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Installed new 6.0 transmission cooler today per Mark's advice. I'll give it a good workout over the next few days. I was going to change the transmission bypass assembly but couldn't figure out how I was supposed to get my hands in there to actually replace it. I've got Supertech Mercon V ready to go for a flush once I figure out the bypass...
Drove about 440 miles to and from the N. GA GTG and had a high TFT of 178F. Between the new 6.0 cooler and removing the thermostat I believe the transmission temp issue has been put to bed.
A tangent from a newb....
At the GTG ArmyLifer and I chatted briefly about part numbers for the idlers and I mentioned I thought the idlers were different sizes for my application.
As Eric knows, "Lance the Woowoo Wagon" has dual alternators and the search led me to this useful diagram for the 2000 E350 in my configuration (and posting at the risk of muddying up Eric's thread). It lists the two idlers as the same part numbers. Obviously the Excursion set up is different but our discussion got me to finally work this out for myself. As I mentioned, it is probably a good idea to go ahead and replace my two idlers given the condition of my tensioner in February!
I assume the part numbers cross over to your 2000 as well, just sans the extra pulleys for the second alternator.
I watched at least 6 YouTube videos on power steering pump replacement and they were all different. Many of them didn’t remove the alternator bracket and just did the swap in place. Some didn’t remove anything for better access. @SkySkiJason told me to remove the alternator bracket and swap pumps on the bench. After starting this morning I made the command decision to remove the AIS and drivers side battery for better access. Good call. If I were to do it again (I do not wish to) I’d remove the drivers side CAC pipe for better access in replacing the pressure hose to the hydroboost.
I went with a new AutoZone pump because the reviews on anyone’s remans were horrible. Reman Motorcraft weren’t as horrible but I couldn’t get one of those fast enough.
There's the old one dead on the driveway.
New pump installed into the alternator bracket. I had a complete brain fart and forgot to swap the pulley over while everything was off the truck. Big mistake! It took a solid 30-40 minutes to use the pulley install tool to get it on in place. Sorry Jason, you just can't fix stupid.
Hiding under there is the newly installed power steering pump. Even though I went through the flush and bleeding process, I still have some whine when turning. I'll try it again in a few days when I can stand to look at it again. This is not a job I'd like to repeat.
FYI, it takes an 18mm open end wrench to get the high pressure line fitting off the pump. That isn't a very common size in open end/combo wrenches, so plan accordingly.
That once happened to me on a CII power steering pump in a Lincoln. I left the pump in place, siphoned the fluid out of the reservoir (back cover of pump, with fill inlet), slipped the reservoir off the aft end of the pump, refitted a new big o-ring, slipped the reservoir back on to the pump, and away I went.
This was 30 years ago, so the details are faded and fuzzy, because I have this memory of having both a black reservoir and a milky white reservoir in hand. Ah, now it comes to me... there is a small nipple on the bottom of the reservoir which had cracked, and I may not have discovered that until I pulled the old reservoir off and had a better look at the under side. A new reservoir cover from Ford was cheaper than an entire new or rebuilt power steering pump, so I bought the new reservoir for something like $7, and slipped that on along with the new O-ring.
I've never tried this on a Super Duty, because no need has yet arisen, knock on wood. But I'm quite curious if your leak was a pressure leak or a seepage leak, and where it was dripping from.
It was dripping off the pressure line fitting. It may have been the hose or fitting but I didn’t relish tearing everything apart, putting a new hose on, reassembling, then finding out it’s still leaking. Thus I just installed both new pressure line and pump.
I've been wanting to do this project for about 7 years now. The older I get the more important it became to me as crawling into the back of the cargo area isn't my idea of a good time. I searched for a ready-made solution and didn't find anything satisfactory. Many of the ones that are "close" only open 3/4 length or just left too much gap around the edges. I went with a Slide-Master "ready-to-ship" slide for a 5-1/2' bed. It is aluminum, has 100% extension of its 65" length and is made for a top at least 45-1/2" wide. It has three locking positions...closed, 1/2 open, and fully open. Slide is supposed to hold 1200 pounds fully open "evenly distributed".
I wanted to use the Excursion 3rd row seat lock-down points for mounting...I didn't want to drill any holes in my cargo bay. I used 1" x 2" x 1/8" wall steel tubing as my slide hold-downs. I cut notches 1/2 way through at the ends and drilled bolt holes in what I hoped were the appropriate locations. Those hold-downs spanned two of the 1/2" thick cross-members of the slide. I used 5/16" J-bolts to clamp down onto to 3rd row seat mounts. This gives just a friction mount between the slide and the cargo bay floor. I applied a judicious amount of skateboard tape on the underside of both the slide and clamping bars. I hope that's good enough. When fully clamped down I could move the tail end of the slide side-to-side slightly.
I had to do some surgery on one of the cross-members of the slide to get it past the hold-down bars. It was very awkward, so it looks like a beaver chewed it out. I did make these "cuts" with the slide not bolted down and partially open.
Slide initially mounted. You pull the red **** to open the slide and push it in to close it.
Fully extended the first time with the hold-down brackets installed.
Because of the slight slide-to-side movement of the slide if I tugged on it, I used one of the cargo D-ring locations to mount a bracket between the floor and the side of the slide. Still no holes drilled into the Excursion floor!
17/32" plywood top, 46" wide x 70" long. My first time laying any kind of carpet. The carpet glue was a mess but I got it stuck down, and reasonably straight. Stapled judiciously along the underside.
Because these slides are made for truck beds, there isn't a lot of engineering to reduce noise. Inside the Excursion is another story. The main culprit was the locking actuation rod rattling where it goes through the various cross-pieces of the slide. I wrapped the rod with UHMW tape where it passed through. This helped immensely. I still have some extraneous noises to track down. Hopefully I can eliminate or mitigate them somewhat.
Slide "complete". I used 1-1/2" x 1-1/2" x 1/4" aluminum angle for the sides with eyebolts holding them on. These Amazon eyebolts use external bolts through from the bottom. They were supposed to be 1/4-20 thread. They sent me 6mm eyebolts. Took me a while to figure that one out and all the while wondering why my damn bolts wouldn't start. I was supposed to have 1" x 1" x 1/8" channel on the front and back of the bed for protection. Somehow I screwed up my installation of the plywood (measure twice, install once they said...). I have ZERO clearance between the back of the slide top and the barn doors. I tried moving the whole shebang forward 1/2". All that got me was the ability to actually latch the barn door closed all the way. Oh well. Maybe I'll mill a notch in the channel right where the trim strip of the left barn door juts forward. I've got about 1" of clearance between the 2nd row seats in the upright position and the slide top.
It's been four very hot and humid days out here in central Alabama working on this project. I'm pretty done with it for now.
