Hey y’all! I wanted to make this thread in order keep track of everything that I end up doing to my truck and of course draw upon the fountain of knowledge in this forum. I’ve done an intro thread but in case you missed it, meet “George”:


It’s an Early 1999 F-350 with the 4R100 and 207,000mi. It’s still on stock injectors, and the transmission has never been out of the truck. Stock exhaust, stock intake, superchips with an economy tune. Tires are 295/75R16 on stock wheels.

Since acquiring this beauty I have made a couple of small changes and updates but mostly I have been enjoying the process of finding all of the little surprises the PO left me. I’ll detail these below.


So far I’ve rattle canned the bumpers, installed 1 piece headlights, installed new tires and installed a new CPS. The budget is getting tight so I’ll be focusing on maintenance and upgrades that will improve reliability and drive ability.

Known issues:
Cracked and leaking windshield - replacing next week
Sketchy alarm wiring
Rear driver door not opening
Intermittent door ajar
Vibration from 45 to 55 after new tires
TC and/or flex plate rattling
Intermittent issue where the transmission can’t decide what gear to be in under light load
Broken plastic that holds the fuse box cover

Heres what’s new or been recently replaced:
Redhead steering box
Ball joints
Tie rod ends
Drag link
Front shocks
Add a leaf leveling kit
Possibly more in the front end I need to get the invoice from the PO

I’m hoping to get the truck to the transmission shop to see what the damages are going to be and decide if a rebuild needs to be done now.

So my main concern at the moment is figuring out the vibration at 55mph. My gut is telling me it’s the tires so I’m going to see if I can get them rebalanced and go from there. If you made it this far thanks for reading and I’ll be updating this thread with updates and fixes big and small!

 

Found some time to get under the truck this afternoon. It looks like the upper ball joints, the joint where the drag link connects to the tie rod and at the steering box are all new and are moog. I can’t tell if the tie rod ends or the lowers are new but everything has a grease fitting.


I got the front end up and spun the tires and checked for play in the bearings. Both sides felt tight but I can hear a definite clicking or bumping going on inside the drivers side hub. Could the hub assembly be going bad even if they feel tight?

Axle ujoints don’t look new and don’t have grease fittings. I stuck a bar in and was able to move them up and down about an 1/8th of an inch. I’m not sure if there is supposed to be play there or not. Also I’m not 100% sure I’m checking them correctly.


Looks like the drivers side made contact with the upper ball joint.

The vibration I get is like a constant hum felt in the pedal from about 45-55. It’s there whether I’m coasting or under load. Also, the sound changes if I’m going through a curve to a hum hum hum sound. I’m going to get the tires rebalanced as soon as I can get an appointment at discount. Any help would be appreciated.

Edit:
Forgot to add that I saw these what look like seals loose and sort of dangling on the inside of the steering knuckle.