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.​

 

[willindsay]

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving.

I spent mine with the family out at my Aunts with a bunch of little kids. Luckily my uncle has a garage the guys retreated to to check out his 68 LeMans.

I did get a little work done over the break on Snowball. I started by finishing my interior light conversion by installing front floor board lights. I mounted them to the seat tracks so they move back and forth with the seat. They really light up the floor boards.

I'll get some pics pf them up tomorrow possibly.

Today I finally had time to change my oil since I worked my butt off Fri and Sat. I put in Castrol Synthetic blend 5W-30 and a new Puralator Pure One filter.
Next weekend I'll change out the tranny filter and it'll be good to go for another 3,000miles.

 

[willindsay]

Alright here's the pictures I said I'd get. They're not the best as all I had was my cell phone at the time.

Front floor board lights.

Also I forgot to mention that my Girl Friend got me floor mats for our 1year anniversary.

They should do a good job of keeping the mud and snow off the carpet to keep it looking good.

 

[Currency]

I'll be the first to ask, in the first picture, what is the hammer for?

Also your rust is not nearly as bad as mine. Mine has been uncovered for about two years and I have not had the time to deal with it. So what's in the pictures in my registry is exactly how it looks now. I just hammered the sharp edges back so no one would get cut. Going to make some new doglegs come spring when I pull the D35, or at least most of it.

 

[willindsay]

I'll be the first to ask, in the first picture, what is the hammer for?

Also your rust is not nearly as bad as mine. Mine has been uncovered for about two years and I have not had the time to deal with it. So what's in the pictures in my registry is exactly how it looks now. I just hammered the sharp edges back so no one would get cut. Going to make some new doglegs come spring when I pull the D35, or at least most of it.

Cause it fit's perfectly any you never know when you'll need one.

Plus after an idiot brake checked me and I rear ended him in my old Ranger he jumped out and started cursin and threatin me with a tire iron. Just a little something to put us on even ground. I also keep the cheater pipe for my ratchet on the other side of the seat.

 

[Currency]

Had my hammer in the same spot for a long time, I was just to lazy to take it out of the truck because I didn't need to use it for anything.

I had an old black steel pipe on the left side of the drivers seat in my mothers grand prix. A state police officer ask to search the vehicle after pulling me over for speeding a few years ago. I explained it was not my vehicle but if they felt the need to search it to do right ahead.

One of the officers was new, but had his own car and the other was his Sargent. He asked about the pipe and again, I informed him it was not my vehicle therefore I had no knowledge it was there. The other officer called it a ***** stick and the younger officer couldn't stop laughing. But they still gave me a speeding ticket.

 

[mr cribb]

I also keep the cheater pipe for my ratchet on the other side of the seat.

LMAO

The other officer called it a ***** stick and the younger officer couldn't stop laughing. But they still gave me a speeding ticket.

WOW!!! I would call that particular item the really massive mag-lite flashlight

I used to carry a 29oz x 32"L softball bat, but being in the Army I'm not authorized to carry it, because they consider it a weapon.

 

[willindsay]

Been working on the car a bit since school let out.

So far I've used the turkey baster method to change out some of power steering fluid.

I then went on to check how tight the valve cover bolts were. Most were very lose so I tightened them all up. One on the passenger side wasn't even making contact with the valve cover. I'm hoping this will stop the slow oil leak I have. It's not bad only about a quart between changes but the smell of burning oil is annoying.

I also pulled a few of the plug wires and noticed that I had autolite plugs. I was afraid they were original. So hopefully when I go to change them this spring none will break off.

Today's project was to wire the roof lights so that they come on with my brights as I'm tired of having to flip a separate switch while driving. I wired them with diode so I can still flip a switch and have them come on by themselves.

 

[willindsay]

New Toys!

Hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Years I sure did. We did Christmas early with my parents because I went to TX with my girlfriend since she has way younger siblings it meant a lot to her. Not a big fan of Tx though too flat and you have to drive forever to get anywhere.

Anyways on to the main point of this. I got some new tools and such for use on the car.

My big present was a big boy tool box.

You can see the little box that was originally on top over to the left I'm using it to hold stuff I rarely use. The Craftsman one I got before I already had organized so I just cut a piece of plywood and screwed it down so it doesn't slide off the top. The base is gonna eventually need new casters as this was floor model so it's been abused a little.

I next got one of the new Craftsman 12v drills.

I am amazed at the power of this thing and the battery live seems great so far. It's so much nicer to hold than my old cordless.

I also got a torque wrench.

Not really sure how to use it but I'm gonna learn.

My 2 favorite things I got were a angle grinder from my parents and a LED work light from my girlfriend.

Love the light I've used it a lot since I got it.

Now on to the truck.
I got a new CB antenna so I can park under the carport with out smackin it on the gutters.

Just put it on today and it works great. I'm debating on adding a spring to the base to gain a little height.

And my new guard Alien.

LOL

 

[95LimtedExplorer]

Hey you got the same rims my 95 limited has! Love the limited way better than the others. Never had any major issues with mine, well at least most of it's life. Tranny is showing its age at 168k miles.

 

[willindsay]

Hey you got the same rims my 95 limited has! Love the limited way better than the others. Never had any major issues with mine, well at least most of it's life. Tranny is showing its age at 168k miles.

I Love my Limited and all it's features. Haven't had any real issues with mine in a good while but when I first got her I had my fair share of problems. I wouldn't trade her for anything though.

BTW!!! They're calling for snow tonight!! It'll be the first time I've got to take her out in snow with the new tires cause I was in TX when the last snow storm came thorough.

 

[95LimtedExplorer]

My parents gave me they're 95 limited to me for graduating high school. It needed:
Shocks (auto ride control shocks) ball joints, sway bar links and bushings, tie rod ends, ignition coil pack, egr valve, spark plugs, spark plug wires, water pump, axle shock, alternator, battery (got a red top) and so on. 2 years later everything got replaced by myself. Got monroe specialty arc shocks for the front, and factory air shocks from ebay which was a mistake. Rides pretty good with the air shocks. I control those with my air lift air controller kit. Using one of the factory valves to separate the front from the back.
With the new suspension parts, body roll reduced by a HUGE margin. lol

 

[95LimtedExplorer]

I have videos of my explorer on youtube. Here is my repairs that were done during the past year or so.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W29Fb4IxwxI

 

[willindsay]

Shocks are the next major thing on my list.

 

[95LimtedExplorer]

How does yours ride at the moment? What brand shocks are you looking at getting? check out ##################.com

 

[95LimtedExplorer]

I recently made a video showing the front suspension in action. Made a nice camera mount that screwed into a hole located underneath the driver side step. Video has music, its techno. enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSuej6V4akw

 

[willindsay]

How does yours ride at the moment? What brand shocks are you looking at getting? check out ##################.com

It's not terrible but it's rougher than I would like. The shocks appear to be originals so it's def time to replace, Not decided on a brand I'm going to get yet. I read around before on the best value for the money but don't remember what I came up with. I think I was leaning towards Motorcraft ones from RockAuto.

 

[mr cribb]

It's not terrible but it's rougher than I would like. The shocks appear to be originals so it's def time to replace, Not decided on a brand I'm going to get yet. I read around before on the best value for the money but don't remember what I came up with. I think I was leaning towards Motorcraft ones from RockAuto.

LOL don't feel bad Will, my truck still has factory shocks on it, ball joints, tie rod assemblies (mine was built sometime in 1991). Needless to say mine rides pretty rough.

 

[willindsay]

LOL don't feel bad Will, my truck still has factory shocks on it, ball joints, tie rod assemblies (mine was built sometime in 1991). Needless to say mine rides pretty rough.

I don't feel bad at all. Now my passengers that's a different story though. lol. I'm sure most of that stuff is still original on mine too. I just haven't taken the wheels off to inspect yet for fear of what I might find.

I'm not confident in my abilities enough yet to try and tackle any of those things except the shocks.

 

[willindsay]

Just reread through the past couple months of my posts in this thread as I'm working on a list of things that I need/want to do to the explorer. It's a pretty long list that'll take me quite some time to finish.

Also I've got to apologize for my grammar I noticed I leave out letters or even whole words sometimes. I'm a little dyslexic when I get in a rush. I'll try to reread what I write before I post.

 

[willindsay]

Been doin some minor work on the ole girl recently. I finished my underglow install a few weeks back just keep forgetting to post and get a picture. I'll grab a picture sometime this week maybe.

This past weekend I built myself a work bench this past weekend to give me some space and help keep organized.

Also I removed my radio and soldered the radio harness together trying to fix an intermittent speaker out problem. Didn't fix it so I think I'm gonna leave it for now and come this summer I'll just run all new wires for each speaker.

This coming weekend I'm gonna be installing a set of these

My sister got them for me for my birthday last week.
Might install a new speedo cable as my speedometer needle is a little bouncy and the cable is only about 5$ so might as well try it. Not really sure how it's routed or how to get it off the cluster as I wasn't able to get it last time I had it out. I'm also gonna paint the needle for the gauges orange or red depending on what colors I find.

I'll try to get some pics of the stuff I've done up by next week.