January 2019 I overhauled the rear axle in a Ford Transit and out of convenience stuck my magnetic dial indicator on the underside of the body while I continued working. I forgot it was there and the truck left before I realized what happened. Today that truck was back for the driveshaft recall. So is my rusted up dial indicator! I can laugh about it now but I was pissed at the time.  I bought over 30 years ago and have yet to replace it. 

 

Jim Rogers replied to a post of mine in the electrical forumand that got me to thinking.... (not a good thing, sometimes).
 
I have one ugly little tool that noe of the guys in our shop ever thought of but they have come to covet mine and have given it the name of "Jims brick" - starting at one end, there are two clips that fit on to the battery posts (IIRC $1.98 here in Canada) attached to about 30 feet or so of wire (one conductor red, the other black - about $10 at what used to be Radio Shack). At the other end, a scrap of 2X4 with a fuse holder and two posts - one B+ and the other B-. Wherever I go on the vehicle, I have a known good ground and a known good power.
 
Like most, I also have an old sealed beam headlight with two wires for load testing a circuit.... current plans call for replacing this with something I can adjust the load on to some degree and to add an audible tone for those times where one cannot see the light.
 
A third device sees limited use but has helped... it is a variable resistor substitution box that my dear old Dad made in basic training with the Royal Canadian Signal Corps - in about 1942.
 
Other goodies.... my "amps amplifier"... A simple coil of wire taped and terminated so it can be inserted into a circuit. The wire should be looped 10 times - clamp your amps probe around it and divide the meter reading by 10. Great for getting a fine reading on low current draw circuits. Don't forget that the VMM comes with amps probes....
 
Years ago, I would take a two prong round TS flasher and substitute it for a fuse. Good for looking for shorts in lighting systems. Not sure how this will work now that wire gauge is selected more "carefully" by the manufacturer. Used to be 14 ga was "small".... now it's "big".
 
If you don't have an amps probe and are a little worried about blowing the fuse in your DMM, get a one ohm resistor (10 watts or better) and put that in series into your circuit. Measure the voltage drop across the resistor and multiply that by 1 (pretty simple, huh?) to get current flow in the circuit.
 
Hope these ideas give some food for thought.... Have a merry Xmas.

I finally had the opportunity to use my Beydler Drill Guide. This was an exceptionally corroded truck - a 2012 F550 with a 6.8L V10 engine with 8700 miles on the odometer. It's a municipal truck that apparently is used for snow removal here in Northern New Jersey where the use of brine solution for ice control on many of the roadways is becoming more common. Apparently this stuff is more corrosive than rock salt in my opinion as I have never seen corrosion this bad, this quickly and on so many vehicles. The corrosion is actually eating away at the metal around the exhaust studs after they break...
 

 
 
 
A close-up of the drill guide template installed over the broken stud.

 
 
 
Another close-up with the drill guide now installed onto the template.

 
 
 
 
The Beydler template installed on the cylinder head and ready to attack!

 
 
 
 
Drilling perpendicular and on center as advertised using a Beydler supplied drill bit at slow speed and using lubrication to prevent damaging the drill bit.

 
 
 
 
The result is a straight hole down the center. At this point an attempt to remove the broken stud with an extractor was made but unsuccessfully. No problem This was followed up from here with a larger drill bit and a thread tap in an attempt to preserve the original threads but this too was unsuccessful due to corrosion. The hole was then drilled to the final size necessary to prepare for a thread insert.

 
 
 
 
Cutting new threads in the cylinder head. This is a special tap that cuts threads to accept a thread insert.

 
 
 
 
Installing the thread insert effectively restoring the stud bore with the original thread size and pitch.

 
 
 
 
The final result was excellent! The broken fastener was confidently removed with no additional damage to the cylinder head caused by drilling off-center.

 
 
 
 
End game. All of the broken fasteners removed and new studs installed awaiting new manifold, gaskets and nuts.

 
 
 
And for those of you wondering how there appears to be so much space between the cylinder head and the frame/shock tower, the secret is to unbolt the engine mount from the cross member, jack the engine up and place a piece of 2X4 between the cross member and the engine mount and remove the jack. This effectively raises the engine up and away from the frame allowing very easy access to the lower fasteners and provides a couple extra inches to get in there with a right angle drill and work. Do this one side at a time.

I just had a tough time diagnosing a "Trailer Disconnected" and several trailer lighting fault messages on the cluster of a 2018 F350. Part of the difficulty I had was due to the use of my long time trusty Tekonsha Trailer Emulator which I have not needed for some time to diagnose trailer connection issues. 


It seems that this tool no longer works with 2017 MY Super Duty trucks due to the the addition of the Trailer Tow Module used in tandem with the Trailer Brake module. I am also reading that F150's have the same issue - I am not sure what model years are affected though. It seems to still properly show lighting and brake operation by the LED's on the tool but it WILL cause error messages when using the brakes and the lights. I have verified this on three different trucks so it is confirmed. So what do you use now to diagnose those concerns while towing? I don't think many dealers have any trailers laying around for testing purposes and we asked the customer if he could make one of his trailers available for testing his truck/concern which did not go over well.

Rebuilding the 6.0 VGTurbo posted in the Ford Truck Enthusiasts Forums.
 
Mike Chan posted this link in a different thread. I lke the write-up so much that I wanted to pin it here in this forum!
 
Has anybody ever done this? Wondering on how long it takes.