SgtRauksauff
New member
- Joined
- Oct 13, 2015
- Messages
- 3
- Reaction score
- 0
Greetings from Wisconsin!
So, I live in Wisconsin, aka the Rust Belt, and bought a car in Portland OR to revive my race car.
Needing a new-to-me tow vehicle anyways, I scanned Craigslist, and started making calls/texts/emails. I originally wanted a 2wd, and found a perfectly maintaned '95/7.3/Auto fleet vehicle, but whoever answered the phone was kind of a dick and wouldn't spend 10 minutes on a Saturday morning to sell me his vehicle. The second choice was a '98 Ram 2500 / cummins/manual/2wd, but he was out of town for the weekend, so it came down to door number three: a '96 F250, Extended Cab, 4x4, 7.3, 5-speed. I guess I could live with a 4x4. Called the guy, and he even picked me up at the airport in the truck so I didn't even have to get a cab to get to his house.
So, after a 2000+ mile drive, and some excitement with passenger steer-tire issues (first one separated in Utah at the end of day one, leaving a huge bulge in the tire, and then the spare exploded in Des Moines rush hour the morning of day 3), I figure I'd register here and start learning what I need to do with this truck to keep it solid and prevent any future calamity.
The previous owner seemed nice, but rather lacking in mechanical knowledge, so who knows what he did or did not service or paid to have serviced.
I'm pretty sure I need rear shoes, with an e-brake adjustment at minimum. when it was going on the flatbed after the blowout, some fluid was leaking from the right-hand frame rail. not strong smelling, and not tasting of anything much either, so I'm hoping just dripping from a water separator or something?
I'll be putting new tires on all around, (235-85-16 10-ply Toyos) so that will get the speedo correct again, although make it look like I'm running on pizza cutters. once that's done, I'll determine if the slight shake/vibration is from unbalanced tires, or if there's a u-joint starting to go bad.
Gonna do an oil/filter/fluids change all around, probably including diffs, transmission and xfer case, I'll be able to check the drained fluid and make sure everything's good.
I'll start browsing and reading and learning, but since I'm already typing a book:
3rd-to-2nd downshifts seem a bit ridiculous, needing double-clutching even at low speeds in town, especially coming up to intersections. Is this because of mishandled gear changes in the past, and worn synchros, or is this just the nature of the beast?
I was under the impression that these had a solid front axle, but I was obviously wrong. I'm going to have to do some research and see just what I've got and any weaknesses it might have.
I'm guessing that since the truck's basically 20 years old, I'm going to have to go through the bushings, and maybe even new shocks. i noticed in the rear that the lower straight leaf is not necessarily perfectly parallel with the other leaves, which makes me think that this may have been curb-checked or something in the past.
But other than a few annoyances (mostly being due to a 20-year-old truck), I like it so far. Strong motor, decent transmission, handles ok (hopefully the Toyo's wont make it all squirmy).
Put the cruise at 80, and get mid to high 14mpg on average so far:
From Portland (first fillup) to Boise ID, 15.06.
then at Tremonton OR, I got 13.9,
then at Little America in WY it showed 19.4,
then at Laramie it was 17.5,
then Kearney NE showed 14.8, (split a bottle of Diesel Kleen between both tanks at this fillup)
then 14.3 at Grinnell IA. Still haven't filled up after getting back home, but I think the rear tank has either half or quarter tank still left, and over 225 miles on the first tank, so probably pretty good.
Granted, each time I filled up, I was getting more familiar and comfortable with the truck, so I'd run it up harder, and drove more aggressively, with a few 85+mph WOT passes thrown in. Even though the speed limit was 80 in a few states, I generally kept it at 78mph/~2500rpm. Faster than the semis, faster than all the other uhaul/penske/RVs, slower than the chargers/mustangs/vettes.
I'm sure that the fuel mix has something to do with mpg as well, at least it does with gasoline. In my experience, the Midwest seems to have absolutely awful fuel mixes that get crap mileage compared to other regions.
Anyways, that's my introduction, hopefully this will be a great repository of knowledge for me!
Stopped for food/coffee in Tremonton:
Bad luck outta Des Moines:
--sarge
(no military affiliation, it's a holdover from LAN party PC gaming days from ~15+ years ago)
So, I live in Wisconsin, aka the Rust Belt, and bought a car in Portland OR to revive my race car.
Needing a new-to-me tow vehicle anyways, I scanned Craigslist, and started making calls/texts/emails. I originally wanted a 2wd, and found a perfectly maintaned '95/7.3/Auto fleet vehicle, but whoever answered the phone was kind of a dick and wouldn't spend 10 minutes on a Saturday morning to sell me his vehicle. The second choice was a '98 Ram 2500 / cummins/manual/2wd, but he was out of town for the weekend, so it came down to door number three: a '96 F250, Extended Cab, 4x4, 7.3, 5-speed. I guess I could live with a 4x4. Called the guy, and he even picked me up at the airport in the truck so I didn't even have to get a cab to get to his house.
So, after a 2000+ mile drive, and some excitement with passenger steer-tire issues (first one separated in Utah at the end of day one, leaving a huge bulge in the tire, and then the spare exploded in Des Moines rush hour the morning of day 3), I figure I'd register here and start learning what I need to do with this truck to keep it solid and prevent any future calamity.
The previous owner seemed nice, but rather lacking in mechanical knowledge, so who knows what he did or did not service or paid to have serviced.
I'm pretty sure I need rear shoes, with an e-brake adjustment at minimum. when it was going on the flatbed after the blowout, some fluid was leaking from the right-hand frame rail. not strong smelling, and not tasting of anything much either, so I'm hoping just dripping from a water separator or something?
I'll be putting new tires on all around, (235-85-16 10-ply Toyos) so that will get the speedo correct again, although make it look like I'm running on pizza cutters. once that's done, I'll determine if the slight shake/vibration is from unbalanced tires, or if there's a u-joint starting to go bad.
Gonna do an oil/filter/fluids change all around, probably including diffs, transmission and xfer case, I'll be able to check the drained fluid and make sure everything's good.
I'll start browsing and reading and learning, but since I'm already typing a book:
3rd-to-2nd downshifts seem a bit ridiculous, needing double-clutching even at low speeds in town, especially coming up to intersections. Is this because of mishandled gear changes in the past, and worn synchros, or is this just the nature of the beast?
I was under the impression that these had a solid front axle, but I was obviously wrong. I'm going to have to do some research and see just what I've got and any weaknesses it might have.
I'm guessing that since the truck's basically 20 years old, I'm going to have to go through the bushings, and maybe even new shocks. i noticed in the rear that the lower straight leaf is not necessarily perfectly parallel with the other leaves, which makes me think that this may have been curb-checked or something in the past.
But other than a few annoyances (mostly being due to a 20-year-old truck), I like it so far. Strong motor, decent transmission, handles ok (hopefully the Toyo's wont make it all squirmy).
Put the cruise at 80, and get mid to high 14mpg on average so far:
From Portland (first fillup) to Boise ID, 15.06.
then at Tremonton OR, I got 13.9,
then at Little America in WY it showed 19.4,
then at Laramie it was 17.5,
then Kearney NE showed 14.8, (split a bottle of Diesel Kleen between both tanks at this fillup)
then 14.3 at Grinnell IA. Still haven't filled up after getting back home, but I think the rear tank has either half or quarter tank still left, and over 225 miles on the first tank, so probably pretty good.
Granted, each time I filled up, I was getting more familiar and comfortable with the truck, so I'd run it up harder, and drove more aggressively, with a few 85+mph WOT passes thrown in. Even though the speed limit was 80 in a few states, I generally kept it at 78mph/~2500rpm. Faster than the semis, faster than all the other uhaul/penske/RVs, slower than the chargers/mustangs/vettes.
I'm sure that the fuel mix has something to do with mpg as well, at least it does with gasoline. In my experience, the Midwest seems to have absolutely awful fuel mixes that get crap mileage compared to other regions.
Anyways, that's my introduction, hopefully this will be a great repository of knowledge for me!
Stopped for food/coffee in Tremonton:
Bad luck outta Des Moines:
--sarge
(no military affiliation, it's a holdover from LAN party PC gaming days from ~15+ years ago)
Last edited:
