Snowball 94 Limited

Hey I'm a long time reader and Just bought my first X Wednesday I love it.

She's a 1994 Limited.Named her Snowball (Sry If someone already had this name) I paid $1500 for her. She got a new Thermostat 2hrs after I bought her cause it locked up on me and over heated in the middle of the road. Her primary duty is going to be as a daily driver/Photography vehicle. I am an avid amateur photographer.

The day after I got her I took her out on her first photo Journey.
Here's some pics.

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She is replacing the 1989 Ranger my parents let me drive till I found my own and just like the Ranger I couldn't keep her on the pavement for long.

I also found a mound of gravel and flexed the suspension a bit.

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Her primary purpose will be to get me to college and back and do a little off-roading. She does have some problem but what 16yr old vehicle doesn't. I will eventually get some kind of lift but first is New/Used tires and a MAF.

Leave your opinions did I make a good purchase? What Kind of lift should I get it need to be cheap cause most of my money will be going to School.​

 

[Sip]

I replaced the regular gauge cluster bulbs with 5smd LED's

I am the one just call you, but I am sorry didnt know you was busy, but did you get blue or white? and how you make your gauge needles white? do you replace the needles light bulb white?

 

[willindsay]

I am the one just call you, but I am sorry didnt know you was busy, but did you get blue or white? and how you make your gauge needles white? do you replace the needles light bulb white?

I just replaced all the bulbs in the cluster bulbs with white LEDs

 

[willindsay]

I replaced my idler pulley with a new steel replacement from Rock auto and a put on a new belt. The old one was stretched about 2in longer than the new one but I'm gonna keep it in the jack compartment as an emergency spare.

The new belt seems to have smoothed out my idle a good bit as the tensioner was jumping a lot and now it's pretty steady. Oh I forgot to mention that I painted the pulley orange figured since I was adding a new part I'd make it match my color scheme.


I also got the project box I picked up from Ratshack installed today I'll take some pic tomorrow.

But now I think I might have a few problems. For the past week my coolant temp gauge has been fluctuating a good bit. I'm thinking that the thermostat is getting a little slow so I might replace it next weekend. Also I noticed today that my volt meter is riding lower than it used to. Hopefully my Alt isn't going out tomorrow after classes I'm going to hook up a volt meter and see what numbers I'm getting at idle.

 

[willindsay]

Well I took a few pics of the things I've done and ran the codes.
I had a few show up. I know for sure I need to clean the MAF and I cleared the other codes and if they come back then I'll deal with them.

Here's the new pulley and new belt.

And not sure if I mentioned but here is where I mounted the relay box that will hopefully be finished by the end of this weekend.

It's mounted with 4 screws to the washer/coolant tanks and I made a metal bracket the bolts off of one of the A/C compressor bolts.

 

[bovine]

That's a nice box you got there I wanted to add a second one to mine when I put on some fog and driving lights and such any thing else I can think of. How many fuses can that hold?

 

[willindsay]

That's a nice box you got there I wanted to add a second one to mine when I put on some fog and driving lights and such any thing else I can think of. How many fuses can that hold?

It depends on what fuse panel you mount in it. It's just and empty project box from Radioshack. I'm gonna put a 12 position fuse panel in it along with about 6 relays.

 

[CDW6212R]

You might next time just cut out a PDB from a late Ford, and use those built in fuses and relays. I added one for my auxiliary devices in my first 95 Crown Vic.

 

[willindsay]

You might next time just cut out a PDB from a late Ford, and use those built in fuses and relays. I added one for my auxiliary devices in my first 95 Crown Vic.

I had thought about that but I couldn't find any that didn't use mostly Maxi Fuses. I wanted the mid size fuses because you can get them almost anywhere. Plus I didn't want to have to deal with rewiring a factory box.

Although after adding up my investment in this so far if I was to do it again I would go with a stock PDB and just keep a bunch of spare fuses in the truck. (I do keep spare fuse's now but I didn't when I started this project.)

 

[bovine]

That is a good idea about using the older fuse box. What are the relays going to be for in your new box?

 

[CDW6212R]

That is a good idea about using the older fuse box. What are the relays going to be for in your new box?

That was about 2001 for my mail vehicle. I actually cut up an extra PDB to cut two up and epoxy the relay section from one into the other, replacing the large fuse section. I needed nine relays, two are inline in the trans wiring, which made it a 2 speed trans when a switch was activated.

I liked that method of wiring better than aftermarket parts. That allows you to swap other stock relays or fuses if needed, and if you carry extra items, they work for both.

For my 99 Explorer project years later, I only used one small auxiliary relay box, and made use of unused "holes" in the stock PDB. The smaller relay boxes are easy to find, many Fords have them under the dash, in quarter panels etc.

I started with one from under the 95-01 air cleaners. They are all modular, you can take them apart(difficult) and mix the components. You can make small boxes half of this size, or a square double this size, or larger if you need to.

 

[willindsay]

That was about 2001 for my mail vehicle. I actually cut up an extra PDB to cut two up and epoxy the relay section from one into the other, replacing the large fuse section. I needed nine relays, two are inline in the trans wiring, which made it a 2 speed trans when a switch was activated.

I liked that method of wiring better than aftermarket parts. That allows you to swap other stock relays or fuses if needed, and if you carry extra items, they work for both.

For my 99 Explorer project years later, I only used one small auxiliary relay box, and made use of unused "holes" in the stock PDB. The smaller relay boxes are easy to find, many Fords have them under the dash, in quarter panels etc.

I started with one from under the 95-01 air cleaners. They are all modular, you can take them apart(difficult) and mix the components. You can make small boxes half of this size, or a square double this size, or larger if you need to.

All the relays that are in my truck can be interchanged with each other stock and aftermarket so swapping components is easy as well as carying spares.

That's also the reason I went the way I did with the fuse panel I like to carry spares but those Maxi fuses take up alot more room in my glove-box than the ATC fuses due. Plus as I mentioned earlier they are available most any where unlike Maxi's.

The difficulty of taking apart factory components also was too time consuming for me also. Right now I'm only getting about 3-4hrs a week to work on the truck.



And a note on this wiring project it's not going to be finished this weekend the parts I ordered won't be here till Monday and I'll be at school till Friday. Good news is that this gives my time to order a fuse for my main power wire. I was going to skip it but after some careful thought I figured it's better to be safe than sorry.

 

[willindsay]

Did a little work on the Explorer over the weekend.

I changed the thermostat and both of the coolant temp senors in the engine. The one for the gauge had been replaced less than a year ago but I had an extra laying around that I bought for the Ranger but never put on. Plus it eliminates another variable in the swinging gauge issue.

So far the gauge stays steady but I think I still have a problem but I'm fairly sure it's electrical. The temp gauge doesn't stay straight up an down like normal. Last thermostat I had in was a 180* but this time I went with a 198* thermostat to see if it would make the gauge read like normal. I'm not too worried about this but I'd like to eventually fix it.

 

[bovine]

Do you know which sensor goes to the gauge? I knew the motor had one for the gauge and one for the PCM I think the gauge one is on the left right? I think mine has a 160 degree thermostat.

 

[willindsay]

Do you know which sensor goes to the gauge? I knew the motor had one for the gauge and one for the PCM I think the gauge one is on the left right? I think mine has a 160 degree thermostat.

That's correct the Left one wire sensor is for the gauge and the right 2 wire sensor is for the PCM.

160 is too cold IMO unless you have done some other mods a 180 would be as low as I'd go.

 

[CDW6212R]

For some Ford fuel gauge issues, the ground isn't working well. The ground goes through the tank itself, and if the ground strap corrodes enough, the gauge will reflect that.

Try adding a ground from the tank to the body, which is what the battery is grounded to at the radiator support. Make a temporary connection to find out if that is the issue, before making it permanent(nice ends, bolts).

 

[willindsay]

For some Ford fuel gauge issues, the ground isn't working well. The ground goes through the tank itself, and if the ground strap corrodes enough, the gauge will reflect that.

Try adding a ground from the tank to the body, which is what the battery is grounded to at the radiator support. Make a temporary connection to find out if that is the issue, before making it permanent(nice ends, bolts).

Well my gas gauge hasn't worked since the day I got it so I'm fairly sure the float has a hole in it.

In the above post I was talking about the Temp gauge.

I will give the ground idea a test with my fuel gauge though since it's easy to do.

 

[CDW6212R]

Whoops, shoot me, I misread your post, plus the gas tank is plastic. I remember it now, the pre-95 tanks have a ground wire going into the fuel pickup, while some later pickups don't I believe. I was rewiring my 98 pickup a year or so before and wondered why they left it out. I read about the grounding issue last month, for the 84-92 Mark VII's.

 

[FIND]

Well my gas gauge hasn't worked since the day I got it so I'm fairly sure the float has a hole in it.

In the above post I was talking about the Temp gauge.

I will give the ground idea a test with my fuel gauge though since it's easy to do.

On some replacement fuel pumps, I've found that the clip that holds the fuel level sender is... less than satisfactory in its holding power. If you have time, pop off your fuel pump and check that it is still attached. Most of the time, I find myself increasing the bend in the clip slightly so that they stay attached.

 

[willindsay]

Whoops, shoot me, I misread your post, plus the gas tank is plastic. I remember it now, the pre-95 tanks have a ground wire going into the fuel pickup, while some later pickups don't I believe. I was rewiring my 98 pickup a year or so before and wondered why they left it out. I read about the grounding issue last month, for the 84-92 Mark VII's.

It's alright. I've misread my fair share of stuff.

 

[willindsay]

On some replacement fuel pumps, I've found that the clip that holds the fuel level sender is... less than satisfactory in its holding power. If you have time, pop off your fuel pump and check that it is still attached. Most of the time, I find myself increasing the bend in the clip slightly so that they stay attached.

One of these days I'll get around to checking it but it's not very high on the priority list right now.

I've had a couple codes come up.

157-MAF- Gonna clean it this weekend
332-EGR did not open/respond during test or if memory code, did not open intermittently - EVR or PFE#
Not sure what to do about this one I'm looking into it as I don't want to just throw parts at it.

543 (O)-Fuel pump monitor circuit shows no power - Power / Fuel Pump Circuits
Looking into this one too.