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

[briwayjones]

You come to Denver often?

Nope it was my first time there. I was helping a friend move out there. We drove out last Friday and then I flew back this Wednesday.

 

[410Fortune]

Allright fellas I have some questions.

my 96 Explorer 5.0L has a fender mounted starter solenoid, on the drivers inner fender just up near the large power box.
It has a two position harness that comes from the battery and the starter, I have this in place. What I need to know is on what side of the solenoid (top or bottom post) do the alternator charging wires and other + cables connect to (12V + all times)?

Next
Does the 96 model year heater box use a ball style vacuum canister and if so I think it mounts under the airbox, but I am not 100% on this.

hehehe
Thanks for any help! I cannot find pictures before the demo that get me my answers (close up enough) so maybe fellow Gen II owners can help?
My 98 has a different system all together, I think 95-96 use this fender mounted solenoid.

 

[section525]

 

[410Fortune]

YOU ARE THE MAN!!!
Just a bit muddy eh?
hehe heres what I just took but they are not needed now!

One more, does anything mount on this bracket:
(The black metal tab sticking up behind the power box)

 

[section525]

Hold on...

 

[section525]

It's a bracket for mud to stick on.

 

[410Fortune]

hey section your canister is mounted backwards, the lines go over the inner fender metal

Thanks man I owe you one.
Truck is full of fluids sans the T case, I put in 10 quarts of mercon into the trans and it spilled out the top.
I think this is the 3rd tranny I have done this too, when will I learn! It has to be running before the system will take the other 5 quarts or so.
Coolant system is full, although not burped.

Tomorrow:
bleed PS, fill T case, tripple check everything
FIRE IT UP

I am waiting for my newley oiled KKM air filter to dry tonight, let the engine sit full of oil, coolant, etc. Tomorrow is the day! Once its running and I break in the cam, get the fluids topped off I will tackle the steering. Should be driving with body in place by Monday

 

[410Fortune]

Yesterday I drove it.
Ir runs awesome, no codes, no leaks, zero issues.

I drove the monster around the neighborhood a bit after getting the truck up to tempature and adjusting fluids, etc.
I am in love!!


I worked on this sucker from 9 am till midnight basically yesterday.
I got the steering to work by putting a new angle to the actual interior wheel mount and by grinding on the firewall. The steering wheel is actually sitting at a different angle then it did from Ford, not noticable from inside the truck but it gave me the room I needed around my header. I will be custom mounting the stock rubber firewall bushing for the steering shaft on the outside (engine side) of the firewall, this requires a new custom metal trim ring to seal it all up, more on that later....

The ENTIRE interior has been removed now
Both airbags and the airbag brain have been replaced.

Today I will be installing the front two body mounts (found 3" pucks), the header panel, grill, fenders, hood, and see about the bumper and re-location brackets.
Then the grey interior and stereo from my 98 parts truck are going in.
I will then drive it a bit more, get it hot again, break in the cam a bit more, then change the oil and filter, switching to synthetic.

GOOD NEWS Skylar, the previous owner left me some Audiobahn 5x7 co-axial speakers in the front doors, VERY nice speakers!


The truck is LOUD with no exhaust after the cat converter, the idle is a little lumpy because of the cam. I have no issues with rockers hitting the valve covers and the engine/trans/t case feel like a new truck.
All new fluids and filters, it should!

The one thing I did notice is the OD off button did not seem to light up the OD button on the dash.....will have to look into that.

I should be driving this sucker around, with insurance and a temp tag on the 4th of July, *****IN!!!!

here are some teaster pics, I will do a writeup when I have more time at the computer, I will get some video today of her running

 

[Creager]

awwww **** thats awesome, i need to finish mine now.

 

[briwayjones]

Creager, finish your build up.

 

[410Fortune]

Almost driving!

More progress yesterday:
Front two body mounts and 3" lift spacers installed.
Header panel painted, fenders, grill, lights hung.
Entire interior was stripped down, grey carpet and seats installed into the blue truck, stereo installed at same time.
dash is back together as is center console.
The only things missing from the interior is the drivers seat, steering wheel switches (air bag blew them off) and the radio bezel.
I left the drivers seat out until I can finish up my steering shaft boot (to close the hole in the firewall)

I need to make some front bumper brackets for the 3" body lift, will do this tonight.
I am off to the DMV this afternoon to register the truck and get temp tags, then I am LEGAL!!

Truck looks silly with the multi colored front end, the blue air bag cover on the passenger side also looks retarded, it is navy blue and my dash is more green/blue, this sucker will drive me nuts so it will be getting fixed real soon.....

It will be 2 months or so before I can afford to have the nose painted to match, this will give me time to do the windshield, exhaust, charge the AC etc.


Still to do:
mount two new airbag sensors up on the radiator support
relocate front and real bumper
install hitch
install grey headliner, visors, etc
install Rancho RSX shocks
swap 8.8 rear axle with rolled truck
new brake pads all 4 corners
re-locate fan shroud

BAM! daily driver....

more teaser pics:

 

[briwayjones]

You gonna Dynamat that sucker while you have the interior torn out? Even if you don't put a better system in it it will make for a quieter ride and even make the stock system sound better.

 

[V8BoatBuilder]

Looking sweet - that's a nice grill you have there!!

The firewall steering shaft relocation is a great way to get the shaft around the TM headers - can you post more photos about how you did it? I'm sure Robert and any current or future TM header users contemplating body lifts will like to hear about how to do the mod, please post more photos!

 

[proftomda]

Not to back up on this great forum but I have a question regarding the cam synchronizer. Dont you install that thing at 0 degrees on the compression stroke? So when the piston came up the 1st time you felt resistance that would be compression right? Your post said you let it come all the way up, then back down and then up again. That would seem to be the exhaust stroke or am I just f'd up. I only bring this up as my cam synconizer is squaling upa storm and I have one on order. Great job on the project.

 

[410Fortune]

No Dynamat for me, too expensive and the carpet and seats are already back in
Besides anything is quieter then my no padding having 88 BII with 290K miles on it

V8boatbuilder I will get detailed pics of the steering shaft, the adjustments I made to the steering wheel mount, and the boot, etc ASAP. I still have to finish the boot to cover up the now larger hole, it requires cutting a trim ring from metal and my first attempt was not good enough, so I put it on the back burner.
No steering extension required, although I did drill a hole in the steering shaft hehehe I have a spare shaft I plan to actually extend about 1.25" this will put the slip yoke back in the middle just like factory, I plan to cut, sleeve and weld it but I dont think my shaft will break.
I parked the tire against a wall and cranked the steering wheel, all it did was move the truck to the side so I am pretty sure its strong enough


the cam position sensor alignment tool is to be installed at #1 TDC, I know how to find TDC as I described, so I believe I got it correct, if not please somebody let me know so I can shoot myself and do the proceedure again.
I am not even sure if it matters, the CPS is only used for startup, I have installed them into OHV 4.0L engines before without the alignment tool (just marked the block with a pen) and they are still running strong, but with this engine I was not taking chances (too much work, time $$$, blood seriously there is blood on a couple of those hoses).

Tonight I am going to cut some bumper re-location brackets for the front

 

[410Fortune]

The truck has a 10 day temp tag on it
She's insured and legal!!

Today I got the diamond cut corners and headlamps on
Then I had to replace both hood hinges with donor's which required paint....the stock hinges were bent.

Interior as of now, passenger seat has been converted from a manual to a full power by using the base from the donor:

The air bag cover is navy blue, it will be painted to match shortly
For now she is the technicolor exploder!
Since the seats are from a 98 I had to swap the seat belt strap on each seat to the 96 ones, Ford changed the seat belt buckle in 97 or 98

steering access panel is off so I can finish up the boot to seal the hole.
My plan is to use the grey arm rests and leather pieces to blend the door panels into the color mix. The grey center console will likely also be used now that I see it together. The grey headliner is also on the list...

I used the pieces from the 98 console, the radio bezel and inserts:

bling bling lights:

stock bulbs for now.

Hood fit and adjusted:

Shes pretty loud with just the secondary cat converters. these come off friday when the exhaust is installed

I am having some bumper re-location brackets cut, install will be this weekend most likely.

bumpers, hitch, valance, fog lights, alignment, ac charge, windshield and exhaust coming next

 

[Mutineer]

Lookin Great! Cant wait to see her finished. What exhaust system are you going with?

I used flowmaster 40 series on mine, and it sounds kindof rough.....

Im gonna put some torque monster headers on it and probably change over to an American thunder or a Gibson turbo.....

Be ready for a C. E. light after you take the cats off, unless you use simulators...

 

[410Fortune]

Mutineer, the primanry cat converters are staying in place, just the large secondary cats are coming off, this is real similar to what I have on my Bronco

from there I will go into a dual 2.5" inlet, single 3" outlet muffler and over the axle and out the back. I am having my exhaust guy do the work tomorrow


I drove her to work this AM, she runs AWESOME!! seriously for a 4 door AWD this thing moves!!!
Gonna wash her at lunch of course, but man I am super happy! All those hours......

 

[Mutineer]

410:

Thats the way i did mine, true duals all the way to the rear with F.M. 40's. I started getting the downstream O2 sensor calling out in the computor with the C E light, and replaced it to no avail... I figure its just part of the game.

My AWD has been the most dependable, toughest and FASTEST small Ford I have ever owned(theres been quite a few).

I am constantly outrunning ricer cars in my current configuration, stock gears with 33 inch tires. It was even faster before I started modifying it.

I will NEVER get rid of this truck.

Glad yours turned out so well!

Looks great!

 

[410Fortune]

Thanks so much, still much to do but I am over the big hill so to speak.....

My BII is pretty fast, it surprises ALOT of Chevy's and ricers
I dont think this girl will keep up with the BII, but she moves pretty good and will be a perfect daily driver

Now to do the E cam in the BII
I love the idle so far, you can tell shes got a cam in her...and the power range is really nice from what I can tell so far compared to the stock 96 I rolled