Dave7.3
Diesel ******
I thought you guys would get a kick out of this story of my trip yesterday. Especially those of you that carry a supply of spare parts in the back seat.
I found a nice 4 horse bumper pull trailer for my folks located about 250 miles away over in Miles City, Montana. About a 4-5 hour drive, figured why not and took Dad's 96' F250 PSD. We used to take his truck on trips to California from our home in South Dakota, so this wasn't too big of a deal in our eyes.
Left early from our farm in Belle Fourche, SD and hit HWY85 up and HWY12 over to Miles City, MT by noon. Met the guy and bought the trailer on the spot after looking it over. Pretty stout 10,000# bumper pull trailer with dual 6,000# rated axles.
Hooked it up, had lunch and hit the road for home at about 2pm. Smooth sailing until we started into the hills near Rhame, ND. Dad was driving and noticed the battery light come on. Puzzled, he fiddled with the headlights and I look over to see the temp gauge snap to the H. Quickly we pull to the side and shut off the truck.
Popped open the hood and the degas bottle is SWOLLEN, boiling over with coolant. The entire passenger side of the truck is covered with coolant spray all the way back to the end of the trailer. Coolant is puddling under the truck and the serpentine belt is wrapped around the fan. Wonderful place to be at about 4pm at a frosty temp of around 30*F.
I started to unwrap the fan and noticed the idler pulley is completely SHOT. Looking to see if I can even get the pulley off...I realize my Dad has NO metric tools at all. We are screwed.
Thankfully, my folks managed to flag down a motorist and he gave me a lift to Bowman, ND to get parts. Bought a new idler, belt, 2 gallons of coolant and a set of allen/torq head wrenches to fit. We get back and I realize...I didn't have a T-5 torq wrench...only a T-4. Its past 5pm by now and no place would be open in Bowman by the time we got back to get the right tools. To our luck, a rancher stopped to help that didn't live too far away. He ran home to get some tools while we waited at the truck.
He made his way back with a 15mm socket to open the tensioner...but he didn't grab a torq for the idler. Thinking we might be able to limp it to Bowman, we set the belt on. One turn to start and it spat it right out, no way that idler was gonna work.
So the rancher ran back home again for his torq set and another driver stopped to give us a hand. The guy turned out to be a sales rep from Bowman Ford! He was on his way home and knew exactly what we needed. He didn't live too far off and also ran to get his tools from home. We told him another driver was on his way, but he was insistent on getting his tools.
Before the Ford guy got back, the rancher showed back up with the right torq wrench! We slipped off the old idler and threw the new one on. While we are setting the belt on, the Ford sales rep showed back up. The two of them were neighbors as it turned out. Even more interesting, they were both familiar with where our farm was located too. Small world!
We topped off the coolant and fired the truck up. Everything looked good, so we limped the truck to Bowman, ND and stopped to check the coolant level. Adding a little more, we finally made it home by 10pm last night.
So, after that nice 4 hour ordeal in the cold, I can say that I am extremely thankful for the kindness of others up in North Dakota. Not only that, but from now on I will also be carrying spares in ALL vehicles that my family owns...not just mine.
Others reading this that haven't started storing spares in your vehicles, I urge you to do so!
Also, I took a picture of what was left of the original 16 year old Motorcraft idler pully. Yes, this is ALL that was left of it... Funny, I recalled a tapping noise under the hood for the past year that I couldn't ever locate. Found it!
I found a nice 4 horse bumper pull trailer for my folks located about 250 miles away over in Miles City, Montana. About a 4-5 hour drive, figured why not and took Dad's 96' F250 PSD. We used to take his truck on trips to California from our home in South Dakota, so this wasn't too big of a deal in our eyes.
Left early from our farm in Belle Fourche, SD and hit HWY85 up and HWY12 over to Miles City, MT by noon. Met the guy and bought the trailer on the spot after looking it over. Pretty stout 10,000# bumper pull trailer with dual 6,000# rated axles.
Hooked it up, had lunch and hit the road for home at about 2pm. Smooth sailing until we started into the hills near Rhame, ND. Dad was driving and noticed the battery light come on. Puzzled, he fiddled with the headlights and I look over to see the temp gauge snap to the H. Quickly we pull to the side and shut off the truck.
Popped open the hood and the degas bottle is SWOLLEN, boiling over with coolant. The entire passenger side of the truck is covered with coolant spray all the way back to the end of the trailer. Coolant is puddling under the truck and the serpentine belt is wrapped around the fan. Wonderful place to be at about 4pm at a frosty temp of around 30*F.
I started to unwrap the fan and noticed the idler pulley is completely SHOT. Looking to see if I can even get the pulley off...I realize my Dad has NO metric tools at all. We are screwed.
Thankfully, my folks managed to flag down a motorist and he gave me a lift to Bowman, ND to get parts. Bought a new idler, belt, 2 gallons of coolant and a set of allen/torq head wrenches to fit. We get back and I realize...I didn't have a T-5 torq wrench...only a T-4. Its past 5pm by now and no place would be open in Bowman by the time we got back to get the right tools. To our luck, a rancher stopped to help that didn't live too far away. He ran home to get some tools while we waited at the truck.
He made his way back with a 15mm socket to open the tensioner...but he didn't grab a torq for the idler. Thinking we might be able to limp it to Bowman, we set the belt on. One turn to start and it spat it right out, no way that idler was gonna work.
So the rancher ran back home again for his torq set and another driver stopped to give us a hand. The guy turned out to be a sales rep from Bowman Ford! He was on his way home and knew exactly what we needed. He didn't live too far off and also ran to get his tools from home. We told him another driver was on his way, but he was insistent on getting his tools.
Before the Ford guy got back, the rancher showed back up with the right torq wrench! We slipped off the old idler and threw the new one on. While we are setting the belt on, the Ford sales rep showed back up. The two of them were neighbors as it turned out. Even more interesting, they were both familiar with where our farm was located too. Small world!
We topped off the coolant and fired the truck up. Everything looked good, so we limped the truck to Bowman, ND and stopped to check the coolant level. Adding a little more, we finally made it home by 10pm last night.
So, after that nice 4 hour ordeal in the cold, I can say that I am extremely thankful for the kindness of others up in North Dakota. Not only that, but from now on I will also be carrying spares in ALL vehicles that my family owns...not just mine.
Others reading this that haven't started storing spares in your vehicles, I urge you to do so!
Also, I took a picture of what was left of the original 16 year old Motorcraft idler pully. Yes, this is ALL that was left of it... Funny, I recalled a tapping noise under the hood for the past year that I couldn't ever locate. Found it!
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