IAmTodd's '94 POS, wait thats my Saab thats the POS

I can't seem to stay away from the Explorer world for more than a year. I just checked out a '94 XLT earlier this evening. She's in a rather rough state at the moment but I have plans for a nice winter truck for her.

Specs:
1994 XLT
Condition of the motor: unknown
Trans: not really there
Transfercase: taking up space in the boot.

It has minimal rust for an 18 year old truck with 160k on the clock. Trans died and the owner decided to try to rebuild it himself. No such luck. It's currently sitting in a guys shop with the motor and two axles. All the parts are there except the trans which is junk. Body work is nice and straight. The passenger rocker has disappeared and a small amount of rust at the top of the rear arches. Interior is dirty, leather is rough but good new is it has a wind up sunroof!

I've just given my word on it. Title and transport should be negotiated on come Wednesday. For $350 I think it's good for parts at least!

First thing will be to get it rolling with a manual swap then continue to fix from there. Brake work will be needed with more maintenance I'm sure but I'm in no rush.

Glad to be back guys!

 

[IAmTodd]

Work continues on the old girl. I have the TTB out and cleaning it up. New u-joints, c-clip eliminator on its way, ball joints, and new steering linkage all being lined up to install.

Also installed new(ish) puddle light mirrors. The originals were locked in place and cracked. Wiring was pretty easy. All the colors matched up and I tapped into the door lights for the puddle lights.

 

[GRNMACHINE]

Todd, do u have any pics of the wires you cut or exactly how u installed the puddle lamps etc? Been wanting to add puddle lamps to my 95 for awhile but didnt know how extensive it would be with the power mirrors etc.

 

[IAmTodd]

It was surprisingly easy. The plug for the mirror is behind the speaker. I compared the wiring on the two (stock has 3 wires, puddle one has 5). There were 3 colors that matched my stock mirror and two black wires for the puddle light. The connectors are different so I cut the two connectors off and soldered the original one onto the puddle mirror match up the 3 colored wires. I plugged it in to test and voila it worked properly.

I extended the two wires for the puddle lights down to the light on the door panel and used quick splices to splice into those lights. All in all it only took me an hour to swap it all over.

 

[GRNMACHINE]

Thanks for info, sounds pretty straightforward!

 

[Xeek]

looks good.
i plan on doing the opposite you did tho. i took the door side of the puddle mirror harness also. cut the connecter in the door and solder on the doors puddle plug into the stock door wires and then run the light wires how you want. that way you can swap out mirrors if it breaks without cutting wires.

 

[IAmTodd]

That would have been ideal but I didn't have that luxury since I traded Boomin for the mirrors when I was down there. If I ever do lop one off I'll get the extra harness and splice it in.

Once again things are making their way back together. I have the beams, radius arms, diff, springs with spacers (wooo lift time!) and shocks mounted up. Need to throw some money towards Rock Auto to get the new joints.

I've also started to detail the horribly scratched paint. Someone decided to spray red paint in the garage with it so it was covered in it. I also sanded off the green pin stripe. Starting to get sleeker! HA! :lol:

 

[IAmTodd]

Detailing has come along quite nicely. The clear on the hood and roof have had it but the sides turned out great!

Ball joints and in and the knuckles have been reinstalled. All new steering linkage has been added. The spindles have been rebuilt. The snap rings for the axle shafts come today. I'll get the U joints pressed in and hopefully get it rolling tonight.

Shackles are on their way thanks to 99SportX and the add a leafs were ordered this morning to bump up the height in the rear. It's only taken me 10 years but I'll finally have a lifted Explorer!!

 

[IAmTodd]

Good news! We're back on 4 tires and the front is sitting two inches higher! All went back together well, the new hub bolts work great and are much stronger than the oem studs.

Bad news the front diff is still leaking. It's pouring out the seal for the drivers side axle shaft. Have to pick up a new one of those and new camber adjusters as the stock ones are going to have enough adjustability with the lift.

Shackles (big thanks to 99SportX!) and AALs came yesterday so I'll start work on that this weekend and see how far the rust will permit me to go.

 

[GRNMACHINE]

Looking Good Todd!! How did you "sand off" the green stripe? Looks 100% percent better without it. I remember spending about 4 hours with a blow dryer and wax taking off dealer installed pinstripe on a Honda many years ago. Was not fun.

 

[IAmTodd]

Thanks! The stripes were painted on (I assume from the factory) and had begun to badly fade and wear. Some 2000 grit sandpaper made quick work of it and some polish removed the sanding scratches. The only tape stripe was on the drivers front fender and a hair dryer easily removed it. That fender was repainted and they painted over the existing stripe then put tape over it. It can be seen through the blending of the paint but there isn't much I can do about that. The fender is a disaster as is with dirt in the paint and rust.

My 2000 Explorer also had painted stripes so I'lve done the sanding technique before.

 

[IAmTodd]

Shackles are off, AALs are on. Shackles came off amazingly easy for a truck that has lived in PA all its life. The lower bolts just got smacked with a small sledge (with the nut on it) and they popped out. The uppers slide out without an issue. I was caught off guard by this and didn't have the shackles painted or the new bolts ready or I would have been done last night. Shall save that for this evening though. Pics to follow soon!

 

[IAmTodd]

And let's all welcome it back to the running world! Everything's buttoned back up. Just need to schedule and alignment and get the camber adjusters ordered. Need to order the 4x4 shift motor as well. After that it's set! Had to unexpectedly replace the drivers side front axle shaft seal as it was blown out and dumped a few ounces of fluid on the garage floor.

So on to the good stuff!

The shackles were in worse shape than I thought them to be but it's not a problem any more!

 

[IAmTodd]

So the news is good today! The Explorer is at the alignment shop. I installed the fully adjustable 4 degree camber adjusters last night and maxed them out. I actually had negative camber on the way to the shop!

I had a small radiator leak the other day but I haven't seen it since so I'm hoping that won't be an on going issue, we'll see. I'm going to pick up a shift motor for the transfer case on Saturday and go on my first trail ride with a local off roading group Sunday. It's just dirt roads through the state game lands but it's a step in the right direction.

 

[Xeek]

speaking of wheeling. http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=368754

 

[IAmTodd]

There's no way I'd take it that far right now and I'm still on 235s. Thanks for the offer though.

 

[IAmTodd]

A little over 6 months has passed but it's finally road worthy! Alignment was done on Friday and I picked up a new shift motor Saturday. Went on a ride through the PA state game lands today and had a great time. Total this weekend was 100 miles and I loved every minute of it. Although I do missed the rack and pinion steering on the second gens.

 

[GRNMACHINE]

Looking great Todd! Sickening what salt can do...

 

[IAmTodd]

Good news! I've rolled 160k on the old girl!!

That marks 1800 miles with me behind the wheel.

The brakes are still being a bit troublesome. I'm thinking that the disc swap might occur sooner than later at this point.

 

[IAmTodd]

Picked up some '01 Limited seats at the pick n pull. Movement is wired and working. I believe heat is wired correctly. The drivers seat activates but doesn't heat and the passenger side doesn't activate (switched was stuck down so not sure what isn't functioning at this point). Still some troubleshooting to do. Always wanted these though.

The donor has the overhead console, auto dim mirror, and homelink visors that I might get once the holidays are over.

 

[IAmTodd]

Had to pull the seats to do more work. Both lumbar switches had jammed with the valves open so you couldn't pump them up. Pulled those apart and greased it up. Had a loose wire for the passenger heat circuit. Fixed that and the passenger side had heat.

I had to deskin the drivers bottom to check for burnt wires. Hit the middle and one of the heavier gauge connecting wires was burnt through. Soldered in a new piece and I have dual heated seats now! I must say they get quite toasty. Much better than the Saab go figure. I also like that the full bottom is covered in the heating pad and just not your butt area.