I figured I would document my journey, here is some background......I decided that I wanted a full size truck and since I have had my 2002 Excursion 7.3 for over 12 years, I wanted a similar era truck.. Looking on CL the prices for the older trucks are a bit on the expensive side and I just couldn't justify and they were high mileage.

Well I have always been a CL search guy but I ended up expanding my searches to Facebook Marketplace and OfferUp. I ended up coming across an F250 on OfferUp. What I noticed is OfferUp is used by the younger generation which I found interesting.

Here is what ended up happening.....Apparently the owner of the truck passed away so I was dealing with his son who turned out to be a kid in high school. The kid and his mom were also leaving CA for TX and I believe the kid was trying to fix a few things on the truck to keep but I think some of these things were over his head. So they decided to sell it.

I went to see the truck and right off the bat it wasn't in the best shape, a number of dents and the clear coat was peeling. The interior was pretty messed up and missing a few things. It had 211K miles on the truck but the engine has been replaced by Ford and it had 60K on it. It had a 4in lift and the tires were all bald on the inside. I went back and forth with the kid on price....he started at 15K and I got him down to 11K but it wasn't running properly, had a few codes and only half the cylinders were firing.

I made a deal with the kid because I believe the UVCH was loose and disconnected and I said I would take it apart and fix it and if that was the issue I would take it for 10K. So I went to his house and took the truck apart and sure enough the drivers side UVCH was disconnected. We put it all back together and fired it up and to our surprise that did NOT fix the issue.

At that moment I figured there was a deeper issue so I said I will have to think about the truck. As I was leaving I heard him say "what are we going to do we need to get rid of the truck before we leave". Which I believe was in like two week at that time. So I called him back later that day and asked what was his rock rock bottom price for the truck and I ended up getting it for quite a bit less.

So I took a chance and had the truck towed to my house. Here is a pic of it in the driveway.

 

Knowing it wasn't running I was a bit nervous as to what the actual issue was with the truck. Since I had gone through similar issues with my Excursion I figured I knew the issue so I took a rookie move and started throwing parts at it. I picked up a new UVCH harness and gasket from RiffRaff. Put it all together with new glow plugs and .....well you may have guessed it, it didn't fix the issue.

I had an issue with injector #4 according to my buzz test.. So I decided to do my research and track the issue down. I ohm'd out all the injectors and as indicated by the buzz test, injector #4 was lower than all the rest.

I decided to swap the solenoid with injector #2 and the issue followed the solenoid. So I decided to buy a shim kit since these were remand injectors on the new engine. I got the shim kit but that did not fix the issue either. My hope was that I didn't have to get a new injector. To save a few buck and to not pull an injector, I decided to pick up a new solenoid, I put it on injector #4 and "BAM" engine starts up like a champ and it idles very nice and smooth.


old solenoid

Shim kit from EBay

At this time I am pretty stoked to have a good running truck for suck a great price but this was only the beginning. I now have to fix the suspension.....more to come.

 

How did you perform the buzz test?

Is that with a bi directional scan tool or is that a mode/test the truck can do itsself?

Feels great when you get things working for sure. Trucks seems decent from pics. Good on you !

 

My Excursion is a 7.3 diesel also and at the time I wanted to be able to diagnose any issue. I picked up the Ford NGS from a friend who had an extra one. I used that for the buzz test. The NGS is the scan tool used by the Ford technicians at the dealership up to I think 2008/09. Yes it is bi-directional.

Here is some discussion about it and other scan tools.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...scan-tool.html

Tim M

 

Looks like a very ambitious build. Good luck and thanks for sharing this with the forum.

 

So I knew I needed new tires so I set out on a journey. I picked up the rare 18" OEM 2004 King Ranch wheels for my Excursion so I wanted similar ones for my new truck. I wasn't picky and I would take the King Ranch, Harley Davidson or the rare SVT rims.

So I searched and searched and I found a set for a good price so I ran out and picked them up....I was pretty excited because I know how difficult they are to find these days. Here they are.



So when it came time to clean them up and put them on my truck I noticed two of the rims were damages. I could not believe that they were damaged, I was pretty bummed as I knew these things are hard to come by. One rim has a crack on the inside and someone did a repair on it. And the other rim was damaged on the outside and again someone tried to repair it.




So i said to myself O well I guess I was too excited to find them and just grab them and threw them into the truck and didn't do a thorough examination of them. But I though to myself......I am a pretty good searcher so I will look for another set for the next few weeks because I had a little bit of time before I needed tires.

So the next day I begin my search and to my surprise I found another set of Harley 18" rims in almost perfect condition. The guy had been storing them for the last 15 or so years in his shed. Here is one of them.



I am planning on getting new tires put on this week so I will take a pic with them on the truck.

Tim M

 

You can send those wheels out and have the cracks fixed. I had a few wheels fixed. Yiu couldn’t tell where the damage was previously.

 

I'm enjoying following the restoration project so far keep it going! Too bad your on the other side of the world from me or I'd be interested in the Lariat wheels if they were in good shape.

 

So I will keep one rim for a spare and then look at selling the rest. I figured they could be repaired and I asked around a bit in my area and didn't get too far. I am sure there is a reputable shop that can repair those two rims correctly.

Tim M

 

i wouldn’t. It’s a spare. It’s gonna see the lighting day maybe once every blue moon. One of my trucks still has the original spare. It’s never been taken down. The other …once. In 20 years. Get a basic steel spare or keep the or you got now. Repair the wheels and get money in your pocket. You’ll sell them faster as a compete set

 

So the truck came with a 4" lift. I am not a lift guy so I wanted to get the truck back to stock. About 10 years ago I picked up some front leaf springs from a friend who removed them after about 1K miles on his 2004 truck. I have been storing them under my house for this entire time. Originally they were for my friends Excursion but he ended up not using them.

So here are the parts I had to gather..
Front leaf spring,
All the U-bolts front and rear - ford dealership
New bolts - ford dealership
New Pitman arm - ford dealership
New track bar bracket - pick-n-pull
New bushings for the front sway bar brackets - Energy suspension
New front and rear shocks. - Bilstein's I forgot that I would need to get new ones when I was calculating all the things I needed to do to the truck.


I had to remove the 4" block on the rear. I didn't have to get new leaf springs for the back as it only had the stacked blocks.

Here is the lift kit removed. Front leaf spring and rear stack block with stock rear springs.



Track bar bracket from the pick-n-pull


You can see the pretty brand new front leaf springs. Also you can see that I picked up a 2008 rear bumper also. I did install it but will post pics later.


Here is the front springs.

 

You’ll be able to sell that 4 inch kit for a few bucks and recoup some of your money. The Excursion sprigs are soft but imo give the least jarring ride

 

Yes, I was able to sell the lift and get back a little bit of $$$. On my Excursion I put on the front v-code springs from an F250. I picked them up new from ford. I like the ride of my Excursion with the setup I have.... not too jarring..

Here is how my Ex looks.

 

Ok, so while I was removing the lift I also did my ball joints and full front end rebuild. I purchased the entire front end kit from XRF. I forgot to lay them out and take a nice picture of all the parts.




I did upper and lower ball joints. This is always a good picture to show how far you need to go taking things apart to do the ball joints.



When I pulled off the passenger side wheel bearing it was pretty messed up. I needed replacement. It would not spin freely, I am pretty sure grime was keeping it from doing it. I didn't want to try and fix it so I picked up a new one. W2K dropped by and I gave him the old one. He likes to see how things work so he will take it apart and have some good knowledge for someone someday.


New Timken wheel bearing.


The drivers side was pretty good so I cleaned it up and greased the bearing and it was good to go.

I replaced all the tie rod ends and bars.



So far with all the work the truck drives pretty nice. Its coming along real nice. Lots more I want to do. Getting new tires tomorrow.

 

Hey make sure you pack those Timkens. I take off the abs sensor and put a grease zerk fitting on my grease gun so I can pump grease in the hole without making a huge mess. . Then I put the zerk in the ABS hole and pump grease in while turning the hub. You’ll be amazed how much grease you’ll get in there.
also make sure you pack the stub shaft bearing at the back of the hub. If you look on the back in the center hole where the stub shaft goes through there is a bearing there. You’ll see it. Sort of looks like the cup of a U joint but it’s open all the way through. . It’s a crap design with rollers basically packed in a metal outer ring with rolled edges. The reason you wanna pack that stub bearing is that if it dries up it’s gonna eat up the stub shaft. Actually you can see it in the pic you took if you zoom in.
I found a bearing that is caged and it’s a direct replacement for that crappy design. I repack my hubs and the stub shaft bearing once a year. I don’t remember the part number off hand but I have extra ones in my parts shelves. They aren’t expensive.

did you replace the axle shaft hub seals. Aren’t those great. I had one that wouldnt come off. It took me half hour to get it off.