Tim's '93 Sport

1993 Ford Explorer Sport

Drivetrain
VW 1.9l BEW TDI, stage 4 Malone tune, Garret VNT17 Turbo
TD Conversions trans adapter
M5OD from 1998 Explorer (Replaced original A4LD)
Stock Borg Warner 1354E

Front Suspension
Dana 35 TTB 3.73
Warn 37780 Dana 35 hubs
James Duff 3” long arm lift
Progressive coils
Dual shocks
BrianBuilt Fab diff guard
James Duff steering stabilizer
1993 Chevy K1500 brake lines

Rear Suspension
Ford 8.8 3.73 limited slip
Alcan Spring 3” lift leaf springs
1970’s Jeep J10 brake line

Wheel and Tires
Cragar Soft 8 16x7, 4in backspace with second gen center caps
285/75R16 Goodyear Duratracs

Interior
3D printed ash tray switch panel
Autometer A-Pillar gauge pod with Autometer boost and EGT gauges
Pioneer headunit
Pioneer 4 way speakers
Pioneer 10in sub hidden in place of factory storage pocket in trunk
Pioneer amp

Exterior
Custom swing out tire carrier using stock rear bumper
Clear cut headlights with better bulbs
BrianBuilt Fab cowl light brackets with KC Rally 400 spots
KC 26 series amber fogs mounted behind front grille
Five foot FireStik for CB
91-92 Sport fender trim
First gen Expedition tow hooks

Other Modifications
1994 Jeep ZJ steering shaft
Custom auxiliary/upfitter circuits
A/C delete

Future Modifications
4.56 gears with lockers
Atlas II
Built in sliders (rocker panels are rusty)
Hidden winch behind factory front bumper
Limit straps and bump stops
Skid plates
1-2 more inches of lift

 

[Greg Kosmo]

Man, those are some gorgeous pictures, Tim. I really need to visit Colorado some time. Nice looking Explorer, too!

 

[timtimtimajim]

Man, those are some gorgeous pictures, Tim. I really need to visit Colorado some time. Nice looking Explorer, too!

Thanks Greg. I would say visiting Colorado is a must. There are so many cool things to see here.

Oh and you have a pretty good looking Explorer yourself.

 

[Sitcoms]

Great picutres, and I'm jealous of how clean your expo looks.

 

[timtimtimajim]

Added some charging sockets to my center console. Got them off of Amazon for $20. The ones on the outside are dual USB chargers and are hooked to switched power. The two in the middle are 12 volt cigarette lighter sockets and are hooked to constant power. Now I have plenty of places for me and whatever passengers I may have to charge phones and whatever else needs power.

 

[timtimtimajim]

Added a front differential guard. I bought it already coated in Line-X. Thanks @Brian1. It's a really good quality product.

 

[timtimtimajim]

Ran Illinois Gulch today. Short trail, but still good fun.

This video is on the Moab Hill obstacle.

 

[96EXXLTinCO]

Not going to make it down there today. Some other crap came up. And I'm bummed. Me aND my 96 got a score to settle with FS 502. Ive had our 94 down there on Illinois gulch. Well, every traIL in the rainbow falls area and quite a few around it. We love night wheeling down there cuz you can just go from trail to trail to trail. We did a marathon wheeling session down there last year. Went through 2 tanks of gas in my 96. I was really looking forward to going down there tonight too. I'll let you know whenever we try to plan it again.

 

[96EXXLTinCO]

Not going to make it down there today. Some other crap came up. And I'm bummed. Me aND my 96 got a score to settle with FS 502. Ive had our 94 down there on Illinois gulch. Well, every traIL in the rainbow falls area and quite a few around it. We love night wheeling down there cuz you can just go from trail to trail to trail. We did a marathon wheeling session down there last year. Went through 2 tanks of gas in my 96. I was really looking forward to going down there tonight too. I'll let you know whenever we try to plan it again.

 

[timtimtimajim]

Damn. I was looking forward to doing a night run. Some other time, just let me know. Or I'll let you know if I'm ever wheeling near Denver.

That's why I love the trail system down here. Everything connects somehow. Allows you to put in a lot of miles and try different types of trails very easily.

 

[96EXXLTinCO]

Yes absolutely. Easy to get lost without some maps . We use the MVUM's from each ranger distrit on PDF maps app. Saved me from being on private property more than once. Helps me catch turns I want etc. Only time I've been to mini moab hill was the inaugural run of our 94 so I didn't push it. I'm ready now though.

Definitely let me know anytime you'LL be up in this area. I got trails for days up here you'll love. I also need to get down there soon and run Mt. Rosa, shelf rd., the bank, and the ATM. Gotta do my updates for trailsoffroad.

 

[timtimtimajim]

Wheeled around Mount Herman yesterday. Buddy of ours had his BMW totaled in a recent hail storm. He had been wheeling with us before, but only as a passenger. He wanted to learn the ins and outs of wheeling, particularly actually driving a vehicle, so he bought an 04 Jeep Wrangler two days ago and came with us on it's first run. He was a little nervous at first, but once he got the feel of the vehicle and started to figure out how to wheel he did really well.

And of course the Ex got a good work out. In fact I got it up on three wheels at one point.

 

[timtimtimajim]

So I added a secondary fuse panel to the Ex. It is a 12 circuit Blue Sea Systems panel. This will come in handy when adding more accessories.

Also added a ground bus bar so I could have a common place to ground accessories near the fuse panel.

The fuse panel is wired through a 100 amp circuit breaker to protect the circuit and allow me to isolate the circuit from the rest of the Ex.

At the same time that I did the fuse panel, I also added some cowl mount lights. I bought the brackets from @Brian1 (They are very good quality, so thanks Brian!) I had asked him about using some either 6" KC Slimites or 6" KC Daylighters. He brought up the point that the brackets are made to be used with smaller lights such as LED pods. He had also said that the bigger lights would tend to shake around and could interfere with the hood opening. But me being stubborn person I am, I really wanted a set of round KC halogen lights. So I got a set of KC Rally 400's. They are small enough that they don't shake around and don't interfere with the hood. Plus the size of them is about right. I feel like if I had gone with 6" lights it would have looked kind of goofy.

For the switch I added a contura panel to my center console. This one will hold five more switches and if I need more than that I can add a second panel.

The switch illuminates at the top when the accessory is turned on and is supposed to illuminate at the bottom when I turn on the dash lights. There are three unused panel illumination wires behind the radio (unused because I have an aftermarket head unit that does not use panel illumination) I tapped the one labeled panel illumination, but the switch will not illuminate. There is also a dimmer + and dimmer -. When I get the time I'm gonna try the other ones and see if I get illumination and see if I'm getting any power through the wire I ran to the console.

 

[Turdle]

I took forever for this page to load up, but the pictures were worth the wait. Man, I wish I lived out there, so jealous right now

 

[Brian1]

Cool, glad those lights worked out for you!

 

[timtimtimajim]

About a year ago I had removed the plastic rocker panel trim from the Ex. I didn't like the way it looked and I always ended up with dirt on the back of my leg from rubbing on them when getting in and out of the vehicle. But when I took this trim off it meant that my fender flares were too short. Like this...
Front

Rear

Now I don't think many people know this, but 91-92 Sports did not have the rocker panel trim and had, what I refer to as, "full length" fender flares. So for a year I have been looking for a 91-92 Sport in the junkyard or one on Craigslist that someone was parting out. Until finally a couple weeks ago I came across a 92 Sport that @Makahveli is parting out in the for sale section. (By the way he has a lot of other good parts so check out his for sale thread) Went and picked up the flares from him today and installed them this evening.
They look much better than the ones that are too short.
Front

Rear

Now the new flares just need a good detailing or maybe a coat of paint and they'll look even better.

 

[timtimtimajim]

Oh and would it be possible for a moderator to move this thread to the Elite Explorer Registry? I plan on being an Elite Explorer, well forever

 

[timtimtimajim]

Illinois Gultch/Little Moab

 

[timtimtimajim]

And a couple news items...

Even though the Ex has been "my car" for over three years now, it has still been registered under my parent's names. Until last week that is. The registration was out at the end of September, so finally my parents signed the title over to me. So I can officially say that it is my car now.

Other big thing is the lift. Looking at my list of things to do to the Ex, other than general maintenance, the lift is the next big project on the list. I've been looking at sometime within the next year. Though I'm hoping it is sooner because the passenger side radius has been popping for quite a while, but has gotten worse lately. Looked underneath today and the passenger radius arm bushing is shot. And rather than having to tear down the front suspension twice to do the bushing and then do the lift, I figure why not kill two birds with one stone and just do the lift. The earliest I could get it done would be around mid December when the semester is over. So I'm going to try and plan for it to happen then because I would like to get this issue fixed and the Ex lifted.

 

[96EXXLTinCO]

Congrats on the ownership!! If you don't drive it much, you can probably skate by till Dec. But a bad radius arm bushing will play hell on other bushings and components. I know O'reily's has a cheap set for like $20. I tried these and split one within a few weeks. Went back and got moogs, have wheeled the crap out of it and they're still good. I would replace them now, as long as you're going with a regular lift kit that will include radius arm drop brackets. You'll still be able to use them. If you're going with long arms, (highly reccomend if you can afford them, or can fabricate them) that's a little different story. But our passenger side was so bad for so long the radius arm had worn a slot into the bracket and we had to replace it. That also put undue stress on the axle pivot bushing, something else that yet needs to be replaced.

Just my 2 pennies, and the way my mind works....... can't wait to see what you go with.

 

[timtimtimajim]

See there's my dilemma, it's my only vehicle. And with winter coming my job gets all kinds of crazy (scraping snow at 4 a.m. is great) so I have to drive it. In fact I'm on track to put nearly 15,000 miles on it this year.

I see what you are saying and that was kind of my original thought, but the kit I'm going with is the James Duff 2.5" Stage 2, so it has the long arms. So obviously new heim joints on the ends of those long arms with a new trans crossmember. I don't like the fact of continuing to drive on a bad bushing, but I figure since the stock arms will be completely gone and I'm also replacing all other bushings while I have it apart, I "think" I'll be fine. Trust me, it's a big sore spot with me right now.