When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Previously I mentioned the fuel gauge did not give a reading for the full sweep of the gauge for the Aux tank. Today I decided to remove the fuel sender and check it with an ohm meter. I'm glad you can remove the sender fairly easily without having to remove the tank. I am surprised at how different the insides of these tanks were. The rear tank... I replaced that one... it really wasn't bad. In fact, it's was impressive how clean it was. The sender in that tank looked pretty clean as well. When I pulled the sender from the Aux tank... now that was a different story! It was pretty rusty looking. I couldn't see in the tank, but I ran my finger in the hole and felt the inner wall... felt like a good bit of surface rust in there and the tip of my finger was orange. Well, I plan on seeing about getting that one cleaned and get a coating in there,
So examining the sender... I put the meter on it and got around 60 ohms on one end, and 7 on the other end. The middle range of the sender gave me sporadic readings. I took off the cover for the wiper. There was a little rust in there as well. I used some parts cleaner and a toothbrush to clean the inside up a bit, then put it back together. Then used a small wire brush and parts cleaner to clean up the rest of the sender. Checked it with the meter again and got a nice smooth increase in my reading from one side to the other! Awesome! Should work fine now.
I also found that the little float barrel had a tiny crack in it and was half full of fuel. Still had enough airspace to keep it afloat, but figured sooner or later it would get to where it would sink and stay sunk! Since the new rear tank also got a new sender, I unsnapped the float off the old rear tank sender and swapped it with the front tank float. Put it all back together and went to the gas station to give it 10 gallons and watch the needle. It read just as I expected it should... success!
Being that I know what the inside of this Aux tank is like (and the source of the crap I get in the clear paper element filter I installed), I'll just use the rear tank till it's time to get the front tank lined. That will have to wait till February... as I am about to return to sea in another week or so (I am a sailor) and it can be dealt with after my return.
What a beauty Charlie XLT! Especially the bedcover. Looks perfect. Also the interior. Perhaps you have done all the work by now?
I have some questions for you since I also do have a 1977 Supercab:
- What kind of speakers does it originally have in de back of a Supercab? I have to aftermarket wooden boxes when I bought it.... I want to change it, but don't know what is the best option or what was in it originally
- I have bought a Retrosound Radio and mounted it. It fits perfect, but I can't get the heater panel flush too the dash. I can put my finger in it. Does anyone know what is the right way to mount the heater panel back in? I've searched Youtube and this forum.....
- Is it correct that the ALT meter is always in the middle? When the car is running and when the car is off?
- I have switched my light in the dash to green LED. Now I can't read the dial for the shifter anymore.....I put in the original light back in. Is there another way to keep the green light, but to see the dial?
- What is the original light colour for the dash of a 1977 F150?
@ Rougeriver: What a great shine you've got there! What did you use to get the shine back in? Mine is light blue en original paint, but can use a good rub. I want to know what to use.
What a beauty Charlie XLT! Especially the bedcover. Looks perfect. Also the interior. Perhaps you have done all the work by now?
I have some questions for you since I also do have a 1977 Supercab:
- What kind of speakers does it originally have in de back of a Supercab? I have to aftermarket wooden boxes when I bought it.... I want to change it, but don't know what is the best option or what was in it originally
- I have bought a Retrosound Radio and mounted it. It fits perfect, but I can't get the heater panel flush too the dash. I can put my finger in it. Does anyone know what is the right way to mount the heater panel back in? I've searched Youtube and this forum.....
- Is it correct that the ALT meter is always in the middle? When the car is running and when the car is off?
- I have switched my light in the dash to green LED. Now I can't read the dial for the shifter anymore.....I put in the original light back in. Is there another way to keep the green light, but to see the dial?
- What is the original light colour for the dash of a 1977 F150?
@ Rougeriver: What a great shine you've got there! What did you use to get the shine back in? Mine is light blue en original paint, but can use a good rub. I want to know what to use.
Thanx for the answers!!![/QUOTE]
Thanks for the compliments! It looks a little better nowadays. I had it repainted and put a spray-in bedliner in it...
The only speakers are in the doors. I replaced the driver side speaker, and it was so much of a pain in the ***** getting the door cover back on correctly that I did not bother doing the passenger side. Thank goodness only the driver speaker was shot. The stereo is the original factory stereo. It plays okay, but the stations drift. I plan on pulling it out and rebuilding the guts. Replacing all the electrolytic capacitors in there should make things better. The new capacitors will be better quality that what was available back in the 70's. I recently rebuilt the radio in my 71 Charger... it was a huge improvement once I got it reinstalled. Out of the 12 capacitors I changed, two of them were completely shot and one was questionable.
As far as the heater controls go, was it fine before you took it apart??
The Alternator gauge should typically be in the middle. When you first start the truck, you will see it move a little to the right, but only for a few moments and then back to the middle. If the engine isn't running, and say you turn on the headlights, you should see it move to the left (showing a discharge). Many times, these do not really move that much. The one in my 79 F100 hardly moved at all. I removed the gauge cluster, cleaned all the contacts on the multi connector, and gave it a new printed circuit. The gauge worked perfectly after that. If you removed your cluster, you can (one at a time) remove the little nuts on the back of the gauge, rub a little alcohol on the printed circuit with a cotton swab where the nut makes contact, and re-install the nut. This should make a noticeable difference. This particular gauge is very touchy if the contacts are dirty. Wouldn't hurt to clean contacts on the multi connector as well.
PRNDL light... did the LED light work at all when it was first installed? Did you take it out and re-install it 180 degrees and try again?
The dash lights have a greenish-blue-ish tint from the factory. That is accomplish by the little blue bulb covers installed in the cluster housing. The inside of the cluster housing may be tinted blue as well.
Your PRNDL light might have had a little thin plastic blue bulb cover that just slips over the end of the bulb... is my guess. My truck is a 3 on the tree... so no light for me.
Thanks for the compliments! It looks a little better nowadays. I had it repainted and put a spray-in bedliner in it...
The only speakers are in the doors. I replaced the driver side speaker, and it was so much of a pain in the ***** getting the door cover back on correctly that I did not bother doing the passenger side. Thank goodness only the driver speaker was shot. The stereo is the original factory stereo. It plays okay, but the stations drift. I plan on pulling it out and rebuilding the guts. Replacing all the electrolytic capacitors in there should make things better. The new capacitors will be better quality that what was available back in the 70's. I recently rebuilt the radio in my 71 Charger... it was a huge improvement once I got it reinstalled. Out of the 12 capacitors I changed, two of them were completely shot and one was questionable.
As far as the heater controls go, was it fine before you took it apart??
The Alternator gauge should typically be in the middle. When you first start the truck, you will see it move a little to the right, but only for a few moments and then back to the middle. If the engine isn't running, and say you turn on the headlights, you should see it move to the left (showing a discharge). Many times, these do not really move that much. The one in my 79 F100 hardly moved at all. I removed the gauge cluster, cleaned all the contacts on the multi connector, and gave it a new printed circuit. The gauge worked perfectly after that. If you removed your cluster, you can (one at a time) remove the little nuts on the back of the gauge, rub a little alcohol on the printed circuit with a cotton swab where the nut makes contact, and re-install the nut. This should make a noticeable difference. This particular gauge is very touchy if the contacts are dirty. Wouldn't hurt to clean contacts on the multi connector as well.
PRNDL light... did the LED light work at all when it was first installed? Did you take it out and re-install it 180 degrees and try again?
The dash lights have a greenish-blue-ish tint from the factory. That is accomplish by the little blue bulb covers installed in the cluster housing. The inside of the cluster housing may be tinted blue as well.
Your PRNDL light might have had a little thin plastic blue bulb cover that just slips over the end of the bulb... is my guess. My truck is a 3 on the tree... so no light for me.
Hi
You can see your truck has more shine! Looks great! What where the cost of repainting? I'm considering, but I think it is very expensive.....
Did you use Raptor liner for your bed?
How cool that you build the radio yourself! I'm very glad with RetroSound radio. It sounds great. So only speakers in the doors....The previous owner put in some own build speakers in wood....Not the best option. I'm thinking to build them under the rear seats..what do you think? Or just in de same place, but better looking?
- Heater was good originally, so I'm doing something wrong, but don't understand what it is....
- Does it make a difference to turn the light a 180 degrees? I got de bulb caps out so I have more light...Do you know what is the strongest light (halogen) I can put in. Perhaps I want to switch back to originally white lights.
Yes, it makes a difference on turning the lights 180 degrees. LED lights are diodes. They only work one way... just like a diode in an electronic circuit. On bulbs that can be installed either way, only one of those ways will work for LED's.
I have LED's in my dash, except for the radio... in both my F150 and my 71 Charger. It's too much of a pain to change the radio dial light IMO. Many of these LED bulbs fail... they start flickering... it's VERY annoying! I don't know why they say LED's last longer than incandescents. I've had to replace more LED bulbs in the past 3 years due to flickering than I have incandescent bulbs in the past 20 years! I've seen some fail after just a few weeks! Just a week ago, I changed a flickering LED in the AC controls of my Charger. Thank God it was easy to get to!! In my experience so far, it seems that these LED's you buy online for a cheap price are the ones that start wigging out on you prematurely. If you go to the store and buy a name brand bulb off the shelf... say a Sylvania bulb... these seem to last. But because it's a Sylvania, you're going to pay ten dollars or more for that ONE bulb. With all this being said, if I were to have an automatic transmission on the column, I would use the expensive Sylvania LED light, or just stick to a plain old incandescent bulb for the PRNDL indicator. Being that you must remove the steering wheel to change a light bulb, I would find that to be too much of a pain in the *** and be pretty upset if a cheap LED light started flickering right there on the steering column as I was driving at night!
I also use LED's for side markers. They work great there. They give great light and reduce the load on the lights circuit. I do NOT use them for front and rear turn signal/brake lights. They often will produce LESS light because the light housing was designed around an incandescent bulb... not and LED. Also, depending on the vehicle, they can cause other gremlins in the light circuits (in our trucks, they can cause issues when used in the front turn signals). And of course, in addition to buying light bulbs, you would likely need to buy a new flasher to work with the new bulbs... so more money spent on something that likely worked just fine with plain old incandescent bulbs!
Did you get the AC/heat controls back in place correctly? In that last photo, it looks like they're in there pretty good.
You want to repaint that truck? I think it looks really nice as it is! At first glance, I assumed it had already been repainted! My paint and bed liner cost me 8k. This also comes with a lifetime warranty. If my paint starts to fail years later, they will repaint it. Your truck, at the same shop, would be less. Your truck has far less trim to be removed, and had no running boards. The shop I went to removes EVERYTHING. Even all the glass came out. Because of this, I bought all new gaskets... even window channel kits for the door glass.
If your front windshield gasket is good and has no cracks, consider re-using it instead of buying a new one. It seems the new replacement gaskets for the front glass can be a bugger to deal with if you have the one with the chrome strip in it. My green truck glass still isn't "just right". I also have an F350 that needs a new glass. A buddy of mine that runs a 50+ year family glass shop told me to re-use to old gasket... it's far better quality. He says that it helps a lot if you get some Armor All (or something similar) and start applying it to the rubber every day for a couple of weeks before removing the glass. It will help in softening the rubber and allow you to re-use that original gasket. If you see a lot of cracks in the corners, then the rubber should be replaced.
I don't know what brand the spray liner is. There is a 4 wheel drive truck shop that does lifts, stereos, and bed liners right down the street from the body shop. Once my truck was painted, they brought it down there and had the liner sprayed in.
Your speaker boxes... since your truck has rear jump seats, you have more room for ideas back there. My truck has the folding bench seat. If that was mine, I think I would try to come up with something a little better looking. I bet there's a lot of guys around here that have pictures of nice speaker set-ups that could give you LOTS of ideas. Also, covering that rear bulkhead with carpet would reduce road noise and probably keep your speakers from sounding like they were in the bottom of a well.
Yes, it makes a difference on turning the lights 180 degrees. LED lights are diodes. They only work one way... just like a diode in an electronic circuit. On bulbs that can be installed either way, only one of those ways will work for LED's.
I have LED's in my dash, except for the radio... in both my F150 and my 71 Charger. It's too much of a pain to change the radio dial light IMO. Many of these LED bulbs fail... they start flickering... it's VERY annoying! I don't know why they say LED's last longer than incandescents. I've had to replace more LED bulbs in the past 3 years due to flickering than I have incandescent bulbs in the past 20 years! I've seen some fail after just a few weeks! Just a week ago, I changed a flickering LED in the AC controls of my Charger. Thank God it was easy to get to!! In my experience so far, it seems that these LED's you buy online for a cheap price are the ones that start wigging out on you prematurely. If you go to the store and buy a name brand bulb off the shelf... say a Sylvania bulb... these seem to last. But because it's a Sylvania, you're going to pay ten dollars or more for that ONE bulb. With all this being said, if I were to have an automatic transmission on the column, I would use the expensive Sylvania LED light, or just stick to a plain old incandescent bulb for the PRNDL indicator. Being that you must remove the steering wheel to change a light bulb, I would find that to be too much of a pain in the *** and be pretty upset if a cheap LED light started flickering right there on the steering column as I was driving at night!
I also use LED's for side markers. They work great there. They give great light and reduce the load on the lights circuit. I do NOT use them for front and rear turn signal/brake lights. They often will produce LESS light because the light housing was designed around an incandescent bulb... not and LED. Also, depending on the vehicle, they can cause other gremlins in the light circuits (in our trucks, they can cause issues when used in the front turn signals). And of course, in addition to buying light bulbs, you would likely need to buy a new flasher to work with the new bulbs... so more money spent on something that likely worked just fine with plain old incandescent bulbs!
Did you get the AC/heat controls back in place correctly? In that last photo, it looks like they're in there pretty good.
You want to repaint that truck? I think it looks really nice as it is! At first glance, I assumed it had already been repainted! My paint and bed liner cost me 8k. This also comes with a lifetime warranty. If my paint starts to fail years later, they will repaint it. Your truck, at the same shop, would be less. Your truck has far less trim to be removed, and had no running boards. The shop I went to removes EVERYTHING. Even all the glass came out. Because of this, I bought all new gaskets... even window channel kits for the door glass.
If your front windshield gasket is good and has no cracks, consider re-using it instead of buying a new one. It seems the new replacement gaskets for the front glass can be a bugger to deal with if you have the one with the chrome strip in it. My green truck glass still isn't "just right". I also have an F350 that needs a new glass. A buddy of mine that runs a 50+ year family glass shop told me to re-use to old gasket... it's far better quality. He says that it helps a lot if you get some Armor All (or something similar) and start applying it to the rubber every day for a couple of weeks before removing the glass. It will help in softening the rubber and allow you to re-use that original gasket. If you see a lot of cracks in the corners, then the rubber should be replaced.
I don't know what brand the spray liner is. There is a 4 wheel drive truck shop that does lifts, stereos, and bed liners right down the street from the body shop. Once my truck was painted, they brought it down there and had the liner sprayed in.
Thanx for your great reply!
- I've ordered new 194 lightbulbs with more light to change for the LED setup I have now. Is more original and I'm not really convinced of the LED's.....Let's see how it looks
- AC was correct. I place a picture of how it is now..... What do you think? See the big gap between the unit and the bezel
- I think I'm not going to repaint is, but will do an extra layer of clear coat to protect the patina of the truck.
- For the speakers, I don't like to hang them high. I'm looking for pictures indeed of solutions from others here. I can't open the link cause I'm in the Netherlands....I think I wil look for a nicer box or make one myself and put carpet over them and upholders for the back passengers perhaps.....I think I have room enough
11-10-2017 | 06:20 PM
