I somehow made it through over ten years owning Mark 8s, without ever doing the blendor R&R on any of them..
I finally went in there this week, on my winter car ('98 base model) with the help of the great write-up (and photos) by "J" (Thanks J) which he posted awhile back.
If you're reasonably adept and patient, this is a great way for a do-it-yourselfer to save a bundle of $$$. - Plus, you can do the easy modifications suggested in J's writeup while you're at it, which should most likely make your blendor go the distance, with no more failures.
The idea of using two ferrules (such as those intended for compression type fittings on tubing) to strengthen the plastic actuator arm is very ingeneous indeed (thanks Jeremi) I found the ferrules at the hardware 29 cents each. (I like it)
It's probably feasable, in most cases, to repair and re-install your old actuator arm, but since I had a new one, I used it. On one side of the black lever, a ferrule will slip right on. For the other side, you could cut the plastic a bit, or else you can grind a couple of V-shaped notches about 180 degrees apart on the ferrule, as I did (see my photos posted below) I used epoxy cement to secure the two ferrules in place.
Creating a slot in one end of the metal "arm" (see the photos in J's writeup) should go a long way towards curing the root cause of the blendor failure. This is probably what Ford shoulda done in the first place, if they couldn't sort out the issue any other way. Make sure you elongate the hole enough so there will be no more "binding" when the blendor reaches the furthest extent of it's travel. I used a bench vise and a rat-tail file to do this.
The project took me about four hours to do, altogether, but now that I know the procedure, the next time will probably be three hours or less.
I hope this will be helpful to some of you..
I finally went in there this week, on my winter car ('98 base model) with the help of the great write-up (and photos) by "J" (Thanks J) which he posted awhile back.
If you're reasonably adept and patient, this is a great way for a do-it-yourselfer to save a bundle of $$$. - Plus, you can do the easy modifications suggested in J's writeup while you're at it, which should most likely make your blendor go the distance, with no more failures.
The idea of using two ferrules (such as those intended for compression type fittings on tubing) to strengthen the plastic actuator arm is very ingeneous indeed (thanks Jeremi) I found the ferrules at the hardware 29 cents each. (I like it)
It's probably feasable, in most cases, to repair and re-install your old actuator arm, but since I had a new one, I used it. On one side of the black lever, a ferrule will slip right on. For the other side, you could cut the plastic a bit, or else you can grind a couple of V-shaped notches about 180 degrees apart on the ferrule, as I did (see my photos posted below) I used epoxy cement to secure the two ferrules in place.
Creating a slot in one end of the metal "arm" (see the photos in J's writeup) should go a long way towards curing the root cause of the blendor failure. This is probably what Ford shoulda done in the first place, if they couldn't sort out the issue any other way. Make sure you elongate the hole enough so there will be no more "binding" when the blendor reaches the furthest extent of it's travel. I used a bench vise and a rat-tail file to do this.
The project took me about four hours to do, altogether, but now that I know the procedure, the next time will probably be three hours or less.
I hope this will be helpful to some of you..
