stephens sporty 94

Hey, my names Stephen I live in Hamilton, MT and I've been lurking on this forum since I got my first X, it was a 1993 eddie baur that was kinda beat and only had 126k on it. but after discovering this forum I've regretted getting an auto after hearing how much of a pain they are, so not wanting to get invested in something that was bound to fail. That brings me to today! I found a clean 1994 sport, the man who was selling said it was his dads and he bought in 1996 for 11,000 and trading in his 1989 bronco XLT. I decided with how clean it was and some dickering I got it for $2100 with 123k miles on the 6 digit odometer. I'll get some more pictures tomorrow, but its the cleanest X I have seen in Montana.

 

[WormsExplorer]

Very nice looking Ex. I got mine from the family that bought it new also. He Dad bought it and then her son was driving it. But the fuel pump went out and were selling it. I got mine for $250. Very clean with VERY minimal damage. Got the Fuel pump replaced and now she is running great.

 

[stephen93Eddie]

Haven't been very active on the forum because of finals, and the holiday season! but there has actually been progress on the sploder! finally the weekend of my birthday I started installing the lift! I hadn't originally planned to go with a rough country lift. but classic city offroad took off $100 when i messaged them on pirate 4x4, so i decided to get it and if something broke or wasn't working I would change things up down the road. hopefully once the snow is gone and its not cold.

pics of the rear with the lift springs in

And the front being a pain.

and how it looks on chicken tires with the lift!

My friends brother in law owns a tire shop, so my buddy got me a great deal on some 33x12.5r15 Ironman offroad M/T's he picked them up when here was there on Christmas! unfortunately its dark and snowing so no tire picks but i got some new wheels for the sploder so here is them!

pics with the tires and rims on will hopefully be up soon maybe later today!

plans for the sploder is hopefully exhaust work(started my green explorer with cat delete and dynomax exhaust and I miss the throaty sound. but green explorer should be sold soon and get my some money for gears, locker, etc!!) hopefully going to go snow wheeling later this month! we are supposed to get like 4-9 inches this Friday!

 

[R.J.]

Hey hey, I know you have pictures with 33's on.

 

[stephen93Eddie]

Hey hey, I know you have pictures with 33's on.

Yeah! I’ll post them tonight! Along with my snow wheeling pictures! Little behind hahah! I’ve gotten really tied up with all the things I wanna do with it and all the ideas!

 

[stephen93Eddie]

Alright! finally posting some pictures! the Explorer is lifted and even had a chance to go on a little shakedown run in the snow! was a great trip, but we were all disappointed that there was only maybe 16 inches of snow on the mountain.(also nobody got stuck which wasn't any fun!)

33s and rims all squared away!

probably one of my favorite things on this explorer!

I went with a few buddies, one jeep on 31s with lockers front and rear, one jeep on 35's with a rear tru-trac, and a GMC 1500 on 32s thats beat. we all aired down to 10psi, and had fun! explorer did great, but on the highway up to the mountain I decided that the 3.73 gears have to go once it gets warm! thinking 4.56 but a part of me thinks 4.88's would be awesome! was a lot of fun hoping to go on another trip soon, hopefully with much more snow so I can have some fun!( don't mind the honda badge my buddies zip tied it on there!)

A few poser shots on a stump showing that the stock bumpers need to go, definitely hitting the front, and the rear its rubbing the side pieces, but so far I am pleased and impressed after all the negative things I've heard from the dense people saying TTB sucks.

so far I've made a laundry list of things I need to do!
list so far:
sell old explorer!(would be nice to get money for gears and a locker)
gears!(4.56? possibly 4.88s I need opinions!)
locker(Rear trying to decided if a selectable is worth it, I've heard powertrax no-slip has good road manner but here in Montana we do get a lot of snow and ice.)
bumpers( I have all the steel I need in the back of the old explorer!!)
sliders(eventually I think the steps are fine but they tie into the body and not the frame and I would hate to rip them off)
onboard air( going to see if the A/C on this explorer works first if it doesn't I'm going to use that, if not I'll find another option)
swap alternators( my green explorer used to be an SPL vehicle before I got into offroading and it has a custom 270 amp alternator I'd like to put on the new one, oh and steal the AGM battery out of it as well)
install my camshaft position sensor(current one is squawking like a bird and keeps my CEL on and that bugs me)

I cannot stress how happy I am with everything so far, also I wish it was warmer so I could do more work, as the garage gets pretty cold. But any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[R.J.]

456 gears with 33's will work very well. If you plan to run bigger tires later, then maybe 488. I ran 456 gears with both 33's and 35's. 33's it was good, but 35's in the rocks with a clutch was a little under geared

 

[stephen93Eddie]

456 gears with 33's will work very well. If you plan to run bigger tires later, then maybe 488. I ran 456 gears with both 33's and 35's. 33's it was good, but 35's in the rocks with a clutch was a little under geared

Yeah. Although is don’t think I’d ever go bigger tires unless I decided on 44 outers, since I’ve heard 35s eat wheel bearings. So that has me on the fence.

 

[stephen93Eddie]

some more updates! was browsing facebook and found an explorer part out two hours away and scored a manual transfer case with all the goodies!(floor plate,shift boot, linkage) it was a shame he cut the boot because it was a manual trans too, but I'm sure with what I have I can get it to work and look nice, also got the vent! all of it for $100

another update on a sad note, I sold my first X, sad to see it go but i get to keep the 31's on it! so thats a plus. probably sell those soon since they were only 6 months old. this money will go towards gears, install kits and a rear locker.

A few questions for the more experienced members, first any recommendations on a rear locker? we get a fair amount of snow and I know auto lockers can sometimes be a pain but are affordable(heard good things about powertrax no-slip anyone have experience is it worth the extra $100). Second picked up some 1/4 steel strap and 2x4 tubing for a bumper and am starting to look at welders? what works and is affordable? I don't think i'll have any access to anything but 110v. have i gotten to thick of material?

 

[stephen93Eddie]

still looking for any insight on the above, college semester has started so not a whole lot "should" happen until may, currently debating a 44 SAS since some cheap axles have shown themselves, and advice again greatly appreciated

 

[stephen93Eddie]

okay so heres the deal, a buddy of mine has a set of 76 f150 axles, changed to 4.10 gears with a detroit in the back. the 44 has disk brakes from a 79. I have heard of people moving the axle wedges so they do not need to outboard the coil buckets? anyone done this?

 

[BKennedy]

Kirby N. did that on his Ranger SAS. It seemed to work well. Photobucket killed all the pictures in his build thread.

Kirby's 1991 Ranger Build Up

 

[stephen93Eddie]

okay well few updates pictures when stuff shows up. Bought a welder! gonna start working on front and rear bumpers this week!! hopefully a tire carrier later, wanting to do a double shear style instead of using a spindle. maybe sliders, not sure how much i like the look of the square kind(don't have a tube bender).

going to order DOM eventually for my radius arm extensions(got some stock arms from @Brian1 ! thanks!). currently trying to decided what joint to put on the end of my radius arms, I'm thinking of just going with the stock style stud and bushings it seems durable and I haven't seen much of a benefit of a more expensive joint(johnny,creeper,hiem).

Finally trying to decide on steering. Called James Duff they do make the stone crusher style steering for TTB, theres superrunner, but most modify it I was thinking that using offset TRE's might bring it more into spec, but that's still more expensive then just getting the FA600 arm. my linkage is a little high for my liking and i want to do my best to minimize excessive tire wear.
@Maniak how is your experience with the FA600? any excessive wear? do you align it often? just curious!

 

[BKennedy]

If you are building radius arms, don't go with a bushing. You will get more bind, and blow them out on a regular basis. I had Superlift's radius arms and the bushings would blow every other year. I put big heim joints on it and got more articulation along with not having to replace bushings on a regular basis.

I also had the Superrunner steering when I had a TTB. It was okay, not great. It blew the upper bushing every time I used the front ARB locker. I ended up having a set of bushings made from delrin, which took care of that issue. I still had some steering bind at near full articulation.

It seems like none of the bolt on lifts for Ranger based vehicles are actually for off-road. They all have issues.

 

[stephen93Eddie]

If you are building radius arms, don't go with a bushing. You will get more bind, and blow them out on a regular basis. I had Superlift's radius arms and the bushings would blow every other year. I put big heim joints on it and got more articulation along with not having to replace bushings on a regular basis.

I also had the Superrunner steering when I had a TTB. It was okay, not great. It blew the upper bushing every time I used the front ARB locker. I ended up having a set of bushings made from delrin, which took care of that issue. I still had some steering bind at near full articulation.

It seems like none of the bolt on lifts for Ranger based vehicles are actually for off-road. They all have issues.

Yeah I understand this, like others I find the uniqueness of the TTB awesome just trying to find out what works and what doesn't. Current plan are just to figure out steering and radius arms.

 

[BKennedy]

You really don't need to guess, its all been done before. The TTB has its place, and its for moderate rock crawling and going fast through the whoops. I went all over the western US with a modified TTB suspension and it did everything (Rubicon, Moab, Colorado, Truckhaven, etc), just not as good as I wanted.

 

[stephen93Eddie]

You really don't need to guess, its all been done before. The TTB has its place, and its for moderate rock crawling and going fast through the whoops. I went all over the western US with a modified TTB suspension and it did everything (Rubicon, Moab, Colorado, Truckhaven, etc), just not as good as I wanted.

yeah, I wish I could SAS some time but I just have to much going on right now. I have two more semesters of college left, working full time, and trying to make time for family. I have two cars just don't have the time or space to work on the splody continuously for very long, my hope is to make the most of what I currently have and make adjustments as time and budget permits. currently just looking to cover my bases, thus why steering is now a concern.

 

[stephen93Eddie]

Have parts on the way for some upgrades! will get pictures later, currently playing with a lot of bumper ideas, went shooting the other day. ended up kinda wheeling, the snow was really wet and heavy, jeep buddy ended up not having a fun day.
On the way FA600 arm,
Skyjacker monotubes
and a few sneaky things,

 

[WormsExplorer]

That looks pretty bad.

 

[stephen93Eddie]

That looks pretty bad.

yeah, he has a heavy foot and a locker, he first broke both U joints then the ball joints came out on that side! It ended up being a fun recovery/ wheeling trip and we had a lot of fun after that, I will post some pictures later but I was impressed with the little sploder but there are some areas in which I'm going to need to address.