'62 F100 Uni - yes another Crown Vic swap

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Masterguns
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Re: '62 F100 Uni - yes another Crown Vic swap

Post by Masterguns »

Really looking forward to pictures of your door rebuild. I still have mine to do also, but since photo bucket pulled there stunt, finding photos of how it all goes back together has been pretty hard.

really like your truck!

Mark
Semper Fidelis

1961 f100 Unibody BBW
2002 Excursion 7.3 (the bus)
1982 Bronco
2017 F150
2017 Mustang GT/CS
Blanger
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Re: '62 F100 Uni - yes another Crown Vic swap

Post by Blanger »

Masterguns wrote:Really looking forward to pictures of your door rebuild. I still have mine to do also, but since photo bucket pulled there stunt, finding photos of how it all goes back together has been pretty hard.

really like your truck!
Thanks Mark,

I'll try to get some good photos and to also give a detailed "how to" or "how not to" lol I'm getting lots of ground covered this week so far, while working on the wiring off and on I got new shocks front and rear installed, new idler arm, coil packs and plugs installed, even changed the oil while I was under the truck. I'm putting LEDs in all the light sockets and I'm waiting for the balancing resistors to show up so I can finish the exterior lighting and get the wires cleaned up and in a loom / secured to the frame.

Jon
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Re: '62 F100 Uni - yes another Crown Vic swap

Post by Blanger »

Back From Vacation!

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Well I accomplished most of my goals drove the truck around the block a couple times and other than some tire rub in the front it did great....but as always nothing goes as planned, I spent the first day of vacation working on this.

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This is my father-in-law's '56 Chevy, it needed a fan and shroud put on it to help with high engine temperature sitting at stop lights with the AC on, now it stays right around 200 degrees sitting and in the 180 region going down the road.

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So back to the user controls where I left off, kinda' related would be the other items left from the CV fire wall which is the ECM that mounts through the firewall and has a wire connection in the engine bay, also is the main wiring harness that passes through the firewall connecting to the under-dash harness and other points, there is also a similar connection on the passenger side that could be eliminated depending on your needs I kept it on my truck and used the same piece of CV firewall as a pattern to cut that hole also.

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Here's the harness pattern, the smaller hole is / was for the e-brake cable to pass through which you may or may not need, plan ahead before you cut this hole.

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Speaking of E-brake I thought about using the assembly out of the CV, I saved it as a complete unit and there is room for it....

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But.......since I'm not putting AC in the truck I don't want to loose sources for air coming into the cab, to use the CV pedal I would have to loose that vent in the drivers kick panel or build out a mount for the CV e-brake assembly which there really isn't enough room in my opinion.

So I still have the original e-brake lever from the slick and there is room to use it, if anyone has mated the slicks lever to the CV cable I'd be interested in hearing how they accomplished it.

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I guess the last control is the shifter linkage since I bought a column with a column shifter I had to make a mount for the CV transmission cable, it was pretty easy to use the original cable mount that was on the bottom of the CV column, basically I cut it and welded it back together making a stand-off or mount that could be attached to the engine side of the firewall where the shifter arm is on this column, sorry no pictures of this but there is a pretty good chance that I'll have to revisit this since I am going to have to raise the column inside the cab (steering wheel sits too close to the seat) by cutting the dash which I really didn't want to do, but it is going to have to happen, so I might get some pictures of the mount at that point since I'm sure it will have to have some adjustment.

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One last note for Mark (@Masterguns), we did the rebuild of the drivers door (not the passenger yet) and I have pictures and a kinda' detailed instruction, I'll post it next.


Jon
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Re: '62 F100 Uni - yes another Crown Vic swap

Post by Blanger »

Windows rebuild is next on the list....

First let me say that if you have a current (July 2016) Dennis Carpenter catalog there is a two page guide that is easy to follow and although basic gives you a good guide as to the steps.

Of course the first step is to remove the cover that grants you access to the inside of the door, then the window regulator allowing the glass to slide down the tracks and lay in the bottom of the door, you will have to remove the screws holding the short piece of guide at the bottom of the glass run to get the glass out of the division bar because it has a built in stop for the glass, there are (or were on our truck) two bolts that hold the bottom of the division bar to the inside of the door, I had to remove these bolts to get the arm of the window regulator out of the door glass channel ( what the arm raises and lowers ).

I left the glass lay in the bottom of the door till I got the division bar out which prolly wasn't the right thing to do, the guide in the Carpenter catalog said to remove the anti-rattlers then the window, but we couldn't get that to work out....but once the division bar was removed there was enough room to get the door glass out the hole the access plate covers, just remember to put the glass back in before installing the division bar...lol

The wing window is held to the division bar by one lone machine screw and a caged nut on the division bar, it's very hard to see since it sinks in and could wind up under the rubber that seals the wing window, but a little digging and we found the head and removed the screw. Once this screw is removed and if you removed the two bolts at the bottom (I removed above to get the regulator out) there are two screws at the top of the door that hold the division bar to remove and the division bar will slide back towards the door handle occupying space where the door glass is normally, the wing window can be removed after you remove 3-4 Phillips screws from the side of the door.

The wing window came out kinda' easy but the division bar was a PIA to get out, a word of caution, the channel that the glass runs in on the division bar didn't have anything in our kit to replace the material in the channel, if you don't have the material in what you buy then don't remove it..... new division bars are available but are close to $100 each. The door glass run that has to be bent - molded to fit was easy to remove it just snaps into holes as were the anti-rattlers just be sure to look where the anti-rattlers were mounted to make sure all the clips came out, if not just pop them out with a pocket screwdriver.

Now the fun starts....lol

Here's a pic of the anti-rattler clips..

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The anti-rattlers we got in out kit were much nicer than the ones that came out of the door, not sure the old ones were factory parts or not but the new ones are contoured to fit the door lines and are longer, they had to be trimmed to length to fit at the area where they meet the glass channel in the division bar.

Old anti-rattlers
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New anti-rattlers
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Here's a pic of the division bar removed, the area where the 90 degree bracket is where the small screw is that we had to dig for.
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The wing window has to be removed from the frame, it has a spring loaded stem at the bottom and a pivot at the top that has two screws holding it., the spring loaded portion at the bottom has splines that hold a stop (looks like a pointer in pic) that are keyed (parts will only go on one position), if you can mark the location it might be easier to reassemble.
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It was easy enough to get the old rubber out of the wing window channel using a flat screwdriver.
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Getting the new rubber in the channel was kind of a PIA if you have any of the cheap plastic molding tools that are sold for new cars they work well pushing the rubber into the channel without gouging it.
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The guide in the Carpenter catalog said to form the door glass channel on the door glass before installing, we opted not to do that but to just figure about where the bend needed to be based on the clips that needed to line up with the mounts in the door, it worked out just fine and bent into position easily.

Basically at this point it's just reversing the procedure to reassemble, the wing window gasket is oversize and is suppose to lay on top of the door to seal the area to keep water out it is one of those things that you'll have to pull the rubber into position after the wind window is back in place and in the closed position, again you can use a plastic molding tool to flip the rubber up or a o-ring pick also will work.

The last piece of this was the seal where the wing window closes against the division bar, the original piece was riveted to the bar and after removing it we used weatherstripping adhesive to attach the new piece of rubber, we also clamped this down while the adhesive dried. The door glass channel has a mounting bar inside the door that is also a stop for the window glass (rolling down) and it is the last piece we reinstalled back into the door, it basically holds the door glass channel in place and provides a guide for the window and a stop so it doesn't fall out if the regulator should fail. If the roller that runs in the channel on the regulator arm is broken or wore out new parts are available for a couple bucks and would be worth having on hand since the original is one of the few plastic parts on the truck.

Last thing I greased the track and regulator and closed up the access panel.

If you have any questions feel free to ask or pictures of anything specific since I have to do the passenger side soon.

One other thing, is the kit we bought was made by a company named Fairchild and was sold through RockAuto.com, it was considerably cheaper than other kits, the parts seemed to be good quality, the fit was better than expected, I also bought the door seal gaskets from the same source but have yet to install them, but they do look to be good quality also.
Masterguns
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Re: '62 F100 Uni - yes another Crown Vic swap

Post by Masterguns »

that's awesome! thank you, that will be a big help when I do mine.

Mark
Semper Fidelis

1961 f100 Unibody BBW
2002 Excursion 7.3 (the bus)
1982 Bronco
2017 F150
2017 Mustang GT/CS
Blanger
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Re: '62 F100 Uni - yes another Crown Vic swap

Post by Blanger »

Masterguns wrote:that's awesome! thank you, that will be a big help when I do mine.

Mark
No problem glad to help.

Basically it's a easy job other than getting the division bar out of the door, it's a tight / close fit, the people who built the trucks at the factory probably had tricks to make the job go faster and of course knew exactly how it went together since they did it over and over.

One thing I failed to mention is the nut / spring on the bottom of the wing window pivot, the nut and spring control how tight the opening and closing of the wing window will be if you tighten the nut too much during assembly the wing window will be very stiff opening and closing, it's going to be difficult anyway because of the new rubber gasket so you might want to try to be careful not to over tighten it....if your wing window has a problem staying in the position you open it to before you change the gasket (wind can close it or move it) than the nut has probably backed off over the years but if it's reasonably tight with the old gaskets then it'll be stiff once the new gaskets are installed but should wear-in to the proper amount of drag.

I did lube this with some WD-40, but just pay attention to how far the nut is on the shaft before you remove it so you have a idea of where to put it back, if it's too tight you may have to totally disassemble the door again to loosen it, but may be able to loosen it with a small socket and ratchet and a long extension....maybe.

I didn't picture the location of the screws, they are kinda' a no-brainer to find, surprisingly all of our screws came out easy and lined back up easily for reassembly.

Hope this helps...

Jon
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Re: '62 F100 Uni - yes another Crown Vic swap

Post by Blanger »

So I guess I'll talk about the wiring on our project which I'm very close to finishing up.


Several times over the course of doing the wiring I've had to stop and ask myself if I really wanted to go in the direction I was going...... let me explain, most of the people who I've followed either on forums or youtube that do a full CV frame swap use a aftermarket wiring harness for the cab stuff and exterior lighting, it's easy, straight forward, and quick, all the circuits are laid out for you, all the wires are marked and basically to the proper length you need to reach the devices you are powering.

Doing the wiring with a aftermarket harness leaves you with only a few circuits that have to be mated to the original CV engine harness to fire the engine, I guess you could even replace the engine harness if you wanted to but that would in my mind be more work that is totally unnecessary.

I've wired lots of vehicles over the years from race cars to total replacement aftermarket harnesses like Painless and others make, I'm not intimidated by wiring at all, I can read a schematic and follow circuits across multi-able schematics, so when I decided to use the CV harness for everything I knew it was going to require a lot of extra work.....but in my opinion all the circuits I would need were already in the harness it was just going to be time consuming to find them and mate them to the trucks original switches.

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So after deciding this path the first thing I needed to do is thin the original harness to remove circuits that I would no longer need, theses circuits were stuff like the power windows, power door locks, air bags, etc.

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Thinning the original harness is a slow process and took a couple days, every connector had been tagged when we disassembled the CV, and we were very careful not to damage the wiring but had cut wires when we had to like the fuel pump / sending unit wires because it was easier to do during disassembly. We also cut the wires going to the passenger doors because all that wiring was going to be thinned anyway but we did tag the wire bundles from each of these locations.

So following this path with a thinned harness I knew I'd need a complete wiring diagram with all the pin outs for the connectors, so I found someone on eBay selling the factory DVD that covered our 98 CV for $10 and it was probably the best ten bucks I could have spent....you can find some of the connector pin outs on the internet but it's really hit and miss for a lot of the connectors, and of course I was going to need basic pin outs for the trucks switches which mostly you can find on the net easily.

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First order of business was to mate the CV ignition switch wiring with the Slicks ignition switch to make it run again which turned out to be pretty easy, you basically have a group of wires that are hot all the time that get grouped together, a group of wires that are hot in the run position that get grouped together, and the lone starter wire all by itself, finding the right terminals on the trucks switch was easy once you know which pins do what, which is the key to doing all of the wiring...lol

The thing is that the CV seems to have a lot of redundant wiring like most new cars, yeah it all serves a purpose in the CV but isn't necessary at all on the truck, this is going to be a common theme every time I come to a new connector from the CV harness there are going to be wires that I will not need or use that will have to be dealt with in some fashion, in most cases I simple cut them from the CV connector, heat shrink the end of the wire sealing it, and fold it back on top of the CV harness and tape it to the harness, this allows me at a later date to find that wire if I screw up and need access to it.

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Next post I'll cover the exterior lighting...

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Jon
Blanger
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Re: '62 F100 Uni - yes another Crown Vic swap

Post by Blanger »

Exterior lighting.....

First let me say that our CV has a lighting control module, it's a box that controls several things from headlights, turn signals, brake lights, running lights, etc, it has both the turn signal and hazard flashers built into it and appear to be either solid state flashers or relays (I didn't open the box to look) but because our CV was a police car that was built for lots of extra lighting added by the departments that ordered the cars it's really heavy duty or robust. The box has it's pluses and minuses that has caused me some headaches, the pluses are that several of the circuits like the turn signals removes the higher amperage load from the actual switch contacts and does all the work inside the box, it's not that the switches work off low voltage (5v) they still switch 12v but the wire diameter is much smaller indicating that the current load of that circuit is being handled elsewhere ( the lighting control module).

So the CV wiring is a little funky to say the least, yeah everything outside like headlights are normal where they connect to the bulbs but the interior light switch is just opening and closing circuits that the lighting module is controlling the heavy lifting (amperage load). Of course this will make the switches last forever since they never have enough current draw going through them to create any heat, that will also apply to the trucks switches, as long as you have the proper connections or number of switch poles to open and close the circuits needed everything is golden!

We are a big fan of LED lighting, when we built our Camaro years ago LEDs where just coming on the market as replacements for the standard 1157, 1156, and 194 bulbs, we replaced all the standard bulbs on the Camaro with LEDs even in the dash / interior lighting and have been very pleased with the durability - brightness, they give a older vehicle a new look because they are either off or on, there is no fade-out that incandescent lighting has as the filament cools down after voltage is removed.... LEDs are instant on or off nothing in-between and of course lave a much lower current draw so run cooler than a incandescent bulb.

But LEDs also have a down side which is the flash rate is too fast using a traditional mechanical flasher, replacing the flasher with a electronic flasher helps but the flash rate is way too high having not really enough off time between flashes, this isn't a problem in brake lights or any other usage just turn signals....on the Camaro we used balancing resistors or ballast resistors that are wired between the hot lead and ground for the turn signal circuit, the standard is a 50 ohm unit and one is needed per bulb. What the resistors do is create a sink or soak up current that is being applied to the bulb increasing the amount of current needed to fire off (light) the LEDs, this in turn slows the flash rate down to a acceptable level because the resistor is bleeding off some of the current to ground instead of it going directly to the LEDs. The resistors are encased in a aluminum housing that is finned and has mounting holes, they do get hot so you want to be cautious where you put them.

Here's a pic of the resistors.

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And some of the LEDs we used on the truck

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When we did the Camaro the price per bulb was kinda' high compared to today you can buy several 1157s today for what one cost back then, even more if you buy in bulk on places like Amazon, or eBay.

But back to the lighting module......

So we installed LEDs in all the sockets that we were using, the CV had side marker lights which we didn't use although depending on your imagination could be used for several different purposes, we left them in the harness but didn't populate them with bulbs. I knew that I'd again have to use the resistors but hadn't considered the police car / lighting module aspect of the equation, most modern cop cars use a lot of LED lighting from the light bar to strobes most if not all today are LEDs, in 1998 when our CV was built LEDs were not that big of a thing yet so Ford built the light module for the high load of lots of incandescent lights that a cop car would be outfitted with in 1998. Even with the resistors in place the flash rate of the turn signals is pretty fast and as I added more of the bulbs - resistors (both front & rear) the rate never really changed the lighting module just kept on supplying more and more current to flash the lights...lol The only thing that really slows it down is having the hazard lights on which flashes every bulb - resistor in the system that seemed to make it struggle just a little bit.

This isn't the end of the lighting module issues it caused me other PIAs when I got inside wiring the GM column to the CV wiring for the turn signal switches up to this point I've been using the CV switches and just wiring the external connections to the lights front and rear...so we'll revisit it again later.

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Jon
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Blanger
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Re: '62 F100 Uni - yes another Crown Vic swap

Post by Blanger »

More exterior lighting

On our CV it had separate brake lights and turn signal bulbs in the same light housing, I never really gave it much though or paid any attention to the fact that each worked independently of each other, what this meant was that I would have to find a way to put two bulbs - sockets in the trucks tail lights or rewire the entire tail light circuit, both sockets on each side used 1157 bulbs, both were fed a tail light signal but only one was fed a brake light signal and the other the turn signal signal. I tried finding a common that would give me both functions (brake & turn signal) on one bulb - socket like most cars are wired but every combination I tried made all of the lights flash....again the lighting control module was doing some magic!! lol

So I took a simpler approach and divided the trucks tail light into 2 sections and installed another 1157 socket and bulb.

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In the end this turned out to be the easiest and best solution, I used a thick piece of brass stock to make a divider and soldered it to one side of the housing, then used RTV to seal up any voids that light could escape into the other side so they don't compete or bleed light into each other, in the end it looks really cool, a lot better than I thought it would. I drilled a hole in the back of the housing for the 2nd light and used a off the shelf Dorman socket that snaps in, I bent the tabs on the socket to secure it and again used RTV to make it water tight.

I pre-wired pigtails to the sockets that were long enough to be fed out the bottom of the bed so all my connections would be made under the truck.

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The back up light in the pictures above are just Grote replacements, they are a little big (bigger than I would have liked) but the truck has had several different backup lights installed on it in it's life the holes in the roll pan were rather large and I needed something that would fill them, these light worked, were cheap, and are damn bright.

I removed the original license plate light and cleaned it up, I couldn't find a LED bulb to fit under the glass housing so I just put it back together since it worked anyway.

Finding all the CV wiring for the tail lights, license plate light, back up lights, etc was easy, the original harness used plugs at the tail lights and the harness was long enough ran through the back corner of the drivers side of the cab and along the frame to reach the rear of the truck without adding any wire, I even reused the plug from the CV lights that was in the trunk originally under the truck to make my connections cutting down the pig-tails I made on each side and grafting the plugs to my wiring, in the future it should make adding trailer wiring somewhat easier.

The license plate light and back up lights were in another plug that would have terminated in the trunk of the CV these wires I did have to run to reach the lights, but left the rest of the plug intact in case I need other circuits out of it in the future.

Next I'll cover the front....

Jon
Blanger
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Re: '62 F100 Uni - yes another Crown Vic swap

Post by Blanger »

Front lighting..

Along with LEDs we are also a big fan of Halogen headlights in older vehicles, the old 7" sealed beams were just not very bright when they were new, add a faulty or loose connection and they were really dim, I've used these United Pacific headlights in 3 or 4 cars now and they seem to be really good quality for the price, they have replaceable bulbs, are made of real glass, they come in several different configurations with and without LEDs that can be used different ways.

For the truck I really wanted halos like a lot of new cars have so I chose a pair of these....

http://www.uapac.com/antique/headlights ... light.html

I wired the LEDs for constant running whenever the ignition switch is on so they are now daylight running lights.

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We used a different style in the Camaro that I wired to mimic the running - turning lights so they work in tandem on that car with the existing park lights - turn signals and work well.

The headlight connections from the CV wiring was short on both sides since it's path in the engine bay changed due to the slicks radiator support so I had to lengthen those wires along with the park - turn signal lights, I also had to replace the headlight plugs to something that would fit the headlights which is the standard 3 prong connection 7" lights use, Dorman makes the connectors and you can buy a pair for around $12, they are rubber and seal the wiring connection at the back of the light well.

I had one park light socket that had cracked and wouldn't hold a bulb so again I used the same socket I had used in the tail lights to replace the original, I had to enlarge the hole in the light housing for the new socket and cut a relief or hole in the radiator support for the socket to clear and the grill assembly to bolt back up without causing stress on the socket or wires.

Wiring was simple, nothing out of the ordinary, everything worked on the first try, I mounted the resistors for the LEDs to the radiator support and kinda' made a lighting harness out of all the wiring that allows me to remove the grill assembly and lay it it front of the truck without disconnection any wiring or plugs, since I made it a serviceable assembly that is easy to get to the wiring I'll never have to touch it again...lol

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Next post we'll move inside for the real fun.

Jon
Blanger
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Re: '62 F100 Uni - yes another Crown Vic swap

Post by Blanger »

Before we talk about the inside wiring I wanted to say that I'm really happy with how the under-hood wiring and components turned out, I won't say it looks like factory but it's clean and neat and would fool people who are not car - truck people.

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Everything has a place that is close to it's location in the CV with the exception of the battery, everything is mounted and I really haven't eliminated anything yet but I'm having a hard time finding a place for the windshield washer tank - pump, I have the original washer fluid bag from the truck that is still in good shape so I may find a location for it and use a external pump to squirt fluid, just haven't got to that point yet.

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Internal wiring

First we'll start with the ignition switch, like I said yesterday the wiring came down to basically 3 wires that needed to be connected to the slicks switch, in the CV wiring for it's ignition switch you had basically 3 groups of wires, one group was hot (powered) all the time from the power distribution box, one group that was being switched on by the CV ignition switch, and a starter engage (solenoid) wire that pulls the solenoid on the starter in and makes it turn.

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I originally just ganged the wires into groups soldered them together and used a wire from each group to connect to the slicks ignition switch, this was a temporary solution since I wasn't sure what kind of load was going to be passing through the slicks old switch, I've since moved the wires to buss bars or terminal blocks instead of them just being soldered together in a group, it's a more permanent solution that isolates each circuit at the block so again if I ever have to revisit it it'll be easy to test.

The headlight switch was just about as easy, again I'm dealing with a low load circuit since the lighting module is doing all the work, it was also just 3 wires that had to be connected to the switch, one was hot all the time from the power distribution box, one was for parking lights or running lights, the other was for the headlights, I will later have to use another terminal on the switch for the dash lights, the CV uses a separate switch for dash lights that includes a dimmer and of course the lighting module controls all of this, I may just use this switch since it's a small rocker switch if I can find a location for it that is out of sight, I can't imagine wanting to increase or decrease the dash lights once it's at a proper level so I may just cable tie it to the harness under the dash that will still allow me access should I want to change the brightness of the lights.

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One other thing, on our truck the orientation of the controls was from left to right ignition switch, wiper switch, headlight switch in that order, I changed the placement of the headlight and wiper switches swapping them so the orientation now is ignition switch, headlight switch, wiper switch, it just seemed to make more sense to me or maybe I'm a little OCD not really sure but I like it better this way...lol

The next task was the multi-function switch that controls the turn signals, wipers, and high - low beam headlights including the hazard switch also, these once again are low current circuits that the lighting module controls.....

I'll cover it and the blower motor along with the wipers in the next post.

I forgot to mention the EVAP canister, while I was doing the rear end wiring I mounted the EVAP on the underside of the bed where the spare tire would have hung, all the connections reached and it is close to where it was in the CV, it also allowed the CEL to go out since it could now activate the purge solenoid....lol

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Jon
bruceandersson
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Re: '62 F100 Uni - yes another Crown Vic swap

Post by bruceandersson »

Impressive work. I've always found wiring to appear overwhelming if you look at a harness/system as a whole. It becomes fairly simple when you reduce your focus to a single circuit/use. I like your approach, thanks for taking the time to document this for the rest of us.
Blanger
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Re: '62 F100 Uni - yes another Crown Vic swap

Post by Blanger »

bruceandersson wrote:Impressive work. I've always found wiring to appear overwhelming if you look at a harness/system as a whole. It becomes fairly simple when you reduce your focus to a single circuit/use. I like your approach, thanks for taking the time to document this for the rest of us.
Thanks Bruce,

I agree, looking at all the wiring as a whole is scary to a lot of people which is why I think a lot of CV frame swaps use a aftermarket wiring harness it does make it a easier process once you find a place to put the fuse panel, but on a circuit by circuit basis it's just switching things off and on, nothing really complicated and if you look at it from that perspective it gets easier. Using the existing CV harness like I'm doing is the very same thing but does require documentation like a complete vehicle wiring diagram for the connector pin-outs, color codes of the wires, and a schematic of where the wires come from and go to, it would be a impossible task without this information.

In the CV harness there is just so much wiring that will never be used in the slick that has to be removed, there were connectors I had to bridge or by-pass that use to be hidden in kick-panels, there just wasn't enough wire length to hide the connectors under the dash so I bridged the connector and removed it. The wiring that runs through the truck on the drivers side going to the fuel pump, tail lights, etc was in the CV ran in flat plastic conduit on the CV floor, I cut these down (length) and reused them in the truck to protect the wiring, I ran the sound deadening - insulation (DynaMat like stuff) right up to the conduit so it only creates a slight bulge in rubber floor mat.

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Even after thinning the harness there is still lots of wires that will never be used, or has the potential not to be used depending on your wants or needs, like the windshield wipers, our CV of course uses a wiper module for the intermittent speeds, I left all of that wiring intact but for the time being I'll just power the old slicks switch and use the original wiring to the slicks wiper motor, in the future I plan on making a adapter for the CV wiper motor to mate it to the slicks wiper transmission so I can use that circuit and have intermittent wipers. There are other circuits I left like the 3rd brake light, all the radio - speaker wiring (doubtful I'll use the factory wiring...but), dome light even though the slick doesn't have door switches but of course could be added at any point, I even left the circuits for the rear trunk release and fuel door popper as I figured at at some point I may use those circuits for something since they both just used a momentary switch to activate, I plan on adding a bed cover so some lighting in that area might be needed to see in the bed at night, I was just a little hesitant to just remove everything but the basic stuff and have to go back in 6 months and tear everything apart to run more wires to replace what I had previously removed...lol

Anyway thanks for the kind words..

Jon
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Re: '62 F100 Uni - yes another Crown Vic swap

Post by Blanger »

Horn & Cruse Control

A couple items I haven't mentioned have been the horn (other than the button...lol) and cruse control, both of these circuits terminate in the steering wheel of the CV and do not go through the multi-function switch although the horn is controlled by the lighting module, not real sure about the cruse but I'd assume it's all just ran off the cruse control box out under the hood, so it was one lone plug in the harness that had both circuits in it, the horn was nothing more than one wire that when grounded pulled the horn relay in sounding the horn (horn relay is inside the lighting control module) so that was about as simple as you can get to adapt to the new steering column and horn button.

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The cruse control uses 3 wires in the plug, one is a ground, the other two either power the cruse control on or turn it off (basically a rocker switch with ground as the common) I really only need the ON side of this circuit since tapping the brake pedal has the same effect as pushing the off button, I do need the set function from the other switch on the other side of the wheel, but don't need the "coast - resume - accel" functions so really just two momentary switches will give me functioning cruse control.

I haven't mentioned that I'm going to be building a console that will house a radio, cup holders, a small storage area, and a few switches, the cruse control buttons will be placed in this console within easy reach of the driver, I don't want the on the dash or on the steering wheel, most of my driving will be in town but occasionally the truck could be on the highway for a couple hour trip and cruse will be a nice thing to have then.

Next week I'll cover the multi-function switch, I need to take a few more pictures before I make that post.

Jon
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Re: '62 F100 Uni - yes another Crown Vic swap

Post by 36truck »

Very nice build lots of attention to details. I like the stance your truck has. Welcome also from the big sky.
Tom Williams
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Re: '62 F100 Uni - yes another Crown Vic swap

Post by Blanger »

36truck wrote:Very nice build lots of attention to details. I like the stance your truck has. Welcome also from the big sky.
Thanks Tom

Yeah, the truck sits low....lol it's at CV level, well about where the CV body sat, I had a little front tire rub when turning but pulled the fenders out (top of fender well opening) about a 1" and now its just fine and because of how the fenders are formed you can't tell, the truck body is in such bad shape it really wouldn't matter if you could tell.

Thanks for the kind words.

Jon
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Re: '62 F100 Uni - yes another Crown Vic swap

Post by Blanger »

Misc stuff

Before I go back to the wiring I have a couple other things I wanted to cover and one of them is rust!

Everyone of us that is dealing with a slick that has seen road salt is going to be dealing with massive rust issues, lots of panels that are going to need replacement or repair, my slick was no different needing floor pans, lower a pillars repaired, cab steps and risers, etc, we all know you cut it out and weld in new panels if you have good enough metal to weld to. There are other areas that are just going to be rusty but structurally sound.

The way to deal with these areas has always been to sand and coat with something like Por15 and there is probably not a better product on the market, but there are a few alternatives for the casual rust that comes in a spray can, these are called "rust reformers" or "rust converters" and they if a good product work well, it's basically just a light sand and spray letting the product do it's magic converting the rusty area to a black primer looking surface.

In my experiences the performance of these products are all over the map some work very well others are pure crap.

The best product I have found is this which is available at all the home supply stores.

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But I've tried others that are a total waste of money, I just want to mention them to maybe save others from buying something that is just a waste.

Here's a couple others that I've tried that were a waste of money.

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Both of these products were returned for a refund because they just didn't work, the VHT cans came from Summit and when we contacted them they said they would refund us and to just throw them in the trash which we did, the major issue is that these do not do the conversion unless you put half a can on a very small area, and it still doesn't work like the Rust-Oleum product does with just one application.

Just a little info on my experiences.

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Another thing is I had a local paint supply store mix up some paint in a rattle can that matches the patina of the truck, what I did was take the ash tray out of the truck and they scanned it with their machine, then mixed up the paint based on that amount of fade in the original paint, it turned out great, I wasn't really looking for a exact match just something close to cover the areas where I had used etch primer to cover bare metal, or the red oxide primer that was on the truck from the previous owners.

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3 cans of this was $57 which is kinda' high but cheaper than a quart of paint, thinner, masking, and running the air compressor, this is single stage paint so it has a nice shine to it if you put on several coats, this gives you the ability to get the amount of shine you want from just covered dull to a really nice finish.

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One last thing is this plug that was in the CV trunk, I left it in the harness and I'm sure it's just a test connection but I'm not sure what it actually is, if anyone knows post a comment. thanks.
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Jon
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Re: '62 F100 Uni - yes another Crown Vic swap

Post by Blanger »

Multi-function switch

Hands down the thing in the CV that does the most electrically is the multi function switch, on our CV it handled the wipers, windshield washer, turn signals, headlight dimmer, and hazard flasher.

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As far as I could tell everything except the wipers & washer is controlled by the lighting module, all the wires were low current small diameter wires, I had the pin outs from both connectors that I got from the factory DVD I mentioned in another post, so I started with the turn signals first. I'm mating this wiring to a GM column and GM wiring which most aftermarket columns mimic, finding the light wires (right - left, front - rear) was easy and I made those connections first to remove the wires from the mix, then it gets muddy, the GM diagram showed hot leads coming from the brake light switch, the hazard flasher, and the turn signal flasher to power those circuits, the CV diagram of course uses the lighting control module and no matter which wire I tried the best result I con achieve was to light the lights but no flash at all.

I kept probing and looking for that wire that supplied power to the flashers to make it work on the GM column switch and it just wasn't there, after about 4 hours of trial and error I ran a wire from a hot when ignition is on location to the GM column flasher switch and like magic they worked, the only issue I have to resolve is that the hazard flasher only works with the key on but at least I have working signals....lol

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The washer - wiper circuits I left in it's plug and just tied the connector back on the harness for later use, and used the original slick wiring for it's wiper motor and it's switch, I only replaced the power going to that switch running a new wire to a terminal block inside the cab that is only hot when the ignition is on, wipers work fine. Since I didn't put the CV HVAC box in the truck and I'm using the original slicks heater box I did the blower motor the same way at the same time but added a 20a fuse to that circuit to protect everything, I also installed a shut-off valve in the heater hoses so I can shut off the water supply to the heater. The slick's 292 ran in the 160 degree range (if everything was correct) and so the heater was marginally ok except for the coldest days, the CV of course runs in the 200-220 degree range so the heater performance is like a sauna now, it had to be choked off for summer time driving but it will still heat up through convection, thank goodness for lots of vents to get air in the cab...lol

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Headlight dimmer

I decided to use the standard floor headlight dimmer and bought a new unit and pigtail for it, figuring out the wiring for it was easy it's just 3 wires and all I really had to do was find the wire out of the 3 that was the headlight power that was being switched, of course again these are small wires that are only switching circuits in the lighting module so the big ol' dimmer is way over kill but functions as it's suppose to, the only curve is that the CV had daylight running lights (headlights) and I tried a little to defeat that so the light don't run all the time, best I could do was limit the headlights to working only when the headlight switch is either in "park light" or "headlight" mode which allows me to use the halos in the headlights as daylight running lights and that was the effect I was looking for.

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In another post I mentioned that I'm going to try to mate the CV wiper motor to the slicks wiper transmission (which I think is doable) and I intend to work on that this winter when I have more time at that time I'll use the wires that went to the multi-function switch to come up with a way to turn them off and on and have the intermittent function, the washers I'll probably do much sooner since I think I found a location to either use the CV washer tank-pump (really can be mounted anywhere) or the original slicks bag and a external washer pump just need to devote the time to figuring the best location.

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Horn

What's to say, it was one wire coming out of the CV column that when grounded pulled the relay in the lighting module sounding the horn, it was in the GM column wiring and was in the CV harness at a plug that had the horn and cruse control switches, it doesn't get much easier, I used the original horns from the CV (will replace later) and mounted them to the front of the radiator support behind the grill...they sound a little sick and don't fit the appearance of the truck. lol


Jon
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Re: '62 F100 Uni - yes another Crown Vic swap

Post by Blanger »

General update

Yesterday was finally the maiden voyage for the truck where I could drive the truck around the block. Over the weekend I decided to cut the dash and raise the steering column, it wasn't something I wanted to do, but had to be done because it wasn't going to be safe to drive with the steering wheel so close to the seat even in the tilt-up position. So I dropped the column and cut out a section of the dash trying not to get into the area where the instrument cluster bezel goes (I don't want to have to notch it out), using a cut off wheel in a die grinder I was able to make a semi-round opening that I could use a ball and peen hammer to roll the edge inwards, it took a couple tries to get it to the proper size with enough clearance that it wasn't rubbing on the gear selector housing on the column (don't want to mar that brushed aluminum..lol) but finally it fit, I used the old mount for the slicks pedal assemble and made a couple 1.75" spacers to bolt it up to the column mount.

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I'm pretty happy with the results......

Of course in moving the column up into the dash it threw off my shifter cable adjustment and the truck wouldn't start, I went through a painstaking process the last time I did this where I had to unbolt the arm from the bottom of the column rotate it a bolt hole and put the 4 small bolts back in it, that time it took me 4 hours and I wasn't looking forward to doing it again since now there is even more sheet metal, wires, and obstructions on the truck then there was then. I got the bright idea to just jack the truck up and adjust the switch on the side of the transmission that gives you your backup lights and neutral safety functions, I thought this would be easy since moving the column had stretched the cable past the point of making that "park" connection electrically....so I jacked the truck up, grabbed a 8mm socket and loosened the bolts, turned the switch and tightened the bolts.....tried the starter....nada, didn't work.

I let the truck back down, disconnected the shifter cable from the mount on the firewall to see just where it had to be moved to, as soon as I removed the cable from its bracket I tried and it started so it's very close.... I grabbed a pry bar got between the firewall and the mounting bracket for the cable and bent it down so the cable would snap back in.....wala! it starts!

So fast-forward to later in the day and I'm going to go around the block, actually go down to the gas station and try out my fuel filler to see if it is going to blow fuel out all over me while filling it, I leave the house everything is fine...hey no tire rub this is great....but wait it's not shifting out of low.....shit!

I fuel the truck, go back out on the street heading home and 30 mph is all it'll do and isn't coming out of low at all, back home I start looking on the net for possible problems, check trans fluid it's full and clean, looking on the net it's a ton of horror stories about over used cop cars with bad transmissions, the thing is that before we took the body off the CV I drove it for about a month and it worked just fine, so I started thinking about wiring maybe I missed a ground somewhere, looked and looked but everything looked connected electrically. Then I remembered that the CV had a OD off switch made in the shifter, that couldn't be the problem could it?

I dig up the old CV column again find the OD plug, cut it off the column, find a momentary switch, wire it up, find the plug in the CV harness and plug it in, oh look the OD light goes off and on now, it's about at this time that it really hits me, it's none of this stuff, it's the @#^%& switch on the transmission that I readjusted trying to get it to start earlier. I'm a mechanic and have been for over 40 years (yeah I'm old) and we have been down this road several times when a Ford loses it's neutral safety and won't start, replacing the switch on the selector shaft of the transmission will solve the problem, in fact a lot of the new parts come with a part attached that hold the switch in position because if it's not in the right location guess what? it won't shift correctly!

Yeah yeah I know, jack the truck back up, grab that 8mm socket and ratchet, crawl back under the truck and put the &%^$@#$%^ switch back where it was.....and you know what? it shifts like it's suppose to.

I'm sharing this story because one I think it's funny, and two it might help someone else who has this problem, but hey now I do have a functioning OD off switch in the truck. lol

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Jon
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Re: '62 F100 Uni - yes another Crown Vic swap

Post by Blanger »

Another update

Obviously I'm ahead of my posts progress-wise on the truck although I'm starting to get them aligned with current time so most posts will be up to date or current progress.

So with that in mind yesterday I drove the truck to work for the first time and here are a few observations.

First the truck is a ball to drive, it's both weird and fun, weird because I still remember driving it when it was a '98 CV and basically it runs and drives just the same but has a different feel or vibe, first reason is the CV has VAPS which is a acronym for "Variable Assist Power Steering" which changes the amount of assist the PS pump provides, it basically takes inputs from the steering column, the VSS (Vehicle Speed Sensor), and the TPS (Throttle Position Sensor) and the ECM decides on how much assist to provide in turning the car, this supposedly makes the CV more stable doing high speed maneuvers (less assist) and easier (more assist) to turn in low speed turning like parking or slow speed city driving.

In the chassis swap of course I didn't use the CV steering column opting on a aftermarket column, I did notice the "hall effect switch" on the CV column that tells the ECM about steering wheel position and rotating speed but didn't have a clue what it was for. While driving it last week to the gas station and around the neighborhood (posts from yesterday) I noticed the PS acted a little odd, not bad like no assist although turning while idling was harder than I remembered but nothing really bad just different, driving down the road at say 30 mph the assist is what seems to be normal, at highway speeds 50 mph and above it is stiffer than I remember like it has less assist.

This pic shows the hall effect switch on the old CV column....

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Technically that is how it is suppose to work, the PS pump has a electric solenoid valve in it on the pressure side that limits the amount of fluid or assist that the pump can provide for steering, the loss of the hall effect switch from the CV column has it relying on just the VSS and TPS for input signals telling it what to do, and so far it while different seems to be safe and OK to drive normally but it is something I need to keep a eye on and pay attention to how it is reacting.

If it is going to be a problem or be unsafe I'll have to change the PS pump out to a non-VAPS pump to make it act normally, not a real big deal but something I hadn't considered or even thought about doing this swap. It's just going to take time behind the wheel and some miles to see what happens, and again I'm sharing this to maybe help others in the future so down the road in a future update I'll let everyone know how it turns out.

Everything else works as expected, we have what is left of Irma dropping rain on us yesterday and today so I got to see how the truck reacted to rain and wet streets, I was concern about the weight on the rear tires since most of the bed floor is gone and we shed several hundred pounds off the backend from when it was a CV, on dry pavement it will of course light the tires up because of this if you have a heavy right foot, but it did just fine and the longer I drove on wet streets the more confident I was that there was adequate weight to keep the rear tires planted unless you got stupid. lol

Even the wipers work well enough with new blades on them to keep the windshield clean and vision clear, cab stayed dry with the exception of around the doors since I haven't replaced the door gaskets yet which is going to get done this weekend along with rebuilding the passenger door windows like I did the drivers a few weeks ago. Lighting is just flat out fantastic, the combination of the halogen headlights and LED bulbs make everything bright at night, the headlights are great compared to the old seal beams...like night and day.

The fun part? it's a '62 F-100 SWB uni, it's sits low, it handles and rides like a CV, has a shit-ton of power compared to the old 292, it has 4 wheel disk brakes with functioning anti-lock so it'll stop on a dime, it's not something you see everyday and although the body of the truck is just wasted it's going to be a cool old truck to drive everyday that will be very reliable. I won't have to worry about parking lot dings or some idiot opening their door and scratching the nice paint job, my goal is to make people not want to park next to it in fear that I'll open my door into their $50k rig...lol So the worse the exterior of the truck looks the more I like it, yes I want it mechanically sound and safe to drive, but look pretty...naw.

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A couple other observations, the brake pedal is too high off the floor, I knew this might be a issue but wanted to have a seat and actually drive the truck to make a judgment and yes I'll have to cut a notch in the back of it and move it closer to the floor then weld it back so it's nice and strong, I should have done this earlier but just wasn't sure how much to move it, now I have a decent idea since I can sit in the seat and move my feet back and forth between the pedals.

The truck rattles around a lot, granted I only have about half the bolts in all the front end sheet metal holding it in place, and the passenger door of course the window is flopping around since all the weatherstripping is wore out, it has its creeks and moans since it's settling down to it's new body mounts with new rubber that is compressing finding it's home....but all in all the transplant seems to be a success and I'm looking forward to putting some miles on it.

The last thing is the seat, we opted to keep the original bench seat and have a new cover on order for it (4 weeks away), we have the seat right now with 3" of foam rapped in burlap hog ringed to the frame with a blanket covering it, while it's comfy I think it's too much foam, the original cover really didn't have much in the way of foam padding just some cotton fabric covering the springs and a little bit of foam in the seat cover itself, I guess we'll see what we can do when the seat cover arrives.

When we took the slick apart the headliner had a mouse nest in it with live mice, it had been used for a nest for years and you can imagine what it was like, we were able to trace a pattern off of it before throwing it away, I have sound deaden-er yet to add to the cab roof which should cut down on some noise, we are just not sure yet what we are going to use to replace the headliner but I do have a few ideas floating around..

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So I'm on my second day of driving to work and it was raining pretty good this morning, but the truck did fine, funny thing everyone keeps asking what color are you going to paint it or are you just going to shoot clear on it to preserve the patina, when I tell them I'm leaving it as it is (well aged) I get the funny-est looks...lol

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Jon
Last edited by Blanger on September 13, 2017, 1:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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