fields_mj
Full Access Member
I've recently acquired a 2000 SRW crew cab 4x4. Its in questionable shape, but I feel the price was right. Not great, but fair for its condition, and it was only 2 miles from the house so I didn't have to drive cross country just to check it out. Has 168K on it and hasn't had ANY maintenance to speak of. Breaks are squishy, Gear shift (automatic) has a lot of play and doesn't want to activate the switch when in park that will allow me to start the truck, ball joints are certainly shot, doesn't like to start in the cold (injector/glowplugs), it has no aux gauges of any kind (EGT, Boost, ???). I'm wondering what projects I should consider doing myself, and which ones I should just pay a mechanic to do (I do have a decent mechanic locally, but he's always booked at least 6 weeks out).
Before I even bother getting plates for it, the breaks need addressed, as do the front ball joints. I feel comfortable with the breaks as I've replace about all of it on my '93 at least once including some break line, as well as several components on the steering system, but I'm a little up in the air on the ball joints. As I understand it, this could end up costing over $1K to have a shop do it, so that gives me a pretty sizeable budget for buying any special tools, refilling the tanks for my torch, ect. Biggest draw back is that I don't have a garage to do the work in, so I'm stuck doing it in my driveway. The up side is that I still have the old truck and its running fine at the moment so I'm not stranded. Is it worth trying to do this repair (ball joints, possibly front U-Joints) on my own, in my driveway, in the winter, or am I asking for a disaster? FWIW, I did help change out a set of ball joints on an '86 F150 2wd, but that was 20 years ago, and I still remember it being a real PITA.
Next on the list is fuel injectors. I will check the glow plugs out first, but at some point I'm going to have to replace some injectors. Especially since I plan to add an aux fuel system and run waste oil in it. How difficult is it to swap out these expensive little suckers, and are there any special tools needed for the job?
Thanks in advance, and sorry for being so long winded.
Mark
Before I even bother getting plates for it, the breaks need addressed, as do the front ball joints. I feel comfortable with the breaks as I've replace about all of it on my '93 at least once including some break line, as well as several components on the steering system, but I'm a little up in the air on the ball joints. As I understand it, this could end up costing over $1K to have a shop do it, so that gives me a pretty sizeable budget for buying any special tools, refilling the tanks for my torch, ect. Biggest draw back is that I don't have a garage to do the work in, so I'm stuck doing it in my driveway. The up side is that I still have the old truck and its running fine at the moment so I'm not stranded. Is it worth trying to do this repair (ball joints, possibly front U-Joints) on my own, in my driveway, in the winter, or am I asking for a disaster? FWIW, I did help change out a set of ball joints on an '86 F150 2wd, but that was 20 years ago, and I still remember it being a real PITA.
Next on the list is fuel injectors. I will check the glow plugs out first, but at some point I'm going to have to replace some injectors. Especially since I plan to add an aux fuel system and run waste oil in it. How difficult is it to swap out these expensive little suckers, and are there any special tools needed for the job?
Thanks in advance, and sorry for being so long winded.
Mark