Archive for 'Excursion'
Man Down, Man Down… The Excursion is in the Shop
Posted on 11. Mar, 2009 by sandy.
Well after 5+ years my trusty 2003 7.3L Powerstroke Diesel Ford Excursion had to be taken in for a repair. I had the smell of diesel fuel coming into the A/C system and decided to pop the hood. Looked at the engine valley area and saw a puddle of diesel fuel. Checked around and it seems to be a common problem for them to have a bad o-ring seal in the fuel separator area. Figured that would be it a couple hundred bucks. Well get the call and they also found another leak at the top of the high pressure pump. Another set of bad o-rings. And finally it was in for the recall of the camshaft sensor that was a freebie. So out of pocket about $1000. I hope that is all for a while, and over the life of the truck so far it’s still not bad. Picked up some coolant additive as I figured it might be another $100 to add a $9 bottle of additive. Will have to make sure I have the right amount now that I think of it. Oh well the sound of another credit card swipe for car stuff…
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Excursion Tires…
Posted on 09. Dec, 2008 by sandy.
Well, seems it was time for a set of new tires on the Excursion. Having a Tire Mounting and Balancing device (Ranger R-26EX and Matching Balancer) I figured I should just do the truck too. Well all good in thought. I picked up a set of Kumho Ventures for the Excursion from the Tire Rack. Nice looking tire, good reviews, great price and I really have been happy with the Kumho’s on the race car as well as other cars that I have used them on. So Saturday the long journey of doing truck tires begins. Tire one, no problem, off and on in a short time. Tire two, off, and not quite on… I could not get the bead to seat, so I finally took the new tire off and picked another to see if it would, and sure enough it popped right on. Balancing was a bit a a task as I think the larger truck tires are ‘wobbly’ as I’ll put it at best, but got it balanced and on. So now the rear of the Excursion has new tires, front will have to wait for another day, like Sunday 
I begin again and run into the same problem almost immediately, I can F’n seat the bead. The sidewalls are too floppy to pop up air and no matter what I do just would fill. Tried the last tire, same S#@$%. Every time I have had a problem with doing tires it seems that it was some magic trick to make it work. Back to the internet for some research, that is, of course, after remounting the old tires and bolting them back on.
What did I find? All sorts of things. Here they are -
You can ‘Explode’ them on with Starting Fluid. Looked cool, and looked like it could land me in the hospital or burn the place down.
You can get this device that essentially blows the tire up with a blast of air but it cost $250-$300 for a cheep tank and a 2″ ball valve. I think it is the Cheetah brand, definite rip off, but hey they came up with a good idea and should get paid, but still should be about 100 bucks.
Yet another option was these odd large looking O-Rings. These slip over the rim and force the seal and supposedly pop out when the bead seats.
The last one is almost obvious and I can’t believe that I didn’t think of it, and here it is… Just put a ratchiting tie down around the tire and crank it. It will push the tire evenly in and make the side walls pop out. Simple!
My plan of attack it to wait for my Tire O-Rings and then get a tie-down and get back to business. One thing that I did really find useful was the new Ingersol Rand Ti Impact gun. It is Bad A$$ed. Saved a lot of back breaking lug removal.
More as the tire fiasco unfolds
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Ford Excursion Brakes
Posted on 14. Jul, 2008 by webmaster.
Well I bit the bullet and did the front brakes on the ‘X’. I had started to have the standard vibrating pedal that most of the F250, F350, and Excursions have. I had a set of pads put in under the pre-paid service policy which amounts to the lowest cost pads without turning the rotor. Well about 20k miles later the pedal and truck would vibrate pretty bad when braking in the 50mph down to 40mph range.
