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Old 02-10-2021, 10:02 AM   #3111
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Diesel Leak

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Originally Posted by Jeffrey View Post
1000 miles into my fall vacation, I'm at the Ford service dept.in Cortez, CO due to a major diesel fuel leak splattering everywhere. I sure hope they have parts here. I waited two days in their lot for them to open today. Uhhggg.
That happened to us a few years ago just as we were crossing the border into Mexico. We had to go through the truck scanner on the way across, and I noticed a major leak coming from under the hood. We drove around TJ looking for a shop and wound up in a really nice area off the main road. Eventually found a shop and asked if they could get us back on the road. Turned out one of the fuel lines had been rubbing and eventually rubbed through. No parts in Tijuana, but they said they could pull it, braze over the hole and get us back up and running.
Four and a half hours later they had it back together. I figured if I got out of there for under $350 I'd be happy. I asked him how much and he hummed and hawed, scratched his chin and said $50.

Put us a half day behind, but with five days ahead of us it was time and money very well spent

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Old 02-10-2021, 09:32 PM   #3112
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RL too funny! Yes it really does depend...but I guess you are bored with the most PERFECT weather in the USA eh?!? AND, I bet the snow youre going to is filled with mountains and beautiful scenery...our scenery is just frozen/harvested/empty corn and bean fields letting the Arctic blast breeze right on through!Today, 7 degrees, -35 degree windchill...18 inches of snow last two weeks...it'll get warm by May, lolol

Yeah. We’re spoiled here and we are going to the mountains. We recently went to Yellowstone and that -5 was a new kind of cold for us!
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Old 02-13-2021, 09:14 AM   #3113
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Yeah. We’re spoiled here and we are going to the mountains. We recently went to Yellowstone and that -5 was a new kind of cold for us!
Wow---I'd say that's a new kinda cold especially if SoCal is you home base!

Coldest I recall here in Ohio was in a suburb of Columbus, hit a -22 one winter. Now "cold" is in the middle 20's but we've hit another cold wave so middle 20's is "warm" now.
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Old 02-15-2021, 07:28 PM   #3114
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Finished the rear mud flaps...



And this is how we mounted the awming rafters and crank handles...

It's some 3-inch ABC pipe with a cap in one end and a plug in the other. Mounted with canton racing products accusump mounts - https://www.cantonracingproducts.com...l-accumulator/

We don't use the access door becuz we don't have propane anymore and we moved the shore power (smartplug) to the rear bumper.

We remounted the thule rack over the cab in case we need to carry something...like these https://www.sportsmobileforum.com/fo...ack-27836.html

And we got a deal on some 37-inch yokohama geolandar x-at's - once we get some 20-inch wheels, the new tires are going on!
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Old 02-22-2021, 07:25 PM   #3115
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I finally got around to putting in a mount for the Lagun table at the front passenger seat. The design was copied from Rick's (rsamco) post here:

https://www.sportsmobileforum.com/fo...tml#post258334

But instead of having a machine shop bend 1/4" sheet aluminum, I used 4"x4"x1/4" extruded aluminum angle, and cut the mount out of that.



As a bonus, the aluminum angle has a thick corner that gives extra rigidity to the mount.

I used roughly the same dimensions Rick posted, but had to relieve the lower corner to clear the wall of the van.

The hardest part was making sure everything was plumb when I bolted it up.



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Old 02-22-2021, 07:29 PM   #3116
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I like it! Reminds me, I've been meaning to concoct a similar solution for my E-series.
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Old 03-07-2021, 12:14 AM   #3117
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NP271 Front Output Shaft Seal

Earlier this week, my wife sent me a text message that the van had just started making an odd speed-dependent squeak. Fearing the worst, I took it for a spin around the neighborhood. Alternating between 2Hi, 4Hi, and 4Hi with the hubs unlocked, I figured out the problem pretty quickly. We've been driving around with the hubs locked for the last couple of weeks due to some snow storms, and the sound was present any time the front driveshaft was spinning.

A quick peek under the van, and there was transfer case fluid all over the front of the transfer case originating from the front output shaft seal. I suspect the seal failed due to old age, perhaps accelerated by using synthetic fluid when I replaced fluids 1.5 years ago. I have no way to know if the previous owner used synthetic, and anyone who has switched from non-synthetic to synthetic fluids on old seals knows that's a bad idea.

Thankfully, fixing it was uneventful. I had to drop the front driveshaft to get to the nut that holds the front output flange to the transfer case front output shaft; the seal is located under this. An impact wrench followed by a 2-arm puller removed the flange, and then I used a slide hammer with a small screw threaded into the edge of the old seal to remove it. To install the new seal, I used an ABS pipe coupler (3"?) that was just the right size.

All in all, it went very quickly--so quickly, I neglected to take many pictures. (In fact, I spent more time cleaning and regreasing the u-joints!) I've attached a couple of the more useful shots below in case you're faced with the same issue. Assuming you have the tools, it's pretty simple. I sprayed PB Blaster on the driveshaft bolts and u-joint caps a couple of nights before doing the work. Even so, the driveshaft bolts required a cheater bar on a 12pt box end wrench to break them loose (not enough room for any sort of impact or even most socket wrenches, and torque is 77ft-lb).

Note that the OEM seal on later NP271 cases is viton (brown) as shown in this picture. I was only able to source a nitrile (black) seal from the local parts store. Viton is more heat resistant, and I've read that Ford switched to viton in later years because the nitrile seals were failing prematurely due to proximity to hot diesel exhaust in truck apps.





Cleaned everything up, reassembled, topped off w/ synthetic fluid, and no leaks (nor sound) with 2h of round-trip driving to the ski slope today.
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Old 03-07-2021, 03:30 AM   #3118
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Originally Posted by Kibo View Post

All in all, it went very quickly--so quickly, I neglected to take many pictures. (In fact, I spent more time cleaning and regreasing the u-joints!) I've attached a couple of the more useful shots below in case you're faced with the same issue. Assuming you have the tools, it's pretty simple. I sprayed PB Blaster on the driveshaft bolts and u-joint caps a couple of nights before doing the work. Even so, the driveshaft bolts required a cheater bar on a 12pt box end wrench to break them loose (not enough room for any sort of impact or even most socket wrenches, and torque is 77ft-lb).

Cleaned everything up, reassembled, topped off w/ synthetic fluid, and no leaks (nor sound) with 2h of round-trip driving to the ski slope today.
Nicely done.
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Old 03-07-2021, 12:49 PM   #3119
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Not only today, but just about every day over the last several weeks, I've been adding more sound deadener to my van. Maybe I'm just getting old, but I've grown to appreciate a quiet vehicle. I've got right about 200lbs of foil backed butyl sheeting on every piece of sheet metal I could gain access to. In the cab section (and most interior trim panels) I put a layer of 4mm closed cell foam on the floor and as far up the firewall as I could manage, which admittedly wasn't very far. I filled the space between the interior panels and sheet metal with Rockwool safe & sound. I haven't done anything with the roof/headliner yet but I plan to do the same 80mil butyl, 4mm closed cell foam, and possibly a layer of MLV. That project is going to wait though because it's kind of an "all or none" undertaking vs just picking a door/wall/floor section each day and closing it back up... and I work SLOW.

I also managed to track down an annoying chirping from the exhaust which was just a broken weld where the cat and muffler join. A few minutes with a wire wheel and the welder and that was handled. I'm strongly considering adding a resonator behind the muffler to tone 'er down a little more. I do get a deep drone when climbing with a trailer and I'm hoping that will help reduce it.

I haven't been able to get out much in the last few years (made obvious by the 6,000 miles my van has driven in the last 15 months, and I probably wasn't in it for 1/2 those miles), so anything I can do to make traveling more comfortable when I do get the chance is worth the effort for me. I wish I had taken some db readings before starting all this!
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Old 03-07-2021, 01:02 PM   #3120
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Not only today, but just about every day over the last several weeks, I've been adding more sound deadener to my van. Maybe I'm just getting old, but I've grown to appreciate a quiet vehicle.
I'll second this! We have two young kids in captain's seats that sit behind the rear barn door, and it used to be super hard to hear them. I've been doing the sound deadening like you, attacking it section by section. Most recently I addressed the passenger footwell including some Thinsulate between the inner and outer walls of the body in front of the door, and that made a significant difference (subjectively speaking). I have a sound meter, but I always get carried away doing the work and don't take the time to do measurements.

I've noticed that each time I make an improvement, it makes a "new" source of noise more obvious. Next on the list is an insulated shifter boot--nothing more than a thin piece of rubber between the road and van interior, and now road noise is super noticeable from this area above 65mph.
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