Tom's '97 XLT registry

[4DoorFord]

So Niiiiiice

 

[2TimingTom]

Here's the reason for my forum name:

1998 Mountaineer 5.0L AWD. Bought it while living in Wichita, KS in about March 2003 with 98,000 miles and sold it 13 months later after taking it to CO and MN once and WI twice. It never got offroad and didn't even have a trailer hitch. It made some weird, expensive sounding, noises while idling forward while riding the brakes. I didn't know about this forum. Plus the factory radio display would go out and the driver side exterior handle would flap in the breeze while driving down the highway. We sold it because gas in the 2004 was approaching $2.00/gal and my wife was driving across town four times a day for her job. It got a repeatable 18 mpg no matter how fast/slow we drove. So with the cost in gas, the fact that we didn't "use" it for what it was, and the impending repairs, we sold it.

Wouldn't you love it if gas was $1.90 again?

 

[Steeda04SVT]

Great thread. Took me a while to go through the thread but def makes me wish I would've gone to Colorado when I lived in New Mexico. Ride has def come a long way and looks great. Love the bumpers and got me curious in getting something like that for mine now.

 

[2TimingTom]

Something I've been meaning to add to the rig for a long time:

It looks like this would get in the way of the passenger legs, but it really doesn't.

 

[MidnightRebel07]

Looks good, I placed mine in the same place and have a back up under the rear seat.

 

[2TimingTom]

Replaced the rotors and pads that came from the junkyard on the D30. I went with some DBA rotors (4096s) and Hawk LTS pads (HB210 Y.677).

The old:

Side-by-side:

Here you can see the difference in the cooling vanes density.
DBA:

Junkyard:

All done:

 

[2TimingTom]

So this happened. Not sure how/why.

I got a new one from competition4x4.com

 

[MidnightRebel07]

That sucks. It snapped because the ubolt was 1. Off-centered in the swivel pin to the latch and 2. Doesn't have a secondary pin/locking latch to keep the pressure off of the ubolt. I'll upload pictures (shortly, on my phone now) of my setup and it has held up for years of abuse. I bought my kit from EMS offroad.

Ok, so here's how I built mine and added a secondary lock pin (started with a cable lock but changed to pin) as well as a gusset bracket for the isolator pad where it latches to keep the vibrations down.

Here's a link to my PB bucket, from page 6 and up there's tons of pictures of the carrier, brackets and latching mech. to check out. I noticed that you had the nuts on both sides of the u-bolt holding it tightly onto the pivot pin, you can see I just doubled them up on the backside of the pin so that it can move as needed with the vibrations. I think that this is the main culprit as to why it snapped along with the pivot pin not being centered when it was last latched.

http://s1201.photobucket.com/user/MidnightRebel07/library/?sort=3&page=5

 

[MidnightRebel07]

I just noticed that you don't have much of an isolator pad left there, when you close and latch it do you latch it down really tightly with the latch to keep pressure? This could be another reason why it snapped the u-bolt, too much tension on just that.

 

[2TimingTom]

Haven't done much to it lately- just driving it and having a good time with it.

But the nagging 4wd lights that have been blinking ever since I went to the manual transfer case finally got to me. I bought a GEM module back when I had the lift put on but just never opened the dash to change it out. And after getting a lecture at the emissions place from a guy saying I needed to make sure I lined up for the AWD rollers as he pointed at the 4wd switch on the dash with the "auto" position, it was just time to fix it. I picked up a "new" center dash bezel at Littleton U-Pull and swapped it out:

The old bezel:

The "new" GEM module:

The "new" bezel:

I was told there was a set of nice leather seats at the junkyard a couple days earlier, but by the time I got there, they were gone.

 

[2TimingTom]

This is a project I've been meaning to get to for awhile:

Extend vent tubes! I've only done the rear so far. I picked up this 5/16" clear tubing from Ace Hardware. I used about 7 of the 10 feet I bought just on the rear. I routed it up behind the left tail light. Because it seems to get super dusty back here, I zip tied a piece of shop rag to the end to act as a cheap filter. I then sprayed it with some WD-40 in the hopes of trapping more dust.

The front axle's tube is inside the left wheel well and ends a little above the top of the tire. I'll get to it and the transmission soon.

 

[2TimingTom]

Nothing like February in the mountains:

Then I got the diff hopelessly hung up on a rock. Forward didn't work, reverse didn't work, stacking rocks didn't work..... Out came the brand new MaxTrax:

I slid sideways into this position:

This is trying to get the MT in position to go forward:

The front MT ended up getting pulled under which probably helped when we put the rear MT behind the driver rear tire. It pulled itself right out.

This rock felt much steeper than the pic indicates:

I'll ***** out more pics later.

 

[MidnightRebel07]

Great wheelin' pics man. I miss going wheelin'. Looks like a winch might be in your future. Lol

 

[2TimingTom]

Got the winch sitting on the workbench. But even if I had it installed, I probably still would have not used it in this case.

 

[2TimingTom]

Here's a link to the Google+ event with a bunch of pics and some cool videos of the trip:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/events/cb7bbbrqc5lk9kkajgpo9iaqqfc

 

[MidnightRebel07]

Great photos and videos man, looks like an awesome trip into the mountains. Really makes me miss living out west. I see the Jeepers couldn't resist the obligatory poser flex on a stump shot. LOL

 

[ZWilson07]

Great build man.

Btw what brand or setup was that rear storage? Did you build it or a combination of both? I might have missed you previously explaining it.

 

[2TimingTom]

The drawers are essentially ARB. I think they are technically a different company but if you search for "ARB storage drawers" they pop up. They are expensive but extremely well built. Had I attempted to make my own they wouldn't function nearly as well and would weigh 10 times as much.

 

[ZWilson07]

The drawers are essentially ARB. I think they are technically a different company but if you search for "ARB storage drawers" they pop up. They are expensive but extremely well built. Had I attempted to make my own they wouldn't function nearly as well and would weigh 10 times as much.

Thank you.

 

[FR-425]

Time to get rid of the BFG AT's.

That'll fix up the rest of the traction issues.

Their a good all purpose tire, don't get me wrong. Sturdy, puncture resistant, good on the street and all that, but they just don't get it done off road.