Traded my 96 Cobra and picked this up this summer. 2006 FX4 Plus. Bone stock minus Flowmaster and bedliner, 62k miles. I've done every bit of work myself and plan to continue, though dreading lower ball joints.

Mods so far:

Exterior:

- Repainted all four doors (door edge guards ate the paint)
- Bed Separator
- 20" D i c K Cepek GM7 wheels
- 275/65/20 (34x11) BFG KO2 tires(on my second set now)
- Painted door handles
- Painted mirror covers
- 2014 style power/heated mirrors w/led turns on front and back
- Repainted fender flares
- Projector headlights w/ 5k hids
- Retrofitted ford fusion fogs w/ 5k hids
- 5 function LED tailgate light bar
- Billet upper and lower grills
- Raptor Style Grill (gray)
- Bug deflector
- Vent guards (removed)
- Hunter Bull bar
- 2x 42W Led off road lights 22" Auxbeam 4d light bar
- 2x 18w reverse lights by hitch
- Custom switches/relays(can turn on bull bar led with high beams or independent. Can turn on rear led lights with reverse or independent.
- 20% Tint
- Red/Clear led 3rd brake light
- Led bulbs/turns/plate/reverse/etc
- Line-X bedliner


Interior/Audio/Electronics

- Crimestopper 2way remote start
- Pioneer NEX 4100
- Alpine 5 Channel amp
- JBL 6x8 components front, 6x8 2 ways rear
- 8" Kicker Comp RT 10" Infinity Kappa Subwoofer
- 82 Sq ft of Noico 80mil butyl sound deadening mat (dynamat)
- New Factory Floor Mats
- Led dome lights

Performance/Suspension

- Rancho 9 way adjustable Quick lift loaded struts and shocks
- MagnaFlow cat back exhaust
- Drop in K&N filter Volant cold air intake system
- Edge/Gryphon tuner with dash pod
- Power stop z23 performance ceramic brakes and drilled/slotted rotors
- Prothane sway bushings

























Fogs only


28 Feb 2016

 

Reserved for more pics

 

Very good looking truck! Lots of nice work, too.

 

Nice!

The lower ball joints are easy. Just borrow a press from the parts store. They slide right out, and the new ones slight right in. Not a hard job.

 

Thanks y'all.

I watched a video where the guy said you had to drop the cv axles to get to the lowers. Made it sound like a much more tedious job. Not so?

 

Oops. I'm 2wd so I do not have cv axles. My apologies. Still, I don't think it's as bad of a job as you may think.

 

I'm gonna tackle it next month with the brakes and suspension upgrades. I'm pretty handy, I figure it can't be that bad, my first 4x4, so still doing my research. I'll probably do all the u joints as well. I'm tracing a pretty annoying bed bounce/shake at 52mph and a slight vibration at certain highway speeds.

 

The bed bouce could be an out of balance tire. Seems common for it to be around the low 50 mph. Or, I also recall reading something about some type of weight that certain trucks have mounted to the frame that could have something to do with that.

Have you had the tires road force balanced?

 

No. I bought some Falken tires and had them road force balanced and they were bad. Swapped them for bfgs and had them balanced by the dealer. No one within about 30-40 minutes road force balances. Same shake with both all three sets of tires in had(falken,bfg,stock). It feels like when your setting in a chair and start nervously shaking your leg.

Funny thing is when I have the whole family in the truck, it doesn't do it. Gonna replace shocks and see if it helps. I'm about due for them anyway.

 

Thanks, I did more looking and turns out a 13mm to get the hub off and the ball joint is easy to access.

 

very nice

 

Very nice rig. 62k on a 2006 that's not even broke in yet!

 

Id try taking it to a place that does the road force balance. I know it's not close, but it could solve your problem. You could also have a very slightly out-of-round wheel. That would explain multiple sets of tires doing the same thing.

My previous set of wheels were the stock steel wheels. Had them on the truck since new till last spring. Kept having an annoying vibration around 52 mph. Went through multiple sets of tires and nothing solved it. Finally one tire shop checked the wheels and 2 of the 4 were not perfectly round. I'd never hit anything that I recall as I'm very carful / gentle with my truck.

Anyway, new set of wheels fixed that issue.

Only other thing I can think of, sometimes changing the tire pressure can help some. Are they P rated or LT?

 

tell me more about this mod...

 

Well, left switch is for the rear off road lights. It is connected to the the battery for power and the pink and black reverse wire in the driver's side door channel. The lights themselves are powered by the reverse light wire at the tail light. Because a relay triggers that black and pink wire, they come on in reverse, or independently with the switch. Great for lighting up a camp site or pissing off tailgaters.

The middle switch is for the lights on the bull bar. It is powered by a relay harness from the battery. I also wired a relay from the back of the headlight switch high beam trigger wire, to the trigger wire on the relay from the battery. This allows the lights to come on independently with the switch or also with my high beams.

The fog light switch is truly for the factory fogs. I bypassed them at the switch. No more pull out for fogs. I HATE how to go to parking w/ fogs I had to pass the off option on the factory switch. I drive onto an air force base every morning and I shut my low beams off to not blind the gate guard. I leave parking and fogs on so I can still see and be seen.

I have also done the Bambi mod where I can have fogs on with high beams.

The switches themselves are easy. Dremel cut off disc and sanding attachments. There is plenty of room behind there.

Lights on switches are tapped into the illumination switch and dim with the rest of the dash.

Diagram for reference.




Headlight switch diagram from Google.