1987 F150

Huh, I hate to do it, but the CJ isn't driving right now, and the F150 needs tires to hold it over until sometime after the new year....

The 16" Wheels off of it look pretty fetching on the F-series...

 

Yeah yeah, I'll get to it.

 

Here it is, it's a crap picture but it shows it with the Wheels/Tires off my CJ

 

And the curse of cheap chinese parts strikes again. The issue that caused it to die in traffic was the brand new High Pressure fuel pump. Lived all of 2 months. Of course, while I was under there chasing things down, I found that the fuel tank selector valve was leaking, and nobody makes them anymore, luckily I managed to find an NOS Ford one that wasn't hideously expensive. ($175 on Amazon, vs over $400 for a Dorman on ebay. And I don't buy Dorman, unless I have no other choice.)

 

And Idle speed hunt, off-idle stumble, and what felt like an intermittent misfire at idle fixed. Woo.

 

And I learned a valuable piece of information today. When I changed the TFI module, I ended up having to pull the distributor, because one of the tangs off the old one broke off in the Magnetic Pickup inside the distributor. I *thought* I had marked everything well, and after I dropped the distributor back in and hooked everything back up, it fired right up and idled just fine.

Well, apparently the ECM will compensate, even at Idle. When I took it out for a run to the pharmacy, it acted like the world was going to end, so I turned around, and came home, and tossed the timing light on it.

I had the base timing at about 8ATDC, as opposed to the 10BTDC that it should have been.

Oops.

 

I f*&king swear. I'm getting real goddamned tired of crap aftermarket parts. Less than 60 days in the truck, and the new heater core just blew itself up.

 

Geesh....

 

I have an 87 F150. I feel your pain. Had mine 15 years now. I think I have replaced about half the truck. But when it's right it's a very nice truck.

 

I had a shortbed F-150 back in the day when they were new. Mine was a straight 6 automatic. Like everything else, I eventually sold it. Nice truck. I agree on aftermarket parts. Some of them are junk.

 

Well, I'm sure as hell glad that I never had to change the alternator on the side of the road. Cause it wouldn't ever have happened. I'm doing the intake/exhaust manifold gaskets, and the alternator/smog pump bracket has a through bolt that also goes through the very front exhaust manifold as well, and I snapped the head off the lower alternator bolt (7/16 Coarse Thread), so I got the smog pump pulled, and then got the bracket off the side of teh engine, and long story short, after some work with a drill, a hammer and punch, and a death wheel on the die grinder, the majority of that bloody 5" long bolt is *still* in the alternator, and isn't ever ever coming out. So I guess I'm doing the 3G alternator upgrade a little sooner than planned.....

 

And after about 24 hours in the electrolysis, a buttload of penetrating oil, some heat, and some serious pounding on an 1-1/4 wrench with my 2-1/2 lb double jack, I finally got the EGR tube seperated from the rear manifold without destroying it.....

 

I'm not really certain, but I *think* I might have a bad drivers side rear wheel bearing.



And lucky for me, it wiped out the bearing surface on the Axle shaft too, so I got to replace that while I was in there.

 

The theory of diminishing returns...

 

Damn, I thought I was updating this....

Anyway, new shinys.

 

So in preparation for putting the new computer in it, I did a bit of wiring inspection/cleanup. I guess after 35 years, the wiring in the engine compartment ain't real happy. Lots of cracked insulation and whatnot. I patched up what I can, but I guess I'll be building a new harness, or poking around for something in the boneyard thats in better shape than mine.

 

Finally got around to putting the new ECM and stuff in, this week, and had the worst god(*@ed oxygen sensor extraction in my life.

4 Hours of jerking around with that thing.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachme...6/1149487581650747473/IMG_20230907_161219.jpg
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachme...6/1149487581218742332/IMG_20230907_161222.jpg

Is that half a 7/8" Combination wrench welded to the remains of an oxygen sensor?

Yes, Yes it is.

I'm still working with a friggin thread chaser to clean the threads up in the Boss, so I don't foul up the rather pricey wideband that's going back in.

 

My 99 ranger had one driverside o2 stuck so bad i turned the outside of a o2 sensor socket to accept a split lock collar to clamp the snot out of it.

 

Thread Chaser just wasn't getting the job done, so I had to go find myself an actual M18-1.50 bottom tap, which did get the job done. And I've a successful initial firing, and first test drive with the new ECU. Now to get down to actually tuning it. And hopefully find somebody in the area that I can get some dyno time without taking out a second mortgage.