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Doing some updates to my '75


blksn8k2

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2 minutes ago, blksn8k2 said:

 

I know exactly what you guys are saying, especially about having the time and space. Most of my projects started years ago in an unheated 2 1/2 car garage behind my house in Ohio. Before I retired I bought this property near my old hometown in PA and then added the 40x50 shop so first and foremost I would have a place to keep all my junk under roof and out of the weather. That didn't happen overnight which meant that I spent more time putting up the building, moving everything from Ohio, getting the house in Ohio ready to sell and then improving the attached garage here than I did working on any of my car projects. Most people downsize when they retire. I guess I'm not most people. ?


I'm kinda in the same boat. I want a decent amount of land, with a fair amount of woods where I can hunt and just enough open space for a pole barn and perhaps a second out-building for the eventual model railroad I want to build. The problem I'm running into now is time has become a factor. I already wanted to move sooner rather than later just because I don't like a lot of my neighbors and we're outgrowing our house, but last night my neighbors across the street were the target of a drive-by shooting so my sense of urgency just increased exponentially. 

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Wow! Be safe fuzzy. 

 

You're gonna hate me when I tell you this but I bought a 91 acre property that borders on the property my parents had when I was a kid. One of my sisters and her husband now own the old house. I grew up hunting on the land I now own. At last count I am up to 20 ladder tree stands, seven of which were here when I bought the place. The deer and turkey hunting is awesome! I also added a couple of small ponds and food plots and the previous owner added a small orchard. The property also has a natural gas well and I get free gas. There is also a stocked trout stream which also has native small mouth bass within walking distance.

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2 minutes ago, blksn8k2 said:

Wow! Be safe fuzzy. 

 

You're gonna hate me when I tell you this but I bought a 91 acre property that borders on the property my parents had when I was a kid. One of my sisters and her husband now own the old house. I grew up hunting on the land I now own. At last count I am up to 20 ladder tree stands, seven of which were here when I bought the place. The deer and turkey hunting is awesome! I also added a couple of small ponds and food plots and the previous owner added a small orchard. The property also has a natural gas well and I get free gas. There is also a stocked trout stream which also has native small mouth bass within walking distance.


Can I move in with you? 

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36 minutes ago, fuzzymoomoo said:

but last night my neighbors across the street were the target of a drive-by shooting so my sense of urgency just increased exponentially. 

 

In 2016 I woke up one morning to the police sitting in the driveway of the house next door, securing the property due to a murder that occurred there the night before. My wife & I decided that it was time to move, no matter what the cost.

 

Sad thing was, they were squatters on the property, but the county & local gov closed their eyes to it.  Until somebody died, of course.  The bank that owned the property actually had to pay them to move out.

 

HRG

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24 minutes ago, HotRunrGuy said:

Sad thing was, they were squatters on the property, but the county & local gov closed their eyes to it.  Until somebody died, of course.  The bank that owned the property actually had to pay them to move out.

 

I  never understood how squatters can stay there like that.  Seems to me if you're not the registered owner and you don't have a lease then the owner could have you removed immediately for trespassing.

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23 minutes ago, HotRunrGuy said:

 

In 2016 I woke up one morning to the police sitting in the driveway of the house next door, securing the property due to a murder that occurred there the night before. My wife & I decided that it was time to move, no matter what the cost.

 

Sad thing was, they were squatters on the property, but the county & local gov closed their eyes to it.  Until somebody died, of course.  The bank that owned the property actually had to pay them to move out.

 

HRG


Fortunately no one was hurt last night but it's the latest in a long line of things that have been happening that I don't like. Cars being broken into. 2 summers ago my neighbors 3 doors down got their front door kicked in. It's time to GTFO and move to where my closest neighbor is at least a football field away. 

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5 minutes ago, akirby said:

 

I  never understood how squatters can stay there like that.  Seems to me if you're not the registered owner and you don't have a lease then the owner could have you removed immediately for trespassing.


Squatters rights. Yet another far left public policy that screws over the average public. 

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9 hours ago, blksn8k2 said:

 

I know exactly what you guys are saying, especially about having the time and space. Most of my projects started years ago in an unheated 2 1/2 car garage behind my house in Ohio. Before I retired I bought this property near my old hometown in PA and then added the 40x50 shop so first and foremost I would have a place to keep all my junk under roof and out of the weather. That didn't happen overnight which meant that I spent more time putting up the building, moving everything from Ohio, getting the house in Ohio ready to sell and then improving the attached garage here than I did working on any of my car projects. Most people downsize when they retire. I guess I'm not most people. ?


Yeah, get it.  My projects tend to take a while as well, lol.  I don’t plan to downsize when the time comes.  I want my family to have a place to come to, and the space to for it. 

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9 hours ago, fuzzymoomoo said:


I'm kinda in the same boat. I want a decent amount of land, with a fair amount of woods where I can hunt and just enough open space for a pole barn and perhaps a second out-building for the eventual model railroad I want to build. The problem I'm running into now is time has become a factor. I already wanted to move sooner rather than later just because I don't like a lot of my neighbors and we're outgrowing our house, but last night my neighbors across the street were the target of a drive-by shooting so my sense of urgency just increased exponentially. 

Wow brother, you do have a sense of urgency. When I started reading your post I was thinking, cool another person that likes model railroading, but then you followed up with that doozy.  I hope you can accomplish your move sooner rather than later. 

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9 hours ago, blksn8k2 said:

Wow! Be safe fuzzy. 

 

You're gonna hate me when I tell you this but I bought a 91 acre property that borders on the property my parents had when I was a kid. One of my sisters and her husband now own the old house. I grew up hunting on the land I now own. At last count I am up to 20 ladder tree stands, seven of which were here when I bought the place. The deer and turkey hunting is awesome! I also added a couple of small ponds and food plots and the previous owner added a small orchard. The property also has a natural gas well and I get free gas. There is also a stocked trout stream which also has native small mouth bass within walking distance.


You are a lucky son of gun blksn8k2?

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8 hours ago, akirby said:

 

I  never understood how squatters can stay there like that.  Seems to me if you're not the registered owner and you don't have a lease then the owner could have you removed immediately for trespassing.

Me either. It literally makes no sense at all.  

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Back to a more on-topic subject.

I've been messing around with the fuel level gauge the past couple of days. The problems I'm having are mostly related to the vehicle sitting in storage for the past however many years, which is typical for most of the other issues with this project. 

After getting the gauge mounted and wired, which was an adventure in itself, it didn't work.

For a 12V power source I went to a Bronco wiring diagram I found online and found the wire that originally sent power from the ignition switch to the voltage regulator on the back of the original instrument cluster. That cluster has been pretty much gutted with the only remaining "gauge" being the speedometer. It also still has the indicator lights for the high beams and turn/hazard lights but that's it. 

A previous owner had already mounted Autometer oil pressure and engine water temp gauges under the dash as well as a matching tachometer on the steering column. As I mentioned in a previous post, I am adding a matching voltmeter and a fuel level gauge, also under the dash.

Once I wired the voltmeter using the old voltage regulator feed for 12V switched power it works fine in both the ACC and RUN ignition key positions. 

Not so much for the fuel gauge.

The first thing I found was that when I pulled on the wire leading from the main harness to the fuel tank sending unit it almost fell on floor. It was frayed and looking like it had been chewed off. Rats! Literally! After replacing that the gauge still didn't work.

Using my Actron multi-meter I was able to trace the next problem to the fuel tank sending unit which was a bit surprising since it was pre-installed in the tank when I bought it new in about 2004. The tank came from BC Broncos in Texas and holds 24 gallons. The original tank held 16 gallons, I think. The new tank has an elaborate mounting system that connects to the frame rails and is adjustable for height. It also has a 1/4" thick skid plate which was something the old tank didn't have. That's all great but it's a real pain in the ass to remove and then reinstall the tank.

Unfortunately, BC put the sending unit in the top of tank which also means you can't get to it. The original tank had the sending unit mounted on the front of the old tank facing the rear axle which also means there was no need for an access opening in the floor. Needless to say, now there is. I suppose some Bronco purists would cringe at the fact that I cut a hole in a perfectly good original floor but whatever. There's a bunch of other mods on this truck I'm sure they hate as well.

Anyway, after getting access to the sending unit, I put the meter on it and it didn't have any reading, zero. So I pulled it out of the tank and the first thing that jumped out at me was the amount of yellowish crud on it. I assume that was a combination of evaporated gas and condensation. Once I had it cleaned it still registered zero OHMs of resistance. I then disassembled it and in the process found a plastic insulator that was too thick and not allowing the body of the sending unit to make contact with the top mounting flange which meant it wasn't getting a proper ground. That also probably explains why it never worked with the original gauge. After trimming the plastic piece and reassembling the unit it was now reading between 77 (full) and 13 (empty) OHMs of resistance out of the tank and it is rated for 77-10. Probably close enough. 

The Autometer gauge is rated for 73-10 OHMs. Again, should be close enough.

After reinstalling the sending unit in the tank the sending unit now reads 33.7 OHMs with about 11.5 gallons of gas in the tank. Again, pretty close. However, after reconnecting the wires to the sending unit and the gauge, when I check the gauge it is now reading less than 1/4 tank. Not cool. The "hot" wire to the sending unit reads .4 OHMs from end to end, unconnected, which means there is no break in the wire.

The sending unit appears to be reading the proper amount of resistance for the amount of gas in the tank which means that is no longer the issue and neither is the wire from the sending unit to the gauge so the problem would appear to now be with the gauge itself. If I ground across the gauge connectors it pegs past full so it appears to be functioning properly. 

I plan to try running a separate ground wire directly from the gauge to the ground lead on the sending unit. Right now the sending unit is grounded to the frame which is good but the gauge is grounded to the body. Shouldn't be an issue but it won't hurt anything to try something different. BTW, those white wires hanging under the new gauges are just the power leads for the background lighting inside the gauges and haven't been connected yet.

If I can't get an accurate reading I can buy a gauge synchronizing box which connects between the sending unit and the gauge. Autometer makes one that also includes a digital readout and a low fuel level warning.

I'm also not real impressed with the design of the BC Broncos sending unit. Besides the fact that it didn't even work as built it also uses the old school toilet tank swing arm setup. I know there is a replacement sending unit available that uses a float that slides up and down on a vertical post so that might be worth the change if only from a reliability and accuracy perspective.

 

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I tried running the separate ground wire but it made no difference.                     

 

When I checked the resistance in the wire from the hot side of the sending unit at the gauge it read about 34 OHMs which is not surprising (33.7 + .4 = 34.1).

 

I suppose having a nearly ten gallon reserve when the gauge reads "E" is better than the opposite. 

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While searching the forums on classicbroncos.com I came across multiple threads where members were complaining about the same issues with the aftermarket fuel tanks and the piss-poor accuracy of the fuel tank sending units. One of the members has a connection to a sending unit manufacturer and started a group buy for the type of sending unit I mentioned earlier. The unit is longer so it gets the float closer to the bottom of the tank at low fuel levels and because the float is mounted to and slides on a vertical stainless steel post it also has a more lineal travel which should also make for a more accurate signal to the gauge. I placed my order today.

 

Pretty sure it would make a lot of people's lives easier but I'm not sure if I want to suffer from the slings and arrows I would get by posting the pictures of my floor opening over there. You wouldn't believe the skepticism I got from one guy after posting pictures of my door stops. I guess he likes getting hit in the ass by his doors. LOL

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I just happen to have an extra push bar that is the same as the one I have on my F-150. There is an LED light bar that mounts in it as well. All I would need to mount it on the Bronco are some brackets to attach it to the frame rails, which I can make. Yes, no?

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3 hours ago, blksn8k2 said:

While searching the forums on classicbroncos.com I came across multiple threads where members were complaining about the same issues with the aftermarket fuel tanks and the piss-poor accuracy of the fuel tank sending units. One of the members has a connection to a sending unit manufacturer and started a group buy for the type of sending unit I mentioned earlier. The unit is longer so it gets the float closer to the bottom of the tank at low fuel levels and because the float is mounted to and slides on a vertical stainless steel post it also has a more lineal travel which should also make for a more accurate signal to the gauge. I placed my order today.

 

Pretty sure it would make a lot of people's lives easier but I'm not sure if I want to suffer from the slings and arrows I would get by posting the pictures of my floor opening over there. You wouldn't believe the skepticism I got from one guy after posting pictures of my door stops. I guess he likes getting hit in the ass by his doors. LOL


I’m not sure why anyone should care as it is a resto-mod, and the cut is covered by the floor covering. I thought door stops were a great upgrade, so it’s their loss.  

 

2 hours ago, blksn8k2 said:

I just happen to have an extra push bar that is the same as the one I have on my F-150. There is an LED light bar that mounts in it as well. All I would need to mount it on the Bronco are some brackets to attach it to the frame rails, which I can make. Yes, no?

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I do like the look of the push bar, and the LED light would be useful, but I’m not sure an LED bar itself fits the Bronco style.  

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3 hours ago, tbone said:


I’m not sure why anyone should care as it is a resto-mod, and the cut is covered by the floor covering. I thought door stops were a great upgrade, so it’s their loss.  

 


I do like the look of the push bar, and the LED light would be useful, but I’m not sure an LED bar itself fits the Bronco style.  

 

I'm not a fan of the push bars and think in this case it becomes a distraction. 

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Thanks for the opinions guys. I'm obviously on the fence.

 

Older vehicles aren't known for good lighting so anything that improves that is a good thing. But I agree the pushbar can also detract from the "old school" styling. Having said that I could show you some photos of some of the aftermarket plate type bumpers/pushbars that are sold for early Broncos that are anything but "nostalgic". To each their own.

 

I think I mentioned before that the deer hunting is really good here but that also means that hitting a deer on the highway is a very real possibility and the pushbar does add a little extra protection. I replaced the front bumper cover twice on my old Sport Trac due to hitting deer.

 

If I do decide to add the Duff's rock sliders to the rocker panels I think the pushbar would compliment those and add to the off-road look.

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10 hours ago, ice-capades said:

 

I'm not a fan of the push bars and think in this case it becomes a distraction. 


I agree. I'm generally not a fan either and the original Bronco face is enough of a statement on its own without it. Unless you’re putting it on to serve a functional purpose I would leave it off. 

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New subject.

I started looking at an issue I'm having with the track bar (panhard bar) on the front suspension of the Bronco. That's the yellow bar in the photos. I was kinda planning to buy a new one because I noticed that the old one was at the minimum length of it's adjustment and the axle was still not centered under the frame. It is shifted almost 3/8" toward the passenger side.

Back when I first bought the truck it had 5 1/2" of suspension lift plus a 2" body lift which was pretty ridiculous. Not long after I bought it I replaced the 1/2 ton truck snowplow front springs with 2" shorter progressive rate units and removed the 2" lift blocks from the rear axle. I also replaced the old what I assume were Rough Country brand shocks with the correct length remote reservoir Bilsteins for the now 3 1/2" of suspension lift. 

As I said, the problem now is that the front axle is no longer centered under the truck. When I lowered the truck 2" it moved the axle that 3/8" toward the passenger side. 

Because of the suspension design, as the suspension compresses or extends, the axle actually shifts from side to side as the suspension moves up and down. That is because it is pivoting on the ends of the track bar. You can't prevent it but you can minimize the effect it has on the steering, known as "bump steer", by trying to keep the track bar as parallel to the intermediate link bar of the tie rod as possible throughout its travel. 

The way they did that on the older designed Bronco lift kits was to add a drop bracket to the driver side frame rail to mount that end of the track bar. By lowering the upper end it brought it closer to the angle of the link bar. However, they discovered that wasn't such a great idea because it put a lot of extra stress on the frame rail. On some of the newer kits they use a taller bracket that attaches to the passenger side of the axle that instead raises the lower end of the track bar to accomplish the same thing. 

BTW, the original factory installed track bars were not adjustable. Whoever installed the lift kit on my truck did the right thing by including the adjustable track bar. They just went a little too high for my taste.                           

Being an older kit, my truck naturally has the frame bracket. If you look at the first photo, you can see that the upper end of the track bar is now a bit too low. I'm going to try removing the lowering bracket from the frame rail. By doing that I can go back to the hole in the original bracket which will raise that end of the track bar and effectively shorten it thus pulling the axle toward the driver side. I doubt it will be perfect and I'm hoping it actually moves the axle too far in which case I would then be able to adjust the track bar by lengthening it to center the axle. 

As I said before, the track bar is at its shortest possible length right now which means I am out of adjustment with the current setup. The center-to-center length between the track bar bushings right now is 28". I checked the length of all the currently available adjustable track bars I could buy and they were all the same as the one I have now. In other words, I can't buy one that will adjust to a shorter length than what I already have.

The way I see it I have no choice but to remove the lowering bracket from the frame rail. If the angle of the track bar is then too far off in the opposite direction I could buy one of the newer lowering brackets that has multiple hole locations. However, that might not be the best solution since it would put me right back to the frame stress issue although it would be lessened by the fact that the bending arm would be shortened by using a higher mounting point. 

I did look at the possibility of drilling an extra set of holes in the existing lowering bracket but the sides are tapered in the area where I would need to add holes so that probably wouldn't work very well. I could also try adding the newer style lifting bracket to the axle but the way it mounts would interfere with a u-bolt that attaches the front sway bar.

One thing I will say about the suspension modifications that were on this thing when I bought it is that whoever did it apparently just threw every possible big, beefy part under there that they could buy at the time. I guess they were going for the monster truck look that was popular back then. It has override traction bars on the rear leaf springs, axle trusses and huge anti-sway bars on both axles and giant polyurethane bump stops on the front axle. It also had a set of link bars tying the rear axle to the center of the frame rails but I removed those because I believed they were restricting the movement of the rear axle too much. I still have not removed the front mounting plates for those but I plan to as they serve no other purpose now than to reduce ground clearance. I'm not exactly sure what they were trying to achieve with all that but it certainly made it ride like crap and took away most of the suspension articulation, or wheel travel. The only purpose the springs seemed to serve was to get it as high as possible because all the other crap wouldn't let them do anything else. Suspension technology sure has changed for the better since this one was built. 

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I think I have the track bar issue resolved, at least for the time being. The simple solution was the remove the locknut from the adjustable end of the existing bar. The threaded eyebolt on that end is now bottomed out meaning the bar is a short as it can possibly be which got me to the desired result of having the front axle centered at ride height. The threaded connection should not have as much stress in this bottomed out position as it might if the eyebolt were extended out a few inches and the track bar cannot twist out of adjustment due to the way it is mounted. Sometimes even the blind squirrel finds the nut, pun intended. While I had it apart I also got rid of that nasty John Deere yellow.

The next issue was with the steering. While driving it around the lot I realized that the turning radius when steering to the left was horrible. The fix was to remove the pitman arm, center both the tie rod and the steering box, and then reinstall the pitman arm. Once that was all done I had to remove the steering wheel and re-center it as well. Now the steering goes to full lock in both directions, which it wasn't doing before.

I also decided to upgrade the cooling system. The old system did an okay job of cooling but it was just not reliable. The radiator was showing signs of a really slow leak and discoloration near the bottom of the core. You could see greenish corrosion forming on the copper fins. The other big problem was that when the 2" body lift was done before I bought the Bronco, the radiator, being attached to the core support, moved up 2" with the body but the engine, being attached to the frame, obviously did not. What that means is that the belt driven fan is no longer centered on the radiator core. The bottom of the radiator shroud was also modified so that the fan would not hit it.

The fix was to order a new all aluminum radiator with an electric fan and metal shroud. I should have that by the end of the week. The radiator is exactly the same size as the original which means I can reuse all of the mounting hardware and hoses. The core is a three row which is also the same as the original. Being aluminum it should be more efficient than the old copper and brass radiator plus the electric fan will now be centered on the core and there will no longer be a mechanical drag on the engine to operate the fan.

And, against popular opinion, I went ahead and mounted the push bar with the LED light bar. Not to worry though as it can easily be removed by unscrewing two 1/2" bolts and unplugging the wiring harness. ?

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While waiting on the new radiator I started cleaning up the engine compartment which basically amounted to some fresh black paint on the top of the cowl/firewall and underside of the hood.

 

The other thing I did this week was to replace the manual choke on the Holley carb with an electric choke.

 

Today's project is to finish some minor crack and paint chip repairs on the fiberglass hood scoop and repaint it with some classic Wimbledon white.

 

A little disappointed with the whole radiator buying experience. The seller claimed it was shipped on Jan 31st but according to FedEx tracking they never had it in their possession until Feb 4th. The seller of course blames the delay on current events. It's now scheduled to be here on Monday, Feb 8th and it was coming from a neighboring state. What's frustrating is that the original estimated arrival date was Feb 3rd.

 

If anyone is curious about the angle of the brake booster and master cylinder, that's the way they came from Ford on the original Broncos.

 

The small, finned thingy on the driver side is a power steering fluid cooler that I added years ago. The oversize tires are tough on the steering system and can cause excessive heat buildup. I also replaced the original Ford pump at the same time with a Saginaw unit that handles the heat a little better. And I also replaced the worn-out original steering box with a new, slightly quicker ratio unit and I assume that's about the same time the pitman arm got installed out of whack. LOL

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Update on the new radiator delivery: FedEx tracking shows that the driver decided not to attempt getting to my house yesterday afternoon due to a "weather event". Odd thing is that it was sunny all day yesterday and had I plowed the lane in the morning even though it didn't really need it. So, knowing that we would be getting a couple of inches of snow today I requested that FedEx deliver the package to a "local" Dollar General today which is still about ten miles from my house. That was the closest FedEx drop off location. 

 

The last time FedEx delivered a package to my house the conditions were no better than they were yesterday. I talked to the driver that day and told him that anytime the lane was not passable he could leave my packages at the neighbor's house at the end of the lane. I even watched him write that on his notepad. The problem with FedEx is that they seem to have a different driver every time I get a delivery.

 

I removed the old radiator and fan yesterday.

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3 hours ago, blksn8k2 said:

Update on the new radiator delivery: FedEx tracking shows that the driver decided not to attempt getting to my house yesterday afternoon due to a "weather event". Odd thing is that it was sunny all day yesterday and had I plowed the lane in the morning even though it didn't really need it. So, knowing that we would be getting a couple of inches of snow today I requested that FedEx deliver the package to a "local" Dollar General today which is still about ten miles from my house. That was the closest FedEx drop off location. 

 

The last time FedEx delivered a package to my house the conditions were no better than they were yesterday. I talked to the driver that day and told him that anytime the lane was not passable he could leave my packages at the neighbor's house at the end of the lane. I even watched him write that on his notepad. The problem with FedEx is that they seem to have a different driver every time I get a delivery.

 

I removed the old radiator and fan yesterday.

 

I had a had the same thing happen to me on a Fed-ex delivery last year.  The weather and road conditions were fine.  I think that they did not have time to get to me, so they just noted it as a "weather event".  It was delivered the next day...

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