I sealed the round air inlet under the dash and put duct tape over the cowl vent. We had a rain last night and now the floor is wet on the passenger side. I also had a new windshield gasket installed. Any ideas before I take this Mavrick to the crusher? Thank you Texasjack
Theres a thread going on right now about a cheap cowl fix... http://mmb.maverick.to/showthread.php?t=52070 and you could get someone to hold a big jug of water and start pouring on the roof, all around the winshield and cowls while you are inside watching where it comes in precisely.... maybe you can single it out that way... this way, if it happens to be a small leak around the gasket for the windshield, you can get some flowable silicone and fix it right up...
The new windshield gasket caught my eye. In the past 15 years or so I've had several Maverick windshields replaced, and none have been leak free on the first try. The trouble is, these glass places tend to want to dump the glass in there and then goop some urethane around the outside of the gasket and call it a day. I can tell you from experience that this doesn't work. The "correct" way appears to be to use the old school black butyl rope caulk (I have found it recently at a local auto parts store) between the pinch weld and the windshield gasket. I had the windshield in my Mav replaced about 3 years ago and literally brought it back to the glass shop about 10 times before it now appears to be sealed. I tried to tell 'em, but they wanted to do it their way. Ya know how it goes...guys don't want to be told how to to their jobs and all that. I didn't want to do it myself because I don't want to break the glass and eat the cost....and this is the second glass shop I dealt with and they promised that I could bring it back as many times as I wanted until it didn't leak anymore. It may not be that issue at all...but just something to think about before ya send the Mav to it's grave...
If you can have someone hose it down with you inside yoga position. Door gasket, antenna lead coming into body may be leaking. How wet was it an all of right side?
Nice article on glass install in the current issue of Mustang Monthly. Also on their site http://www.mustangmonthly.com/howto/mump_0902_how_to_replace_windshields_and_backlights/index.html
Also, to be more clear about my post above...I didn't have any problems with water getting around gasket and the glass, but instead it was getting in between the steel window channel and the rubber gasket.
Test one thing at a time though. Pour water in the cowl first and see if any water is coming in. If you don't see any water, start pouring water at the bottom of the windshield and slowly work your way up. It's pretty easy to spot the leaks in these cars. Just work on one section at a time.
Holy crap! Where was that article when I needed it?! Thanks for posting the link...I will save this in case I need it in the future.
Also, you don't have to junk it just because it has a leaky cowl vent. You could use a magnetic cover like I made on the other thread or you could do away with the cowl vent completely like Frank (71Gold) did. I've seen his car in person and the smooth cowl gives it a nice clean look and eliminates the leaks.
Leaking cowl Thank y'all for the suggestions. I think I found the problem this time. On further inspection I found green water on the passenger floor board. A few days ago I put in a heater A/C box and left the box intact, even though I had a new heater core. Hopefully the correct evaporator core and a new heater core will do the trick. Back to the drawing board. Again I appreciate your help. This is the friendliest site on the web. Texasjack
Have you looked at the heater? they can leak too..... I had to replace mine and then dry the floor out.
Leaky Mav I know it is the heater core because I have green water in my fiberglass floor board. This thing reminds me of when I worked for Chrysler. Part of the new car make ready was to bail the water out of the trunk and put gray pookie around the door facings to keep the win and water out. Texasjack