Truck Project - Part 14 - Our Ford Truck Project Needs to be Cool - Page 2

Whoops!

We had laid out the two chrome top hose replacements, along with their rubber hose adapters and clamps. We then started looking for the offset thermostat housings that are required for clearance around the alternator/compressos, and the new belt. After looking through all the boxes twice, we realized that the components weren't on hand. That meant we'd have to contact the supplier and obtain the necessary parts.

Another thing came to our attention as well. When we placed the chrome water tubes between the radiator and thermostat housings we saw that they were at least 3 inches too long (and this didn't even allow for the rubber hose connectors!)

Looking at the chassis frame carefully, we noted that there were two mounting holes, just about 3 inches forward of the two holes that our radiator-support was utilizing. These holes had exactly the same center-to-center spacing as the two we were using. Logic would dictate, then, that the radiator was mounted too far back, thus accounting for the incorrect water hose length.

We concluded, therefore, that if the radiator was too close to the engine that the original fan placement would interfere with the core. We took the original generator/mount/fan assembly off the shelf and measured its total depth from the front face of the intake manifold, and guess what? It fit just fine. Hmmm...

Now What?

We called the supplier and ordered the thermostat housings and belt. They cross-checked the invoice number and found that the parts hadn't been sent originally, so they cheerfully sent us the proper stuff. It arrived quickly, and we installed the new thermostat housings (after painting them) and belt, all of which took only a few minutes.

The newly painted offset thermostat housings are bolted into place.

To double-check the radiator position, we took the time to assemble a fender support bracket (which bolts on to the radiator support) and then held a fender in place, in order to confirm that the radiator support was in the correct position. It turned out it was, so we went to Plan B, the cutting of the chrome pipes.

Once the pipes were trimmed to the proper size, it was just a matter of clamping the pipes/hoses into place.

Once the pipes were "trimmed," we installed them along with the proper hoses. They look great!

Once bent the brackets are fastened to the AC condenser.

The last task was mounting the A/C condensor. It needed to be located about 1-inch in front of the radiator, so we fashioned 4 brackets out of the flat stock provided in the A/C kit. We were careful to use star-washers on all the hardware fixing the condensor to the radiator bracket. In service, the assembly vibrates a bit and we don't want anything coming loose. It took about an hour to form the brackets and mount the assembly, and that was that...

Installing the AC condensor to the radiator.