[ps2fixer]

Been a while since I gave an update. Rear and front drive shafts have all new U-joints, so the truck is drive-able now. Front axle U-joints are still trashed so can't use 4x4 at speed till fixed, if I need 4x4 on snowy roads, then I probably won't be going too fast anyway.

Took the truck up town for some shopping and filled it up, over 22 gals and the front tank was at 1/2 and the rear was below 1/4. Running the front (smaller) tank to try to get some reasonable numbers to get atleast something for a base line with my driving style and environment.

Generally the truck has been starting well in the cold temps (20-30f), but it did give me a fit the day I wanted to drive it home from my parent's place. I'm about to head out to do some diag work, but suspect the glow plug relay might have a bad spot, if not then high resistance at the glow plugs (aka they don't get as hot).

If the glow plug relay is going out, there's a much larger one rated for 200amp continuous and 600amp peak that's a common upgrade for these trucks, about $55-80 for it. I read the glow plugs should draw around 190-195 amps when new, so the relay based on specs should last a very long time as long as salt doesn't kill it first. I'm half expecting the relay and the glow plugs to be bad.

Hate to say it, but the "mechanic" that owned this truck was a terrible mechanic, so many things rigged up on it. Like there's a wire tapped into that goes to the wiper motor that runs over to the washer fluid pump... the wire is fusable link wire.. the whole way except about 12in where a different wire is spliced into the main harness. There's a 1/4in spade connector with no insulation on it at all. The ash try is broken, and the wires for the cig lighter were loose so they shorted out and blew the fuse, same fuse that runs the OBD port. The second cig lighter plug in the dash is free willy in the dash, nothing holding it in.

I still have a major boost leak, the passenger side exhaust manifold bolts to the pipe that runs to the turbo has broken bolts (rotted to nothing). The driver's side is the same way, just the bolt's aren't broken yet.

Even though it needed work, it was priced pretty well. I have yet to find another truck in similar condition (body wise) and anything near the lowish miles (190k) for under $10k in this area that also has the manual transmission. Tons of trucks with autos.

Ran out for some quick photos to show the stuff a bit better, nice layer of freezing rain on everything, might hold off a bit to climb on the truck to check things out.

I also work with wiring and such a lot for my business, so this kind of work is super annoying to me. Reminds me of the first Toyota pickup I had, the tail lights would go out sometimes, found the fuse with wire wrapped around the base, very lucky the truck didn't catch on fire because the wire at the back of the truck was bare for like 3-4 feet for the running lights.

Oh also bad news, Scan Gauge 2 does not talk with this truck. My laptop with FORscan can, so maybe I'll throw a cheap (small) laptop in the truck and have a remote display setup somewhere to try to get an instant MPG type of gauge. Haven't really thought about it too much.

On a good note, it sounds like the truck does really good at cutting the fuel off for in gear coasting. I normally coast in neutral, but for this truck I'm wondering if coasting in gear would be the better option to be more friendlier in traffic.

Also note that the red wire on the left side in the one pic isn't connected to anything, you can see the other cut end near the black wire. I'll have to undo the rig up and see what they were trying to do and do the repair correctly if it's a bad wire, or hook up the orig wire back up as it was intended from the factory.

I also unplugged the exhaust brake since it would come on while driving even when warmed up a fair amount. Since the truck appears to have been lacking maintenance for so long I'm planning an oil change, fuel filter (aka diesel tune up), trans fluid, axles, etc. In cold weather the trans is stiff to shift, says right on the trans to use only synthetic fluid. In one of my other trucks I had a similar issue and put in red line fluid for the trans and it shifted great even with -10f overnight temps, that truck called for gear lube, 80w90 if I recall correctly.

Anyway, hope you guys enjoy the pics, got a reasonable side shot view of the truck, and a direct front on shot. The side shot is to show the angle of the bumper doesn't match the body, guess it was done so it would be more likely to push than to slide off.

I know the fuel gauge is a horrible way to gauge mpg, but drove the truck around 30 miles and the needle on the tank moved about a needle width. Pretty sure the front tank is 16 gal, 1/4 is 4gal, so if it is linear and such it used about 1gal which is in the ball park of what I'd expect. I'd guess 2 gals I'd see it move more, but depends on how the float/resister design is (more points = more accurate).

Also neat little tid bit with Ford's design (based on reading atleast), the temp gauge is the same as a gas engine, however Ford put a resister inline with the sensor to make it read colder than the gas trucks. With the grill block I'm in the "O" area and what I read the gas trucks read right in the middle, like around the "R" to "M" spot in "Normal". If/when I get something setup for MPG display, I will be wanting digital temp readings too so I can see what the computer sees and make sure temp sensors are within spec and such.