Greetings all, i am beginning the process of getting the truck ready for a trip towing a camper of about 1800 lbs. Sadly my truck maintenance has lapsed some over the past couple yrs due to buying a house, so im playing catch up. The trip is in mid october and i have a list of items to do before then, in addition to restoring the camper.

-DONE fix rough idle issue
-DONE replace rear shocks
-DONE replace oil & filter
-DONE ignition coil, cap & rotor, and spark plug wires with upgraded versions
-replace front shocks
-replace coil spring towers
-replace front axle pivot bracket and (finally) get front end aligned
-replace spark plugs
-replace air & fuel filter
-replace PCV valve / hose
-replace rear diff fluid
-check trailer wiring connector
-check brake pads / rotors
-inspect radius arm brackets / bushings
-NEW address oily throttle body - maybe oil catch can in pcv?
-MAYBE open spark plug gap a little and advance timing (6 liter tune up)
-MAYBE repack wheel bearings
-MAYBE replace broken parking brake cable

Thats all i can think of for now, any other suggestions of things to work on are welcome!

UPDATE

I got the rough idle taken care of - it was that ol TPS sensor! Pretty easy fix. But while i had the throttle body off, i noticed a LOT of oily residue. The gasket was pretty saturated. From some other internet research, it seems this is common in older engines with increased blowby. So i may try to add an oil catch can in the pcv system.

 

trans fluid and filter oil and filter washer fluid and top off coolant and replace wipers if needed check truck lights and trailer lights check spare tire pressure and all the other tire pressures. Transfer case fluid ( if a 4x4 )

 

Got the rear shocks done last night - not too bad of a job. The rubber bushings were very tight on the upper mounts, so I had to apply some encouragement with a 2x4, but they came off eventually!



I feel a little bad getting rid of 2 perfectly good shocks to be honest, probably 3-4 good years of life left in these! *sarcasm*

 

Yikes.

Given the state of those shocks, I'd look at your leafs and hangers/shackles, as well as your radius arm brackets and bushings. If the coil buckets need replacing like you said in the OP then those would probably be on my checklist too.

Have you replaced the PCV valve recently? If not it is recommended to use a motorcraft part for that - for some reason these trucks don't like the aftermarket brands.

Getting all of the fluids replaced (coolant, brake, tranny, transfercase, rear diff) would be high priority.

And of course, brakes!

 

I'm actually have replaced one of the spring hangers in the past few yrs. I'm confident in the remaining rear suspension as I hauled ~3000 lbs of block in the bed a few trips across town last summer, and everything held fine.

I'm doing the coil spring towers out of an abundance of caution - they are holding fine for now, but quite a bit of rust and scale. I'd hate for one to let go while at highway speeds, and this is as good an opportunity to knock it out as any since I"ll be elbow deep in there anyway.

I will have a look at the radius arms though.

I will look into that over the O'Reilly house special then - looks like Rockauto has it for a good price.

I've done a complete coolant flush within the past 3 yrs or so at the same time that I replaced the radiator, both hoses, and thermostat, but I may do another flush just to be safe.

Trans fluid was also completely flushed a few yrs ago.

Not sure what I want to do about the t-case - the 4x4 shift motor needs to be replaced, so I will not be doing any 4wd on this trip. Is it necessary to change the fluid in that case, or should I just wait until I get a new shift motor?

I will have a look at the front brakes when I'm doing shocks etc - I don't have the first clue about the drums on the rear

 

Yep. Those shocks look pretty good

 

I bought my Motorcraft PCV valve from O'Reilly auto parts.

 

You can crack the fill hole on the transfer case and see what the fluid looks like - its just regular old ATF. I changed mine a couple weeks ago just for the hell of it because I had a couple of quarts of ATF leftover and hadn't ever done it before. 1 less thing.

Sounds like you've got most of it covered. Drum brakes are challenging but if you are towing it might be worth looking into. Plenty of youtube videos on the topic. I was pretty intimidated going into it but its not that rough. Having the right tools helps. Will take you 2 hours to do one side since its your first time and 15 min to do the other. You can probably get the drums turned at a local shop for $30 or so, and you could get all new springs, shoes and cylinders from rockauto for about $50 or less. Something to look at when you do your PCV valve. I'd be happy to point you in the right direction.

 

Productive evening for the truck! After work I took the old goat out on some errands to pick up parts etc.

I got the oil and filter changed and the ignition coil, cap & rotor, and spark plug wires replaced before I ran out of light. I had forgotten what a special pleasure it is to deal with cylinders 4 & 8 It seems like I have more wire than I need, can anyone advise on correct routing of the wires?

I have a buddy coming over today with an angle grinder, so with any luck we should be able to get the coil spring towers, front shocks, and axle pivot bracket done (or at least the old parts removed).

Drove the truck to work today, seems to be running decently enough. Hopefully things will keep improving as items get checked off the list.

 

Here are a couple pics what will be the oil catch can - it actually looks to be some sort of inline air/water separator for air compressors. From the couple write ups I read online, it looks like this gets deployed in the hose between the PVC valve and the upper intake.

Just to make sure I understand how this will work, fumes flow FROM the PCV valve through the hose TO the upper intake, correct? So I guess it only makes sense for the direction of flow in the oil filler neck breather to be FROM the intake duct TO the valve cover? Is that correct?

So when the PCV valve or hose gets gunked up, flow is impeded, and the positive crankcase pressure tends to cause fumes and oil residue to flow BACKWARDS through the breather tube, from the valve cover into the intake duct, resulting in oily residue in the intake duct and throttle body. Am I correct so far in my thinking?