linus6948 Posted December 1, 2017 Report Posted December 1, 2017 (edited) I have an 02 Ford F150 that I use as my Winter beater and driveway plow truck. A few weeks ago I found a Deer Mouse making a nest in the engine compartment and evicted him before he did any damage. I then started to get it ready for this coming Winter and really had to throw a lot of parts at it this time around. So far new exhaust manifolds, heater blower motor and rheostat, new shocks, brakes, both front 4x4 wheel hubs and abs sensors, idler arm, stabilizer links, limited slip rear gear oil change and both the trans fill/dipstick tube and oil dipstick tube had rotted out. Still have to replace the power steering lines and EGR valve tube which also went rotten. Edited December 1, 2017 by linus6948 Quote
linus6948 Posted December 20, 2017 Author Report Posted December 20, 2017 (edited) Rust continues to use up my time and my money, this time the steering shaft was the culprit. I kept feeling a clunk in the steering wheel on hard acceleration and breaking. My mechanic friend took it for a ride and educated me about the telescopic steering shaft that had rusted solid on me. He told me to buy a new one or learn to love the clunking, I opted to replace but the damn things are expensive. After much searching I found a vendor on ebay selling the one I needed for 190 bucks or best offer. He had sold over thirty of them already, I pleaded my poverty and got him to laugh and he took 150. It was a miserable job and I had to finally break out the saws-all and cut the frozen shaft under the dash where I had the most room and it wasn`t a lot of room, I don`t fit under dashboards like I used to. Edited December 20, 2017 by linus6948 1 Quote
linus6948 Posted January 31, 2018 Author Report Posted January 31, 2018 (edited) My plow truck has continued to inflict "Penance" upon me, this time was the transmission which suffered an internal failure of spectacular proportions. It was the first time I got to use my AARP Road Service (which I can recommend) because I needed a tow to the transmission shop. The two offers/options I got after they did triage on my trans. were $2700 to fix my old one with 12 months 12,000 miles warranty (30 days on electronic components) or for $2900 I could get a re manufactured unit out of the midwest that came with a 36month unlimited mileage warranty and it isn`t voided by snow plowing, I opted to take the latter. Next came engine misfires creating engine codes and poor performance going up mountains. This was easily corrected by the replacement of the Bosch plugs I installed a couple of years back with Motorcraft plugs which the forums I was reading highly recommended. I also replaced the wires and fuel filter. Then we had a 60 degree day with 2ins of rain that dropped to 0 degrees in a matter of hours coating everything with a layer of ice topped off with several inches of snow. After clearing my ice layered windshield I found a crack that started in the bottom left side and was heading up into my field if vision. I drilled a relief hole at the end of the 12inch crack with a diamond glass bit and filled it with a 10 dollar Rainx glass repair kit. So far it has not spread any further but that might change come the Spring thaw. Then I was getting a terrible dry-bearing/creaky hinge sound out of my steering wheel every time it was turned. It even seemed a little harder to turn and I was getting close to pulling the steering wheel when I ran across a utube video of the exact same noise and it was being caused by the new steering shaft where it passed thru the new rubber dust boot. I applied some lube at the friction point and the noise and resistance were gone. Edited January 31, 2018 by linus6948 Quote
RobertKB Posted January 31, 2018 Report Posted January 31, 2018 FORD - Fix or repair daily! Seems like work on a vehicle seems to come in spurts. Probably the old girl will run fine now for quite a while. I usually drive older vehicles and don't mind spending some money on them once in a while. A lot cheaper than buying new. Newest car I ever had was my 2003 Chev Impala, a year old when I got it. Still going strong and it's been a good vehicle. The 3.8 Litre V6 is strong and reliable. 1 Quote
linus6948 Posted May 14, 2018 Author Report Posted May 14, 2018 (edited) Well after about 750 miles my old girl threw 5 codes all related to a lean mixture, was starting to run a little rough occasionally and I was getting a raw gas smell that at times was quite strong. Upon a close examination with a strong flashlight it was discovered that my fuel rail had gone rotten and was leaking in one area. The part from Ford was over $400 and no longer available and I could not find one aftermarket. Ebay was the answer and I got one from a salvage yard in Colorodo that came complete with the injectors for $100 delivered. I was pretty lucky to find one as it was the only one available on ebay. Edited May 14, 2018 by linus6948 Quote
RobertKB Posted May 15, 2018 Report Posted May 15, 2018 Some times you get lucky! Your old truck will live to run another day. 1 Quote
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