CrabbyMcNab's Adventure with Blunderbuss

[CrabbyMcNab]

No Bueno!

Found this while exploring the underneath of the van. Used a scrap piece of lumber, I hammered the bushing back in. Went in a lot easier then I thought. Took the van for a quick drive up the road and upon my return, the bushing was out again. I'm hoping the elasticity of the rubber is what is "allowing" the bar to pop-out on this one side. Nothing looks broken or bent. I will have a polyurethane replacement set on the way shortly, until then, the van is parked. As I've never replaced these before, is there anything I should know? Seems simple enough knowing that the metal sleeves will need to be "pressed" out. I have an idea working in my mind for this. The frame bushings look to be held by two bolts each, do I need to jack the van to change these?

 

[BajaSportsmobile]

No jacking or lifting necessary.

 

[CrabbyMcNab]

Wow, the original metal sleeves of the sway bar bushings are a pain the @$$ to get out. I sprayed with penetrating oil over two days prior, then I tried "pressing" the bushings out out, no movement. I used my stand-by last resort, heat, flat punch and a BFH. Worked like a charm.
New Energy Suspension bushings in and all buttoned up.

 

[350outrage]

Just saw your thread, and congrats on the purchase of Blunderbuss! It sure looks slick in the photos you posted. Mine's an '02 v-10, RB, barn door Chateau; same color as yours. I'm a little jealous of your gas mileage. V-10 has been trouble free however, so I guess that's worth something. You'll love traveling in that thing. Although these vans do ride "like a truck", its still very relaxing to travel in them. You can take anything you want, and other cars give you a wide berth when they see you coming! Also takes out a lot of stress, knowing that the van can double as a place to sleep in emergency. (lost reservations, breakdowns, etc.) Have fun and good luck with it!

 

[CrabbyMcNab]

So, I may be taking the van on a cross country trip. This will be a last minute decision as my buddies truck was smoking as his wife drove it home today. About the only thing I can do with the short notice, is change the oil and make sure the batteries are fully charged.

Anything else folks can think of that is small, quick and easy. Not that this sentence goes along with having a van!

 

[boardrider247]

So, I may be taking the van on a cross country trip. This will be a last minute decision as my buddies truck was smoking as his wife drove it home today. About the only thing I can do with the short notice, is change the oil and make sure the batteries are fully charged.

Anything else folks can think of that is small, quick and easy. Not that this sentence goes along with having a van!

Bring a spare serp belt and tensioner. And a tire plug kit.
I make 2-3 3000+ mile trips per year and so far (knock on wood) the only thing that has gone wrong with any of the vehicles was a belt tensioner on my cummins pickup truck. And now with the van we have had to put in two tire plugs.

I also always carry spare fluids. I guess I had a pinion seal go out on the pickup as well, but that was no big deal just kept filling her up till we got home.

 

[CrabbyMcNab]

For those that converted and switched out their rear axle, anyone have a limited slip laying around gathering dust? Possibly a set of the aluminum wheels to go with it?

 

[CrabbyMcNab]

Finally Happened!

Van left me stranded. Crank, crank, crank...doesn't turn over. Drove fine this morning, then sat all day at work.
Getting 11 volts or so according to the scan gauge. Windy, high teens with wind chill, possibly gelled fuel? Will wait til it warms up a bit to try again. AAA got it home safely.

 

[djbonsu]

That's voltage sounds pretty low and more so dangerously low for your FICM. Are you monitoring your FICM voltage? If so what is it?

 

[Scarab]

Getting 11 volts or so according to the scan gauge.

Like djbonsu said, that's a very low voltage for a power hungry van.
Test each battery individually, it could be that the cold has revealed a battery on its way out.

 

[CrabbyMcNab]

Pulling my batteries this afternoon and will be taking them to be tested shortly as I do not have a battery tester. I'm curious to see the date code
I programed my ScanGuage to read the FICM measurements, FMP fluctuated down to 29 then up to 30's then to 40 with the key in the "on" position. Wasn't staying constant and I didn't try further to try turning it over or leaving the key in position.
I appreciate the responses and the more I read up on the issue, the more i believe it is electrical, ie Batteries and possible FICM.
Question for folks: If I do have to get my FICM repaired, I planned on FICMrepair to do the work. I currently do not have a tune, or tuner but was thinking of the Atlas40 Tune if I need to repair. Anyone else have this tune on their van? Everything is bone stock (except the drivers seat getting the Sienna makeover!), I haven't gotten to the HPOP, EGR, Coolant, blue spring kit...

 

[bknudtsen]

Atlas 40 is a good choice. The turbo spooled up earlier, and it ran noticeably quieter.

 

[Shlaytim]

I went with FICMrepair.com, got the lifetime warranty and couldnt be happier. I had them do the Atlas 40 tune as well. bknudtsen's write up on Vandiana is what sold me(thanks for that by the way bk) Ran my van for a month with out my tuner installed, does great, quicker out of the hole, very little turbo lag and cold starts are no longer a problem. The fuel mpg's went up a little over 2 mpg. Then after a month I added my tuner and really opened it up. Driving like I stole it ("Rolling coal like a freight train") didnt hurt my mileage any and if I drive like an old man I get closer to 3mpg. I would get 435-440 miles out of a tank of fuel before and now I get 496-500 a tank, pretty good I think. The only mods I have done are K&N drop in filter, muffler delete, Diablo sport tuner, and hood vents and I had done all those before having the FICM repaired + the atlas 40 tune. Money well spent if you ask me!

 

[CrabbyMcNab]

Date code on the two Motorcraft batteries is 09/13. I don't know if it's from the van sitting over the 2013-2014 winter per what the sales associated stated, the FICM going bad, not tending tho them periodically with a tender or just not decent batteries? But, the van still struggles to fire right up, doesn't feel as if things are "strong". I connected the battery tender under the hood to the positive post in the fuse/power distribution panel. It's been connected for 24 hours and I still get the same amount of volts as seen in the video attached. I have the batteries pulled and charging individually to see if that does anything different, which I don't believe it will. This weekend, I will take them to the parts store to be tested. If they don't test well, does anyone know if Ford will take them back/exchange without a receipt? The attached video/link is cold starting prior to hooking up the battery tender. As you can see, there is a lot of fluctuation in the volts. You have to wait a minute for the video to load. The "screen shot" is towards the end of the video.

[video]http://vid1241.photobucket.com/albums/gg506/CrabbyMcNab/Dec_03_2014%20Van%20Startup_1.mp4[/video]

Don't the Diehard Platinum ever go on sale? $250 each is kind of steep.

 

[djbonsu]

I don't have a 6.0 but that initial system voltage fluctuation (from 12.0 to 10.0) is probably the glow plugs firing. Depending on how cold it is where you are, they system voltage should jump back up to 13.0 or better once the glow plugs turn off. I see the FICM voltage dips pretty low once you turn the key. I could be wrong but I believe the FMP voltage should be a rock solid 48V at key on! IMO I think the problem is your FICM and not to pressure you but I wouldn't wait too long to get it repaired as this can leave you stranded again or result in injector failure. What is your system voltage once the engine is running for a while?