Tuner update:

I drove to and from work today on the 65Hp Fuel Sipper tune. Idles fine, but seems a bit noisier than normal when accelerating. Maybe that’s normal for a tune? Even though “sipping” fuel, it is still way peppier than stock.

An interesting thing happened on the way home today. I came up to the stop sign at the base of a “T” intersection. After looking left, right, left I turned left. I then looked quickly back right as it is a blind curve (maybe 75 yards visibility) and people come around it way too fast. Sure enough some jackass was flying around the corner. In an attempt to not be his hood ornament I kinda punched it like I sometimes have to there. Difference is this time I had the Hydra. I broke the rear end loose and had a heck of a few seconds until things calmed down. This was the first time I really punched it, and it responded. I did get a few of those harder than normal shifts, but maybe that’s because the rear tires were spinning a bit? It was a hell of a ride. I’m going to have to recalibrate my right foot for sure.

 

I have a stock muffler/tail i took off my 2002 in 2002 im tempted to put on just cause i like the quiet some times

Do the X's have same muffler as trucks? I put one on a 941 cat and my 76 f100 with 460 for when i needed to hide in shadows

 

There are other muffler options if you have 4” exhaust.

Eric, it’s not Fuel sipper if you drive like that.

Lol. Great description of events though. However, you may have left out the part about the giant SMILE on your face.

 

Somewhere under this tangled mess is a new IPR and pigtail. I've been having some surge and stalling issues and this is my latest attempt to get it under control. Even though the instructions say to solder the pigtail wires to the existing wiring, there simply wasn't enough room for me to get in there and do that. I used butt splice connectors with some dielectric grease under shrink wrap. Hopefully that works long term. Also hoping this is the fix for my engine issues.

 

You can pull that whole harness out and have all kinds of slack if you pull the injector connectors, ICP plug and remove the grounding point on the rear intake bolt. I think this is possible on yours, my 2003 engine harness and injector harness are separate units.

 

I was up at an FTE 7.3L get together in north GA this past weekend. Was all packed up for departure Sunday morning and the batteries were dead. This was not entirely unexpected as they have been showing signs of age (and it was 26* out). After a kindly jump from one of the other FTE’ers, I headed back south. I tried to find two Northstar X2Power AGM batteries at Batteries+ in Atlanta on the way through. Apparently there was only one in the whole state. They tried to sell me on a pair of Odyssey Extreme AGM’s but at about $110/ea more than the Northstar. I delved into it further and found AZ has the same Odyssey for $120 less than Batteries+. I ordered the Odyssey’s from my local AZ and installed them today.


One Odyssey Extreme AGM battery in its new home. Yep, I probably need new battery cables...


The pair, installed and ready to go. When I started the Ex up it was like I had a new starter in it!


The Autocraft Gold batteries almost made it 6 years! Not bad for old school LA batteries!

 

After fighting sticking slide pins for a few years, I swapped out my front brake calipers and pads. I went with Autozone rebuilds ion the calipers with lifetime warranty. I was going to do rotors also, but my current ones were well within spec (and no pulsing), both ~1.48" thick. New is 1.495" and the thickness limit is 1.417". After a lot of hemming and hawing, I went with Hawk SD pads. After following the break-in procedures on the pad box I think I have a winner.

I failed to take any pictures. Sorry.

While I was at it I rotated the tires, greased my unit bearings through the ABS holes, and greased my front end joints.

This project slap wore me out. I'm definitely feeling my years. The temperature only got up to about 75F while I was working on this, but I was sweating so much if I'd fallen over I would have made a sweat angel.

 

Good to hear another Hawk SD recommendation - I've been leaning that way when the time comes. A good pad from what I hear, and not as aggressive as the EBC yellowstuff if maximum brake performance is not required - preserving the rotors a bit longer.

I just put on autozone lifetime rebuilt calipers on the rear axle to fix one that was sticking. Thanks for posting the rotor thickness specs. I need to check mine. I have a bit of pulsing, but not sure the cause, as I cannot see a visible warp. It has been suggested to re-bed the pads as a possible fix, if rotor warp is not significant.

What were the break-in procedures Hawk recommended for these new pads?

 

I was going to type it out until I remembered I took a picture of the box.


For posterity: the front rotor spec I quoted above is different from the rear.

 

Today I tackled installing a drivers side grab handle. Thanks @mecdac ! #1 reason to not do pillar gages.


Clean canvas. I thought I would have a like-new a-pillar trim piece to donate, but that was not to be.


The top trim piece is from the grab handle version. Note the two circles, one where an attachment clip used to live and the other a broken off stiffener. I transferred the white batting over to my existing pillar trim after cutting the holes.


Part number for the grab handle version of the trim.


Notice on the bottom grab-handle trim is slightly recessed between the mounting cutouts. I think this was because the grab handle on the drivers side sticks out less than the one on the passenger side.


Grab handle part number. I doubt there are any new ones out there though.


My exacting layout lines. The handle trim sticks out about 1/4” all around the hole on the original trim so it doesn’t need to be exact.


Wife’s got the dremel in Colorado so made due with a rotozip. Good enough.


I installed the trim piece, held the handle in place, then traced the mounting holes with a sharpie. If you look real closely inside the red circles you can see the sharpie marks. Black on blue wasn’t optimal.


I then took a caliper and put the point of one jaw in the center of the sharpie circle and made a punch mark the at the point of the other jaw. There is no way to drill from the inside of the welded seam (where the marks were) so drilling has to be done from the outside of the vehicle.


My plan A was to drill and tap the welded seam if the hole was far enough from the edge. Plan B was to use speed nuts. Plan A won out. M6x1.0 threads for both plans.


Trim reinstalled, ready for the handle to be attached.


Mission complete!

 

Glad you were able to re-purpose.
😜

 

For real. I pulled a perfect one out of mine and traded it straight across for a pillar pod and banks gauges for my Cummins swap. Ended up doing an F-650 lower dash and didn't use it. Scrounged a blank (no handle) from the local yard and hunted a handle version for a while before I found one. It's in the pile waiting to be installed. Without running boards, my small seat rip has turned into a large gash and sometimes it's tough to get into the X. Handle will help considerably.

Nice fix!!

 

i still need to find those parts in Gray

 

Well, the alternator finally crapped out on me. I think it was weak for quite a while so not totally unexpected. Anyway, a 7.3L buddy was passing by close enough the next day he stopped by with an old take-off alternator from his truck. I put it in and life was great. For a day. The next morning I went out to start the truck and smelled smoke and the battery light was lit. It turned out the standoff for the B+ wire was shorter on this new to me alternator than the alternator I took out. The B+ wire was touching the alternator case and eventually wore through and shorted out.



I thought I fried the new-used alternator so ordered a new Bosch AL7555N. A few days later I installed it but still no charging. The alternator circuit fuse was fine. It took some phone diagnosis but I eventually traced it to the fusible link near the starter solenoid.


A week and a half later (waiting on parts and tools to arrive) I replaced the fusible link with an actual 100A fuse. Your local auto parts store doesn't have parts and or wire sizes necessary to fix this kind of electrical mishap. Anyway, life is back to normal now. 2 weeks of having your only vehicle down kind of sucks, but at least I'm retired and didn't really have any place I needed to be.

 

Fusible link did exactly what is was designed to do. Alternator is probably fine if you haven't checked it already.