Project My2K: Part 3

Buying Used and Getting Back to Basics

This will be the third installment focused on the rejuvenation of an old worn out Ford truck. Not quite a restoration project, but more so a look into what to look out for when buying a used truck. What are some of the common failure points and what is out there to make it better than it was originally. This 2000 Ford F350 is pretty similar to the other couple hundred thousand Super Duty Ford trucks you’ll still find out there cruising the streets. Jumping from landscape job to landscape job. Backing rusted out old livestock trailers down auction barn alley ways, or occasionally towing the little fishing boat to the lake. The 7.3L Power Stroke was an extremely popular platform for Ford and it’s still quite common to see them daily even though they’ve been gone from production almost twenty years now.

The excessive thumping you’d hear from inside the cab turned out to be sway bar end links that appear to have worn themselves out years ago. With ceased up bolts and beaten out bushings, these were the culprit to all the extra road noises.

Some our loose steering and clunking noises from under the front end were also coming from the factory pitman arm. Once removed, the Ford logos tell us this was the original one installed on the assembly line over twenty years ago and it’s paid its dues for sure. The new replacement unit will help tighten up that front end and eliminate some of the high speed wander.

So, Project My2k was started as a way to show readers a little more in-depth tech sessions on pros and cons to this platform. Maybe you still own and drive one, but it isn’t as good as it once was. The mileage continues to rack up, but the maintenance schedule has fallen behind some and the old Ford just needs some love and attention. This truck was purchased recently from its original owner, with just under 165,000 miles on the odometer, which honestly is low for a truck of this age. The truck seemed to run soundly but had never been garaged and a couple of decades of sunshine and relentless winters were definitely showing the signs of neglect to the chassis and paint. The truck has a few rust spots around the body panels, and the entire undercarriage needs some attention, but at it’s core the truck is solid and just needs someone to spend some time on it. That’s where we come in. We’re going to put in the hard work, time, and money on solid replacement parts to turn this truck back into what it should be. A solid daily driver, which can tackle any job you throw at it, and do it well.

Strange tire wear is always a tell tale sign of deeper underling issues with the suspension and steering of any truck. Notice the odd wear on the outer lugs of the tires, wearing every other shoulder lug deeper. The inside edge looks more worn the rest; the center rib is even showing signs of uneven wear patters. Not to mention, the tires are old, weather cracked, and extremely hard making it unsafe to drive.

While this truck has relatively low mileage for its age, at just 165,000, it’s showing its age and lack of maintenance from the previous owner. Shocks that quit doing their job years ago. Worn out steering joints. Excessive play in the steering box. And a thumping coming from the front suspension on virtually every bump means it’s time for an overhaul.

We’ve already made a few changes to the truck including a new intake and exhaust system, which was done for a couple reasons. Of course, first you’d think it was for performance, in which we did see a mild change. But mostly, it was to replace the worn out factory parts. The factory airbox had been broken years ago and was letting fine dust particles enter the turbocharger and engine. The exhaust had rotted out in few places and was leaking around the muffler area, so a new 4” system seemed logical. We also showed how to check for boost leaks, how to clean up the cooling stack to make sure the intercooler and radiator are functioning at full capacity, and we installed an Edge Insight CTS3 to help diagnose some running issues. Now we’re going to focus on the suspension and tires a little bit.

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Abnormal Tire Wear

The way your tires are wearing can tell you a lot about the health and overall condition of your trucks suspension and steering systems. This truck is no different than any other, and these tips can apply to any vehicle really. For this truck, it was obvious that rotations had not been happening as often as they should have, as the front tires were really showing some strange signs of abnormal wear while the rears just showed average tread life wear. They also showed some substantial dry rot cracking on the sidewalls that left us nervous to drive it far at high speeds. On that note, most tire manufacturers will recommend that tires are replaced every five years, regardless of tread life, as the rubber ages it can crack and harden making it less effective for traction, braking, and overall vehicle safety. You can check your tires manufacturer date on the sidewall. The last three or four digits after the ‘DOT’ code will tell you the week and year it was produced.

Since the 285/75R16 were shot, the original wheels were past the point of being cleaned up, and the entire front end was going to be removed and replaced it seemed the opportune time to upgrade, stylize and better outfit this truck for daily driving needs. The all new 20×9 Intimidator wheels from Anthem Off-Road would offer a much bolder, modern look while the latest all-terrain tire, the A/T 3 from Toyo would offer excellent on and off road traction suitable for daily driving, towing, and winter driving.

Side by side, you can see the main differences in tread pattern from the previous Toyo A/T2 and the all new A/T3. Obviously, the older version is worn out, cracked and need of replacement, but the updates Toyo made to their all-terrain offering means improved braking, quieter operation at highway speeds, more consistent tread wear and up to a 65,000 mile warranty. You can see we also chose to go slightly taller and wider, which means added suspension height is needed.

For this truck, the front tires were showing excessive wear on every other tread block on the outside of the tire. This tells us we had either bad shocks or an alignment issue. After a quick inspection of the shock absorbers, you could see the signs of oil seepage and the rust buildup proved our suspicions that they were old and not likely performing like they should. We also had some prominent clunking in the cab coming from the front suspension. Inspection of the parts under there found wore out sway bar end links with blown bushings and ceased hardware that was affecting the ride and stability in the corners, which could’ve also been affecting how the front tires handled the weight when rolling through a corner. We also found some play within the factory pitman arm and suspected some busing issues within the factory 20-year old leaf springs eyelets.

Up front, our factory original F350 was showing 38 1/2” to the top of the fender well, which was enough to clear the 33” tires, but it left quite a bit of rake in the truck, with the rear showing 44” in height. To improve the overall look and make room for now 295/65R20 Toyo’s, we opted to install a complete leveling kit from BDS Suspensions.

Leaning on the knowledge of our friends at Toyo Tires, which happened to be the brand of tire that was on the truck (Open Country A/T 2’s) they let us know that our tires weren’t only pushing close to seven years old, but the abnormal wear was no doubt the result of poor maintenance. Both the lack of rotations every 5-7,500 miles and the lack of properly functioning suspension parts. Owners are constantly asking why they don’t see the mileage from tires they think they should, and the answer is the same in every application. Was the proper tire pressure always run? Periodic wear checks to help sniff out chassis issues?

When was the last time you had your alignment checked? Are they kept balanced and rotated as they should?

Suspension Replacement

After finding a few issues within the suspension of the truck, it was obvious some replacement parts were in order. Being ‘upgrade’ happy, this seemed the perfect time to make some wanted changes as well. Some parts were needed, no doubt, but why not transform the truck into something more cosmetically pleasing while we’re at it? Since we’d be replacing the pitman arm, sway bar end links, shocks, and unbolting leaf springs to check the leaf spring bushings, we made it the excuse to order a complete leveling kit system from BDS Suspensions that would provide us solutions for all of that. Twenty year old leaf springs, and that factory F350 rake left us wanting a little more height up front and their 2.5” system was going to be perfect.

The first part of this job was the removal of the front bumper and grill to gain access to the front end hardware. We’d removed the crash bar next, but unbolting the six large fasteners, three on each side of the truck. This bumper will need to come out so the factory leaf springs can be removed from the truck.

We then moved on to removing the factory shock absorbers and the axle U-bolt nuts so that the axle could be dropped down away from the spring pack. On an old truck, with heavy rust such as this one, it’s always a safe practice to coat nuts and bolts in penetrating oil and bring your patience to the garage with you.

The BDS kit offered a few things we really liked when compared to other branded leveling kits. Rather than just reusing a bunch of factory parts and placing a mini-leaf pack under our stock springs, we would get completely new taller arched leaf springs. Along with longer sway bar end links, pitman arm drop brackets and of course the shocks to go with it. The new system would replace the worn parts we needed to replace (except for the pitman arm we grabbed from the local parts store) and help improve the overall stability, ride, and look of the truck. Literally, killing two birds with one stone situation here.

Our new BDS kit was going to bring upgrades in a couple different areas, including all new shock absorbers with their optional dual front shock kit that will be replacing this factory upper shock bracket.

With everything disconnected, the last step was to remove the leaf spring bolts and get that factory leaf removed from under the truck and set aside. Jack stands holding the truck up, a floor jack under the axle so it can be raised/lowered as needed, and the help of a friend can help with some of this awkward to maneuver heavy lifting.

The new spring pack added a little height while offering a firm positive ride quality. It also eliminated the ugly rusted factory springs with new black painted spring. We opted to upgrade to their dual front shock kit, which isn’t really needed in most daily driver kits, but the dual Fox shocks BDS uses work extremely well for the application and will eliminate any concerns of shock fade when off-road. The final piece to the puzzle for the front end of this truck was upgrading the steering stabilizer, which was blown out as well, with BDS’s matching dual Fox shock stabilizer kit. Which again served two purposes, the best overall bump steer improvement, and looks. The kit obviously also including new replacement rear shocks that would help with the ride quality out back. You’ll also notice in the pictures that during our tear down and installation progress we spend the $20 at the parts store on some spray can matte black and undercoating so we could clean up the frame rails, axle, and steering pieces under the truck. You’d be amazed at how much you can improve the look and perceived condition of your truck with just ten minutes of time and a can of spray paint.

Sitting on the garage floor we can compare the factory two leaf spring pack, with the new leveling spring pack supplied in our BDS system. While some leveling kits will simply add a few leaf packs to your originals, we opted for the BDS kit and full replacement springs knowing our stock springs had some sag. The BDS springs also offer an improved spring rate to offer a more stable feel and improved ride quality.

Because we’d be increasing the distance between the axle and the frame rail, some other replacement parts are required, like this pitman arm drop bracket that allows us to retain the use of a factory style pitman arm (which we are of course replacing with new while we’re here).

The new BDS upper shock mount will allow the use of dual shocks on each side of the truck, which serves a couple purposes. One, the dual shock kit will eliminate any shock fade we might experience in a high speed off-road situation. Second, it just looks cool showing off those Fox shocks under an old truck like this.

On an old Ford truck like this, with twenty years of rust build up, this can be a labor intensive job but with the right tools and some patience the results will be worth the efforts. Especially once you can get the truck back on the ground with a brand new set of shiny wheels and tires. The leveling kit installation fixed our suspension issues and left room to bump up a few sizes in tires, so the Toyo Open Country A/T3 in a 295/65R20 was chosen as the tire of choice for our needs. A solid daily driver tire with up a 65,000 mile warranty. Quiet on-road manners, excellent load capacity for towing and great snowy weather traction for the winter months.

BDS tells us that while one shock at each corner is sufficient for on road and moderate off-road use. The secondary spring will increase damping and allow longer fade-free shock performance. The second set of shocks will firm up the ride quality however, so it may not be for every owner. Compared to the twenty year old factory springs this setup will feel firmer, more responsive and improve overall handling.

To install the dual shocks, longer 1/2” bolts are required, and this means the factory lower shock mount must be drilled to ensure a straight pathway through it. BDS includes the required hardware, including a small aluminum spacer to go where the original shock would’ve.

BDS was right, the dual kit does look cool under the there. You’ll also notice that throughout this installation process we took the extra time to clean off an excess rust and slap a quick coat of undercoating and matte black spray paint on everything. You’d be amazed at how far a $4 can of spray paint can take the overall look and condition of chassis.

While the rear suspension was being left untouched, the BDS Leveling kit does include the matching rear Fox shocks and we again took the time to clean up the rear axle and springs and lay down a couple fresh coats of black paint on everything.

With that new tire some wheels were in order, again for two reasons. The factory wheels were beat up, big dings, scratches, and with a slight wobble up front at 75mph possible even a bend or two from one too many potholes over the years. The 20×9 Intimidator wheels from Anthem Off-Road was an excellent choice for this truck as it offered a certain toughness and the gloss black machined finish looked good as a contrast to the white paint and would be easy to keep clean. We even opted to add on their optional Ceramic Coating, which would help protect the surface from the elements and give us an easy rinse and wipe cleaning after a day out in the mud or the salty roads.