Well I thought I had my steering all sorted out. After driving for a few days I realized it's not turning as good to the left as it is to the right so now I've essentially flipped my problem. I confirmed this by having somebody turn the wheel while I looked and I am not hitting the lock on the passenger side so I'm not turning all the way to the left. So I spent a few hours last night and today messing with the adjustments and getting it all tuned in so I can turn lock to lock. The only problem is in doing so, because I have the short pitman arm, when I adjust the drag link to turn the steering wheel it affects how far I can turn one way or the other by a little bit too much. If I center the wheel I can't turn all the way to the left. If I put the steering wheel perfectly upside down I can turn lock the lock if I flip the steering wheel around the other way back up to straight up, I can't turn all the way to the right. So unless my steering wheel is upside down I cannot turn fully both ways. So then I was like okay it's fine I'll just take the steering wheel off and flip it right? wrong. The steering wheel can only go on one way because it has a bigger spline that lines up. Only goes on one way and that's it. So essentially, unless I have a longer pitman arm, which I can't do without having a 36 spline gearbox, I have to ride with my steering wheel upside down. I think if I get a 36 spline steering gear and the longer pitman arm it'll fix my issues. I will say however, I am so happy with how sharp the truck can turn I'll be at the steering wheel has to be upside down. I got to thinking, I think one good reason that all of these problems have stemmed with my steering is because of the pitman arm I bought. Not only was it too short but it's orientation was different than the steering gear. The steering gear when centered had a plus shape on the centering splines whereas my pitman arm had an X shape when centered so I had to put it 45° off to one side no matter what. I think the best way to fix this is to just get rid of that e99 steering gear and pitman arm and get a 36 spline pitman arm and steering gear. Any other ideas are welcome as always. I'm going to have to drive with an upside down steering wheel for a while.

In other news, the spider to plenum boots are two and a half inches long, so if I buy those 8-in boots and cut them at 5 inches I will have plenty left for my plenum boots. Then I will only be missing intercooler boots.

 

I may not be up to speed, but why can’t you just do a 32 spine pitman arm for a 4” lift?

 

Next thread title,
"How do I bolt my seat to the ceiling"

Upside down steering wheel is just a matter of perspective

 

Tristan, did you center your steering gear before connecting everything?

 

I thought about it but, I forgot who mentioned it but somebody on here mentioned it wouldn't clear my track bar mount. Might be pretty hard to find one that has 32 splines for a 4x4. The 4x4 32 spline is different than the two wheel drive 32 spine. There are two different shaft diameters for the 32 spline boxes so, it may be difficult without a 36 spline box

 

Before connecting what? If you mean the steering gear it was centered when I put it on but, my pitman arm had to be 45° off because it had the splines in an X formation instead of a plus formation. The year and my wheels were all centered when I put it all on. Steering gear steering wheel is upside down turns locked to lock no problem but if you rotate the drag link adjuster either way in terms of screwing it in or out to adjust the steering wheel all the way around to straight I lose my turning on one side because the steering gear Max is out. Basically if the steering wheel is anything but upside down the steering gear Max is out before hitting the lock. I lose all of my drag link adjusting because if I adjust it I lose steering radius. Do you reckon the e99 box didn't have as good of a lock to lock inside the gear itself?

So as you know when you adjust the drag link to steer the steering wheel it pulls the pitman arm which turns the steering gear a little bit. Well if I adjust the steering wheel to when it's up and down the pitman arm is off to the side instead of straightforward. The steering gear blinds and the steering wheel will be centered but the pitman arm is off to the side due to its x centering splines
Of course I could be wrong but when I got the steering gear and it was supposedly centered the big splines that are supposed to center the pitman arm were up and down instead of like an x. But either way the only thing I could do is switch the pitman arm over 180° from where it's at and it would screw it all up the other way and have the same problem because my steering gear Max is out before hitting the lock if I adjust the steering wheel. Kind of f***** up. Whichever way I turn the drag link to center the steering wheel I lose steering on one side of the other at least all the way to the lock won't happen anyhow. Sorry I got a little long winded here I was just trying to make sure I explained everything where everybody could understand it I'm driving down the road using talk to text so my mind's a bit wandered while I'm writing this so take everything with a grain of salt because I may have worded it improperly

 

So I went to hang out with my cousin for a while because I hadn't seen him in a while and he wanted to take my "new" truck for a spin. He owned it three owners ago. That's including me so that's 4 owners including him and he bought it from somebody else so who knows how many people have had the truck. But he had it when it was a old beat up two wheel drive. He really likes to look when I pulled up in his driveway and he remembers the way it used to feel versus now. He made me feel really proud of it. Anyway he wanted to drive it so he went and ripped her open a little bit and loved it and was so happy with the power that it had. Anyway it was very nice of him but, he had one of the power stroke 7.3 covers that go on top of the hpop reservoir in his shop that he wasn't going to use because his new 73 that he has already has one. Where can I get the brackets for this? My truck doesn't even have the longer bolts to put it on with or anything. Well it has two long bolts on top of the reservoir for mounting the bracket I assume.

 

There is a metal bracket, or a plastic bracket.

I forget which one applied to which year, but either bracket will work.

 

Cool, thanks! I looked it up, as you said there's two different brackets and one's plastic and one's metal. The metal one from Ford is $85 even on riff Raff and a plastic is 25. Sinister Diesel sells the metal ford bracket with their name on it for 45. I think I'm going to get that one.

 

Woe is me for the amount of those longer reservoir bolts, brackets and covers I have tossed in my dumpster over the years…. Alway in the way, and a pain to work around… do this project last so you dont have to keep taking it off and on and end up braking the cover. SSJ prolly has a file cabinet full of the brackets along with all his other removed and never put back parts

 

I know it makes it harder to work on or at least gives you one more thing you have to take off but, I'm going to try it anyway. I might not like it but I want to see how she looks after I paint everything and have the cover on. As you said do it last. Might as well try it! I might remove it after I use it a few time but, we will see!

 

I keep the OEM engine cover on, because it appears to create a smoother path for the air from the blade tips of the engine fan to flow over the top of the engine down toward the transmission tunnel, cooling the turbine and down pipe in its wake.

The smoothest appearing under hood air flow management was afforded by the original OBS 7.3L PSD engine cover, that even offered a tool less hinged top to access the fuel bowl, and spanned wide enough to potentially attenuate some engine noise.

With the AC and alternator swapping sides in the '99 up Super Duty, the original OBS cover no longer fit, and the new cover was substantially reduced in size, but still retained the smooth sweep over the top of the fuel filter and HPOP reservoir... structures that might otherwise create eddy currents and turbulence that might frustrate faster air flow to the transmission tunnel.

The radius arch of the engine cover appears to have the potential to encourage a venturi effect between it and the hood, which might accelerate the flow of air once it moves past the squeeze point that the air was directed to flow in by virtue of the funneling.

The 2001 and up engine cover (released in 2000) got even smaller, to simplify fuel filter changes, since the early 99 to mid 2000 cover required removal via two cap nuts instead of a hinged lid like the OBS. I have the early '99- mid '00 type cover, which was discontinued and no longer available as far back as 20 years ago. By this time, even the new style cover might be discontinued?

The aftermarket has come up with many different styles, shapes, and colors of substitute engine covers, often with their own company logo, or some permutation of "7.3L" graphic. But none of the aftermarket engine covers I've seen offer the smooth radius shape to help manage under hood cooling air flow, which made the aftermarket covers unappealing (imo) and not worth their high cost, nor worth the hassle of having to remove and replace them for service.

But I can deal with removing and replacing the stock engine cover, as long as I can at least imagine a beneficial purpose that the cover may serve.

 

A lot of very good to know and interesting information in this post! Thank you for your contribution! If I understood the way you worded things properly then that would mean I have a 99 to 2000 cover as well. Here is a picture of it.

 

Yep! That'd be the same cover.

Now how did you go and sneak in another divergent topic, deserving of its own separate thread, into whatever the original topic was of this thread... right under my nose... with me fully participating in the divergence?

 

​​​​​​I seem to just have that effect on people

Technically there was no just one thing this thread was for hence why I named it more problems being plural. This was all part of my master scheme to reel you in. I've been planning for a while! Who's to say how deep my fangs go?!