Best Manual and Start up maintenance

[Runright]

Hi all.

I'm new to the forum and new to owning a Powerstroke. I just picked up a 1995 F250 with a 7.3L Turbo. I bought it yesterday and it has been sitting for a while. It has 159,000 miles and overall seems to run pretty well. What maintenance manual do you recommend? Also does anyone have a list of startup maintenance? I plan on changing the oil and fuel filter any other suggestions?
The only problem that it seems to have is the brakes are soft. Pads are good I plan on bleeding it tomorrow and found a couple of threads on potential pitfalls with the brakes.

PS I almost completely burnt my new truck and garage down last night. I know I didn't have to plug it in but I wanted to see how it would start in the morning. I plugged it in and put away some tools from another project. I checked it one last time before I headed to the house for the night and it seemed fine. I'm back at the house for about an hour and noticed the lights flickering. I instantly threw my boots on and sprinted to the back garage(a little over 100 yards). Check the cord and it seemed a little warm at the connection just a faint ozone electrical burning smell. I unplugged it and didn't notice any smoke. I decided to check under the hood.. GOOD thing I did!! a nice little fire had just broken out where the cord plugs into the block heater!!. That was a close one!!! Moral of the story... Don't plug it in before you had a chance to inspect the connectors and wire!

[zROCK]

you may want to have someone cheack that house breaker that plug was on. it should have poped the breaker..

[Runright]

zROCK,

Thanks. I did check it out. As well as the rest of the breakers on the subpanel. The only thing I can figure is that it was drawing less than 18 amps(the amount the 20amp breaker should trip at).

Any suggestions on a good manual for the Powerstroke? Thanks

[retmotor]

Manual: Auto Repair Manual CD Factory Service Manual (I didn't find it, but I'll pass it along.)

I have a 1996 but had to get the manual for a 1997. They're getting scarce. And they're pricey.

There's Chilton and Haynes of course, but you qualified your manual request with the word, "good" so that leaves them out. Plus I understand they don't even cover the 7.3 in their manuals.

I've read a lot of the guys use AllData (you can find a link to it on the bottom of AutoZone's site). I tried it for my 1995 and it was a love-hate relationship.

As for maintenance, when I get an older vehicle I usually do all the maintenance required for the 100,000k mile maintenance unless I absolutely know the vehicle was well maintained.

Welcome to the board and glad you caught the fire by the way...

[retmotor]

I think this is a reproduction of the Ford manual for less than half what I just paid:

Helm

Why didn't I see that first...