91 Sploder sport 4x4 thread

[general x]

Warrior shackles and Daystar coil spacers arrived. The shackles are beefy, I'm really happy with them so far XD Unfortunately it looks like some important parts probably won't be here for this long weekend so I'll have to busy myself with most of the lift (Waiting on a replacement bushing for my pilot bearing as the old one was throw out with the pilot bearing)

 

[general x]

Continued the lift for a few hours today. Took a break for food and ate too much, must find motivation to get back out there and slave away a bit more. PICS!

Got to use the press method on the right front spring mount and it worked well, one less bolt to completely destroy (Still had to hack the head off the bolt) I had to demolish the left leaf spring at the front as it wouldn't cooperate. I've a small oxy/acetylene torch so I just cut the spring off and after some persuading the remaining hunk of spring and bushing saw things my way The brake line in the rear ended up being quite a bit too short with the shackles so it was cut in two and pinched until a longer replacement is purchased.

I decided the tear the ttb right out as the pumpkin has some contaminated gear oil so I figured I may as well tip it up and drain it all out instead of trying to suck it out with a pump. I had to disconnect the radius arms to change the bushing/add the drop brackets anyway and the axle drop brackets, shocks, springs... not much really stays to hold it up there XD

 

[RyansX]

Hey man, great looking truck! Definatly subscribing to see how this turns out!

 

[DoraThe_Explorer]

I'm also subscribing to see how this truck comes out. It's always good to see someone's junk becoming another person's treasure.

 

[general x]

I got bored while waiting for parts and test mounted an electric fan I picked up on Rockauto a while ago. Bought a stand-alone fan controller that I still need to wire up. I'll remove the factory fan and see how this works out, may have to pick up a second fan.

The Rough Country bracket I was missing finally arrived as well as some random Ford bits. I should have the transmission and suspension back in this weekend. Ordered some extended brake lines from summit as well, just waiting for a good deal on tires to pop up on kijiji.

 

[mr cribb]

You fan looks almost identical to the one I have except mine is blue. Mine is hooked up thru a relay then a on/ off toggle switch.

I know my hook up isn't ideal but it was mostly a test to see if it would work. I came to the conclusion that with this size of fan you may want two of them, because when I tested mine at 200 degrees, it would cool my engine but it was a struggle. I think I need more fan.

 

[general x]

I was considering the same simple setup with the inclusion of an idiot light sensor in the cooling system for automatic regulation and a diode off my ac compressor so it would run with a/c but not back feed through the compressor with the a/c off fan on . In the end I stumbled past the fan controller in a store for 80 bucks and decided it wasn't worth finding the right sensor. How hot outside did the one fan succeed to cool until? Most of the time I imagine the one fan will be fine as the hottest it usually gets around here is mid 30s (celcius) I rarely hear the fan clutch lock up on any of my vehicles (but maybe none of them work XD)

 

[general x]

Quick update. I was waiting on brake lines to show up from Summit, they must have been backordered as a good 9 days went by before they shipped. I bought the Pro Comp extended brake line kit and as far as installation goes I'm pritty happy with them, they replaced the original brake lines without much fuss or modifications. The original rear brake line has a bracket built into the mount that holds the park brake cables at the pumpkin and the new brake line does not do anything to replace this but the lift kit makes the original cable orientation tight so it's not really an issue. I flushed the brake fluid while I was at it and it was very dark colored, long overdue.

Today I did some wiring work for the Fan as I had been putting it off. I'm going to relocate the fan as a puller on the inside as a lot of pushed air is lost between the radiator, A/C condenser and surrounding support structure. I added a bung to the thermostat tube for the temp sensor and loomed the wiring with expandable braided loom. I tried the fan on the inside just to test and found it worked much better on the inside but still seemed like it could work better. Pulled the radiator and found out why. Oh well, needed a few things from the parts store anyway, may as well wash a radiator out on the way XD

 

[DoraThe_Explorer]

It's coming along quite nice so far!

 

[general x]

Alright. Got the radiator cleaned and reinstalled and took the sploder for a test drive. Needs an alignment something fierce XD. Nothing catastrophic occurred, though I did find a few more things to fix. Firstly, the radiator started leaking (Dammit!) The mud must've been keeping it sealed. Also, there was a harsh vibration around 50kph. Lastly, the temperature gauge very slowly rised with the fan on even with the rad clean on a 25 degree celcius day. The vibration was solved with a set of 4 degree shims correcting my pinion angle on the rear axle. 4" lift springs plus warrior shackles put me around 6 degrees of misalignment between the t case output and rear input. The radiator and cooling issues were solved with a new radiator and a 17" electric fan. I shouldn't say solved just yet as it hasn't been hot at all to really test but this fan has twice the cfm and covers significanly more of the radiator so I should hope I'm good. Last picture is of some parts for a switch box I'm going to make to control various functions...

 

[general x]

Switchbox! This is not the final product but should be similar. I may have to pick up another box as this one may not be the ideal size and I drilled a few extra holes in this one XD I've already decided to rotate some switches and mix the wiring around a bit but overally is the same as what you see here. The left input has 14 gauge four wire for Ground, battery ignition and...spare and the right has 10 various colored wires at 18 gauge iirc. This box is just going to control relays so no high power output here.

 

[Bix]

truck looks wicked ! keep at er

 

[general x]

Update. Weather has gotten nice again (Though it was nice for quite a while last year and I didn't get much done XD) Decided to tackle the rust on the bottom of the sploder. I didn't expect it to have penetrated quite as deeply as it has. Looks like some previous body work had been done and the body continued to rot out while looking nice due to the repairs. I found a lot of expanding foam and aluminum foil along the rockers as well as bondo on the tailgate. I think it might be too far gone to worry about at this point, the spare jack area has rusted through into the cab and behind the cubby at the right rear and both inside edges of the wheel arches are rusting through beside where the rear seats sit. Figured this would be a good time to at least practice body work since if I mess it up it won't be any great loss.

Steel in the last pic is intended for a rear bumper to replace the factory one which was bent into the body on the left side.

 

[general x]

A friend asked me to pick up a set of four worn 33" mud terrains on stock jeep rims off kijiji for 80 bucks. Figured I'd give them a try to see how well they fit with the lift. I'd have been damn tempted to keep them for myself if the wheels would've fit over the manual locking hubs but they don't, I pulled the hubs off and let the axle stubshaft stick through the little hole in the rim for the photo opportunity.

Garage doesn't think I should try for 35s XD

 

[zrxsix3rz]

Sweet set up your doing! like everyone else said, i wish i could find a free one explorer! Especially a manual 4x4 haha good luck with the build man and go all out

 

[general x]

Thanks! It's definitely the nicest free vehicle I've gotten but not the first XD

Continued buggerin with the body work and started the bumper.

 

[Redneckfordf250]

Nice explorer especially for free. If I could have gotten mine for free I could have spent my money towards my truck and have 2 good running trucks.


Only question is why does your left turnsignal and headlight surround look like it is falling off?
Trav

 

[yostyexplorer94]

Nice explorer especially for free. If I could have gotten mine for free I could have spent my money towards my truck and have 2 good running trucks.


Only question is why does your left turnsignal and headlight surround look like it is falling off?
Trav

He has his fender off and there is a bolt that goes through the inside of the fender into the back of the headlight assembly.

Go 35's and take the roof rack off. It'll fit!

 

[general x]

Yup, it's my fenders fault the headlight is all messed up. It feels like you're going to break it pulling the surround off and knowing I'd need it off to put the fender back on I decided to leave it off.

I pulled the roof rack off shortly after those photos were taken, if I find a good deal on 35's I'll deal with whatever air down requirements the garage may throw at me XD

Pic of where I'm currently at with the bumper. It still needs mounts drilled and welded on to secure it in place, atm it's just the straps holding it on. Still have to add shackle mounts, braces to the frame on the ends and maybe a tire rack with a spot for my license plate. Kinda slow going, seems every time I get going it's 10:00PM and time to stop making so much noise.

 

[Redneckfordf250]

Oh ok I didn't know that as I haven't done any body work on my 94 explorer.
Trav