the van Bill - 2003 7.3 E350 4X4 Build

[furbucket]

New headlights, new marker lights, new grille!
The headlights and markers (with switchback LEDs) came from vantageoptics and the grille is no-name chinesium special from eBay. Install was fairly easy- markers/turnsignals are just a straightforward swap, and they come with a new turn signal really that prevents the hyperflash that can happen when switching to LEDs.
Switching from the sealed beam style headlights to the composite shape ones involves removing the old lights and the metal cradle thing, adding in the metal slide locks (included) and adding the LED driver wire harness (also included). The only slight hangup was that the provided metal slide lock things didn’t want to fit over the plastic adjusters - I had to file the upper key slot hole wider on both outside pieces. Then I spent some time aiming them (don’t be the lifted truck guy that blinds everyone on the road).
All of the great things people say about Vantage Optics are true- these things are so much better, should’ve bought them ages ago.









The eBay grill turned out great also. It even has features - the top marker lights were obvious but the bottom light bars were a surprise, they are white in parking light mode and chase orange with the turn signals. There are zero directions included. After making sense of the included wiring harness and testing with a battery to learn what everything does, I secured/loomed it all and then installed the grille. You have to reuse the top screws and bottom metal clips from the old grille. The van’s wire harness is behind the passenger side headlight- I used tap splices to connect the marker lights (brown wire), and turn signals (right is white/blue and left is white/green). We’ll see how long they last, but I like the grille even without the lights. Not quite sure how sharing videos works but here's a couple short ones.

 

[furbucket]

Body mounts.

“This job sucks, at least it’s not raining. Oh look, it’s starting to rain.”

I will preface this post with a note to ask yourself, do I really need to change my body mounts?? Cause maybe a little rust is ok…
I had one bolt that had already broke itself, and one that was pretty rusted out (driver’s footwell, pretty much the only rusty spot on the van). One rubber “puck” was just starting to crack. I thought, I should change all these now- once I finish the floor they are not accessible. Every car guy I know laughed at me, shook their head, said some choice words and laughed some more. I read every post and watched every video and knew it wouldn’t be fun but it was extremely not fun. This won’t be a tutorial, there’s threads and videos that explain better than I would, but I will share my insights.

It took us about a day and a half to finish one side of the van. Can’t wait to start the other side. Without a lift you need to do one side at a time, so you can jack up the body to get the old ones out/put the new ones in without it sliding off the frame or getting all crooked.

You need a 21mm wrench (and your awesome wife) under the van to keep the bottom receiver from spinning, and an 18mm socket with a breaker bar up top to break things loose. Once you get the old bolt out, put it back in a few threads and grab your air hammer with a socket adapter and go to town- and hope that forces the bottom half out of its home. This worked for three.
Bummer #1- The other three required a combination of a sledge hammer, an angle grinder, an oscillating multi tool with carbide blade, and fire. This part turns the job to ****, makes it take hours longer, enhances your vocabulary in all the best ways, tests your marriage, and is the reason why beer tastes better at the end of the day.
You can cut the old bottom rubber part off with a utility knife before the assault.

I highly recommend spraying all the old bolts with PB Blaster for a few days before you start. The old mounts aren’t easy to remove and way worse with a broken off hardened steel bolt stuck in it. They also have thread-lock from the factory so, before you try and unscrew, heat the bottom end of the bolt that sticks out with a torch - this helped a lot.

Biggest bummer of all them- the internet lied to me… Every post, video, and webstore says there are THREE flavors of mount for these vans- position 1, position 2/3/4/6, and position 5. So that is what I ordered. The only ones still made are Dorman. 924-055 for the front (position 1), 924-056 (position 2/3/4/6), and 924-057 (supposedly position 5). THIS IS INCORRECT! I don’t know what years or body type position 5 is different on, but not mine. I happen to have the service manual (thanks eBay) and it indeed corroborated my eyes in real life- they are all the same except for #1!

Aside from the wasted money (these aren’t cheap) I also had to steal one from the future passenger side pile to finish the drivers side. Currently waiting for replacements to show up and rain to stop so we can do the other six.
The first picture up there is #5 if anyone doesn’t believe me or the service manual.

You need to drop the fuel tank to get access to number 4 on the driver’s side. You’ll have to disconnect the filler and vent hoses but if you don’t drop it all the way you can leave all the fuel lines- you can almost see it here sitting on wood and old tires

You’ll need to move the power steering reservoir out of the way to get access to the front driver’s side one

The front ones are indeed different- the bottom is inside the boxed frame rail and they are oval and key into the frame and don’t have a nut on the bottom. The lower receiver itself is threaded. Both of the ones I got came with the upper and lower parts already stuck together- like really stuck together. I had to use a vice and large hammer to get them apart. And doing so I also noticed the threads were pretty crap. Maybe an M12 - 1.75 tap to chase the threads would’ve helped- but I don’t have one. Anyway, here comes bummer #3, while trying to get the bolt installed all the way I completely annihilated the threads- like all the way gone. And without threads you can’t beat on a bolt to get the bottom half out. So I got a longer grade 10.9 bolt (originals are 9.8 but good luck finding those), some washers and a flanged nut and used that instead. You can see the bottom of the new bolt and the nut here

The new bolts seem to have about two less threads than the old bolts- this was only a problem in one spot where there weren’t enough threads to “catch” the bottom receiver and pull it in. My wife threw in an old bolt and those two extra threads were enough to get it started and then switch to the new one.

All bolts should be tightened to 52lb.ft. according to the manual

The driver’s footwell is rusty, which will be remedied another day, but I at least wanted to fix the bit under the bolt head, so we did that with a wire wheel and por15

Half way done! We’re still married and I still have beer in the fridge! Will finish passenger side in the next day or two depending on rain. Will report if I learn anything new along the way.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

 

[vintageracer]

I would add to your post to use a better product than PB Blaster for the rusty bolts.

Years ago the Machinist Union did scientific testing of all the commercially available penetrating oils.
The results of the best commercially available penetrating oils:

#2 Kano Kroil
#3 Liquid Wrench
#4 PB Blaster

Where is #1 you ask?

#1 was TWICE AS GOOD as #2 Kroil in the scientific testing.

#1 is a 50/50 mixture of ATF (Automatic Transmission Fluid) and Acetone you can make at home.

Like all penetrants you have to give it time to work. 24 hours is best and the key to any penetrating oil doing their thing!

This mixture of ATF and Acetone works fantastic on most anything rusted or stuck. I keep a mixture of this penetrating oil on the shelf in a "Chemical Resistant Spray Bottle" and use it all the time on rusty or stuck parts.

Give it a try the next time you are going have a fight with rusted bolts or other rusted stuck items.

Below is a reference to that testing from a machinists forum:


"The April/May 2007 edition of Machinist's Workshop did a test of penetrating oils where they measured the force required to loosen rusty test devices. Buy the issue if you want to see how they did the test. The results reported were interesting. The lower the number of pounds the better. Mighty interesting results for simple acetone and tranny fluid!

Penetrating oil . Average load .. Price per fluid ounce
None ................. 516 pounds .
WD-40 .............. 238 pounds .. $0.25
PB Blaster ......... 214 pounds .. $0.35
Liquid Wrench ... 127 pounds .. $0.21
Kano Kroil ........ 106 pounds .. $0.75
ATF-Acetone mix.. 53 pounds .. $0.10

The ATF-Acetone mix was a 50/50 mix (1 to 1 ratio)."