Putting a little money into my truck. What should I prioritize?

I hope you don't want to rebuild the rear because you have a leak. A pinion seal is simple to put in. One time I noticed I had a drip of oil under my rear. So I tightened up the bolts around the housing. Two of them came loose. I tightened them up and no more leak.

Rears can easily go 2 million two and a half million whatever just depends how hard the person was on them if they change the oil whatever. Unless you know they need to be rebuilt and you're going to be stranded somewhere very shortly because you hear them carrying on and you know you're having trouble and you pulled the drain plug out and you have giant chunks on it...

If you're keeping the truck, what repairs to do? First of all anything that makes that truck more dependable and reliable and safe that you can get in it and go to work everyday and the truck is going to start stop and do everything that it needs to do for you to run through your day safely and without getting any dot tickets.

You sound as though you need a good mechanic that can guide you to what has to be done. Putting money back into your truck is the best thing that you can ever do but you have to know what really needs to be done. Spending money on things that you don't need just take your money away from you for the things you do need. Like your front end you probably need shock absorbers and your spring hangers probably need to be repaired. That's not rebuilding your whole front end. But you do need to have somebody go over that and check your kingpins and tie rods and everything that is on that front end and all over your whole truck.

But don't just start changing things for the sake of changing them.

Glad you're doing well for yourself. I don't know how many people are saying that right now.

Good luck.

 

I would also suggest to you that you have someone check all of your wheel bearing end play. If you have not already done it, have someone go over the front end and check the kingpins, tie rods, etc and all of the steering components.

Any problems in there will reduce the life of your tires and other components.

I would also recommend you buy a good grease gun and get used to crawling around under that truck if you're not doing it already. Grasee is your friend. Grease will keep you from having to spend a lot of money on your truck.

Then while you're under there get a good flashlight and look at everything. Get used to it. One day you'll get under that truck and you'll see something that's not right and you'll have caught it and you will have stopped yourself from hemorrhaging money on a repair because you didn't catch it early enough. Especially learn to recognize wheel seal pinion seal transmission seal leaks. Gear oil from rears you can smell.

You may already do this and it's great practice for everybody that every time you stop you should get out and look under that truck and look for oil leaks and look underneath and look all around that truck everywhere and make sure all your suspension bolts are in and your lugs are right and get used to it. I like to look at my truck in the dark sometimes with a great flashlight because sometimes you can see things in the dark with a light better than you can with sunlight.

If you have a good mechanic or you can find one pay them to just look the truck over and see if they can find any problems that are in progress or will be happening soon.

If you need a mechanic let us know which state you are in. Probably somebody knows somebody.

Good luck.

 

Glow in the dark fuzzy dice, and black interior lights are priority one.
After them, tires, brakes, suspension, cooling system, etc.

 

In all seriousness, hoses, rads, brake pots, belts, etc seem to often be neglected until they fail.
If its older, inspect all those items well.
Just something as simple as fresh coolant, a few new hoses, fresh diff and transmission fluid, can add years to the life of a truck, while not being expensive or difficult work.
I'm an old guy now, i don't do coolant testing like many owners do. I figure if its old enough for me to consider testing it, I'll just change it instead. Antifreeze and distilled water are not that expensive. Heck just opening the battery box and looking for corrosion rarely happens any more it seems. But then a driver complains when their truck doesn't start.
Depending on your cab mounts, have a look at them, i see some that are trashed, but instead of replacing them, the driver would rather polish his stacks.
Its simple things really, stuff wears out under there, how old are your shocks, grease your slacks lately, 5th Wheel adjusted properly, headlights aimed correct .

 

I would not lug that below 1450-1500. Don't be afraid of some rpms it's way easier on the bottom end. I drove my uncle's 12.7 500 for a few months and was surprised at how quick they drop off after 1500

 

Yes 100%.

With the mileage on that truck absolutely change all the fluids. See if there's anything on the plugs.

I think you said the engine is rebuilt but did they go over the accessories on the truck? So did they put a new water pump thermostat did they service the oil cooler did they put new belts and hoses and all of that type of thing? Did they put a new starter and alternator? Was the turbo replaced? How about the accessory drive?

When you have an older truck that you're not sure what was done to it it becomes a little more difficult because you have to get all that stuff caught up. The accessories on the engine are much more likely to be problematic than the engine itself especially if it was just rebuilt.