How to: Rebuild of a flipped 98 sport

[Justin_]

yes there are some changes between 1998 and 2000 in the wiring for sure!!
This could be quite tricky to sort out
You should have the wiring books for the 98 and the 2000 and start tracing circuits for the items that are not working properly. Try to identify where the wiring changes took place
OR you could swap in the 98 wiring harness?

I can't find a pin out or diagram for the 2000's wiring harness. I'm thinking I might swap them, but I'm not really sure how big of a job that is. Is the wiring harness from the body of the vehicle the same front to back without a connector to split it up?

 

[Justin_]

I can't find a pin out or diagram for the 2000's wiring harness. I'm thinking I might swap them, but I'm not really sure how big of a job that is. Is the wiring harness from the body of the vehicle the same front to back without a connector to split it up?

No, I guess it joins together behind the dash. so there is two separate wiring harnesses, one for the cab of the vehicle and one for the engine bay of the vehicle. I guess I would start with the engine bay one and see where I get. That would also not require me removing the dash again.

 

[Justin_]

here is the dust seal in question in case anyone else needs to buy one, the part number is visible
View attachment 322027

View attachment 322028

Just got it in the mail today. Thanks again! That was exactly what I needed.


Today I spent a lot of time marking down all 120 diffrent wires in each car at the firewall connector hoping I could find what moved and swap it back, but didn't really get anywhere. There were 16 wires that did not match between the cars (from looking at the colors) 5 of them match up if you switch them around, but that leaves another 11 that don't. That is not enugh information for me to want to move forward with this method.

So this weekend i'm just going to spend the time to tear apart the engine bay and swapping the harness. If the VSS sensor is connected to the interior harness I will probably need to swap that too. I might just do it anyway so that the entire electrical system matches up. I don't want to get it all back together and find out that something else does not work.

At this point I really wish that I was able to find a matching year vehicle for the swap, but what's done is done.

 

[410Fortune]

You are welcome glad we could get you the correct parts!

The colors of the wires change often, so...... you gotta be careful here, which it sounds like you are.
Just because colors don't match does not mean they are not the same circuit
This is why people hate wiring
It has to make sense on paper before you can do any cutting and splicing

I think you are smart to swap the engine bay wiring
The VSS should be on the drivetrain harness

If something does not work when its all back together then we will sort that out one item at a time
Almost never do we get full plug and play, even if you got the same year donor there are mid year changes changes from Merc to Ford, explorer to sport, etc....
Nothing we cannot overcome with enough information and patience.....which clearly you have!
Well done

 

[Justin_]

So end of day update. I managed to get the wiring harnesses swapped, and while it did take a few hours it honestly was not as hard as I thought it was going to be. Most of the stuff in the way was able to just be unbolted and shoved out of the way without needing to actually remove it. The good news is basically everything is working now. The tachometer, oil sensor, HVAC blower, and the blinkers are all working just fine now. The only thing still not working is the speedometer.

I think i'll probably just run a new wire for the speedometer as it is the only thing still having issues. I dont think its worth swapping the other harness. I might even be able to find the difference and repin it. I'll need to do some more research to double check, but it looks like I just need a single wire going from the VSS sensor to pin 66 on the PCM. This year has the VSS sensor on the rear diff, not in the transfer case.

Anyway, getting to the bad news. One of the brand new front bearings that I got from Detroit Axle is shot. The tire wobbles all over the place. Don't know how that happens, but i'm going to need to get a replacement before I can get the tires aligned.

Once I get the new bearing installed the external list is as follows

1) Bleed front breaks
2) Front end alignment
3) Replace rear shocks

And that's about it on the outside.

I know its not the best idea with the bad bearing and unaligned steering, but I took it for a test drive and you could definitely feel the difference in the front suspension, and the steering was a LOT more tight.

 

[Rick]

I love this rebuild thread. I just set you up with an Elite Explorer membership for your efforts

 

[Justin_]

I love this rebuild thread. I just set you up with an Elite Explorer membership for your efforts

Heck yeah! Thanks so much!!

 

[410Fortune]

DETROIT AXLE IS GARBAGE
I always hold my tongue..........but been there done that, they are cheap crap. I actually used their wheel bearings when they first came out... I installed several sets, (like 6 sets) on customers rigs. Then a few months later I replaced them all. I ate the labor on each one........sucked so bad.


The VSS in the rear diff does not go directly to the pcm, the signal is buffered first in 98 I believe it is buffered by the ABS control module but I will have to check the 98 sport wiring.
The rear axle VSS sends like 77,000 pulses per mile, the speedo, pcm, cruise control want to see 8000 ppm, the ABS module takes the VSS signal and does the calculations.

From another thread where I fixed the speedo for a v8 conversion:
"Tire revolutions per mile x ring gear teeth = VSS generated signal to ABS pump
29" tire revolves 720 times in a mile
Our 8.8 ring gear has 108 teeth, so

720 x 108 = 77,760 pulses per mile (ppm)
being sent to the ABS motor from the rear axle VSS "

But first before you do any of that check your fuses, you might want to run the truck a bit and see if you get a P0500 code

 

[Justin_]

DETROIT AXLE IS GARBAGE...

Yeah i'm definitely learning that now. Hopefully I can at least get through the winter without them failing. Will get something better next time.

...The VSS in the rear diff does not go directly to the pcm, the signal is buffered first in 98 I believe it is buffered by the ABS control module...

That is correct. As long as this pinout is right it looks like it goes to pins 1+17 on the ABS controller

...But first before you do any of that check your fuses, you might want to run the truck a bit and see if you get a P0500 code...

Good plan. I'll see if the new bearings will show up soon so I can get the steering aligned, then i'll drive around a bit.

 

[Justin_]

So I wrapped up all I could today. I blead the breaks, replaced the rear shocks with the new Bilstein ones, attached the rear bumper, put in the new parking brake line, and even got the light bar mount fixed. All that's needed now is the replacement bearing installed and the alignment done, and boy does it need an alignment.

Anyway. Hopefully I can get the inside cleaned up this week and with any luck have a new bearing to install by next weekend.

 

[EB4X]

My dad and a few of my brothers have been a lot of help and it's been a pretty fun project.

I went back and took a look and I totally just forgot to plug in the fuel pump and sender unit. I left the connector near the transfer case undone. Once I got that fixed everything worked great The engine started right up and drove down the road. The oil leak is gone, but some oil still needs to burn off the exhaust. I still need to do a few things like attach the rear bumper and redo the inside but mechanically it's about done.

From here I think I'm going to start off by getting new brake discs and pads so hopefully I don't have breaking issues anymore. I'm also planning on replacing basically the entire steering system as that's been loose this entire time as well. I also need to find a new door at some point since my brother backed into it in the middle of this.
View attachment 321162
I gotta say I love the look of my lifted 2 door way more than my stock 4 door that I have been running around in for the last few months. Looks so much more ready to go.
View attachment 321163

WAY TO GO GUY... you're an animal taking on an completing a project like this....good job....and score on the SUNROOF !

 

[Justin_]

So i'm now realising that the old explorer had a radiator drop mount...that I squished when I put it on the new frame without a lift. Is the rad drop important, or is it something I can do without on a 3" BL? Cant seem to find much information on this.

 

[410Fortune]

Forget the radiator drop
Just drop the shroud

I like to mount the radiator to the core support like factory. Sure the fan is 3" down lower on the radiator, with the huge v8 radiator its no biggie
You can use some simple straps to drop the shroud down 3", much more secure setup IMO and works JUST FINE


well done!

 

[Justin_]

Well it's been a few more weeks.

I got the inside put together
Installed the new bearing
Replaced the hood pneumatic cylinders and battery (both were dead)
Put in a new radio head unit and speakers (the ones from the early photos were nabbed to put in my other explorer)
Swapped the lock cylinders so the door locks and ignition match

Today I dropped it off at the alignment shop and it should be ready some time tomorrow.

Not that much left to do. I just need to...

Swap out the headlights with new LED ones that are being shipped out now
run replacement wires for the VSS sensor
Swap back door (for matching locks and better lift cylinders) I also just want as many original parts as possible

and that is about it. I'll get some photos when I get it back from the shop to wrap up this post.

I was hoping to get to this point sooner, but the weather has been a bit crazy up here.

At some point I do need to do something with the exhaust. The muffler has a big hole in it. It will be a pain in the ass to get out because somebody welded in the exhaust bolts. But there is no real rush on fixing that.

 

[Justin_]

So bit of an update.

I got the back door swapped. Now all locks match and I can keep my window stickers. Im not 100% sure the 98 and 00 rear hatches are exactly the same shape, it seems just a bit off, but it's off the same way on both sides. It does fit though.

I also managed to figure out the speedo issue. Back before I rolled the truck the ABS never worked for me, so when I was working on the body swap I installed the ABS module from the 00 car. Today I unplugged the electrical connector from the 00 module and attached the 98 module and guess what? The speedo and cruise control worked great! So at some point hopefully this weekend I need to swap over the break lines and bleed the breaks again. Not the worse thing as the breaks did feal just a bit soft so I wanted to try bleeding them again anyway.

I did order a new muffler and tail pipe in the end so I need to install that. Im surely going to spend some fun time under the car with a grinder.

New to do list

Install LED headlights, these should arrive tomorrow
Install new muffler and tailpipe, I should have these parts in hand by the weekend
Swap ABS module and bleed brakes, I have another 98 SOHC parts truck that I am going to nab the module from so hopefully I will have ABS

And that is about it. I don't have any other things I want to work on this year really.

The sunroof is a bit leaky and the headliner is a bit worse for wear because of it so I want to (probably next spring) take the headliner out of the original car, cut out a hole for the sunroof, and swap them out. It's not a huge leak so i'm not it too big of a hurry.

 

[KeenKilo]

I’ve seen on here the sunroof have a drain channel going to a hose that runs down. Gets gummed up maybe blow it out

GREAT BUILD. very fun read I removed my engine harness and was intimidated at first but like you once I got into it, it wasn’t so bad. Awesome stuff

 

[Justin_]

So what may be the final update here.

I got the LED lights in, the exhaust complete, and the ABS module swapped.

The speedo is working great now as is cruise control.

I haven't actually had any issues with the sunroof. On the first snow there was some water hanging around on the inside on the glass itself, but since then I haven't noticed anything being wet. I even went in a car wash and didn't have any issues with it and both drains worked fine. Still want to swap the headliners and get rid of that mold at some point though.

Just before the mountains got all snowed out I managed to go to a car wash and get everything all clean, then run through the local mountains and get dirty.

I've actually been driving it around as my main car because with all the new parts it feels great where my other car is loose as frig. I may need to swap the better sound system back into this one.

I finished pulling parts out of my spare parts cars and need to get them out unfortunately, but I think everything is working now so no huge loss there. They paid for themselves for sure.

I kept the 4.10 diffs from the 2 door and will either sell them or put them in the 4 door im keeping. It all depends on what I end up doing with the 4 door now that the 2 door is so great. Turns out the 2 door that I bought as the parts car was really well taken care of (before the druggie tore apart the inside). It had new front bearings, new CVs, new shocks, and a few other newer parts.

 

[RandomNerd2000]

Yeah it always amazes me what you find sometimes. I bought a junk 95 for the trans earlier this year, ended up discovering the entire front suspension was brand new, the UCAs weren't even surface rusted yet on the studs. I've enjoyed watching this thread a lot anyhow, sure was a learning experience.

 

[DintDobbs]

@Justin_ I realize I'm a month late to the game, but this project is beautiful! Not often do we see a hardcore actually finish a huge project like this without somehow having it consumed by other things. Slow and steady always seems to win the race!

Hmm, I wonder if somebody might be interested in the cutoff body for a soft-top project. You might be able to pick up a couple bucks from that.

 

[MakinJeepsWeep!]

@Justin_ Nice Mower, i have the same one lol