Smitten with the Mitten
 

So I have returned, and Michigan is just how I left it. I missed the people and the land. I am in my new house out in Perry and things couldnt be better, I happy to be home and I feel like I am actually relaxed for a change!!

Heres important truck updates/lessons Ive encountered in the past week or so:

Diesels are hard to start in the cold....a jump box dosent help, a Nissan Murano dosent help, both almost help..........my newest friend has become....the block heater!!!

Diesels make funny noises when they are cold.....I had to keep looking for low flying jets...then I realized it was my truck.

On the Cross Country Trip, with my Truck and enclosed car hauler, with furniture, for a total scale weight of 20,268.....I could still cruise at 75 if I wanted to....and get 8 MPG

The rake to my truck, was perfect for the jacked up way I loaded my trailer and screwed up the weight distribution......I had 10,000lbs over the rear axle, but my truck sat level.

Cops in Nebraska love big trucks, but when you cut them off because your turn signal is out, they'll pull you over!

Those same cops will laugh and give you the thumbs up when you have to put it in 4x4 and throw dirt all over they highway because you got stuck in the soft shoulder when they pulled you over!

Even K9 cops are scared of Pitbulls when they lunge out the window from the backseat barking and throwing foam from the ends of their saber-like teeth.

When you have a crew-cab long bed 4x4 diesel.......there is really no such thing as the fabled trailer sway....even when braking down a 7% grade at 75mph (Thank God I had my Trailer brakes adjusted perfectly......(Thank you Prodigy for such a great product!))

If you actually use your bed often....Bedrugs are a pretty bad idea

My Auto hubs stick...alot.....they are going to be replaced with full manuals!

Its good to be back, and thank you everyone for all the help and advice along the way!

Ted

Great post Ted, thanks for the laugh.

Glad to hear you made it back home safe.

Hope to meet at the next GTG.

lol that was funny ! Welcome home !

Sounds like you need some glow plugs buddy!

Do you think that's why it wont start in the cold Tayln?

Here some reading for you Ted on cold starting tips - https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...ky-thread.html

no cold start is generally a GP issue or GPR issue.

Helps to be there to see it start though so you can see how it smokes and what not.

Like mine, I know I have 2 bad GP's.
well, thats not true. I know I have 2 of my glow plugs not working.
One of the UVCH harnesses is screwed up, or the VC Gasket.

Those are the main cause, but I don't know how much of a problem they are on the SD's vs the OBS's.

I just know its big bucks, so there might be a paper clip going in there. haha. 30 each on the UVCH's for me, and 60-80 each on the VC gaskets. I got a spare gasket thank god, but only replaced 2 of my 4 harnesses.

The SD's have a different setup, 1 UVCH and a single connector VC Gasket.
A bit more simple, but I didn't much like the clips on the e99 i worked on a few months ago.

Just make sure to get some good GP's, like Beru/motorcraft, not cheapies like autolites.

Jim Rose has another set he sells which are decent too. I think its 79+ shipping for a whole set of the ones he's got, SKG's or something like that.

I'm running a Stancore Relay for my GPR as well. I think you can do that upgrade on the SD's also?

nice link mark.

Thanks for the cold startup link, I read it before I left Cali but had it on the back burner since... Ill have to do some diagnostics to figure out whats going on with mine.

Tayln, Thanks for the info, I know I can do the Stancore upgrade on mine, I had done some reading on it in the past. Im still trying to familiarize myself with all of the basic parts and concepts of the diesel....its all so new to me, I cant even identify the parts yet! Luckily at first glance it appears that I DO NOT have a Cali truck.....but I will investigate a little more to be certain. When I tried to start it up it just cranked and cranked....puffed a bunch of white smoke when it started and the fired up....laboriously. The service engine soon light came on and then turned off after driving about 15 miles.

Ill get into it in a few days, I check in to work tomorrow and then have 10 more days off so Ill have to dedicate some time to the truck.

well, the thing to know is how much plugging it in is effecting the crank over at start up.

if you gotta crank and crank no matter what, you might have Hpop bleedback, or loosing fuel pressure someplace.

To bad you live to far away, id' help ya out with it.

So.. how did it go?? Figure it out?

Not yet, instead of fixing it, I took the time to clean up the garage and figure out if it would fit in there....and surprise surprise, it does! So now I don't have to plug it in OR fix anything! Ok, Ok, I'm gonna fix it, I just have to get my tools all out and organized first.

Good call.. its nice when you have a warm place to work..one day I will feel that comfort..one day. See, mine doent fit.. Who in their right mind makes a garage door only 6'7".

do not know. but it sounds like you got one.:-X24:-X24:-missingt

The great thing is that I have an awesome natural gas heater already installed, you can see it in the pic with the cover off. I need to do some weatherproofing before Ill just let my money go out the window though! Another thing about my garage is that I think they built the opening to big and had to shrink it down to fit a standard "cheap" door. So I have a header that it about 10 2x4s tall! So in the future if I lift the truck, I can just shrink the header and put in a bigger door. Loving trucks is difficult sometimes!