2002 F250 diesel - discovery and build thread.

[bilbo]

Changed the oil today and the fuel filter. I thought I was doing well with keeping the oil change neat and clean. The filter is easy to access. But as I was turning it over to put it in the drain pan, it slipped and fell. Oil everywhere. Then my shirt sleeve dipped into the puddle. Why did I bother wearing gloves? Oil from finger tips to shoulder. Yuck.

Anyway, 15qts Rotella T6, 15w-40. Plus some additive from Hotshot that is supposed to free up the hydraulic part of the injectors. Look up the term "stiction". I'm hoping that is my cold start issue. Filled the fuel tank. Got 15mpg on that one. Previous tank was almost 16mpg, but had a lot less "in town" driving.

Now, after showering, I'll go out for dinner and pick up a bag of kitty litter on the way home to clean up thecdriveway.

That filter is really heavy when full. After moving into our new house down here I decided to reward all my F250's hard work with some fresh oil. I did the same thing as you and now there's a huge black spot on the concrete driveway. I also dropped the new prefilled filter once. That was a bummer. It wound up with dirt all over the business end so I trashed it and bought another.

 

[ericbphoto]

That filter is really heavy when full. After moving into our new house down here I decided to reward all my F250's hard work with some fresh oil. I did the same thing as you and now there's a huge black spot on the concrete driveway. I also dropped the new prefilled filter once. That was a bummer. It wound up with dirt all over the business end so I trashed it and bought another.

Yeah. Didn’t help that it was hotter than the surface of the sun. I really wanted to get finished instead of waiting for it to cool. That darn shirt has been washed twice now and is still stained.

 

[scotts90ranger]

On my '97 I cut the top off a metal 5 gallon paint thinner bucket which fits under the oil pan with about 4" to spare, even fits under the frame... when I just did an oil change the filter was gross anyway so I just lowered it in the bucket as slow as my oily fingers would allow...

If your shirt is still oily, soak it in a bucket with water and some Dawn, or maybe try some Awesome Clean (they carry it at Dollar General for like $1 for a sprayer bottle, works pretty good)

 

[ericbphoto]

Itsbeen a good morning at the junk yard. I got a spare tire and wheel from.an 02 F250. I guess I need to actually try it on the truck. But it came off the right truck. It was the spare. It could use a newer tire. But it will be fine for a while. Also got the sectional rod thingy for cranking the spare tire up and down. Those things seem to be rare in junk yards around here. Scored some battery hold down wedges. And found something cool to make the trophy for the scavenger hunt at LBL this year.

Came home and drilled the hole in my bumper so I can use the spare tire crank. Installed one battery hold-down wedge and found out the nut is missing on the other tray. Then I started looking into why the passenger side seat belt would not extend or retract. Removed it from the truck and saw something wound around the shaft. It turned out to be the stretchy cord from a pair of disposable earplugs, complete with one earplugs wedged in there. Got all that out and now it works. Unfortunately, when I pulled up the plastic trim down by the door, I found the floor rusted through. Scratch a few things off the repair list and add a few new things. That's the used vehicle adventure.

Now I'm going to try to install the new lock and ignition cylinders I got keyed alike the other day. Maybe by the end if the day I'll be able to unlock the driver side door with a key and have that match the ignition.

There was a cool '88 Ranger there today. Must have been an XLT. I've never seen these fancy switches for seats and windows.

 

[ericbphoto]

Things are going well - almost.

I got the ignition cylinder changed. That was easy. The door locks, however, are a bit problematic. The cylinders I ordered for this year and model of truck are different and don't fit the handle/latch assembly properly. But I already had them re-keyed. So I figured out how to re-engineer them to fit and function. Driver side is finished
Still have to do passenger side. Pictures in a while. On the driver side door, I also tried to troubleshoot the door ajar switch - incomplete. I replaced the doohickey assembly that keeps the door from opening too far. And I applied some lithium grease to the window tracks and now the window cranks all the way down smoothly. Also cleaned and lubed door latch and lock assemblies.

So, things are progressing nicely.

 

[ericbphoto]

So, here is the difference between the lock cylinders. I may go back to the junk yard tomorrow and harvest some extra latch assemblies for future spares.


New cylinder on bottom

new on left

There is the hole it needs to fit into and stay in place.

 

[ericbphoto]

Adjusted the front alignment. It had 1" of toe-in. I feel mich better about that. Camber looks fine by "eyechrometer".

Then I started building a rack to mount radios and the trailer brake controller. I mostly wanted thevbrake controller mounted since it has just been laying on the floor. I think I like what I have so far. It's only fastened down on the driver sidevright now. It could use at least one screw on the passenger side. CB and GMRS are mounted. I think I'll put some dedicated power points down there and microphone brackets before I paint it and call it finished. I left extra room in case I ever have a larger radio or get my Ham license and add a Ham radio.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Itsbeen a good morning at the junk yard. I got a spare tire and wheel from.an 02 F250. I guess I need to actually try it on the truck. But it came off the right truck. It was the spare. It could use a newer tire. But it will be fine for a while. Also got the sectional rod thingy for cranking the spare tire up and down. Those things seem to be rare in junk yards around here. Scored some battery hold down wedges. And found something cool to make the trophy for the scavenger hunt at LBL this year.

Came home and drilled the hole in my bumper so I can use the spare tire crank. Installed one battery hold-down wedge and found out the nut is missing on the other tray. Then I started looking into why the passenger side seat belt would not extend or retract. Removed it from the truck and saw something wound around the shaft. It turned out to be the stretchy cord from a pair of disposable earplugs, complete with one earplugs wedged in there. Got all that out and now it works. Unfortunately, when I pulled up the plastic trim down by the door, I found the floor rusted through. Scratch a few things off the repair list and add a few new things. That's the used vehicle adventure.

Now I'm going to try to install the new lock and ignition cylinders I got keyed alike the other day. Maybe by the end if the day I'll be able to unlock the driver side door with a key and have that match the ignition.

There was a cool '88 Ranger there today. Must have been an XLT. I've never seen these fancy switches for seats and windows.
View attachment 95575

View attachment 95576

View attachment 95577

I have been getting the itch to convert mine to power windows at least.

The seat switch is for a little air pump for lumbar support, first and second gens never had actual power seats.

My father in law @r-hindl71 did fabricate power seat tracks for his '91 using parts from an Explorer.

 

[JoshT]

I'm a little late to the show, but welcome to the SuperDuty club. I acquired a 2000 model F-250 7.3L 4x4 from my dad a few years ago.

Oh the stories I could tell on the subject of government inefficiency!

Can't give many details, but yeah. I was an aircraft mechanic for 18 years and already knew getting parts is bad. Moved into management side of the house last years in a training program, by first year is parts ordering and, from what I've seen so far, it's amazing that we are able to get any parts. Costs are exorbitant, shipping times are excessive, availability is rediclous.

If it takes more then a day or two for the Parts manager to generate a PO for something we need, I use my company credit card to order it myself.

I'm going to assume that your situation is a little different than @snoranger, @sgtsandman, and myself. I and atleast one of those two work on aircraft, so going to the store and buying parts isn't exactly an option. With the planes we work on we can't really go to an aircraft speciality store either. Even the consumable supply (rags, gloves, etc) side had special guidelines for procurement. Government entities, especially at this level, are stupid and ineffecient.

Anyway, 15qts Rotella T6, 15w-40. Plus some additive from Hotshot that is supposed to free up the hydraulic part of the injectors. Look up the term "stiction". I'm hoping that is my cold start issue. Filled the fuel tank. Got 15mpg on that one. Previous tank was almost 16mpg, but had a lot less "in town" driving.

Run the same in mine, but not the hotshot. After doing a lot of reading I've become convinced that 7.3L don't suffer from stiction due to the injector design. Not saying that it the addative can't carry other noticable benefits, just that stiction elimination isn't one of them. After reading a lot, and for my environment I will probably start running Optilube Summer Formula in my gas.

I can tell you that on mine, after sitting for 3 days or so, the HPOP reservior drains empty and causes what seems like a cold start issue. No high pressure oil, no start. As soon as the reservior refills it fires off and runs fine. After the weather cools off I need to investigate, but I said the same thing last summer.

If you go over to the 7.3L forum on FTE there are a lot of good people and information available to help with anything you want to know about a 7.3L. So far I've been getting 18-19 MPG in mine, but it's a ex cab short bed, manual transmission, and likely has different gearing being a 4x4.

I got the ignition cylinder changed. That was easy. The door locks, however, are a bit problematic. The cylinders I ordered for this year and model of truck are different and don't fit the handle/latch assembly properly. But I already had them re-keyed. So I figured out how to re-engineer them to fit and function. Driver side is finished
Still have to do passenger side. Pictures in a while. On the driver side door, I also tried to troubleshoot the door ajar switch - incomplete. I replaced the doohickey assembly that keeps the door from opening too far. And I applied some lithium grease to the window tracks and now the window cranks all the way down smoothly. Also cleaned and lubed door latch and lock assemblies.

That door lock thing is odd. The ones you ordered definitely aren't right for the this generation of F-250. Those look more like OBS and Ranger door locks. I need to bet the tailgate lock fixed on mine. Is suppoed to have it, but someone swapped the handle for non lock version in the past. Have the lock parts, just need to pick up a handle and get the lock keyed to match. Kind of pointless right now, but I want to get a folding tonneau after I get my crunched bed corner fixed, and would like the ability to lock it up.

Need to do my window tracks. The driver side at least doesn't like to roll down all the way. While I'm doing that I want to upgrade speakers, investigate adding remote door locks, and see about adding the door panel courtesy lights like the higher trim packages and excursion had. Picked up a set of 17+ mirrors to swap in on prime day, but haven't decided if I'm going to do it or return them. If I wait much longer I won't have a choice.

Door latches are another item I need to tackle. The back passenger side halfdoor won't open, something is broken or loose in the mechanism. Need to dive in and pull the door panel so I can see if I can get it to open and find out what is wrong.

 

[Roert42]

I'm going to assume that your situation is a little different than @snoranger, @sgtsandman, and myself.

Absolutely. This is industrial equipment. There are almost no rules here. Just don’t kill anyone, and a lot of companies play it fast and loose with that one. Keeping this production rolling is the name of the game.

 

[ericbphoto]

I'm a little late to the show, but welcome to the SuperDuty club. I acquired a 2000 model F-250 7.3L 4x4 from my dad a few years ago.



Can't give many details, but yeah. I was an aircraft mechanic for 18 years and already knew getting parts is bad. Moved into management side of the house last years in a training program, by first year is parts ordering and, from what I've seen so far, it's amazing that we are able to get any parts. Costs are exorbitant, shipping times are excessive, availability is rediclous.



I'm going to assume that your situation is a little different than @snoranger, @sgtsandman, and myself. I and atleast one of those two work on aircraft, so going to the store and buying parts isn't exactly an option. With the planes we work on we can't really go to an aircraft speciality store either. Even the consumable supply (rags, gloves, etc) side had special guidelines for procurement. Government entities, especially at this level, are stupid and ineffecient.




Run the same in mine, but not the hotshot. After doing a lot of reading I've become convinced that 7.3L don't suffer from stiction due to the injector design. Not saying that it the addative can't carry other noticable benefits, just that stiction elimination isn't one of them. After reading a lot, and for my environment I will probably start running Optilube Summer Formula in my gas.

I can tell you that on mine, after sitting for 3 days or so, the HPOP reservior drains empty and causes what seems like a cold start issue. No high pressure oil, no start. As soon as the reservior refills it fires off and runs fine. After the weather cools off I need to investigate, but I said the same thing last summer.

If you go over to the 7.3L forum on FTE there are a lot of good people and information available to help with anything you want to know about a 7.3L. So far I've been getting 18-19 MPG in mine, but it's a ex cab short bed, manual transmission, and likely has different gearing being a 4x4.




That door lock thing is odd. The ones you ordered definitely aren't right for the this generation of F-250. Those look more like OBS and Ranger door locks. I need to bet the tailgate lock fixed on mine. Is suppoed to have it, but someone swapped the handle for non lock version in the past. Have the lock parts, just need to pick up a handle and get the lock keyed to match. Kind of pointless right now, but I want to get a folding tonneau after I get my crunched bed corner fixed, and would like the ability to lock it up.

Need to do my window tracks. The driver side at least doesn't like to roll down all the way. While I'm doing that I want to upgrade speakers, investigate adding remote door locks, and see about adding the door panel courtesy lights like the higher trim packages and excursion had. Picked up a set of 17+ mirrors to swap in on prime day, but haven't decided if I'm going to do it or return them. If I wait much longer I won't have a choice.

Door latches are another item I need to tackle. The back passenger side halfdoor won't open, something is broken or loose in the mechanism. Need to dive in and pull the door panel so I can see if I can get it to open and find out what is wrong.

Thanks for the info about the forum.

 

[ericbphoto]

First leg of My trip to Carlisle. 150 miles of interstate in the mountains of western Carolinas and Eastern TN, not towing anything yet. 17.7mpg. I won't complain about that. This beast is very happy at 75mph.

 

[ericbphoto]

Nothing miraculous going on here. I've been busy getting rid of a bacterial infection since the LBL trip. Working on videos for that (videos of the trip, not the infection)

But, while there, the truck didn't start on the last morning. @Mattman347 and @bobbywalter informed me that I need new injectors. So, I'm trying to figure out how to get that done before cold weather arrives. Meanwhile, I think the starter motor is going bad AND I have been losing coolant. I didn't check it as often as I should have on the trip. So, it got pretty low in the reservoir. Yesterday, I found that the reservoir has a leak at it's upper seam. Hopefully, that's the issue there. Today, new reservoir arrived. I also have new upper and lower radiator hoses coming and 6 gallons of Rotella coolant.

I have been wanting to put a fresh serpentine belt on this engine. But the upper radiator hose is routed THROUGH the belt. So, some time in the next week, I'll drain the coolant, flush the system, replace the belt, install new hoses and refill with fresh coolant. That sounds like a few hours of fun. I found an optional upper hose that goes around the serpentine belt instead of through it. That should be.much less hassle in the future.

I also installed a glow plug disable/enable switch on the dash (interrupts power to glow plug relay coil). That way I can easily turn off the glow plug system if I need to start the truck on ether.

 

[sgtsandman]

Nothing miraculous going on here. I've been busy getting rid of a bacterial infection since the LBL trip. Working on videos for that (videos of the trip, not the infection)

But, while there, the truck didn't start on the last morning. @Mattman347 and @bobbywalter informed me that I need new injectors. So, I'm trying to figure out how to get that done before cold weather arrives. Meanwhile, I think the starter motor is going bad AND I have been losing coolant. I didn't check it as often as I should have on the trip. So, it got pretty low in the reservoir. Yesterday, I found that the reservoir has a leak at it's upper seam. Hopefully, that's the issue there. Today, new reservoir arrived. I also have new upper and lower radiator hoses coming and 6 gallons of Rotella coolant.

I have been wanting to put a fresh serpentine belt on this engine. But the upper radiator hose is routed THROUGH the belt. So, some time in the next week, I'll drain the coolant, flush the system, replace the belt, install new hoses and refill with fresh coolant. That sounds like a few hours of fun. I found an optional upper hose that goes around the serpentine belt instead of through it. That should be.much less hassle in the future.

I also installed a glow plug disable/enable switch on the dash (interrupts power to glow plug relay coil). That way I can easily turn off the glow plug system if I need to start the truck on ether.

Just cut the belt and rivet it back together.

 

[Blmpkn]

I also installed a glow plug disable/enable switch on the dash (interrupts power to glow plug relay coil). That way I can easily turn off the glow plug system if I need to start the truck on ether.

Does it get cold enough down there to need to do that? A block heater always did my father well with his diesels, even on the coldest mornings.