So sorry for your loss. I lost my 87 year old grandmother a month ago so I will offer the only advice I can. Remember all of the good times you had with him and take those memories with you always. Prayers for you and your family.

 

Possible
......

 

Here's an update for today:

Even though it was my birthday, I had a reason to go out anyway and my grandpa was working on an idea for the fuel system.

Well, what I went out for ended up not being needed so we worked on the fuel system instead. I emptied out the garage while he hooked everything up. He disconnected the harness from the fuel pump, as well as the forward line from the fuel pump. He then connected a piece of tubing with a hose clamp to the pump. On the other end, he connected a new V10 fuel filter I had sitting in the garage as a spare from when I changed it on the '05 (my dad and I both bought one lol). He then connected another piece of tubing to the other end of the filter that we put in a fuel can.

For the pump, he wired up some old headlight switch to some wires and a battery. That way it can be quickly turned on/off.

When everything was all ready, I emptied out the garage and made room. We then filled up the 5 gallon can. It worked well, took a little while to fill but not bad, and the fuel was crystal clear both before and after the filter. I thought diesel fuel had a bit of a yellow/green tinge to it, but this was very clear. When the can filled, I poured it slowly into the aux tank in the truck. The can has this lever thing to hold down to release the valve on the spout, and it was a real pain. So even though we ran out of time (had to get cleaned up to go to dinner), I rearranged the garage to put the F-450 in the center, pulled in, so now we will just get a long hose and pump it straight into the tank. Should go quicker that way and avoid that annoying can.

Oh, I also rolled coal a little in the yard on the F-450. It helped just a little with the diesel withdrawal situation, even if I couldn't take it on the road. Yes, I did get it warmed up some before I did that. I know my dad would just be thrilled to know about this, but hey, he's getting ~35 gallons of free fuel from me...

I don't expect I'll be working on anything for the rest of the weekend though.

 

Great stuff! Good to see some pics again and see you out working on the project again!

The potable fuel pump is great! If I were you I would keep that extra fuel pump on the shelf with the filter and wiring. Those come in handy! I have a MSD pump with wires that have alligator clips that I call my **** pump. I have used it for about 10 years now for everything from coolant to oil.

Diesel fuel can be a bunch of different colors. From off road red/pink to on road blue, green, yellow, clear. The easy way to tell is the smell, get it on your hands and you'll know for a whole day that it was diesel. lol

 

lol, this isn't a portable pump per say, it's the frame fuel pump that supplies the 7.3 normally. He just disconnected the wires going to it, stuck a hose on the end, and away we went.

My grandpa just called, turns out he's out working on it, despite my rule of no work without me around. After all, even though this isn't important, how am I going to learn when I'm not there. I think I need to go out now before he destroys something, lol. So much for hoping to get a bunch of homework done today...

It certainly smells like diesel! I was happy as a clam yesterday coming home smelling like diesel!

 

Maybe when you do the swap to the gas truck you'll have an extra. If you ever get the chance to have an extra keep it.

 

That I will. The V10 pump is in the tank though. I'm still planning to keep most if not all V10 parts, so I will have spares around. My dad also has a number of old Jag fuel pumps in the back of the garage in a parts toolbox, if this setup wouldn't work.

My grandpa worked on it today, and he called at one point saying the aux tank on the truck was almost full and he still had fuel to go, so I knew I had to rush out. Got a lot done, lots more than I planned, and will update in a minute after I get the pictures uploading.

 

Update for today:
- My grandpa went out to work on it today, and I didn't know until about 2:00. He did just like the plan, put the hose directly into the tank and pumped it in. It took about 45 minutes apparently.
- When that aux tank filled up (30 gallons), he opened the valve to feed it to the truck, which was at about 7/8. That gave him enough room to fill up more of the aux tank, with only about half of a 5 gallon can leftover.
- Then he removed the rest of the fuel line system and pump.
- Then he pulled all the bolts on the fuel tank, and we dropped that after I got there.
- I pulled the vacuum solenoid and most lines that were still hanging on the front.
- I put more air in the tire that had gone flat in the accident. I started doing that earlier and quit. Today I finally changed out the spare to that one.
- We then pulled the frame outside by hand. Didn't even pull it with anything. My grandpa had the idea to use the big screwdriver to activate the parking brake assembly as it was rolling. It worked perfectly. Then I hooked the lawn tractor to it and pulled it around out back with a chain. My dad steered it with a screwdriver through the steering shaft u-joint while my grandpa worked the brake.
- I got the trailer back inside finally, after like four months!
- My grandpa started cleaning around the bolts of the trailer hitch, he claims he's trying to remove it. At this point, idk why, but whatever. If the frame sells complete, I'd have to put it back on anyway.
- Now I can pressure wash the frame whenever it's convenient, probably in a few weeks. My grandpa started cleaning a little of it by hand, but it obviously still needs more.
- Depending on if the frame sells like this or not, I'll be pulling off the brake lines, steering box assembly, etc. I still will probably pull off the little box thing that seems to control the brake fluid, since I don't know if they are different or not, but again, in time.

 

Wow that is a pretty GD clean frame... should not have a problem selling that to someone with a clean body. Would be very nice to blast and powdercoat and then never worry about rust again.

 

It is in great shape, and I hope it's a quick sell! It's surprising it's this nice when the driver's rocker had the small rust issues on it. Either it hasn't seen too many southern Indiana/northern KY winters, or they kept it pretty clean.

 

Here's an update for y'all:

I've been cleaning up today. I did a lot in the garage, putting things away and trying to store parts away. I filled up most of the trailer with Excursion parts that I have to sort through later. Even though it's chaos, I think I can go open up my classified ad for parts again.

I had been keeping the bottom part of the body around because someone was thinking about building an Ex and was interested in part of that and the frame. Having not heard from him in a while, and now that my schedule allows, it's time to haul that off for scrap. The only way I could think of doing that was...a pontoon trailer!

To get the body up on the trailer, I did it all myself, somehow. First, I got the lawn tractor and pulled the frame out of the way from the pad. Then I pushed the body part fully onto the concrete. I tried one theory, but this worked best: I gathered all the floor jacks I could (three) and a big 2' long screwdriver. I used the screwdriver as a lever under the front lower core support and picked up the body enough to get a jack under. I jacked that up all the way. Then I got the other two floor jacks on each side, on the rocker lip right about at the B-pillar. Then I maxed those out. Then I started backing the trailer under it for support. I then moved the front jack to the rear, and with the assistance of some 4x4s, jacked up the rear from about where the left barn door bottom latch is. Maxing that jack out too allowed me to fully back the trailer under (barely) with the trailer lowered to the lowest height possible. Then I just cranked the trailer up to lift the body off the jacks. See here:



I still had to move the boat, which I basically dropped in the driveway, so I backed this into the garage, got it on jacks again, pulled the trailer out, moved boat, then put trailer back.

Since the body still had the four rear A/C lines attached (two clamp bolts started turning and I couldn't access the heads). So I just got that big screwdriver and broke the darn things off. Here are the lines off. Much easier on the trailer like this!



Then I strapped the whole thing down to the trailer to prepare it for travel. I don't have turnbuckles, so I just cross-strapped it and it shouldn't go anywhere. Due to limited frame space in the back, I have one strap going from the Excursion body, through the trailer frame, and up to the body again.



I wonder how well it would float?

 

thats a funny looking boat

 

Took the 'boat' for scrap today. When I pulled up, the guy at the scrap place says, "That's a nice '05 to '07 front end you've got on there!" and I had the pleasure of saying well it's a true '05!! Gosh I love that, hence why this project is happening in the first place. Here's some pics:













This chunk was 720# total.

I'm sure some of you are curious how the trailer pulled. Well, it pulled really good, better than I thought and better than it first started out as. It was kinda bumpy on the back roads, but it went well on the highway, especially considering the big cavity in the front that could trap air. Here's a short video on the highway, going over an overpass. The bounce wasn't from the body, I don't think, it was from the trailer (and the extendable tongue) that has flex in it, as well as that I was using a 2" shank with the 2.5" adapter in the receiver. The knocking noise I think was my phone hitting up against the window on the bumps. Make sure to hit full screen on it.

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Fun fact: The black Ex had a weight of 7840# with just the Ex axles on the scale. The trailer was still hooked up but the trailer axle was off the scale. Today, even though the trailer is different, the '05 came in at 7760. Both times are with me in it, and both times I filled up at the same station and drove almost exactly the same distance to try to keep the fuel situation as close to constant as possible. It should be interesting to go back once converted, maybe with this same pontoon trailer, and see what the weights are then. Remember, both of these Excursions are identically equipped and have almost the same stuff inside. The only major differences is the '05 has the rear captains, rear DVD system, and air bags underneath. Wheels/tires are a constant too.

 

Pulled down all the parts from the attic today to sort and get ready to sell. A few swap related parts were mixed in, so I'll have to sort those out and put them back with the engine.

I got an awful lot of random parts that I wonder if I should even bother keeping/selling. For example, A/C ducting for the front and rear, would anyone have a use for that kind of thing? It doesn't seem like a wear item. I made the decision today to throw out the fender liner insulators because one was soaked in oil and the other was just so dirty, I wouldn't want to buy it, so why would I want to sell it. I still have the plastics, but those too I wonder if I shouldn't just cut them up and get rid of them.

 

Thats that thing I ran into when I used to part out cars. I still have shelves full of plastics that never sold. I learned that lots of things just need to be thrown away.