Meet Ol Smokey! I’m relatively new to this forum, but not new to car audio fomokey

On Saturday I dropped Ol Smokey off at a shop so they can find my oil leak, it's REALLY bad. Like one quart every ten miles, bad. I wanted to fix it sooner, but being home for a few days at a time didn't allow for that. They finally got to look at it today, and they are positive it's the rear main seal. The thing that sucks about it is, replacing that $26 seal requires either pulling the engine, or yanking both driveshafts, the transmission and transfer case. I could easily do it at home, except for the part where I don't have a garage, or flat and level place to work. They told me it's unlikely they'll have it done by Saturday. While they may be slow, it'll cost me under $600. To me, that's worth it so I don't have to do it myself, especially since the whole chassis is coated in a thick layer of oil.


In the meantime, I've rented a Ford Fusion and will go visit my sister in Colorado for a couple days, and on Sunday I leave for a week work in Canada and NYC. When I get back I'll have two weeks to accomplish everything on my checklist. My main priority will be replacing the factory chassis harness.


Also, somehow I lost all my Switchcraft connectors. I tore my place apart looking for them, but zilch. So a couple days ago I ordered some new ones and they came in today. I put them in my dash template and they looked alright:


http://i.imgur.com/g0XcMLih.jpg


But then it occurred to me, they can be rear mounted:


http://i.imgur.com/th6vsOEh.jpg


That looks SO much better. Whats really cool is I can have the final dash piece made with studs on the back, making flush mounting a snap. Hooray for two products coming together in a fantastic way!

I got home from Canada this morning and picked up Ol Smokey from the shop. Not only had the rear main seal failed, but it had completely fallen out. No wonder it was going through so much oil!


It is stupid hot out today, and I'm exhausted from traveling from Toronto, to Montreal, to the Bronx and back to Dallas, so I didn't do much today. I fiddled with the EFI a little and got it idling smoother. Here's a clip of it:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuVM...M&spfreload=10


Tomorrow I'll start in on more mods...

http://i.imgur.com/sTRgGAjh.jpg


Today was ridiculously hot, but I went outside and worked on Ol Smokey anyway. I started the morning with a simple project, replacing the valve covers and installing the oil catch can.


The old stock covers:


http://i.imgur.com/X2v0Upmh.jpg


One cover on:


http://i.imgur.com/gLOEUumh.jpg


The other cover on with the catch can installed:


http://i.imgur.com/wYJ43fIh.jpg


I couldn’t find my Makita, I think it’s on my tour trailer. So I had to improvise and put the catch can on a factory bolt for now. I’ll move it somewhere else once I find my drill, I’ll also replace that dumb blue/green line while I’m at it.


Here’s the engine bay buttoned back up:


http://i.imgur.com/wlYNSHAh.jpg


Then I turned to the interior, I removed the PPI DEQ.8 and installed the JL TwK D8:


http://i.imgur.com/CtUNCN2h.jpg


When installing it I realized that I forgot to buy a long TOSLINK cable, Amazon to the rescue!


Next up I installed the APL-1, optical switch and various cables.


http://i.imgur.com/IqDx4Bch.jpg


Things were going GREAT! I was making good time and things were going smoothly. And then I started to look for a place to put the new fuse block. Under the center of the dash is where I I wanted to put it, but stuff was in the way. I started removing the factory heater controls, I replace the factory HVAC system with an aftermarket one anyway.


My god did Ford install that panel in a stupid with. It was MUCH more difficult to remove than it should have been. Just ridiculous. But I eventually got it out:


http://i.imgur.com/SxJv6Jvh.jpg


I I then started to pull the HVAC wiring and cables, and those were stupid too. I got frustrated and eventually just ripped out the entire HVAC system. All the gear I installed earlier in the day was in the way, so I pulled it too, so much work wasted.


http://i.imgur.com/X52MFGLh.jpg


I forgot to take a picture with all of it gone, but there be plenty of time for that later!
I have to take it in for a state inspection and renew my registration tomorrow, so I buttoned the dash back up.


http://i.imgur.com/QR1gUHwh.jpg


The real fun begins after I get a clean inspection sticker :-)

Dang at the room in that dash!

There's more room than that!

I'll be installing a Vintage Air Gen IV HVAC, it'll be interesting to see how much room is left after that goes in.

Really like what your doing with the ole Bronco. I have a 1990 Bronco. Needs a lot of work. Mine needs an oil blow-by catch can like what you got. Where did you get yours?

I've always been confused about why oil catch cans are so expensive, they are incredibly simple devices. I stumbled upon mine on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Yeah the price on those are high for what they are. The one you got looks like it's pretty well made. I'll look into it. Thanks.

I had to drop into work today. As normal, a trip to the office is never a quick trip. Dropping off receipts turned into 3 hours of making the rounds, discussing the next stop on my tour, the other truck on the tour and how things are gonna go at my off-tour gig, the Ryder Cup.


After that I stopped off to get Ol Smokey inspected, I checked everything yesterday so thought things would go smoothly. Naturally, that didn't happen. My headlights stopped working. Luckily the shop was cool about it and let me poke around a bit to try and find the problem without just punting me. I quickly tracked it down to the relay that turns on the high beams. I was able to quickly yank the the relay used to turn on the amps and replace the high beams relay with it. I got my "Passed" printout, then renewed the registration. Now I have a year to do whatever I want and get it to pass again.


After getting it registered I started hearing a weird sound upfront and the steering started feeling weird. I stopped to check it out, and the left front wheel was loose. In fact, a lug nut had fallen off right when I stopped. Luckily I was right near the shop that just worked on it, they replaced my front pads and rotors when they were replacing the rear main seal.


When they looked at it, there were metal shaving in the wheel, failing to tighten it properly was tearing up the mounting holes. I had them throw my matching full-size spare on and gave them the now damaged wheel. I also dug up the receipt from when I ordered those wheels a little over a year ago. They didn't fight back at all when I told them that I wanted them to replace the wheel. They'll call me when they get the new wheel in and have the tire mounted and balanced.


When I got home I started in on the dash. I didn't get much done, but it's almost at blank canvas status:


http://i.imgur.com/colhaYNh.jpg

How's that for room in the dash?

Today I had to swing by work and learn how to setup and run one of these:


http://i.imgur.com/DAf42wb.jpg


Almost every tech at the company starts in one of these and works their way up to concerts and stuff. I started right off the bat with a tour and skipped the whole truck thing. I gotta do a gig with one of these on Friday night, so it's time I finally learned it.


After that I swung by the hardware store and bought the stuff I'll need to make my new dash frame. This evening my new RivNut tool was delivered, so I can start assembling stuff tomorrow. I also pulled some of the factory harness today, the remote start and the rest of the factory dash frame except for the two end brackets and top bracket. I plan to reuse the factory windshield HVAC ducting. The factory center speaker mount will serve as my reference for where the top of the factory dash was, it'll eventually go away. I also moved all the factory wiring down and out of the way of the new wiring.


Here is what it looks like tonight:


http://i.imgur.com/jpFz7rR.jpg


A couple new parts arrived today as well, a relay box for in the dash that holds 7 micro relays:


http://i.imgur.com/nsIiaFS.jpg


And a 6 relay box with fuse bank for under the hood:


http://i.imgur.com/bwrqYmL.jpg