Goodbye to an Old Friend

"Urambo Tauro" (urambotauro)
03/05/2018 at 12:30 • Filed to: one last ride, wrenching, Ford F-150

A friend passed away recently, leaving behind this truck and a lot of memories.

Instead of working on the Saab, my brother and I spent some time addressing a few items that he wanted taken care of in his last few days, as his family would soon be taking over driving the ’ol Ferd. He was the kind of guy who could tolerate a few quirks on his car, but he didn’t want his family to have to deal with such hassles after his cancer had fully taken its toll.

Potato pic of chewed vacuum line

First on the list was addressing the truck’s under-performing heater. Before bringing the truck home to work on it, I found a chewed-up vacuum line under the hood, and put a piece of tape over it in hopes that that would fix it. Alas, no. Also before getting on the road, I gently removed the photo of his wife & kids that he had tucked into the corner of the gauge cluster, so that I could read the temperature gauge. Lo and behold, it never even got warm, despite a good half-hour of driving.

We confirmed with a thermometer that the thermostat housing wasn’t getting hot enough (about 180°), so the first order of business was to replace the t-stat. I expected to find it stuck open, but it was closed. Putting it in hot water opened it, but it didn’t move smoothly. So I had no confidence in re-using it.

Since we had to drain some of the coolant anyway, we took the opportunity to try flushing the heater core !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . While the rest of the coolant was a fairly healthy shade of green, the stuff coming out of the heater core looked quite different.

From the heater core

There was definitely a circulation problem. The previous owner before him had hacked several things on this truck, and one of those items that may or may not have had an effect was that the heater core hoses were swapped from the stock routing. Does it matter? Maybe, maybe not. A clean heater core would probably have more of an effect here. But I still feel better returning the hoses to the stock flow.

All of that was enough to restore heat, but the temp gauge still wouldn’t rise. The ECT sensor was providing the correct resistance, but that’s for the computer, not the gauge. After poking around online for a bit, I discovered the sender’s location near the back of the engine, under the straight-6's intake manifold. Sure enough, it wasn’t giving the right amount of resistance for the gauge to read. So we drained a little coolant back out of the engine, and I replaced the sender.

View of sender, looking upward from LF wheel area

This time, the gauge worked, just like the heat was now. I couldn’t bring myself to cover the gauge back up with his family photo, but ultimately that would be his choice to make. He loved this truck, but his love for his family was far deeper.

Before returning the truck to him, he added a few more things to the list, wanting the truck in tip-top shape for his family. We replaced a window motor, the hazy headlamp housings, and got his horn working again, too. A new clockspring took care of not only that, but also restored cruise control function and stopped the flashing airbag light.

That haze would not buff out.

The truck was returned to him, and he was able to go for one last ride in it. He’s gone now, but this truck will continue to live on in his memory. RIP, old buddy.

DISCUSSION (17)

$kaycog > Urambo Tauro
03/05/2018 at 12:43

I’m sorry for your loss.

Duck Duck Grey Duck FTMFW! > Urambo Tauro
03/05/2018 at 12:46

Sorry for your loss.

Urambo Tauro > $kaycog
03/05/2018 at 12:46

Thanks. He always had great stories to tell. Of family, friends, and cruising Woodward. He’ll be missed.

shop-teacher > Urambo Tauro
03/05/2018 at 12:47

Sorry for your loss.

All this saw dust in here is messing me up something fierce.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Urambo Tauro
03/05/2018 at 12:48

What a nice post and what good friends you are. You could make a note of the odometer reading and change the oil and rotate the tires for them each 5,000 miles, if you wanted, as a lasting memorial to your pal. Then you’d have the opportunity to inspect the brakes and fluids and such a couple times a year.

HondoyotaE38: A Japanese and German Collab...wait a minute > Urambo Tauro
03/05/2018 at 12:55

Fuck cancer. Really sorry for your loss. Need anything, just tell me and I’ll try to help.

Chariotoflove > Urambo Tauro
03/05/2018 at 12:55

You did the Lord’s work. Good job.

Mechanically > Urambo Tauro
03/05/2018 at 12:55

What a great read. That’s possibly my favorite generation F150. From what you describe, seems fitting for such a great guy. My condolences.

Urambo Tauro > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
03/05/2018 at 12:59

That’s not a bad idea.

Y’know, it wasn’t one of the more important bucket list items, but one of the things he had on his mind a while ago was changing the rear diff oil. It was quickly forgotten when his condition took a turn for the worse, though. So that’s one thing I’ll probably be doing at some point.

Dash-doorhandle-6 cyl none the richer > Urambo Tauro
03/05/2018 at 13:00

Sad to hear. But good on the buddies for fixing his ride.

RallyWrench > Urambo Tauro
03/05/2018 at 13:23

Good on you, that’s powerful stuff. Sorry for the loss of your friend, great work keeping his machine in service and memories alive.

PartyPooper2012 > Urambo Tauro
03/05/2018 at 13:35

Sorry for your lost, fam. Sounds like he was one of us.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Urambo Tauro
03/05/2018 at 13:39

If it was anywhere on his list, then you demonstrate your love for him by marking it off the list. This is a great opportunity to stay in touch with your friend’s family and they will appreciate it very much and so would your friend. And you needn’t be shy about letting them reimburse you for the supplies, if they offer, or even your time. No shop would apply the TLC that you would. Good stuff, Mister!

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Urambo Tauro
03/05/2018 at 13:43

I’m curious to know a bit more about your friend: how you knew him, how old he was... Do you mind?

AfromanGTO > Urambo Tauro
03/05/2018 at 13:58

I’m sorry for your loss. You did a great thing getting the Ford truck in good shape for his family. My wife and I lost a friend to cancer a few weeks before our wedding.

Urambo Tauro > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
03/05/2018 at 14:01

Not at all. He was a neighbor for a long time, and we teamed up on things like wrenching, splitting wood, house renovation, etc. He was approaching 60 years of age when he left, and leaned towards pickup trucks as a favorite form of transportation. (This ’94 Ford was preceded by a ’90 Chevy, and before that, a ’94 GMC.)

E92M3 > Urambo Tauro
03/05/2018 at 15:04

What a good friend you are, sorry about your loss.