410Fortune - 96 5.0L XLT refurbish (making 1 great Ex from 2)

[410Fortune]

YUp married July 31 08, prego the same night baby is coming any day now, my wife is full term! My little co pilot / tire changer/ spotter is almost here!!

Blizzard coming this afternoon, LOL gotta love CO I wore a t shirt to work this morning, sun is shining, snow is melting from wed storm, another 4-6" coming today... should make working on trucks this weekend fun fun

 

[Nasty Exploder]

any body know of the part number for aod 31 spline tranny to bw1354 kit, from A Adapters

 

[mounty71]

Does no one read the forum posting rules anymore?

 

[Joey P]

Does no one read the forum posting rules anymore?

I agree, that's funny.

Jaime, you had a perfectly good day to paint that truck Tuesday and now we're getting another foot of snow! You blew your opportunity! :

 

[Jd0gg919]

If you don't mind me asking, how much did the rims and tires run you? I'm wanting to upgrade to a bigger rim when i get 33's. And where did you order them from? so i'll know where to look. Preciate it.

 

[trak0r]

Cut with round, flat files, small saw, and pliers, 10 min per side:

Pass side:

Hey, What hid bulb, or bulb type is used for the projector?

 

[h.e.a.t.]

install the inner tie rod boots, I use a zip tie and put it in place before pressing the boot over the rack, steering the rack all the way to the other side makes this much easier. Please note the notch in the boot goes over the metal side to side tube, not sure of its purpose???:

connect the high pressure line at pump, I use teflon tape and new O rings on all hydro fittings:

re-attach the AC compressor to the block:

install the belt at the tensioner pulley:

Drop the engine back down carefully, tighten the bolts, fill and bleed the steering system and you are DONE!

Hope that helps! The key here is you can save alot of time by removing and installing the steering rack with the hydraulic lines and steering shaft in place



I am finishing up the rest of my project tonight, 8 new plugs, complete my steering column drop, new intermediate shaft, header installed with gasket, and finally a new brake master cylinder and bleed all 4 calipers.
header in with new copper gasket, you can see where my steering shaft was rubbing:

my custom steering/firewall drop boot, I had to cut the firewall down quite a bit and re-locate the booty down about 2":

this helps me alot. thanks

 

[410Fortune]

you are welcome!! glad it helped

the 96 is doing great! I have been driving it for a year or more without having to do much to her other then oil changes and brakes. I did all new calipers, pads and rear e brake it was in dire need at 180K miles BIG increase in brake performance

Now that my son is going on 7 months I am starting to get back at projects, the Explorer still needs paint and a HID conversion for the headlights...I still hate the torsion bars but the BII is first before I dig into that......

 

[gear_grinder]

still waiting for sound vid.... lol

 

[410Fortune]

I have spent the past week finally painting my front clip

I have two new fenders, primed, wetsanded, primed, wetsanded, etc ready for base coat
I have a used hood all rust repaired, chip repaired, dent repaired, waiting for its first coat of primer, then sand, prime sand, ....

I plan to spray the base coat and clear this weekend, perhaps have it installed by Monday

I built a "paint booth" in my garage for under $80, plumbed in a water seperator (finally) and have been sanding away for a week when I get the time

stay tuned! I cant WAIT to have a all one color truck

this summer I will work my way around the rest of the truck, one panel at a time and fix/paint the whole thing... heck I bought the paint in 2009 its about time I use it!!

 

[Turdle]

I have a gallon of black. Be right there.

Oh, what's for dinner? I'll be kinda hungry when I arrive.

 

[410Fortune]

heck yeah! bring yuour sanding fingers... my arms hurt

This time around I am doing it by hand... its been years since I did real body work and I have not done much... I have watched ALOT online and gained inspiration

Rotory sander I will use when I do the rest of the truck, I want to get the feel of old school first hahahaha lots of sanding to do today and then FINALLY I can shoot the base coats I cant wait!

paint booth is large enough for body parts or a rzr

we have our eyes on this stuff:

Al's Liner http://www.alsliner.com/

The yellow FJ may not be Yellow for much longer......5 gallons should be enough for FJ and Rzr muahahahaha
I cant imagine 50 grit on a 30K SUV but Ill do it for her!!!


Oh dinner? lobster tails, spinach and whole grain rice! followed by BEER and LIQOUR Saturday... oh Saturday

Taking my mom (grandma) to the airport in a few, when I get back I am a "sanding mo fo, mo fo" in my best Pulp Fiction Samuel J voice

 

[410Fortune]

okay yesterday i got pretty far

both fenders and the hood are primer!! this is a big deal, the hood took me lots of work to prep, I sanded every rock ding that had rust (about 20) then filled, then sanded, then glazed, then sanded, then finally wet sand the entire hood again, clean with Acetone and spray primer

So all three pieces need one more wet sand, clean, then finally base coat! Problem is its snowing today..... great
I will see if I can get the garage warm enough to spray a base coat or if it warms up this afternoon

 

[Turdle]

The prep work--oh. Hand sanding really abuses a body. You need an alcohol rub. Drink alcohol and have Julee rub ya.

 

[410Fortune]

yup been one of those projects!!

lost all power to the garage
electrician friend was stumped, we finally found a bad outlet behind this computer in the house... had no neutral through half the house and garage.....I cant believe how they wired this house, 3 rooms on one circuit... bathroom gfci controls garage...

the big problem was me! you see every light fixture in this house, every light switch and every outlet I INSTALLED...so I was second guessing myself the whole time!!!

Wife and I switched all the lights to dimmers, and all our outlets/switches are black... so as we remodeled the house I replaced them all... I got a little confused but not too bad...I installed single pole switches in two spots where I should have had three pole and on one light downstairs I had a bit of copper showing on the + side.... a no no..but no real mistakes found thank goodness!!

other then that, as it turns out after 5 hours of troubleshooting... it was not my work,,,it was one of the original sockets... plastic was broken, neautral wire just fell out of the back.. I still have to push 4 light switches back in the wall and re-hang our light downstairs! LOL

$550+.... we are now back in business....geesh we traded some carpet to him so we got off that $550 bill a little easy...hes an amazing electrician, I cant believe how he can keep track of everything in his head as we tore this house apart

He is coming back next week to run some feeder wire and a new 70 amp panel in the garage.. finally dedicated 220 for my welder, and a 20 amp circuit 120 for my plasma!!

OKay back to the final wetsand and then BASE COAT!!! I cant wait.. this was not going to be a month long project.... no no figures

its snowing, I had no light, no heat... paint project was on hold!!

 

[Sbyrne97]

when you cut the firewall to clear for the steering did the it just drop into place? or did you have to force it down? also how much did you cut I sorta saw an outline on one of your pictures but did not see measurments.

I am interested because I want to do the same thing and have a body lift as well....

 

[410Fortune]

Sorry it took a bit to see this

I cut about 3" down and about 2" over

I had to re- angle the entire steering column assembly inside the truck, I used bronze spacers and longer then stock bolts to drop the whole steering column down about 2" and change the angle. The cut in the firewall is required to clearance the shaft and the stock gasket/bushing is required unless you like cold air and mud on your toes

I still need a flaming river steering shaft (custom built to my dimensions) in order to clear the header 100%

I would stick with a 2" body lift if you must have one... saves alot of headaches

I also plan to upgrade the factory engine and transmission mounts, that should help a great deal to keep the steering and the header from hitting each other... as well as a custom BW4406 t case mount, that thing is a monster...

good luck!

Sometimes I love my 1988 Bronco II....

 

[magneti]

dammit. i have been reading this like a good book pizza last week (since I am new here and needed to catch up) and it ended up a cliffhanger with no paint job done yet.

I feel like Brad and Angelina adopting a malaysian child with this go go wagon. i have a lot of time invested in this thing---just by reading. an emotional attachment if you will.


now paint pizza damned thing!


great work man and great thread and pics. your dedication and work is beyond commendable to us opizzars aspiring to do our own handy work.

hell, im happy when i can change just an alternator.

 

[410Fortune]

LOL alternator changes can be a PITA!!!!

I am painting this sucker, in fact the parts have one more wet sand and then I spray my first base coat... problem is the friggin power in our house went south right in the middle of this paint project, it cost me $600 for a FRIEND electrician (would have been over $1000 if non friend) to fix our stupid wiring... after 6 horus we finally determined one of our outlets was toast.... it was causing a loss of neutral throughout half our house (and my garage)

so its all fixed now, I got a bit sidetracked, but teh weather is awesome and the painting is going to resume this weekend!!

the explorer just got a full detail by me on Sunday.... spring cleaning to get all the mag chlor off the truck... man I hate that crap

I am also rebuilding two 2001 Honda trx250ex atv's right now, installing some skid plates on the FJ, and rebuilding the 8.8 for my 88 BII... so work is happening, the explorer paint just gets pushed back a bit.... around here paint is the LAST things to do

thanks for the kind words!!

 

[madbrown]

yeah I got those lines off. i'm talking about the one that is running uo by the pulleys and goes into what i'm guessing is a hydro pump?