We started the day with a yahoo. I just put one of those old gas bathroom heaters in the garage and combined with our little space heater the 19 degrees it was outside didn't bother us at all. It was almost comfy inside!







The The Redhead got all excited about getting to work on Skippy again. Here's a couple she took at random. "Wow, look at those emblems, Daddy!"

Yes dear, you'll be plenty safe...er...I mean you'll be plenty cool in Skippy.









With the hood up I leaned my fat hip against the light and it wiggled. The Redhead put a little tightening of this screw and set it right.







Then she moved to the cab light that was out. Another zip of a screw and the old one was out.











After that it was off to the hood struts. This has been an annoying thing since Skippy came home. I don't like using a breaker bar to hold him open and these struts were only 14.00. Dirt cheap.









She started by prying the keeper off on the strut while I held the hood up.







You just use a flathead screwdrive on the little keeper like this and this:









Watch the paint though. She scratched a mark on one spot, but it wasn't to the metal thank goodness. She also slipped one time.







When you get them off there's nothing holding the hood up and a rod isn't great protection. Best to have someone holding it. These hoods are heavy!







After snapping the last one back on she was feeling pretty good about herself. She celebrated with a little dance of joy.







Next she moved to the shift boot and unscrewed the handle, then unscrewed the boot. Then on to these two huge star screws holding things together.







That out of the way she put the new bottom part of the boot on. It lined up weird. Like it should be turned around upside down to fit better, but that would put the shift boot pointing to the passenger side. Hope it doesn't tear.







Then she put the star bolts back in and slipped the rubber boot over it all. It tightened down with four philips head screws once she got it wiggled into place right.















End result:

 

While they had success, I spent over an hour trying to get the emergency brake adjuster to freaking move. I used a screwdriver on it, banged on it with a hammer, and sprayed it with PB Blaster. I got nowhere. The stupid thing wouldn't turn.







I guess I'll have to get deep into these wheels. Thank goodness there's a thread about it here:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...-pictures.html

I was hoping not to have to do that. I don't have one of those big sockets or a wheel puller





Licking my wounds, I moved to that airbox. A member on here sold me a used one and since mine has these fancy silver hold-down strips I thought it a good idea to get it in as soon as possible. I removed the silver hold-downs...







Then the three bolts holding it in place. There's one by the power steering pump and two on the fender.







Then I removed the air line to the motor. Simple flathead screwdriver got this done.







I tried yanking the box off after that but this little sensor or somesuch was on the bottom. I unplugged it and taped it up. The AIS filter doesn't have a sensor thingy on it. Hope that' the right thing to do...The filter didn't come with instructions.







The new filter had a busted tab too, but instead of being on the air filter clips (important) this was busted on the place it bolts to the fender. I can live with that if it doesn't rattle around in there. I tightened it up extra to be sure.







I put in the new hose. It was a breeze.







The AIS box came with a breather extender but it didn't fit in my truck because of a cover in the front by the radiator. I snapped it in and almost never got it back out.







Finally I got it apart and mushed in it's new home. I did have to move the little power steering hose up instead of down to get it to fit.
But it did and now Skippy can breathe again.







That was about it for today. We did notice that pulling the panel off of the rear door made the door not open anymore. Probably a loose cable somewhere. We'll tackle that one later. Those back doors are more trouble than they're worth I hear.

 

Long story short the truck has been in northern New York its whole life and I was on my way home heard an odd noise thought it was something under my fake tool box I have in my bed to protect my "y" pipe moved everything around started driving again didn't hear it though ok good everything is normal and not even thirty seconds later I hear it again and by that Tim I am on a road no where to pull off and I have to go about 5 miles down the road to the closest parking lot and as I am about to pull in I see my fuel door a quarter open and my heart sunk cause as I oil in I see a trail of fuel behind me about 100 bucks I see flowing out of it I patched it up bit havent put a full tank in it since I left about a month after I patched it and we were just us in the wife's car. So I figured since I will be driving from N.Y. to HAVE when I get back I would just buy a new to me one and not worry if the old one is going to spring a leak along the way...... ny and their darn salt addiction

 

Glowplugger looks like you are getting the truck dailed in. Sorry about the booboo on your finger but better your finger that your little girl stabbing herself with a screwdriver. That never feels good when that happens. Hey did Silently Soaring hook you up with the air cleaner? If not who I always like to send reps to guys who help other members out.

 

Good job glowplugger and great to see your daughter getting involved also. I just ordered some hood struts yesterday for my X.

Hey Ed, I thought the same thing about the boo boo on his finger but then I think it looks like a piece of red paint that was chipped off.

 

Wow that's awful! Talk about a suction on the wallet!
I hope things go smoothly. Those little fuel lines are a booger to get off but once they're out it's smooth sailing.



That was The Redhead's finger. She wanted to do the hood herself. She's all bandaged up today acting like she's a martyr or something lol.

Yes, SilentlySoaring got me the airbox last weekend when he was in town.

Best 14 bucks I've spent so far! You pop open the hood and hit the release and SWOOSH!! Up it flies. Actually The Redhead has to hold on to it to keep it from flying up too high since she's only 5'2" (fully grown) and it gets out of reach quickly. I might add a little drawstring to it for her later.

 

Poor little RED OUCH !! If it was you Oh Well I would say suck it up buttercup. But since it was the Redhead I feel bad for her and next time please keep your fingers out of the way or don't push so hard. Easier said than done heck I have stabbed myself at least 50 times over the years.
So hopefully she is smarter than I.

I'm glad SilentlySoaring hooked you up with the AIS since I never heard back from him. I'll send some reps his way for helping you out. At least my lid is wired closed until I can come up with the cash for a AIS.

I too need hood struts I just got hit in head this morning when I went to put the battery tender on it. But par for the course I keep putting off buying them. Blackie has been sitting clean in the garage all winter. It is the first time in 16 yrs it hasn't seen the salted roads. Hopefully I can let it sit until they are done salting the roads.
I miss driving my truck but my undercarriage & oil pan thanks me.

 

Yep those hood struts are cheap enough you just have to get out there and do them. Here's the same set I got. They're 22.00 shipped here
http://www.ebay.com/itm/220868668598?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2648&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
Redhead just pulled her bandaid off two days ago. She milked that for all it was worth LOL!

 

Speaking of The Redhead, she got a prize in the mail yesterday.







"Yay, Daddy! I got my new gas tank thingy! Can you fix it up for me?"

Yes dear....


Today I started the dreaded hutch mod. 3 hours later I finally finished. I really didn't want to do this. I even looked at a kit on StrictlyDiesel.com but holy bat poo they wanted TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS plus shipping! AHHHH!





So for the princely sum of $64 hard earned dollars I got a PVC cutter (up to 2") from Lowes, about 1 ft of copper 3/8 pipe, a 3/8 and 5/16 compression union connector, a pipe bender, a bag of worm clamps, and a 2 ft section of 1/4 inch copper pipe that the salesman told me was "almost the same" as 5/16. Spoiler, it's not. I ended up getting 30 inches of flare ended brake tubing from O'Reillys for about 7.50.

I started this by removing the little worm clamp holding the foot on.







To remove the bottom screen on my after-market (Rock Auto) model all I had to do was bend the foot like this and the screen popped out.







Then I tried running a drill bit through the foot with pliers. The 3/8 didn't fit at ALL so I started with 11/32nd if I remember right. I worked it out with the pliers really well then moved to the 3/8ths. It was still too tight so I did what I wasn't supposed to do. I used a cordless drill tied to it. Luckily in about 30 seconds I had the hole wallered out to the right size to shove some pipe into it.







I missed the part where you were supposed to take an initial measurement of the foot length so I went with 4" for my pipe like it says on Guzzle's page.







I shoved it in through the bottom then pressed down on the foot to get it to bottom out. It was still a tight fit. Probably didn't need a worm clamp but it got one anyway.








Then I pressed the screen back into the grooves in the foot.







Next I went to remove the white screen thingy. I stabbed a small philips screwdriver into the clamp. I never got it to do more than barely budge, but it was enough to get it to ride up over the rubber hose and onto the stainless portion so I could pull the hose off with some pliers. I'll save this little treasure because you always need small hose and never can find them.









After that the white thing just slips right off!

 

I tried to find regular compression couplings at the local Lowes but all they had were flare fittings. See?







Since I had flare fittings I had to remember to put the fitting on BEFORE flaring the pipe. I forgot once and had to re-round the pipe. Not fun and now my hands are really arthritic feeling lol. Old age? nope, just truck ownership!

Fitting on first, we're working with the sending unit stainless pipe here:







Then flaring it out.







Finally we put the little insert in the end that helps it seal. (It comes in the pack)







Wrench and crescent to tighten it up.







Tada! That's the sending unit intake finished. Now we add the foot.







Now we put the connector head on the copper pipe on the foot and flared IT out too. Then we put the little insert in it.








Then we tightened it up real good. This is the pickup line where it sucks fuel through and I don't need it sucking air Ever.







For the 5/16 line like I mentioned earlier we had to use steel brake line. Here's the part number.







Notice it has flared ends already. This could have been helpful had they used the same connectors I was using. They dont. I had to cut them off.

 

Technical note:


The foot is copper and the sending is stainless (I found out later that they're ALUMINUM, I was wrong here). And the return is steel. I was originally concerned about using 3 different (four if you count the brass) types of metal on this but my research shows Diesel isn't a natural electrolyte so corrosion should be minimal. I've set an alert for 5 years down the line to open it up and re-check. I'll post pics when it gets here!

Moving on....

 

After cutting the brake line I removed the male connector and replaced it with my female connector.








Then we flared the end of the brake line too and put it's little insert in.








And tightened the rest of the fitting on the top.







Now for the bending. I looked at the pictures on Guzzle's page and estimated the first bend. I liked to never figured out the way this pipe bender works. The second hinge was frozen up and I couldn't figure out how it opened enough to be useful. Finally I broke it loose and the light bulb went off.








Then I test fitted (fit?) it to see where the second bend should be to clear the float moving around in the tank.









Pretty close! I bent it a little more along float line to be squared off (no pic).







Then I sat my now zig zaggy pipe aside and things got hairy. First I couldn't fit the pipe flaring tools on the short little piece of pipe that the return line had on the sending unit. So I grabbed my pliers and bent the float tab out of the way a bit. It shouldn't affect it's workings at all.







That worked fine until I remembered I had to put the fitting on there first!










So with a prayer I stuck a screwdriver inside the return tube and SLOWLY bent it downward hoping to get the fitting to move farther up the pipe so I could fit the flaring tool on there.







It didn't work entirely. Time for some redneck engineering. I whacked the fitting gently with my crescent wrench until it popped free of the compression piece inside.








That gave me just enough room to fit the flaring tool on. Whew!







With the fitting flared and working again I stuck my screwdriver back in the pipe and slowly bent it back upward to a level angle.







Then I slipped my zippity doo dah pipe on and tightened it up. Purty good.







On the other end of the return pipe I pulled off all the paper tags







Then cut off the flared end and removed the male connector that was already on it.







With pliers I stole the duckbill from the white screen holding thing







And put it on my zippity doo dah line.







And that's where it is today. Done as far as I can tell. Next we'll clean up the tank and do the Harpoon mod. Then it's going back up and Skippy will be mobile again! Good thing too, The Redhead needs more driving practice.

 

Well I figured out why the parking/emergency brakes don't work. The adjuster threads don't even touch the other side of the adjuster. Put them together and it's like throwing a hotdog down a hallway.


I'm guessing they were adjusted too tight maybe and they just wallered out the threads inside.

 

First of all, welcome to the FTE 7.3L Brotherhood! Ha!

Secondly, Holy Smokes! You're diving in with some real passion into working on that baby. That's incredible! Many, many reps should be coming your way. Normally I suggest guys get with other FTE'ers, but you're doing awesome. And your documentation of the processes is excellent.

Ha! Last year it took 3 or 4 of us "manly men" about 30-45 minutes to cram that footer on at one of Ted's GTG Events. Not going to name any names ... RolandRozziTedMarkEtAl ... I think that may have been the funniest thing I'd seen in a long time.

 

Hey glow plugger, if you don't mind me asking, what did ya pay for skippy?
Looks like you've been digging into him pretty good so far!