Knocked out the first 100 miles! I’d love to say they went smooth but I can’t even make up a story like that....
So I mentioned my two issues and as of now I think I have them under control. Actually a little afraid to say that out loud but oh well. The big issue I was having was with the fuel system. I was getting pretty irritated and then it clicked. My pump was obnoxiously loud so I moved it to the front of my fuel tank and as low as possible but it didn’t fix it. Then I got a sender from a saddle tank which worked perfect with my tank due to me having to flatten the top of the 31 gallon tank for clearance issues that I overlooked during the build. Still didn’t fix it. I tried everything I could think of in the fitech settings, emailed fitech (which I now regret other than having something to add to their troubleshooting), and I even almost died once because the truck died in a busy intersection! I cussed fitech many times and cussed myself for getting an external pump, but now I have the problem solved. So what was wrong??? Well, you see....
fitech says you can run any fuel pump off the orange wire as long as it doesn’t draw more than 15 amps. The fitech framerail pump does not draw more than 15 amps, but when your post filter is plugged it sure does, which causes cavitation, surging, loss of power, stalling in intersections, anger, high blood pressure, ED, insomnia, flying cats, angry neighbors, poor attitude, and the list goes on and on and on.
And the moral of the story is, don’t be an idiot. Unless you are building your rig in a hospital you’re gona get crap in the tank. If you have a small post filter it’s going to plug up quick.
Here’s how I fixed it. After I cleaned the filter element once, I took it for a drive and it ran GREAT! I put about 5 miles on it with a big smile on my face, but by the time I got back to the house I could tell it was plugged again. Bummer.... I remembered that I had a high pressure 10 micron filter in my toolbox from my crawler build so out with the tiny filter and in with the biggie boy! So far so good! I even picked up a spare that I’ll throw in after I run a couple tanks of fuel through it.
And the issue with the range box is almost ok. I need to do what
@Bent77 did to his, but it’s working for now. I did get it to pop out of high once, but after that I couldn’t make it happen again?
So here are problems number three and four.
3. Noisy 205.
Problem solved. On my list of things to do it says.... and I quote.... “top off 205”. I only had one quart of oil in it. Not cool. I don’t think I hurt it too bad, but I feel like an idiot. Filled it up and by golly it quieted right down! Imagine that?!?!?
Everything appears to work right, and I drained the quart out to check for metal, but it was good so I’m gona keep running it till something develops!
4. Rear output yoke is junk. The tabs on the outside of the caps that hold the ujoint aren’t doing a very good job so I’m getting some nasty vibration. I’ll see if I can tap them back in place temporarily while I wait for a new one to show up. Or I could take the brand new one off the front output and use the old one on the front. Naaaaaa. Hammer sounds better. The good news is my driveshaft doesn’t vibrate until the caps slide out a little.
Other than that, I really can’t complain! I had the truck up to 70mph and it drives nice. Rutted roads throw it around, but I am blaming these stupid round iroks and obviously the 56” springs. A good set of 40s and 52s will be great! My steering box still leaks but I expected that after I rebuilt it. It needs to become a core that someone else can deal with. I have two more 2wd boxes that I can swap in if it gets too bad.
I have a lot more that I want to do but it’s going to have to wait a little while. My son graduates next month and I really need to bust his truck out. I’ll start a build thread tomorrow when we drag one of the three trucks in to begin the process of making one. Lol
