Ford F-150 Maintenance Before Camping: Drivetrain (Part Three)

Stay under your truck for a little bit longer as you’ll need to inspect the drivetrain of your truck. We’ll show you what to look for and how to inspect your drive!

First is to look at the obvious: torn boots on non-I-Beam 4WD…

Grease leaking from your pumpkin or pumpkins, grease on your brake shoes; all of these are indications of needed repair that don’t require measurements or feel to let you know they need to be looked at.

If you see rear-end grease on your brake shoes, you’re in for more than just a seal replacement as the grease soaks into the brake shoe lining and won’t come out. You’ll need to replace those shoes while you’re doing the seals.

Your driveshafts will possibly have grease fittings at the u-joints so take care of those while you’re there. There shouldn’t be much play in those joints, either. If you can twist the driveshaft you hold the pinion still you will need to further inspect and most likely replace your u-joints.

Check the linkage of your transfer case on older trucks and take some lithium grease to them to reduce noise and free them up a bit.

You’ll also want to be sure that your front axles will lock when you engage 4WD, so inspect the vacuum lines going to them on auto locking hubs or try to twist them to lock on manual hubs. Hop in the truck and engage each drive, making sure that the transfer case engages and you get 4WD before you actually need it.

“Ford F-150 Maintenance Before Camping 4: Checking Your Winch and Electronics (Part Four)” is the next and last installment of this feature.

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