My 97 F150 page

[shane96ranger]

Hey guys... FINALLY we have some snow to mess around in. This truck is awesome in the snow. I love the manual t-case on it. Just one click back, and she's ready to go.

It also just hit 210,000 miles. I will have to post some pics of the snow, but it's pretty deep. We are supposed to get more tonight and tomorrow.

 

[shane96ranger]

The Rain-X blades that the PO put on the truck finally took a dump on me. Great blades overall, and I plan to order some of them again. I needed a quick replacement, so I just got Duralast blades, which I believe are made by Valeo.

While I've had these old blades, I have kept wondering why they seemed so small. Factory spec is 22", and I got one 22" and one 24" blade to put on drivers side. I put them on and realized the PO had put 18" blades on it. So I am in heaven. The 24" on the drivers side does not interfere with anything. It should be the factory sizing.



Sent from a Commodore 64 using a 300 baud modem

 

[shane96ranger]

I finally got around to detailing Hoss today. She looks good all gussied up like this. I still need to vacuum her out, and then I'll get some interior pics.

 

[shane96ranger]

I decided that I was tired of looking at the ugly grille on my truck. It has been faded since I bought it two years ago. Without further ado....

 

[shane96ranger]

Well, I bought some LED's for the cluster on the F150. Problem is, there are a couple of illumination bulbs that are not 194's in the cluster. Did not know that - so I was not prepared for the total switch over. Oh well, it's not too bad to take apart. Here's some photos.

These are the 194's I bought for it

This is the bulb size I need for the complete change over. Any ideas what size it is? [] EDIT: Just found out they are 37's and ordered them.

I really like the way the climate control illumination turned out. Only issue is.... now I guess I need a stereo with blue lights, LOL

You can see the old color (green) at the top of the speedometer. There are two or three bulbs right there that are still incandescent.

 

[shane96ranger]

Project complete, except the headlight switch. That should be somewhat simple though.

 

[shane96ranger]

Long time no post, eh?

I got some goodies for the F150. I got a set of Lightning headlights and markers, and some work lights to put behind the grille that have Cree LED's in them. I am also going to be getting a chrome grille to put on at the same time.

 

[Twister]

Project complete, except the headlight switch. That should be somewhat simple though.

That looks really nice, how many of each size led did you need and where did you purchase them from? i just had to replace the shift tube on my dads 97 and its still somewhat apart, it needs some bulbs so i mighy as well upgrade while im in there.

 

[shane96ranger]

The instrument cluster uses six of the 37 style, and two of the 194 style. The temp controls use two 194's. They are 5050 SMD's (with 5 LED's per unit) on the 37 style. The 194's I made a mistake and bought plain old single LED's for it and one already burned out. I have an 5050 SMD style with 3 LED's per unit I will be swapping those two out with. It will surely make the red hash on the speedo show up better.

 

[shane96ranger]

These are the 194 wedge style LED's that I got to replace the crappy single LED's I put in it.

 

[shane96ranger]

Wow... I've owned this thing for over 7 years now. In the summer of 2016, I was under the truck cleaning out the Heat and A/C box drain, and glanced up to find a "Ford Remanufactured 4-2001" plaque on the bottom of the motor. So, the previous owner, although I doubted him, was indeed telling me the truth that Ford had put a new motor in it.

It doesn't get driven much anymore because I now commute 72 miles round trip every day to work. A family member gave me a Toyota to drive, which gets 35 mpg's - which is much better than 13-14 mpg's from the F150. This old thing has done a lot for me though. Still the same trans and motor.