95 PSD 4x4 refurb

Picked up a Mexican gardener's truck from a Mexican gardener.

It's a 95 PSD ECLB 4x4 with 4.10s, 5 speed swap, 4 mismatched tires and pretty much every panel dented but zero rust at all. The current plan is to get it reliable to tow my rock crawler and drive to work occasionally.



So far I've been doing fluid swaps to get it baselined. I have to do the wait to start cycle 3 times to get it to start quickly so I'm thinking glow plugs and the UVCH may be next. Any idea on what are the most common leaks in the valley between the cylinders? It's an oily mess.

Next up is rebuilding the TTB unless a D60 magically appears and replacing what looks to be the original cooling system.

Figured out my rear diff leak. Someone didn't tighten the bolts.

Good liking rig. No rust is key! Mine is pretty minor except the drivers floor pan.


97 F250 HD auto 4x4
3.55s turning 16.6!

A fun filled weekend later and I think I have most of my front end issues resolved.







These don't look too bad right?

In addition to those bushings one of the ibeam pivot brackets was missing 2 of the 4 bolts securing it to the crossmember and the remaining 2 were loose. Fixed that up with a couple grade 8s so hopefully it's resolved for a while. For anyone interested the Moog and AC Delco Professional bushings I swapped in were all made in Mexico and not China. Fitting for this truck.

Next up: Fix the AC. I have a new variable orifice tube (for 105+ degree weather), receiver-dryer, and oring kit. Hopefully the compressor and lines aren't shot and I can get it evac'd and charged without incident.

You could have ran those bushings for a few more miles.

Nothing too exciting to update. I changed all the o-rings in the AC system but the POS Four Seasons receiver/dryer didn't fit correctly and kept leaking at the fitting going into the evaporator so I had to revert to the original receiver/dryer. Also, I didn't have the tool to change the orifice tube or even get that strange looking fitting off so I left the original orifice tube in place as well.

The good news is I evac'd the system and refilled it with R-134a and it's blowing nice and cold. One of the o-rings on the compressor was in pretty bad shape so let's hope that solves it.

I drove it to work today and one of my coworkers thought I was the gardener.

I'm new to this forum but not these OBS 7.3's...

The fluid in your valley could be oil, diesel, or both. Most likely diesel leaking from a tired old fuel pump, old dry fuel lines (3 blue short lines between pump and filter bowl assembly), or other various seals on the filter and fuel pressure regulator housing. If it were me, I would go to riffraff diesel and buy the hoses, fuel filter, and they also have a kit to reseal the regulator and filter housing. Inspect the pump for leaks also. If it is oil, top suspect is turbo base oil rings.

Hope this helps. Make sure you wash and dry out the valley before pulling the pump, stuff can easily fall into the engine right there.

lugnut1009 said:

I'm new to this forum but not these OBS 7.3's...

The fluid in your valley could be oil, diesel, or both. Most likely diesel leaking from a tired old fuel pump, old dry fuel lines (3 blue short lines between pump and filter bowl assembly), or other various seals on the filter and fuel pressure regulator housing. If it were me, I would go to riffraff diesel and buy the hoses, fuel filter, and they also have a kit to reseal the regulator and filter housing. Inspect the pump for leaks also. If it is oil, top suspect is turbo base oil rings.

Hope this helps. Make sure you wash and dry out the valley before pulling the pump, stuff can easily fall into the engine right there.

Click to expand...

Thanks for all the advice. I will definitely be checking into all that.

As for updates, my AC leaked out in 3 days. Turns out it was the AC compressor leaking. So new compressor, receiver, and orifice tube and I'm good to go.

Also, my Mishimoto radiator came in. With coupons is was $300 to my door. Coming from the Toyota world I'm shocked at how big it was.



It was just going to be an easy swap, along with the hoses and thermostat, right? Wrong! :***:

The rear bolt on the thermostat housing was rusted and snapped even after a liberal dosing of Kroil. Oh well, I was really looking forward to changing the water pump too.





Oh well. All is well that ends well.




Since then I've just been driving it around. But then I found this....

Goodbye TTB



I really want to do the RSK with V codes but will probably end up using junk yard OBS springs until I can afford it. Oh well.

Another common leak point in the valley is the fuel restriction sensor. I wasn't about to pay whatever the price was for something that will just leak again. So I plugged it.

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That sensor was like $50!!!!


97 F250 HD auto 4x4
3.55s turning 16.6!

Which is why I replaced it with a $2 plug. Lol

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Did you get the driver's side u bolt bracket? And the F350 pitman arm...it's longer and you will want it. If you do much 4x4 driving you will want to hunt the F350 double cardan drive shaft, and get the F350 front transfer case yoke too if you can. They can me bought aftermarket though.

I think they make bolt on high steer arms for the kingpins? This might help down the road too.

Looks like someone has done the SD dual tensioner conversion for you...bonus!

Dual tensioner? Mine is factory and that's how it looks.
Looks like we got the same water pump from autozone.
Hopefully you didn't get the junk failsafe thermostat. Know which temperature one you got?
Also, did you already have that style radiator, or did you swap from the old style?
Far as the front drive shaft, make sure the centering pin isn't broke before you buy one. Unless you go new.

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leojr said:

Looks like someone has done the SD dual tensioner conversion for you...bonus!

Click to expand...

That's most definitely NOT the dual-pulley tensioner. It looks like the Gates replacement tensioner that happens to have a longer arm. But the ribbed idler below it is bolted directly to the bracket, just like OEM.

79jasper said:

Dual tensioner? Mine is factory and that's how it looks.

Click to expand...

Correct; dual-pulley SD tensioner has a square drive socket built into it, presumably for putting a breaker bar on it to wind it up to mount the belt. But hey, you can't call your truck the "blue beast"! That's what my wife called the '95 she bought 6 years ago, the day we brought it home.