Not sure if any of you have had the pleasure of changing your own plugs in your super dutys... I've got a 2001 5.4 that I picked up cheap at a local sale.

1st issue Put a set of plugs in it.. Everything was fine for a day now it's only running on 7.

Tried to locate the dead cylinder by pulling the injector plugs but can't pick it up. Will this show up on a scan tool?

2nd issue It has a 6 inch lift on it and it "wanders" on the road. Thier was not a stabalizer on it so i made new brackets and it helped just a little still has issue.

I won't even drive it on highway. This is not the first one i've had with a lift the other one drove just like it was stock. Lift kit is a Skyjacker. Hopefully some one else has had the same issue and can help.. PLEASE.. or this goes on the line for sale... thanks

 

Even if you have had other lifted trucks, they are past thier design specs. A lot of people cheap out and don't get a caster/camber/toe-in alignment afterwards. The steering issue should go away with some camber adjustment and if it doesn't have one already a drop pitman arm.

I thought the plugs were a piece of cake, better than my old 351m. It really depends on the scan tool as if it can notice a spark miss. My autotap could detect the miss and show injector shorts, but it couldn't show me one cylinder not sparking. Your best bet is to pick up a couple of new coils and try moving them around until the miss goes away.

 

Plugs really went good 'till I got to the last one on the drivers side back. The rubber boot broke leaving 1/4 inch of rubber on the plug this was hell tring to get off the plug to get the socket over the hex to remove plug.

 

Actually I just went through this EXACT same "wander" thing with my truck. I was even contemplating getting rid of it but didn't because I was able to eventually get it figured out. Your wander problems can likely be fixed, too. Here is what I did, hopefully it will help you.

Just for reference, I have an 02 F-250 SD with a V10. I have a ProComp 6.5" lift with 37" tires on 20"x10" rims. It had the lift when I bought the truck. Actually, I think the guy sold the truck because it was hard to control ... it wanted to go all over the road. I've sinced fixed that probleme and at this point in time I consider it to be a pretty nice truck (but I've only had it for about 6 weeks - so we'll see). Considering what I paid for it I think I got at least a decent deal.

Anyways, here's the list of things to do/check for:

Make sure the tires aren't overinflated. Overinflated tires can make your truck wander.

Ensure that there is zero play in any of the steering components. The bushings will move a little bit in order to absorb some road shock upon impact but it shouldn't be visually detectable by pulling on the steering assembly by hand.

Like ReAX said, if you don't have a drop pitman arm add one.

Make sure there is zero "looseness" where the pitman arm attaches to the steering box, sometimes the bolt gets loose and can cause problems.

Make sure that you have a steering stabilizer installed, I have a Procomp ES-2000 on mine using the factory mounts.

Definitely have your caster/camber and toe-in checked/adjusted by someone who knows what they're doing regarding these trucks. There are numerous folks that seem to think that adjusting the caster too much will cause death wobble and you DEFINITELY don't want that. I had the Ford garage check mine (there's a good one by me) and I had them also add a little bit of extra "toe-in" in order to make the truck want to drive straight. I'd rather wear my tires a little bit than have a truck that wants to wander when it hits bumps.

Inspect and or replace your ball joints. If any of your ball joints are out of factory tolerances, replace them.

... and finally, the one that help the most for me - adjust the tension in your steering box. As the steering box wears you can tighten it down to decrease the amount of distance that you need to move the steering wheel in order to move the tires. Mine was way to loose and adjusting this made a HUGE difference. There are threads on this forum that discuss this adjustment and you can do it yourself. I will look for a thread and post it here when I find it. Mine took about 1 and 3/4 turns which is ALOT. It took many adjustments before the steering finally felt "right" so be patient. Be careful though that you don't over adjust it. If you over adjust it the steering wheel will NOT want to automatically "center" itself after you make a turn ... the truck will want to go in the direction that you last turned the wheel (known as memory steer). I've noticed that this too will make it seem like the truck wants to wander even if you have just a little bit of memory steer. It's possible that your truck may even have a memory steer condition now, maybe yours is adjusted too tightly? You can tell by starting your truck and turning your wheel back and forth, if you can't feel a little bit of "deadness" or relaxation in the steering wheel at the "straight" position (when the truck is supposed to be going straight) then you are probably too tight. If there is a lot of "deadness" in your wheel at the straight position, in other words, you have to move the wheel quite a bit in order to get the tires to turn at all, then you need to add some adjustment. The adjustment essentially takes "the play" out of the steering wheel and this could be your problem.

Anyways, sorry for the long post - I hope it helps.

I should note too that I am NOT a mechanic (you could probably tell that by the post) but I'm not a moron either. I write software for a living so you have to be a least a little bit smart in order to do that.

All of you mechanic guys can correct me where I am wrong.

In closing, I will say that it scared me to drive the truck at high speeds when I first got it but after doing what I described above I feel comfortable having my wife drive the truck. It really did make a huge difference!

 

It sounds dead on, except I have never found a way to inspect the ball joints. The only diag I have had any luck with is if grease just flows out of the boot and offers no resistance to the grease gun, it's probably warn.

Most of the steering components are going to be wear Items, it just depends on how you drive and the condition of the vehicle as to how long they will last. Rule of thumb, most stock parts are near shot at 100k-150K miles. Because of thier importance to my well-being, I usually start replacing those parts at 100k.

 

I too had the wandering problem on a '01 superduty crew cab. No lift. Was scary to drive on the fast narrow two-lane back highways.

My local shop finally fixed it by changing out the steering box. I asked them to tighten it like some posts suggest but they flat out refused, said it wasn't an option. Perhaps they knew I wouldn't fight over that, but they did fix the problem. A bit spendy.

 

Did you replace the boot that broke.When I did my plugs I replaced all the boots for good measure.They sometimes have cracks that could cause a missfire.Your can also take the truck to autozone and have them see if it threw a code as to which cylinder is the prob.
Do you have play in the wheel before you get a response from the wheels?
You can have someone turn the wheel while you watch from under the truck.Looking for any play.

 

I had a miss after I changed my plugs to the top of the line (overpriced) Bosch plugs.
Removed them and replaced them with the exact Motorcraft plug that came with the truck from the factory. Problem solved.
Consdiering that the lift kit was installed by an unknown party I would start my trouble shooting by acquiring a set of installation instruction from Skyjacker and ensure that everything was installed properly and torqued to spec.

 

On my race car, I use a laser pyrometer on the exhaust manifold to find the coolest of the cylinders.

They have gotten really cheap ... ~$70 ...

 

Get a 5.7 vortec powered tahoe, youll never find an easier V8 truck plug to change! You have tons of room around every plug and NOTHING in teh way of any of em. I could do it blandfolded even if ive never seen the motor before.

On another note, get the drop pitman, get an alignment, check your tires for unusual wear (thats big if you didnt align it after a lift) also make sure the lift kit was installed properly.

 

What plugs did you put in? If they are Bosch Platinums, there's your problem. Tons of Ford Triton V8 and V10 owners have found issue with these. Not sure why, but they don't work all that well.

 

My mechanic told me the same thing, put in Motorcraft plugs and buy a new set of boots for the plug change..Not a problem since....
Buck Waddell
1942 Ford GPW "The 1st SuperDuty"
2003 F250 FX4, 5.4, EC

 

Yes I did have to change that boot it was mis firing really bad.

I think your right with the steering box issue. I had this not so nice thing happen... I found out I had one hub locked in. (I had just got the truck and did not check them)

I had the truck sent to an alingment shop and unlock the hub. It was fine for a week. Then today it started pulling the wheel to the left and going all over the road again. When i stopped to have my wife turn the wheel so i could look and see what changed you could not turn the wheel. It just would not turn. I rolled the truck forward and it turned slightly.

Pissed off I wrenched on the wheel untill it turned. Their was a "clunck" and then it was normal again.. I wonder if their is a broken gear in the box? Everything else is new. My family owns a auto shop / dealership so its not like I'm new to fixing broken stuff this is just driving me crazy....

Thanks for the help guys..

 

After taking one look at my 4.6L Cougar, or my V10 SD, I could do the plugs in the dark.

So what?

Blech...

OHC motors are easy.

 

A World War II Army Jeep.

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width="80%" border=1><TBODY><TR><TD>Length</TD><TD>132.25 inches</TD></TR><TR><TD>Width</TD><TD>62 inches</TD></TR><TR><TD>Height, top up</TD><TD>69.75 inches</TD></TR><TR><TD>Height, top down</TD><TD>52 inches</TD></TR><TR><TD>Engine</TD><TD>****** or Ford 4 cyl L-head, 134.2 ci, 6.48:1 compression</TD></TR><TR><TD>Horsepower (net)</TD><TD>54 @ 4,000 rpm</TD></TR><TR><TD>Transmission</TD><TD>Warner T-84J 3 speed synchromesh</TD></TR><TR><TD>Transfer case</TD><TD>Dana Spicer 18 2 speed</TD></TR><TR><TD>Gear Shift</TD><TD>Floor mounted</TD></TR><TR><TD>Axles</TD><TD>Spicer Dana 4.88:1 23-2 rear, Dana 25 front</TD></TR><TR><TD>Electrical System</TD><TD>6v, neg ground</TD></TR><TR><TD>Wheelbase</TD><TD>80 inches</TD></TR><TR><TD>Ground Clearance</TD><TD>8.75 inches</TD></TR><TR><TD>Approach Angle</TD><TD>45°</TD></TR><TR><TD>Departure Angle</TD><TD>35°</TD></TR><TR><TD>Weight w/o gas and water</TD><TD>2,337 lbs</TD></TR><TR><TD>Fording Depth</TD><TD>21 inches max</TD></TR><TR><TD>Tires</TD><TD>6.00x16 non-directional</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>