Hey all, my name is Jonathon and I figured I'd start this to keep track of what I'm doing 
I bought my 1993 Explorer XLT on 9/16/11... I'm officially the 3rd owner of the vehicle, first owner had it til July of this year and sold it to his nephew. Prior to July it had always been dealer maintained. This truck is entirely original right down to the now antiqueted factory tape deck.. I have the original window sticker and MSRP was $24k
I bought this truck as a replacement for my old Suburban that was lifted, geared, and locked on 35's. The 'burb was just too big for what I wanted to do. I daily drive a 2010 Honda Fit.. nothing exciting but it's fun to drive, cheap to maintain, and gets amazing gas mileage. The Exploder will be my camping and mountain truck.. while the Fit is a great little car the ground clearance is severely lacking
As she sits now..
4.0 OHV
A4LD
Stock axles with 3.73's and limited slip rear
132k miles
Parts changed before I bought it:
New Warn hubs up front
New radius arm bushings with new bolts holding brackets on
Motorcraft heavy duty radiator with new cap
Motorcraft heater and radiator hoses
Motorcraft 4wd shifter motor
Plans:
Auto Meter Ultra Lite trans temp and water temp gauges in Auto Meter pillar pod.
New head unit, nothing fancy, just want something with aux in, USB and iPod control. Seems standard now.
2.5" JD stage 1 lift
New suspension bushings all around
2 NMO mounts in the roof, 1 for amateur radio the other for CB
Factory steelies powder coated black
31x10.50 BFG KM2's
New body mounts, might also put 1" lift pucks in from DIY4X at the same time. Still pondering the pucks.
Over all, I'm just going to keep it sane for light off road use. I want to be able to get in this truck and drive it where ever I want to; that was probably the main reason I got rid of the Suburban. I hated driving that truck on the highway. It rocked off road.. but not on pavement. I don't wheel, I do need ground clearance though...
First thing I did was change the oil and air filter. Last owner cheaped out and used Fram garbage.. thankfully this was the only time, and last time, this engine has seen a Fram and only for a thousand miles.
Danger orange for a reason!
Tomorrow I'll have in my possession a Wix transmission filter kit and two cases of ATF.. changing the filter and swapping the fluid out. Fortunately this truck came with a factory auxiliary cooler so changing the fluid will be easy. Speaking with a mechanic friend, he also suggested Lube-Gard red be used once the fluid was replaced.
I should also have my 2nd NMO roof mount and the caps show up tomorrow as well. I had one spare Larsen NMO-K mount, going to put two NMO mounts in the roof.. probably this weekend as well if the weather is nice. I'll be using Larsen antenna's exclusively as they are cost effective, locally made, and very nice. The best weather caps also happen to be made by Larsen and feature their awesome gasket. I'll be using my Antennex hole saw to cut the holes. This saw is well worth the money. Still need to figure out how to mount the CB and HAM rig in the truck cleanly.. though at least I'll have the antennas and power hard wired in.
More to come.. hoping when I drop the pan tomorrow or Wednesday it's nice and clean
I'll be taking some better pics with my camera tomorrow too
I bought my 1993 Explorer XLT on 9/16/11... I'm officially the 3rd owner of the vehicle, first owner had it til July of this year and sold it to his nephew. Prior to July it had always been dealer maintained. This truck is entirely original right down to the now antiqueted factory tape deck.. I have the original window sticker and MSRP was $24k I bought this truck as a replacement for my old Suburban that was lifted, geared, and locked on 35's. The 'burb was just too big for what I wanted to do. I daily drive a 2010 Honda Fit.. nothing exciting but it's fun to drive, cheap to maintain, and gets amazing gas mileage. The Exploder will be my camping and mountain truck.. while the Fit is a great little car the ground clearance is severely lacking
As she sits now..
4.0 OHV
A4LD
Stock axles with 3.73's and limited slip rear
132k miles
Parts changed before I bought it:
New Warn hubs up front
New radius arm bushings with new bolts holding brackets on
Motorcraft heavy duty radiator with new cap
Motorcraft heater and radiator hoses
Motorcraft 4wd shifter motor
Plans:
Auto Meter Ultra Lite trans temp and water temp gauges in Auto Meter pillar pod.
New head unit, nothing fancy, just want something with aux in, USB and iPod control. Seems standard now.
2.5" JD stage 1 lift
New suspension bushings all around
2 NMO mounts in the roof, 1 for amateur radio the other for CB
Factory steelies powder coated black
31x10.50 BFG KM2's
New body mounts, might also put 1" lift pucks in from DIY4X at the same time. Still pondering the pucks.
Over all, I'm just going to keep it sane for light off road use. I want to be able to get in this truck and drive it where ever I want to; that was probably the main reason I got rid of the Suburban. I hated driving that truck on the highway. It rocked off road.. but not on pavement. I don't wheel, I do need ground clearance though...
First thing I did was change the oil and air filter. Last owner cheaped out and used Fram garbage.. thankfully this was the only time, and last time, this engine has seen a Fram and only for a thousand miles.
Danger orange for a reason!
Tomorrow I'll have in my possession a Wix transmission filter kit and two cases of ATF.. changing the filter and swapping the fluid out. Fortunately this truck came with a factory auxiliary cooler so changing the fluid will be easy. Speaking with a mechanic friend, he also suggested Lube-Gard red be used once the fluid was replaced.
I should also have my 2nd NMO roof mount and the caps show up tomorrow as well. I had one spare Larsen NMO-K mount, going to put two NMO mounts in the roof.. probably this weekend as well if the weather is nice. I'll be using Larsen antenna's exclusively as they are cost effective, locally made, and very nice. The best weather caps also happen to be made by Larsen and feature their awesome gasket. I'll be using my Antennex hole saw to cut the holes. This saw is well worth the money. Still need to figure out how to mount the CB and HAM rig in the truck cleanly.. though at least I'll have the antennas and power hard wired in.
More to come.. hoping when I drop the pan tomorrow or Wednesday it's nice and clean
I'll be taking some better pics with my camera tomorrow too
