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Project Vehicle - 1998 Explorer Limited




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A little bit of a let down today:

This photo doesn't reveal how stained the floor mat still is:
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If you have time....Could you send me dimensions of this piece of carpet - Im thinking ill make one for my Ex.
 






If you have time....Could you send me dimensions of this piece of carpet - Im thinking ill make one for my Ex.
Sure thing!

That carpet you pulled from the salvage yard looks like it could possibly be saved with some more work. Check out this video:


I'm considering mixing up the chemicals described in that video, and combining that effort with the pressure washer. Then applying the slightly darker gray dye to the carpet to hopefully hide any remaining staining.

How long did it take for you to get the seats and center console out of your Ex?
 






I can have my seats out in about 15 min, of course I have had them out several times so the threads are 'clean'. Originally took about 30 min to an hour. You'll need a T-50 (?) for the seat belt in the floor.

You'll need a 10mm, 15mm, 18mm and Torx (for seat belt) for all the bolts.

Pop out the plastic kick panel plastic and door sill plates. You'll need plastic pry bars.

Oh...don't forget the console....remove the hardware and pull back ... hard!

Here is a good thread to help get it done quick: Removing Interior Get To Trans Access Plate
 






I can have my seats out in about 15 min, of course I have had them out several times so the threads are 'clean'. Originally took about 30 min to an hour. You'll need a T-50 (?) for the seat belt in the floor.

You'll need a 10mm, 15mm, 18mm and Torx (for seat belt) for all the bolts.

Pop out the plastic kick panel plastic and door sill plates. You'll need plastic pry bars.

Oh...don't forget the console....remove the hardware and pull back ... hard!

Here is a good thread to help get it done quick: Removing Interior Get To Trans Access Plate
Thank you! I just ran out on my lunch break and bought a set of Torx bits for the seat belts.
 






That carpet will come clean with some real good work with dawn dish detergent, spray bottle for it, and a power washer on a driveway with a good slope. Pick a real hot day, and go at it. sawhorses and a fan underneath will help dry it. Beware, it'll be very heavy when wet so have a helper to get it up on sawhorses after spraying.
 






That carpet will come clean with some real good work with dawn dish detergent, spray bottle for it, and a power washer on a driveway with a good slope. Pick a real hot day, and go at it. sawhorses and a fan underneath will help dry it. Beware, it'll be very heavy when wet so have a helper to get it up on sawhorses after spraying.
Good thing I have sawhorses and a wife! LOL (That sounds pretty bad actually!)
 






YAY! I made very little but good progress today! I'm not spending much time on "the turd" (as we've taken to calling it at work) because I want to play some of the new maps on Call of Duty before my wife gets home!

So first, what I'm really excited about: MY DRIVER SIDE POWER MIRROR WORKS!!!! I feel like such an idiot! It turns out I was holding the switch upside down when I tested it. So I was actually testing the passenger side mirror. I figured this out today when I tested the driver side mirror again, and it wasn't working. So I figured I would test the passenger side mirror this time. When I attempted that, I heard a buzzing/whirring noise by my ear, and when I turned to look, I saw the driver mirror moving. Both mirrors work!

I pulled the driver door lock actuator out today as well. I managed to do this without taking the riveted on bracket out of the door. My only concern is there isn't anything connecting the door lock to the latch mechanism. The door lock is just sitting there not attached to anything. Does anybody have a picture of how that is connected that they can share with me?

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I found the linkage between the lock cylinder and the latch mechanism. But I also found a broken spring I can't place...

ETA: Here is the spring; I'm concerned it came out of the latch mechanism...
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Long evening!!!! Damn this thing is disgusting!
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Good work, that truck looks like an excellent core vehicle. My black 98 Limited has more paint and interior wear than than that one.

The others are right, removing the carpet and cleaning it on the ground with either a pressure washer, or a hose and sprayer, will clean most stains. I like Purple Power for basic automotive cleaning, many cleaners can handle most stains.

When you have cleaned the carpet as well as possible, lay it upside down in the sun, over a large bush. That's the best way to get it dry, on a sunny day with a breeze. A couple three hours will have the top side very dry, and flip it over when the jute is dry enough, the top carpet will dry fast in sunlight then.

The rear end, don't give up on it until you open it and inspect the gears in the center section. You can easily replace the axle bearings and seals, the fluid, and brakes(parking pads too), for about $100. If the gears and diff/bearings aren't scored, it may be fine. Mine was okay, with 158k then and the new bearings etc, my rear is quiet at 198k now. The front I just replaced, it was worn out from prior neglect, and my hard work usage.

Enjoy that truck, you'll love it.
 






I'm refreshing my '97 4.0 OHV Sport right now, it's sat for years off and on similar to yours, so I'll throw in my advice as to what to look and listen for based on what I'm going through.

Fluids: Definitely drain and change them all ASAP, and replace with good synthetics. While I've fed mine synthetic motor oil for the last few years, I admittedly never changed any of the others. After doing transmission (manual), transfer case, and rear end oil recently with all synthetic, issues I thought I was having with my drive line have disappeared. Same with coolant, give it a good drain, cleaner with flush, and refill. I recommend changing your thermostat and radiator cap while you're at it. PS fluid can be flushed at home too, here's a good video on that. The rear end noise I would give it a fluid change first, I always go lowest cost fix first and you can give it a good inspection when you remove the cover to see if it really does need rebuild/replacement. Shaft

Plugs and wires: I recovered at least 2mpg and dropped my idle RPM by 200 just by replacing these. They were the factory platinum plugs and had 128k miles on them, gaps were worn on all to .070" and one was .090". Got Autolite Iridiums from Rock Auto, post rebate they came to less than a dollar per plug.

Brakes: As mentioned above, definitely check thoroughly. This is what downed my truck the last time, sprung a corrosion induced leak where the hard line is clipped to the top of the rear diff. It's a pain, but replacing all the lines was well worth it. I redid all my rotors and pads in the process since the length of sitting had put serious pits into the braking surface, but the calipers were still good. The friction pads on the shoes for my parking brake fell apart when I pulled the rotor off, so I recommend inspecting those. Bled out all the old fluid, took a quart to do that but brakes are 100% now, just watch it close and refill often to not push any air into the system.

Suspension: My front sway bar links were rusted to nothing and two shocks were blown, along with upper ball joints are shot. I haven't done the control arms yet, still gathering parts to do a full refresh on it along with steering links and only need to get it professionally aligned once, but new shocks and sway bar links have really refreshed it, just have a bit of slack in it now which is manageable. Ball joints and stabilizer bar links are common items to go out on these, so give yours a good look. Lots of threads there to look through if you do have issues.

Overall, you're at the right place to get help. This forum has certainly been an asset to me thus far.


Boy was this ever exactly the post I needed!
Thanks!!
 






Today's progress:
I chased all of the wiring for the awesomely luxurious 1990's cell phone technology and removed it from the truck...
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And I scrubbed and pressure washed the carpet. It still looks pretty nasty. I'm hoping with the darker gray dye I irdered that the stains get hidden.
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Most stains can be gotten out if you know what you're dealing with. Purple Power works great on stains that are oily or are just dirt related, but it might not touch a coffee or cola stain. As I said previously, the Tuff Stuff Extreme (or Heavy Duty, whatever it's called) has worked wonder's for me. My grandson once dropped a raspberry ice cream cone on the driver's seat bottom of my daughter's old XLT w/tan cloth interior. She wiped it up, but it left a huge purple stain on the seat. I didn't see it until a month later, and the Tuff Stuff got the stain out completely w/out too much trouble. If it really bugs you I'm sure there are companies out there that sell replacement carpet (like LMC Truck) for a reasonable price. Making your own doesn't work well because it needs to be formed to the contours of you floor for a good fit.

Example: $128.75 from OCautocarpets
Auto Replacement Carpets | Car and Truck Interior Carpet | Car & Truck Interior Carpet
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I'm thinking it was either spilled coffee, coke, or both!

I need to remember that I am not going to be able to make this thing look perfect. It's hard for me because I keep my Mustang in Beautiful shape!
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I need to keep in my mind that:
a.) The point of working on this Explorer is to have a DECENT vehicle for those nasty days when I don't want to get the Mustang out of the garage and for hauling crap in.
b.) I'm not going to be able to make it look perfect!!!!
c.) This is supposed to be a BUDGET project in order to help maintain my marital happiness!

I'm a little OCD about keeping vehicle in clean and nice shape and I need to throttle that back for this Explorer.

That replacement carpet is awfully tempting though but I'd rather put that money towards a transmission service or the rear end.

On the marital note; ugh my wife was trying to be helpful today and came out and started scrubbing the nastiness out of the center console parts. The cup holders had gum, dried coffee/soda, and ants all crusted down into them. I was focused on pressure washing the carpet and later found out she was using a Brillo pad on the black center console plastics. They look horrible now; very scratched. :( I didn't say anything to her though...
 






@GLOCKer - I hear what your saying about keeping your vehicle clean and as perfect as possible. I'm the same way about my '01 5.0 Eddie Bauer. It's nicer now than the day I bought it in 2012 and it was super clean then.

When I first purchased my daughter's '00 5.0 Mountaineer 7 years ago I was the same way and detailed the hell out of it. It looked great. Since then, use and general neglect have taken their toll, but I still keep up with the maintenance and mechanically it's a nice driver.

When I bought my '01 Sport Trac it was a total mess. It was supposed to be a budget restoration, and I used many used parts in it's resurrection. Over the course of several months I got it back on the road and had cleaned it up to look pretty nice. I was going to take care of a few last aesthetic details when the mechanical problems reared their ugly heads (timing chain rattle). At that point I just made it my daily around-town driver and I do the best I can to keep up with the mechanical stuff, but I don't worry about keeping it clean anymore. It gets maybe 2 baths a year and it's the dog hauler/spare vehicle.

As far as your wife ruining the console pieces, you can remove what's left of the rubberized coating with brake fluid and repaint them semi-gloss black. They come out looking very nice.

Good looking 'stang by the way.
 






Yeah, the radio bezel and same black soft trim texture is a thin rubber coating. It lasts and wears great, until the surface is broken, and then it's just like a sunburn peeling. You just have to take it off and refinish the part.
 






I'm going to rock the cup-holder piece for now. Compared to the rest of this thing, it looks better! LOL
My wife is out with friends this evening so I decided to get some more work in on "The Turd". Since the center console is out, I focused on cleaning that up. It too is nasty, like the rest of this thing! LOL I started by taking apart the vehicle info screen housing and cleaning all of that up. I then got to vacuuming out the main body of the center console, after taking off the rear cup-holders to soak in 409. I then wiped down every surface on the center console and all associated pieces before reassembling it.

Tonight's progress:
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Excellent job. That arm rest is precious, it's leather, only the rare Limited's have that. Take care of it, almost all others are torn at this age. The seats and top edge of the door panels are leather also, use a good conditioner for those.

BTW, that wood grain trim, uses a glue that is fairly hard at this age. Mine has it too, very rough shape, and the far right vent piece I removed a little at a time. The trim will come off, but the glue underneath may not come off fully, and would take a long time. I'd keep it as is, or buy trim from another 95-99 model with the same medium grey interior.

I have some pieces that I got painted 12+ years ago, through a group buy here, a carbon fiber dipping process. It looks awesome, and I'll be using it in my 98 Limited. But the radio bezel I did is the AWD/2WD version, without a 4WD switch. I don't think I'll need it because my truck will have the 4WD BW4406 transfer case before long. I'll eventually sell this bezel, hopefully to someone with plans for the similar CF trim etc.
 



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Ah, a man up to my own OCD (perhaps beyond).

For what it's worth, here's a link to my Sport Trac resurrection. The title was "New Toy" but in retrospect I should have called it New Turd... LOL. You may find some useful info in there. I was lucky in that the '01 ST's came with a rubber mat rather than carpeting, but the disgusting factor was still very high.

.New Toy
 






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