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Captain Morgan, '95 D44 Sas

“Captain Morgan”
1995 Explorer Sport


Engine:
4.0 OHV

Transmission:
M5oD manual transmission

Cooling:
Summit Racing aluminum 2.5” radiator, driver drop outlet
Summit Racing aluminum power steering cooler
Summit Racing flex hose & 90* elbow

Drivetrain:
Manual 1354 Borg Warner
Steel Tube front driveshaft
Extended, reinforced rear driveshaft

Front Axle:
‘84 Jeep Grand Wagoneer Widetrac Dana 44 low pinion
OX locker & Cover
5.13 Yukon Ring & Pinion
All Spicer U-joints, bearings & races
Kevlar braided stainless 32” long brakelines
Stock Waggy shafts (until I break one!)
Warn manual locking hubs

Rear Axle:
Explorer 8.8 31 spline
Dutchman hardened shafts, 6x5.5 pattern, screw-in studs
Aussie Locker
5.13 Yukon Ring & Pinion
Currie 6x5.5 rotors
All Ford bearings & races
Trailmaster 2” tapered rear lift blocks
Superlift spring-over perches
RuffStuff 1/4" steel 8.8 metal cover

Suspension:
Explorer ProComp MX6 nitro front shocks
Regular Monroe stock height (go figure!) rear shocks
JC Whitney stock Waggy 7 leaf front packs
Rear leaf packs out of XLT v8 w/ tow package

Tires:
35x13.5r16 Mickey Baja Claws
37x12.5r15 Goodyear Wrangler Mtr's Couldn't flex. Gone
36x12.5r15 Super Swamper TSL Bias Ply Best for mud! Gone
315x70r17 Mickey Baja MTZ radials Original setup. Gone


Rims:
16x8 Black painted aluminum triangle holes
15x10 Black round-holed aluminum something or anothers Gone
17x10 Black steel Rock Crawler round holes Gone


Body Mods:
Originally Willow Green
Premium Sport flares
Maaco semi-gloss dark Charcoal paint. black vinyl racing stripes
Black herculiner on lower doors and rock sliders
Shaved 4" from each side of bumper for tire clearance
Removed roof rack and rails

Body Armor:
DraperBuilt rock sliders
Steel rear bumper w/ swing out carrier, from sn0border88's late Emily Rose (Had to remove tire carrier section in 2011,
the swing rod bent and the trailer bearings built into the bumper seized)

Sound System:
Pioneer DEH-X7800BHS head unit
4 6x8 Kenwood 3 way 220w speakers
Pair Kenwood 1" front door tweets w/ bass blockers (installed in panels by rearview mirror control)
Pair Pioneer 1" rear tweets w/ bass blockers (installed above flip out ashtrays)
10” Kicker VR Comp dual voice coil
Kenwood 729S Amplifier
Cobra 19 CB in center console, w/ external speaker (removed 2019, no one uses CB's for wheeling anymore)

Lights:
2 Hella 500's on front bumper
Dual driving fogs. White fog/blue smurf lights
Anamorphic Equalizer :p
LED strips around inside of rear hatch glass w/ dedicated rear switch
Billet Automotive custom RGB LED switch panel
Sylvania amber blue 3157 turn bulbs
Euro Diamond headlights & corners
OPT7 LED headlight bulb upgrade
Black Altezza tail lights w/ LED brake & reverse bulbs, amber blue turn signals

Miscellaneous modifications:
Doofy looking Skull knob for T-case shifter (thanks Rook :rolleyes: )
Fire Extinguisher & LED Maglite hard mounted to D-Pillars
Sport Trac rear power outlet installed in right rear panel behind rear seats
02-05 Explorer IRS breather tube neck for front axle breather tube
Shaved 8.8 Center pin
Shaved inside fin off of Dana 44 housing to clear OX shift fork
Royal Purple full synthetic Mercon III trans fluid
Interior light kill switch (95's interior lights do not turn off via dimmer)
Boxed & reinforced trans cross member to pass over front driveshaft
Custom front sway bar
2wd explorer radio bezel
‘95 F350 Front shock towers
Removed stock air filter fender duct
1.5" Steel front driverside leaf block (to make him sit level again)
Leather power seats and rear bench seat from Blackjack
2019: Installed Blackjack's passenger door & Skunk's driver door in tribute. He is now FrankenMorgan.




Started out looking like this:
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Did a little bit of this:
DSCN1181_Small_.JPG


And a little bit of that:
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To get this:
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Had some fun breaking him in:
DSC_0105_Small_.JPG

IMG_0098_Small_.JPG


And then realized a little too late that I have a serious center of gravity issue:
DSCN1644_Small_.JPG


But clean it all up and throw some paint on and things will look a lot better :)
0603071601_Small_.jpg

DSCN2188_Small_.JPG


...And then when your nice matte finish dark charcoal grey paint fades to powdered donut finish,
(Yes that's me, posing with my truck)
Lin_Morgan1.JPG


......have your truck painted again!
rattler.jpg


And put stripes on it, for Pete's sake ;)

Morgan_stripes_front_Small_1.jpg

blood of my enemy.jpg

mates.jpg


Over a decade later and still kicking despite everything we've been through:
pap19 mud.jpg

pap 19.jpg






Full write up can be found here: How to waste a ton of $$. Much thanks to Rookie, Wolf, Micah, 95Exploderboy and IZwack for the design/build, and Skunk for the inspiration ;)


EDIT: Morgan wouldn't be the beast that he is today were it not for the two horribly abused first gens who came before him and taught me what it means to have a wheelable Explorer (lots of patience, time and money!). Here's to Shelby and Tank :chug: May they rest in pieces wherever they are!
 



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Did you have the clips on the ends of the stub shafts? If not that may be part of the reason why you got so much debris in there.
 



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Clips?


Only clip I know of is the large one that keeps the inside part of the manual locking hub inside the housing..
huh.gif
 






I think he's talking about the clips that hold goes around the outer axle shaft right outside of the spindle.
 






those clips dont block any dirt from coming in.

Like I said, it was probably only a little mud/water and the rest is all rusty grease that looks like mud.
 






You know when we cut out the IFS and I was using the metal eraser, cursing at eh sparks and everything. Well today I saw some pretty cool cutoff wheels for those 9" grinders.




Old chop saw blades that have worn down. :D
 






hmmm that thing looks familar

well let's c i worked on it when was stock, in process and when it was done. that thing will never be done. but then again are they ever. good thing i didn't get to the customer before she did. blood sweat and ALOT of time in the dealership. girl did a good job. fun to drive to! (well i drove it on the street anyway i don't think she'd let me wheel it) HA HA! :D
 






well let's c i worked on it when was stock, in process and when it was done. that thing will never be done. but then again are they ever. good thing i didn't get to the customer before she did. blood sweat and ALOT of time in the dealership. girl did a good job. fun to drive to! (well i drove it on the street anyway i don't think she'd let me wheel it) HA HA! :D

Fun to drive my @$$! :p: And I can't help it if you didn't jump as fast as I did when they dumped Morgan at work with only 3 wheels :D
 






really fun to drive!

sure it's fun to drive, you should see the looks i got in it.:D besides i wouldn't have taken it knowing you really wanted it. not to mention it turned out alot better with you having it. It would just be dirtied up by my kids by now and just as stock as ever. :rolleyes:
 






I'm going to throw this nugget of wisdom out into this thread, too... Anyone who's considering getting Mickey MTZ's, THEY SUCK BUTT in mud. If you plan of using them solely for rock climbing or you live in a snowy/icy climate, they're perfect and you couldn't hope for better performance. But not in the goopy stuff!

DSCN2480_Small_.jpg



I'd like to pick up a set of Swampers on 15" rims for him sometime this summer and keep the Mickeys for the winter/on-road driving. Oh, and Morgan's paintjob has faded to this odd primer grey color :scratch:
 






Oh, and Morgan's paintjob has faded to this odd primer grey color :scratch:

Mine is doing that too...well, what's left of the original paint. I guess that's what happens when you neglect to wash it for at least a year. No worries though, it's getting a nice stealthy, flat, dark grey paint job soon:D

Moab next year? Hope to see you and your rig there:thumbsup:
 






Guess your Maco warranty is up? I agree its stealthy :D

Linds, if you want swampers, start checking out craigs list in this area. I found a few sets, but I ended up getting some Swamper SXs from a guy near Pittsburgh for an awesome price.
 






Stealthy he is.... I put in an interior light kill switch, and between that and the paint it's been extremely helpful when it's dark outside and you don't want to attract any attention from the authorities ;) I think Maaco warranties their paint for a year, I guess I'll have to make a trip back to the shop and haggle with them. Jake, if you come across any more great deals on Swampers (preferably Boggers or TSL radials!) and/or 15" 6 lug rims, lemmie know.

Db, I'm damn sure going to try and drag his big @$$ out there next year.. keep your fingers crossed and hope I get an awesome settlement from my accident!
 






Well, it took just over a year for me to toast the new clutch, as I found out when it started smoking on 'Tombstone' last weekend at Rausch Creek :eek: Apparently my also-just-over-a-year-old PS box is on its way out as well.... I'm going to chalk up at least part of the blame for that one on my completely worn out shocks, since they now do NOTHING to stop insane body roll on the trail. Oy, my kidneys! I'm looking into a set of heavy duty nitro charged Bilsteins, but if anyone has any "shock"ing suggestions (XD), please share! I need some serious stiffness up front!

Aside from my still iffy Ox, Morgan did fairly well this weekend. I'm actually proud of him ;)

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You really have to keep an eye on him when he gets hungry, though... or else he might sneak up on unsuspecting 'lunches' :D
DSCN2566_Small_.JPG
 






I'm going to chalk up at least part of the blame for that one on my completely worn out shocks, since they now do NOTHING to stop insane body roll on the trail. Oy, my kidneys! I'm looking into a set of heavy duty nitro charged Bilsteins, but if anyone has any "shock"ing suggestions (XD), please share! I need some serious stiffness up front!
You might try these bad boys (although kind of expensive):
http://www.currieenterprises.com/CESTORE/antirock.aspx

antirock1.jpg
 






I need some serious stiffness up front!

You might wanna rephrase that...j/k:p:

I've heard good things about the 5100 series Bilsteins, they have that funny little reservoir attached to the body of the shock.
 






You might wanna rephrase that...j/k:p:

I've heard good things about the 5100 series Bilsteins, they have that funny little reservoir attached to the body of the shock.

I think that may be a little out of her budget.
 






Correction, 5150 series Bilsteins have the little resi's and are around $100 bucks each...5100 series are around $80 each.

Just what is your budget Spas?
 






My budget depends on how many banks I can knock over in a weekend :D


I was hoping to spend $150 or less for 4 shocks (I'm sure the stock Pepboys specials in the back aren't helping matters any), but I might possibly be able to go as high as $200 if I can get some of Jack's parts sold. I like the Bilstein 5150's except that with my F350 shock tower setup, there wouldn't be any which way to put the little reservoir to keep it from hitting either the tower or being hit by the tires under full flex :eek:

Oh, and does anyone else run their front shocks body down, piston up? sn0border & 95exploderboy both flipped theirs and say it makes an incredible difference in ride quality...
 






im sure we can find a way to mount the res.
 



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The res on the 5150's are piggyback style and not remote res with a hose so mounting options are limited. If you're still wanting a Bilstein shock, I'd go with the 5100 series which is a tad cheaper and you can still choose your valving.
 






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