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Bubba is an old farm truck I purchased in May 2014 from a farmer/rancher in southern Colorado. Only had 136k on it when I bought it, plus about 100 pounds of mud on the undercarriage. Previous owner had a new computer and distributor put on in the last year or so, but otherwise I’m concerned about how regularly he maintained it. My goal is to have this be my daughters first vehicle – she’ll be 3 in June, meaning the truck will be 36 years old when she gets her license.
Prior to this vehicle, I have never worked on my own vehicle before. I understand the concepts and basic functions of many aspects of vehicles, but am a complete novice at the work itself. I'm setting up this thread to track my and Ol’ Bubba’s progress over the years to come. Y'all have been a godsend so far and I appreciate everyone’s expertise.
Tires – Done. Previous set was 13 years old.
Water Pump and subsequent timing cover – Done. “Fun” story is in a response below.
Coolant Hoses– Done
Clutch Slave Cylinder - Donein a Wal Mart Parking lot...
Heater Core – Done
PCV valve, grommets, and hoses - DONE
Fluids:
Coolant – Done
Oil – Ongoing, see below…
Transmission – Done
Transfer Case – Upcoming
Front & Rear Differentials – Upcoming
Power Steering – On Hold - Fluid is full and no signs of new leaks.
New bed – currently has a 2’ x 2’ x 1/2” plate steel gooseneck hitch mounted in the middle of the bed, plus a bunch of holes drilled shoddily into the bedrails
Replace clutch pedal ?sensor? – clutch can be out and still try to turnover/cruise doesn’t work
Replace A/C compressor/refill system
Turn signal/wiper control lever replace/repair
NEW - Replace ignition lock cylinder
NEW - Clean up the engine compartment
NEW - Replace fuel filter
NEW - Replace spare tire support arm
Fun stuff – In general, I want to keep the OE look as much as possible, but add some modern functionality/fun.
Audio system upgrade
New exhaust system
Exterior light upgrade
New paint/trim
Fog/party lights/light bar
That's about it for now. Thanks for taking a look and for your help. I hope you have fun watching me struggle/learn.
Last edited by Alphund; Feb 9, 2015 at 11:32 AM.
Reason: Update
let me be the first to welcome you to this section of the forums, you have (IMHO) got one of the best trucks to learn and work on both from a novice start and driving aspect, these trucks are relatively easy to work with (lots of room in the engine bay for most) and easy to drive (minimal items to worry about, these trucks more or less just go)
as for your concerns we will do our best to help as always, but for a very first vehicle for your currently 3 year old, I would suggest at the time having them start on a car instead of a larger truck like these, cars are generally a lot easier to learn on and use to get the basic mechanics of driving down but if you want to stick to the truck its your call, I'm just offering a suggestion (plus when the truck is 36 it would be a Antique at that point in life)
Welcome! There is somethin special about these trucks- good looks and quite rugged to boot. About it being your daughters first car, my first truck was my father's 1992 F150 that I bought off of him and I haven't had a problem. Granted my family doesn't own cars so it wasn't a big deal. I look forward to your progress on the build!
as for your concerns we will do our best to help as always, but for a very first vehicle for your currently 3 year old, I would suggest at the time having them start on a car instead of a larger truck like these, cars are generally a lot easier to learn on and use to get the basic mechanics of driving down but if you want to stick to the truck its your call, I'm just offering a suggestion (plus when the truck is 36 it would be a Antique at that point in life)
I agree that most first time drivers are better in a small car. But it really depends on the person, some just get the hang of driving really quick.
I currently own my first vehicle(and plan to for a long time) which is my 97 F250. But I also learned to drive in our 93 drw dump truck and first learned to parallel park in a 97 Suburban.
I agree on it depending on the person. Personally I learned to drive on a 85 full size chevy van that had problems with the power steering, then a 86 F150, then a 02 F250 crew cab short bed, and my first vehicle is my 88 F150. I grew up around full size trucks and such so I have gotten use to it.
Although my 94 Explorer is my daily driver every day I wish I could find a full size to drive while my F150 is down.
Trav
Thank you, guys. Jaime, I gotta tell you that your Sandy project was an inspiration for this post. I'll get photos up this weekend for before/after purposes.
The good news is that we have 13 years to figure out if Bubba will be a good truck for her. Even better is that we live in the country, and I have zero intention on waiting until she's permitted to teach her to drive.
Thanks for the support! I'm excited to get going, too!
As promised, here are some photos, but not without some hiccups. Went to do the transmission fluid change (didn't want to shift into gear <~25*F), but didn't have the right sized socket. Went to town to get one and give ol' Bubba a wash, then he wouldn't start in the bay... aye. Initial attempt to jump it didn't work - just would not turn over. Father-in-law happened to be around and found significant carbon build-up in the distributor cap. Cleaned that off, and fired up better than ever. Whew.
Anyway, today was another gorgeous Colorado day, so I gave the trans another crack. Everything went smoothly and it shifted better than ever. I have a feeling the wrong fluid was used previously...
Regardless, as I was crawling around yesterday, I snapped some photos and found a couple more concerns.
Here you can see the rust at the bottom of the cab.
More rust, but great sunset.
Drivers side rust.
Another angle.
New issue #1 - this is located one the right-side valve cover, toward the rear. Held in by friction only, easily (and has) worked itself loose. Based on the buildup, could this be part of the oil loss? FIL says its air intake.
Similar line here. This runs from the oil fill to the air filter. Not sealed or connected, just set it back in when I see it. Quick fix?
When you find time, please elaborate on the "fun" story regarding the water pump/timing cover. Was in a pain in the a## or was there a funny story behind it?
Thanks for asking. The project itself wasn't too bad, in all. My perspective may also be skewed since it was my first job ever, so I was learning a lot. The key is to remember that there are A LOT of bolts on the water pump (~17 if I remember correctly).
My FIL and I thought we had everything off, so he started banging away at the water pump to get it free. Turned out we had missed a bolt and he cracked the timing cover... That's the "fun" part.
If not for that, the project would have taken just one afternoon, even with me learning everything along the way. If you need to get it down to the timing chain, the hardest part is the oil pan and gasket. If I could to it over, I would have done an oil change at the same time and completely dropped the pan and replaced the gasket.
Last edited by Alphund; Feb 16, 2015 at 08:45 AM.
Reason: Fixed typo
That valve cover pic shows your pcv valve sticking out of the valve cover. You want a good seal there, i believe you can buy a new grommet for it at the parts store. buy a new pcv valve at the same time, they are cheap.
as for the tube into the air box, that is the other end of the pcv system. you want that to have a good seal too, it pulls air into the engine crankcase from that tube. bad seal = dirty air into engine = not good
Thanks, Rebel. Looking at the parts, I have myself a project for this weekend! Knowing the condition of most of the coolant hoses, I'll probably end up changing some hoses, too. Reading through some other threads, I'm excited for the possible performance changes, too! Huge thanks!
Last edited by Alphund; Feb 10, 2015 at 12:25 PM.
Reason: Grammar
Thank you, guys. Jaime, I gotta tell you that your Sandy project was an inspiration for this post. I'll get photos up this weekend for before/after purposes.
The good news is that we have 13 years to figure out if Bubba will be a good truck for her. Even better is that we live in the country, and I have zero intention on waiting until she's permitted to teach her to drive.
Thanks for the support! I'm excited to get going, too!
well thanks, never hadanyone tell me that me or my truck was the inspiration for there thread but cool, that makes me feel very good about my girl (ok so im gloating a bit, who wouldn't?)
Well, I got the PCV system sealed up this weekend. As some other threads led me to hope, I'm seeing some positive performance results - smoother idle, increased power, and cleaner exhaust. I appreciate the help getting that issue ID'd.
This is what a good Saturday afternoon looks like!
It seems whoever last worked on this completely rigged the job. I ended up replacing everything between the oil filler and filter box. I think the grommet in valve cover was the original, too. Thankfully, it wasn't brittle - if anything it wasn't sealing because it was so loose. Regardless, Murphy stayed away and I didn't lose anything into the cover...
Tax refund is pending in the bank! Think I'll tackle the transfer case fluid and rear diff the next nice weekend. Barring any new, more urgent concerns, of course.
New bed – currently has a 2’ x 2’ x 1/2” plate steel gooseneck hitch mounted in the middle of the bed, plus a bunch of holes drilled shoddily into the bedrails
Replace clutch pedal ?sensor? – clutch can be out and still try to turnover/cruise doesn’t work
Replace A/C compressor/refill system
Clean up the engine compartment
Replace fuel filter
Replace spare tire support arm
NEW - Replace front brake calipers
NEW - Replace rear brake lines
NEW - Replace shocks
Fun stuff –
Audio system upgrade
New exhaust system
Exterior light upgrade
New paint/trim
Fog/party lights/light bar
New update - Noticed I was starting to lose brake fluid at the master, so I decided it was past time to address it. Went to the shop, since no one has every really looked it over. $1,200 later, brakes are back and I have a small list of things to keep working on (added above).
This being noted, I'm really getting tired of adding oil (up to about 3qts/week). What is a reasonable price for having the valve stem seals done? I know this varies by locale, but can anyone give me an idea what I'd be looking at for labor hours?
(ok so im gloating a bit, who wouldn't?) 
