synthetic lubes other than crankcase oil

[Diamondpilot]

Don't forget, many trucks tap the PS for the power brakes too. That's why you don't see the big old vacuum brake boosters anymore.

Yea. My uncle was getting ready to pull his boat on a 700 mile trip with his diesel Suburban. Anyway the brakes were giving him trouble. Long a short is it was low on PS fluid. He would have never found the issue. He thought they were pulling his leg about it being low on PS fluid.

Chris

 

[Diamondpilot]

PS coolers have been standard equipment on tow package equipped vehicles for a long time. The last one I added was to a Honda Odyssey Mini Van for some guy who wanted to pull a small fishing boat. It came in the kit that included the hitch, wiring harness, PS cooler, and tranny cooler.

Chris

 

[Soundguy]

Nice.

PS.. what's your opinion on the following oil.. I used it when i serviced my 450.

valvolene premium blue extreme 5w40 HD deisel engine oil.

I tried to do a lil research and this one seemed to meet lots of specs, couple different people reccomended it.

soundguy

 

[crashz]

Premium Blue is endorsed by Cummins. Decent oil last time I checked on BITOG. I have it in my tractor right now.

 

[Soundguy]

yep, I saw their name figured prominently on the jug in a few places..

soundguy

 

[Highbeam]

I am jealous of your antique trips. I would love to make those types of runs.


1) Your PSD truck came with a power steering fluid cooler. It isn't real big and on the 99s it was mounted in a cheezy way.
2) Your PSD power steering fluid is also the power brake fluid since your truck uses a hydroboost system to power the brakes. This means that a hose failure in the PS system will render your brakes and steering to manual only which is a big deal on these trucks.
3) Your PSD uses ATF for PS fluid so your typical mobile 1 synthetic atf is great.
4) Ford did a recall to switch a sensor called a CPS sensor on the engine. The old sensor was black and would cause the engine to die randomly. Seemed to always happen when towing and of course a dead engine causes you to lose power steering and brakes! See #2.

Jack up the front end and rock each wheel. These Fords are well known for bad ball joints and bad wheel bearings in the front. Both can be very bad without making much noise.

The brake calipers slide on lubricated pins to float on the fixed rotor. These pins have a habit of getting dry and freezing the calipers in place. All four wheels have this problem.

The final issue on the PSD from 99 until the 6.0 came out is a very undersized transmission cooler. It is ridiculously small and insufficient. So be sure to monitor those temps and expect that you'll need to upgrade that situation over OEM.

 

[Soundguy]

already has an replaced tranny cooler.. much bigger than others I have seen.. brakes were cleaned and slides lubed at service, front end is tight, cps was repalced a few months ago, and yes.. I'm using the syn tranny oil.. hoses and belts were replaced at service a week ago. ( was a very expensive service for me.. more than I expected.. but worth it.. nothing like being 2kmiles from home and have soemthing stupid die.)

I carry a spare serpentine belt, and battery, plus extra 'top off' fluids, air pump and spares for trialer and truck, plus a decnt set of tools, jacks and stands, plus a few extra cans of diesel ( though likely don't need them on this truck with 70g capacity ).. have been stuck going thru lousiana before after a storm and was hard to find diesel.. at the time I had 20g in cans int he back so wasn't too woried.. but it doe smake you think.

i'd rather be extra prepaired and carry a couple extra hundred pounds of weight.. than be under prepaired..

even have a spare brake adapter cable in case the brake socket inthe bed fails, so I can extend and connect to the bumper connector.. etc.

way more tiedowns, chains and binders than i need.. but spares are good.

soundguy

 

[Soundguy]

ok.. one more question on the crank sensor.

When I got the truck I asked the dealer about it due to what I have read here before about them.. he said he had changed it when the truck came in.

now.. that said.

do these things fail that often? Is it worth it for me to carry a spare?

is it something I can change onthe side of the road with a ratchet set or wrenches?

if yes to above questions.. then anyone got a pic / location on my 7.3 so I can get an idea of what would be needed to change it.

or is this an item that would take more work/tools/time to fix than what i would be carrying with me.

heck.. I'm carrying spare 'other' things.. if this sensor is so crummy and not expensive.. sounds like something else to have.

is this a dealer only item.. or something I can get at napa?

thanks

soundguy

 

[aczlan]

( was a very expensive service for me.. more than I expected.. but worth it.. nothing like being 2kmiles from home and have soemthing stupid die.)

Yep, not breaking down on a sunday afternoon 2000 miles from home is worth quite a bit.

way more tiedowns, chains and binders than i need.. but spares are good.

Well, that way you are prepared in case the person selling the tractor is willing to throw in that extra geehaw you have been looking for.

Aaron Z

 

[Soundguy]

yep.. that actually happened once.. showed up to get a tractor and they thry in a basket case loader for free if I would haul it off. was all there.. just in pieces.. hadn't planned on it and had to load alot of it in the bed of the truck as trailer space was limited!... got that taken care of now and got a longer trailer

soundguy