Damn truck. Tires are wearing poorly (wont align properly anymore). Tirerods + upper & lower ball joints may be bad. Rear ujoint is bad, but Ford had a FUCKING retarded design, so I cant nicely spend an hour and $20 to replace it - I have to spend $320 to replace it, or buy a custom built shaft for $350-400 (or a Ford shaft for $800 + labor, but fuck that).
I think some of yall are/will be engineers, so word of advice: dont fuck it up
!
Design problem on my truck: A sanely-designed rear ujoint on a RWD vehicle should have clips that hold the ujoint caps in. In 2004-05, Ford decided it could save money by staking the caps in (i.e., pinching the caps into place, so they aren't mechanically held in, but are permanently held in). That staking means a shit ton of obnoxious pounding and jimmy-rigging the new joint in; whereas a clip just means unclip, pound out the old cap, pound in new, replace clip, done, drink beer. I'm buying a new drive shaft for $350-400 now (local Ford dealer will replace old ujoint for $320, but then I might encounter this problem in the future), when a new ujoint should be under $50.
FRICK!
That said, a hot chick invited me to a self defense class tomorrow night - we're gonna learn about defending ourselves from knife attacks. I fully expect my ass to get handed to me and to look like a fool in front of her (she trains LOTS in ju-jitsu [I probably fucked that up]).
