tell me some stories about your trucks almost leaving you stranded or getting you out of situations where others were left stranded. a couple of my own. my truck has never left me stranded away from home tho things have left me from leaving home. i went through several starters before i purchased a mean green gear reduction starter. its saved me a few times where im sure a normal starter would have just crapped out. one time i ran out of gas at a stop light across the street from the gas station this light was taking forever and it died just before going green and wouldnt fire so i stuck it in 4th gear and cranked my way across to the gas station. another time the hydraulic line blew in front of a friends house when i was inside the truck was parked on a hill with a car directly in front of me so i had to put it in reverse and start it backwords in gear up a hill. last story my alternator too a sh** last night and if i didnt have 2 batterys i am 100% positive i would not have made it home. i think dual alternators or a hi output are my next forced fix to this beast.

 

Just put my motor back in and got my truck back together. Driving 30 miles to a nearby city, and half way there in the middle of no where i lost power steering and my volt meter went to zero. So i figured it was my belt. When i got under the hood, none of my belt was left but 2 of the 6 ribs. I just happen to have a pipe wrench in the back of my truck. I put the 2 ribs of belt back on and it lasted till i got to the near by city and got to the auto parts store. Got a new belt and went on about my business.

 

Last fall I got a new set of BFG AT's, took my truck, sled, and a couple friends into the mountains north of my house (Gunnison, CO). It was my first day on my sled, just road riding to not hit any rocks as there was scarce snow cover. I left my friends to drive my truck to the top of a pass, because I wanted to try out the "new" sled and figured they could handle the drive. I got to the top first and waited, and waited. Figured they got stuck, so I went back down the pass (steep, dirt/rock, usually one truck wide shelf road). About halfway up one of the steeper sections, there were my friends playing rock paper scissors for who would try to drive the truck out of the mess they got into. They had tried to climb a snow covered section of hill driving in the icy ruts left by the last driver, rather than in the untouched snow where there is more traction. They almost made it to the top, then broke traction, slid backwards, then sideways. Got lucky and a small rock pile caught the passenger side rear tire so the truck stopped, sideways on a narrow steep snowy/icy hill with a cliff-like dropoff on the side. I got there just in time, they surely would have lost it over the edge. I simply grabbed the tire chains I had in the bed (they didn't know I had them...), chained up and drove right up the hill. When I say they got lucky and a rock pile stopped the truck, it barely stopped it. When I dug around one of the tires to put the chain on, the whole truck shifted because it was that ready to slide downhill...

Then there's the times I've been in the position to help others get out of bad situations, always in larger trucks than the F-150 I drive.

Anyway, I couldn't be happier with my truck, never been stranded when I'm driving it, no matter how far or how hard. Just do alot of maintance

 

My 92 F350 crewcab left me stranded three times.

1. The starter died, nothing I could do about it at 2am.

2. Dead battery, sat in a parking lot for about two hours until I found someone willing to give me a jump.

3. Truck would stall at 3000 RPM, during a 3.5 hour trip to a sales conference in CT. Nursed it over, went to the conference, nursed it back (or tried to) and about 50 miles on the way back that was it. Truck wouldn't even go over 1500 rpm. Couldn't figure it out on the side of the road and got towed to a local shop who figured it out quickly the next morning - the engine was getting "no air".

Why?

Half a critter was in one intake tract tube, the other half off the critter was in the other tract.

Seemed the critter chewed the bottom of the air box and gut sucked in across the two air track outlets, and eventually broke in half.

Solution?

Remove oily critter halves with broom handle, then duct tape over large chew hole in the bottom of air box so I could get home and junkyard myself another air box.

Three strandings is not bad for 500k+, not including getting stuck in the snow (2wd).

 

ive actually had that one happen before i took off the mechanical fan, the air at freeway speeds i guess kept the fan and the water pump spinning and the engine cool enough to keep driving it for 30 minutes before i arrived home no power steering and the battery was low but running no accessories didnt fully kill it

thats so scary glad you and your friends made it out! ive got a 2wd but ive pulled my buddy in his 95 cummins who was stuck half way off the side of a sloshy steep steep hill it started sliding and tensioned the strap as soon as i wrapped it around the frame i went running and got in my truck and started pulling it came up a little then wouldnt budge. i backed up and took off and yanked it up again. ive got bfg all terrains too. didnt do half bad..

1.next time it goes out look in to a mean green gear reduction, got one and never looked back best starter hands down

2. like i said ive got two

3. GROSS!

 

Only left me twice, both was the starter. Once was in the sears parking lot couldn't even hit it with a hammer to get it to spin, had to have it towed home cause sears apparently they dislike anyone working on their cars in their lot. second time it didn't really leave me but i left her cause i didn't know the full extent. 50 miles from the beach me and my friends where going to hear a couple loud pops and check engine light comes on then goes off pull it over tranny is leaking fluid. left her there packed everyone's crap that was in the bed in 5 cars and headed to the beach dad came and dollyed the truck back home found out front seal was worn and fluid got hot and pushed past. Pulled the inspection plate found a cap and a lock washer. found out that it was the cap at the end of the gear shaft and the washer that held it there. just blew it's bits and hit the flywheel. went back to the auto store they looked at it said **** happens gave me a brand new one no charge. Almost left me when brake lines blew 30 miles from home thank god both times it happened i was on back roads and i my parking bake still worked, used that and a real long following distance to get home. Other than that just the usual old battery cables low charge battery nothing a screwdriver between the starter solenoid posts didn't fix. that's it for me until now since i posted this

 

Last year on my way home from work I was running it in 4WD (Snowy day) and the front drive shaft U-joint exploded. Was the rear joint, broke my 4WD linkage ear, ripped a hole in the side of the transfer case, ripped all the wires out, bent my shift linkage so I couldn't get it in park and I was on a hill, had to use the E-brake, beat a small hole in the floor, beat the hell out of the drive shaft. When the tow truck got there, found the E-brake would not release. Had to drag it up on the roll back. Because of the snow he could not back it down in my drive way, had to leave it on the road. With the brake locked we had to pull it down in the driveway into the shop with my little S-10.Not a fun fix.

At this point I had all U-joints replaced. This year maybe a month ago if that I was driving it to work again in 2WD, middle U-joint in the rear drive shaft went. I wont be going back to that shop. Was able to put it in 4WD and nurse it home a few miles on the front shaft.

Got that fixed, the next week the tranny went out. Pulled the tranny yesterday to find that the drive shaft did a bit more damage than I originally thought. I am AMAZED it ran all year like this:


Am currently looking for a new tranny.

 

im in the north bay california if you live by here i have one from an f-150 im parting out its an aod i believe and another f350 that only has a 3 speed i think it might be a c6 im not sure

 

Thats pretty amazing right there. You drove it like that?

 

Yep, ran for a year like that. With the pan and valve body holding it together it was just an unnoticeable crack. Wasn't until I pulled the valve body out that the two halves separated.

Also I'm in Ohio. That AOD wouldn't hold up, and the bellhousing has to be from a diesel.

 

Thats really amazing.

 

One time, a clip broke on the clutch pedal and it wouldn't let the clutch disengage. I had to pick it up the next day cause it was too hard to figure it out in the dark. woo!

 

I owned a 05 tacoma that i dropped a stupid amount of money in to have a prerunner. I was in the desert and the motormount caved in the frame on drive side and caused all kinds of problems and ended up having nurse it home an hour and a half on the freeway. I know this wasnt about my f150, but this issue was what made me sell that dumb truck, and own only fords now. Very poorly built that toyota.