46" 1991 Explorer in Iceland.

Hi, My name is Sævar and I´m 22, I live near the capital Reykjavik Iceland and I recently bought a slightly modified 91 Explorer


I have owned a lot of cars in my short yet life, but only 3 american made, first an AMC Eagle 82 and a Cherokee Country 1995, and now this Explorer


Ive mostly had Suzukies in the past, and for the longest time, since 2007 until recently I had a Vitara of which I also modified a little bit, heres a photograph

It has 38" super swampers and toyota pickup axles with locker, toyota transfer box and gearbox and 2.5 turbo diesel intercooled Hyundai engine




my plans with the explorer so far are unknown, Im thinking of finishing it up and using this winter and seeing what needs better finishing, but before that there are a few details of which need sorting such as

Checking the brakes, they have hydro assist, checking leaks, steering fluid is leaking and car has saginaw pump and steering jack so there are a lot of couplings of which could break a leak

finishing the fender flares, their surface is rough and unfinished and they are slightly too narrow for making the car road legal on these tires

the axles are D44 HD front and 14bolt 9.5" GM rear



here are some photos

I hope you come to like this project, at least Im a little excited to try him out but please if there are any comments or suggestions feel free to reply or message me personally


thanks

 

[Rick]

Thanks to you aswell for the inputs, now Im in a little bit of a problem, I want a substitude for the power steering pump

[MENTION=62]Maniak[/MENTION] just upgraded his pump. I'll let him offer his advice here as all of his components were off the shelf.

 

[Sævar Örn]

[MENTION=62]Maniak[/MENTION] just upgraded his pump. I'll let him offer his advice here as all of his components were off the shelf.

That sounds really good, but really as I was adviced I could rebuild my old one, I think first of all I fear there has been damage to the pump axle, probably not included in a rebuild kit, and secondly I would like a pump axle with thread on the end to hold the pulley, because I dont like special tools and pressing on the pulley, and it being partially plastic doesnt quite allow me to sleep good at night 5-10 maybe 15 hours from civilization

 

[Maniak]

I used off-the-shelf parts as much as possible so I could get them easily.. The trick is remember what they came off of.

I'm using a remote reservoir can on a 1984 e-150 power steering pump.

The shaft on the e-150 pump was .752" while the explorer stock pump shaft was .685. which meant I had to use a power steering pump from a 1991-1996 ford van. Any older and you don't get serpentine. The pulley diameter on the Van pulley is also bigger so I needed a bigger belt.

The explorer pulley was plastic while the van one has some metal in it.. I can't remember "how much" but it felt a lot more metal.

The Van power steering pump/pulley is still a press fit. I can't think of any that aren't (at last saginaw)..

Here is the thread where I did my saginaw conversion, including the adapter I used to convert saginaw to ford bolt pattern.

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=417083

If you go this route I would find a 2nd van pulley, cut the piece off the pulley that you use with the puller. Now weld it onto the back side of another pulley. That will give you more area to hold the pulley onto the shaft. Basically, by using the adapter like I did cuts down on how much area you have holding the pulley on.


My pump worked great this last weekend. Steering was lighter, I was able to turn the wheel even when I had the suspension flexed up. There were only a couple times I couldn't but I had a front tire wedged and the suspension twisted up at the same time. The only issue I had was I had my reservoir over filled so when I got at extreme angles some fluid came out the vent.

~Mark

 

[Sævar Örn]

So finally after a month of waiting I finally ordered a new ps pump and pulley as adviced above

first problem the reservoir didnt fit correctly, the angle was incorrect, so I painted and used the old one from my previous pump, OK

pressed the pulley on and noticed the belt line up was way out of line, so if the pulley is to be in line with the other pulleys it has to be pressed half way on, such as in the photos,

Im thinking maybe I can get some more surface area if I press it on backwards, but that means there will be nothing to grab on to if I ever need to get it off again

 

[Maniak]

That is how mine is.

I asked around and talked to some people who had the same situation and they never had issues with it only being on 1/2 way... BUT I did read on the 'net about someone who actually fixed it...

What they did was take a 2nd pulley and cut off the raised end and then welded it to the back side. That gave them more surface area to hold onto the shaft. I also so one where they used red locktite and put a bolt/washer in the shaft end, just incase..

~Mark

 

[Sævar Örn]

Yours is only pressed on half way or is it pressed on with the wheel facing the other side?

Im thinking if I press it on facing the pump I will get more surface bite, but will need some hassle if I ever need to get it back off, but I believe that will not happen any time soon

 

[Maniak]

Yours is only pressed on half way or is it pressed on with the wheel facing the other side?

Mine is only pressed on 1/2 way.

~Mark

 

[Sævar Örn]

Top view of my engine bay

New battery,
new hydraulic brake booster and master cyl
new radiator
new steering pump
new steering assist jack
new alternator

what comes next...!?

 

[Sævar Örn]

Power assisted steering decided to "turn around a corner..."



Just got a new one, much beefier

 

[Sævar Örn]

It´s never eeasy...!!

Everything new for the front axle, 4.56 ratio, nospin, bearings, seals and fluids, new polyurethane panhard bar bushes


Great to have the pit when the 2 post lift is too narrow


Old broken pinion

 

[Sævar Örn]

I´ve learned a lot, especially calculating thosands of an inch over to mm, since I couldnt get a backlash measurement tool that shows anything else than mm, just fun

It went well, was my first time clocking in a differential in an axle that has the gears in the axle housing, ive done dozens of differentials where the casing is bolted to the axle housing, those are easy to do with your back straight and in a bench vice

I got a tooth bite I was happy with, not shown in the photo though, 0.16 mm end play and what they call in the instructions as "competition contact", obviously this means the gears wont be as strong when reversing but I hope it will keep up

Now all I need is a driveshaft yoke for the rear axle, it had been loose for some time and the splines have worn down, those can be hard to find in Iceland but Im leaving for a trip next thursday and if I havent got a hold of a yoke I will just weld the sonovbiych stuck to the pinion and be done with it! HAHA

 

[Sævar Örn]

\

More new stuff, spark plugs, wires, filters and oils, new pinion yoke and UV joints all new

Now its just a matter of getting the mandatory yearly safety inspection sticker and then head on to mt. Grímsfjall on top of Europes' largest glacier, Vatnajökull

It´s a naturally fascinating location, here is further information

http://nat.is/travelguideeng/volc_grimsvotn_central_volcano.htm

 

[Sævar Örn]

Hello again, most of my photos are gone because Facebook changes the links to the photos

I dont have patience to go through each reply and change the links... but from now on I will upload photos through Photobucket...

Summer is almost over and time to get ready for winter...

Going to rebuild front suspension and make it diesel powered......

 

[Sævar Örn]

Cleaned everything with oil detergent... and looked at the connections for the engine, the electrical is childs play... just a glow plug relay and starter and alternator, oil pressure and thats it, the turnoff switch is vaacum operated even...

This is the noisemaker... inline fuel pump

I got it looking pretty clean, now I can remove it without looking like a coalmine worker doing it...

In a quick assumption this engine seems to be about 5cm (2 inches) shorter from edge of bellhousing to edge of fan blade than the Ford V6 engine... Which is great news and maked me inspired to keep the engine bay looking accessible...

 

[RangerX]

Hello again, most of my photos are gone because Facebook changes the links to the photos

I dont have patience to go through each reply and change the links... but from now on I will upload photos through Photobucket...

Why post them to Facebook or photobucket, when you are an elite member and can upload them directly onto this site? That way they will be here forever...

 

[Sævar Örn]

hehe sorry, ofcourse... but I upload the photos to an icelandic offroad forum first, then I translate and post here...

From now on photos will appear from photobucket and they promise the links will never change addres....

 

[Sævar Örn]

Cutting up the Ssangyong Musso electrical loom... 95% of it will go in the trash... The rest combined with the Ford electric and make work the instrument cluster...

Sóley my girlfriend and co driver, and co assistant electricians daughter happy with testing results of the instrument cluster after rewiring...

Maybe tomorrow evening we will have liftoff here...

 

[Sævar Örn]

Days go by.....

Engineut

The ******* had to have a dual mass flywheel.... and ofcourse its old and worn and needs replacing, which means $$$ to be spent...

but the only thing to do is clean clean clean and think think think...... Tomorrow I will put the Explorer in and begin teardown...



Also there is a new nickname for the Explorer




EXPLUSSO..... (Combination of Ford Explorer and SSangYong Musso)

 

[Rick]

Very cool project

What kind of power does this diesel make?

 

[Sævar Örn]

Originally they are making around 120 hp, which is a lot less than the Ford engine, but Im mostly looking to see more low end torque and A LOT more fuel economy.....


Im getting around 35 liters per 100km with it as is...


But The Diesel musso car which is around 2 tons is getting about 9-12 liters per 100 km

35l@100km equal 6.7 miles per gallon

9l@100km equal 29 miles per gallon




but lest not forget, the diesel engine is fairly easily tune-able

and Ive heard numbers in the 300s... with stock internals...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SPO9w3ElqU