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Dr. Jack

:usa: Hopefully I am starting this thread in the proper place. I am following the ideas of other members to keep a log so to speak of the 92 Explorer now know as Dr. Jack.
It all started a long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, oops,wrong story.
A while back in the spring/summer time frame of 2009. I was asked by an EF member if I ever do any 4wheeling, I told him I had done a bit in Death Valley but not much, this is when he intoduced me to the EF family. We made plans for me to join him as a rider in the CCR09 at Ouray. We did a pre-run in Moab where I meet Bronco2guy, Amy, and Chad551. Then on to Ouray where I meet a lot of fine peeps in the EF family. I had such a blast that I decided to start a project, I have always liked off roading but all the groups I meet seemed to have a "better than thou" idea.
Giving myself two years for the project, I started keeping an eye on the forum and looking around for ideas, then the 92 Explorer of Dr. John "Jack" Lobdell popped up on Craig's list in New Mexico, by following the forum I became aware of the sale, and by contact with other members I came to learn that this was a special vehicle from a special member. Lady Luck smiled on me, as I was able to use my brother's trailer to go pick up the vehicle. Robert rode with me and am I glad he did, his help was great. Got the rig back home and am now beginning to go over it, will keep upates as I go
 



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The Dr. Jack finally made it to Austin to bandit Customs.

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Kris is looking like he's thinking "WTF did I get myself into"!!!!!

I don't think I will never be able to thank Russell and Kris enough for doing this for me. It is just freaking wonderful to have such great friends, fellow EF'ers (and fellow Demons) to step up without hestiation to the plate.

Thank You Russell and Kris!!!!! :salute:
 



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Awesome!! Kris and Russell will take good care of Dr. Jack. :)
 






Don't worry, we will do our very best on the Jack, and make him all spify! :D
 






Awesome!! Kris and Russell will take good care of Dr. Jack. :)

X2 on that, Dan!!!! :thumbsup:

Don't worry, we will do our very best on the Jack, and make him all spify! :D

Believe me Russell, "worry" never came close knowing the Jack was in your hands!!! :burnout:

I think of this as letting my child stay with a couple of crazy uncles, he's gonna come back spoiled. :sawzall:
 






There is still a lot of stuff I want done on the Flyer thanks to those two corrupting agents, so don't be surprised if you get a little more than you asked for when they are done. ;)
 






There is still a lot of stuff I want done on the Flyer thanks to those two corrupting agents, so don't be surprised if you get a little more than you asked for when they are done. ;)

LOL, I noticed that when I was in Austin dropping off the Jack! :cool:
 






Update: Many of ya'll are able to be keeping track with the Jack at Bandit Customs in Austin with Kris and Russell on their FB pages.

They have really went krazy (and I mean that in a good way) working on the Dr. Jack.

Lights and wiring fixed, new carpet, new shifter boots just to name a couple.
There is going to be an engine swap (Thank you Justin for such a sweet deal on a outstanding motor)!!!!! New u-joints, calipers etc. already installed.

Thru the EF I became friends with them, and I still have a devil of a time beliving that there are such great friends out there, but there are and they are proof, they only need their super hero capes and a big emblem on their shirts.

Here I sit in Evansville, Ind. keeping track of the Jack thru FB!!!!!
 






Update: Many of ya'll are able to be keeping track with the Jack at Bandit Customs in Austin with Kris and Russell on their FB pages.

They have really went krazy (and I mean that in a good way) working on the Dr. Jack.

Lights and wiring fixed, new carpet, new shifter boots just to name a couple.
There is going to be an engine swap (Thank you Justin for such a sweet deal on a outstanding motor)!!!!! New u-joints, calipers etc. already installed.

Thru the EF I became friends with them, and I still have a devil of a time beliving that there are such great friends out there, but there are and they are proof, they only need their super hero capes and a big emblem on their shirts.

Here I sit in Evansville, Ind. keeping track of the Jack thru FB!!!!!

Thanks for the vote of confidence mike, lol we are trying our best to make the Jack even better :D SO here's what we did:

The first thing we did was start testing compression on the motor. I found I had low compression on three of the cylinders so i proceeded with a further teardown of the motor to inpect the head gaskets and lower intake gaskets.
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While I was doing this, Kris began working on the suspension and brake bits. The rear brakes checked out fine, so he replaced the ujoints in the rear drive shaft and changed out the front rotors, calipers, bearings and seals.

I got the heads torn off and head gaskets looked fine (not blown) but all the coolant passages were blocked off, preventing cooling of the heads (as we all know, a big no-no in OHV's) So We spoke with mike, told him out concerns (would also need new lifters, pushrods, rocker arms, etc) and was decided that we will just swap motors with a 94 unit Justin has. So that will happen at christmas time. Since there wasnt munch more to do with the motor, i turned my attention to the interior of jack and started stripping out everything on the inside.

I removed the seats from the jack (Racaro Expert S seats from the early 90's in facotry explorer tan cloth) and Kris started steam cleaning them with his new Bissell cleaner. While in good shape overall, they were very dirty.
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Kris also took this time to clean the new seats for his Eddie Bauer 2-Door, but thats another thread. We left them to dry over night

The next day, i finished removing the rest of the interior and Kris started pressure washing the new (to Dr. Jack) carpet, floor mats, and cargo matt.
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While he was doing that, i continued cleaning out the jack. No Offence Mike, but damn that thing was dirty LOL.
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There was a couple reasons we did this. 1) I needed to fix all the wiring and electrical issues that were going on in the Jack. 2) we just felt like cleaning it lol

Once everything was removed, i started on the forward facing roof lights and got those soldered/heat shrinked/taped/loomed for use. Also I fixed the short in the dome lights/radio circuit, repaired the tag light, removed all the wire nuts and replaced them with solder/heat shrink, and rewired the CB radio.
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Kris also replaced the old shift boot/plate with a newer, cleaner one:
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By this time, it was starting to get dark and we still had to reinstall all the equipment in the back, so i started getting everything back together. Here's the rear all cleaned up:
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It started getting real dark, so i hurried up and got the new carpet installed and got the rear seats bolted down. Also got the passeneger seat in before we called it a night. Ill get some more photos later from Kris. But over all we got a lot done this weekend on it, and all that is left to do is replace the passenegr side spindle, swap the motors, and install the sliders. Everything else on your list Mike is done plus some :D Will repost when we have more updates.
 






Here's the Jack as he sits this morning with most of the interior back together:

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Code:
No Offence Mike, but damn that thing wa dirty LOL

LOL, none taken Russell!!!!!! The rig had been sitting under the tree in the front for close to 7 months. With only one day a week off if I was lucky, I had no time to work on it or to get done what was over my limits. I knew something had to be done before it was too far gone, I didn't want it to become a sore and that is what it was becoming. So I had to ask for help, and I knew where to go for help. ( I am not afraid to ask for help when needed).

The 35's are no good sitting in the storage shed, the rock sliders are no good leaning against the porch, and the parts were doing no good stacked in the room in the house.

Looking at what ya'll have done already I am in awe.

You and Kris just freaking rock. :salute:
 






Thanks mike :). That makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside lol. But trust me, I hope you enjoy him even more when he's ready :)
 






Bloody Hell! Fantastic job fella's!!! Jack's looking evil sweet Mike!!!!
 












Thanks guys! We are trying our hardest to make this the best truck possible! And there's still more to come that even Mike doesn't know about :D
 






Thumbs up guys! Glad to see the Jack getting the spa treatment.
 






Thanks mike :). That makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside lol. But trust me, I hope you enjoy him even more when he's ready :)

I do believe I will enjoy him more !!!!!

Bloody Hell! Fantastic job fella's!!! Jack's looking evil sweet Mike!!!!

That is fantiastic!! And "evil sweet" I like it too!!

Great work guys!

It sure is.

Thumbs up guys! Glad to see the Jack getting the spa treatment.

I think the Jack is enjoying his spa getaway!!!

Some updates:

Russell and Kris continue to do wonders, cooling issues addressed and corrected, tranny being replaced (even tho not conked out, the tranny is showing signs of going out soon).
And I learned that one of my Secret Santa gifts went to Austin for the Jack, Russell told me I had to wait until the Jack is finished and I pick it up to know what it is!! EF folks just freaking rock!!!:salute:

And I just ordered a replacement ARB air compressor for it( the old one is just acting up and a long time ago I decided to just replace it all together)
It's the CKSA12 in the bottom left corner
http://4wheelonline.com/ARB_Air_Compressors_.210181.1451201
 






After getting through with the Jack today, I can say it runs a whole lot better than it did. Russell swapped out the thermostat to a 180* vs the standard 198* just because of the overheating issues that continue to dog this particular rig. Oh and your heater works now...that is after we blew out several years of accumulated gunk from inside the heater core. Had an excellent chance to test it out this afternoon with the temps being in the mid 50's.

The Jack did raise a few eyebrows over the weekend due to several test drives through Kris' area...sans hood and, umm, other, "miscellaneous", stuff. But everybody always knew who it was plowing by due to the (now fixed!) Borla exhaust and the occasional firecracker-ish POP!! from the tail pipe. :D (Russell is still working on that back fire though, much to his chagrin)

Somehow, I knew Mike when you busted that exhaust a year and a half ago, gunning up that embankment at the meet, that I would be part of the repair team putting it back together. :rolleyes:

There were also a few other things accomplished on the Jack this weekend, but I will let Russell and Kris fill you in on the rest. ;)

Sufficed to say, you will not know its the same vehicle when you take it on the trails again. :D
 






After getting through with the Jack today, I can say it runs a whole lot better than it did. Russell swapped out the thermostat to a 180* vs the standard 198* just because of the overheating issues that continue to dog this particular rig. Oh and your heater works now...that is after we blew out several years of accumulated gunk from inside the heater core. Had an excellent chance to test it out this afternoon with the temps being in the mid 50's.

The Jack did raise a few eyebrows over the weekend due to several test drives through Kris' area...sans hood and, umm, other, "miscellaneous", stuff. But everybody always knew who it was plowing by due to the (now fixed!) Borla exhaust and the occasional firecracker-ish POP!! from the tail pipe. :D (Russell is still working on that back fire though, much to his chagrin)

Somehow, I knew Mike when you busted that exhaust a year and a half ago, gunning up that embankment at the meet, that I would be part of the repair team putting it back together. :rolleyes:

There were also a few other things accomplished on the Jack this weekend, but I will let Russell and Kris fill you in on the rest. ;)

Sufficed to say, you will not know its the same vehicle when you take it on the trails again. :D

Many thanks for you being there to work on the Jack also, Dan!!!:salute:
The purpose of taking the Jack to Austin was so it could be gotten into the right hands for the work that needed to be done to it. And it has been in the right hands!!
Heck, I had forgotten all about that "sliding" across the top of the embakment at the meet! I was just like, "ah hell, it sounds better"

Can't wait to get it on the trails.
 






As Dan has suggested, there is some good news to this Mike. You dont need a new trans! Here's why...

That wash board feeling you and I had discussed was actually the transfer case dancing between 4hi and 2hi on the shifter. Dan and I went ahead and installed a new 1354 manual that was available at the house and realigned the shifter. The washboard / jerking feeling is now gone from the driveline. Im still trying to figure out the back firing thing though. But yes, the motor runs much smoother now that the hypertech chip has been removed, and it drives much better. Im calling today on qoutes for tig welding, and all that is left is for me to figure out the back fire and its ready to pick up!~
 



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Fantastic work! You are true fanatics! (Meant in the best way possible) :)
 






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