i just did this on my 97 yesterday. it is a PITA. i found it easier from up top. with the flare nut rusted off, i had to get the rest of the nut off and get the threads cleaned up to get the new tube on. connect the bottom first and you may have to remove the egr valve to get that end of the tube started and wrestle the valve back into position. if the new tube is not bent just right you will wrestle with it. but it was easier when i took the egr valve off.

 

Thats what I was afraid of. That putty I put on there lasted for about 400 miles then it cracked. Where did you get your tube?

 

You guys got me good and scared. I wonder if I should change mine now while I can still recognize the Nuts as such?

 

i got it from partstrain.com. they were the cheapest i found the part is made by Dorman p/n RB598107. if you have 4wd you will nedd a step stool to get at it from up top. i'm 6'3" and needed a lift up to be able to reach down there. took about 3 hrs since i had to get the remnants of the old flare nut off. you'll see when you get the new one. Good Luck!

 

and for a couple more bucks you can get a OEM part from a FTE sponsor :-)


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Thanks to this great site I diagnosed the same issue on my 97 f150 (105k miles). I thought it was a leaking exhaust manifold and was gearing up for that when I checked the EGR line. A good tug and it completely separated from the manifold fitting. The problem is poor materials, a stainless tube and what appears to be a brass fitting on the manifold, coupled together with a regular carbon nut completely dissolved. The tube and flared end was in perfect shape. The EGR- tube connection came out easily, but the manifold fitting took some rust cleaner and PBR followed by mr. oxyacet torch and great big pliars, but it did come out relatively easily after that. Cleaned up the threads on this fitting and reused but bit the bullet on a new $137 (CAD) EGR tube. Obviously this was in various stages of failure for quite awhile and has been sucking unmetered air into the intake, killing my power and fuel economy as it is noticeably more powerful, quieter and my fuel economy has gone up by 5 mpg. Feels like a totally different truck now!!.

 

Just discovered this wonderful problem on my 60,000 mile 97 F-150.

By the looks of the fitting that goes into the exhaust manifold, I'm not optimistic the repair will be simple and will have to research some headers before I start it. Could be one of those looooong repairs!

I'm not one for quick fixes but in this case I really don't have another option at this time so I bought some exhaust repair wrap, wrapped the EGR tube to the remaining fitting and installed a metal sleeve over it. So far so good and I hope it gets me through the winter.

What were the engineers thinking when they designed this??