Wally my new truck TLC

My fellow oil burners, Wally is in the shop undergoing his much needed TLC!

I’ve done a lot so far: glow plugs, serp belt, ows filter, oil change, fuel filter, banks air filter, valve cover gaskets, remove some of the crappy window tint, you know, all the TLC it needed but hadn’t gotten in the last few years. Old man before me really took care of it but suffered poor health in recent years and the truck sat and was neglected.

It’s a 92 F250 4x4 with the 7.3 and a banks sidewinder installed 14,000 miles after bought new. It’s got an E40D with a banks transcommand installed (at least receipts show it was installed) Lots of receipts and paperwork came with the truck. 4.10 gears.

Currently I’m changing the transmission fluid and filter. Wasn’t a whole lot of metal in the pan and fluid looked pretty good but low level. There’s a red wire looped nearby that appears to have been used as a temp sensor but has since been unplugged. The gauge in the truck is an ISSPRO oil temp gauge but doesn’t work. This red wire (see pic) goes to the gauge and I imagine it isn’t working because it’s not hooked up! My guess is that it was for trans oil temp… I have two plugs in my pan and one of them I have any idea about. You guys? The other is my drain plug.

I also found this coolant leak today when I came out to start working :/ I’m thinking water pump… Truck has 160,000 miles.

Well, I started this thread and as I go about fixing maintaining this truck I plan to post here when good ol YouTube and my manuals don’t serve me well. Cheers amigos!

Update: that plug has to be Tran oil temp. Turned the plug around and had an ISSPRO UKmade stamp with a part number. New one ordered!

That is for the broken temp sender. You can still see the brass inside it in your picture. The other one is for the drain. It's in the lowest part of the pan (when installed) so that you can drain the most fluid out with it.
Yes your water pump would be the first place that I'd look for that coolant leak. There's a few other places that it could be coming from, but they aren't terribly likely to be leaking.

How about this one @IDIBRONCO or anyone else whose got the mind to. I finally finished doing all my work besides new fuel pump and water pump. Got the glow plugs in, return lines in, filters changed, etc. and went to start it up tonight and I noticed smoke coming from the glow plug relay. Looks like it was coming from the positive power terminal (circled in picture). The metal coil thing also got really hot.

There was a good chance a tad of diesel got sprayed on the terminal but I highly doubt that’s the cause for the smoking. I cleaned the ground terminal eyelet (also circled in pic) and it still smoked. I cracked open the fuse holder, or fuseable link, that’s running into the controller and there wasn’t anything in there but a little dagger like stick. That’s what made me think it’s maybe a link? Definitely looks like a fuse holder to me though.

Anyways, I couldn’t get it out the shop, I turned in for the night. I needed to move the truck so I can make space for a truck camper we are picking up tomorrow but looks like I’ll just have to find a place to put it until I can run the truck out to the driveway. Not the end of the world! Did some reading and I saw some guys saying the ground could be bad, or the relay could be bad.

Glow plug controller used to click click click before and wts light would go off in 2 seconds. Now it doesn’t click repeatedly and the wts light shines for reasonable time for the weather. Thoughts on my soon to be electrical fire??

There’s a lot of current running through that connector now that all your glow plugs work. If you’re saying it’s not starting now, have you checked for fuel at the schrader valve on the filter head? The smoke you’re seeing may be from the relay contacts on the glow plug timer. You may have 2 different problems you’re checking for. Is there fuel smoke coming out of tailpipe when you’re cranking.

gnathv said:

the connection is corroded and needs to be cleaned.

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This is what I was thinking too. At least it's where I would start. It's free to clean those contacts off.

@gnathv truck started right up first time but when I saw smoke coming gp relay I shut it off. Didn’t attempt to crank it again because I wasn’t sure about the smoke and how hot the metal coil thing was getting on the relay. I’ll go out there and crank it again and check for tailpipe cheech. I’ll clean off all those terminals and eyelets too and cross my fingers

I think you’re on the right trail. Dirty, pitted contacts in the relay will give a whiff of smoke also.

It could also be coming from the Z strip. We had one the glow plugs hadn't worked for a while (power feed). Once we got them working, that Z strip resistor was hot enough to make all the crap on it smoke off the first couple of uses.

About to head into the shop and crank it over and see what happens. Will report back!

Truck started up again and smoked a little from the relay. Heat gun on the gp relay terminals said z coil was registering the hottest at around 250*+ I shut it down but I am thinking I’m just going to start it up and proceed with the transmission refill procedures. Run it for 2 minutes then run through each gear, place in park and measure fluid level. Wait to start light turns off after a cold start cycle so I’m thinking it is turning off as should and there shouldn’t be any concern for fire. At least I hope…

Got to poking around under the steering column, found this loose guy. Any idea what it’s for? My CC doesn’t work so off the bat that’s my first guess…

Stu Bailey said:

Got to poking around under the steering column, found this loose guy. Any idea what it’s for? My CC doesn’t work so off the bat that’s my first guess…

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That's the vacuum thingy that's supposed to be attached to the brake pedal to turn off the cruise control when you tap the brake pedal. The electrical tape isn't original, if you are going for the stock look.

You the man @Jesus Freak ! I’m going to see if I can hook that all back up and get it going. Have to do some more work tomorrow with the truck, did a manual glow plug switch today

So just sitting here at work with my thumb up my butt and figured I’d post an update saying Wally is back on the road this week and driving great. Valve cover gaskets went in, new glow plugs and manual button are awesome, trans oil temp gauge is working which is cool. Anyone have opinions on what is too high a temp when towing with these 7.3s? I’ll put the slide in camper on the truck and tow a small 16’ aluminum fishing boat throughout summer but don’t plan on going big hauling much at all. Lots of grade around my area though.

Trans fluid was changed too and I just have to say with a turbo the auto trans dipstick is a major PIA to reach compared to the 6.9NA. At times I miss the ease of working on the 6.9 compared to the 7.3s… anyways, hope y’all enjoy the end of summer and some good fall trips!