K.I.S.S.

[apextrans]

OK, so I'm having problem after problem with the truck lately & it all started with a blown out locking hub up front. I buy a set of manual locking hubs & install them, good to go. Few days later truck starts making a grumbling sound every time I hit a bump. Kick it into 4x4 & it goes away. I figure front hub bearing are shot. Another guy drives the truck & says the same thing. So, I price out front hubs knowing the truck has 150K on it. Before I get to buy the hubs, the tranny starts acting up. Starts off in 2nd for a whole day out of the blue. Threw a code & turns out 2nd gear is trashed. I dropped it into first while moving & unwelded whatever had become welded together in the 2nd gear & now it is shifting fine again. Tranny shop suggested a rebuild because it's as much work to rebuild as fix that problem. So now I guess I need a rebuild before it takes a dump completely. Anyway, back to the hub story. So, I get the new hubs & they have the wrong studs in them. Nobody told me there was coarse & fine thread offerings, & of course nobody stocks the fine thread so I knock out the old studs & put them in the new hubs. Heres where Keep It Simple Stupid comes into play. I had to babysit the neighbors kid along with one of my own today while I was planning to do the hubs. Kids were playing in the back yard so I decided to do the drivers side first so I could keep an eye on the kiddies while I'm working. All goes well with that side & then the wife & other child arrive home so I move to the passenger side now that there's another set of eyes to watch said kids. First thing I do is pull out the NEW manual hub & wha-la, it's trashed after 2 weeks (and has never been locked in except to test after installing) & is the source of my new noise. Bearing is gone & hub is full of shavings. I already had the other side installed so I when ahead & installed the new hub assembly on the pass side too. The ***** of this is I usually work on the pass side first because it's in the shade. Because of the kids, I did the drivers side first. Had I followed my usual routine I would have found the bad locking hub in the first 5 minutes & not installed the hubs & returned them for my 458 dollars back. I never even thought to check the locking hubs being that they were new. K.I.S.S.

I chalked it up to Preventitive Measures & an expensive lesson learned......again. I think one hub might have been bad though, it was a bit rough when turning by hand. Oh, I also found a leaking front axle seal so I guess it will have to come out again to fix that!!!!

This truck is killing me....

 

[towcat]

This truck is killing me....

hey scotty....
you said it not me
I'd say your IDI is haunting you

 

[geonc]

hey scotty....
you said it not me
I'd say your IDI is haunting you

...Damn Cal..kick a man while he's down ;p

Scott...we never told you these PSD's were cheap to run
I do understand tho

 

[apextrans]

hey scotty....
you said it not me
I'd say your IDI is haunting you

The IDI is sitting at the mentioned tranny shop for over 2 months now. If the guy doesn't pay his bill soon I may be able to get it back!!.

I love my PSD but it is definitly testing the bounds of my affections

 

[69oiler]

i feel your pain. friday i swapped leaf springs with new on my SD. i started on the drivers side. hmm why did they put the fuel tank strap right in front of the nut for the front end of the rear spring? damn ford. now i have to pull the rear strap and skid plate and use a ratchet strap to hold the tank up so i can get a wrench on the nut so it wont spin. 1 hour later.... DOH Ford put a anti spin tang on the nut, no wrench needed! sure glad i wasted the last hour to find that out! then another 1/2 hour putting the tank and skid plate back together!

now the the other end of the spring. AAHHH! ford put the bolts in from the frame side! how the heck can i get the bolt out without cutting it? ah HA! swing the rear shackle down all the way and the bolt clears the frame...but not the hitch reciever ok break out the hot wrench. we blasted a 1 1/2" hole in the hitch on both sides on the truck to slip the shackle bolts through. but not till i spent 45 minutes wrestling with the shackle-to-frame bolt trying to remove the shackle and spring together.

dang cheap springs. by this time it's midnight and i'm running air tools and hammering in my buddy's garage while his wife and kids are trying to sleep. so i quit but i still have to replace 4 shocks and 2 front sway bar links before this weekend.

 

[tonkadoctor]

I also found a leaking front axle seal so I guess it will have to come out again to fix that!!!!

Hope it isn't a sign of another bad bearing.

 

[apextrans]

Hope it isn't a sign of another bad bearing.

I got a feeling it is. Rides better in the front end with the new hubs so I guess there was a problem there, but I think I still feel something weird up there. Now I do have one of my old ford locking hubs up there until I get to the shop I bought the locking hubs to get the bad swapped for new. One ford hub was worse than the other & I have the better of the 2 in there now but neither was in great shape. Lesser of 2 evils kind of thing......but I'm hoping it's the hub making noise & not a bearing.

I will say this. I can't decide if the dealer was really good at masking problems or I just got this truck @ the point where alot of **** decided to let loose, but I've never had so much trouble with a used vehicle I purchased. There will be no more performance doodads purchased unitl all reliability issues are resolved. Except for the tranny. Gonna do a beefed up rebuild built for towing. I'm still waiting on a replacement chip & the new one will have no line pressure because the tranny is gonna be build to shift right without the aid of elec. enhancments.

Still needs: HPOP, Steering box, axle seal up front & maybe a bearing as mentioned. The right chip would be nice after 3 months of waiting too!!!

 

[69oiler]

since i got mine last july at 125000 miles, now has 147000 miles:

required (?) repairs:
new torque converter
new front wheel bearing
new water pump
new front sway bar links
new rear leaf springs
new flasher relay (could they get this further up in the dash?)

normal maintenace:
new calipers, rotors, pads on all 4 corners
new shocks front and rear
DIY air intake
new tires
new utility cap

still needed:
4" exhaust
chip
windshield
eventually a trans i predict

the SD is definitly a different animal than an OBS and worlds away from an IDI

i guess you have to take the bad with the good. it sure is a comfy ride and looks good.

 

[tonkadoctor]

since i got mine last july at 125000 miles, now has 147000 miles:

required (?) repairs:
new torque converter
new front wheel bearing
new water pump
new front sway bar links
new rear leaf springs
new flasher relay (could they get this further up in the dash?)

normal maintenace:
new calipers, rotors, pads on all 4 corners
new shocks front and rear
DIY air intake
new tires
new utility cap

still needed:
4" exhaust
chip
windshield
eventually a trans i predict

the SD is definitly a different animal than an OBS and worlds away from an IDI

i guess you have to take the bad with the good. it sure is a comfy ride and looks good.

Many books could be written from the stories here, "A Man and his truck...The Saga continues by _______"

I could change what you wrote to "Since I bought my Superduty I've had to fix ___ on my OBS IDI because it got mad at me and I have only driven it 200 miles in the last 5 months.

I really have no room to complain on the Superduty as I bought it dirt cheap with known issues that had to be repaired but between the 2 of them it's a never ending story.

 

[69oiler]

more like "since i bought my SD i have had the time to get my IDI running again". my IDI has just gotten too old and used up to be a daily driver anymore. when it broke 3 times in 5 days i knew it was time to retire it. i drove a GMC for a year and it was very reliable but just wasnt fun. also being a Sonoma it was too small to be my work truck.

there were a couple known issues when i bought my SD but way more surprises.

i agree between the 2 i can count on knowing where all my extra money will go. there's something about them though that keeps me coming back for more. i may try another brand next time though.

 

[apextrans]

there were a couple known issues when i bought my SD but way more surprises.

This is exactly what I got going on.

Here's an update. Just got back from a week of Disney hell with the wife, kiddies & inlaw's , & will be picking the SD up tomorrow from a total tranny rebuild. Built not to break but nothing crazy. Billet converter, all Sonnax updates, HD cooler. Basically built it to tow the RV without troubles. It was slipping real bad the day before I left for FL so I asked my neighbor to run it down there while I was gone. 2nd gear was "trashed" & OD clutches & band were "badly burned" Haven't seen anything that was in it yet as I just got home late tonite but that's what the shop told me on the phone today. I have no reason to doubt them though, they did my C-6 in my IDI & it was great. Honest, fair people to deal with & they offer a 1 year warrenty no matter how you use the truck, anything goes!!! Drag racing, sled pulling, towing, etc. They stand behind their work.

Hopefully, I'm coming to the end of the surprises with this truck & can address some of the known issues. Oh, on the way home from the tranny shop, I'm stopping to swap the locking hubs for new ones. Then we'll see what's up with the leaking axle seal.

 

[82F100SWB]

Ahh, but the fun of S/D ownership... I do miss mine, but not buying parts for it...
Within 6 months of buying my 00, with 136K on it, I'd replaced both front wheel bearings,pass side stub axle, as the spindle bearing was toasted, and ate the axle, did the balljoints, brakes and rotors on all 4 corners, calipers and brackets on the rear, turbo, sway bar end links, most of the steering linkage, re-sealed the steering box, front driveshaft u-joints, replaced all the linkage in the tailgate, and all kinds of little stuff... All of this at at least 2x the cost of what it'd be on an OBS truck.
And, it still needed a good bit of stuff to make it how I wanted when I sold it...
In 2 years of ownership, my idi has needed front calipers(it had sat for 5 years before I got it,) u-joints, a heater core, a rear wheel bearing, and the brake master cyl kicked the bucket...
I'm looking at going PSD again, but, it will be an OBS truck, no questions asked, just for the fact that maintenance outside of the engine tends to be double the cost on a SD.

 

[apextrans]

Ahh, but the fun of S/D ownership... I do miss mine, but not buying parts for it...
Within 6 months of buying my 00, with 136K on it, I'd replaced both front wheel bearingsDITTO,pass side stub axle,MINES LEAKING as the spindle bearing was toasted, and ate the axle, did the balljointsDONE THAT, brakes and rotors on all 4 cornersMEE TOO, calipers and brackets on the rearME THREE, turboNOT YET THANK GOD, sway bar end links, most of the steering linkage, re-sealed the steering boxNEEDS A NEW ONE, front driveshaft u-jointsNOT THERE YET, replaced all the linkage in the tailgate, and all kinds of little stuff... All of this at at least 2x the cost of what it'd be on an OBS truck.
And, it still needed a good bit of stuff to make it how I wanted when I sold it...HPOP & SOME OTHER CRAP FOR ME.
I'm looking at going PSD again, but, it will be an OBS truck, no questions asked, just for the fact that maintenance outside of the engine tends to be double the cost on a SD.

I missed out on a really nice '97 that I wish I hadn't played games on the price. It was sweet. I love the OBS. If I do get rid of this truck for some reason, I'm getting a 97 & going back to a long bed.

 

[Double-S-Diesel]

I liked my 00 better than my 96. some day I will get another superduty, probably in a few years once this one is completely paid for, or when I get tired of it.
but of course with gettin an other truck I get to start all over. hell my 96 is better than new now with all the new stuff.

 

[apextrans]

I hear ya. I was thinking of cutting my loses when the tranny pooped out & then thought how much other money I had already invested so that put an end to that thinking pretty quick. Would have lost to much coin. A dually sure would be nice though;p