Project Vehicle - 1998 Explorer Limited

[CDW6212R]

Excellent, that came out pretty good. With the seats in it and the floor mats, I bet it will look almost like new inside.

The 95-98 Limited's all had the ARC air suspension(standard). Check your shocks to see if any have air lines going to them. Most people have disabled the ARC system by now, and replaced the shocks with normal shocks. The rear ARC shocks are still available from eBay as NOS units for about $50 each. I like them for the self leveling feature, I added them to my 99 Limited.

 

[toypaseo]

A friend of mine from the BBQ team I'm with saw my Facebook posts about my Explorer and reached out and offered me a Class 3 bolt on hitch for My Explorer. I'm going to take him up on it and ditch the bumper ball. I hope I can find the cap for the hole in the bumper!

I think I might have the cap, and the trim piece around it from my brother's 98+, if I can find it...

PM me and I'll see if I can find it.

 

[RandomNerd2000]

Man what nice carpet, my 2000s is so dark, it's supposed to be that light? Man

 

[CDW6212R]

Man what nice carpet, my 2000s is so dark, it's supposed to be that light? Man

In 1999 the dark grey came out, and was most common. The medium grey was available in 1999, but I think it stopped before 2000 models.

 

[GLOCKer]

Some more good progress today!
So I may have mentioned before; my goal is to at least do one thing a day to get this truck back into shape. I have a car-club officer's meeting this evening so I wasn't planning on getting much done. But I got out of work a little earlier than usual and made good progress!

I installed the new headlights and a new brake light. I'm happy to report the head lights work now.

Then I decided to at least start cleaning the driver seat so I can at least drive the truck if I need to.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

 

[CDW6212R]

Excellent, that driver's seat in a great shape, and the red stain came out.

How are the floor mats, the right one? Only one came in my 99 when I bought it, I think it's the dark grey though. This shows the two common grey colors, the dash is the 99's dark grey, seats are from a 93 Limited, door panels are from my 98 mercury, both medium greys.

 

[GLOCKer]

Excellent, that driver's seat in a great shape, and the red stain came out.

How are the floor mats, the right one? Only one came in my 99 when I bought it, I think it's the dark grey though. This shows the two common grey colors, the dash is the 99's dark grey, seats are from a 93 Limited, door panels are from my 98 mercury, both medium greys.

The stock floor mats are a light gray color. But because they're dingy, I'm going to dye them to a medium gray to match the carpet. I actually like the ocntrast between the light gray seats and medium gray carpet.

 

[Spudhut]

That looks fantastic...the leather looks like it has come back to life. Great work.

 

[GLOCKer]

I ordered conventional shocks for my Explorer. If I have the ARC, will I have any issues swapping to the regular shocks or is it just as simple as uninstalling the ARC shocks and installing the conventional shocks? Thank you!

 

[CDW6212R]

The shocks mount exactly the same, no issue there. The ARC shocks have air lines which you can easily tie off or remove, they lead to a solenoid nearby. There is a display/error on the console trip computer screen, if the system is intact and not working right.

Do you have that on the display, someone may have already removed(disconnected) the ARC module to the right of the radio? If your truck still has the air compressor above the spare tire, and height sensor in back, I could use those for spares.

Here's under the back of my 99, showing the ARC compressor, shocks and height sensor;

 

[GLOCKer]

Great progress today and I've discovered a little problem.

 

[GLOCKer]

Oh! so for the problem...
None of the windows will roll down unless you do it from the driver door. I tried to lock and unlock the windows from the driver door but they still wont roll down unless you do it from the driver door.

 

[koda2000]

All the windows work through the driver's door/master window switch. It could be the master switch is bad, or it may that you have broken wires in the boot from the driver's door into the body. Both issues are fairly common.

BTW - Those seats look great.

 

[CDW6212R]

Oh! so for the problem...
None of the windows will roll down unless you do it from the driver door. I tried to lock and unlock the windows from the driver door but they still wont roll down unless you do it from the driver door.

Do you mean you are engaging the lock switch at the back of the master switch panel? That long switch is to stop power from reaching the other three windows. All power goes through the master switch, all power and grounds for every window, each time, up or down. That master switch is very important, if you get any symptoms, at 20 years old it's time to replace that. That applies to most all of the electrical switches etc, in the vehicle.

Also glance at the driver's door jamb wires, be sure that boot etc, is all intact and undamaged. The wires there on the car side are becoming less flexible, broken wires are more common at this age.

 

[CDW6212R]

I see that you need to buy some door striker bushings, you have a broken one or two. The doors don't shut as well when those are damaged, and rattle a bit too.

 

[koda2000]

I make my own striker bushings out of 1/2 PEX. Under $2 at Home Depot for 8' length. The PEX is a little bit too thick, but I turn it down to the diameter of the factory bushings and it works perfect and seems very durable. More durable to the ill fitting Dorman crap bushings and possibly more durable to the OE bushings.

To check the wires in the driver's door boot I find it much easier to just remove the door. It sounds like a big deal, but its very easy to do. The big black plastic barrel connector comes apart by unscrewing 1 10mm bolt in the center. The door hinges are secured to the door w/just 4 13mm bolts. Once the door is out of the way, cut the wire-tie thing that secures to boot to the bottom half of the barrel connector and peel the boot back. When reassembling, be sure to use a new wire-tie on the boot. Re-aligning the door after installation is easy, because the hinges adjust on the body side, very little adjustment is even possible on the door side.

 

[Turdle]

Man those seats turned out nice. They look comfy and i'm jealous.

 

[BrooklynBay]

The interior came out super clean. It looks like a new interior. Good job!

 

[koda2000]

I agree that the LTD seats look comfy, but from what I've read the bottoms don't support/hold you in the seat as well as the regular seats. They sure look plush though.

 

[Spudhut]

The interior looks like new. Good work! I had a similar issue with my XLT model, i pulled another from the JY - fixed the problem. My switch had some sticky goo in it like a soda was spilled in there years ago. YUCK!