If any readers have a certain spec of Blue Oval workhorse in their fleet, they best pay attention to a recent recall from Ford. The company is recalling 223,628 Super Duty pickups to deal with an issue of faulty powertrain components. At fault are driveshafts that can apparently fracture under a specific set of conditions.
According to the NHTSA, certain F-250 and F-350 models equipped with gas engines and aluminum driveshafts can suffer problems with underbody thermal/acoustic insulators which may loosen over time and eventually make contact with the driveshaft. This could score or otherwise damage the shaft, potentially leading to failure due to localized overload condition caused by a reduction in material thickness. In other words, the insulators could gouge the rapidly spinning driveshaft and weaken it to the point of fracture. Inadequate adhesion of the insulators to the underbody is pointed to as a root cause.
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