Oops, I did it again...

My boss's nephew has had this poor, beat-up little '95 Sport for the longest time, just beating the crap out of it and trying to wheel with J**p friends who were obviously better set up for 4wheeling... two weeks ago it came in with a blown hub, bad upper and lower balljoints, bad tie rods, and some other issues. They saw $2600 worth of damage, I saw a candidate for an axle swap Since the little guy is only worth MAYBE $3,000 in current shape, the kid decided to junk it.

I couldn't pass it up In the next two weeks I'll be nabbing Snoborder's EB Dana44 and waggy leafs and making myself a mean little monster I don't much like the 'green bean' look though, so as soon as I've got enough saved for a nifty Maaco paintjob, it's getting sprayed platinum grey with silver stripes! I plan on raiding Harry's and scoring some grey leather seats, fender flares and a manual t-case (maybe even make a doubler if I can squeeze in some more overtime).

What about Shelby you wonder...? Her fate is still undecided. She's still too nice to trash (I wouldn't do that to her anyway-Tank was a whole 'nother can of rust) and I haven't found myself crazy over the extra foot of wheelbase when trying to take sharp turns on the trail. No offense meant to you 4 door lovers, I just have a thing for 2 door second gens

1995 Sport 4.0 OHV
5 speed manual
P/w, p/l, no stereo yet
flattened out monoleafs
blown shocks
two bent up bumpers
screwed on passenger mirror
new Clutch
new idler pulley (after it suddenly just disappeared)
Looks an awful lot like Doug's first Explorer, that I carted to the crusher's after he wrecked it

 

[95exploderboy]

Looks like yer gettin somewhere. I'll be back in MD on Wed, when are you plannin on workin in the garage again?

 

[Spas]

Looks like yer gettin somewhere. I'll be back in MD on Wed, when are you plannin on workin in the garage again?

This Sunday again- any help would be mucho appreciated, thanks!! I should have an entirely new steering set up, tires mounted on rims, and some other little things... I could definitely use your imput on cutting the hole for the manual t-case, Jake

 

[Spas]

I do remember that white yota

Thats exactly what I did for mine -- use conduit to mock the bends and length. But see if you can get Midas or another exhaust shop to do the bends for you. They typically have hydraulic benders as long as my Honda Civic and can easily bend the entire universe if needed. I befriended a guy at the Midas close to my house and gave him i think $10 to bend my Explorer's panhard in 3 places (the third bend is perpendicular from the plane of the other two):

Sections' arms are of course from Sky Manufacturing and the knuckles are from Rock Equipment .. "Super Boy Howdy Fabricated Knuckles" (lol wtf kind of name is that)

the masterFabricator2006 (wolf) can make anything
But if you want to buy them, here is one from A&A manufacturing for ~$3.50 each (3/16" Steel, 1/2" Holes, Fits 3" Tubing), slice it in half and you get a pair out of each

http://www.aa-mfg.com/pdshop/shop/item.asp?itemid=485

Thanks a lot, IZ! I think I will order two of those suckers to make life easier. Wolf's a fantastic fabricator, but only if you can get him motivated to weld in the first place, and it takes ideas from all of you to get things completed because neither one of us has ever had to make parts for this sort of swap before Maybe I will just do the steering the cheapy way first and see how it holds up. If it becomes a rock bite victim THEN I'll get those Boy Howdy knuckles (I thought Section was making that name up...! )

Bobby, the 'truck in question' handles like a psycho squirrel on speed. I really have no desire to have mine handle the same way, lol.

Jeff, the trac bar has its own mount on the axle already, why would I want to run it to the spring mount..?

Jamie: :

 

[Savage Wolf]

I do remember that white yota

Thats exactly what I did for mine -- use conduit to mock the bends and length. But see if you can get Midas or another exhaust shop to do the bends for you. They typically have hydraulic benders as long as my Honda Civic and can easily bend the entire universe if needed. I befriended a guy at the Midas close to my house and gave him i think $10 to bend my Explorer's panhard in 3 places (the third bend is perpendicular from the plane of the other two):

I'm planing on picking up some conduit in the next few days to mock up the steering, panhard and bumper(s) (for my truck and morgan)

the masterFabricator2006 (wolf) can make anything
But if you want to buy them, here is one from A&A manufacturing for ~$3.50 each (3/16" Steel, 1/2" Holes, Fits 3" Tubing), slice it in half and you get a pair out of each

As for the shock mounts i have so much square tube I can just toss a peice in the drycut and drill press and have instant mounts : but I do have a A&A catalog sitting on my workbench

Looks like yer gettin somewhere. I'll be back in MD on Wed, when are you plannin on workin in the garage again?

I dont know what hours I am going to be working during the week but if your bored and looking for something to do just give me a call, there is more then enough little things to be worked on (or bsing while looking at the truck )

 

[Savage Wolf]

Thanks a lot, IZ! I think I will order two of those suckers to make life easier. Wolf's a fantastic fabricator, but only if you can get him motivated to weld in the first place, and it takes ideas from all of you to get things completed because neither one of us has ever had to make parts for this sort of swap before

Don't make me take yer pos apart w/ the plasma :
Linds= impatient, I like to think things out so I wont have to redo/fix them ever (ok so I may be lazy too : )

 

[Blee1099]

I wonder how long it'll take to cut the green bean in half with a plasma cutter and sawzall blades.. I bet we can cut it in half right behind the drivers compartment

 

[JDraper]

Jeff, the trac bar has its own mount on the axle already, why would I want to run it to the spring mount..?

Because a shorter trac bar will pull the axle to the side more as you extend the suspension. The longer the bar is, the straighter the axle will go up and down when articulated, and there will be less binding. it also allows for more suspension travel. It's all a matter of geometry.

 

[Spas]

Because a shorter trac bar will pull the axle to the side more as you extend the suspension. The longer the bar is, the straighter the axle will go up and down when articulated, and there will be less binding. it also allows for more suspension travel. It's all a matter of geometry.

Hmmm, eeeenteresting! I'm literally learning something new every day with this swap, lol. Now Jeff, you do realize.... as soon as Morgan is driveable, I'm going to be up there begging for sliders? You're wheeling the golden nugget for New Year's, right??

 

[JDraper]

Hmmm, eeeenteresting! I'm literally learning something new every day with this swap, lol. Now Jeff, you do realize.... as soon as Morgan is driveable, I'm going to be up there begging for sliders? You're wheeling the golden nugget for New Year's, right??

For sliders, I need you to take a measurement. Measure from the rear of the front wheel well opening to the front of the rear wheel well opening. If you're making the openings wider, I need the measurement AFTER the cuts. That way I'll get the length correct when I get my main bars cut. I need to order the steel before ya get here because I never know when my supplier will have stuff available...

As for wheeling on New Years...it's still up in the air.....

 

[95exploderboy]

Make sure you get some pics from todays work session. I'm stuck in NY right now so all I can do is find parts for my swap. Are you gonna be working on it this comming saturday?

 

[Spas]

Not much in the way of progress over the last few weeks but I'm hoping to get him drivable in the next week or so. Wolf made brackets for my bling bling aluminum Summit radiator D) and now we have to modify the shroud... stainless steel line, temperature-showing radiator cap and 90degree elbow are on their way, as is the power steering cooler. If you're doing something similar I'm told it's almost a necessity to run some kind of cooler on the return line to the ps pump because the stress of turning such large tires will quickly blow it out. Things left to do:

Shock hoops/mounts
Trans X-member
Run new brake lines
Cut hole in floor for t-case shifter
New square tube front driveshaft
Route Ox cable
Mount Ox shifter
Bend drag link
Make track bar
Measure front diff caster angle and get shims if needed
Bumpers...If we have time

All the little things, like setting the ox/gears, installing the Aussie, making a Hi lift mount, etc, I can do at work once Morgan's driveable again. Still scratching my head about the front and rear swaybars tho.. if it wasn't absolutely necessary to pass Maryland inspection I wouldn't bother :

But hey! At least he sits on his own finally Sorry for the crappy cell phone pics, I'll take better ones when I head back down to finish the brakes this week. Definitely have to put fender flares and some lawn edging on to keep the po-po's happy about the tires though, lol.

 

[sn0border88]

Never thought id see the day that it all came toget..... wait. YOUR STILL NOT DONE???????

 

[95exploderboy]

Lookin good over there. Let me know when you are working on it this week and i'll stop by.

 

[MountaineerGreen]

I really like the wheel / tire combo

 

[Spas]

I really like the wheel / tire combo

Thank you, I do too From what I've heard, 17"s will make quite a difference with on road stability.. granted, you sacrifice a bit of sidewall when it comes to rock crawling, but I think everything will turn out pretty well.

Micah, Bite me! :

Jake, it's not 100% yet but I think Rookie's planning on coming back down this thursday and friday!

 

[Burns]

looks good keep it up

 

[MountaineerGreen]

Thank you, I do too From what I've heard, 17"s will make quite a difference with on road stability.. granted, you sacrifice a bit of sidewall when it comes to rock crawling, but I think everything will turn out pretty well.

After seeing how good yours looks, I looked into getting 17" wheels and tires instead of doing 15" wheels. I agree with what you said about stability, a bigger wheel will give less sidewall height and tire weight for better on road manners. I think that is the way I am going to go.

 

[TheRookie]

may want to pay close attention to the cost of tires. The 17's are far less common and the prices suck far more

 

[Spas]

After seeing how good yours looks, I looked into getting 17" wheels and tires instead of doing 15" wheels. I agree with what you said about stability, a bigger wheel will give less sidewall height and tire weight for better on road manners. I think that is the way I am going to go.

Unfortunately for my wallet, Rookie has a valid point. The rims cost me over 400 for all 5 of them, and there's a surprisingly small selection of 35's available for a 17" rim. The Mtz's were the cheapest I could find (that were still from an established tire company) and they were still around $850 shipped I sincerely hope they hold up well, to say the least...! It's an expensive theory I'm testing here, I can't wait to be able to actually DRIVE the damn thing to see if I'm right..

 

[TheRookie]

The only way you can know if the 17's make any difference is going to be finding a set of 15's to borrow for a day. I honestly dont think you are going to have a noticeable difference.