The plan

[jb2wheels]

Nice looking trailer. Is it extra tall? Good call on the axles - way too easy to overload a pair of 3500lb axles with a big trailer. Eric is "smarter than your average bear."

Your tire pictures reminded me of my last road trip. I shredded a tire on the LF of may van last month on the way back from Imperial Invasion. Tore up my inner fender, too. Not nearly as bad as yours.
The LR floor is dented from a similar flat on the rear a couple of years ago.

Glad you're safe and happy. I enjoy this thread.

[Dave Little]

If money were no object....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSP1vH7-t7s

and...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBfEaXx_fco

[fabiodriven]

Nice looking trailer. Is it extra tall?.

Hey thanks pal! No it's not extra tall. That was an option that I wanted however that option was not a cheap one. I had to draw the line somewhere, it's very easy to get carried away with the options available!

[fabiodriven]

Progress lately had been slow due to the weather not being optimum for a number of days. I didn't do anything exciting really. A lot of needle scaling and degreasing after I got the cab lifted up off the chassis. I have to sort out some issues with the shifter which no longer works with the cab lifted 2". Other mod for the cab lift is cutting or relocating the fan shroud, but both of those can be dealt with at a later date.

What I was concerned about over the last few days is the oil pan. The "Seal-all" had sealed the leak at the dipstick tube base and was holding strong, so is it worth it to remove the oil pan (which is an undertaking) and potentially risk creating more leaks (it's a tricky pan to seal) over something that's not leaking? I came to the conclusion it was better off to know what I have rather than leave question marks. Not only that but the dipstick tube desperately needed to be replaced anyways... I decided last night I'd take the pan out regardless of what that required.

We did end up removing the pan from the truck, but only after jacking the cab and engine sky high. If my friend Albie hadn't decided to pop in today I'd have never gotten this done alone. It was a battle to say the least, but after an hour or two of rolling around in all kinds of automotive fluids and fifteen fotty scuzz, she eventually gave birth to a very healthy oil pan. The pan itself is fine, but the dipstick tube base as well as the tube will be replaced and resealed.

Once I ripped into this thing it very quickly turned into "well while I'm here", which I always expect. A benefit to jacking the cab so high is now I have all the access I need to clean and paint the entire frame as well as replace the power steering lines and the front main crankshaft seal. I'm not sure it's leaking but it's caked in fifteen fotty scuzz so it's getting cleaned, removed, and replaced.

I also bought a set of injector harnesses which are actually for the glow plugs as well as all of the injectors. Over time these rot out, they're inside the valve covers soaked in oil. I've never replaced mine and I don't know if anyone else has in this truck before.

I have a mountain of parts and work here, just waiting on the weather still but I'm very pleased with what we were able to eek out of a half day today with the cold weather and rain scooting in just as we wrapped up. Special thanks to friends, Albie for his help with the pan and Jon Quinlan for pretty much insisting I use his plow truck to get around while my truck is laid up.

Thanks for reading.

[El Camexican]

Be careful under that thing buddy. That jack and 2 x 4 combo is bringing back memories of a car that fell on my dad many years ago and almost took his leg above the knee.

You might want to tuck that block heater cord behind the bumper before you get down to Texas, or you will end up answering a lot of stupid questions if the locals catch sight it

[plastikosmd]

Impressive work

[fabiodriven]

And so the light at the end appears...

[coolpool]

So that's a screw together from both sides of the pan type of dipsick holder? Is there an o-ring that fails prematurely or something? Get'n shiite done buddy!

[fabiodriven]

Yes sir Pete. Comes through from the inside where there is an O-ring. If I had merely tightened the existing base it would have stopped leaking. The existing O-ring was severely swollen, but it wouldn't have mattered as long as it hadn't left it's little groove, which it hadn't. The engine was simply too greasy, gooky, cruddy to know anything for certain. These pans are a known weak point so there was no question in my mind, it had to come out. Now there are no questions.

[fabiodriven]

Most of the time lately has been spent removing rust and scale with the needle scaler and then applying POR-15. Hours, and hours, and hours of rust removal and painting by hand with a brush. There wasn't much exciting to see there, haha. I can't count how many times I ran out of hot water in the shower before I got all of the grime and scale off my body, and I walked around for days with POR-15 on various parts of my body. The best part is, I'm not even done yet! The frame and under body painting is past the halfway point for sure, so it's getting there.

Six of the eight cab mounts are completely replaced and the body lift is in place. Only one stubborn factory body mount has yet to relieve it's grip enough for me to remove it from the truck. It's been soaking for two days now. I must say, the age of this truck really crept up on me. This is the truck for this journey, this is the truck for me for certain, and I wouldn't want the modern equivalent. I'm lucky I got under this thing when I did because the New England winters have had their way with it. The body mounts were absolutely smoked and I had no idea, and I had no idea things were getting so crusty under there. No matter though, it's all getting addressed.

I initially intended on doing a 2" body lift, however the benefits of the lift have revealed themselves in such a way that it made sense to go even higher. I'm going 3" now. The initial reason for the lift was mostly just cosmetics, however what I have come to find with this lift is far more accessibility in nearly every aspect of the mechanical functions of this truck. I can get between the cab and the frame now, I have plenty of room for a bigger down pipe, and I can work on the entire engine far easier than I could before. Not only that, but it looks good with 2" of lift, and it looks even better with 3".

I've located a factory dual alternator kit with all brackets and both alternators included. The owner has dual alternators in his truck and he has the second one on a toggle switch so he can turn it on and off as he sees fit. He's actually been in the exact scenario of having an alternator die, he flips the switch, and then he continues to drive and fixes it whenever he sees fit. He uses it for his snow plow, because as many of you know an electric plow can kill your batteries even with the truck running. I have to go help him topple some trees and clean the mess up for a day and the alternator kit is mine.

I went to assemble my oxy/acetylene torches about three weeks ago from parts I got here and there so I could begin fabricating my front bumper. As it turned out I had the wrong acetylene regulator, so I ordered another one. It's been sitting here for weeks now and today was a good day to get started on the bumper. I assembled my torches for the first time completely, and wouldn't you know the oxygen regulator is no good. So now I have that regulator on order...

Today I was able to get the harmonic balancer off and then remove the low pressure oil pump in order to replace the front crankshaft seal as well as the oil pump O-ring. I painted the balancer and pump housing for good measure. I also removed the driver's side valve cover, painted it, and replaced the injector/glow plug harness which resides under the valve cover. I still have to do the passenger's side harness. This truck is going to be tickled pink with the amount of massaging I'm doing to it, which it deserves after the 7-ish years it's given me nearly trouble free. Every good house is built on a solid foundation.

[coolpool]

That old girl is getting the luvin it deserves. I'm sure it'll serve you for many, more years. A couple of inquireis on the body lift which I suspect you've thought of already; have you considered the amount of slide you have on the steering coloum to go three inches? How about shifter linkage, extending brakelines, all the command and control functions, wiring etc.

[fabiodriven]

That old girl is getting the luvin it deserves. I'm sure it'll serve you for many, more years. A couple of inquireis on the body lift which I suspect you've thought of already; have you considered the amount of slide you have on the steering coloum to go three inches? How about shifter linkage, extending brakelines, all the command and control functions, wiring etc.

I'm glad you asked that Pete. The Super Duty has been extremely accommodating to the body lift. When I had the front of the cab jacked six inches to remove the oil pan, the steering shaft was still engaged. Albeit barely at that point, but it was still engaged.

The brake lines and clutch line are both flexible plastic lines and therefore there are zero concerns there. All wiring is perfectly fine.

The original position of the engine fan only covered about the top three quarters of the radiator, with the shroud reaching down to cover about the bottom quarter. I've not yet gotten to the point of dealing with that, but the fan will now cover the bottom of the radiator as opposed to the top. In a perfect world flipping the fan shroud upside-down *could* potentially be the perfect solution for this, however time will tell if that's going to be a viable option or not.

Where my truck is manual shift, modifying the shifter is something you wouldn't image being a very big concern. It is more of a concern than I would have anticipated. There are two shifter boots, one of which looks pretty in the truck and the other which sits underneath and seals noise and heat from coming through the floor. They must both be mounted in respect to their original positions, which means the external boot must stay down close to the transmission (which the cab has just been moved away from 3"), and the shifter itself must be extended in order for the internal boot to function properly as well. So what I have to do is build a box which extends down from the external floor of the cab towards the transmission to mount the external boot where it needs to sit. "Choking up" the internal boot on the shifter without lengthening the shifter itself is not an option, so it must be lengthened. I anticipate getting this shifter situated as being the biggest obstacle to overcome regarding the body lift. As I said, I don't know how the fan shroud is going to be but I bet it won't be a big deal.

[sledcrazyinCT]

You mentioned one cab mount still holding on....you managed to get all the others off without a gas axe? Holy mackerel that is a pulling the cab mounts apart, going through that on my 96 7.3 right now

[fabiodriven]

You mentioned one cab mount still holding on....you managed to get all the others off without a gas axe? Holy mackerel that is a pulling the cab mounts apart, going through that on my 96 7.3 right now

If yours are the same as mine there's a trick. I couldn't cut mine apart because the replacement body bushings I got do not include the metal hardware used in the mounts, and those are absolutely required. You must reuse the hardware from your existing mounts. The first two I fought with a pry bar, a , and a lot of cursing and writhing around on my back. I'm doing this on the ground. When I got to my third one, it simply wouldn't budge. I was stumped but kept my cool. Normally I'd just start cutting things apart and replacing the victims with new parts, but this time I'm taking a big bite. I've spent thousands of dollars in parts and supplies and I'm trying to make the most of my money right now. I believe these body mounts are fairly pricey to replace complete, metal hardware included, and I'm not springing for that right now.

I walked over to the other side of the truck to examine the mounts I had already removed to try and find a better way, and I did just that. As it turns out, there are directional fingers that hold the lower mount into the upper. These "tangs" must be released in order separate the mount, which means the mount must be compressed to push down the tangs before it will release to separate. As soon as I saw that I grabbed my three pound sledge and with one hard whack upward the mount fell apart. I'd been fighting it for a half hour and one whack, removed. Went to the next one, one whack. The one after that took a few more but gave up very easily. Second to last one was particularly bad and fought for a while, with the only one left having been beaten to the tits for a very long time without budging, but it too will fall.

[coolpool]

Glad all the systems are getting worked out fairly easy. I forgot your truck was a manual and wouldn't have given the shifter a second thought on an older truck; but it's ironic that it might be the one thing needing extra engineering, interesting!