tp_connectic

Just wanted to follow up on a solution I came up with this weekend... Not being interested in ordering large piles of parts I only needed a few of; ended up going to AutoZone and buying an assortment of terminal connectors that had roughly the right part (they fit the mini fuses used in the AJB). Anyway, these connectors (DORMAN Conduct Tite) didn't fit in the AJB slots, but I got bold... and drilled the slot out I needed with a 13/64 bit until the connector I had fit in just snug. Seems to work well enough and hold firm. For the record, I was adding trailer light wiring and didn't see the point of running all the way to the battery and using an in-line fuse when I could tap the AJB. Ended up being a very clean install other than the ugly looking shredded plastic in the AJB (will have to go get a picture). The assorted terminal kit I picked up: https://www.autozone.com/miscellaneous-non-automotive/electrical-wire-connector/dorman-conduct-tite-assorted-ford-technician-terminals-10-pack/318699_0_0?spps.s=1156&cmpid=LIA:US:EN:AD:NL:1000000:ELC:71700000060662503&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIufTVgub08AIVlYvICh0VQwq5EAQYASABEgIM2vD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Those just have heat syncs on em the size of the fan. Should work the same as having a fan, just slightly less likely to fail mechanically and slightly more likely to overheat!

100% concur on all points desert_connect. My concern is the sheet metal, I have not got a desire to use rivets or riv nuts because I assume with road and wind vibs the metal will fatigue and loosen or crack. My thought would be to drill a few back-side access holes in the areas where the aluminum "bubbles" to access the skin panels, then fabricate an interior doubler to help with load management... and yes, as many fasteners as you can get in, which would not be many. I studied the bike mounts on vans I found in europe when were were there a few months back, seems easy but it was all on larger vans with (1) flat doors, no curvature in mount area and (2) usually no windows, or at least much more non-window real-estate. Any ideas on exterior fixturing, especially toward the top of the door that would allow for an even "flat mount" interface to the curved surface? Probably the best bet would be a shape-cut heavy duty rubber bumper you could put in compression, but I have never attempted something like that. I think post-mounts will be too much for the alum skin and a full blown mating metal interface will cost way too much $$$ and be too much mass.

I’ve been toying with this idea since I bought my TC. Has anyone looked into mounting channels onto the rear doors? (I have the 50/50 doors) My thought is you could hard mount channels similar to roof racks and be able to put accessories on the rear doors (such as a bike rack vertical) and still have everything swing out of the way when you open the door... This would necessitate some hole-drilling, and some thought on mounting to the curved surface, especially for doors with windows. I wish I had a practice door to mock it up on! i think the door hinges could support some extra weight, they look pretty beefy. if you have any ideas or suggestions I’m all ears! (Eyes in this case I guess).

I haven’t found much on the forum regarding sun shades. In my experience there are lots of crummy cheap ones, and there are ones that you can spend a lot of money on that are maybe slightly less crummy... Not seeing a ton of options for the TC, but this windshield is huge so I figure it’s probably worth investing in a decent one. What do you guys recommend?!

A note in case you don’t need full access to the ceiling under the forward headliner. You could probably just drop the plastic bin assembly and the plastic pop fasteners that join the forward and rear headliner. It might give you just enough room to get to the power disconnect. It’s a crappy angle though, so hard to say for sure!

(NOTE: I need to come back and add the rest of the pics in, they're far too large and I ran out of space. When I have a few min to shrink them all down I will.) Hello! About a month ago I put some rhino rack roof racks on my TC. Step 1 was removal of the headliner. I'll post the rest of my install separately but getting the liner info up first. I'll post in the order I think you *should* perform the headliner drop, not the order I actually performed it. (There were a few mistakes!) 1. Pop all your rear overhead lights out and disconnect. The lights all have a side that easily swivels down without a lot of force, then using a screwdriver or plastic pry bar you should be able to pop it off the semi-hinge in the headliner plastic that retains it. Gently lower the light and pull the plugs off the metal contacts in the lights. Each has two plugs on it. 2. I placed the rear lights in the side magazine-type slots for safe keeping. Note you don't want to tug too much on the cables that run to the lights because they are (poorly) glued to the headliner. 3. Drop the forward light as much as possible and disconnect. I can't remember if you can access all the plugs, the front light is a bit more complicated. As long as you have a helper you can finish disconnecting once you drop the liner. **Drop Forward Headliner** (add pic) 1. Pop off the A pillar plastic fairings toward the top (headliner). I don't think you need to completely remove them, but it takes a little abuse to pop the headliner out. 2. Remove the plastic pop-fasteners just behind the front seats that join the front and rear headliner portions. 3. If you have GPS (I think) there is a plastic cover just under the mirror that you will want to pop off, and free the little GPS box (or whatever it is). I can't recall if you can actually disconnect it, but it's not particularly important either way. 4. Drop the overhead bins/map light/etc assembly. This is pretty straightforward, there are a bunch of screws that hold it up that are easy to find I think two are covered by plastic clips. You'll probably want a helper, this thing is awkward to support solo and disconnect all the wires, but it can be done. You will have to disconnect wires to pull it all the way out of the car, pretty straight forward. 5. Wiggle the headliner down, the pillar plastic trim will be holding it up, but it's fairly compliant so you can drop it. You will want to position the seats so that it does NOT drop all the way. There are some cables that you can't disconnect (or at least I didn't bother). Cable that I didn't disconnect shown below. (add pic) 6. IMPORTANT! In the picture below I show a little disconnect that is on the passenger side of the car right where the headliners come together; it resides on the forward side of the body stiffener. This is the power connection from the front headliner to the rear headliner, and the reason you have to drop the front headliner first; you will want to pop it off the retaining clip and disconnect. You can also see part of the connector on the lower left side of the headliner pic. (add pic) ** Remove Rear Headliner** (add pic) This is fairly straight forward other than the coat hooks with "AIRBAG" on them. 7. Pop off the rear door plastic cover on the ceiling that covers the latch points for the rear doors, it comes off easy. 8. Pop all the visible plastic pop-fasteners out. 9. Disconnect seat belt mounts, it's a torx 45 bit (if i remember correctly). Then remove or loosen all of the plastic pillar fairings as appropriate, careful with the rear-most ones, there are a few clips that are easy to snap off, just pull gently. 10. The absolute most maddening part is the coat hooks, they're simple but impossible to understand without knowing how they work. If you pry up the little plastic cover that says airbag with a screw driver you can slide the screw driver up into the body of the hook. The body of the hook can be pried out (don't worry that little flap can take a lot of abuse). It slides directly out and releases the retention arms grabbing the frame of the car. Once you pop the body out you can just twist the hook 90 degrees and it comes right out. 11. Assuming you properly disconnected the power cable, you should be good to drop the headliner! It takes a bit of flexing, you will have to pop it out from some of the black weather-stripping, but it's not too rough. Now that I think back... I guess you could have left the lights in the headliner for the rear part! I did not, probably safer to pop them out anyway. Other notes: - The headliner is a fiberglass sandwich. If you are particularly sensitive probably wear gloves. The top and bottom are coated and will not bother you, but the edges are raw and will get you a little itchy. - The glue that retains the power cables to the headliners is super crummy. I didn't want to get too creative and stain or bleed a chemical through the liner trying to reattach, so I just attempted to superglue the cables back to the original glue. Not an amazing idea, barely held together. I think the best plan would be a hot glue gun and just run a new strip of hot glue to retain the cable. Not really necessary though. - I broke a few of the retention clips for the pillar plastics by prying aggressively; only one area is it notably loose, and I think it's only noticeable to me... oh well. - Lights on the TC Titaniums seem to be done differently. If you have a titanium these instructions may not be perfect.

Hello! I have a 2014 TC and am looking for some input. I (believe) I need to replace the drive side CV axle because I have vibration under acceleration. I'm mid-replacement, and having major issues getting the lower control arm separated from the wheel hub. I got the nut off the clamp to the ball joint, but it seems to me that the clamp joint is siezed onto the screw and/or the ball joint end. For the life of me I cannot pry the joint apart, cant seem to pry the ball joint out of the clamp. Anyone have clever ideas? I've beat on it with a hammer, tried to turn the screw (seems like it's seized in there good), tried to pry the joint apart. It's sitting overnight with some penetrating oil on it, and I will attempt more in the morning, but I'm running out of tools to try! Suggestions appreciated. Thanks!

LWB, headliner. It was fun... but man it looks good now I'll attach a picture later when I get back to my phone.

Coming back with conclusions; I used the modified method 2 above and jacked via the pinch weld then place jack stands on the steel U-channel running across the body and terminating just inboard of the pinch weld. The steel channel certainly could handle the load and I did not see any evidence of damage to the body of the car. I would deem this an acceptable jacking method, the wheels were just off the ground without much trouble and the van was stable enough that I felt confident crawling under. appreciate the input from folks!

Someone else mentioned it as well, but I have learned this is a poor assumption. I have seen an Audi pinch weld crumple under jacking loads because it was not exactly the right spot and interface. That said, if you’ve tested it and it works, I won’t argue. Just wasn’t ready to risk my frame. I did feel around and it seems like the jack point is in fact reinforced, but only just. Didn’t feel like mathing to figure out if the other areas could handle the load.

I'd like to revisit this topic if some folks on here want to chip in! I have been thinking about this a bit because I need to get under the car and figure out why I have vibration under acceleration above ~65 mph. (It sounds like it should be a worn out bearing or other connection going into the transmission) Yesterday I tried to jack the van up to get it on jack stands using a few different methods with my hydraulic jack and traditional jack stands. 1. Lifting from the pinch weld using the hyrdraulic jack. This leaves you no good spot to place the jack stand at or near the pinch weld. Didn't feel confident I could get good placement on the lower control arm. 2. Lifting from the steel channel that is bolted to the frame just inboard of the pinch weld. This, also didn't leave me enough room to get a jack stand under the pinch weld. Not sure this is an appropriate jacking point, but it seemed to work; anyone have insight? 3. Lifting from the lower control arm using the hydraulic jack. This did work to get one jack stand under the van on the pinch weld! But when I tried to lift the other side using the lower control arm, the car started to shift and eventually looked like it might tip the jack stand on the opposite side. Definitely didn't feel like it would be safe to crawl under the van. After this I went inside and started to look at these combo bottle jack jack-stands. Looks like it might be a decent solution, but I'm not ready to say it's the only option! Revisiting method 2 above: Does anyone think it would make sense to use the hydraulic jack to lift from the pinch weld and then use jack stands to support the van by putting them under that steel channel that runs just inboard? Originally I didn't want to leave the weight there because I wasn't sure it was strong enough to lift the van. However, it seems to have done the job without complaint, so it may be the way to go. If no to that method... then I assume these stands are my best-bet? https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GJJZ5YC?pf_rd_p=76bd99fd-409f-46a4-9ff6-b66b5703e95b&pf_rd_r=2AZEBYE796CZ5GA3B6SS There are 3 ton jacks for a bit cheaper, but I think they're too tall to fit under the weld. (https://www.amazon.com/Alltrade-640912-Black-All-Bottle/dp/B003ULZGFU/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=all+in+one+bottle+jack&qid=1557762210&s=automotive&sr=1-1)

I installed the rhino rack rails recently. Intend to do a write up in the near future. It was rhino rack rails RTS535. Definitely not the easiest process in the world, but it's a fit for rhino, Thule, and Yakima track systems as I understand it. Looks good so far, will be putting the bases on and doing the write up when I get back from vacation!

If you watch the video, it looks like it should take you maybe a few minutes more than the actual length of the video to perform It's a shame the wiring kits are so expensive... Anyone recommend a specific kit? I bought a hitch but no wires yet!

Which size receiver? I'd buy the wiring off you Just bought a hitch (no wiring) and I don't think I'll get good ROI if I return it!