1992 f150 daily driver and adventure rig.

[MikeBoyle]

Love the truck. The 300ci 6 has always been one of my favorite Ford engine's.

Rud makes some awesome tire chains. Bill Burke http://bb4wa.com/ is a local OHV driving instructor and swears by there design.

From my experience, Doetsch shocks can be extremely harsh (stiff). For this reason I went with a stock length set of Bilstien 4600's on my Bronco when I did the leveling kit. Yes it limits the travel some, but unless you are running extended radius arms the stock TTB doesn't have much travel in it anyway. I maybe lost 1" of droop.

 

[underdrive]

Isn't there a 5100-series Bilstein for that truck? Find the part number and look on Amazon and Ebay, we found 5100s that would work better for one of our trucks online for cheaper than standard-length 4600s, you may luck out like that as well.

 

[MikeBoyle]

The only 5100's I could find were for either 4" or 6" lifts and were too long (would bottom out on compression) for a truck with just a leveling kit. It should be easy to find a set for the rear, but the front proved otherwise.

 

[greengreer]

Glad to know the bilstein 4600's are working well on your bronco. I had them on my old chevy and loved them. I am really wanting to go the 5100/5125 route but finding a shock in the desired length with the correct valving is proving difficult. I really should just give bilstein a call and see about getting some custom valving. Also just learned about the shock mount extension from bronco air that also allows you to run eye to eye shocks and gives about 2.5" more length. However you are right that the radius arms are going to be the limiting factor, and I really haven't put much thought into changing them. I'm happy with the tire size and ride height so I'm not sure how much they are going to do for me without more "lift".
I guess I really need to pull the trigger on some shocks but I hate to spend money twice if they aren't exactly what I want...

 

[MikeBoyle]

One thing I forgot to mention is that my Bronco has the quad shock front. I'm sure that makes a difference in how it handles with the 4600's. I really wanted the 5100 shocks as I have run them on other vehicles and always loved the way they preformed. I never thought about contacting Bilstein directly about a custom set, but I did go through their entire catalog and couldn't come up with any numbers that would work with the quad shock setup. I also understand where you are coming from on not wanting to pay for something that ends up not being what you want. When I finally decided to go ahead and get the 4600's I ordered them from 4Wheelparts. Turned out they only had 2 of the 6 shocks in stock (the other 4 were on back order). I was given the option to change my order to some Rancho or Pro Comp shocks. I told them if I wanted different shocks that's what I would have asked for and that I would rather wait for the shocks I ordered. Took 3 months to get them, but they were worth the wait.

 

[1 Bored Clerk]

My favorite full size body style! Cool truck. I like that there is a lot of practical f series knowledge going on in this thread. Keep it up!


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[greengreer]

Thanks for the tips and kind words.

So the truck died on me and I've narrowed it down to the fuel pump. Of course this is one of the few expensive parts for the truck, but so be it. While pulling the tank I found a pinhole that someone had tried to patch sometime in the past. This got me thinking about swapping in a 38 gallon tank, seeing how this truck only has one tank and is around 18 gallons or so. I found a decent writeup on a ford forum, but was wondering if anyone else had any experience with this modification.

 

[greengreer]

With some cleaning I got the old fuel pump working again. Hopefully it stays that way. I also did a temporary repair on the tank just to get the truck back together. I am torn between going the simple and cheap route of just replacing the factory 19 gallon tank or going with the 38gallon. The spectra f26e tank comes with most of what one would need to modify the mounts and pickup, although from what I understand you're on your own as far as the gauge reading correctly. Cost is about $70 vs 150 respectively and then the time spent modifying the stock sending unit, etc. Doubling my range would seem very worthwhile, and one thing I do not like about this truck is the tiny stock fuel capacity.

 

[Wisco]

Did you do anything specific to get the pump working again? The pump in my rear tank has been inop for awhile, so if there's a cheaper fix than replacing it I'm all ears. I don't pass many gas stations getting 11mpg with a 14 gallon tank.


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[greengreer]

I think the biggest thing was the electrical connection. It was pretty covered up with jellyfish. I used electrical contact cleaner, although brake kleen is basically the same product and cheaper. Not sure why the pump just went out all the sudden but I suspect it had to do with having not much gas in the tank and going up a steep hill. Hope this fix works although I will be keeping my eyes open for a discounted motorcraft pump.

 

[Wisco]

I'll have to look at the connections on mine before I spend the money on a new pump. If you do find a decent deal online for a new pump give me a heads up!

 

[greengreer]

Will do. Cheapest I have seen is a bit under 300 for the motorcraft pf3b.

So I went ahead and ordered a f26e gas tank (38gal). It should be here Thursday and hopefully I will have time to install it this weekend. I will keep the thread posted.
Also was ready to pull the trigger on some bilsteins but the front shocks are on backorder for around 3 months (pn 33-230405) so I ordered a set of monroe reflex online. Got a killer deal and they should be here next week. I'm sure they will be far better than the basically useless shocks on there now. They also saved me enough over the bilsteins to buy two pair of Rud tirechains which I will be ordering soon. Anyhow the shocks should arrive next week and I am anxious to see how they do. I will likely end up going the bilstein route anyway but this will allow me to get rid of the pogo stick ride and maybe even save up for some 5160's... we shall see.

 

[greengreer]

To update, got the tank via brown truck today. Opened up the box and low and behold there is no install kit, only a new lockring and rubber gasket. I sent amazon an email seeing what the deal is. Bummer, I was hoping to have it installed this weekend but I don't know what they will be able to do about the missing parts. I could get everything I need in town but I paid for a tank that I believed to come with the necessary parts to install it. Caveat emptor, but hopefully amazon can send this stuff out quick. Other than that the tank looks well made (in Canada) and I put a coat of rattle can truck bedliner on her. Probably do a second to keep corrosion at bay, also thinking about doing redkote on the inside but I will have to search to find it locally.

On a brighter note the shocks came in today too, several days early so I will be able to install them sooner than I expected. Got them through ebay at a great price and delivered super fast.

 

[underdrive]

Well that's a bummer that your tank came without the install kit. But mistakes happen especially now that the holiday frenzy is upon us. Hopefully yo get it all sorted out, you will really like the extra fuel capacity. By the way the floan and its steel arm off a Bronco will wit onto your F-series fuel level sender. The Bronco tank is deeper and so the arm is longer thus giving the float more vertical reach - something you will probably need with that new deeper tank you just got.

 

[greengreer]

Amazon took care of the issue beyond my expectations. I am very pleased with the resolution. I still, however had to source the missing parts. A call to my local Napa and they should have the kit in by Tuesday. I could probably have spent some time piecing something together but I would rather just have the installation kit. I downloaded the instructions from spectra's website and it says to bend the float arm 4" to retain proper fuel gauge functions.
Underdrive- the bronco parts are a good idea however I think the 33gal bronco tank is even deeper than the 38gal pickup tank so some slight modification would have to be done there too. I looked into doing a bronco tank swap as well. Instead of modding the sending unit, etc one would have to make a small crossmember to hold the skid plate. So either route you go some modification will be necessary. If I had a access to all the bronco parts and needed a new pump I would have maybe gone that route. As it stands I have about $60 in the new tank, including the spraycan bedliner.

Teaser pic of the new shocks. The reflex look way beefier, not quite the bilstein bling. But I am anxious to see how they do. If I like them I'll put a set on the f350 too, as it desperately needs shocks, and tires. I hate buying dually tires...