The_Sploder
New Member
- Joined
- September 27, 2012
- Messages
- 5
- Reaction score
- 0
- City, State
- Draper, Utah
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 1999 Ford Explorer
Hey all, I recently bought a 1999 Eddie Bauer, Spruce Green, with 178k on it. 5.0 AWD. We were looking for a practical winter vehicle that could haul furniture and stuff like that when the need arises, and allow our Cobra stay out of the snow. I've spent many hours searching these forums for information and suspension how-to's, so I figured I would just join now.
It has some rust, but by Michigan standards its very clean, only rust visible on the body from the outside is a little bit on the bottom of one door.
I took it by my mechanic and he said it needs a new front diff (it was dry, and noisy), among other things. I am in the process of replacing the front sway bar bushings, lower ball joints, all four shocks, upper control arms (ball joints), and rear rotors and pads. I had to cut one drivers side control arm bolt to get it out, and a did a lot of wrenching on the other side with a pry bar (hoping i didn't bend the frame where the bolts mount to). I'm also stuck on the rear lower shock mount bolts. I broke both of them, and am just going to cut the other side off with a hacksaw, but that's taking a good while to do.
My wife picked up a front diff, with supposedly the right gear ration (3.73), but I noticed there a strange protrusion with one or two connector pins on the passenger side axle tube, which isn't present on the one still on my truck. Do I need to be concerned about this? What is it?
It has some rust, but by Michigan standards its very clean, only rust visible on the body from the outside is a little bit on the bottom of one door.
I took it by my mechanic and he said it needs a new front diff (it was dry, and noisy), among other things. I am in the process of replacing the front sway bar bushings, lower ball joints, all four shocks, upper control arms (ball joints), and rear rotors and pads. I had to cut one drivers side control arm bolt to get it out, and a did a lot of wrenching on the other side with a pry bar (hoping i didn't bend the frame where the bolts mount to). I'm also stuck on the rear lower shock mount bolts. I broke both of them, and am just going to cut the other side off with a hacksaw, but that's taking a good while to do.
My wife picked up a front diff, with supposedly the right gear ration (3.73), but I noticed there a strange protrusion with one or two connector pins on the passenger side axle tube, which isn't present on the one still on my truck. Do I need to be concerned about this? What is it?
