I rolled over 69k when I was out plowing with th '91.

 

Did a tune up on one of the farm work trucks at my grandpa's turf farm - '94 F-150 SCLB 2wd 5spd with the 4.9L. Plugs, cap, wires, rotor, oil change, trans fluid change. Gramps said that amount of maintenance hasn't been done in probably 5 years or more... Truck's used mainly to drive from field to field with tools and a fuel tank in the bed. Used to be a daily parts getter. Truck was all beat to hell when they got it and it's not looking much better now.

Here's the crazy part.... some won't believe me and next time I'm out at the farm I'll get photo evidence, but I swear on a stack of bibles that big six has 430K on the odometer and they've never pulled the engine apart ever. After I got done with the tune up it ran like a well oiled sewing machine.

 

I see you and raise you six thousand nine hundred and sixty nine miles on my bike.

 

Cleaned my seats

 

I can't remember exactly how I did the oil pan gasket. I want to say I cut it clean with the front of the block, then replaced it with sections from a new one; with RTV in all the joints/mating surfaces. I do remember that the oil pan bolt holes in the front cover were larger than the old ones. Be sure to check the bolt sizes before installing the cover. Mine included studs to use instead, but they need to be installed before the cover is. I didn't drop my oil pan, so I couldn't install the studs. I should have drilled the bolt holes in the pan oversize to match the bolt size in the cover.

 

Get some!!!!!

 

Center caps were faded bad and they want $100.00 for a set. These push out from the front and you need to cut the rtv in the back to do it. Push gently as they are brittle if anyone wants to do theirs. I just wet sanded and painted. Sandy

 

Looks good.

Yes - original center caps are expensive!

The plastic ones are $70 for 4 pc set.
The metal replacements are like $140 for the fronts and $220 for the rears each.

You can also get the red or black inserts for $20 each
all at LMC.

There is a guy on my local Craigslist selling NOS of the metal ones for the rear for $150 each

 

Installed a bulldog keyless remote entry on my 96 F 250 today, last week changed out the rear fuel pump by taking half of the bed off for access. I have a custom made flatbed that made the job much easier. Just noticed I need to change oil so better get that done before we head out for Texas in less than 2 weeks.

 

This is the only sane way to get that done.

 

Hooked up some warm white LED lights in both footwells. Changed bulbs in cargo lights, dremeled off the plastic heat-bubble in the same housing from brake light heat. Cleaned up some trailer wiring and added fabbed up a little LED license plate light and bracket.

 

I got my truck back from the shop after 33 days... was supposed to be a week to replace the leaking head gaskets and out the door for $1200. Heads both had significant cracks so they had to be replaced too. Another $1200!
The already huge expected bill was $600 more than even that estimate. Turns out that everyone advertising rebuilt heads for $1200 a pair don't actually HAVE them and can't GET them... had to pay $1587 from a place in TX. Then there were a few other things (thermostat broken, upper radiator hose this close to failing, temp sensor terminal loose - he saved the parts to show me) and I had the oil cooler seals renewed while the heads were off. $200 labor for that, but would have been more with the heads on if (when) it leaks sometime later.
So now I'm keeping this truck for life, as I have to drive it until the wheels fall off! I did get 22 years out of the last one (my late father’s ‘84 that I got in ‘96).
And to make an expensive day even better, I got it home, and later on went to restart and it cranked, started and died just like it used to with the leaky mechanical lift pump... after some quick troubleshooting, I found the electric lift pump wasn't running, although there was power to the shutoff (click when lead disconnected). I found that somehow I had wired the relay for my electric lift pump to the cold advance/idle speed lead instead of the fuel shutoff! Incredible as it may seem, my lift pump must have only been running when the engine was cold. Although the fuel filter light (vacuum at IP inlet) never came on.

 

I went to the junk yard today and picked up 2 different ICMs grey and black, and a distributor. I had the dreaded 213 code and mine tested bad. So I put in the grey ICM and got code 212, so I put in the black ICM. Erased codes then tested again and 213 went away! For now at least. Now I can work on my 311, 553, and 565 codes (knock on wood). I opened up my old one and it didn't look burnt or anything.

 

I replaced my fuel tank switch with one off of Amazon, made by "Standard", hoping it would solve my slow and increasingly inaccurate fuel gauge.

No dice. It switches tanks just fine, but the gauge never reads full anymore on either tank, even after a fresh fill up. When switching tanks, the gauge is slow to adjust to whatever level the selected tank is at.

Thinking something is up with my senders themselves.

 

Also discovered that the rubber support on driveshaft's center bearing is completely toast after hearing this gnarly grinding/screeching sound right as I pulled into my neighborhood.

With the rear wheels of the ground and pushing up on the driveshaft, I'm able to rotate it without any of the aforementioned noises.

It's likely the original from the '89 that I got my ZF5 and associated parts from, but it looked serviceable for the time being, but I guess it gave up the ghost. Good thing the weather kept me from making the trek to Corpus Christi today.

It looks like the only thing locally available is the Autozone Duralast brand, and I'm not sure how keen I am on using that. It seems even options online are limited and the quality seems to be hit and miss, plus I can't really afford more than a day of my truck being out of service.

I'm going to call one of the local dealers and see what they have available, but I doubt I'll be so fortunate, and if they do it'll be $$$.