46" 1991 Explorer in Iceland.

Hi, My name is Sævar and I´m 22, I live near the capital Reykjavik Iceland and I recently bought a slightly modified 91 Explorer


I have owned a lot of cars in my short yet life, but only 3 american made, first an AMC Eagle 82 and a Cherokee Country 1995, and now this Explorer


Ive mostly had Suzukies in the past, and for the longest time, since 2007 until recently I had a Vitara of which I also modified a little bit, heres a photograph

It has 38" super swampers and toyota pickup axles with locker, toyota transfer box and gearbox and 2.5 turbo diesel intercooled Hyundai engine




my plans with the explorer so far are unknown, Im thinking of finishing it up and using this winter and seeing what needs better finishing, but before that there are a few details of which need sorting such as

Checking the brakes, they have hydro assist, checking leaks, steering fluid is leaking and car has saginaw pump and steering jack so there are a lot of couplings of which could break a leak

finishing the fender flares, their surface is rough and unfinished and they are slightly too narrow for making the car road legal on these tires

the axles are D44 HD front and 14bolt 9.5" GM rear



here are some photos

I hope you come to like this project, at least Im a little excited to try him out but please if there are any comments or suggestions feel free to reply or message me personally


thanks

 

[Sævar Örn]

Ok, Back to work!

Ive ordered a torsen rear locker, shim and bearing kit rebuild for rear diff and 5.38 ratios for both,

My better half mashing together a table for me to work on the axle with a straight back, I hate setting up diffs in the axle, I like diffs like the 9" ford and toyotas where the pumpkin is easily removable and you simply set the diff in a vice, but this will have to do, at least i'm not laying in the dirt doing that!

Axle shafts out and everything, bearings look oddly good compared to the rest of the stuff, all gears are worn and puddled or broken

All apart and up on the workbench, I think it will all go in the trash soon, I will use the old bearings to set up the new diff, I will grind the inner diameter of them so they will slip on the new locker by hand, this will make quick work of shimming the diff correctly before pressing on the new bearings and finalizing the gear setup

once this was the center differential, not much left of it, this is how much shavings there were after 200 miles, including getting stuck in a puddle of slushy snow

Poor guy doesnt look much like this, but this is something that has to be done, and what better time than now before summer, Ive always started work in late october before the winter season, so now I have much more time to make him good before winter

 

[Rick]

Love the monster flares.

You are a lucky man. My wife supports my mechanical endeavors, but other than pumping the brakes for bleeding, she's not much help in the garage

 

[Sævar Örn]

Love the monster flares.

You are a lucky man. My wife supports my mechanical endeavors, but other than pumping the brakes for bleeding, she's not much help in the garage

Thanks Rick, I believe it goes both ways, or no, not really, she can do anything she wants... and this is one of the things she wants...

She's afraid of sparks though and I grant her that, but she doesn't say no if I recommend she does some grinding or welding... It's all a good experience I say

I just fear the day she teaches me to use the washing machine!

 

[Sævar Örn]

Xmas came early?

should keep me busy for a few days

 

[Sævar Örn]

My brake shoes were finished, so I ordered at rockauto brake shoe kit, complete hold down and spring kit and new wheel cylinders, i already replaced both wheel bearings and wheel seals, so this will be like a new axle after this rebuild, lol

 

[Sævar Örn]

I thought paying for a new slide hammer was a waste of money, so i made my own, and it worked great

ONe more fedex shipment from USA

Everything shiny and new

New brake pipes, new wheel cylinders, new brakes new bearings new seals new diff new locker new everything, sandblasted and painted diff cover and put new bolts


now its just a matter of re fitting it to the car and going for a test drive!



also I just paid my Elite Explorers due, last year I won a January lotterly which expired after the year last february,

 

[Sævar Örn]

Here's a cold start video, the car had been sitting for 2 months since mid of may 2016, started right up and purrs like a stone chipper! lol

http://vid121.photobucket.com/albums/o221/saebbi/EXPLORER/20160715_210742.mp4

Did some test driving today, things look bright, top speed is about 50mph with those tiny 35" tires on... so with 46s back on she will be flying through the gears!

Picked up a spare transfer box because my current one is leaking like crazy, I was thinking about taking this one apart and checking bearings and seals but it looks so damn good I think i'll just throw it right in!

 

[97expV8]

Wow, just had a chance to look thru your entire post, thats one sweet ride!

 

[Sævar Örn]

Wow, just had a chance to look thru your entire post, thats one sweet ride!

Thanks my man, I will be posting more photos after I get back from my summer vacation, then I will tackle changing the diff ratio in my front axle, and probably going nuts and replacing all ball joints, seals and bearings and rebuilding the brakes completely lol

you know me by now LOL

I love hearing all your input, positive or negative, Im not the most experienced but I am fearless of trying new things and failure is just a chance to learn new methods in my books.

Right now I'm tackling a job I never should have done, but I think its going very well, at least I feel better not paying a professional hundreds or thousands for doing this if I can do it myself decently

Epoxy coating my workshop floor, it was getting impossible to clean...

here's photo proof, I love taking PHOTOS hehe, you know that by now too!

it will be like working in a whole new place, this is just the epoxy primer, then comes the epoxy and two clearcoats on top

 

[97expV8]

That's gonna be way easier to clean once you're done!

 

[97expV8]

Thanks my man, I will be posting more photos after I get back from my summer vacation, then I will tackle changing the diff ratio in my front axle, and probably going nuts and replacing all ball joints, seals and bearings and rebuilding the brakes completely lol

you know me by now LOL

I love hearing all your input, positive or negative, Im not the most experienced but I am fearless of trying new things and failure is just a chance to learn new methods in my books.

Right now I'm tackling a job I never should have done, but I think its going very well, at least I feel better not paying a professional hundreds or thousands for doing this if I can do it myself decently

Epoxy coating my workshop floor, it was getting impossible to clean...

here's photo proof, I love taking PHOTOS hehe, you know that by now too!

it will be like working in a whole new place, this is just the epoxy primer, then comes the epoxy and two clearcoats on top

so you ever get the shop finished and begin more work on truck?

 

[Sævar Örn]

so you ever get the shop finished and begin more work on truck?

Hey man, sorry yea I finished my shop, but I've been working 7am to 11pm for about a month now, soon I will put the Explorer inside and remove the front axle and tear it apart for rebuilding.

I'm still ahead of schedule though because last year I bought the Ssangyong which I took the engine out of for the explorer at this time of year and it was finished before the first trip in late december!


But you're right, best get my working gloves back on!

 

[Sævar Örn]

You inspired me back to work!

Its about 20 minutes work to remove the front axle as a complete unit

Up on the work stand I built, now just a powerwash and drain before disassembly

I drained the oil, and a thought struck my head, I hadnt ever changed the oil after the past occurance, see next photo...

As you can imagine, there has been water contaminated oil in the front diff since last easter 2016, therefore the diff is kinda rusty inside, and the locker also looks rusty, so I think its' clear I will need to replace something more than just the ring and pinion, I was hoping to reuse the no-spin locker and diff bearing set because they are only used for about 700 miles total... now its questionable and needs further investigation



I'm so careless and stupid lol, more later...

 

[Sævar Örn]

Alright, this time of year again... Ive been taking the explorer to the surgeons table every now and then, but now it starts for real...

My 2014 ring and pinion gears ruined from rust

I ended up drilling and retapping all of the cover bolt holes...

Getting pretty good at this...

Bunch of cheap junk from USA

All ready

 

[Sævar Örn]

Shortened the aux steering jack rod about 5cm(1&3/4 inch) it should be stronger like this

Finally back on his feet, much lower gearing now

AC delete, Im removing the AC cooler from the engine bay, it takes up the space of two car batteries, and almost weighs the same too! I'll be glad its out!

Funny joke

Some little firewall rust I must tackle next...

 

[Sævar Örn]

It's a real pity all the pictures are gone, you can see them with a browser extension though...

I sold the car a year ago, about 2 months later I bought a toyota pickup truck, you can follow my endevours on this thread if you like!

MK4 Hilux travel rig from Iceland *56K warning

 

[Rick]

Photobucket... may they rot in hell for breaking the Internet

Best of luck with the new Toy

 

[96EXXLTinCO]

@Rick you put it nicer than I would. The chrome browser extension works sometimes, but not always it seems. One of these days I'll find time to go through and fix all of mine. They really jacked all our awesome how to's. Too bad there's nothing we can do to fix ones from people that aren't around anymore.

 

[Sævar Örn]

BUILD THREAD - 1987 Monte Carlo from Iceland

I haven't completely abondoned the U.S. marketplace of vehicles, hehe, here's my most recent aquiry.

 

[Rick]

BUILD THREAD - 1987 Monte Carlo from Iceland

I haven't completely abondoned the U.S. marketplace of vehicles, hehe, here's my most recent aquiry.

Are you planning a straight restoration, or is this going to become a 4x4? Either way, cool project