In my last thread about ignition troubles with my truck, I thought I had dodged a bullet when I found cracks in the coil, thinking the cam synchronizer was good. I should have kept my mouth shut. The cam synchro decided it was time for fail last night.
Everything had been fine all day. I went home and parked the truck for maybe 3-4 hours, and temps dropped a lot. When I drove to the store, the truck started bucking horribly as I pulled away from a light. The tach was going nuts. It did the same thing at the next light, but then smoothed out and didn't do it again. No codes. This morning was bad. It started fine, but as soon as I pulled out on to the road, it started bucking again, then I hear "chirp chirp chirp chirp." Yep, I know what that is. Again, it cleared up, but took longer this time. I got to work, and luckily was able to work on it when I had some down time. Not too surprisingly, the Ford dealer had it in stock. The shipping label on the box shows they ordered it this month, and the part number label says it was packaged in July of this year, so it seems Ford is still making these even though the Vulcan has been out of production for 5 years.
Before installing, I coated the new one in some M1 0W30, and I made sure to fill the little splash lube hole with oil until I couldn't see any more air bubbles coming out. I did the mark the intake manifold method to line it up right. I was off by a tooth on the first try and knew as soon as I started it, but I got it the second time and the bucking hasn't happened since. I let it sit a few hours after the first test drive, and again after I got home tonight, and it has been running great. I got 80K out of this one. The first one made it 64K miles.
The old one did not have any real play in the shaft, but it's much rougher when you turn it compared to a new one. There's some resistance and it feels "lumpy," whereas a new one turns smoothly. Looks like M1 has been keeping things clean though.
Old synchro...
Everything had been fine all day. I went home and parked the truck for maybe 3-4 hours, and temps dropped a lot. When I drove to the store, the truck started bucking horribly as I pulled away from a light. The tach was going nuts. It did the same thing at the next light, but then smoothed out and didn't do it again. No codes. This morning was bad. It started fine, but as soon as I pulled out on to the road, it started bucking again, then I hear "chirp chirp chirp chirp." Yep, I know what that is. Again, it cleared up, but took longer this time. I got to work, and luckily was able to work on it when I had some down time. Not too surprisingly, the Ford dealer had it in stock. The shipping label on the box shows they ordered it this month, and the part number label says it was packaged in July of this year, so it seems Ford is still making these even though the Vulcan has been out of production for 5 years.
Before installing, I coated the new one in some M1 0W30, and I made sure to fill the little splash lube hole with oil until I couldn't see any more air bubbles coming out. I did the mark the intake manifold method to line it up right. I was off by a tooth on the first try and knew as soon as I started it, but I got it the second time and the bucking hasn't happened since. I let it sit a few hours after the first test drive, and again after I got home tonight, and it has been running great. I got 80K out of this one. The first one made it 64K miles.
The old one did not have any real play in the shaft, but it's much rougher when you turn it compared to a new one. There's some resistance and it feels "lumpy," whereas a new one turns smoothly. Looks like M1 has been keeping things clean though.
Old synchro...
