Several months back I made an introductory post regarding having gotten my late grandfather's '00 F-150.

Over the last few months, I've only done some minor work as my cars usually take precedence since they're used more often for traveling or just getting about. Still, knowing the truck needed some attention, I started on a few tasks to at least make it better to drive.



Lariat enthusiasts will likely hate me, but the original leather seats were ruined. Badly split in multiple spots, so I found a nice bench from a '97 and swapped over to cloth. I've also sourced a nice black leather wrapped steering wheel since the original tan one has delaminated, so that's also on the swap list. Plan is to color the airbag and steering column covers to match. While it seems like a regressive step, the main goal here is to have a reliable truck and an interior worthy of spending time in, even if certain aspects are no longer in the original trim spec.

I also got lucky and found a '98 XLT with a good cupholder/ashtray assembly that only needs color touchup since my original in-dash unit was broken. Unfortunately after fitting that part, the flip door for the cigar lighter and power port decided the spring tab wasn't important anymore and broke off. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ The rear door cables were also repaired so both back half-doors work as they should. A new LED high mount brake lamp was fitted along with new conventional headlight housings to replace the badly oxidized ones.

Additional work also included replacing the shocks and front upper control arms/lower ball joints.





(Promise in the third photo there is also a jack stand you can't see)

For some unknown reason, when I pulled the shocks from the truck, it had CarQuest units on it, that likely have been there from when my grandfather owned the truck prior to his passing, and I know my grandmother wouldn't have had those done either for the few years she drove. I'm not sure if he was sold into those, or if he didn't like how it rode when new, regardless, that's a question lost to time. I fitted KYB Gas-A-Just monotube shocks. KYB has been my preferred brand for years on all my cars, so I simply used them again here. Obviously, much better than dead shocks with no return ability.

For the control arms/ball joints, I opted to give the MevoTech TTX stuff a whirl. I've fitted their "Premium" line to a friend's '99 Crown Victoria and he's put 100k on those bits with normal greasing intervals, so hopefully the TTX stuff is worth it's salt. For the few hundred miles I've done with the new parts, it's significantly better driving down the road since it's not a nervous mess anymore. The "sealed for life" OE parts were incredibly worn at 156k, so riding on that stuff was asking for trouble, since the truck was already making the lovely high pitch squeaking noises over any road irregularities. I'd rather not deal with ball joint failure, so that was corrected.

Better tires were also fitted after I did the control arms. The Hankook Ventus tires were worn in general and the fronts had very irregular wear due to the worn out front suspension. The P275/60R17 tire was a bit of an odd size, and considering how infrequent the truck will be driven, I opted to get a good used set of 2024 Goodyear Territory HT P255/65R17 tires that had 8/32" of tread left from a local shop I trust. The chance the tires will age out before being worn out is incredibly high, but the truck does ride so much better on non-junk tires.


Still standing for mechanical fixes are the valve cover gaskets to deal with an oil leak on the passenger side of the engine, rear brakes plus the axle seals (which might just include new shafts/bearings/seals given the 8.8), standard tune up, and A/C recharge. I've got a feeling the evaporator core might have a leak, but I'm aiming to verify before puling anything apart. I just know this truck has many old receipts for A/C vacuum/charge jobs, without further diagnosis. I just don't see any signs of PAG oil leakage in the engine bay on the A/C lines, but that needs further inspection.

 

Ah, a worthless engine bay photo because I didn't think to smartly photograph much of anything while doing work.

As it goes, the rear axle shaft seals/bearings were addressed along with new rotors and pads. The OE 8.8 axle shafts were in good shape with no pitting or unusual wear, so they were retained. The axle was refilled with fresh 75W-140 gear oil. After getting that done, pulled the truck under my carport as the weather was turning a bit sour to address the valve cover gaskets. Had some concern the oil leak out the passenger side may have been related to the TSB I've seen regarding a machining chip debris causing a leak from the head gasket, however it the old valve cover gasket had a distinctly wet spot where it had met the head on the rear most low side. Post test drive and visual inspection, the leak seems to have been successfully dealt with. Much nicer not smelling burning oil on acceleration or leaving droplets on the driveway.

Replacement spark plugs and ignition coil boots were also fitted at the time. NGK plugs replaced very well worn AC Delco RapidFire plugs, and a slight stumble I'd noticed at idle has been resolved. I've always known the 4.6 to have a rather smooth idle in gear, so the stumble was a bit obvious when it presented itself.

The A/C was somewhat looked at. Put the gauges and vacuum pump on the system... maybe could get it to pull a steady but measly 1.5"Hg, which leaked off quickly when the pump was turned off. Disappointing, but not unsurprising given how many times the A/C has been recharged in this vehicle prior, but obviously the key leak point has never been looked at over the years, and it's at the point it must be found if I'd like the A/C to work. Given time constraints and some other things I need to deal with outside of vehicles, I think I'll sub this job out to a mechanic I trust sometime this month. I simply want the leaking component dealt with correctly and the system charged back up so the system is good to go for a long while.

 

Guess I messed up with the A/C gauge set, since the shop was able to pull a proper vacuum on the air conditioner and recharged the system. I did tell my mechanic that it's been recharged several times over the years, so he added UV dye to try and aid in locating wherever the leak is, but it's certainly a small one since it would go several years before needing attention. Regardless, the truck now has ice cold air again and about rivals my '87 Mercury, so I call that a win. I changed the oil prior to last weekend and then took it on a trip out of town with about an average economy of 16 MPG, but I was flogging it a bit on the highway which wasn't helping too much. Arguably it rides decently and the interior is plenty comfortable. It's a bit of a departure from my cars, but I could absolutely see taking long distance trips in this comfortably if I needed to.



Pretty much at this point, a majority of the mechanical issues have been resolved and I'm simply arriving to cosmetics and any personal changes. The exterior's worst parts are the hood and roof since the paint is so cooked. The sides are plenty dulled, but it might come back a bit with some polishing. Interior doesn't need much of anything at this point beyond swapping the steering wheel with the good leather wheel I have and resoldering the overhead console display so that works again.



I also took some time to compile my parts/repair costs for a majority of what I needed for this "free" truck. Some of the parts I couldn't find the exact pricing for since certain things I carelessly tossed some early receipts, so I subbed in normal parts store retail pricing. Overall, for just a hair under $2000, I think things came out quite good.

 

Yes, my 2000 Lariat had the same issue so i got them swapped at the dealership at very high prices. Need to figure out a cheaper alternative.

 

Looks like a solid old truck, should serve you well for years. It’s not my favorite body style of F150 but they are very good trucks.

 

I know the '97-'03 body style is definitely a love/hate affair given it came along when Ford went all in on Aero styling for all vehicles lines at that point. Still, haven grown up around a '93 Sable and owned a '97 Grand Marquis for almost 13 years, I feel a bit at home in another Aero era vehicle, especially given the drivetrain here is almost a copy/paste setup from my old Marquis (4.6 / 4R70W / 8.8), save for the truck style intake and some variation in how accessories are fitted under hood. I do love my 302s from a simplicity standpoint, but I also greatly appreciate the 4.6 2V in smoothness and rock solid reliability.

 

You don't see too many of these body style trucks being brought back from neglect, but I personally like them so I'm all for seeing your journey to fix it up

 

Not much to report on this truck since my last post. It's been mostly used for the occasional "going to town" trip and a few out of town runs when I decided it needed some exercise and used it instead of my sedan or wagon.

I've noted the oil leak from the passenger side is likely head gasket related at this point, considering the valve cover was resealed and there is a standing TSB for a machining chip issue causing an external oil leak. Weighing out how I'd like to deal with that issue, mostly because I know doing a head job in-chassis is not a fun task on this truck, and given the annoyances, I'm willing to see how much the trusted independent shop I use from time to time would charge to perform the repair work. I know it won't be cheap, but it's also not pleasant having to pull a head on a OHC application where space gets a bit tight. Regardless, excluding the oil leak, the 4.6 still runs like a top.

Only notable things I can mention that have been done "recently" is that both side mirrors have been swapped to the LED type turn arrow mirror assemblies. I prefer that style to the mirror cap signal repeaters.

I did get the overhead console working again. One of the surface mount resistors had fallen clean off the board, so it was replaced and the remaining resistors were touched up.


I also added an auto-dimming rear view mirror, albeit from a different application.


I just find these so handy compared to the manual day/night mirrors, so I wanted to add one to this truck, which did not take much time considering the overhead console provides an easy source for key-on power and ground.