Spannerhead

Figured I'd start a thread in here to keep from pestering you all with a bunch of questions in individual threads, and to help me keep track of what needs to be done on the truck. I'm not planning on "building" it for power or whatever so it's not really a build thread per se, hence the reason I put it in here.

Here she is:









'99 XLT, just ticked over 224,800 miles today. Runs very well. Previous owner put larger tires on it (265/75-16s) that really help it pop visually. Never been a huge fan of the '97-'03 bodystyle, but it's really grown on me.

Current issues:

- No heat. There's barely enough to begin defrosting the windshield after driving for 15 minutes and it doesn't get any warmer. Coolant level is good and the truck doesn't overheat. I'm thinking maybe a plugged heater core? I don't smell coolant anywhere. Going to investigate this weekend; it's only going to get colder from here.
- ABS light on. Will plug the OBD2 scanner into it today and see if it tells me anything.
- Intermittent odometer. Found the circuit board soldering fix.
- Floppy shift lever. Found the Torx screw fix.

That's really it at this point. In other news, I found this in the driver's rear door map pocket this morning:



Any idea what it is and where it goes? The passenger sun visor's mirror is present and accounted for.

bchauler

Nice looking truck. I bought my 99 with similar issues and resolved the abs light by replacing the sensor in the rear end. I think it was $20 and 5 minutes.

Which engine do you have? With the heat, is the engine getting up to temperature? If only one of the heater hoses running to the core in the engine compartment is hot when the heat is on, you could have the blend door problem.

Spannerhead

Oops---I have the 4.6. Thanks for the tip about the ABS sensor. I asked about that at the auto parts store and they quoted around $20 too.

The engine gets up to temp (though it seems to take a while compared to other cars I've had) and stays a little less than halfway up the range consistently.

I'll check the heater hoses and look up that blend door problem. Thanks.

Spannerhead

Replaced the speed sensor. I got a Borg-Warner piece from O'Reilly for $15 I think. Took all of 5 minutes, like you said. Didn't test drive it but if the light is out it's fixed.

Also tightened the 2 Torx bolts for the shift lever. Made a difference but didn't eliminate the floppiness entirely. Gonna check out the linkage on the trans this weekend.

Any ideas about the mirror? I'll investigate tomorrow but I kinda think it might be from another car.

Plan to check out the heater hoses too.

squishware

Love that brown interior. Check this thread for the adjuster for the shifter.
https://www.f150forum.com/f6/shift-s...t-spot-167502/

Spannerhead

Thanks. The shifter is much better now. Not all the slop is removed, but it's much more positive and hey, it's a truck; there's a little slop everywhere, right?

(apologies in advance for the quality of the below pictures; they were taken with my ancient toaster oven, i.e. flip phone)

Install this earlier this evening, just in time to put the Christmas presents underneath it and head back to the fam in NC for the holiday:



It's the Lund Genesis Velcro roll-up cover someone (Tackle?) recommended in the other thread. Very pleased with the fit and quality; seems to be a nice piece. Took me about 45 minutes to install. The instructions were crap, but it's not rocket surgery.

In other news, the cab heat is still somewhat marginal. I took a picture of the heater-hose-to-firewall area; anything look amiss?



Is that some kind of check valve installed in one of the hoses? Is that supposed to be there? Those hose clamps definitely look non-factory.

Thanks all, and merry Christmas to everyone!

Spannerhead

Fixed (mostly) the heater core issue by backflushing the core. The heat is nice and comfortable now.

Also replaced the heater **** potentiometer and the button surround on the end of the shift lever.

Got a prominent squeak that seems to be coming from behind the instrument cluster when I go over uneven pavement. Gotta track that down. Also still need to do the odo fix.

* * * * * *

Went through the PO's receipts today and tried to piece together as much of the truck's history as possible on my records spreadsheet. It's like archeology. Looks like I'm the 4th or 5th owner. The truck was bought around Gainsville, GA, and spent most of its life in that area before moving up to Calhoun, where I snagged it. Rust-free southern trucks FTW.

Also found a treat, the original window sticker, first one I've ever had from any of my vehicles:





MSRP of $24,870. Amazon Green on Prairie Tan. Pretty neat. I love this stuff.

bchauler

Wow, 3.08 gears and 265/75/16 tires. I was hating my 3.31 gears with the same tires before I swapped out my rearend for 3.55s.I'll bet you could find a cheap 3.55 rearend and swap it in. You'd be thrilled with the drive-ability and likely wouldn't experience a mileage drop at all.

Spannerhead

Maybe so! For the time being I'm pretty happy with the gearing. Truck seems like it has enough pickup (pun intended). I'm at about 1,500 rpm @ 65 on the highway. I averaged 22.5 mpg on a recent 500-mile trip. No complaints.

Spannerhead

Blacked out the grille yesterday. I looked for pictures of a black grille but it looks like the only (factory) application of a black grille had a body-color grille surround, so I wasn't sure what it would look like with the chrome plastic.

I bought some Valspar black spray paint for plastic. Got it off without too much drama; only broke one black screw rivet. Everything else came off fine with a little patience.

Took some pics with the DSLR today. I'm not wild about it—probably should've gone with a flat black—but I think it looks marginally better than stock.





Took some gratuitous pictures of the interior:



my new bed cover:





and my project car, languishing in the garage:



Need to get it up on jackstands soon.