fomoco998

The oil residue you show is coming from hose by oil filler cap that goes to air ductwork. A new motorcraft pcv valve will probably fix problem. Don't overthink the issue.

Execut1ve

Good point. I have one on order and ima change the hose too if its clogged

Execut1ve

Made some progress last night... got most of the front suspension disassembled but got hung up on grinding out the rivets. Those are some big SOBs! And the axle pivot bolts are very tight - I'm going to have to actually buy sockets the right sizes rather than using whatever I have laying around and risk rounding the corners of the nut! I'm looking into a beefier angle grinder and possibly an air chisel today.

Does anyone else think the spring looks curved in this pic? is that normal?

Execut1ve

I managed to get one of the coil spring towers off yesterday - lots of grinding. With any luck I can get the other side removed today after work

The front brake pads look fine, can anyone advise how I would check rotors for being too worn?

BLDTruth

Aren't you glad the factory decided to use rivets instead of bolts? Grrrrr.

Rotors are probably fine. If you were going to pull them to repack the wheel bearings I'd say take them to a local shop and have them turned since they are off. As long as you don't feel any pulsing in the pedal or vibrations in the steering wheel while braking they are probably fine. Might want to pull the caliper bolts and make sure the boots and bolts are nice and greased up, as that is what allows the floating caliper to "float."

Execut1ve

Very productive evening on the truck yesterday - I managed to get the other coil spring tower removed and even got the lower coil spring studs out. The impact was only barely able to budge them after multiple heat/quench cycles.

Hopefully this evening I can get those axle pivot brackets off.

Execut1ve

I was able to work on the truck for only a few hours last night, but I did manage to get the passenger side axle bracket off without too much hassle. I got what I thought was all the rivets ground off on the other one and was hitting it with the air chisel when I found 2 more rivets that were hidden so I'll have to get those this evening. Shouldn't be too hard, it seemed like the axle bracket rivets ground off easier than the spring tower rivets.

Hopefully I can have all this frame/suspension stuff wrapped up this week so I can move onto engine stuff

Execut1ve

Well, like a fool I misread the directions. For this particular axle drop bracket kit, the passenger side bracket is removed and replaced by a new one, but the driver's side bracket remains and the new bracket mounts onto it. I spent about an evening in total grinding out the rivets and removing the bracket. Looks like I won the opportunity to pick up some new grade 10 hardware from the local Fastenal and reinstall the bracket.

I did go ahead and put in an order for the appropriate radius arm drop brackets... for whatever reason it totally slipped my mind that those might be necessary. Also got some Energy Suspension poly bushings for the axle pivots, radius arms, and stabilizer bar on the way. Fun times coming up

BLDTruth

Are you putting a lift on it? Progress looks good!

Execut1ve

I've had leveling springs on it for a few years now... I'm just now doing the rest of the job right with the axle & radius arm brackets. I've been driving around with a yard of positive camber since then 0.o