ed d
Member
- Joined
- November 6, 2003
- Messages
- 16
- Reaction score
- 0
- City, State
- clear lake, iowa
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 92 xlt
gen 1 explorer maint tips
hi, i'm on my 2nd '92 explorer 4x4 and have had to do quite a lot of work to both of them. that's mostly due to the previous owners neglect. my first one i bought at a dealer and it had 158,000 on it. it had sat for at least a year prior to it being traded. it had serious valve clatter, notorious on 4.0's after 150,000. i left that alone though because it ran pretty good. the first thing was to replace basically the whole front end. upper and lower ball joints, inner and outer wheel bearings on both sides, both auto hubs were replaced with manual lock-outs from Mile Marker (lifetime warr.) and new u-joints were added to both shafts. all this before it hit 159,000. new brakes and new rear cyl. and front lines were added later, that fall also. in the first two months of owning it, all the cooling system hoses were replaced along with the heater core, which was by-passed when i purchased it, which is why i suspect it sat for awhile at least a year. all was well until the first part of june last year, when it started running rough. first thought was cats. but i still had plenty of power so i rulled that out. then it stalled and the engine froze. thougt i threw a rod. opened up the breather and looked past the throttle body into the plennum and it was full of gas. not being to knowlegable about these engines, called my neighbor whose dad is a mechanic, mostly old school and a/c&r so, also not to knowlegable on newer stuff. he suggested injectors. so i bought 6 new injectors and installed them, along with new wires, plugs, fuel filter, and an oil and filter change. tried to start and it did the same thing. MAN, was i po'd. sat there a while and had a smoke, then it hit me. when i pulled the fuel press. reg. off, fuel came out the vaccum connection. the diaphram inside was shot, (dry rot), causing the whole vacuum system to fill with fuel, including the cruise control and heater vent duct lines. anyway replaced the press. reg and oil and filter again, and all was well. lots of gas in the oil though, which i think cleaned it out a bit. it had never ran as good. injectors were bad anyway so i didn't really wayste my money.
later that summer i replaced the clutch fan, that helped the a/c blow a little cooler. replaced the water pump too. when it finally started cooling off in the fall, (i'm in Iowa) the tranny started acting up. she had about 170,000 on by now. wouldn't shift out of first when it was cold out, until the tranny warmed up. she finally lost first and reverse all together. still drove it for two months before finding a different '92 on E-Bay. got one with a 5-speed this time. Love it! but as usuall, it needed all the front end parts. i kept the old truck, and swapped the whole front end out. saved a bunch of money. i've used alot of parts from that old truck and still have most parts. engine still ran strong at 178,000 mi. still have tranny too. going to rebuild it, unless someone wants to swap me for a good one! i will continue to buy gen 1 'sploders. they are very reliable trucks.
hi, i'm on my 2nd '92 explorer 4x4 and have had to do quite a lot of work to both of them. that's mostly due to the previous owners neglect. my first one i bought at a dealer and it had 158,000 on it. it had sat for at least a year prior to it being traded. it had serious valve clatter, notorious on 4.0's after 150,000. i left that alone though because it ran pretty good. the first thing was to replace basically the whole front end. upper and lower ball joints, inner and outer wheel bearings on both sides, both auto hubs were replaced with manual lock-outs from Mile Marker (lifetime warr.) and new u-joints were added to both shafts. all this before it hit 159,000. new brakes and new rear cyl. and front lines were added later, that fall also. in the first two months of owning it, all the cooling system hoses were replaced along with the heater core, which was by-passed when i purchased it, which is why i suspect it sat for awhile at least a year. all was well until the first part of june last year, when it started running rough. first thought was cats. but i still had plenty of power so i rulled that out. then it stalled and the engine froze. thougt i threw a rod. opened up the breather and looked past the throttle body into the plennum and it was full of gas. not being to knowlegable about these engines, called my neighbor whose dad is a mechanic, mostly old school and a/c&r so, also not to knowlegable on newer stuff. he suggested injectors. so i bought 6 new injectors and installed them, along with new wires, plugs, fuel filter, and an oil and filter change. tried to start and it did the same thing. MAN, was i po'd. sat there a while and had a smoke, then it hit me. when i pulled the fuel press. reg. off, fuel came out the vaccum connection. the diaphram inside was shot, (dry rot), causing the whole vacuum system to fill with fuel, including the cruise control and heater vent duct lines. anyway replaced the press. reg and oil and filter again, and all was well. lots of gas in the oil though, which i think cleaned it out a bit. it had never ran as good. injectors were bad anyway so i didn't really wayste my money.
later that summer i replaced the clutch fan, that helped the a/c blow a little cooler. replaced the water pump too. when it finally started cooling off in the fall, (i'm in Iowa) the tranny started acting up. she had about 170,000 on by now. wouldn't shift out of first when it was cold out, until the tranny warmed up. she finally lost first and reverse all together. still drove it for two months before finding a different '92 on E-Bay. got one with a 5-speed this time. Love it! but as usuall, it needed all the front end parts. i kept the old truck, and swapped the whole front end out. saved a bunch of money. i've used alot of parts from that old truck and still have most parts. engine still ran strong at 178,000 mi. still have tranny too. going to rebuild it, unless someone wants to swap me for a good one! i will continue to buy gen 1 'sploders. they are very reliable trucks.
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