1993 F-350

The following is my experience dropping the spare tire.

From what I was told the F-350s came from the factory with no jacking equipment. Mine has none now nor brackets to hold it.
I went to replace the oil in the rear axle and there is no drain plug so I had to remove the spare tire to get easy access to the cover. To get the tire down you need to loosen an eye bolt then lift the bracket with one hand while moving the eye bolt just right to get the head through a slot. There is a plastic part that holds the tire to the bracket that has a hex for a wrench. I figure that it is the same size as the lug nut so I grabbed the 22 mm deep well socket, but no, it is a 27 mm (26.3 mm to be exact). It is a moot point anyway because the stud is about 4 inches long so the a lug wrench wouldn’t fit anyway. It is too long even for the deep well socket so I cut 2” off with a cut-off wheel. Keep in mind that the deep side of the wheel is up.

After soaking with WD-40 for a day I started to remove the plastic part that centers and holds down the tire. As soon as the tabs that fit in the center hole of the wheel backed out of the center hole the wheel slid down and the tabs would catch, preventing turning any further. I go to push the tire back to center but the fixed end of the spare support bracket has so much slop that it would just rock to another direction and still be bound up. This slop is partially due to the ball and socket design of the fixed end bolt. (This really should have been a T bolt head.) It is fairly tight but could have been made much better with no additional cost to produce by changing the punch design some. The biggest source of slop is because the nut that the fixed end support bolt uses is a clip-on-nut that slide onto the sheet metal. This just flexed all over the place. If this was rigid it would have helped a lot. After much struggle I was able to get the plastic part off. Now the problem is to get the hundred pound tire over the 5” long stud while kneeling under the truck. Keep in mind that the truck is about 6” higher than normal because I have it jacked up to do brake work. I managed to do it but broke the push nut that held the stud to the bracket. Now the stud is flopping around and there is no way to get the plastic part screwed back on because the flats that keep the stud from spinning are no longer engaged to the spare tire support bracket. Since the design intent was to press the tire against the gas tank this plastic thing is not necessary but there would need to be another centering method. I think that they could have punched some tabs without loosing significant strength in the support bracket. They certainly could have spot welded a centering hub. This would have worked better at less cost.

Can you imagine having to do this on the side of the road in the mud when it is pouring down rain?

I was planning on replacing the clip-on-nut with two nuts and washers but there is not enough threads on the fixed end stud to do this. My plan is to make a centering device using socket head cap screws. It will just require drilling four holes in the right place. Maybe use a pulley system to lower and raise the tire support bracket.

If you have not removed your spare I recommend that you do a practice run to know what to expect and make sure that there are no frozen threads.

What experience have you had with this?

 

Have a 93 f250 4wd. I've had the spare off a few times, never had any real problems. I live in a pretty rust free area. Not the easiest or most ergonomic design that's for sure. Also had my rear diff cover off a couple times & didn't need to drop the spare tire. Got about 2-3" between spare & diff cover. 350 might have deeper diff cover? Or is spare oversize on yours?

 

It was pretty easy when I replaced the tire a year or two ago.

You should check the passenger side fender inside the engine bay. That's where the jack and lug nut wrench are stored. I'd find a set at the junk yard if they are missing. It's a lot easier to drop the tire with the wrench, because you can get better leverage on everything.

 

I could have done it without dropping the spare, but without it I had much more room to work and a good line-of-sight to see the condition of the gears.

The self-service yards around here remove the jacks from all vehicles for "safety reasons". They do have some in the showroom but they are always small ones for cars. Since the 350 did not come with a jack (the reason why is beyond me) I wonder if one for a 150 or 250 would be strong enough.

 

This is the exact reason I leave my spare in the garage 90% of the time (I throw it in the bed on long trips).

The jack from my F-250 is exactly the same as the one out of our F-350, so I'm sure a jack from an F-250 would be just fine.

 

Could you post a photo of the jack and what other jacking pieces there are so I know what to look for? Thanks

 

The rod is mounted to the top of the radiator support. You can see it behind the jack in the second picture.

 

Very nice of you, thank you.

 

Funny this thread should come up, I've been looking into the jack/spare wheel setup on my truck today. Where is the correct mounting location for the spare wheel on these trucks. Ive got a '89 f150 and when I bought it the spare was just sitting in the tray with what I am guessing is a bracket to mount it up under neath the rear fuel tank. Would this be correct?

 

I suggest you stop by another ford at a mall etc. and take a few pictures of how they are set up. If you don't have I bolts and the center piece you do need to look and see what you are missing. I think you can get parts from RockAuto and they probably have a diagram. Sandy

 

On my truck the spare tire bracket doesn't fit properly because of the design of the trailer hitch. I think that it was not designed for this truck. The bracket hits the hitch and prevents the tire from nesting against the tank. I've seen others in yards that didn't look right and the bracket was removed. Perhaps this is what rj1983 is running into.

 

What a great day in the wrecking yard. I wasn't planning on going but my travels took me close to a yard that is 25 miles from my home. I decided to drop by for a "reconnaissance mission". I had no tools except the flash light which I usually carry in my pocket. I looked under one truck and found a Vice Grips that was used to attach a ground wire to the bumper. Looks like that it has been there for 20 years. I grabbed it and put it in my pocket.

There is a 1986 F-350 with the what appears to be the original, never used, spare tire still mounted. Using my trusty flash light I looked through the slot of the wheel to see a beautiful sight: A well designed tire tie-down. Using my newly acquired vice grips I began to loosen the eye bolt, but with 31 years of rust and dirt, it did not move easily. "I need some oil", I thought. "Where am I going to get some oil?" Looking into the bed of the truck there was an oil bottle with a capful left inside. I poured some of into the cap then dumped that onto the threads and the rest where the eye bolt meets the bracket. Much better.

I dropped the bracket to the ground and got a good look at the tie down. Who would think that an old rusty piece of metal could look so beautiful. Had the same problem with rusty threads. Went looking for another source of oil. Two trucks down there was a puddle of ATF in one of the steel wheels used to hold the truck off the ground and a paper towel next to it. I soaked the paper towel with the ATF then wiped the threads of the tie-down bolt and it backed off nicely. $2.50 later and I am the proud owner of a rusty piece of metal that Ford should have continued using rather than changing to a useless piece of plastic to save a few pennies.


The useless POS on the left is the part that caused me so much grief. What was Ford thinking? All they had to do was have tabs on it to act like a wing nut. It would have cost nothing except 5% more material cost which could have been made up by using a correct length bolt. The part on the left is the well designed part off the 1986 F-350. The found Vice Grips that helped me get the good tie-down.

 

I don't use the center hold down. Once the tire is pinched up against the frame it ain't going anywhere anyway. The hold down does help keep the tire in place as you lift the carrier up, but I've found that fighting with that can always be in my driveway and is easier than fighting the hold down off, which might be on the side of the road.

I also don't use the factory jack. A hydraulic bottle jack works a lot better.

 

Attached all the diagrams for the spare brackets I could find in the catalog. Different styles for slide-out, mounting location, and fuel tank options, and if i remember corectly, there is a version for a "wider" tire that was optioned for f350 trucks w/dually. May be incorrect on that last one but i could swear ive seen longer bolts for that very reason.

 

Ok, thanks for that. From the diagrams looks like my truck is meant to have the setup in the 3rd diagram.