TO EVERYONE THATS HAVING ISSUES.....

as of late, ive seen many posts with people having lots of issues with their truck
this is what we deal with because we dont have the cash/want to spend the cash on a bran new truck.
even newer trucks have problems.
you know the saying, if it has **** or tires.....
DO NOT GET DISCOURAGED!! these are nothing more than machines.

not 1 person, not even the pros know everything, even tho some are damn close.
i know its extremely hard when youve been working on a project and just cant seem to get it right
especially when its your only vehicle

stressing on it will only create more mistakes.
take a deep breath, and relax.... YOU WILL FIX THE PROBLEM!

a few of you are pulling your hair out, handfulls at a time.
its not worth it buddy....
i just thought i should share some words of encouragement.

the glass is never half empty. THERES ALWAYS ROOM FOR VODKA!

In addition, these are simple vehicles in comparison to the new crap. So dont freak out when some little thing acts up, it always happens at the wrong time but usually will get you home.

For instance, reman ford injector screwed up on the 6.0 I drive for work, pushes combustion gasses into fuel rail, no go. tow to ford, 1 week out of warranty on the reman. 400.00 plus later, on the road.
IDI, injector screws up, short trip, limp it home, Long trip, install one of the spares that you can afford to carry and keep on truckin.


Oh and after burning up the area rep from ford we got reimbursed for the faulty unit. But the service truck was down for a whole day, not much but with a small excavating co. with older equip I am in demand , a lot.

IDIoit said:

the glass is never half empty. THERES ALWAYS ROOM FOR VODKA!

Click to expand...

In your honor, I will add a line to an old adage:

The optimist sees the glass as half full.
The pessimist sees the glass as half empty.
The engineer sees the glass as twice as big as it needs to be.

Added line: The happy DIY'er sees the glass as having room for vodka!

madpogue said:

In your honor, I will add a line to an old adage:

The optimist sees the glass as half full.
The pessimist sees the glass as half empty.
The engineer sees the glass as twice as big as it needs to be.

Added line: The happy DIY'er sees the glass as having room for vodka!

Click to expand...

this is great, ive never heard the 3rd line.

let me share an experience with you guys.
i was born with the disease i affectionately refer to as hotroditus.
i simply cannot leave anything the way it is for long.
in 2005, built a little 1930 oldsmobile 5 window coupe, with parts i had layin around.
i spent 2 solid years building it as a POS. but it was my POS! built by my hands.
in 2008, i decided to make it better. i replaced all of the rotted sheet metal,
installed a 6 point cage, and a nasty aluminum headed pontiac 400.
i was trying to make a car show.
i spent nearly 2 months at 10+ hours a day, after work to get this thing together.
i was really happy with my progress, and that i finally had a ride that people would not call a "rat rod"
i finally got it all together, and was ready for its madien voyage at 3 am the morning before the show that was to start at 8 am.
i fired her up. let her warm up. as me and a buddy checked everything over, we decided to take it for a ride down the street to make sure she was golden.

we both hopped in. inched it out of the drive way making sure brakes were golden.
i got out of the drive way and gave her about 1/2 throttle.
the ass end came around, with tremendous thunder! i never had a smile that was bigger.
i gave it another 1/2 throttle burst while i was going straight, and WOW, 450 ish hp and 1800 lbs.. the thing kicked like a mule on crack!!!
everything was good, so i decided to give her a little more fuel.
3/4 throttle this time...
this time it didnt go so well. i had made the mistake of installing a ground wire (0 gauge) next to my throttle linkage.
she stuck wide open. with the relocation of my ignition switch, 31 x 11" slicks, 15 x 6" front tires turned all the way to the left, the car pushed,
right into the fence at the dead end of my street.
luckily we both had our 5 point harnesses on.
i destroyed the entire front end of the car.
i learned 2 things that night.

1) never work above your means... you may think you can do it, but while youre sleep deprived and on a mission, you miss stupid little things like a ******* wire.
2) your life is far more valuable than some damn machine.

from that point on, i never stressed about a car again. if it breaks, oah well ill fix it eventually.
if you get anxious and try to do things while not in your right mind, it will cost you more than its worth.

STAY SAFE, DO IT RIGHT, DO IT ONCE!

IDIoit said:

as of late, ive seen many posts with people having lots of issues with their truck
this is what we deal with because we dont have the cash/want to spend the cash on a bran new truck.
even newer trucks have problems.
you know the saying, if it has **** or tires.....
DO NOT GET DISCOURAGED!! these are nothing more than machines.

not 1 person, not even the pros know everything, even tho some are damn close.
i know its extremely hard when youve been working on a project and just cant seem to get it right
especially when its your only vehicle

stressing on it will only create more mistakes.
take a deep breath, and relax.... YOU WILL FIX THE PROBLEM!

a few of you are pulling your hair out, handfulls at a time.
its not worth it buddy....
i just thought i should share some words of encouragement.

the glass is never half empty. THERES ALWAYS ROOM FOR VODKA!

Click to expand...

Yes, even paying a good indy for the things that some of us cannot do because of space, time, or complexity, the IDI is a financial bargain.

As someone who has had issues with these trucks when my livelihood depended on them, I can honestly say: they're a pain in the ass sometimes, but what vehicle isn't going to be once in awhile? They're relatively easy to work on, and if you can't get it figured out, they are MUCH cheaper to take to a mechanic than ANY electronically controlled diesel.

BrandonMag said:

As someone who has had issues with these trucks when my livelihood depended on them, I can honestly say: they're a pain in the ass sometimes, but what vehicle isn't going to be once in awhile? They're relatively easy to work on, and if you can't get it figured out, they are MUCH cheaper to take to a mechanic than ANY electronically controlled diesel.

Click to expand...

as far as taking it to a mechanic, there are 3 diesel repair shops in my area. 1, only deals with fleet vehicles, and getting your personal car in there is a big pain in the rear.
another,didnt want to even touch it because it couldnt be hooked up to a scanner! the third, i asked them to time my 7.3 and they said "sure, bring it by!"
i brought it by, and asked how they were gonna time it.
they said, "oah we just time these by ear" i said SEE-YA!!!
loaded it up on the trailer and took a 2 hour adventure with 8700 lbs + trailer to calvins shop.
he helped me out and got this thing running awesome!
(still wondering why he didnt want to be climbing over a hot radiator and engine to time it )
so for the most part, im stuck without a shop.... so if its down, ill be buggin the hell out of you guys if i cant fix it

When I got my truck I knew absolutely nothing about diesels. I didn't even know anyone who had a diesel truck. The truck was 24 years old when I got it, so in the back of my mind I thought that I must be going crazy or something. To top it off my experience working on any kind of cars was very limited.

It wasn't long before I ran into different issues, such as return lines needing replacing. I just took it one step at a time and tried to learn as I go along. There is so much information available on the internet, that I don't have to worry about not knowing what to do. I consider each repair that I need to make a new learning experience.

About a year ago, I was chasing down an air in fuel/rough running issue. I was getting really frustrated because I had done everything I could think of. It turned out the old Racor fuel/water separator was letting air get in somehow. It took me forever to figure this out because I didn't bother to do something really simple, that is to isolate the problem. Once I started doing some clear line tests, the problem became quickly apparent. I realized what I should have done in the first place, but in the end, it was all a big learning experience.

Dear optimists, pessimists, and the engineers,

While you were arguing over how much water was in the glass....

...I drank it....in hopes it was actual vodka.

Your friend,

The opportunist

jay22day said:

Dear optimists, pessimists, and the engineers,

While you were arguing over how much water was in the glass....

...I drank it....in hopes it was actual vodka.

Your friend,

The opportunist

Click to expand...

(deleted distastefull and bad joke here)!

yeah it's a pain at first but if you really love these trucks like i do every problem although a short-term negative is actually a long-term positive, there's nothing like the feeling of knowing your vehicle, to me it's my freedom!

It's good to hear a story like pickupmans I'm also learning alot from this truck!

I'm still fighting my flashing overdrive light, but I can't bring myself to quit driving it! I'll get it fixed eventually. Someone posted here to fix it before you drive it (any issue really), otherwise you'll never get it fixed.

I've also come to terms with possibly pulling the transmission again. Time heals all wounds.

I forget which forum, what thread or what was wrong. But recently a guy with an E4OD had a problem, limped it home, then found out that if he'd had it towed, he might've saved the tranny. But by driving it that way, he burned something up.

probably a converter, if you burn the converter up it will contaminate the entire transmission system. woooops lol