Omg! do you mean all four of those hoses popped out of whatever that plastic box is? I mean, I could understand one or two, but every one of them? What is that thing?

 

its a vacuum box, and will definitely cause issues

1) need to check condition of the box itself - if this has been going on for a long time who knows what shape its in and if various creatures may have gotten in there and clogged it up
2) the overall shape/condition of those lines is pretty questionable, while you're in there I'd replace the lines with some from the auto parts store.
3) looks like spiders or dirt dobbers or something have made nests in there.

those plugs are trashed, if you clean them up it may run marginally better but usually not for long. Even if you just put fresh copper plugs in, it would be a huge upgrade.

I would fix those vacuum lines/vacuum assembly, put fresh plugs in it, clear all the codes and go from there

 

Cool, Thanks. Anybody know of instructions or a vid to access that box? I'd like to take a closer look at it. Do you think I would have to remove the fender? Do you suppose it may be accessible if I remove the wheel well cover? Advanced has a set of six motorcraft platinums for $4.23 each after 20%.

 

Pull the wheel well liner and see what you can see. Might need to pull that wheel to get in there better

 

No need to remove the fender, just the liner and it’ll be easier with the wheel off. My fender was off because I was repairing body damage.

 

Got these...any good? Should I replace the coil?
Bosch Automotive (6709) OE Fine Wire Platinum Spark Plug
Motorcraft- WR5702 Ignition Wire

 

They are the worst you can do. Bosch plugs have been known to fall apart inside the cylinders in the past. Yea, stay away from those....big head ache.

Autolites are the second worst, for the modulars anyway. They are just hit and miss. The 103's and 4's can't handle the heat range.

The plugs that the Fords have no issues with are, -

Motorcraft
Denso
NGK

Stick with the Motorcraft plugs as they are most fail safe.

 

Well, with the help of NCRanchero (thanks bud), and all you guys, I was able to get the wheel well liner off and get a good luck under that fender. What a mystery. The vacuum reservoir is gone. There is what I suspect to be a portion of it, perhaps ripped off still attached to the frame. You can see a little black plastic piece with a bolt in it in the picture.

So, here's some additional information. Years ago, some kid in his daddy's beautiful Mercedes Benz convertible, decided to impress his girlfriend by making a very sharp left turn. He had to cross three lanes, but landed in the passenger side front bumper of my truck instead. (After the cops left, seeing that the kid was distraught, as I was pulling away, I pulled up next to the kid and said, "Hey kid, I can see you're feeling really bad about this, but don't beat yourself up too much. You're dad is going to take care of that as soon as you get home."

So, I took the insurance money and put it to good use. I can't really discuss that here. Anyway, I just let it go, and now, years later, I guess that must have damaged my vacuum reservoir. I'm wondering when I took it to get the hissing sound looked at by a mechanic shop, did they just rip it out and stop-up the hoses to get the money and run. I don't know how it ended up that the reservoir is gone and the hoses were left hanging there. I guess it doesn't matter. Now I need to know what to do about it.

I stopped by a junkyard on otw home and walked a miles worth of sand in a sunny Florida 90 degrees, but never found my generation truck. I did find an f350, but you gotta take the fender off to get a look, so I didn't bother. I'm gonna call around and see what other yards might have one. I read in other forms that this part is no longer made and that you can't buy them anywhere. I certainly couldn't find one on google or any of the parts stores. Does anyone know of a source other than the junkyard?

On a positive note, while I had the tire and fender cover off, I found an excellent access point to put in the new spark plugs lol!


Yes, I did just drive it like that. No love.

Little piece of black plastic still bolted on

 

1) some of the pull and pay places have their inventory online (lkq, you pull and pay etc)
2) might have to find a generic vacuum canister, a 4 port would be ideal but you could also find a 2 port piece and just use some "y" fittings to bring those 4 hoses down to 2

 

Thanks Jbrew. Refunding the Bosch and got these instead: Motorcraft Spark Plug (AGSF42FM)