93 Explorer project "The Hulk"

[adamsbro2]

Ya its gonna be sweet! And since I only had to pay $2.20 out of my own pocket I figured its one hell of a deal!

 

[wood1]

Get me one too, I'll pay for the shipping for that price ha ha ha

 

[adamsbro2]

I get a bunch of gift cards for various reasons and things from work! I always choose cabelas and have been saving them up but was short the 2.20 and figured I could swing that lol!

 

[wood1]

No doubt!

Free is awesome.

 

[adamsbro2]

Ok its done except the alignment which I hope to get tomorrow! And my wifey did it all except the calipers, with my guidance! Gotta shower then ill post some pics!

 

[adamsbro2]

All done and i have to give a big shout out to my wife cause she did most all the work. LOVE YA BABE!!!
Ok so here is the story short and sweet.
This is the Spindle Bearing and seal.

Couple views of the spindle before installation.

Here is the knuckle before installation.

Backing plate before installation.

Knuckle Installed.

Spindle, and axle shaft installed.

Backing plate. I chose black just for this because of brake dust mainly.

Wheel bearings, hub nuts, rotor, and caliper bracket.

Brake pads and caliper installed.

Couple views with the rim installed.

Overall i am very impressed with the ease of this upgrade. It does get a bit pricey if you do it properly and replace all the parts while your there and do it with good parts. I can definitely feel the improved braking. Alignment should be done tomorrow i hope. I can definitely say that i can now hear what is the tires but before i thought was tires but it wasn't it was mostly bearings. It is quieter now but definitely needs the alignment. Next mod is the Roof Basket which should be here by next week but its also a simple bolt on "for now".

 

[wood1]

Looks great dude, props to the better half!

 

[adamsbro2]

Ok so I took it in for the alignment yesterday and was told they got the left front dialed in but I needed a new bushing for the right front. While driving home I noticed it pulling to the right pretty hard then when turning my tires were squealing not just chirping, so I pulled in the driveway got out to take a look and this is what I found!

Either I'm retarded or that's not even close! So I climbed under to see how much room I had on the bushings to push the tops back out and found this!

Again call me stupid but THAT'S BACKWARDS stupid sobs. Anyway I decided I was better off doing this myself. So I got a torpedo level and placed it center of the time both front and back and adjusted til the passenger/right side was as close to perfect as it can be with a torpedo level alignment. The drivers/left side I turned all the way out and it still needs a little so gotta get a bushing. I was getting late for work so couldn't snap after photos sorry! When driving now there is very little pull, however when I got to work I found an inner axle seal leaking ugh drivers side too double ugh! But anyway the tires were now pointing out at the top a bit? WTF! It drives WAY better than after leaving firestone but I thought maybe the slight jarring from the slope into my driveway is throwing it off a bit so when I got home this morning I parked on the street and will check it out when I get up! Input on possible causes for the alignment ghost would be appreciated! My thoughts are grave digger is getting jealous so he thought he'd screw with the hulk!

 

[adamsbro2]

So I still didn't snap pics but I pulled it in the driveway straight and slow so it didn't flex the suspension at all then drove it forward and backward a couple times and when I got out the tops of the tire are pointing out slightly now so I will have to make some further adjustments tomorrow but I font believe ill need any different bushings!

 

[wood1]

There is an alignment section in my useful threads now. Might be something in there to help you out, hopefully you can document a nice how-to align the TTB??

 

[adamsbro2]

Thanks I refer to your useful tips more than you know! It's amazing! I am thinking of a plan to use a come along to keep the suspension where it needs to be while I lift it up and pull a tire off and then I can use the rigor to be a bit more accurate and maybe find a way to check faster as well but I will definitely note everything I do and hopefully it could help someone else though not likely anywhere near as much as you have!

 

[adamsbro2]

Roof basket is scheduled for delivery today! Hopefully pics to follow and maybe get a hold of this alignment issue today! However I tried a short cut when installing the knuckle on the drivers side rather than fighting with the axle shaft in the way I removed it and stuffed a rag in the hole to try and contain front diff lube! After removing the rag I tried to hurry and shove the axle shaft in place and it seems doing so I punctured the inner seal so hopefully next weekend I can get that fixed up.

 

[adamsbro2]

Well i didn't get to the alignment but i did get the roof basket today.
Put it together and installed it here are some pics. Not bad for $2.20 if ya ask me.

These are the mounting brackets as is now. I do plan to make some modifications eventually to mount it solid to the roof rather than to the luggage rack but this works for now.

Picture of the front decal/shield.

And a couple different views of the basket installed.

Now with the tire in the basket. and very soon there will be a high lift jack mounted and hopefully a shovel and hopefully some lights on the front of the rack.

Anyway next weekend ill be replacing the inner axle seals and hopefully hitting a couple trails though its not final yet.

 

[wood1]

Sweet!!!!!

 

[adamsbro2]

New high lift jack came in today and mounting brackets are supposed to be here Friday! I played with the alignment a bit yesterday and will explain more later and with pics but it still needs some fine tuning but I have to do some more searching and playing cause its kicking my ass! Almost thinking I might need to get a commuter car so this isn't a DD but havent decided yet!

 

[adamsbro2]

Ok so i played with the alignment a bit more and here are some pics. I still need to make a small adjustments to the passenger side but its close.

First up is a pic of the alignment when i first pulled it up onto the alignment plates. Which by the way i actually think this is a BAD ASS PIC!!!!

Couple of pics showing how i used the torpedo level and i verified this on both the front and rear side of both rims.

Break down is I hate aligning this front end lol. After using the alignment plates i got it close then drove it around the block and pulled it back in the driveway and looked at it and it was WAY out top of tires on both sides were sticking out ALOT. so then i just turned the shim all the way to the other side drove it a bit and when i pulled it back in it was kinda close but now the tops were leaning in a bit. So what i ended up doing is making an adjustment then drive, then adjust then drive, then adjust then drive, then adjust then drive, and so on i think you get the picture. I think i just need to do one more adjustment on the passenger side and it should be pretty close.

So next I went ahead and mounted the new hi lift jack on the roof basket.

Then i decided i wanted to fab up something to hold the spare in the basket without strapping it down so i decided to start here.

So as you can see i took an old rotor that was going to be trash and cut the center out of it. Then i smoothed out the edges and cleaned it up, knocked out 2 of the studs and knocked out the old races. The plan is to measure up a way to weld this to the basket so when the tire is up there it will rest on the rotor center and then i can just put a few lug nuts on to hold it tight and then i can have my straps back and it wont look quite so redneck cause its just a dead give away. Oh wait im driving the hulk and work at an oil refinery in the words of anthony aka Suicide77 i am a true american.

Anyway that is as far as ive gotten. I will post more as i go.

 

[adamsbro2]

Ok so I finished the spare tire mount.

Then the thermostat went out and so I replaces the thermostat the water pump the serp belt and the fan clutch, and decided to dress them up a bit along with a couple pulleys and the belt tensioner hulk style!

.

Still trying to find a grinding noise that's intermittent and only at low speeds. I have gotten the alignment pretty close but I need a new bushing for the drivers side. But hopefully it will stay running without a problem for awhile cause the pocket book has been draining pretty quickly.

 

[Naasau]

Stupid suggestion: have you checked your front hub bearings to make sure that they're tight? That might be the low speed grinding.

Otherwise: Looks Great!

 

[wood1]

Hey buddy... jump on board so we can help him figure this out.

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=367057

 

[adamsbro2]

Stupid suggestion: have you checked your front hub bearings to make sure that they're tight? That might be the low speed grinding.

Otherwise: Looks Great!

Ya I've been through EVERYTHING that rotates except the engine but I'm almost positive its not that!