5spdman's slow and cheap XLT build

[mr cribb]

Congrats to you both.

 

[madbutcher]

Congrats!!! (y)

 

[rkh58]

Congrats to you both! May you have many great years together.

 

[5spdman]

Thanks all for the congrats!

Been a rough time for the ex...I didn't put a part in the trans together right and starved the bearing between the input and main shafts of fluid. Whole thing locked up on me just short of the wife's parents house this past weekend...$400 for a junkyard tranny later, we're back home and I'm back to work. I kept the tranny I screwed up on and will be rebuilding it later (correctly this time)...

 

[madbutcher]

Thanks all for the congrats!

Been a rough time for the ex...I didn't put a part in the trans together right and starved the bearing between the input and main shafts of fluid. Whole thing locked up on me just short of the wife's parents house this past weekend...$400 for a junkyard tranny later, we're back home and I'm back to work. I kept the tranny I screwed up on and will be rebuilding it later (correctly this time)...

I would just cry

 

[malohnes]

Heaps of blessings and love for you both...

and good job on fixing your Exploder, even if it didn't work the first time around.

 

[WormsExplorer]

Congrats to you both. I wish the best for the both of ya.

 

[5spdman]

Thanks again everyone! Life off the rez has started to catch up with us, with living in Ohio again, catching up with old friends, working and regular adult stuff I haven't had to do for a while like paying bills. Because of this, I haven't had as much time (or money) for Edgar as I used to, but things are happening...

I recently put a JY trans into it, and I'm happy to say that it is working just fine! I also had to replace the starter, but that's not a big deal lol.

More recently however, I finally got to do some fab work and paint! It started by getting a $1.50 bar of steel, cutting, grinding, and then a little welding and small electrical work.

Don't mind the not so expert weld...

The 40" high-output LED bar is now in! 480w of LEDs turning night to day!

Still didn't like the "conduit gray" of the luggage rack, and since the bar was finally mounted, it was time for some paint. Started by removing the rack, wire brusing any rust that had appeared, throwing on a few coats of primer and then a few coats of satin black paint.

Still need to throw a few zip ties on the wires, but it's good to go, looks good, and works great!

That will be the last update for a little while unless something were to go wrong with it...here's to hoping that doesn't happen!

 

[malohnes]

Nice progress. These LED's sure are changing the driving at night game....

Man, I so dig that spare tire carrier on your truck. Why, oh why did that disappear from the Bronco 2?!

 

[FR-425]

A grinder and paint make me the welder I aint.

 

[WormsExplorer]

Just wondering how did you mount this on the roof. I really like how this looks.

 

[5spdman]

Just wondering how did you mount this on the roof. I really like how this looks.

Its all integrated into the roof rails that were already on the vehicle...I measured for the basket and fabricated it all first, fabricated some feet and slid them into the rails. Once they were in the rails, I set the basket on top, covered the truck and put a couple tack welds on to secure the feet to the basket where they needed to be. When that was done, just pulled the basket out of the rails and finished off the welds.

There should be a write-up somewhere in the build log here...

 

[5spdman]

Not much has changed lately...finally made a trip out west to get the rest of my stuff from my old work place and now have a BW1354, new shocks and F250 towers sitting in my garage begging me to start working on the rig again.

I did, however, finally replace the broken door lock rod in the rear driver door and can once again open the rear door from the outside! Dorman part # 75473...$5 at Autozone.

 

[96EXXLTinCO]

I also have. 1354 waiting to go in. Got lucky and found the double shifter trim ring, trans tunnel plate, boots, linkage, knob the works!! Question now is which Ex to put it in? Only 14 degrees here today so far, so I wont be making that decision today!!

 

[5spdman]

It's about 10* here in Ohio...was about all I could do to take 5 minutes to put the new clip in lol! Kinda glad our boss called the day off due to the weather and not having inside work for us quite yet, or it'd probably be another month or two yet before I got myself around to doing it...it's the small things!

 

[96EXXLTinCO]

Yes it is!! All those lower priority items that build up. Gotta force myself to do em sometimes. Getting oil changed in the 96 right now, got a new joint for the 94 so I can use 4x4 in it at least. Lots more "little" things on that one. Hows the new- "er" trans treatin ya?

 

[5spdman]

The "new-to-me" trans is holding up just fine. Was filled with gear oil when I got it, so I drained as much as I could and filled it with some cheap ATF. I still have the Amsoil ATF I put in the old one and already strained it (not a lot of miles put on the trans since I had changed the fluid), so now it's finding the time to change tranny fluids as well. (And rotate tires...should have done that at the last oil change...)

Old tranny is sitting on my work bench waiting for me to re-rebuild (correctly this time) to have as a back-up or ready for a new build if I ever find a Sport...

 

[96EXXLTinCO]

Thanks for reminding me about tires............damnit. Think I got a bad wheel bearing on the left front too, and inner tie rod, and bushi.........who am I kidding, 262,000 miles, it needs everything up front. LOL. I checked craigslist multiple times a day for a couple months. Went and looked at one 2nd gen sport, didn't care for the green interior. Messaged a lot of people about their ads but was always 1-2 messages to the seller too late, or they just never answered. Was 3rd in line on this one with 139k on the dial and was listed for $1000. Figured it would be gone gone gone. I couldn't believe it when he called and said the first 2 didn't even show up and the 3rd got called in to work. You can imagine the tracks I laid gettin to his place. Quick little test drive revealed squeeks and groans typical with a 139k truck that needs all the wear items front and back. Has a nasty clunking sound when put into 4x4, but I knew right away it was just a u-joint. Motor runs strong and the trans shifts nice smooth, unlike the 96 that is more of a WWF wrestling match with the gears everytime I take it out. So, I could tell the guy was already tired of playing the "sell a car" game so "in the interest of this truck leaving your driveway TONIGHT, and you being done with it, how about I fix the noise in 4x4 and give ya $800?" I think all he heard was "leaving your driveway tonight" and he jumped on it. DAMNIT, shoulda went lower. Happy as hell with the deal though. Just gotta keep yours eyes open and ear to the ground, one will pop up. Do you want 1st or 2nd gen? I'll keep my eyes open here for ya, and feel free to keep an eye on the Denver area. We don't have rust buckets here and I'd be more than happy to check some out for ya if you find one here. I can even park it at my place for a bit until we can figure out a way to get it to ya. Offers' there if you find a gem out my way man.

 

[5spdman]

91-93 4x4 Sport...would LOVE for it to have a sunroof too. Looking to do all the suspension build up and then a body off frame restoration...no rust certainly helps! Been searching Craigslist adds out west for a while now, but at the moment, it's just for fun, or to torment myself...

I've got to face it though...I'll never find a deal like I did on the XLT...

 

[96EXXLTinCO]

LOL, never say never!!! I was getting discouraged. And while it may suck to look at em day after day, you learn to recognize the good deals from the bad right away. I got to where I could usually guess within about 200-300 of the value before I looked it up. I always had the seller send me a pic of the door sticker too so I didn't have to bother trying to find out from the seller what motor it had or the gear ratios and open or LS. Ran into a couple real A-hole sellars too. One guy wouldn't give me any info on the truck AT ALL. WTF?? Whatever. There is a decent low mileage 92 sport for sale on the forum here It's got some cancer to take care of, but it's a hell of a nice head start on a build. I love that color blue too.