Bkennedy's SAS and Rebuild Thread

[Paul]

Glad to hear the great news!

now its time for some r&r

BTW, Moab is a great place for R & R. . .

 

[BKennedy]

I guess it would be a great place. I got too much going on here and in Arizona for that this year

I spent about 11 days in Arizona last month. Towed the Explorer behind the RV to Kingman for 5 days, then down to Quartzsite for 6. Explorer only had one issue and that was the power window regulator for passenger front froze up and I also think the motor was fried. Of course, the window was down and I was about as high up in elevation as you can get. I drove back to the RV, pulled the door apart, removed the motor so I could force the regulator in place, then used some zip-ties and a hose clamp to hold the window up without replacing the motor. Fixed it when I got home.
Mountains south of Kingman

KOFA Wildlife Refuge

Quartzsite area

 

[BKennedy]

Moss Wash OHV Trail south of Kingman. One of the cleanest, well maintained, fun trails I have been on, with bypasses on the difficult obstacles so you can go around or go for it. Since I was by myself, I only did the difficult parts if it was too much trouble to back up.

Hogs Back Trail near Quartzsite

Full moon through the clouds

 

[BKennedy]

After I replaced the passenger front window regulator, I noticed the passenger rear was moving very slow. It would only move right if the engine was on. On line, there were several motors for sale that said right front or rear. I have a spare motor that I was planning on returning that's for the passenger front. I removed the window motor, and its a completely different motor than the front. I pulled it apart because I heard its the bushings that fail (official term is plug rollers), not the motor. The plug rollers are crumbled. Motor functions is fine. I found some on Ebay and ordered two sets because I am sure the left rear motor is the same, and its the only OEM motor left. I will rebuild them both when the plug rollers come in.

Anybody know what type of grease is used with plastic parts? Can I use white lithium?

While the door is apart, I am going to put in a piece of sound deadener material behind both rear door speakers. The housings have a bunch of slots and holes in them that let the sound bounce around inside the door. This will also help keep dust out from the back of the speakers.

 

[gmanpaint]

Surprised you haven't had to rebuild a motor yet. Think I have done all of mine on 2 explorers already. Lol

Dorman makes the plugs and most parts stores around me sell them. Just in case you need more, and dont want to wait. I keep a set in the spare parts bag, because the new ones will fail eventually too.

Not sure if a special grease is needed for plastic, but I do recall the plastic gears in the RC car had a green grease on them. Hobby store??

Oh, are going to 25th moab meet with the group?

 

[Kirby N.]

I like my manual windows when I read this. Then when someone pulls up next to me on the passenger side and I have to do the lean over with one foot on the brake and one on the clutch and roll down the window and I hate them.

Moab on the 25th? Of this month? Ill be there with motos. Maybe I should bring the ranger too. If that is the case I will wish I had time to fix the a/c because rolling down my manual windows wont be enough to keep cool in Moab in April.

 

[gmanpaint]

@Kirby Sorry, I meant the 25th anniversary run. It's May 15/16.

Photos - Moab 2021 - EF's 25th anniversary

Let's pick a date for the Moab. 2021 run. I'm going to put every weekend in May 2021 in the poll.

www.explorerforum.com

 

[BKennedy]

I'm not going to make Moab this year.

The Driver rear door window motor had one crushed plug roller, passenger had two.

 

[Stic-o]

Just go get a new set out of the JY. They are all the same. The Navajo still has the original motors. I the 2nd gen wiring I put in the doors just plugged right in and worked with them.

After this I'll be keeping these out of my current parts truck.

Your welcome to come up and rip them out of my other 1st gen parts truck.

 

[BKennedy]

I still have the doors from my parts truck when the Explorer melted. They all have working motors, I am just too lazy to dig them out of the back of the shed. I imagine that all the motors in those doors have at least one bad plug roller. The plugs should be here by tomorrow.

My 32 year old niece was visiting today, said "I can't believe you still have that car." She does not get it. I offered to take her off roading for a day sometime, then she might get it.

Anybody know anything about off road sway bars? I emailed TR1 Racing about their Desert bar and got a reply to send him all the measurements. Only measurements I know would be the frame width, the distance from axle to frame, shock travel, which I sent with my information request. I get a lot of sway from the rear at slower speeds on the highway, and at higher speeds in the dirt. One of those off road type sway bars should remedy that.

DESERT TRUCK KITS

 

[Rick]

I've thought about adding one but never got to it. I had thought about adding a front torsion bar style swaybar.

 

[Stic-o]

I still have the doors from my parts truck when the Explorer melted. They all have working motors, I am just too lazy to dig them out of the back of the shed. I imagine that all the motors in those doors have at least one bad plug roller. The plugs should be here by tomorrow.

My 32 year old niece was visiting today, said "I can't believe you still have that car." She does not get it. I offered to take her off roading for a day sometime, then she might get it.

Anybody know anything about off road sway bars? I emailed TR1 Racing about their Desert bar and got a reply to send him all the measurements. Only measurements I know would be the frame width, the distance from axle to frame, shock travel, which I sent with my information request. I get a lot of sway from the rear at slower speeds on the highway, and at higher speeds in the dirt. One of those off road type sway bars should remedy that.

DESERT TRUCK KITS

It's your spare tire. It acts like a wagging tail. I noticed it when I had my rear tire carrier on pre JP. I don't have this issue anymore, once I moved it inside.

Making me think about my spare placement on the Navajo now.

 

[BKennedy]

Whatever it is, I want to get some of the unpredictable body roll out without having rear shocks so stiff it bounces all over. It needs a rear sway bar. I have a front OEM sway bar in my parts pile. I could make a mount for it under the frame and stick it on the rear, but I think it will be way too harsh. It would also have to be disconnected for off road use, which would mean it won't be of any use on fast dirt roads.

The custom leaf springs really helped getting it to the correct height, are very stable while crawling, and they ride nice on the highway. However, there is still some unpredictable body roll at times where its a control issue, and its all coming from the rear. The front is very stable at any speed and only leans when going slow on the highway when the shock valving is basically bypassed. I'm going to email TR1 again and ask what measurements they need for me to purchase one of their products. See how it goes.

 

[BKennedy]

Back to power window motors. I looked in the old trusty interweb, and any silicone based grease will work fine for plastics. Any petroleum based grease breaks down plastic. I have some Superlube clear grease by Permatex that is silicone based which I use on guns that should work fine.

Edit: The Plug rollers came in the mail about an hour ago so I cleaned up the motor parts, greased the heck out of them and reinstalled. No issues, motors work fine. The OEM motors have so much more torque than any aftermarket I have found.

 

[BKennedy]

Got both doors back together. Putting some sound deadening material in the speaker housing to cover up the holes in the inner door panel was a horrible idea. It sounded very tinny and I had to pull the panels back off and take it out. I do not remember, but I think there was a piece of foam in there from the factory. I tried a piece of headliner material that I had on hand, but that made it sound too muffled.

Any ideas about that?

I also got a reply from the sway bar manufacture. They made some recommendations. I'm still not sure that a 45" bar will clear the frame, since according to him that only gives it 3/4" clearance from the 41" outer frame width. Any wider will interfere with the tires when they are stuffed. Need to take more measurements and ask a few more questions.

 

[BKennedy]

More emails from the sway bar manufacture, TK1 Racing. I did more measurements and it was then I realized that the sway bar end links will end up on top of U-bolt plates. I asked them if that would work or does the end link have to mount to the top of the axle. Got a reply saying that it would work fine on the U-bolt plates and that I should angle the bar up 2-4" from level to have longer links. I think it will work, now I need to decide if its worth the $625 price tag.

They have several sway bars based mostly on weight and use. It was recommended that I get the medium "Ultra 4", which is 1.25" diameter. They said it would be worse or just as bad to put too much of a sway bar in there as not have one at all, one extreme to the other. If I did not do any articulation crawling stuff, he would recommend their "Desert" bar, which is 1.5" diameter.

 

[Stic-o]

Brian what about adjustable shock in the rear? Something you could adjust for each situation.

 

[BKennedy]

I have Rancho 9000's already. If I tighten them up enough to take away the sway they are way too stiff and the rear hops

 

[Rick]

I have Rancho 9000's already. If I tighten them up enough to take away the sway they are way too stiff and the rear hops

The 9000s only control compression not rebound. Perhaps a double adjustable shock would work better.

I just put a pair of QA1 double adjustables on the Red Dart and it helped significantly keeping the rear end from rising to quick on the initial hit. I had Caltrac's shocks on there before which are rebranded 9000s.

 

[BKennedy]

I did not know that about the 9000's. Good to know. I am sort of looking for a pair of take-off first gen Raptor shocks for the rear. They have the correct amount of travel (11") and are good Fox shocks. When a pair drops in my lap, I am going to take off the 9000's because they don't really hold a candle to the front shocks and the rear suspension doesn't feel even or matched with the front.