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Hi Mud, 1999 was the first year of the super duty body design change and with that came alot of problems it seams like. If you read on thedieselstop.com you'll see that most of the problems come from the 99 year. 2000 alot less than 99 and by 2001 pretty much a stable year. The hot problem spots for "99" with the PSD, clutch, front rotors, ball joints, transmission, and turbo bolts, CPS, GP (relay's & plug's), valve cover harness, water pump, air filter leak if not careful upon reassymble, windshield gasket water leak and a few more I forgot about. By 2001 most of the problems had been addressed by Ford. I think the cackle/knock problem was more of a internet blown out of proportion problem than any thing. Ford did address this issue so it was a real problem at one time, 99' and 2000. My 02 never had this problem. I also believe that too many "newbie" diesel drivers expected the diesel to preform like that snap back in the seat power that a gasser has and a diesel doesn't thus alot of problems were severe "gasser" driver errors and not a substandard PSD problem. A general theme stated on thedieselstop.com "drive like you stole it" to which no vehicle will last using that driving style. Speaking of only SRW:
The 99, 00, 01 and mid 02 used a D50 front axle on the F250 4x4's and a D60 on the F350. In mid 02 all used the D60 front axle. In 99 and 2000 there was a slight change in spring thickness pack from the F250 to F350 but not enough to warrant the rebadge of the 8800GVWR F250 to the 9900GVWR F350 difference. Most of the GVWR difference was in the tires used. However if you needed commerical rated numbers then you wanted the F350. There was also a difference in rear axles for 99', 00' and 01' that I'm not totaly up to date on but with limited slip then you got the 10.5" sterling axle and if a open diff then a Dana axle was used. The camper package used a single leaf spring overhead on the main spring pack. There was also a snow plow package that came with 6k rated front springs where as the standard was 5200#. All my info is for 4wd as I was not interested in 2wd but I think I'm close on the above numbers for 2wd use. F350 DRW was pretty much standard using the D60 front axle and a D80 rear axle. All axles used synthetic oils rated for 100k mile plus changes. 02' was the first year of the 100k mile "gold coolant". The most stupid Ford design that was NOT addressed? Ford used the power steering pump to power the anti-lock brake system so if you step on your brakes really hard then you have no power steering. If you lightly apply brakes then you have both. IMO, I would only buy a 01 to mid-03 model years as thease trucks had the least amount of problems it seams. Late 03' is when the new 6.0 PSD came out. 05' is when the new coil spring front 4wd axle came out that Dodge fought real hard on there trucks to get correct in 99'. T_Bone
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