Moving Forward In Better Shape

BrianX128

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I've had some major surgery / upgrades this winter with my IDI's, "Ernest" in my sig ('90 7.3 CCLB ZF5) got a SMF Conversion in my other thread lots of details of what happened along the way there. Anyways, some things I still want to do to it this winter/spring I'm gonna put in this thread.

One of which is my clutch pedal assembly, my old throwout bearing and pressure plate with my dead dual mass flywheel was super hard to push. It wallowed out my pedal assembly some. I'm still able to use it, and my pushrod for my clutch somehow sustained no damage which is nice but I'm down to only an inch of pedal travel from the floor before the clutch is engaging and it's for sure because the clutch side of the pedal assembly wiggles and doesn't give me full travel of the pedal.

The good news, is I have a brand new pedal assembly in a parts truck that I just need to pull out sitting in my driveway. I'm just really not looking forward to the job, but at least I'll have experience doing it from pulling the other assembly out. I'm just not to comfortable with pulling the steering wheel out everything else I feel good on after reading a how to I found online about doing the pedal assembly.

Outside of that, I can comfortably say "Ernest" is how I want it. I've gotten basically everything I want to done with it. The smf conversion is perfect, I put all new u-joints and a new carrier bearing on it. All of the brakes and rotors are new, it's going to be how I've wanted it since I bought it if I can just tackle the pedal assembly. At least it didn't wear out so much I can't drive it until I'm ready to do the swap.


Then, there is Lenny in my sig ('85 6.9 single cab 4x4)

Currently it is at @FarmerFrank 's place getting a new clutch and throw out bearing, but I also need to do my valve cover gaskets on it. Drivers side back corner has a nice leak going right onto the exhaust which made it hard to find where my oil was going. The water pump though it feels tight still is also very very slowly weeping. It took almost 6 months to need anything added, but it's not like its going to get better on it's own. I'm good with doing the water pumps, I just did one on my 7.3 a year ago and though it's time consuming it's easy stuff.

I'll take some recommendations on what valve cover gaskets I should get as this is a job I haven't done before. Another thing I need to button up on the 6.9 is a cab leak coming from the seatbelt holders up high. I thought it was water coming in around the rear window, but now I'm thinking it might be coming from my cab lights and running down the cab?

Anyone with any good pointers or things to not do during these projects I'd appreciate it. There's a light at the end of the tunnel, and though it sucks my dmf #$%$ itself in my 7.3 and my throw out bearing started screaming at the top of it's lungs in the 6.9, it will be nice to have put a new IP, Injectors, clutch, and all of those goodies in both trucks. It will be a lot more confidence inspiring moving forward knowing I don't have parts with 134k/126k miles on both trucks as I'm going down the road, though they both fought through all of these issues and were still running and driving fine. Just gotta keep them as rust free as they are now and I'll be set for a while barring any other major disasters.
 
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