cbriggs

Matt, I would be worried about the blackish metallic film on the yoke, that is typically from the needle bearing inside the centering ball coming unzipped.

Sweet. I changed all 4 springs on the 10" lifted excursion while I had the body off. Way easier than doing it from below.

55 isn't that bad, we keep our shop temp at 58, and our used oil heater can barely accomplish that when its really cold.

Just fyi, if anyone gets the joy of replacing one of these. The wsm has you remove the ptu and catalyst for access. It can be done from above, leaving these items in place. Remove the upper and lower wiper cowl. Remove the pass side coolant pipe to the turbo, remove the exhaust manifold heat shield, and you have access to it. It's tight, but do-able. I spun the nut right off the stud for the hold in clamp, took block heater and spacers off, then fished the stud and the wedge plate out. The new one goes right in as the wedge plate hasn't been spread yet. I spent a fair bit of time staring at it wondering if it would work. Could probably be done in 1.5 to 2.0 now that I know it can be done and what to remove.

I am thinking he is using cheaper or inferior transformers to rebuild these, which are super prone to low voltage conditions. It says on his invoice that the alternator must be bench tested and the batteries charged and tested before installing his product. This truck has 2 new 850 batteries and a new alternator installed during repair, and a charger on it. No way my voltage dropped below 11v during cranking. He is shipping us a new ficm, but it doesn't sound like he is too happy about it.

This guy is a fairly good customer. He had a custom bike shop here in town but closed it due to lack of business. He understands how shit works. He gave me a list of all the aftermarket stuff he wanted us to source for him, but I told him I would rather he just orders everything he wants, and we will install it for him, that way we are not responsible for wrong fitment or defective parts.

Any one ever have anything to do with ficms from this place? I have an 04 excursion on the go right now. I did head gaskets and studs, HP oil pump, 8 Injectors from industrial injection, engine oil cooler, egr delete, blue spring regulator kit, and a ficm from ficm repair .com with his "atlas 40" tune. Customer supplied all parts except the hp pump. Reassemble truck and ran it about 2-3 hours, parked it in the spare bay in the shop and then I was off for 5 days due to a back injury. Fired it up yesterday, it ran for 10 seconds and then shut off. Found the 50 amp main ficm fuse blown, pops a 50 amp breaker as soon as key is switched on. Installed my test ficm, and all is OK. Funny thing is, this thing ran like crap from the moment I fired it initially, surging and cutting out at idle. I thought it was the modified injectors causing an overfueling issue at idle. With my test ficm installed it runs like a dream. My customer called the guy at ficm repair.com, and he said it is my fault for not following the proper startup procedure after the hp pump/ head repair. Apparantly if we crank an engine any longer than 5 seconds it will smoke the ficm. Apparently we are supposed to roll the engine over with the key off, using a remote start switch, to prime the hp oil system. I cant see how that would do shit when the ipr is wide open with the key off. Not to mention, if the thing is cranking with no ICP the injectors aren't enabled and the ficm isn't doing shit. Any how, I prefill the hp pump res, the pump, the rails and standpipes. This thing maybe cranked 10 seconds before firing, and it has 2 new batteries with a charger on it. The dude at ficm repair.com is telling the customer that he has this problem with ford dealers all the time, as we don't follow the manual for the correct startup procedure after major repairs, and that we should be paying for a replacement ficm. My customer gave the guy my phone #, but he refuses to call me, just keeps filling my customer full of bullshit info. Any thought or comments?

Could you snap a picture of it in use Tyler?

I seem to remember something about a drainback / check valve in the oilfilter housing? I don't know much about 7.3s though....

If all that is wrong is the u-joints then it can be fixed easily. The a/m centering ball kits do not last. I have done lots of u-joint replacements, but have given up on centering ball repairs, as they only last 6 months or so. Up here the d-shafts are around $800, tough sell sometimes. I have a collection of 15-20 shafts that all need centering balls. I am thinking of trying to sell them to a driveline shop for cores?

The other day when the part coverage tool was down, we called esp to see if a part was covered for one of our customers that had to leave to go to alberta for work the next day. The person on the phone said run the part coverage tool. We said we cant, it is down, that is why we called in. They said oh, they didn't know about it being down, then their reply was "I think the part should be covered, but I don't know for sure, You have to run the part coverage tool".

Just finishing up an 04 excursion, truck has a 10" lift with 38" tires. Head gaskets, studs, egr delete, vgt overhaul, installed an aux bypass oil filter and a coolant filter system, replaced all 4 leaf springs, serviced both diffs, trans and t-case, and a 4 corner brake job. Somehow during this job I hernieated the disc between my l-1 and s-1, which pinched my sciatic nerve. Looks like I'll be off for a few weeks now.

Anytime I have seen problems with those chains the engine is usually in the same shape. I have an expedition with a broken rh fixed guide. The rh cam seized in the head after it went 43,000km on an oil change, cam broke loose again after the guide broke.

One of them.

I break them loose with a homemade stubby torx on a 1/4 drive breaker bar, then spin them out with the same bit on a wobble and long extension from above if there's room, or my fingers if there's not.

Sure did, right after I reflashed a truck for P22FF. Unfortunatly I flashed it with ids at .03, the recall requires ids .05 . Back it comes.....

OUCH!

Put a 2015 turbo on a 2012 6.7L on Friday. Truck had a full dpf/doc/egr and def delete, with an h&s minimaxx. Needless to say there was no warrantee on the turbo when it shed a few turbine blades. Customer purchased a kit from the states (Midwest performance I think?) For not much more than I could supply just a turbo. Kit was all ford parts except the billet compressor wheel in the turbo and a new downpipe. Kit included turbo, pedestal, rh exhaust manifold, turbo feed pipes, new heat shields, turbo oil and coolant lines, lower intake manifold, 4" exhaust downpipe, some gaskets and hardware. Now he just needs to find tuning to make it work ok in the low end, and it has no wastegate now...

06 S-D has no pats. We are not able to change odometer in any way. (Using the tools we have) Google it though, there is some interesting shit out there.

At least there is ample room to unbolt the converter from the flexplate once the engine and converter are pulled. I have done lots of these for bearing failures, only one was locked completely.

Matt, there is a line of zip ties that have the "Christmas tree" built onto them, I keep a bag in my toolbox all the time now, especially when working on 6.7s, and any new gas engines, like the ecoboost or the 5.0l. I cant remember the brand of them, but I will look tomorrow.

Leon what trans were you waiting for? I just waited over 3 weeks for a 5r55 ranger trans.

I've seen a few like this as well. That hose collapses very easily, the vacuum created by the temperature drop overnight will collapse it. Depending on what year it is, the ect codes are usually caused by using the block heater. A reprogram will take care of that.

I see a lot of 6.4 boxes shit the bed, mostly broken input shafts, a few that the adjuster nut stud came apart from the sector shaft and the sector shaft fell away from the worm gear, and a bunch of worn out sector shaft bushings, and 2 cracked housings.

Our door rate is 124, but any work we do for local customers they are discounted to 99 to stay competitive with the indy's around here. I get a raise to 37.50 flat rate on Jan 1st when our warrantee rate goes up. No bonuses or anything, but averaging 250 to 280 hours per month. (although I hit 320 in October)