SenorNoob's '88 Ext Cab "Build"

[Curious Hound]

One other thing. Turn off nonessential loads while winching. Heater blower, extra lights, etc. reducing other electrical loads in the system allows more power for the winch.

 

[SenorNoob]

All very good points. Probably doesn't help that I have 5 year old ValuePower 24f... LOL

 

[SenorNoob]

So project timeline might be getting moved up quick. Took my uncle to town today and at the 3rd stop it didn't wanna start. I didn't hear the fuel pump when I first turned the key. Couple of cycles later it started fine. Hmm. Gotta investigate.

 

[SenorNoob]

It's done fine other than some vibrations since the ice storm. Found the culprit:

I know they call for LocTite. never had a problem till now. Easy enough to keep an eye on. It's very smooth now. Kinda wonder if they haven't been backing out since the transfer case swap.

I've been shopping and planning.

That price is probably reasonable. Only way I could afford it is if I used all the tax return money, and the house really needs some roof work. So not happening anytime soon.
4.10 gears would get me back to where I'm at now with regards to tire size/gearing with the 33's I wanna go to. No need to adjust speedometer gear even... So may be what I do. That way I can just snag another junkyard rear axle and swap the front gears myself. I'm confident I could get the front close enough for the amount of usage I have to never be a problem. The rear sees highway speed for hours at a time occasionally. Not so sure about that.

 

[SenorNoob]

I've been driving it and for the last week or so, it's had a terrible miss between 1800-2200rpm and half or better throttle. I pulled plugs yesterday and checked things out. Maybe a little lean. Broke the rear passenger side. Used one of the ones that came in the engine when I got it. Reset the gap on all of them. Apparently I'd found the 3.0 spec (0.044) when I assembled it. Now set at 0.054. It didn't make much of a difference then, but today it seemed fine... Weird. Gonna try to swap fuel filter and see what happens.

I used the winch today to pull down some trees I'd cut at my aunt's. Almost no pull on things with the radio and headlights off. So that's good.

Oh, I hand washed everything but the inside of the bed and the roof today just before the rain. It still cleans up pretty good IMO.

 

[SenorNoob]

I never posted it here apparently. The fuel filter definitely needed doing, but the problem was bad gas. A tank of ethanol free and it's better than ever. Just sucks the most convenient station for me is now off limits due to water. Oh well, there is a new one almost across the street.

Big mod the other day.

$4 and it stops me having to get screws and ink pens out of my seat tracks.

 

[SenorNoob]

So over the last couple days, I've gotten the grill cleaned up and painted. I temporarily set in place just to see how it'd look.

I like the way it came out. The Rustoleum "Aluminum" is perfect for this truck. I broke the lower driver's side mount getting it back in there. Gotta buy some more epoxy for that. Now I just need a new emblem. I've seen some black and blue that looked pretty good.

While I was there I got the old oil soaked insulation out from under the hood. Had to glue the supports back on. The middle still isn't there. Oh well. Much better than it was. The hood closes with a solid thud now not a twang of vibrating metal. Wonder how it'll do going down the road. Was going to do some more but the rain moved in too soon.

 

[SenorNoob]

Finally put the grill back on with a little something else behind it.

Air horn kit that I've had for a loong time. (Edit: June 20th 2014.) The package was kinda crunchy. Really not that much more then the stock horns. Although those were intermittent now.

Got my F150 coil retainers installed. I love factory self tapping bolts.

Then spent some time trying to clean up wiring. Not sure how successful I was. At least it has proper splices now. Not twisted and taped together.

That group bundled there with the big yellow wire in it is all battery power from the distribution box to things I don't have. I had two of them running lights before. One now goes to the horns. (I still have plenty.) To really clean that up, I'd have to delete some more connectors in that corner.

 

[SenorNoob]

Got the other door handle. Was expecting to have to change the plastic inserts in the door. This one has metal. So I used them and the original screws to mount this side.

Still having trouble with a miss pulling out of a stop sometimes. No check engine light. No consistency except for low engine speed under load. I'll get it figured out eventually. Really need to hook up the fuel pressure gauge where I can see it in the cab. And acquire an alternate (backup) coil pack. And check out the PCM capacitors. Maybe Friday. It does good 90% of the time.

 

[SenorNoob]

So I checked the coil-pack and fuel pressure this morning.

After some early misadventures using my tools, (Tested the wrong pin combos on the coil pack and had to remove a couple schrader valves to get the fuel pressure gauge to work.)

I got 0.8 ohms on all primaries. (1.4 ohms between them. No idea if that's relevant. Guessing not since they share a power pin.) Between 14.3K ohms and 14.8K ohms on the secondaries.

42psi fuel pressure with pump running and engine off. 32psi at idle. Pressure jumps when I open the throttle. All the way back up to 42psi at WOT. Interestingly, when I cut the key off, by the time the engine stops running the pressure is 5psi or less. Zero almost immediately. I did have a noticeable leak on my gauge lines. IDK if that's enough to make the pressure drop that fast though.

Hmm.

 

[Curious Hound]

I would expect the regulator to maintain a constant pressure. But don't take my word as gospel on that.

 

[SenorNoob]

Isn't that the purpose of the vacuum line? To vary pressure with vacuum.

 

[Curious Hound]

Isn't that the purpose of the vacuum line? To vary pressure with vacuum.

Maybe. That's why I said not to take my comment too seriously. But my thought is that the pcm is trying to calculate how long to open the injectors. If the pressure is steady, that's easy. If the pressure keeps changing willy-nilly, how do you calculate how much fuel will flow through an injector in 0.xxx second?

Or maybe I just don't know squat about this.

 

[SenorNoob]

That makes me think. I wonder if the PCM just factors in RPM/O2 and lets the regulator handle the load part of the calculation.

It wouldn't surprise if the PCM isn't even fast enough to make that calculation and have proper throttle response...

On another note, I remember posting about changing my plug gap. I can't find it now.

Edit: Jim must've found it. He just liked that post. On this page. #185. THANKS!

 

[SenorNoob]

Soo. Some more investigating:

PCM looks good.

I did find a couple interesting wires though.

White/Red Seems to be part of the "VIP Data Link Connector". It was exclusive to the Explorer apparently. Guessing that was the Center console with MPG display?

These 2 have to be something I did. Need to fix it right. Pink/Black and Orange/Light Blue...