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[DemonMudder]

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Thank you so much!

 

[CDW6212R]

About 100in/lbs of torque, a 1/4" torque wrench is needed. That's similar to valve covers and trans pan bolts, a big wrench can easily over tighten them. I do those common small bolts with my favorite small 3/8" ratchet by hand, with the wrist, not the arm leverage.

 

[DemonMudder]

Well, even having tranny issues of its own, the rado ceases to disappoint. Sad saying this is the fourth time that poor explorer has had to be towed somewhere. But she's home, now I just gotta crank her from time to time and wait on parts to come in. Anything yall recommend checking or doing while waiting? May do the brakes too, I can't even lock the tires up if I tried really, guessing the booster is the main culprit, but I'll probably do the master cylinder too.

 

[DintDobbs]

I'm in support of getting the brakes overhauled. Basically these Explorers can't have too much brake power, particularly with oversized tires on them.

 

[DemonMudder]

I'm in support of getting the brakes overhauled. Basically these Explorers can't have too much brake power, particularly with oversized tires on them.

Which is what I want, I want more brakes, want to be safe lol
Guessing there's not much for it then, huh? Wonder if a master cylinder off something else could fit...like the master cylinder off a first gen silverado ('99-07 or whatever) fits on my '95 c1500 and it's an AMAZING upgrade, easily doubled the braking power alone. So I wonder if there's another midsize like the s10 or Tacoma that maybe has a stronger one or an aftermarket stronger one that we could fit..then I'd have to wonder if everything else would hold up to that though. Hmmm, makes me want to experiment though...some junkyard trips may be worth while soon..

 

[DannyW]

Which is what I want, I want more brakes, want to be safe lol
Guessing there's not much for it then, huh? Wonder if a master cylinder off something else could fit...like the master cylinder off a first gen silverado ('99-07 or whatever) fits on my '95 c1500 and it's an AMAZING upgrade, easily doubled the braking power alone. So I wonder if there's another midsize like the s10 or Tacoma that maybe has a stronger one or an aftermarket stronger one that we could fit..then I'd have to wonder if everything else would hold up to that though. Hmmm, makes me want to experiment though...some junkyard trips may be worth while soon..

1 word.
Wilwood.

 

[amj441]

Well, even having tranny issues of its own, the rado ceases to disappoint. Sad saying this is the fourth time that poor explorer has had to be towed somewhere. But she's home, now I just gotta crank her from time to time and wait on parts to come in. Anything yall recommend checking or doing while waiting? May do the brakes too, I can't even lock the tires up if I tried really, guessing the booster is the main culprit, but I'll probably do the master cylinder too.

View attachment 462073

Check the brake soft lines. they could use a replacement if they haven't yet been.

 

[CDW6212R]

You need the factory 1" rotor upgrade of 2001, the Sport Trac and Sport models got a different spindle, which locates the caliper outboard 1/2" farther. I have those on my 99 Explorer, it isn't a big change, but it's the only cheap and easy upgrade. I have custom 12.75" rotors on my Mountaineer, but those ended up turning into a much more expensive project than I hoped for.

Sport Trac spindle and rotor on the left, stock 99 spindle and rotor on the right. Note the caliper holes, that's the only change. You can use your existing calipers, pads, and lines.

 

[DemonMudder]

You need the factory 1" rotor upgrade of 2001, the Sport Trac and Sport models got a different spindle, which locates the caliper outboard 1/2" farther. I have those on my 99 Explorer, it isn't a big change, but it's the only cheap and easy upgrade. I have custom 12.75" rotors on my Mountaineer, but those ended up turning into a much more expensive project than I hoped for.

Sport Trac spindle and rotor on the left, stock 99 spindle and rotor on the right. Note the caliper holes, that's the only change. You can use your existing calipers, pads, and lines.

View attachment 462084

View attachment 462085

Has to fit within my 16" wheels, but also, I just replaced the front ones with new drilled and slotted, hate to put them aside for a second set that's not going to help much more. Did a lot of reading through threads last night, saw yours a few times, still considering, just wondering if its worth it in my case.

And @amj441 , I do plan to replace all the lines eventually, even the hard lines, just yo be safe, doing the same for my other rig. But sadly that won't help the braking power much.

Any chance taking the abs could help slightly? I know, probably a bad idea, but at least in my c1500, most people take it out or at least remove it's relay, that first gen abs it came with just took away a decent amount if pedal, still safer to have but it felt better. Also think I found a few vehicles that share our mc bore size, besides ford's up to an f250 that seem to not nake a difference, can anyone confirm the bore size to be 1.062"? Found like 3 different answers from different threads and sites

 

[CDW6212R]

The 2nd gen Explorers have strong brake power, the calipers have fairly large pistons, so they produce good pressure. Many vehicles have small caliper pistons, and it's not hard to gain power by upgrading the caliper(piston sizes). But these are already on the high side of pressure, meaning the MC is pushing plenty of fluid and pressure. That means it's hard to improve much on the power it has, increasing the rotor size is the logical choice.

I have plans to use a much bigger caliper on my project truck, but I will likely need a MC with a larger bore size to reduce power some(due to bigger caliper piston area), to balance the power back down a hair. The bigger brakes(12.75") I have now will lock the tires up at 80mph(the ABS kicks in), so going even bigger creates a problem. My current caliper is an SSBC, similar piston size as OEM, but the pad wear is short. So a better choice are some 6-pot calipers I found(Wilwood) that have more total piston area(5.5"), stock is less than 5.0", they use massive pads though. The end cost on all of that will be easily $1800.

 

[DemonMudder]

And that wildwood costs too much for me lol
We'll see, i know the calipers themselves were already pretty good, but figured if I could find a performance style mc that fits, maybe it would help some, heard a few things like old corvettes and camaros shared the same 1.062" bore, and I KNOW there's plenty of performance stuff still made on those, so maybe? But to be fair, decent chance my booster is just on its way out, cause I can't even get close to locking up those 32s, yet the rado with only a better master cylinder can lock up 37s; so first I'm going to start with the booster and go from there. After that I'll maybe see about the larger rotor at least since it would do a bit, but that'll be after a while of testing and planning, so that I can't break the brand new ones in a bit more before having to throw them aside.

 

[CDW6212R]

Yeah, replace the booster if it may be suspect. I would expect it to work fairly well with 32" tires. I could tell a big difference with 31.5" tires when I first tried an 18" wheel package. The total weight of the wheel and tire was 72.5lbs, while the old 17" Cobra wheel and tires were 58lbs.

Weigh your wheel and tire, see how much that is. I have aftermarket Volk Racing 17x9's that with tires should be under 60lbs, that will be back close to the stock weight levels.

 

[DemonMudder]

Figure it's worth a shot, going to just replace that, the mc, and the calipers just for the sake of age most likely.

The total weight of mine i belive are a out 90lbs, the wheel ain't sold anymore but based on a 6 lug version being 34 lbs and the tire being 56 lbs, definitely makes a difference, but still should have more power than I do based on yours.

 

[DemonMudder]

Well it's official..tranny is shot..brand new valve body, valve body gasket, solenoids, and reverse and neutral are still just drive..and barely drive at that. Fluid also went from being brand new red to dark and semi metallic looking, 1000% smelt burnt, almost sickeningly burnt the further I tore it apart. So I'm either gonna bite the bullet on new or having it fully rebuilt, or I'm gonna find a cheap donor to use my new parts in to help make last longer. But the iac is properly replaced now and dang it works good finally.
First picture of everything besides the filter back on, last few showing the old valve body, gasket, and some of the fluid in question on the servo cover.

 

[DintDobbs]

Personally I'd kind of be inclined to just swap in a complete transmission if you can find one around or under 150k miles (I've got one 5R55E at 197k with no record of a rebuild and another at 226k with no record of a rebuild), then rebuild that one when it starts having issues.

Look for a donor that got wrecked. It can be assumed that it worked if it was wrecked while driving, whereas you can easily identify Explorers that have been worn out.

 

[DemonMudder]

Thats the hope, sadly not finding many for sale, and hate the idea of trying to pull one from my local junkyard, theyre usually setup kinda sketchy and it's not usually easy to pull that thing out. But yes, smart enough to look for wrecked ones, I'll take a look in a bit, just hate to go that route, means I gotta take half the top of the engine apart again to reach the top tranny bolts...lol

 

[DintDobbs]

If you can do it once, you can do it again...

 

[DemonMudder]

If you can do it once, you can do it again...

Sadly agreed, don't mean I want to, I'm so tired lol

 

[DemonMudder]

Anything stopping me from using a 5r55e from the next gen explorer? Just out of curiosity
Also anyone know of anyone managing a 6r60 swap perhaps? Not familiar with the tranny very much, just know some later explorers had it and it's a 6speed which could be nice. Just food for thought during my research

 

[Fix4Dirt]

You mean the 3rd gen? Those had the 5r55w IIRC and after that was the 5r55s. Both different IIRC, case sizes and ratios were different.