Bruce Amacker

These are the only parts you can get in backwards. Does this answer your question?

Light and Medium Truck trade rag just arrived. These numbers seem out of date for a June publication, but do you think Dodge is benefiting from Ford's bad diesel publicity?

I don't know much about how the contracts are written, but contracts are contracts, and the fucking unions will wave them in the corp's face while the ship is sinking to make sure they get their "proper" pay. This is partially what blows my mind- the unions just don't "get it". Have you ever dealt with pure blooded union reps? It's unreal. They think their shit doesn't stink and their existence is the sole reason the company is in business. I've never in my life seen such antagonism towards reality. This whole union thing cost me a good friend years ago. He was union and I obviously was not, working at the same company just out of high school. I asked him one day why he (a Teamster truck driver) got paid twice what I did, when I could do his job, but he couldn't do mine. I was a wrench fixing construction machines at the time- 1977. That conversation eventually got so wedged between us that we never spoke again. Oh, and did I mention I got fired over a union dispute at that company? That's a another thread all by itself.......

That's because it was a diesel running at the upper end of it's RPM range, not a gasser running in the lower end. If it's turning 70%+ of redline there's not much room for downshifting. Gas cars typically run 30-50% of redline on the highway to keep fuel economy up, leaving plenty of room for downshifting. What kind of chassis was it? Do you happen to remember cruising RPM or redline? That was a rental, right? Rentals are usually spec'ced with the smaller engine and steeper diff ratio. If you were cruising at 75-80MPH I'm guessing you were running right near redline and that's why it didn't downshift.

That's fine with me, as they didn't have much market share anyway. More customers for Ford....

Obama Motors! It makes me sick to see how the Jap carmakers have come over here and showed us how to build cars "right" when we are the birthplace of the automobile. I think the majority of their plants are non-union and they make a reasonable wage for the work they do. IIRC, Japs pay about $38/hr vs. UAW average of $70 something an hour (which is an inflated figure that includes retiree obligations). Most Americans drool at the thought of making $38/hr! Cleveland is a huge automotive town with a Ford casting plant, Ford engine plant, Chevy stamping plant, Chevy driveline plant, and Chrysler stamping plant, all within 20 minutes drive of my house. This excludes the Ford assembly plants that closed nearby in Avon and Lorain, and the huge GM assembly plant in Lordstown, both less than an hour's drive from my house. The local news channel recently showed the closed Avon Ford plant being used as a storage facility for thousands of unsold Hondas. What a bizarre sight that was! The thing that pisses me off the worst about the UAW is how many UAW workers I know that FUCKING BRAG about how little work they do! Quote#1 from the Chevy neighbor across the street: "I run out of newspapers to read at work all day." Quote#2 from NUMEROUS Ford workers at the Brook Park Engine Plant: "I work on a team of 4-8 guys. Many times I go to work and punch in, and then go home and sit by the phone (on the clock!). My teammates will call me if something comes up and I need to get in." I've seen their paystubs sitting in their cars when they come in the shop for repair. These guys are making over A HUNDRED GRAND A YEAR for this "work". They deserve to starve and die, and the US automotive industry WILL dwindle to nothing if the unions are allowed to continue in their present form. These guys actually SMIRK when they inadvertently talk about how much they make. It's like they hit the lottery! They cry like little babies when they lose their jobs because they don't have a true trade or marketable skill once they fall off the gravytrain. Even their layoff pay (which is 95% of their clock pay) is a fucking crime. The severance packages are also a joke to most of us. This has been a problem for decades that doesn't seem to end. I REFUSE to subsidize these lazy SOB's that refuse to work. Yes, I drive a Jap label car, made in Indiana by non-union labor. It's a Goddamn shame it had to happen. Between the unions and the US engineers/beancounters with their heads up their collective asses, I just can't bring myself to buy a car I don't have faith in. 25 years of running an independent repair shop showed me the weak points of the US automakers: intake gaskets, fuel pumps, power racks, head gaskets, trannies, etc. the list goes on and on. We have the ability to be the best vehicle on the planet for only pennies more per car, and they WON'T do it. I just don't understand. This is obviously a huge thorn in my ass and a huge pet peeve for me. I know I'm speaking to the Ford world here, and I ask you to forgive me for driving what I drive. I do have faith that the US automakers will come back, but I just don't know how they're going to break the backs of the unions to do it. The gov't won't help them break the unions as it is political suicide to do even think of this, much less do it. It has to be through bankruptcy or attrition somehow. Larry, you're in the heart of it all. Do you see these same problems in Detroit?

I am an opinionated person, and my opinion is that the unions have absolutely STRANGLED the automakers over the last few decades. This is not a new thread, really, we've explored it before. My wife (a retired teacher) with a Master's degree, never made nearly what an assembly monkey makes for the Big Three. Her pension is good, but I'd bet a retired assembly worker makes 30% more than she does and they pay the family's health care, too. I have to pay my own HC once she retired. This, along with horrendously bad management decisions in Detroit, have dug them a huge pit to climb out of. Ford is obviously in the best shoes of the Big Three, but they certainly have made their share of bad decisions, also. It will be interesting to watch how this plays out. I did buy a bunch of Ford stock lately.....

I just checked my pictures and there is no ball plug on the late style pump. Good Luck!

Wow, that's news to me! Thanks!

I agree with all of the above statements. However, if it is a warm day and the motor is hot, and you need to work on it quickly, there is a shortcut- a tall pedestal fan pointed at the top of the engine for 30 minutes makes all external parts cool to the touch. Try it sometime- it's surprising how well it works. Good Luck!

Management seems like they have their collective heads in a very dark place. (big surprise) I would have put a coolant pressure gauge on it to verify how much pressure it was actually building. This way you'd have a number to CYA when it comes back and they try to pin it on YOU. This is the BS that makes customers buy other products. Next week he'll be driving a Dodge....... Good Luck!

I already uploaded this picture, but I don't know what the post was. It might have been 7.3 related. Good Luck!

I'd take a chance and pull the pump. Check the gap between the teeth with a feeler gauge, a new pump is .003-.004", usually they measure .012" or more when they're worn. One guy I helped last week had one that measured about .018". Good Luck!

Check your Case Ground PID, it should read zero. If it doesn't, it means there's a bad PCM ground. I fixed a TCC problem in a Taurus a while back when I noticed the Case Ground read voltage while looking at something else. I mentioned it to the tech (who also owned the car). he cleaned the grounds, returning the CG to zero, and his TCC chuggle hot went away. Amazing what CLEAN POWER will do....... Good Luck!

It should be OK in a full size SUV, but not the smaller Jeeps. I'm wondering about the Allison, though. I actually thought about doing a repower using the VT motor when it was released. Now I'm not so sure......

I don't ever recall seeing them nearly identical on a RT. EOT has always been 10+ degrees higher than ECT on a RT. Shop temps don't count, as EOT doesn't come up to "true" temp without a load. Why would I use 25F instead of 15F? The truck we just did (both coolers replaced, not just the heat exchanger, clean the turbo, harness, EGR valve, IAT2, oil leaks, and a bunch of other piddly stuff) ran 12ish degrees apart, like I said. If it hit three more measly degrees we would condemn a brand new $600 cooler as bad? You're not leaving much room for error. To me, if an oil cooler is restricted, you're going to see a hell of a lot wider gap than 15F. I've seen several with 50+F difference. Anyone else care to comment, especially on EOT RT temps? I wish I took more recordings....

We just did both coolers and a bunch of misc on an '04 F550 wrecker. 15 mile RT unloaded on the highway, 60F ambient, showed ECT in the high 190's when done with EOT 205-212F, with a max spread of 12F. Ford revised the maximum spread to 15F but I still use 25F for diag. 15F is too close to normal for me. Good Luck!

The older trucks used to have a lot of problems with firewall flex, stroke the pedal while watching under the hood for excessive flex near the clutch MC. We welded a lot of broken firewalls in the 80's and 90's. You did already replace the position switch? It acted the same both before and after replacement of the switch? Good Luck!

I'd check fuel flow on the return side. It's a return system, right? A weak pump will cause this due to fuel boiling in the rail and not enough ooomph from the pump to flush the vapors out. I had my ass beat by one like this a few years ago and it taught me a lot about fuel flow. Return flow should be like a hard piss- more than a pint in 30 seconds. 40psi doesn't mean anything if the flow is low. Don't measure flow on the supply side, measure it on the return side after it overcomes the regulator. Good Luck!

I've heard this hypothesis kicked around, but feel there would be overheating problems associated with this, also, or at least DTC's. Good Luck!

Are the pumps new OEM, FQR, or aftermarket? You've had 3 pumps break the shaft in the last 6 months? I assume that all three are from the same supplier? I assume the tensioner is working correctly, right? What type of coolant are you using? I assume the mix is correct and the coolant is not freezing and causing an excessive load on the pump. I've never heard of this situation and would also seem to think it is a supply problem. I'll guess these are remans and the reman company is providing junk, I generally change suppliers long before I have 3 bad in a row. Nearly 10 years ago I made a decision to use only new OEM water pumps after having a rash of new aftermarket pumps come back on the hook. I can't remember having one come back after that.

I haven't experienced this one, and it doesn't seem to make sense to me. If the plunger were indeed sticking (or if the spring under the intensifier piston were broken), higher FP would make it return easier and function better. (In reality, I think 55PSI wouldn't make much of a difference given the small diameter of the plunger tip. The plunger is about 5/16" in diameter. It's late and my math is weak, but this can't account for more than a few pounds of upward pressure on the plunger) In the cases with low/no FP I've seen, 7.3's sometimes run rough at idle or have low power. I've never seen a case where lowering the FP made the engine run better, usually it's just the opposite. My guess is there was a problem with the inlet check ball next to the plunger. I've certainly not seen everything, though. I've got a cool animation of a 7.3 injector, I'll try to post it.