Captain Morgan, '95 D44 Sas

“Captain Morgan”
1995 Explorer Sport


Engine:
4.0 OHV

Transmission:
M5oD manual transmission

Cooling:
Summit Racing aluminum 2.5” radiator, driver drop outlet
Summit Racing aluminum power steering cooler
Summit Racing flex hose & 90* elbow

Drivetrain:
Manual 1354 Borg Warner
Steel Tube front driveshaft
Extended, reinforced rear driveshaft

Front Axle:
‘84 Jeep Grand Wagoneer Widetrac Dana 44 low pinion
OX locker & Cover
5.13 Yukon Ring & Pinion
All Spicer U-joints, bearings & races
Kevlar braided stainless 32” long brakelines
Stock Waggy shafts (until I break one!)
Warn manual locking hubs

Rear Axle:
Explorer 8.8 31 spline
Dutchman hardened shafts, 6x5.5 pattern, screw-in studs
Aussie Locker
5.13 Yukon Ring & Pinion
Currie 6x5.5 rotors
All Ford bearings & races
Trailmaster 2” tapered rear lift blocks
Superlift spring-over perches
RuffStuff 1/4" steel 8.8 metal cover

Suspension:
Explorer ProComp MX6 nitro front shocks
Regular Monroe stock height (go figure!) rear shocks
JC Whitney stock Waggy 7 leaf front packs
Rear leaf packs out of XLT v8 w/ tow package

Tires:
35x13.5r16 Mickey Baja Claws
37x12.5r15 Goodyear Wrangler Mtr's Couldn't flex. Gone
36x12.5r15 Super Swamper TSL Bias Ply Best for mud! Gone
315x70r17 Mickey Baja MTZ radials Original setup. Gone

Rims:
16x8 Black painted aluminum triangle holes
15x10 Black round-holed aluminum something or anothers Gone
17x10 Black steel Rock Crawler round holes Gone

Body Mods:
Originally Willow Green
Premium Sport flares
Maaco semi-gloss dark Charcoal paint. black vinyl racing stripes
Black herculiner on lower doors and rock sliders
Shaved 4" from each side of bumper for tire clearance
Removed roof rack and rails

Body Armor:
DraperBuilt rock sliders
Steel rear bumper w/ swing out carrier, from sn0border88's late Emily Rose (Had to remove tire carrier section in 2011,
the swing rod bent and the trailer bearings built into the bumper seized)

Sound System:
Pioneer DEH-X7800BHS head unit
4 6x8 Kenwood 3 way 220w speakers
Pair Kenwood 1" front door tweets w/ bass blockers (installed in panels by rearview mirror control)
Pair Pioneer 1" rear tweets w/ bass blockers (installed above flip out ashtrays)
10” Kicker VR Comp dual voice coil
Kenwood 729S Amplifier
Cobra 19 CB in center console, w/ external speaker (removed 2019, no one uses CB's for wheeling anymore)

Lights:
2 Hella 500's on front bumper
Dual driving fogs. White fog/blue smurf lights
Anamorphic Equalizer
LED strips around inside of rear hatch glass w/ dedicated rear switch
Billet Automotive custom RGB LED switch panel
Sylvania amber blue 3157 turn bulbs
Euro Diamond headlights & corners
OPT7 LED headlight bulb upgrade
Black Altezza tail lights w/ LED brake & reverse bulbs, amber blue turn signals

Miscellaneous modifications:
Doofy looking Skull knob for T-case shifter (thanks Rook )
Fire Extinguisher & LED Maglite hard mounted to D-Pillars
Sport Trac rear power outlet installed in right rear panel behind rear seats
02-05 Explorer IRS breather tube neck for front axle breather tube
Shaved 8.8 Center pin
Shaved inside fin off of Dana 44 housing to clear OX shift fork
Royal Purple full synthetic Mercon III trans fluid
Interior light kill switch (95's interior lights do not turn off via dimmer)
Boxed & reinforced trans cross member to pass over front driveshaft
Custom front sway bar
2wd explorer radio bezel
‘95 F350 Front shock towers
Removed stock air filter fender duct
1.5" Steel front driverside leaf block (to make him sit level again)
Leather power seats and rear bench seat from Blackjack
2019: Installed Blackjack's passenger door & Skunk's driver door in tribute. He is now FrankenMorgan.




Started out looking like this:

Did a little bit of this:

And a little bit of that:

To get this:

Had some fun breaking him in:

And then realized a little too late that I have a serious center of gravity issue:

But clean it all up and throw some paint on and things will look a lot better

...And then when your nice matte finish dark charcoal grey paint fades to powdered donut finish,
(Yes that's me, posing with my truck)

......have your truck painted again!

And put stripes on it, for Pete's sake

Over a decade later and still kicking despite everything we've been through:

Full write up can be found here: How to waste a ton of $$. Much thanks to Rookie, Wolf, Micah, 95Exploderboy and IZwack for the design/build, and Skunk for the inspiration


EDIT: Morgan wouldn't be the beast that he is today were it not for the two horribly abused first gens who came before him and taught me what it means to have a wheelable Explorer (lots of patience, time and money!). Here's to Shelby and Tank May they rest in pieces wherever they are!

 

[Spas]

I don't know what you heard about him
A trick can't get a dollar outta him
No cadillac to perm you can see
'cause he's a motha effin' P.I.M.P.

Nice first post!

Welcome to the site.

And don't let Colin scare you off! LOL Thanks for the compliment!

 

[section525]

I

you too, Spas.

Nice decals. Where'd you get 'em??

 

[Spas]

Ebay, babee!

They had some really amusing ones... I got an upside-down one for a Jeeper friend that reads "If you can read this, SAVE THE COOLER!"

 

[FROADER]

Oooh, I need that last one.

 

[Spas]

Couple moar:

(Last one's going on my toolbox at work. I swear at least 60% of the super duties we get are lifted, chipped, and generally worked... with baby seats in the back and not a scratch on them )

 

[Spas]

I really have to thank Tara for this one... It's hard as hell to get a shot of yourself with your ******* Ford children when you're the only one holding the camera.

 

[DB_1]

Nice pic, call it your i'mtoosexydon'tmesswithmeori'llrunyouoverwithmybigtruck pic:

 

[Premier]

your hair looks different... looks good

 

[Spas]

Nice pic, call it your i'mtoosexydon'tmesswithmeori'llrunyouoverwithmybigtruck pic:

Dunno about the sexy part, but I DO give the lookatmefunnyonemoretimeyoudamnsoccermomandi'lluseyouasaspeedbump look quite often. Soccer Moms hate Morgan

 

[FROADER]

Soccer moms around here own trucks and SUVs bigger than my pile...

 

[FlyBoyCoe]

Morgan is a lucky man...

 

[Spas]

No he's not... his owner beats him relentlessly, paints him weird colors, uses him as a shield during snowball fights, forces him to play nice with J**ps, scolds him every time he breaks something, uses him as a tent, gets him stuck in the weirdest places and tries to make him climb on things that were never meant to be climbed on.

 

[JDraper]

No he's not... his owner beats him relentlessly, paints him weird colors, uses him as a shield during snowball fights, forces him to play nice with J**ps, scolds him every time he breaks something, uses him as a tent, gets him stuck in the weirdest places and tries to make him climb on things that were never meant to be climbed on.

and rolls him on his side just to scratch his belly!!!

 

[Blee1099]

and likes to leave it stranded for a chevy towtruck to tow back to the shop

 

[Spas]

*grouch grouch grouch*

/Review on/

As anyone who's ever had to go from big, gnarly, awesome looking tires to smaller and less aggressive ones knows, it sucks : I've decided to hang on to my Mickeys until they're down to 1/3 life and then sell them and the 17" rims in order to finance a new set of rims with MUCH less backspacing and larger "street" tires next year. That, and the Mickeys kick balls in the snow, whereas the Swampers definitely do not handle wet pavement, snow and ice very well. Jury's still out on whether I will get another set of 17's, but I can honestly tell you guys this: they really DO make a huge difference in handling over 15" rims. Less sidewall= less flex= better handling. But, having a ton of backspacing to keep the tires under the fenders really hurts said handling and leads to a lot of body roll drama. I'll take my chances with the law in return for swinging a corner at 30mph and not feeling like I'm gonna roll, thank you.

The Swampers are being dismounted and the considerably wider Chebbie rims will end up being media blasted and powdercoated because I'm not happy with the crap job that the previous owner did on them with spray paint. In the spring I'll hunt down either some powder or copper BB's for balancing. Gonna miss the rumble all winter, though


TSL's. When you want to make 35" Baja MTZ's look puny

/Review off/

 

[Spas]

Just for the record, I hate fixing the clutch parts on m5od's. It was so much easier just to replace a failing automatic than fight with all the assorted parts of a manual :fire: Morgan's flywheel clutch plate has a ton of heat stress cracks and there are hotspots on the clutch disc but I can't afford to replace them right now. I broke out the mini grinder and used some strong cookies to sand them down, and had to replace the pilot bearing and slave cylinder again. Apparently there's a rubber 'check' boot on the bellhousing that I should have.. but I don't, so all the mud and water from 2 years worth of 'wheeling has done its damage. I'm off to the junkyard today to try and score a new booty. ARG MATIES! lol. Hopefully my boss won't kill me on Monday since I couldn't get everything back together in the 4 hours I had to do this and had to leave Morgan on the lift at work

Correct way to remove your transmission:

Incorrect way to remove your transmission:

 

[Blee1099]

I swear there has to be something in the water up in Harford County.. :

 

[cybergasm]

No he's not... his owner beats him relentlessly, paints him weird colors, uses him as a shield during snowball fights, forces him to play nice with J**ps, scolds him every time he breaks something, uses him as a tent, gets him stuck in the weirdest places and tries to make him climb on things that were never meant to be climbed on.

and might have a complex about being forced to wear pink shackles.

 

[IZwack]

Apparently there's a rubber 'check' boot on the bellhousing that I should have.. but I don't, so all the mud and water from 2 years worth of 'wheeling has done its damage. I'm off to the junkyard today to try and score a new booty. ARG MATIES! lol.

You'sa talking about the two rectangular holes at the top of the bellhousing (on the left transmission in the image below) ? Cauz I dont have a boot either but sounds like I better put something there to cover it!

 

[Burns]

If im correct there are not any rubber boots for the top two holes there IZ. There is one on the bottom left side of the bellhousing. I think its on the left