New to Forums, Ford

[kdubya427]

Hey Everyone, I'm new to these here forums and new to Fords as well. Just picked up a "new" 1990 7.3 and am sure to have questions so I figured I would join a forum or two and do a bit of reading. More to come, Pics soon.

 

[kdubya427]

Here we go...

 

[Classicfordguy]

Welcome, nice looking truck.

 

[punkmechanic]

Welcome. Consider this your new home (page). If your like the rest of us then you will spend more time on here than any other page. No real need to join the other forums, we all wind up right back here anyway. Do as you wish, Im a member on a few but I cant remember the last time I logged in to any of the others.

This is a great sight and a WEALTH of knowledge.

punk

 

[wanabebig]

nice rig man! and as punk said we all end up back here no matter how many sites we are part of!

 

[kdubya427]

Thanks for the welcomes!

Unfortunately I didn't choose any of the Mods to this truck and is how I bought it but i do like it. But as a result, I don't know how tall the lift is, or if they modified the drivetrain but I'm assuming they did not.

As you can Imagine though, 38s and stock fenders don't get along very well, so as tough as it looks i think its better suited for a mall parking lot than a mud hole, but I plan on fixing that soon, probably with a bit smaller tires and a different bumper maybe... I'd like to avoid chopping up the body if I don't have too...

May or may not end up driving it to florida... haven't owned it long enough to say if I trust it to make the journey or not... may have to take the train instead.

But aside from the tire problem and a sensitive 2nd gear... she wasn't bad for the price!

 

[Dsl_Dog_Treat]

Nice truck!
Welcome to OB!

Just read up on the info in the tech articles and what not. I think you'll be mildly suprised at how reliable these trucks are when properly maintained!

 

[LCAM-01XA]

Welcome, and nice truck! BUT!!! Looking at your steering linkage angles, it seems to me whoever did the lift never installed the proper drop pitman arm - you probably don't notice it now with the big tires, but once you downsize them and go offroading and start turning at full lock the steering linkage may begin to bind, which always results in prematurely worn out tie rods, and sometimes in broken ones. I had the very same issue with my old F150, it was lifted at least 4" (more like 6") and nobody ever installed a drop pitman arm, good thing I never took it offroading cause things would have been scary...

 

[kdubya427]

I thought that looked a bit off, but wasn't sure if it was a ford thing or not.. the linkages on my jump were pretty much horizontal.

Also, what are the chances that the tie rods are already on the way out?

 

[LCAM-01XA]

Well it really depends on what the truck has been put through in its current setup, if tis just mall crawling I'd think they are just fine. You can just jack up one wheel at a time and see if you can feel any play in the joints where the tie rods connect to the wheels, the pitman arm, and to each other in the middle, if all seems tight you're all OK. The tie rods in my F150 were perfectly good, cause all it did after the lift was ride around town and an occasional trip out in the fields. However, in your situation I'd get a drop pitman arm ASAP (they are less than $100 usually), 4" should be good methinks. After that you'll probably have to shorten the linkage through the adjuster sleeves, but that's pretty easy.

 

[kdubya427]

About the Pitman arm and linkages...

I've been looking at some of the other fords around here as i pass them in traffic and have noticed that they al seem to have a similar angle, though perhaps not as steep as mine... is there any way someone can post a pic up of their steering bits for me to compare mine to? also I'll get a better couple of pics of mine up.

Also it looks like the pitman arm already has a pretty good drop in it, unless I am mistaken...

pics soon