We welcome the General 2.0 to the stable

Edit: Photo bucket has royaly screwed over forums across the world!! I'll work on getting pics put back in here as best I can as time allows. Gonna take awhile for me to do all my threads though.

Been looking at getting another Explorer for quite a while now due to the 260k+ miles on mine and me losing confidence in making it to wherever I'm going and back in it anymore. Been thinking all along I wanted another 2nd generation Explorer mainly because I just love the damn things. However, the TTB front end in the 1st gens were appealing as well. I'll leave it at this, I wanted either a 1st gen Explorer sport (getting hard to find, trust me!!) or a 2nd gen V8 AWD so I could eventually put that 5.0 in my current Explorer. Been looking all over the Southwest, from San Diego, to Phoenix and Vegas, Sante fe, Texas..............I was about to give it up and figure out something else when a 94 sport popped up in Aurora. By the time we saw the ad and got ahold of the guy we were the 3rd in line to get a shot at it. Game over. It only has 139k miles on it and wants $1000. I'll be damned if he didn't call the next day to tell us the 1st two didn't even show up and the 2nd in line got called into work, so we were up!! So we got a 94 sport 4X4 4.0L OHV, 5-Speed. Checking axle codes on the door sticker revealed it has the same rear end as mine, a 8.8" with 3.73 LS, I've been really happy with the limited slip on mine so I was glad to see it wasn't open at least. It's got a lot of little squeaks, pops and creeks to track down, but I'm happy with the deal. The body is straight, the paint is fair, I think we made out ok. Anyway, here's a few pics of it next to Coors Field last night. I'll get some more of the interior and whatnot when I get to do a little work on it. But for now..........

Anybody that knows me knows I DON'T do stock!! gotta get into that weird (well weird to me anyway) area of the forum where people know stuff about these 1st gens, and get doing some research and pricing. I havent been on a trail in over 2 months and it's beginning to take a toll!!!!

 

[Mike65]

Nice find on the 94 Sport. I wish Ford offered the Sport's with a 5.0L.

 

[96EXXLTinCO]

You said it!! But in all fairness, what a lot of us are doing with these things is not something they engineers had in mind, LOL.

 

[timtimtimajim]

Great find there. I love my '93 Sport, I'm sure you'll like yours.

 

[96EXXLTinCO]

Thanks guys, it's got a lot of little quirks to work out, but the motor and 5-speed seem pretty solid. I'm willing to bet all the shocks and bushings on this thing were installed by the factory. It's quite an adventure going down the interstate with worthless shocks. Lots of play in everything. Not going to fix anything underneath until we decide what we're doing with the suspension, gearing, etc. We've been discussing just going straight to the SAS, but we'll see. I don't have time or a place to do any of it right now, so I think we'll be talking to Stang5lgt about doing it. I saw he was running some pretty darn good deals through Craigslist on SAS and re-gears.

 

[2TimingTom]

Nice find. Josh can work some magic on that thing.

 

[reapereviltwin]

Sweet find! :biggthump I don't even see any rust on it.

 

[5spdman]

My first Ex was a 93 Sport a lot like that, but more rust...looks really clean! Sure hope I can find one soon in that decent of shape...miss having 2 doors instead of the 4 I have now...

 

[BrianDye]

Nice! Sounds like a deal for $1000. Anything under $1500 near me typically has 180,000+ miles, and is rusted away from top to bottom.

First gens always have a special spot with me, my first car was a '92 Eddie Bauer, I loved that thing. Over 250k IIRC when I sold it, only on its second trans swapped at 200k, stock everything else aside from normal wear and tear parts, and that thing took a beating and kept going. Wish I would've kept it and built it up, but being in high school, it would've sat for many years lol. We paid I think $800 for it, and I ended up selling it for $1000 or maybe $900.

 

[96EXXLTinCO]

I don't even see any rust on it.

There's a little under the tupperware on the rockers, but that's about it other than the undercarriage.

Nice find. Josh can work some magic on that thing.

It will be slightly less work than he did on yours, 1st gen= factory steering gear box!! But thinking it through, oh yea........SAS, SOA, and re-gear both to 4.88

My first Ex was a 93 Sport a lot like that, but more rust...looks really clean! Sure hope I can find one soon in that decent of shape...miss having 2 doors instead of the 4 I have now

I read and subscribed to your thread, I remember seeing pics of yours. I'm really looking forward to seeing the difference the shorter wheel base makes. Still going to keep my 96 4dr though too.

Nice! Sounds like a deal for $1000.

I said he wanted $1000..............I didn't say he got $1000!!! We actually took it for $800. He just wanted it gone and to be done with the selling fiasco.

Spent a little time under it today, the clunking in 4x4 is just a bad u-joint on the front driveshaft, I believe the little thud I'm hearing on bumps in the back is actually just a loose body mount and/or I also noticed the hinges on the rear glass are a little loose. Speedo wasn't working so I pulled the cluster, speedo itself works fine, drove down the street with no cluster in watching the speedo cable..........not turning. I think pretty much every bushing on the son of a gun is factory, and therefore roached so prob doing a full bushing kit, depending on the lift decision that needs to be made soon of course. Shocks are more of a decoration on it at this point too, but again.........don't know the lift situation yet damnit. Ran out of time and had to stop there for today. Trying to figure out how to get the climate controls in this thing out for some bulb replacements.

P.S. just realized I still haven't gotten any pics of the interior, totally spaced it today. Will try tomorrow.

 

[2TimingTom]

Josh is doing a SAS on a 4 door 1st gen now. He said he's got parts for a kit if you want to go that way too.

 

[96EXXLTinCO]

I would love to be able to just do my own, and a kit would be awesome, but not having a garage to work in this time of year is just no fun. We're still researching some things and figuring out which way to go. Thanks for the heads up though Tom.

 

[96EXXLTinCO]

EDIT: I deleted these pics off photobucket when I started doing a write up on this conversion, all the pics that were here are now on the write up anyway, link is in my signature.

So took way longer to upload pics than it should (REALLY crappy internet here, and you know, life and stuff) but got some shots of the interior and pics of the first mod I do on almost every vehicle, changed the color of the dash lights to blue. My Mitsubishi has em, the 96 explorer have em, and now General 2 point oh has em too. But here it is:

It has a stereo, I was putting the dash back together after the bulb swap. The push button 4x4 and 4Low buttons will become a space for switches or a gauge once I put in the manual shift t-case I have.

And the new gauge cluster color:

http://i1378.photobucket.com/albums...0 dash lights/20160111_164744_zpsuyimzmpe.jpg

I still need to change the color in the climate controls but that one will be a little more involved. I have already changed out the dome light (but I leave the map lights white for when you need real light at night) but I need to change out the rear cargo area light and the courtesy lights in the doors. I will also put some LED's under the dash to shine down on the floor board on their own switch. Whenever I'm wheeling at night I turn those off and dim the gauges all the way down. HOPEFULLY a decision gets made on the lift soon so I can either get this sucker into the shop, or get to ordering some parts!! Although, explorertom threw another curve at me last night and informed me the shop that did his SAS is now potentially making a DIY SAS kit. Leila's new place has a garage sooooooo..................only problem is I only have a little 110v welder, so I'd have to figure some way of getting it somewhere where I can use a REAL welder to burn it all in. Stay tuned as Leila has her eye on another toy that's currently down in Florida. A really BIG toy that would tie in with plans we have in the not so distant future, that's all on that for now............

I haven't looked yet to see if there's a how to on changing the dash light color or not, if anyone's interested I can write one up and link it here.

 

[5spdman]

How did you do the gauge cluster color change? I'd like to switch all mine to blue to go with the color scheme of the rest of the rig...

 

[96EXXLTinCO]

How did you do the gauge cluster color change? I'd like to switch all mine to blue to go with the color scheme of the rest of the rig...

I'm going to have to answer that tonight when we get my friend to her new condo. Internet there is blazing fast and here at her old place..............I'm not even kidding..............speedtest results were like 2.67Mbps download and .67Mbps upload. Now I can't even get into photobucket :fire: It seriously reminds of the days of dial up, thank god I didn't know any better back then!!! I will get you a good description of "how to" with some pics though buddy.

 

[5spdman]

Awesome!

 

[madbutcher]

Nice Sport you got
I will follow this

 

[96EXXLTinCO]

Nice Sport you got
I will follow this

Howdy [MENTION=194515]madbutcher[/MENTION] Come along for the ride it should be a fun one!! I read your build just a few weeks ago. Makes me feel lucky to build a truck here in the U.S. It takes a long time for you to get parts, and they're expensive!! Nice job on your truck too!! How is the SAS coming?
[MENTION=127721]5spdman[/MENTION] we didn't get to the new place and set up on the new network and stuff till late, then I had some issues with my network adapter, blah blah blah. I'm thinking I may just go ahead and do a write up for it since I wasn't able to find one for a 1st gen. On another note, internet at this place is unbelievable!! 60+ Mbps down on wireless and 90+Mbps when hardwired!! I've never seen the net that fast!! You click on a page and it's loaded and done, like, RIGHT NOW!!!

 

[madbutcher]

Howdy [MENTION=194515]madbutcher[/MENTION] Come along for the ride it should be a fun one!! I read your build just a few weeks ago. Makes me feel lucky to build a truck here in the U.S. It takes a long time for you to get parts, and they're expensive!! Nice job on your truck too!! How is the SAS coming?

My sas is on hold . new stupid Norwegian offroad rules say i need a full cage and 4 point seatbelts if i make a custum setup with new axles..
Right now i try to make my "new" Mazda B roadelegal so i can use it in my new job
It sux big time to wait for parts.. haha.. but that's the game

 

[96EXXLTinCO]

My sas is on hold . new stupid Norwegian offroad rules say i need a full cage and 4 point seatbelts if i make a custum setup with new axles..
Right now i try to make my "new" Mazda B roadelegal so i can use it in my new job
It sux big time to wait for parts.. haha.. but that's the game

That sucks!! Do they have specs you have to follow for the cage? Certain size tube and thickness? Can you just cut and weld pipe together or does it have to be bent? Do they specify how many posts have to mount to the floor or frame? I bet there might be a couple ways to cheat a little bit.
I'm not sure which is worse, waiting for the parts you ordered, or me waiting for the money to order the parts!!

So after being laid up with a really weird back issue, I finally got the dash light color conversion write up done. Link is now in my signature if you want to check it out, sorry it took so long [MENTION=127721]5spdman[/MENTION] but I did go back and tear down the dash again and get the pics I didn't have from the first go round. Should be pretty straight forward but I tried to write it so anyone could understand. Not much else new, other than I got a line on some 78-79 F150 full width axles, a D44 and 9inch, with 4.88's already installed along with a locker in the front, spool in the rear, and radius arms for one hell of a deal. I think there was even some coilovers mentioned in there as well. Decision hasn't been made yet..............but literally about all I would need is front lift springs. I did discover what the clunk in the rear was from:

NO BOLTS IN THE TOP OF THE LEFT REAR SHOCK!!! That will make some noise, trust me. Now I know why it had a dip and weave type motion when hitting humps on the highway. LOL. Threw one bolt I could find into it for now. New shocks will be coming with new suspension anyway, so not too worried about it. Also discovered the front noise in 4X4 was not a ujoint but a part of the double cardan joint is broke. I don't have a jack other than the factory one that the truck came with so I could get the driveshaft out yet. Just no room under there right now, need to get this bish in the air!! Hopefully fiddle with it some more today and have more to report on tonight. Have a great Monday everyone!!