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Ok, 2 projects left, to call both the Superduty suspension upgrade, and the aluminum bed upgrade complete on the F250. #1, we need a front sway bar, and that means we need to replace the old drop-tracbar bracket with a 'stock' one. So, enter one new bracket from Sky's Offroad Design:  painted...  ...and installed!  Tracbar angle looks decent, and it means weve now got room to reinstall the swaybar  ...and done! This was the last piece of the puzzle, that now completes the SD suspension swap. Moving on, the final thing i needed to do to finish the utility/dump bed conversion, was to make & install some mud flaps. I welded a piece of 1" angle iron to the bed, and then whipped up a simple mud flap using some scraps i had laying around in the garage:   Nothing left to do now, but drive! Had some issues with heat soak on the last wheelin trip. It was the peak of the heatwave, and probably one of the hottest days ive ever had it out wheelin. The engine & trans temps were ok, but the underhood temps were too high, and it was causing issues with the electronics. So to hopefully keep this from happening again, i picked up some cheap recessed hood louvers to install  The rough idea. Shouldnt be too obnoxious looking cut into the stripes  Hood all masked off:  The first cut always hurts the most  working on the second hole  ...and done!  With concerns of water intrusion when its parked in the driveway, i made some simple plastic covers for them, weighted down with some stick-on lead wheel weights so they dont blow away  Hopefully these work well. With a thunderstorm inbound, i suppose ill know soon enough!  Its a little overgrown  Theres an old J20 too  Got it dug out, and both fuel filters replaced   The fuel pump was full of gunk, tried (unsuccessfully) to clean it out  Ultimately though? Mission Failure  Never got the fuel pump to work, going to have to order one. Tried winching it up the trailer but the rear right tire won't turn. Even with 2 snatch blocks the winch just wouldn't drag the tractor up the ramps. Looks like there's some kind of roller for mowing, a back blade, a brush hog, and something else in the weeds. Supposedly there's a set of forks for the bucket too. So I guess the new plan is to order a fuel pump, and bring cleaner and an air compressor to try to flush all the fuel lines with hopes we can get it to run. The starter cranks over pretty good, so I think once we get the pump replaced it'll run. it actually had green coolant in the radiator, and the crankcase was full of oil so thats promising. Spent the last two days cleaning up the yard. My scrap steel pile got a little big, so it was time to clean it all out  Went over to the scrap yard with it today. 2200#. Dump bed dumped it without a care in the world! Sorry no video, i forgot to check the batteries for the remote before i left (they were dead) so i had to run it from the dash switch. But still, worked like a champ. I was in and out of the yard in under 5 minutes!   All I know is, it's a diesel, it hasn't been run in years, looks like it's got a flat tire, there's some attachments, and it's free! Maybe a half hour away. Going to try and get it Thursday. I dunno what it weighs, hoping it's not over 7k. And we're back! We checked in at our cabin Monday afternoon. Brought the wife's 90  and my 88  The diesel towed well with the new suspension. Much smoother on the highway than ever before, even loaded down pretty heavily, so im calling the new suspension a win. (i do have a new upper tracbar bracket on order, so that will be getting swapped in the next couple weeks so i can put my front sway back on) We did family stuff tuesday - friday (pools, amusement parks, water parks, campfires & smores!), but Friday was also the car show, which i posted pics of yesterday. Saturday i went over to Rausch with a couple buddies while the wifey stayed back at the cabin nursing a sunburn. Turned out to be a good idea because it was the hottest day of the heatwave that rolled thru PA, and i dont think the wife/kid would have enjoyed the trail with that level of heat. Anyways, i only snapped maybe 15 pics, here's a couple. Overgrown trails:  Joe Sr
Joe Jr
Our buddy Jim was going to come out with us but was having tcase issues so he jumped in with me for the day. i was trail leader for the day, and we didnt stop much so no real pics of mine. He did get a cool snippet of me squeezing thru some boulders down in the Quarry on the south side of the park though The dogs enjoying the truck ride home. Jack is in his glory, as the wind from the wing window is blowing directly on him:  Home and unloading   This is the only real carnage from the trip that ive found thus far  Overall a good time, and weve already re-reserved our cabin for next year's event. Gotta wash the gray one tomorrow, check for any other damage, and then get stuff packed up so we can go rescue an old tractor Thursday morning! Photo dump from the truck show during the 2024 East Coast Bronco Roundup at Twin Grove Campground in Pine Grove, PA. Click for full-res pics! Ok first off, having a backup camera on the diesel is a game changer:  Tomorrow we leave for the ECBR, so i was doing my pre-trip inspection of the trucks & trailer
That's when i saw it. A broken main leaf!  No time to delay, so i tore into it right away. This doesnt look like it broke yesterday.  Spring pack out  ...and the broken main removed  Fortunately i saved the leafs from the '90 bronco i bought (that tub is now gray, and on my frame). They were built super dumb, but the mains looked good, and the PO had replaced the bushings shortly before i bought his project  I broke that pack down plus mine, wire wheeled all the leafs, and put that main into my pack:  ...and reinstalled!  ...all done and ready to go!  ...and all loaded up on the trailer!  This will be the true test of the SD spring upgrade on the diesel. First impressions are that the rear springs are going to carry the weight just fine; with the bronco on the trailer behind me im just starting to engage the helper springs  We'll find out how well it tows tomorrow! While the rear was apart and i was waiting on swaybar bushings, i decided to inspect the rear brakes  Shoes & wheel cylinders looks good, but theres still an issue
Somehow the parking brake lever got up on top of the rear shoe. Explains why the rear shoes were loose; theres no way the brakes would self-adjust like this. Since the linings are still in good shape i rolled the welder over and made a small weld on top of the shoe so the arm cant slip up there again.  This will work for now,and ill replace the shoes & the lever arm sometime later in the summer. Moving on, the rear swaybar is now reinstalled...  ...which means we can move on to the exhaust
  ...and with that done, there was nothing left to do, but put eh tires on, and set it back on all fours once more!    Took it for a test drive, and the ride is night & day better. Its amazing how much smoother it is now, it just soaks up the bumps on the highway. Theres still a few things to do (like get a new upper tracbar mount), and i need to get the tracbar adjusted and re-center the wheel, but thats about it. Got it done just in time for the East Coast Bronco Roundup next week! |
