JTX's Return! 1997 Mountaineer Build Thread SAS/4wd Conversion

I've been gone for several years after losing the transmission in my 94 Ford Explorer(almost 10 years ago!). Life has changed a lot since then, I got Married, had a Child, and am having another one any day. Some of my greatest memories growing up came from my 1994 Ford Explorer. Memories with my Father, Friends, and several life lessons through High School.

Once my Son Luke was born I realized I would love to carry on these same memories with him and my Dad. I originally planned on redoing my 1994 Ford Explorer, but after looking at it and realizing some of the hack jobs I did to it in High School I decided to start fresh.

My second vehicle was a 97 Mercury Mountaineer. I decided to use this vehicle for several reasons. I liked the V8 and figured the interior would be better for four wheeling with my family. After I had the Mountaineer it was passed on to my Sister and drove until 2010. After that it sat for about 2 years until I started this project. Here is a list of the problems it had when I started.

• Blown Head Gasket
• 200k Miles
• Front Suspension was Shot
• Was no longer running

The first thing I did was pick up a new Motor and Transmission from the local U Pull. The engine and AWD transmission came from a 98 Explorer with 90k miles.

Taking the old Motor out. Son and Grandfather.

When I picked up the engine I also pulled a 4406 Transfer Case. The Mountaineer started as 2wd, so this will be a 4wd Conversion as well.

At this point the Mountaineer sat for about 6 months. Once I finally got the new Motor and Transmission in I decided to start the SAS. I probably should have got it running first but I needed a little motivation to get things rolling.

Ford 9inch from 94 Explorer. 4.88 Gears and Full Spool.

The SAS was done by Brian1 of the Forum. I wanted to make sure everything was done right this time around so I talked to Brian and we worked out a plan for the front end.

Prepping the Frame

Once the Frame was prepped i was ready to take it to Brian.

Brian needed to be able to move the Mountaineer around so we decided to leave it on the trailer during the swap.

 

[Brian1]

Great looking build and great write up Brian/JTX! Brian, you have a PM incoming.

Aside from a front bumper, is there a plan to add a frame crossmember toward the front? From what I can see the furthest one forward currently is the trans crossmember? And do you not see a need for a cross bar over the engine connecting the shock hoops? The frame rails will definitely start rolling inward, as mine noticeably did on my truck and I still have the lower control arm crossmember.

Thanks Matt. I will reply to your PM in a bit.

Maybe in the future a cross member can be added under the radiator. I didn't want to put anything in there yet before I knew about tucking in a winch or whatever else. You are correct about the furthest forward x-member being under the trans however the engine block also acts as a x-member but doesn't help with rotation of the individual rails. A custom built front bumper will definitely add strength to the frame rails and may eliminate the need for one.

This isn't a desert truck that will be pounding through whoops or jumping all the time. The hoops are low enough and gusseted well enough that I just don't see the need for them doing highway driving and recreational rock crawling.

On second thought, maybe being SAS vs. A-arm, the coilovers are putting more of a vertical force on the frame rails as opposed to an inward twisting force?

They will still see a twisting force since they lean out a little from the frame putting maybe a 4" lever arm on the frame rails but yes, most of the force is acting upwards on the rails.

 

[mounty71]

Is the steering box placed relatively in the same place as on a 1st gen Explorer? So is the steering shaft stock or custom?

 

[5spdman]

Build looks great!!

 

[Brian1]

Is the steering box placed relatively in the same place as on a 1st gen Explorer? So is the steering shaft stock or custom?

No idea. Hard to know since the frames are different. Shaft is custom from a mix of donors and actually has not been completed yet.

 

[BKennedy]

The FOA shocks aren't looking good at this point. It's just sitting right now and I noticed a small amount of oil running out of both of them. I wont be messing with them for a while so we will see what happens.

I just read through this entire thread. Nice build. I have the same spring rates and the same shocks. I ended up adding helper or tender 6" springs for a triple rate setup as I could not get the proper pre-load because the springs are a little stiff. I like how it rides though.

FOA shocks; would never purchase anything from them again, ever. Their quality control sucks. If you take them apart, replace the seals and clean them out, they seem to work fine. I haven't had any issues since I took them apart three or four times and replaced the reservoirs because they were leaking due to scoring inside the tubes from the manufacturing process. They were also not valved as ordered. If you call FOA, ask for Chris. He seems to be the most helpful and is the one who sent me the new reservoirs free of charge, out of warranty. My build thread has a bunch of information on coil over shocks, thanks to Khris.

 

[DUDER 1]

Get this thing done yet.