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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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I'm really jealous of your sport, gives me something to look forward to when cash gets better. Haven't read through your whole registry just the beginning and end and it sucks about your accident but still looks pretty bad ass hopefully you get those last issues fixed up soon to enjoy it without worrying about it. Mine's 2wd but would want a similar stance to yours height wise.
 



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I'm really jealous of your sport, gives me something to look forward to when cash gets better. Haven't read through your whole registry just the beginning and end and it sucks about your accident but still looks pretty bad ass hopefully you get those last issues fixed up soon to enjoy it without worrying about it. Mine's 2wd but would want a similar stance to yours height wise.

thanks! i quite enjoy this rig, and i sure did miss it when it was in the shop for a month. i guess i'm quite attached to it ;) it didn't require a whole lot to get it to where it's at, i suppose the body lift was the biggest change. i definitely enjoy it more now than when it was stock
 






I have been following this thread since it started because at the time I had a 2001 Sport. Same color and everything except I only raised mine about 2 inches with shackles and cranking the torsion bars but it cleared 31s no problem. I ended up trading it in on a 2010 Raptor but still miss it a lot and actually I have been looking for another 2 door sport. Good luck and hopefully they fix yours properly.
 






I have been following this thread since it started because at the time I had a 2001 Sport. Same color and everything except I only raised mine about 2 inches with shackles and cranking the torsion bars but it cleared 31s no problem. I ended up trading it in on a 2010 Raptor but still miss it a lot and actually I have been looking for another 2 door sport. Good luck and hopefully they fix yours properly.

i'm just happy to have it back, i think the problems are minor and if geico doesn't help much i'll have a look at everything when it warms up a bit (or I clean out my garage, ha!) Raptors are pretty sweet though, my neighbor has one and i think that would be a pretty fun truck. i like having a 2door SUV, and jeeps don't really do it for me so i'll try to hang on to this one as long as i can.
 






thanks! i quite enjoy this rig, and i sure did miss it when it was in the shop for a month. i guess i'm quite attached to it ;) it didn't require a whole lot to get it to where it's at, i suppose the body lift was the biggest change. i definitely enjoy it more now than when it was stock

yeah just sucks you cant get it fixed on the first time. I personally would just fix it myself instead of dealing with them and wasting time on hoping they fix it right the next time. I don't really like body lifts but on yours it looks pretty good.
 






yeah just sucks you cant get it fixed on the first time. I personally would just fix it myself instead of dealing with them and wasting time on hoping they fix it right the next time. I don't really like body lifts but on yours it looks pretty good.

yeah, had it have happened in Colorado I would've probably taken their money and had it fixed by somebody i trust. BUT, unfortunately being 9 hours away from home on a holiday weekend i didn't feel i had many choices. since this was my first insurance claim ever (knock on wood) i'll know better next time. if the ABS light stays off, i can try to track down the rough idle myself. it does feel like a vaccuum/air leak issue. i never did check my MAC intake and what not to make sure it's tight. i'll do that tonight. and also that rubber elbow that rots and causes problems for people... it's not too cold for that i'll be tough ;)

i saw your registry today, i think yours looks great without the BL. you did good stuff with it.
 






yeah, had it have happened in Colorado I would've probably taken their money and had it fixed by somebody i trust. BUT, unfortunately being 9 hours away from home on a holiday weekend i didn't feel i had many choices. since this was my first insurance claim ever (knock on wood) i'll know better next time. if the ABS light stays off, i can try to track down the rough idle myself. it does feel like a vaccuum/air leak issue. i never did check my MAC intake and what not to make sure it's tight. i'll do that tonight. and also that rubber elbow that rots and causes problems for people... it's not too cold for that i'll be tough ;)

i saw your registry today, i think yours looks great without the BL. you did good stuff with it.

hopefully will be your only claim for a long time, that sucks when that happens but at least its just the car and not a person. Mine had a really rough idle about 2 years ago and ended up being the pcv valve( or something around that name) which was disconnected and rotting, so might wanna give that a try.
 






So my rear wiper motor had stopped working over a year ago, so I finally got around to replacing it. I first ordered one from Rock Auto but it turns out it was for a 4 door. It's unfortunate that a lot of the parts listed for the Sport are actually for the 4 door, this has happened a lot to me - their catalog is wrong or something, etc.

Anyway, I did some google researching and found the right one on ebay. This is the one I bought--- http://www.ebay.com/itm/261238813731?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

Super easy to swap out, works like charm. The part numbers are 2L24-17W400-AA , 3L2Z-17508-AC

Maybe this can help somebody else down the road if they are searching.

My question is - what should I do with the old motor? Anywhere they can be sent for refurb or whatever? Does anybody here want it?? Let me know if so :)
 






What's different between the sport and 4 door on the rear glass? Only thing I can think of is they are different size, needing a different wiper stroke on the motor. :scratch:
 






it was way too big, it didn't fit in the enclosure

What's different between the sport and 4 door on the rear glass? Only thing I can think of is they are different size, needing a different wiper stroke on the motor. :scratch:
 






the right one for the 03 sport

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the one that they sent me, for the 03 4 door

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I had to pay shipping back, then just ordered the right one on ebay. No big deal, it's just been a pain getting the correct parts for the 2 door, a lot of the catalogs just have it lumped incorrectly with the 2003 4 doors. meh i dunno. looks like they have the correct one in stock now, wasn't the case when I ordered mine. So there are two rears listed for the sport model, both that i listed above. Just confusing to blondes like myself ;)
 






03 Sport XLT

You've turned my Sporty from vision to reality. Keep up the postings. I'm so intrigued what you are going to do next
 






You've turned my Sporty from vision to reality. Keep up the postings. I'm so intrigued what you are going to do next

Thanks! It's a slow work in progress mostly, but my next immediate plans are to get a rear bumper built with a spare tire swing away carrier and upgrade my gears. Oh and get it painted, the roof looks horrid! :eek:
 






:mad:
So both of my upper ball joint boots are blown out and cracked... not too happy about that. Not sure how long they have been like this, I didn't notice it before until I just got underneath the truck to turn my torsion bolts a bit. I couldn't even get any grease in the zerk of my driver side, it's too cruddy I took the zerk off and cleaned it and only a little bit would go in but nothing really. The pass side took it fine and it's cracked all the way around on the bottom.

This sucks, these were supposed to be the heavy duty ones. They definitely barely lasted 2 years, too bad. The passenger side didn't appear to have leaked a whole ton so that's good, but the driver side was obviously caked on and old, kind of irritated that it wasn't mentioned to me at my tire rotations. They must not look or care. Rawr. I'm assuming these are both toast now and are going to have to be replaced. :thumbdwn:


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furthermore, it appears that thru rockauto that the entire upper control arm replacement is cheaper than just the replaceable ball joint.. these were the raybestos pro grade ones, and I'm like a month outside of their warranty period for their "indestructible ball joint boots" lol.

i'm guessing it's easier just to change the whole arm out than trying to press a new ball joint it?
 






Jenni, you might be able to use just a rubber replacement boot if the ball joint is ok.

If not, yes, replace the entire arm. I am not familiar with a press in upper ball joint. Do they make one?
 






That's pretty common, mine were like that about six months after they were installed. I just kept them greased. I didn't feel like redoing the control arms again and paying for another alignment. I kept them greased and they're still good three years later even after the northeast winters and multiple wheelin' trips.
 






Thanks for the info guys - i was looking at raybestos site and they were saying something about the boot being integrated and "indestructable" or something blah blah, i'll have to look into it. The upper and lower control arms I bought both have replaceable BJs, or at least the description says they are and they sell the replacements on rockauto.

I can't grease the driver side one because it's so gunked up, I took the zerk out and tried to pump it in the hole and it's just too nasty and blocked up. I could probably buy some sort of needle attachment for my grease gun and just lube it through the cracks I suppose. it's just weird the boot looks all crushed in there. I was getting some terrible wear on the insides of my front tires so i just assumed it was because my torsion bolts were not cranked up high enough, like jon said the wheels were sitting like this / \ pretty badly. I cranked them back up to where they used to be and it looks better, so I need an alignment anyway.

Jenni, you might be able to use just a rubber replacement boot if the ball joint is ok.

If not, yes, replace the entire arm. I am not familiar with a press in upper ball joint. Do they make one?

That's pretty common, mine were like that about six months after they were installed. I just kept them greased. I didn't feel like redoing the control arms again and paying for another alignment. I kept them greased and they're still good three years later even after the northeast winters and multiple wheelin' trips.
 






Mine are Raybestos pro grade series, still did it. OffTrac bought the newer series after I did, maybe he's had better luck with his. If you don't have the camber adjustment bolt and washer kit I have a set of Moog kits I just removed from my truck (going SAS). You can have them for $25 shipped, paid $48 for them. Let me know.
 



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Mine are Raybestos pro grade series, still did it. OffTrac bought the newer series after I did, maybe he's had better luck with his. If you don't have the camber adjustment bolt and washer kit I have a set of Moog kits I just removed from my truck (going SAS). You can have them for $25 shipped, paid $48 for them. Let me know.

I don't have the alignment kit, was going to pick one up before I took it in to have it done in case they wanted to do it. I'll take them from you, can I paypal you the cash?
 






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