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Jen's 03 Sport

Hello all...

To celebrate the final payment of my beast, I thought I should finally make a registry for it, with pictures and all!!!

When I was in college, I really wanted a 2door SUV that was relatively new and looked cool as well... Obviously that led me to the Explorer, as Jeeps are cool and all, but not all that practical as my daily driver. Sooo, the search was on! I wanted a black one, the newest year I could get for the Sport, with the fewest miles, with leather and a sunroof! :D

Eventually my searches pulled up my exact specs, but in South Dakota. I lived in Iowa at the time, so no big deal. I bothered the people at the dealership with my excessive questions to make sure it was worth the drive there to look at it. And luckily, it was! Mom and I drove out to look at it, and I ended up buying it. My first (nice) purchased car. It had 16,x.. on the clock, was a certified pre-owned from some old man so it was pretty nice, other than that saggy rear end.

First thing I did was swap out the stereo, and figured out how to wire it to the factory sub thanks to the forum! Then, add a leafs were next. I had the next several years mapped out for it when the tires would wear out and I was outta college and could finally have some money!!! I took off the step bars and added a Yakima rack and drove it like that until I moved to CO. That's when the magic started to happen, ;).

I knew I wanted to lift it from the day I bought it. When I started my big kid job out here in CO, I was able to buy new wheels, tires, shackles, and body lift to get it started! Thanks to the awesome boys from this forum (hokie, nssj2, sparkyXplorer) they got it on for me. I was of no use as I had just had shoulder surgery, but they made sure to get my on the right track :thumbsup:

Awesome! Now I'm good to go. Cranked up the torsion bars a lil, time to hit the trails!!! Got my feet wet in Ouray with the group. And by feet wet, I mean I almost peed myself on Black Bear pass, haha

Since then, I've upgraded my exhaust to 2.5 pipes from the cats back, Flowmaster 50 muffler (kinda quiet :rolleyes:) and a MAC intake. Changed out the plugs and wires at the same time, put on Motorcraft plugs and JBA cables...I also added a Yakima load warrior basket that is pretty quick to take off that holds my snowboard racks and my spare.

Mods to come ---- upgrading gears to 4.56, adding an Aussie locker (or something of that sort depending on my $$), removed gray plastic body panels to paint black, thus discovering rust on my doors GRRRRRR, need rock sliders, skid plates, and on and on.
 

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If it's just a clogged zerk, Replace the zerk with a new one, and try to grease again. The knuckle and the angle of the arm squeezes one side of those boots pretty good, and they fail easier. The ball joint itself is still good I imagine, and as was said, just keep it greased.

I am running the Ray pro's as well, and they have held up to serious trailing for me.
 



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I sent you an pm.
 






good to hear, i didn't imagine that the joint had failed yet, i was just bummed to see it was all crusty and broken. the zerk is ok, i initially thought it was clogged and i took it off and grease was going through it fine. it's all clogged in the hole the zerk screws into. i cleaned it out as best as i could but the whole joint is dried up and crusty it seems. i'll just have to pump some in through the broken boot i reckon

If it's just a clogged zerk, Replace the zerk with a new one, and try to grease again. The knuckle and the angle of the arm squeezes one side of those boots pretty good, and they fail easier. The ball joint itself is still good I imagine, and as was said, just keep it greased.

I am running the Ray pro's as well, and they have held up to serious trailing for me.
 






I got the Raybestos Advance Technology control arms by following and researching through gman's Heavy Duty IFS thread.
[MENTION=87244]gmanpaint[/MENTION], was it pro grade you had? I thought you got another series and that pro grade was Rabyestos' "house liquor." After looking back on that thread, you stated McQuay Norris Extreme. My research led me to believe they were the same as one of the Napa brand (which I think you pointed out) and the Raybestos Advance Technology.

Here's the Raybestos Advance Technology I got nearly two years ago.
Part #s :
5021021 (502-1021)
5001090 (RAY500-1090)
2012-11-18_15-57-11_847-1.jpg

2012-11-29_15-12-04_767.jpg


Just went out and snapped a picture of what they look like right now, without any alteration or cleaning up. They could use a little grease (thanks for the reminder) but have held up great.
20140725_211332_zpslozvfidr.jpg
 






I did use a set of Mcquay Norris Extreme, and also another high grade brand (XRF) in my testing. I have found all to be working much better than the service & standard grades. I have Raybesto progrades in another vehicle as well. No issue after a few years other than a torn boot from compression.
I installed prograde parts in every component including steering rack bushings. I have replaced an inner tie rod (M/N extreme) since that thread started, but I have put these parts thru hell with large tires, and serious trail abuse with a front locker. No way standard grades would have lasted like these.

Edit: Yes, there are a few Name brands all made by the same manufacture in North America. XRF is a brand of it's own with a lifetime warranty or 1 million miles, but is made overseas.
 






looks like yours held up well, those are the same ones that I got too OffTrac. Maybe the brutal cold winter and snow in the mountains caused mine to crack, I dunno. It's crazy mine aren't just cracked, but completely blown out all the way around the bottom. Nuts.
 






Long time no post! Hope y'all had a good Thanksgiving. Today I replaced my front shocks with Rancho rs5000s, and I did the rears about a week or so ago. Drove around today and it's about a million times better.... the old sensatrac shocks I could compress by hand and they didn't come back out, at all!!! No wonder my handling has felt so crappy. Shocks are super easy to change out, was happy about that. Sheared the rear shock mount bolts off removing, had to get replacements at the ford deal for like 20 bucks. Grr.

Last week I also replaced the dreaded PCV hose elbow deal, I had ordered the part from ford awhile back and finally got around to it. My idle has been up and down with my foot off the gas while coasting or coming down a hill for quite awhile. Finally got sick of it enough to pull that hose off. It was soooooo spongy and soft, didn't have a huge slit in it but must have some pinholes in it at least. Then, I took apart my duct tape hack job holding the plastic hose into my MAC intake, I suspect it was leaking bad. I had some plastic tubing I used as an adapter with some hose clamps to really secure it down. I think it helped but we shall see!

What else... my rear springs are basically flat, need to get some new ones eventually, that can wait. I have the shock mount skid plates I bought from brian to paint up and throw on eventually too.

Going to order an RCI skid plate for the front soon, and get a quote to get the truck repainted. The huge paint flakes coming off the roof are ridiculous. I will probably get a MAACO job since I'm pretty tough on the paint where I live...I've heard one in Denver actually does pretty quality work but we will see.

New gears to get installed in the next month most likely too! Then my last thing to do is get a rear bumper with a spare wheel mount made up.

That's it for now folks :)
 












Sounds like you've been busy. A set of 2002-2005 Sport Trac springs will give you the lift and nice spring rate that will last as long as your rig does. With the 33's, either 4.10's or 4.56's will be perfect (4.56's would be best). Talk with 2TimingTom or Stang5lgt about the bumpers and tire carrier, Stang can build them for you.
 






hey jen ,glad to see you still posting .i put my explorer down a few months back .reverse went on the second trans and i wasnt going to put another used trans in it so i let it go .
junk yard gave me 600 for it . i miss that truck . had it 12 years .
goodbye ol friend
 






Long time no post! Hope y'all had a good Thanksgiving. Today I replaced my front shocks with Rancho rs5000s, and I did the rears about a week or so ago. Drove around today and it's about a million times better.... the old sensatrac shocks I could compress by hand and they didn't come back out, at all!!! No wonder my handling has felt so crappy. Shocks are super easy to change out, was happy about that. Sheared the rear shock mount bolts off removing, had to get replacements at the ford deal for like 20 bucks. Grr.

Last week I also replaced the dreaded PCV hose elbow deal, I had ordered the part from ford awhile back and finally got around to it. My idle has been up and down with my foot off the gas while coasting or coming down a hill for quite awhile. Finally got sick of it enough to pull that hose off. It was soooooo spongy and soft, didn't have a huge slit in it but must have some pinholes in it at least. Then, I took apart my duct tape hack job holding the plastic hose into my MAC intake, I suspect it was leaking bad. I had some plastic tubing I used as an adapter with some hose clamps to really secure it down. I think it helped but we shall see!

What else... my rear springs are basically flat, need to get some new ones eventually, that can wait. I have the shock mount skid plates I bought from brian to paint up and throw on eventually too.

Going to order an RCI skid plate for the front soon, and get a quote to get the truck repainted. The huge paint flakes coming off the roof are ridiculous. I will probably get a MAACO job since I'm pretty tough on the paint where I live...I've heard one in Denver actually does pretty quality work but we will see.

New gears to get installed in the next month most likely too! Then my last thing to do is get a rear bumper with a spare wheel mount made up.

That's it for now folks :)

Hope you had a good thanksgiving yourself [MENTION=34819]jenren81[/MENTION]. It has been a long time since hearing from you. Of course I have been MIA as well so I can't say anything. :D New shocks sound nice. The Rancho 5000s are supposed to be nice. Of course I'm about 80,000 miles overdue for shocks so any shocks in my case would be nice. :rolleyes: Sounds like you're getting stuff done on your Explorer. What gears are you getting?
 












Sounds like you've been busy. A set of 2002-2005 Sport Trac springs will give you the lift and nice spring rate that will last as long as your rig does. With the 33's, either 4.10's or 4.56's will be perfect (4.56's would be best). Talk with 2TimingTom or Stang5lgt about the bumpers and tire carrier, Stang can build them for you.

Cool, good to hear about the ST springs, I'll definitely look into those. Mine are starting to look toasted, maybe the warrior shackles sped that up? And yeah, I've been talking to him about getting the gears in soon and I found the guy on craigslist that 2timingtom used too :)

hey jen ,glad to see you still posting .i put my explorer down a few months back .reverse went on the second trans and i wasnt going to put another used trans in it so i let it go .
junk yard gave me 600 for it . i miss that truck . had it 12 years .
goodbye ol friend
what a bummer, i dread the day that my transmission goes! what did you get to replace it?

You had a birthday this month didn't you? Happy Belated Birthday! :party:
I did have a birthday in November, thanks for remembering :) they are boring as we get older I'm noticing! And I'm going to get the 4.56 gears, it'll be a huge improvement. The ranchos are WAYYYYY better than what I had, it's like night and day seriously. Got them off amazon, was buy 3 get one free. Speaking of that, I need to get that rebate form filled out!
 






what a bummer, i dread the day that my transmission goes! what did you get to replace it?
nothing yet jen but we been looking at kia rio hatchbacks ,just cant justify another gas guzzler we been too spoiled by our saturn coupe that gets 26-28 mixed and 32 hwy.
the rio gets about the same and offers a hatchback in a small car form factor .

i really wanted to go ford but the reviews on the new focus hatchback are horrible ,trans issues.....dont wanna get into it .
so we are branching out .
i still love explorers and even seen a real nice 2010 4 door ex but the gas mileage keeps me from going there again .

have fun jen and happy belated birthday
 






nothing yet jen but we been looking at kia rio hatchbacks ,just cant justify another gas guzzler we been too spoiled by our saturn coupe that gets 26-28 mixed and 32 hwy.
the rio gets about the same and offers a hatchback in a small car form factor .

i really wanted to go ford but the reviews on the new focus hatchback are horrible ,trans issues.....dont wanna get into it .
so we are branching out .
i still love explorers and even seen a real nice 2010 4 door ex but the gas mileage keeps me from going there again .

have fun jen and happy belated birthday

I hear ya with the gas mileage, mine is terrible.... I'd love to get something more gas friendly when funds allow.

My cousin has a new focus st hatchback, looks like a cool car... not sure if he's has had problems with it but looks fun to drive. too bad there are so many issues with it.
 






on a side note, i just ordered the last pair of the egr sport trac fender flares i could find on ebay, will need to track down another pair... [MENTION=147973]Sogsnakebite[/MENTION] has them on his ride and i just noticed them today and like them, thanks for posting up the part number and what not in the sport pic thread! Amazon is sold out too, if anybody knows where to find another pair of these let me know!

2001-05 EXPLORER SPORT TRAC EGR RUGGED SERIES BLACK FENDER FLARES 753334F
http://www.ebay.com/itm/23120238418..._trkparms=gh1g=I231202384184.N19.S2.M0.R1.TR4
 






I hear ya with the gas mileage, mine is terrible.... I'd love to get something more gas friendly when funds allow.

My cousin has a new focus st hatchback, looks like a cool car... not sure if he's has had problems with it but looks fun to drive. too bad there are so many issues with it.

jen ,the issues with the focus hatch trans are shift problems related and car being in shop alot for that issue . people come online with complaints more than they do praise but i did the research and theres alot of negative comments about the newer focus hatchbacks (too many for us) .

on the other end everyone loves their kia rio .

my ex got about 15 mpg average maybe less . gas went fast . the saturn we fill it for 30 bucks and drive it all week . thats hard to beat .

have fun ,winters coming and thats when i miss my sport the most .
 






jen ,the issues with the focus hatch trans are shift problems related and car being in shop alot for that issue .

Assuming the issue is with the automatics just get a 5-speed Focus. That would fix that problem. :D
 






Assuming the issue is with the automatics just get a 5-speed Focus. That would fix that problem. :D

correct ,wont work for us though ,wife doesnt drive stick .
 



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And yeah, I've been talking to him about getting the gears in soon and I found the guy on craigslist that 2timingtom used too :)

Stang just got a tube bender and built a bumper for full sized Bronco...... And there might be a local Sportrac with one of his front bumpers soon as well.

The guy that did my bumpers builds nice stuff, but they pretty $$$$$$.
 






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