Man... I need to get a "thanks" somewhere, LOL. Mine says 383 - and that's a Chevy number. Can't have that.

Hey guys... I am going to be painting some wheels pretty quick. What do you guys use for wheels.... regular automotive paint?

 

No problem . Yea, it's was sort of a one of a kind problem for these trucks. Havn't heard of trans mount issues in other makes and models. Nothing really done about it... but! - The 2001 models came with more dampening on the exhaust just behind the trans/transfer case. A separate and isolated 'can dampener' was added to the exhausts mid-pipe. This tied to the exhaust only....most likley meant solely for exhaust vibration. I mean, it won't help with trans mount wear that I can see. Seems to me, trans mount wear would be related to it's design, trans/t-case weight and engine pull off the motor mounts. Then again, the modular engine doesn't flinch much on it's mounts when you give it a rev....very well balanced engines.

 

Whitey......a good Acrylic Enamel automotive paint, will almost NEVER come off, where as the stuff from Duplicolor or other similar, will wear off. Good thing about AE is you can get it made up in a spray can from a good auto paint store. I have a can of UA black for the Mustang, and one of Grabber blue. I like the ease of use, and the strength of the paint itself.

 

Did the most important thing to a toolbox and started the sticker collection. Been hoarding some of these stickers for a couple years waiting for a toolbox lol

 

Cool that was my plan if regular automotive paint was the way to go. I've got a guy that I like to go to for paint up the road from work. Dude can match paint by eye, and you'd never tell the difference. He matched the gray on the bottom of my truck, which is also metallic, to an absolute "T".

2100, I've got a bunch of stickers and Rock Auto magnets on my box.

 

Pulled the front diff out of the 98 today, can't believe how easy that went, had it on the bench in about 45 minutes. It would of been a much different story without air tools lol. Specially with all that rust under there. I should of pulled the rear cross member, would of made a little easier. The rear cross takes only a few minutes to remove. I left it in removing though and had to fumble with the diff , positioning it almost straight up before it would drop. Well, it won't be in the way on the install. Waiting on the salvage yard to pull one out of a 98.

White, you were asking about breather port locations after I posted there was a change with it. Well, I located a few 02/03 front diff assemblies that showed no change in locations. So it looks as though that was misinformation on net from research...not sure what the diff is ? But while looking for front diff assemblies, they list from 2000 plus are backward compatible for 97-99. I have absolutely no idea why now. The only hint of of difference is within the vac actuating or system, but I'm not aware or ever heard of it in the past. However, there is something from the past I can recall that has to do with that. Some of Ford Service vac diagrams are reversed for the front diff. This problem arose way back and mentioned in forums quite a bit way back when. So yea, it may have something to do with that system. Really looking for solid information, changes, when and where....that's a fail this far lol.

 

Good job placing them, I like it! Apple sticker ROFL. I come across those each time I rifle through my old computer crap collection.

 

BTW- I inspected the shift fork in the 98, it's the factory original. Looks healthy, nothing wrong with it. Thought I'd mention it since these trucks seemed to have fork issues. Not sure when this problem began with gen 10's...so, speaking for the 98's or this one anyway, doesn't seem to be problem.

Also, white, - The diff cover doesn't need to be removed. The housing and short shaft separates completely from the diff after removing just the housing bolts by the actuator. Once separated, there's just one little snap ring inside housing (the housing I'm replacing) holding the short shaft in. In the diff, it's just as I found through research earlier, there's a thrust bearing keeping it together, no C-clip removal required to pull the short shaft from the diff.

Also and why it went so quick, you don't so much as have to pull the wheels off to remove the diff and assembly. Don't even need to jack this truck to do the job.

 

Cool, thanks for the update Brew.

I'm going to be honest... when people ask me Apple questions at work, I tell them I'm the windows IT department - not Apple, LOL. Serious though - don't know squat about Apple. I would be OK with owning one of their computers, but I can't bring myself to owning an iPhone.

 

Ya yeah I have like 20 of those stickers so I figured I had to put one on... won't be sad if it falls off or gets covered in the future. Lol
Yeah before my job I was windows all the way but then getting involved with medical device security my work only uses Apple... that was a tough transition as I knew NOTHING about macOS. When I went to buy my personal laptop about 2 years ago I loved my work MacBook air so much I bought me one too. Used boot camp to load windows right away tho... gotta have windows when doing some heavy lifting. Mac is good for web browsing/light work. You cannot beat apples hardware tho. Light as a feather, 12hr battery that hasn't faded, Solid state memory, thinner than a magazine, more resistant to virus'...

Guilty about loving my iPhone tho, just too used to it to switch over to android. Plus using it along side the Mac is pretty good too.

Anyway so yeah I put one apple sticker on lol I'm sure it'll get covered eventually but I wanted to fill up space