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other thoughts

Truck work

[Saturday’s run: 5.0 miles, about 1/2 mile of walking]

My current F-150 has a number of quirks.  On that has bothered me for quite awhile has been this nasty loud squeaking sound when I drive over the smallest bump in the road.

The other day I got out a can of WD-40 and sprayed various things.  The place that made a difference was down between the bed and the cab.  I had blissful peace for a couple of days.

So, Saturday I decided to root out that squeak.  I was able to get the six bed bolts out.  One of them required vice-grips on the upper part to keep it from turning, the others still were held by the shaped holes.  I got them all out.  I used blocks of wood to lift the bed a bit at a time and slide it back.

Right there I could see that some bolts on the back of the cab had been rubbing on the front panel of the bed, it was down to the bear metal in multiple spots.  Apparently they had once had some heavy load in this truck and it munched the bed panel forward, during a quick stop I suppose.

So I got out my little 3 pound sledge hammer and wailed away on the front panel, getting it back into some kind of normal position.  I think it actually turned out pretty good considering I didn’t have the bed completely off of the truck and only had about a foot of space to swing the hammer.  I got the high spots pounded down particularly.  Then I used some flat black spray paint I had on hand to cover all spots of bare metal.

I used my angle grinder to reduce the bolts on the back of the cab as much as possible and touched them with a bit of the black paint also.

I was done with the squeak job.  But then I discovered that my front fuel tank, which has never worked, was leaking gasoline out of some holes where the electrical connections go in for the fuel pump.  That’s no good!  I had to go to the auto parts store and buy some special epoxy putty made for fuel tanks and a siphon to get some of the gas out.

We waited a few hours to let the fuel tank repair cure.

bedofftruck

I was contemplating how to get the bed back in position.  It would be a major lift for myself and my neighbor.  And the neighbor was away for a bit anyway.  I finally built this wooden form and some stilts to hold it up (two of the stilts were part of my son’s weight lifting rack he built).  I could lift one side at a time using the leverage of the long boards.  With all four corners on stilts, we rolled the truck back underneath then lowered the form.  I took apart the form and rocked the bed back and forth to slip out the long boards.  Bolts in, fuel filler lines back in place, and done!

We took the truck on a ride to Sonic to get a treat.  No squeaks!

bedontruck

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One other thing. A couple of weeks ago I went to the junk yard and got these old wheels which were primer grey. I took them to Wal-Mart and had some road tires mounted and installed. It rides much better than the mudder tires it did have. I painted the new wheels green before the tires were mounted!