The ManVan. 06 E350 Chateau V10

andy29847

Adventurer
I had an 1981, a 1997 and then a 2005 Ford Van. I only dreamed about 4 wheel drive. Watch the seam between the roof and sides. My 1997 and my 2008 had issues with the paint coming off and the roof starting to rust.

van%20on%20musselman%20arch-XL.jpg


Yeah - it's a photchop.
 

rex_1_mn

Observer
Put all the brake lines on the rear and slid her back under.





Finally sitting on all 4!





This is the fancy tool I used to help align the driveshaft. Top notch stuff. Just had it calibrated



Long list of stuff that should shrink this weekend. Only major thing left for me is to cut the hole for the shifter. Then on the trailer and to exhaust.
 

rex_1_mn

Observer
Putting fluids in!! Getting closer




Shifters in. Ended up turning some of the linkage mounting holes into slots to fix the problems I was having earlier in the thread with alignment. Marked the hole outline and cut it with jig saw and step drills.





Bleeding the brakes took a while and I used all the tricks I have in my book to get it done.











 

rex_1_mn

Observer
Been a long time since I've posted an update. Trying to make the last minute dash and get everything finished up.

A few of the parts that I tried to recycle were the rear calipers and rotors. Turned out to be a bad choice as they were both trying to stick on me. New calipers, rotors, and pads and I was all fixed up.

The second thing I have been fighting is a vibration that feels like it's coming from the rear end. It starts at 60-70 mph and just keeps getting worse the faster you go. I have tried moving tires and wheels around do get it to go away with no luck. The frequency is high enough that I think it is the driveshaft. My driveshaft guy is in Moab so we will have a look when he gets back.

Over Easter I took it on its first large trip. Did about 750 miles. Went well until Saturday night. I was on about a 10 mile trip and half way through the power steering stopped working. It would only work above 1500-2000rpm. Driving this beast through the city with intermittent power steering wasn't very fun. I let it sit for the night and checked it over in the morning. Fluid looked good and didn't see any obvious signs of anything wrong. Took the 10 mile trip back to my moms with no improvement. A few hours later I wanted to take a closer look at a few things and when I started it up it was working fine??? Drove it 250 miles home with no further issue. I will be changing the gearbox again this week to fix a leak on the rebuilt unit that I just put in to fix a leak on the factory unit. I am thinking it was a sticky valve in there or something on the ujoints of the intermediate shaft. Not sure what to say.

Anyway we are on the road and getting pretty close. Pictures don't do one of these conversions justice. They get big and look like a hot wheels car. Fun to drive.
 
Last edited:

Timjim

Observer
The second thing I have been fighting is a vibration that feels like it's coming from the rear end. It starts at 60-70 mph and just keeps getting worse the faster you go. I have tried moving tires and wheels around do get it to go away with no luck. The frequency is high enough that I think it is the driveshaft. My driveshaft guy is in Moab so we will have a look when he gets back.


I am fighting the same thing. It comes up around 70 ish and get's worse at 75ish and continues onward. I don't feel it necessarily in the steering, it's like a jitter that comes up through the body. I am thinking driveshaft and possibly pinion angles.

I glanced through your measurement of the driveshaft but didn't notice if you checked the Pinion and Transfer Case Flange angles. They should be parallel or at least the rear pinion slightly down so it comes up to parallel when the axle wraps a bit under power. Easy to correct with shims. You probably know this, but it is something i read up on while figuring out vibration sources. I need to hit up a driveshaft shop and have the shaft checked, look for runout on the flanges and driveshaft, and hopefully that will do the trick.

I know the jitter in my rig is annoying and I want to get rid of it. Hopefully yours is simple.

A good read that taught me a bunch:

http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTricks/Driveline-101.shtml
 

rex_1_mn

Observer
Super clean build. Where did you get the diff cover?

Amazon ASIN#B01J6EJ0B0
Just looked though and they say it is no longer available???

Thanks for the thoughts on the driveshaft. I might just bring it to a shop and have them take care of it. Summer is here so it's time to be done.
 

TrevorK

New member
Any chance you have some photos showing how your exhaust is routed away from your front driveshaft? Am I mistaken, or is that something that needs to be moved for V10 vans?
 

Jsweezy

Explorer
Any chance you have some photos showing how your exhaust is routed away from your front driveshaft? Am I mistaken, or is that something that needs to be moved for V10 vans?

Yep you will need to reroute it. Easiest and smoothest is just to have the drivers side go under the tranny and then back and connect just in front of the joint to the rear. There's really no wrong way to do it but there is definitely improvements to be made when doing it for the flow.

Edit - And good luck getting anyone to talk about it on here. I started a separate exhaust thread and didn't get very far. Just take it to an old school exhaust shop.
 

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