ford

On my way up Cobb Mountain I started hearing and feeling click/thump noises from somewhere in the middle of the truck. It turned out that the carrier shaft bearing's rubber isolator had failed, probably because of added vibration because a bolt was falling out. I was lucky enough to have an appropriate wrench handy, and made it home; as long as you are very gentle on the accelerator you can even go up hills with the isolator broken, but jam that pedal and THUMP THUMP THUMP as the bearing bounces around in the bracket.

My 1992 F250's radiator failed and (as per the link) I replaced the radiator and installed a custom coolant filter at the same time. I used parts ordered from International, and plumbing parts from a local agricultural pump and plumbing supply. All connections were sealed with blue RTV silicone sealant for its ideal compatibility with coolant and its high grip strength.

While I was gone, Rob was trying to use my truck to haul other trucks, with my permission of course. Unfortunately, every time he tried to take it out, it had some kind of problem. Notably, a bad ground produced smoke during an attempt to start, and the radiator failed around the cap neck. Luckily, at this time he had a parts truck, and so he replaced the ground and also set aside a radiator for me (as well as a winch mount bumper and a new tow hitch which isn't unusually long.) Yesterday I did this radiator swap.

As a veteran owner of used vehicles, I am more than a little used to encountering automotive problems. When my Ford's charging system idiot light began to flash at low RPMs, I knew I had a serious problem coming my way. When it picked up to doing it on a regular basis, I realized that the problem had arrived, and unless I wanted to be buying a pair of deep-cycle batteries, I should find a solution, probably in the form of an alternator replacement. After doing a little research, I decided to install a later-model Ford alternator.