I pulled out the overhead and looked at the board. One resistor was missing. Off to radio shack, then my buddy who is better with a solder gun than me. See the one resistor that isn't like the others?



Tadaaaa

 

I've got plenty of experience with this type of damage by wheeling off road over rocks/boulders. A BFH will work fine, but first remove the 'plastic outer- and steel sub-board' of the running board, just leaving the beefy hangers to pound on and reshape the inner rocker sheet metal and straighten. Shim with washers to fine-tune. Soak the fasteners in WD40 a bit to get the 'board' off easier. Looking closely at your pic, a jack under that downward bent board might to the trick.

Maybe a 500 pounder jumped on those?

See pic of my sazwall'd boards ( damaged on a boulder beyond repair, later picked up a used replacement). Ford Truck Picture by wpnaes | 851438 | Ford-Trucks

Overall nice work on your Ex!

 

Keep up the nice work, reps sent.

 

I decided to take a break from working/spending money on the truck, but lately I've been scouring the local want ads for a set of wheels. I really want to fix the out of balance feeling when highway cruising. Today I found a set in good shape for a decent price. Got some of the later model Limited wheels then headed to the tire shop. After having 3 of almost every tire I wanted in stock, they finally found a full set of Bridgestone Dueller A/T. A little more aggressive than I wanted, but should do well in the snow. So, on they went. They look waaayy better than the old ones.
Yep, white letters out. I'm definitely '80s, so excuse me while I put on my Ratt cassette and go for a drive.

 

Soooo, did the wheels and tires do anything for your vibration,etc?

Hopefully you have some good news for us...

 

Wait, I thought the extra $4 was the tip... I always just pulled up, asked for an inspection and paid. The guy asked for his "tip", I handed it to him and he applied the sticker to the windshield. My mechanic was amazing too, he did the whole thing in like 30 seconds, I never had to pull it into the garage/bay, and he could check the whole thing from his chair. He only had to get up to put the sticker on

 

I like the way you roll

 

Hey man, nice ride. One note, looking at that degas bottle, looks like you may have a leaky injector cup. Its dark meaning there may be oil/fuel in the coolant....thats bad. Just something to maybe look into.

 

Initial testing this morning looks positive. Since I live in the boonies, it's a little far to get to a highway with sustained higher speeds. But, i did some strafing runs on some local roads and it seems better. I did have a bit of something on one of the runs, so I'm not ready to decalre victory yet, but it's definitely better. Previously, once you hit 65 it was lightly there, anything faster and it got worse to the point it was difficult to drive at 80. I did a few runs over 75 and it wasn't there, so I'm hopeful.

 

Thanks. That degas bottle has bothered me from the beginning. It is very crusty with no real oily residue. The coolant itself looks clean. But, I plan to send a sample of both oil and coolant to a lab for testing. I've actually run a little over mileage for an oil change now so I can send a "worst case" sample. I'll do it in the next couple weeks and see what happens. Fingers crossed I just need a new degas bottle. But, I am certain there are some seals under the hood that need replacement. Not the cleanest engine ever.

 

Couple of really small updates.

First, my brake light wasn't working so well. Of when it shouldn't be and on and dinging when I'm driving down the road. The fix was the rubber bumper on the parking brake lever and a new switch. Part Numbers:
1. F2UZ15A851A
SWITCH - PARKING BRAKE WARNING Price: $16.60
2. F85Z2B184AA
BUMPER Price: $6.67

Before


After


Nasty old switch

 

Next small fix is to replace my new struts on the rear glass with slightly longer ones. At 6'3" I can get my head under it now.

I found a thread that gave the info, but here's what I got from liftsupportsdepot.com
Name Code Qty Each Options
-----------------------------------------------------------
Lift Supports 6421/48154 48154 2 21.15


Before


After

 

The longer struts for the hatch is something that I need to do. I'm not tall, by any stretch (5'10") but with my driveway the way it is, I park my truck nose-out into the street, with only my rear tires on the driveway, then there's a steep incline up to my garage. If I buy a load of groceries, I climb the hill, open the rear of the truck, and am at about eyebrow level with my hatch. I've whacked my head against it more times than I care to count.

 

This thing has been killing me for the last 6-weeks or so. It has been leaking diesel and getting worse. It was driveable, but I left a big mess wherever I went. I could see it was leaking from the bowl drain valve, so I started there. I got the kit from diesel o-rings and rebuilt the fuel bowl. I had to wait several weeks for a warm enough weekend. When I was putting it back on, I broke the fuel regulator. Literally didn't feel any resistance between the fitting bottoming out and the metal breaking off. After a little reading on here, I realize I'm not the only idiot to do this. So, I ordered the replacement (made for idiots like me) from diesel o-rings and a new fuel line.
After another week waiting for parts to arrive and waiting another week because of a cold rainy weekend, I went to put on the new parts. I had to remove the fuel feed lines. So, I pulled the PS and alternator bracket, then went underneath to remove the flex lines. Cleaned them good with brake cleaner and popped the first one off no prob. Second one, not so much. I took the other end off, pulled them out and still couldn't get it to come off. Crap, another week waiting on parts for the new flex lines and I got everything hooked up.
I had a suspicion the reason the leak had gotten worse over time was that the passenger line had ruptured and I was right. Still leaking. So, another week waiting on parts. Now, close to Christmas so I only got about an hour to work on it the first weekend. Wound up getting the intake off. But, had to wait until the next weekend to finish. Luckily it was a gorgeous weekend and the two hour period I had free did the job. No more diesel puddles, or even smell. Nice result, but not happy with this truck at all. Lots of thoughts of selling it during the 2 months of down time. Feeling a little better now that I'm driving it again, but still went on a little truck shopping trip. That actually made me feel even better about keeping it ... for now.

Shiny lines and fuel regulator:

 

I started the Christmas break with a little victory. The interior lights weren't coming on. So, I replaced Relay1 under the dash and ... let there be light. I think that's the 4th relay that was bad in this thing. Very few exterior lights worked when I got it.

But, my victory was soon to be tempered with a big letdown. I got a compression gas leak tester and found compression gasses in this nasty degas bottle. Ugh.