crows foot, nope, no way.

That truck is going to be all kinds of happy by the time you get done with it. Just something about a good old truck that warms the heart.

dang... Looks like mice in your blower motor lol

That'* what I thought, so I stuck my hand in just to make sure. It was clear inside the box.

Every Ford I ever worked on had things with the engine and tranny that made me know without a doubt.... the engineers deliberately made everything scream, "take me to the Dealer so I can get shafted.

Looks like that blower fan needed a shave or some Nair!

ahh yes fords......Know you know why i absolutely hate it when somebody brings me one and says its broke....I always wanna say are you surprised lol...They are very complicated and its unecessary lol

The thing is, I looked under the hood and thought, well, that'* not to bad, I can see just about everything. But now that I've had my hands in there I realize, that is not the case at all. It'* like they made it to look easy, but wrenches don't fit right. I have oil leaking from the valve cover gasket. I thought, no big deal, just change them. Ya right, the left side will take some work, but is doable. But the right side, that'* a bit different. For the most part, I can't see the valve cover. The intake manifold covers the valve cover. Really? Did you really need to do that?