Hey!

[jbarncord]

Hey there, my name is Jack and I'm addicted to Ford Explorers. It’s been over five hours since I drove my 2000 XLT to work.

My son has a '94 and together we own what's left of a '95 that we bought for parts. Oh, the wife drives a Mountaineer, that's the one with the sad look on it's face.

Anyway, I hope to get some helpful information and share any that I may have.

Right now Jr. and I are installing the engine from the 95 into his 94. All is going pretty well once the rusted/corroded bolts got broken loose or broken off. What is it about those lower bell housing bolts? The shanks were stuck so hard into the bell housing I had to cut them off. Once cut off and broken free from the bell housing the ends unscrewed from the engine by hand, fingers actually.

Once I get everything off this 95 that may work on my 00 I’ll be offering the balance of the parts up for sale.

A bit about this 95; she was parked in a school parking lot, unoccupied thank God, when a vehicle passing by lost control veering into the lot and hitting her in the driver’s door. She was hit so hard it changed the fit of the passenger’s side doors. 83,000 miles, one owner vehicle and with the rear wheels on the ground, jack stand under the torsion bar brackets there is about two inches of difference between the ground up height of the front bumper brackets.

I guess that’s enough for now.

Jack

 

[BobWiersema]

Hi Jack, my name is Bob and its been almost 12 hours since I drove my 98 XLT.

 

[BrooklynBay]

Welcome to this forum!

 

[jbarncord]

Hey, Bob,

Thanks for sharing. I feel your pain.

When Jr. & I bought the wrecked '95 we saddled up the '00, hitched up the 16' car trailer and headed in your direction. The '95 is the same color as the '00 so once loaded up it was a strange looking sight with one towing the other. Do ya think I was overloading that 3,500 pound hitch?

Jack

 

[jbarncord]

Welcome to this forum!

Thanks! I'm not usually this chatty so maybe it will wear off...

Jack

 

[BobWiersema]

Hey, Bob,

Thanks for sharing. I feel your pain.

When Jr. & I bought the wrecked '95 we saddled up the '00, hitched up the 16' car trailer and headed in your direction. The '95 is the same color as the '00 so once loaded up it was a strange looking sight with one towing the other. Do ya think I was overloading that 3,500 pound hitch?

Jack

Not a problem, I have a 20' Mastercraft that weighs about 3,500 dry. So the boat, trailer and everything else is probably over recommended towing weight but I never had a problem. For long distance towing I wouldn't recommend it, for that we just picked up a 99 F350 Dually Diesel crew cab. The thing is a towing beast. And with 285,000 miles, its barely broken in.

 

[jbarncord]

Not a problem, I have a 20' Mastercraft. For long distance towing we just picked up a 99 F350 Dually Diesel crew cab. The thing is a towing beast. And with 285,000 miles, its barely broken in.

Okay, I don't really want to get into an "I can tow more than you can" discussion. I have had fun with the Fords I've owned over the years. In the pasture is a couple old friends that have been a lot of fun. There is an F350 that will be brought back to life (hopefully before the first serious snow) and an F150 that has done more work than I would care to shake a stick at.

Just a short walk from the trucks is our 37' 8 ton River Queen houseboat. No, I've never towed that, but I have towed the trailer it set on and that was no fun at all.

Parked around the houseboat are a few AMC's(4) and a '94 Mustang rag top. Between all the AMC's were hauled in by the F150, 4.9 straight six 4x4. I really miss that truck. She's just too far gone to be worth bringing back. I thought for awhile I'd get a plow on her, but it's just too expensive when I have a plow on the F350 already. Although it would be nice to plow in comfort.

Well, that's it for now.
Jack

 

[1Aauto]

Welcome to the forum Jack.

 

[jbarncord]

Welcome to the forum Jack.

Thanks, Tony! It's great to be here.

 

[BobWiersema]

Jack,
It's been over 24 hours since I drove my F350.

Just curious, isn't Freeport where the Lincoln Douglas debate took place in 1858?

I was never that good at history but for some reason I remember Freeport as one of the most historical places in Illinois, if not the entire country.

Bob.


( found this for people not from Illinois http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeport_Doctrine )

 

[T3h H4r3]

Welcome, im sure you will like it here.

 

[jbarncord]

It's been over 24 hours since I drove my F350.

Just curious, isn't Freeport where the Lincoln Douglas debate took place in 1858?

I was never that good at history but for some reason I remember Freeport as one of the most historical places in Illinois, if not the entire country.

( found this for people not from Illinois http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeport_Doctrine )

Bob,

Re: It's been over 24 hours since I drove my F350.

Sigh, I'm recharged since driving to work, but last night being Tuesday night Jr. was out to work on the EESP (Explorer Engine Swap Project). We made some headway, but spent too much time gassing about the whole project. That was brought on by overindulgence in the wife’s cooking. Yeah, we ate too much and couldn’t lean over the fender for long periods of time; and once on the creeper it was tough to get back up. We're down to the somewhat boring part of making sense of the vacuum diagram and adapting the '95 engine to the '94 vehicle. There are a few changes that are not too much fun to get around. I'm considering stripping the vacuum lines and starting from scratch. Sometimes you can't see the hoses for the neoprene.

Re: isn't Freeport where the Lincoln Douglas debate took place

Yep, and we have the park and monument commemorating the event to prove it. I don’t know how true to size the monument is, but it depicts Douglas as being as tall standing as Lincoln was sitting. The folklore supports that view as well.

I’m not actually from Freeport, but I’ve never lived more than thirteen miles from the center of town. I was schooled in Forreston, a small farm town, south of Freeport. That may be why I have heard of the Lincoln Douglas debate. History was in the curriculum and good grades were required to graduate. But I do digress.

Have a great day, drive a Ford.

Jack

 

[Sams01XplrSprt]

welcome aboard jack

 

[jbarncord]

welcome aboard jack

Thank you, it is good to be here.

In keeping with the program I offer the following update on the EESP.

Jr. and I are running out of bolts which can only mean one thing, the Explorer Engine Swap Project is coming to a close. By all estimations Saturday should be our turn key day. It will be good to see this one come to a close, but doesn't mean the shop will be empty. I still have clean up of the donor '95.

I'll be reducing that mangled hulk to a small pile on the car trailer, forklifts are wonderful pieces of equipment.

The remainder of the '95 will end up on Ebay. I've been looking at the prices folks are asking for their parts trying to get a feel for what will be fair.

Should I split the transmission and transfer case or sell as a unit?

I'll try to compile a list of what's left and post it.

Jack