Yup, she's pretty high tech, huh?


It came that way, I've got a new one on order from LMC.


Right now I'm battling my ball joints. Everything came out just dandy, but the press kit I bought isn't quite big enough to allow the new ones to press in, so I had to customize it a little at first. I'm still on the first ball joint, and it has another 1/16" or so and I can't for the life of me turn the screw enough to seat it.


Also, in my infinite wisdom, I put the knuckle in my vise with the jaws clamping the bolts for the spindle. NOT GOOD. I'm hoping, praying, it can be salvaged by chasing the threads.


More than likely I'll just take the knuckles to a shop to have the new joints pressed in.

 

i use a 30 ton press to do ball joints, i don't mess with them silly screw type presses.

those little vice grip pliers are real handy, i have a set in every vehicle i own.

i actually have 2 pair in the 88. i lost the ones that were supposed to be in it and had to replace them. 15 years later i was changing the rear bumper after i got rearended, and found the "lost" pliers still clamped on the 1/4-20 nut behind the bumper holding the license plate on.
apparently when i put the plates on the truck i got sidetracked and forgot to remove them after tightening up the bolt.
they still work like new, besides looking like they sat out in the weather for 15 years.

 

That's pretty neat. I have dozens of pairs of vise grips in every imaginable configuration; between mechanics, welding, and construction, there's never a shortage of needs for vise grips.


I have a 20 ton bottle jack that could be shoehorned into that role, but I'm too lazy to try and set something up right now so I just ran the knuckle down to the local tire shop.


Thankfully I was able to salvage the threads on the spindle lugs by threading the nuts on and off a few times. They're 3/8-20 threads, which nobody has dies for around here. It's all either 3/8-16 or 3/8-24. It seems as though a crisis was averted


Would you happen to have a picture of this air hose and where it's supposed to connect to the radiator support? I looked around under the hood, and I couldn't find anywhere that a hose could connect to.

 

I believe that this is the steering box, correct?


Upon further inspection, I'm pretty sure that the sloppy steering is due to something loose inside this housing.


How much of a headache am I looking at with trying to get this fixed?

 

yup, that is the steering box.
and no on the air intake, mine was removed back in 88 when i put the turbo on.
i just run a cone filter off the air box to act as a pre filter.

 

that's a hell of a deal

 

That's a good idea with the second air filter. Might just do that

I finally got the first set of ball joints on last night, hopefully today will go faster on the driver side.

 

Alright, the ball joints were a success. The second set was WAY faster to put on. Got the new fuel filter installed, too.


Now, about these damn valve covers. Is it even possible to reach all of the bolts without moving stuff around under the hood?

 

yup, you just have to get creative with tool assortment, and be very flexible.

it really isn't that bad, i use a 1/4 drive ratchet set to snug mine up.

 

Thanks Tom.

Best I could tell, there are seven bolts on the driver side valve cover? I couldn't see real well, I assume there must be the same number on the passenger side?

 

same on both sides.

 

Thanks again for all your help, Tom.

If you have a spare minute, I'm afraid I may have made a mistake with my hub assemblies while doing the ball joints and I'm looking for a more knowledgeable opinion so that I don't end up breaking something.

If you have a second to provide your expertise...

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...ething-up.html

 

you did nothing wrong. it was the monkey that messed with it before you that messed it up.

 

So I got around to looking at the throttle cable finally. There are two cables coming off the injection pump. One is just a cable cased in a black sleeve, and one is red at the pump with a spring coiled around it. Which one is my throttle cable?

 

if i remember correctly, the black is throttle, and the red is the cruise control cable.
easy enough to tell, pop the red off and try the throttle. if it works the black is the throttle.