Just bought a 2000 Mercury Mountaineer

[wwiding]

Probably your issue. The corroded terminal connections are too high a resistance.

Yup. Now I just need to get the nuts to break

 

[Mbrooks420]

Does the 2004 have the SOHC 4.0?

 

[wwiding]

Does the 2004 have the SOHC 4.0?

I'm not sure. I haven't looked at it yet.

 

[wwiding]

The smaller nut is about a 10mm size, the big one will be about 13mm I think. All of the 302 Explorers have the ring terminals on the trigger wire, I was saying in the mid-90's Ford had a lot before then with spade terminals.

I had bought a starter for my 91 Lincoln, and it came with a ring terminal and short pigtail section to replace the OEM connector. I later(recently) had to replace that starter again, and I put in a spare Explorer starter, they are virtually the same now with the ring terminals.

The starter grounds through the case/transmission.

Go slow on those nuts and bolts, be sure the socket is square before giving it torque. Rounding off bolt corners is no fun, we all forget that sometimes.

One is rounded off a little. I'm probably going to use an extractor on it.

 

[CDW6212R]

The body should be the key factor to decide what to keep. Let the one go that has the most body rust, but you have to climb under it and look them over well. You can keep the drivetrain going for ages, but the 4.0 SOHC is a lot of trouble(I'd skip those).

 

[wwiding]

So I fixed the slightly rounded head on the bottom bolt by sanding it with a dremel. I can fit a 12mm socket on it now and it's really snug. The jack I have isn't getting the truck off the ground very far, the bottom of the tires are only 4 inches or so. I think with a better jack I can get her about a foot off the ground, that should give me better leverage with the wrench.

 

[GLOCKer]

Interesting reading up on your project; good luck getting her back on the road!

As to the random wire coming out of the fuse panel; I had the same thing on my 1998 Explorer Limited. When I gutted the whole interior for a deep cleaning, I found those wires powered some antiquated cell phone technology hidden under the carpet under the rear seat. I pulled all of it out and it went to the garbage! I wonder if yours was used for some old cell phone tech or maybe...

...does it power your remote start module? Once you get the ol' beast cranked up, disconnect that wire and then see if your remote start still works!

 

[wwiding]

Interesting reading up on your project; good luck getting her back on the road!

As to the random wire coming out of the fuse panel; I had the same thing on my 1998 Explorer Limited. When I gutted the whole interior for a deep cleaning, I found those wires powered some antiquated cell phone technology hidden under the carpet under the rear seat. I pulled all of it out and it went to the garbage! I wonder if yours was used for some old cell phone tech or maybe...

...does it power your remote start module? Once you get the ol' beast cranked up, disconnect that wire and then see if your remote start still works!

Good idea. I'll pull it out and see when I get the new starter in. I just found what looks like an air powered socket wrench, I'm going to see if it breaks the bolts loose tomorrow.

 

[CDW6212R]

Spray the bolts well before trying to loosen them, with Kroil if you get it. Aerokroil is another name of it, the small 8oz cans I got from Amazon for under $10 IIRC. That works well for frozen bolts... though I just broke a water pump bolt today. Nothing is magic, but we try what we can.

 

[wwiding]

This is turning into one heck of an adventure. 13mm 6 point sockets have a lot of slop to them, but 12mm's don't fit on the bolts. I tried a 1/2 inch socket as well but it isn't working out that well. I'm going to pick up a set of Irwin Bolt Extractors as a last ditch effort before I drill them out.

 

[GLOCKer]

This is turning into one heck of an adventure. 13mm 6 point sockets have a lot of slop to them, but 12mm's don't fit on the bolts. I tried a 1/2 inch socket as well but it isn't working out that well. I'm going to pick up a set of Irwin Bolt Extractors as a last ditch effort before I drill them out.

GOOD LUCK!!!

 

[wwiding]

GOOD LUCK!!!

Thanks. If worse comes to worse I'll drill them out. But I don't want to.

 

[wwiding]

One bolt out! A friend of a friend came over with a butane torch. He told me to take a socket I could sacrifice, just in case. The socket has to be one size smaller than the bolt head. After about ten minutes of heating it up, I pounded the socket on with a hammer. Once the bolt cooled, it popped right out.

I have tonight and tomorrow off. I'm going to get some sleep and finish the job tonight.

 

[RandomNerd2000]

Tried 7/16? I just did a trans on a V8 and I could've sworn 7/16 worked well for me.

 

[CDW6212R]

Good luck there, try other brands of sockets too. They differ by brands, varying tolerances etc. The tight space makes it hard to work there I'm sure.

I broke a water pump bolt yesterday, and stopped the project to back out and get it done for work today. I had one beginning to strip, and two others that also felt too tight. I need to have days to work on my WP, and a 2nd work vehicle.

 

[wwiding]

Tried 7/16? I just did a trans on a V8 and I could've sworn 7/16 worked well for me.

Yeah I tried 7/16. It was too small. I got it all out though!

 

[wwiding]

Good luck there, try other brands of sockets too. They differ by brands, varying tolerances etc. The tight space makes it hard to work there I'm sure.

I broke a water pump bolt yesterday, and stopped the project to back out and get it done for work today. I had one beginning to strip, and two others that also felt too tight. I need to have days to work on my WP, and a 2nd work vehicle.

Yeah tight spaces suck. I'm tempted to buy an air powered socket wrench. They're not as powerfull as an impact, but they work great in small spaces.

 

[wwiding]

My brother in law and I got it out. We installed the new one and she started right up. We had to reuse the old bolts for now, but I'll be replacing them in the morning when the hardware store opens. The old starter was not OEM. The wire that goes from the starter solenoid to the starter was rusted clean through. How it even ran for the week it did is beyond me.

 

[CDW6212R]

Excellent, well done fixing that. Now it just needs some driving time, and a little TLC.

 

[Spudhut]

Great work!