coolant recovery & windshield washer reservoirs

Part #'s for the coolant recovery/windshield washer reservoirs for the 1980 - 86 Ford trucks.  And, how to add an 1985 - 86 reservoir to a 1980 - 84 truck.

Note that there are two sets of #'s - one for the gas-powered trucks and one for the diesel-powered trucks.  But, the part for the gas trucks is both a coolant recovery bottle and a windshield washer reservoir, while the diesel trucks have separate coolant recovery and windshield washer reservoirs.

First the gassers:

Now the diesel-powered trucks:

The 80-84 gas-powered trucks had a workable coolant/washer-fluid reservoir, but the 85-86 gas-powered trucks had a better one. The main difference in the two is that the coolant hose comes in the bottom on the later version, meaning it isn't easily knocked out of the reservoir and will suck the last of the coolant down w/o getting air. So, what does it take to install the later model unit in an earlier truck? All of these things from an 85-86 truck:

• The reservoir
• Hose from the radiator to the reservoir
• Hose from the reservoir to the washer jets
• Bracket that bolts to the fender

And, with all four of those things it is a bolt-in. But, what if you are like me and don't get all the pieces? The hose from the radiator is easy as the existing hose will work, although it looks a bit odd with the angle piece in it. And on my truck the hose from the reservoir to the jets was actually the right size but had a reducer in it and then 3" of smaller hose to go to the reservoir. So I took the reducer out and the larger hose fit right on.

But, that's where the easy part ends as the bracket needs to be modified because the bottom of the reservoirs have different locating tabs/pins. Here's a picture of the bottom of the two, with the early one on the top with its rectangular tab circled in yellow, and the later one on bottom with it round pin circled in red:

And here's an illustration of where the bracket is in the truck:

So, how do you have to modify the bracket? Drill a 5/16" hole here:

And, when it is all done it looks like this: