I've been a member for a long time and spent most of my time lurking. My truck (in my sig) is stock and has been well cared for.

It has been used (a trade of sorts) for the past 3 years by a family member to haul a heavy gooseneck living quarters horse trailer. I have recently gotten it back and decided to sell my other vehicle and make it my daily driver again.

I miss driving it and wont mind not having a payment now that I sold my other car. That said, I'm going to spend a little bit of money to "refresh" the truck. Little stuff like windshields and fixing peeling tint are obvious.

The truck as 212k miles. It has had a new rear about 20k miles ago. Front end work around 175k miles (ball joints, bearings, and transfer case). Motor seems solid but I do have a few questions:

Is there anything preventative I can besides changing the fluid for the tranny (which I just did - it was pretty clean) to keep it alive? I think the tranny will be the next major expense on my truck. What's the best value in rebuilding/replacing it?

If the injectors seem fine should I leave them be for now?


Non engine questions:
I have the OEM step bars. They are kind of square-ish on the ends. They are chrome with a long plastic strip and are hung on 3 brackets per side. I need to order 3 new brackets for the passenger side ripped them up when I got stuck in one of our fields). Where is the best place to find these - my google-fu is failing?

I am installing a headache rack with tail lights, turn signals, and reverse lights. Where should I tap the rack wiring into?

My tailgate is falling off very easily...it seems to have a lot of side to side play at the hinges. It goes on easily as well...seems almost too easy. I have read a bit about bed spread - what is going on here?

Are there any options for a powered rear view mirror?

 

my rear view mirror has the compass and temp, love the autodim on it ran wires down the pillar and hooked power to 'key on' (cant remember color) from the steering column. ive never heard of adjusting it with remote controls

 

You have pretty much done the best maintenance you can on the tranny, keeping the fluid clean and fresh is important. The only other thing you could do is add a tranny cooler, but i dont think thats all that needed if it is just a daily driver and not towing heavy often.

As far as the engine, Guzzle sells an O-ring kit that covers most everything thats going to spring a leak on the truck, 50 bucks or so, worth it to just have it with you in my opinion. Would also make sure you have a spare CPS in the glove box.

Otherwise, injectors and the like, run them till they fail. I think f3506 has 325k on his original injectors now, still running just fine.

Just keep doing the maintenance, no reason it won't go 500k miles.

 

for the brackets on the step I would just find a used set of steps on craigslist

 

For preventitive maintenance, you may consider a bypass coolant filter to keep your water pump running a little longer. I think ITP is where I got mine, but there are others out there, and a few threads on homeade jobs.
You could also consider a bypass oil filter as well. There are a number of options for this as well.

On the wiring, if you still have the trailer brake controller harness package in the glove box, there is a diagram for the trailer brake wiring in there. You should be able to trace that line from the bumper back to the front of the bed and tap into all of the wiring you would need there.

Hope this helps.
Good luck and Gig'em!

 

I don't haul regularly anymore so that may help to extend the tranny's life. I may add the cooler anyway to keep it ready for pulling if/when I do need to.


Fordboy - I was resigning myself to the idea of just replacing both sets of boards

Wla - thanks for the tip - I will do this as soon as I get the headache rack on.

 

Any ideas on what to do about the bottom of the bed getting wider and making the tailgate slip off?

Thanks again for the replies guys.

 

I had an older truck that did this one time I took a ratchet strap and pulled the sides back in with that. It seemed to work well.