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Post #56 picture 2, you will be surprised but the plastic wire loom protector did that. And yes the dude could of at least clean the pipes up.
Really, a wire loom? I guess that makes sense, I've seen plastic rub through a stainless braided fuel line...
Originally Posted by Jarrett Campbell
This is an awesome thread! I can relate to the blown boots.. I had three blwo on my way home from a motor swap in BFE Nebraska at like 2am
It especially sucks when you have 13,000 lbs behind you, going up a 6% grade, attempting to pass a Semi in the fast lane, then you blow the boot and go from 55mph to about 30mph in a couple seconds!
Originally Posted by oldbird1965
I kept blowing them off until I double clamped them.
I hope I don't have to do that, I've been fortunate with just 1 clamp so far, but we'll see when I start raising the boost when towing...
A little video I got back in March around the same time of all this, the coworkers were out shooting a video for something else when I drove by... The factory Trak-lok still works great after 370,000 miles lol
I also got pitman arm rev 3.0, which has a kick in the center for more angle, with some larger reliefs for the drag link I also stepped it down to 3/16", added a rib down the center and I'm going to TIG weld it. The pitman arm is capable of about 43* of steering each way, so I'm going to see about sanding the steering stops, and sanding a little off the axle ears around the u-joints and see what I get, but a good 40* of steering would be awesome! This is also a part that I havent installed yet, but it is cut and formed, I'm just waiting to buy another pitman arm to waterjet the splines out of it.
About mid-May of 2019 I found the rear axle that I had been hunting for, Got it off craigslist for $100. After scouring the internet for months, I finally got a decent deal on one. Came with brakes, a VSS, parking brake cables, etc, pretty much fully assembled. Only down side was I didn't know what gearing it had, the tag broke off, and the guy didnt want to pull the cover. So I drove and picked it up, spent about $100 in gas getting there lol.
So i popped the cover this morning and counted ring and pinion teeth, its a 3.73 axle, with an open diff. I'm needing 4.30 gears to match my front, so I guess I'll go get it regeared.
Either way, scored.
The only way I could get it off my truck bed by myself! Back it into the shop and slide it onto the workbench! Up on stands, ready for tear down. Got the hubs off Races are good, no pitting or marks Bearings were all in good shape, I actually plan on reusing them, with all new seals of course. Good spindles too. Torn down Got the cover off, good gear mesh, .007" of backlash, no pits and everything was very clean, including gear oil. Wire-wheeled it down, in preperation for some STEEL-IT (or actually the knock-off version made by SEYMORE paint)
Then I sprayed it, with 2 cans of Seymore's STAINLESS STEEL PAINT, which is damn near the same thing as STEEL-IT, but just 1/3 the cost, and they sell it at Vato-Zone!
Needless to say, I think it came out awesome! It laid on so easily, dried super fast, and not one run! My favorite paint by far!
Then I waterjetted the correct bolt pattern in the hubs myself, saved some money from the machine shop doing it. I formed up a box that the hubs sat into, with almost a press fit around the hub surface, it made it easy to locate center of the hub, and waterjet the 8 holes to the perfect size, worked out well.
Then in June of 2019, we took a trip up to Shaver Lake, which was a very aggravating trip...
"Well I took a trip up to the mountains with the toy hauler this past weekend, to Shaver Lake, and had a hell of a weekend! Basically, super super long story short, I hit the grade with a terrible start, the truck got down to 35mph in 2nd gear, and since i couldn't lock the torque converter, I got the EOT to 285*, trans to 265*, coolant temp was at the "L" in Normal almost the entire grade. The trans puked about 2 quarts out the vent during all of this, but I made it over the hill after stopping once to cool down and kept on going.
Once I got to the dirt road where we were camping, I picked up something and it got lodged between the fan and radiator (previous pic posted), and took it out. Causing me to pull over 1/4 mile from our camp site... Got the trailer to camp finally, pulled out the radiator, and took my dads truck into town (1 1/2 hour long drive back the way we came), then got the new radiator all installed with new coolant, topped off trans fluid and we were good to go. Then went down the hill and totally smoked the brakes out, didn't have my trailer brake controller set high enough, but got it figured out.
I called Dan at DieselSite to ask him his opinion on the situation with the trans getting up to 265*, and he said after about 220*, the frictions and clutches start to seperate and go bad. But he reassured me with a previous customer he had, got his WELL over my 265* mark on purpose, thinking there was something wrong with his trans and wanted to get it warrantied. Turns out he had a pinched cooler line and there was no flow to the cooler, so the customer cooked his trans for nothing! What was surprising he said, was once they got the trans apart, everything looked perfectly normal, but the PLASTIC inside the trans melted apart, from solenoids, and made its way through the valve body. Plastic melts at almost 500*, which is incredible to say the rest of the trans was in good shape."
And to top it all off, less than one month later:
"Well I went to do my coolant exchange, as well as install an OEM 190* T Stat, and I got all the way to the end, filled it up with a fresh 3.5 gallons of concentrated and topped off with distilled water, and then I put a hole in the brand new radiator...
Now we're having fun."
So I ordered yet ANOTHER radiator, and then figured something out...
"Okay guys, a lot has gone on lately and I'm going to try and remember it all to document it here.
So first off, I did a full blown coolant flush with all new Red ELC from PEAK. I also installed a brand new 195* Motorcraft T Stat, and ended up putting a hole in the radiator. Turns out, I must've pushed on the radiator when climbing up there, and pushed the radiator into the fan while the truck was running. I know it sounds crazy, but the marks on the radiator match up perfectly with the fan, and when I grab the radiator, it moves A LOT within the stock mounts, just a poor design IMHO. So I had to fix that.
I designed and made this:
It utilizes the stock rubber bushing that grabs the top post on the radiator, captures the 3 stock studs to hold the radiator down and in place, and then attaches to the front of the core support to hold the radiator in place fore-to-aft. Now, it doesn't move AT ALL, but still allows a little movement inside the rubber bushing, so its not solid mounted.
I want to redesign it to go all the way across and cover the top of the radiator, whilst also having a sort of "tray" to throw nuts, bolts, and sockets when working on the truck.
Now we're getting pretty close to present day, In August on my way to work one day:
"Next up, after filling up with a fresh 30 gallons of diesel, I jumped in the truck just to hear it *crank* *crank*, *click* *click* *click*. Batteries dead... WTF?? I'm on my 3rd pair of Napa batteries in the last 3 years. So I jumped out, opened the hood to see the passenger battery was SMOKING. The negative cable also had the entire insulation bubbling and was extremely hot. Turns out the positive cable lug had come loose on the military terminal, and must've been arcing the entire drive, and finally shorted the battery out.
I was able to get it started 2 more times before I got home, and then It wouldn't even click lol.
So I ordered brand new motorcraft positive and negative battery cables from RockAuto (best price on them). And then went down to Costco and bought 2 brand new Group 65 Interstate batteries."
These cables are super beefy, and VERY well built. Nobody should need anything more than these things unless they are using a huge bumper winch, lots of power hungry halogen lights, a super loud stereo, and you are trying to start the truck in 0* weather, all at the same time. They have nice terminals, thick cable, etc.
I got them installed in a night, and this truck has never started quicker! About a year ago, I installed a new gear reduction starter from an 03, and it probably cranks as fast as a new 6.7, it is ridiculous!
After all this, I took a trip up to Bass Lake for a weekend, and took the toy hauler. I had it unloaded because we were staying at a trailer park with full hookups, so no water, no CanAm X3, and no fuel for the generator. The trailer still weighed 8500lbs though, but the truck was able to pull it up any hill at 55-60mph effortlessly.
Now with the new cooling system, I watched EOT very closely, and I never saw it get over 225*, which is a huge jump in the right direction. Now, this is almost 4,000lbs less than what I usually tow, but its still pretty heavy, especially through winding hills/mountains, and me NOT being easy on it, passing cars on all the grades whenever a passing lane opened up, and pushing the truck as hard as I could to keep up with traffic. So far, very pleased.
Then I got back from my trip, and promptly sold my flatbed! It had been on craigslist for a while, and a Firefighter from Fresno came and picked it up, so then I got to make my dream bed, something I had been designing on/off for the last 2 years! I have become MUCH more skilled in Solidworks this time around, and after having so much time to plan and think about it, I was able to come up with what I did. I pretty much started with scratch on it, and redesigned it to be lighter, stronger, bigger, more storage space, bigger fuel tank, this time make the tank out of aluminum and a bigger vent for faster filling, class V 2.5" hitch, integrated gooseneck hitch, easier install, better looks, etc.
I want to be able to fill up with the big truck pumps on full blast.
The bed I have now weighs somewhere around 1300lbs, whereas the new one will be a max of 900lbs with the gooseneck hitch.
This Hennessey Takes the Expedition Tremor's Off-Roading Capability to the Next Level
Slideshow: The VelociRaptor Expedition gains a lift, upgraded suspension, Brembo brakes, and trail-ready equipment while retaining the stock 440-horsepower EcoBoost V6.
Rezvani's Latest Post-Apocalyptic Monster Is a Ford F-150 Raptor Underneath
Slideshow: Called the Fortress, the 850-horsepower pickup combines Raptor underpinnings with military-inspired features, survival equipment, and a starting price of $285,000.
