Well with a 3 day weekend off from work, I took the opportunity to come home, and hopefully complete a fair amount of work on the axle. I'll keep this short as I'm waiting for the first coat of primer to dry before adding a second, so on to the pictures.

Me:


Sandblasting:






I ran into some problems with the sand I had. My dad had 40 lbs of white sand in the blaster that I used first. It was a bit damp, but had been sitting for over a year and we were expecting more trouble than it gave us.

I had picked up a few bags of black sand from Menards a few weeks ago that we used after the white sand ran out. That stuff had soaked up a LOT of moisture even in a sealed bag (I know it was dry when I bought it) and it ran through the sand blaster like crap. It also left a lot of "mud" on the metal that needed to be washed off which the white sand didn't leave behind. I'll definitely be avoiding the black sand in the future.

Freshly blasted:





This is the first time I've ever used a painting gun before. The end result was fine, but I think I need to thin the primer down a lot more next time. I didn't realize slow the paint was coming out until I was cleaning the gun out and the paint thinner started to really flow. I'm using Rustoleum Stops Rust bare metal primer. I'm planning to paint the axle with Rustoleum Professional black enamel oil based paint. I don't know if the weather here (north central Iowa) is going to hold out long enough to let me paint this weekend, but I'm definitely going to try if I can.





On another note, I got the pinion bearing and shim kit this week to ready myself for re-assembly. I also got all new wheel studs, ordered a replacement wheel hub since one of mine is dented where the seal sits, and also contacted Trevor form Precision Metal Fab to order my RSK and adjustable track bar.

 

Second coat of primer on. It went way better this time with more paint thinner. The gun worked better, it cleaned easier, and the application was MUCH faster.

 

All the pics are black

 

hmm..... Only the new ones, or are all of my (previous) images black? I see the pictures, and they're all hosted from the same Imgur album.

 

Axle is looking good man.

The pics show up fine for me

 

First coat of paint. I don't know how it's going to turn out. I had problems getting the gun to spray the paint; it's much thicker than the primer. I think I may have over-thinned it so it ran a little bit in some spots.





And a second coating:

 

I'll be updating with a full post soon, but I am looking for advice on getting my truck to start. I drove my truck over the the shed to start work this morning, so it was running 12 hours ago.

Long story short, I changed the oil (as I have always done), drained the torque converter, dropped the transmission pan to install a Punisher valve body, added a drain to the transmission pan, and drained and installed a Super Duty diff cover to the rear axle.

I'm using Mobil 1 ATF and Mobil 1 75w140 gear oil.

I added 12 qts of fluid to the transmission through the dipstick and attempted to start the truck to run through the gears so that I could add the rest of the fluid. The truck doesn't start though.

I added more fluid to make sure there was enough, but I "over filled" it and the fluid started to run out of the breather at the top. I think the coil is firing as I can get my timing light to light off the coil wire, but I can't get a reading off of a spark plug wire (I'm not sure if my timing light as a minimum tach signal before lighting off). I'm pretty sure fuel is good as I can hear the fuel pump running as well as being able to smell gas after cranking for a while.

And yet the truck doesn't start. Does anybody have any ideas for me?

 

I'm out in the shop again this morning; I pulled spark plug #1 to test for spark by grounding it to an engine bracket, and it appears to be good as I did see spark. I also removed the MSD timing control module for the Vortech for the time being to eliminate that as the problem. Then, since I thought it must be a fuel issue, I tried starting the truck off of starting fluid but I don't even get a single firing of the engine. I think I have good spark and fuel; the only thing out of the ordinary that I'm seeing right now is that the engine will sometimes "hiccup" and jump a bit after I finish cranking the engine. Any advice?

Edited original post from phone at 11:23 AM for more clarity

 

I hooked my OBD1 code reader as well (though I doubt it will help much as the battery was disconnected while I was working in it, so the engine hasn't ran yet to get codes from) with the key off engine off test I get codes 565, 10, & 111.

Edited original post from phone at 11:23 AM for more clarity

 

Did you find out what was wrong?

 

I thought I had temporarily. I replaced the ignition coil and got the engine running. Drove it over the weekend a few weeks ago, and this past week the truck died again.

I just bought another coil yesterday, replaced it last night, and the truck won't fire again. If the coil isn't the problem, what else could be affecting the spark? I've removed the MSD ignition timing box for the Vortech while I'm troubleshooting. Could it be something to do with the PIP? How do I test further?

 

My first uneducated guess is computer. I don't know if that would be intermittent though, doubt it. It died while driving it? When you said it would hiccup it reminded me if mine when the computer was out, but also sounds like a weak coil.

 

Is there any good way to test the computer? I'm able to pull codes and I have nothing out of the ordinary (persistent codes for the AIR pump I no longer have)

 

No way to check a computer that I know, just have to eliminate all other possibilities first. Do you not have spark at all?

 

I didn't check last night, but I did have weak or intermittent spark the first time I replaced the coil. The second time I had no spark at all until installing a new coil.