Thanks jprevat I will definitely need to check into that as I don't want water in my cab!

In the meantime I have another update on my truck.

But first: Finally, a daylight image of Heavy Metal with the new wheels:



So it's been another weekend, and I have done a bunch of work on Heavy Metal despite the terrible weather. I had to replace the rotors and pads on the truck because when I was putting the wheels on I could feel how horribly chewed apart the rotors were. ( I will get pics after the snow melts in the truck bed, they are buried in there right now)

While doing this average mundane job in my buddy Bryan's garage (No room to work in mine) it turned into a bit of a chore.

Since I was replacing rotors I figured I'd do front bearings as well and this bit comes with a PSA. The Duralast brand inner bearings which I did not even want, but it was what they had in stock at my local Autozone are not correct.

They looked up the part number and retrieved them from the back based on my vehicle description (97 F150 2wd 2 door 4.2 with Abs and 5 lug rotors) and gave me national outers and duralast inners. When I went to put them on the inner bearing would not fit over the spindle. I checked online myself and the bearings they gave me matched the part # listed on their site for this truck so if you all have 2wd 4.2 F-150's stay away from Duralast brand inner bearings >_>

So I repacked the original inners as they were timken and didn't have much slop so I figured the last owner replaced them rather recently, packed the national outers which were fine and popped the rotors on, screwed the nut down tight to seat everything and backed the nut off, pinned it and was off to the next bit!

However my struggles were not over there... I got the Passenger side all buttoned up and went to do the drivers side and found the the caliper was so horribly seized that it bent my damn C-clamp! I had to fight with it and a hammer for about an hour just to open it up enough to squeeze it on over the new pads and rotor. It was really messed up. But somebody up there still likes me because after much struggling and cursing I was able to open it enough and get the truck put together so I could get it back to my house.

Sunday I went back to Autozone to get new calipers and swapped them out in my driveway in about half an hour, so I could go back and get my 123 dollar (holy hell!) core return. Now everything is nice and smooth. My only concern is that I did not feel like there was enough brake fluid flow on the drivers side brake line, even though I was able to successfully fill and bleed the caliper. The passenger side definitely had noticeably better flow when I changed that one and she pulls slightly to the right under braking (as she always did) even with all new calipers, rotors, and pads, so I am concerned something is obstructing fluid flow to the drivers side front caliper.

I am not excited to tear through all the lines and flush and check for blockages this weekend as I had other more interesting plans for the truck, but I suppose that is what I will be doing next!

 

You are welcome and before you go ripping into all of your brake lines I would replace the rubber part of the line. When they get old they will balloon out rather than excert the correct pressure to the caliper.

 

Just a small update this weekend because this polar vortex nonsense has got it far too cold to be working outside. But an important one! Heavy Metal passed state safety inspection yesterday, she's legal to drive on the road!

Next weekend we install this radio: http://www.kenwood.com/usa/car/navig...edia/ddx672bh/

 

Thats great man! Let us know how the install goes.

 

Another minor update before I go off to play around with a thousand wires and make my radio go. On Wednesday I took off work for my birthday and spent all day working on the truck. I replaced the rubber brake hose as Jprevat suggested and it worked like a charm. The old one was almost completely blocked. Now Heavy Metal stops in a nice, straight line.

I also discovered a few minor electrical problems that I began working on. The truck randomly didn't want to start, or even turn over which I quickly diagnosed when I opened the hood and even the light under the hood wouldn't go on. Went to check the battery and discovered the terminal clamps had completely corroded away. So I got new ones!

The old ones were not just bolted to ring terminals, they were crimped directly to the wire so to fit it over the terminal lug on the replacements, I had to use a carbide bit and bore the flared-in nut from the terminal and make it a ring terminal because I didn't feel like going to Autozone for the 5th time that day >_<

I also notice now that it's safe to drive around that the Oil pressure "gauge" and I do use the word "gauge" loosely for this device.... has a seizure at hot idle in gear. Give a little gas, goes back to normal, go to neutral, it goes to normal, get off the brake and idle forward, it goes to normal. I know the device that sends signal to the gauge is just effectively an on/off switch, so the gauge is under proper conditions either centered, or pinned to the bottom. So the way it bounces tells me that switch is fluctuating between on/off at hot idle. So I am thinking either there is an electrical fault somewhere, or it is due to my alternator not working properly at idle (I read that from my obdII scan tool a few weeks ago and just haven't bothered to replace it yet)

And I also determined what is missing from the top of my engine where in my first post I described after a cursory glance, what looked like a mounting bracket with nothing mounted, and a rouge connector..... IT'S THE A/C PUMP!!!! ...gonna fix THAT before the summer comes >_>

Lots to do!

 

Lots to do but im glad you got the brakes going in a straight line.

 

Terrible News...

Last night I went to go pickup dinner and Heavy Metal wouldn't turn over. I saw the battery gauge said I had plenty of juice so I thought maybe something was engaged and keeping the starter from turning. So I rocked the truck back and forth and tried again. It began to crank and stopped, so I gave it another shove put it in neutral and tried one more time. This time it turned over and started... but began to pour caustic smoke out the tail pipe and knock like CRAZY.. like the worst, most horrible knock I have ever heard.

I shut her down, and because it was dark and raining I did not investigate further... but it is my current suspicion that I either threw the timing chain, or blew a rod. It sounds like one Piston is being dragged around the cylinder, flapping uselessly.

I know I wanted to change the motor anyway... but I didn't want to have to do it quite so soon... I guess this weekend I will tear the top off and see what I'm dealing with.

 

Damn man. I hope its just timing components.

 

Me too! If so I can fix it in the driveway for a few bucks. If it ate a rod though, I have to consider other options. I would happily throw a carbed crate motor in but I can't seem to find anything in a price range I am comfortable with. If I have to replace the motor I'd like to do it for $3000 ish but so far everything I see online is hovering closer to 8000.

 

I meant to ask you. Is this a manual or automatic? Crate motors are up there but I would not go carbed. That is a whole other can of worms.