davidpFX4

So im sure a lot of you are tired of hearing about it but ill ask anyway.

I started hearing the infamous noise on the way home this Friday (unfortunately I was almost home after a 30mile ride). With the help of this forum I figured it was a vacuum leak. I replaced the iwe solenoid first but that didn't work so I got a pump from the part store and physically removed all the vacuum lines to test them. They all seemed ok . I had some loss of suction but I figured that was from my tester not making a complete plug. I did find one check valve that I could blow through. Guess I'll have to go to the stealership for one of those
.

Here's my question when I plugged the pump up to the actuator I couldn't get either to even move to dial. Does this mean both my actuators are shot or did I do something wrong?

jamie930

You need a good seal at the IWE. With a good seal it only took me like 3-4 pumps to get 20" of Hg. They seemed to disengage around 5-8" of Hg. Mine held 20" of Hg for like 5 min.

If you were trying to pull a vacuum from the solenoid it will take a couple pumps seeing how you have big volume you have to pull down

https://www.f150forum.com/f4/4x4-tro...g-guide-39789/

davidpFX4

Thanks.
So i feel sure I got a good seal on the actuator but I couldn't get the dial past 5mmhg even with 15 or 20 pumps. Same thing on both sides.
My theory is I had a loss of vacuum due to bad check valves which killed my iwe's.
Im thinking I should replace the actuators regardless, but if I still don't have enough vac after that I'll start replacing the lines.

jamie930

ebay has brand new lines and check valves for like $30 why bother messing around chasing a cracked line?

davidpFX4

Id be very interested if you have a link. All I see is an incomplete kit without valves for 60

Dirttracker18

Went through the same with my truck.

I had one IWE that would barely pump up and leaked down fast and the other would not pump up at all.

Replaced both and it was obvious the issues when they were off the truck. In addition I had issues up stream that needed to be addressed as well.

My guess is that my IWEs had been engaged at least since I got the truck 3 years ago. My MPG went up about 1- 1.5 after the repair.

jamie930

I was off on the price
7L3Z-7A785-A is the part #


http://www.ebay.com/itm/2005-2008-Fo...feba00&vxp=mtr

davidpFX4

Ok. Hit a pretty big road block. ...

replaced all vacuum lines, valves, (the*valves DO NOT come with the line btw, sold separately $15ea) and new solenoid. Drivers side under cross membr a bit of a pain but otherwise not bad. Put in new actuator on drivers side, no trouble. I was ahead of schedule and feeling pretty good about myself. (Are getting a bad feeling about this yet?) So I popped off the wheel on the right got the cv out like a pro and went to take the bolts out of the actuator and broke the heads off two of them.

So. Im weighing my options here. Try using an extractor and pray I don't mess up the threads. Or drill it out and re thread it.
Option 3..easiest but expensive. Local junk yard has a spindle for 50 bucks. He has the bolts too. Probably fastest too.

If I use the extractor ill have to order new bolts. Dealer I guess.

If I rethread im not sure what kind of bolts to replace them with.

Opinions welcome....