So its been awhile

But my e350 is down again

Had been having issues with electrical
may batteries keep draining overnight
My cables are in pretty **** shape tbh

Saw here an elsewhere that the alternator or voltage regulator could be possibilites so i took them to RE Electric in tacoma wa to have them tested on a bench and they both passed

Also when i went to have my tires changed i had two studs come loose before the lug came off on drivers

And one on passenger side

Ive acquired two new discs and complete bearing sets/seals for both front wheels but im at a loss as to what to do to get those nuts off the loose studs cause theres a fair bit of rust on the studs

I have the stock steelies on it

thanks to anyone for their time/help in advance

 

No help at all?
well ****

 

shops dont test this part often but you could have a blown diode in the Alt bridge that is making it weak by 15% wich is still passing from a parts store point of view

after its been parked for 2-4 hours, touch the alt and see if its warm, if warm then diode is bad

or

are both batteries similar in age? if not and one is slightly lower voltage, the higher one tries to charge the low one. if you dont want to buy new batteries, you can get a Neg batter switch at most loacl parts places to isolate it when not in use.



if studs are that rusty and need replacing , grab a deep 1/2 drive 6 point socket and 2 foot long extension to break it off with leverage

 

I might be wrong, but I think the issue is the studs are loose and rotating in the hub... Which means that the nut is just spinning endlessly.

The stock steel wheels are a plus in this situation as they give a bit more space to work with than aftermarket/alloy wheels may have. Also steelies are all over the place and much cheaper to replace if it gets ruined on removal.
Actually I just had a light go off, you have a few options!
Try and get in there with a small cut off wheel. An air powered one may be able to get fairly close. If you know someone good with a torch, it should be a piece of cake to zip off a lug or two. I would be careful of the tire and and remove the valve stem first before firing up the torch. I've seen a video demonstrating on how a tire can overheat and explode if the rim is heated or welded, and it wasn't an instant thing, like a few minutes later? Was really interesting to watch the thermal camera, then see the whole thing blow out.

Approach 2, pull the hub and wheel together. It just dawned on me that the brake may hold things up on this approach, but there is some access to the rear of the caliper. Ford's rubber and metal pin thingy design might work in your favor hear as you should be able to pull them out from the rear, or drive them forward? I'm blanking out on if the caliper bracket would be in the way or not... Its been a while since I've looked at the brake setup of my truck, but I've had my brothers subaru, and the wifes Tacoma and Jetta apart a couple times and know the caliper bracket can get in the way of the rotor. I want to say you may be able to unbolt the caliper bracket from the back, which would help. Watch out for the hose to the caliper as well..
Way too long winded there, sorry, but if you can pull the bearings and yoink the wheel, rotor and hub assembly together, then you can attack it from the back with a grinder, torch, etc.. Might be able to weld the loose studs to a chunk of metal to help unscrew or snap the lug off.

 

Oh another crazy thought! Ford made the studs ridiculously long. Slip an open ended wrench onto the loose stud, 6 point would be best, but 12 point may would fine. Weld another nut onto the end of the stud so you can hold the stud steady while cranking on the lug nut. Once loosened as far as you can go, cut the stud off between the lug nut and the wheel. A chunk of steel from one rusted stud to another could also work instead of putting a nut on the end if you want to maximize how far you can loosen the nut.

 

Don't bother trying to save the lug nut or the stud. Use a drill bit to center-drill the stud deep enough to weaken it and then snap it off.

As for your battery drain problem. Grab your multi meter and place it on the 10 amp settings. and then disconnect the wires from your starter solenoid and find out which one is drawing current. .05 amps is normal. 1 amp is gunna kill your batteries in a day or two.

 

Had a grand ole day yesterday....

Decided to cut them with an angle grinder and a 4 1/2 cut wheel

Was able to find a weird angle where the disc fit, though it did have a few kicks but i didnt do any real damage to the steelies

Was fairly quick work

Replaced both front discs/bearings/seals

Used lucas red and tacky to pack em using the trusty ole hand job method working the shaft vigoursly
​​​with a lil bit o twist, and pushing on the tip at the end

Both spindles were in great shape for who knows how many miles

The timken bearing set had the outter race of the inner (larger) bearing but the disc already had one with a great surface on it, though they came in handy for pushing the bearing on

I used a woodblock and a mallet with the thinner end of the race down, it was just smaller than the seal enough that setting the woodblock on top and taping gently didnt hurt em (prolly should have taken a pic

Did break an old flat tip when i was trying to remove the nuts i cut in half


Oh and somehow seemed to **** up my milwaukee gun......
not only does it rattle weirdly now, the lil retaining ring got weird in the socket sock it took effort to pull it out and it was all fubared

Good times.....

Ordered the cable set from: custombatterycables.com it arrives today


I also ordered some lug nuts theyll be here saturday

 

The draining battery issue - usually its a bad battery. As someone else alluded to, one bad battery can bring the other down. If one battery has a bad cell, the other will be limited by the weaker capacity. Then that battery drains and you are left with one partially charged battery being drained by the bad battery.

 

Yeah i replaced them both

Ill take some pictures of before and after as my new cable set arrived from custombatterycables.com

My old Oem cables are green at the passenger side terminal

The new ones look good heres a pic

 

Link has black with light blue stripe but turns into two wires after tape section






custombatterycables.com driver negative vs oem

CBC.com at 3oclock





Got the custombattercables.com set in
Unfortunately it wasnt a fix for the drain
but at least ive eliminated it as a possibility and updated a badly needed system i guess

The only battery cable that had any exposed wire was the passenger negative near the engine

The driver positive was shorter than oem but as shown in the 3 oclock i got it routed to not be in any moving parts

Wasnt able to make use of the rubber covers for the terminals really so if youre a fellow e350 7.3idi owner keep in mind you want a longer driver neg cable i guess

Ill try to see what fuse has the drain asap