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So, I will be replacing my 2001 Excursion V10 hitch in the driveway.
There is one do-it-yourself Youtube to watch, plus very good instruction sheets from the hitch manufacturer, Curt Inc, , but nobody in town is willing to do the job.
Even the local Ford dealer is too chicken to do it, which amazes me.
You would think they would be too ashamed to admit it is too much for them.
I've never made a Youtube video but I will see about posting some progress photos and commentary.
So, I will be replacing my 2001 Excursion V10 hitch in the driveway.
There is one do-it-yourself Youtube to watch, plus very good instruction sheets from the hitch manufacturer, Curt Inc, , but nobody in town is willing to do the job.
Even the local Ford dealer is too chicken to do it, which amazes me.
You would think they would be too ashamed to admit it is too much for them.
I've never made a Youtube video but I will see about posting some progress photos and commentary.
Plenty of us EX owners have swapped out the receiver hitch ourselves, there have been several discussions on it over in the EX section of the forum.
Are you planning to drop the fuel tank to get better access? Without dropping the tank dealing with the round headed bolts that hold the hitch to the frame is a pain. You MAY be able to loosen the tank and shift it to one side and have enough room to drill them, maybe. How was it done in the video, I haven’t seen it?
I now have the TorkLift SuperHitch 20K on my EX and I dropped the tank for the job, it really not very involved as long as you can get it nearly empty. With the tank down and out of the way you can use a torch to soften the factory applied thread locker and spin those round headed (and the regular hex bolts too) out with a pipe wrench, I would avoid the torch if the tank is still in place.
He did in fact drop the tank and get it out of the way (gas tank).
I will also, for several reasons including : better access to bolts, ability to grind the 2 round head bolts off if necessary, ability to weld anything I feel like welding, ability to scrub rust off and "rustproof" anything I can see.
Plus, off topic, but I had a shop replace my fuel pump a few years ago and want to verify the shop actually did that instead of tweeking a few wires to get it working again, obviously after the fact I don't trust this shop because of other sloppy work they did.
Took most of Saturday but the tank is now on the garage floor. The mouse debris was in every crevise but I could easily blow it all out. The filler neck is salvageable but I can get a new OEM one online so will go that route. The two fuel lines disconnected easily once I had the tank down near the ground and with the quick-connect-tool. I only had a couple gallons in the tank but it is still heavy, maybe 100 pounds. Today took a crack at the 8 bolts and will post pics of that next. Tried a breaker bar, an angle grinder, a chipping hammer, and an impact wrench. I have decided not to mess around anymore and am bringing out the plasma cutter next.
Small propane torch on the bolts to soften the thread locker then spin them out with a pipe wrench. Mine came out with just a 10” pipe wrench after warming them up.
Just ordered a new "filler neck" from Rockauto for $89. including tax and delivery.
Also, have all the bolts off, using propane heat and a 1/2" breaker bar with a 3 foot pipe extension.
Bolt heads with round washers were on the bottom, nuts with rectangular washers on top, with two nuts sharing one rectangular washer.
The nuts were attached to the washers so you have to unscrew the bolt heads, not the nuts.
Was surprised I could start them turning with just the breaker bar and then knew that heat would do the trick.
On the two round head bolts the pipe wrench worked.
On one of the nuts it broke loose from the washer it was attached to so had to hold that one with vice grips after heating it to be able to turn the bolt.
Nothing worth showing in a photo here.
Will say it worked better heating the nut more than the bolt to melt the blue thread lock.
Also, used big C-clamps to hold the thing on while the last bolts were removed.
Thanks, should be all downhill from here.
Rust cleanup of anything I can reach, some kind of black paint everywhere, hitch receiver install, tank install.
I will post any photos for the record that might show something useful to others doing this in future.
Been a frustrating time since last post, with cold rain and even snow, but did have a day or two to be able to apply one coat of rust preventive to some items, and got parts like the replacement fuel filler neck and 1 1/2" hose to the tank.
Made a cardboard template of the frame holes with white spray paint and they will line up with the hitch receiver holes just fine.
This weekend the plan is to finish the rust preventive and gloss black paint, and maybe get at least the hitch receiver bolted on.
The tank itself will be a bitch but have no doubt that it will go in.
Hitch is in, weather permitting gas tank goes in this weekend.
Brushed two coats of the rust preventer on everything I could reach yesterday, today sprayed 3 cans of the gloss black paint on everything, including the installed new nuts and washers.
Torqued the carriage bolts to the specified 165 ft. lb. and used red thread locker, plus there were lock washers in the hardware.
This thing will NEVER come loose.
No worries, son Eric is coming over tomorrow, 260# of American beef.
Okay, all done, nothing of interest to show.
Hardest part today was hooking up the rubber lines from the filler neck to the tank.
Had to connect the rubber lines to the tank, and after lifting the tank up, shoving the rubber lines over the frame to meet the filler neck.
There is a small access between the frame and leaf springs to make those connections.
All in all, this is one bitch of a job to have to do.
Ford could have done a lot better getting access to the hitch receiver bolts instead of farting around with dropping the gas tank.
The only good thing about dropping the tank was access to a lot of otherwise inaccessible areas for rust control.
One last photo, this is a test fit of the filler neck with hoses on the tank.
You will notice that I installed the filler neck upside down in the photo and discovered that after lifting the tank in place.
Further, I had the 1 1/2" rubber line 180 degrees the wrong way so it kinked too much.
I had to re-lower the tank, undo the hose clamps and re-arrange.
I'm usually pretty good at anticipating problems but this one caught me.
Can't decide whether I am more steamed at myself or Ford, so I choose to blame Ford.
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