The History:
Some time ago, I started a thread about a known Ford van issue with leaks at the body seams around the windshield. That thread can be found here:
http://www.sportsmobileforum.com/for...ers-18780.html
At the time, I had noticed occasional moisture on the driver's side floor, and I figured that it must be related to the windshield/body seam issue. A lively discussion followed; a number of folks reported tracking down and resolving variations on this theme. Forum member JWA has been really helpful to numerous folks in this regard.
In the meantime, I still had not tracked down the source of my issue. It was a dry summer, and when it's not raining, why worry, right? But winter is coming, so...
...I tracked it down today. It is not the windshield issue, but it is something that I'm guessing may be affecting more vans than mine.
The Location:
Inner fender.
The Issue:
Ford puts a hole through the inner fender, and seals it with a grommet. That's good, because when it rains, water sheets down that surface, and the hole opens up to the inside of the van, behind the footwell kick plate.
Here's a photo of my passenger side front door. I have circled the grommetted hole in red:
Closeup:
That hole is perfect for running wires from the engine compartment to the interior of the van--and that's exactly what SMB did on my driver's side. Through that hole, I have a 6AWG wire running from my chassis battery to the wire separator under the gaucho, as well as two control wires for my Starcool system.
Here's a photo of the driver's side of my van, showing the three wires penetrating the hole. No grommet. Instead, a poorly-executed silicone job. You can also see the red 6AWG wire inside the van, dropping down into the footwell, in the right bottom corner of the photo. (This is with the kickplate removed.)
Closeup, showing messy attempt to seal the hole with silicone:
When I run water against the outside of the van, it sheets down the face of the inner fender, and seeps into the van along the red battery cable, because that hole is not properly sealed. SMB, I love y'all, but this is not good.
The Cure:
After a very helpful chat with my main man 86Scotty, I am thinking of doing the following:
1. Remove and replace the 6AWG battery cable with a larger gauge wire. I was going to do this anyway. The new wire will not enter the van through this hole. I'll run it under the van, and up through another existing hole under the gaucho.
2. Pull the two black wires, and re-route them through existing holes in the footwell instead of the hole in the inner fender.
3. Cuss a bunch as I'm cleaning up all of the existing silicone, because it is dang difficult to access that spot, and SMB should have known better.
4. Seal the hole with a new grommet.
5. Never run wires through that location again.
Has anyone else done something similar? Thoughts?
Silver Streak
Linear Mode
