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Jen's 03 Sport

Hello all...

To celebrate the final payment of my beast, I thought I should finally make a registry for it, with pictures and all!!!

When I was in college, I really wanted a 2door SUV that was relatively new and looked cool as well... Obviously that led me to the Explorer, as Jeeps are cool and all, but not all that practical as my daily driver. Sooo, the search was on! I wanted a black one, the newest year I could get for the Sport, with the fewest miles, with leather and a sunroof! :D

Eventually my searches pulled up my exact specs, but in South Dakota. I lived in Iowa at the time, so no big deal. I bothered the people at the dealership with my excessive questions to make sure it was worth the drive there to look at it. And luckily, it was! Mom and I drove out to look at it, and I ended up buying it. My first (nice) purchased car. It had 16,x.. on the clock, was a certified pre-owned from some old man so it was pretty nice, other than that saggy rear end.

First thing I did was swap out the stereo, and figured out how to wire it to the factory sub thanks to the forum! Then, add a leafs were next. I had the next several years mapped out for it when the tires would wear out and I was outta college and could finally have some money!!! I took off the step bars and added a Yakima rack and drove it like that until I moved to CO. That's when the magic started to happen, ;).

I knew I wanted to lift it from the day I bought it. When I started my big kid job out here in CO, I was able to buy new wheels, tires, shackles, and body lift to get it started! Thanks to the awesome boys from this forum (hokie, nssj2, sparkyXplorer) they got it on for me. I was of no use as I had just had shoulder surgery, but they made sure to get my on the right track :thumbsup:

Awesome! Now I'm good to go. Cranked up the torsion bars a lil, time to hit the trails!!! Got my feet wet in Ouray with the group. And by feet wet, I mean I almost peed myself on Black Bear pass, haha

Since then, I've upgraded my exhaust to 2.5 pipes from the cats back, Flowmaster 50 muffler (kinda quiet :rolleyes:) and a MAC intake. Changed out the plugs and wires at the same time, put on Motorcraft plugs and JBA cables...I also added a Yakima load warrior basket that is pretty quick to take off that holds my snowboard racks and my spare.

Mods to come ---- upgrading gears to 4.56, adding an Aussie locker (or something of that sort depending on my $$), removed gray plastic body panels to paint black, thus discovering rust on my doors GRRRRRR, need rock sliders, skid plates, and on and on.
 

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if youre looking into new shocks try 4wheelonline.com, just got a set of rancho rs5000's from there for 159.00, no tax free shipping AND a 50 dollar rebate.

Thanks! Haven't got around to even searching for the shocks yet...I'll check that out!

On another note, would there be a reason why a 2003 Sport/Sport Trac would use a different CV axle than a 2001-2002 Sport/ST??? I kinda thought 01-03 was the same, but some of the parts places list different model #s for the 03. HMMMMMM
 



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Nice Sport Jen
 


















Dora finally got her new front end replaced this summer and she is so much happier on the road now :) Replaced everything with the stuff recommended in the "heavy duty IFS upgrade" thread, it was night and day the difference - my ball joints were completely toasted.

Having all the new stuff just made how awful my tires were getting more noticeable, they have been going strong since early 2008, started to get to the end of the tread life and dry rotted all over, but I definitely got a lot of miles out of them... don't remember how many exactly, but lots of off roading and lots more highway miles and trips to the midwest and back.

Yesterday Dora got some new shoes, Goodyear Duratracs, 33x12.5, same size as before. Driving home from Denver it wasn't even like the same truck. My old ones were so horrible I just got used to it, lol. Discount Tire hooked it up, I couldn't be happier with their service and the good deal they gave me. On top of that, $60 GY rebate, and I signed up for the treadlightly membership for $25 bucks to get another $100 GY rebate.

We are supposed to get some snow up here in the high country later this week, I can test them out on the snow and report back. They ride so incredibly smooth, but again, it could just be that I have nice new tires now :) They are a bit noisier than my BFG ATs were, but look so much more aggressive it's to be expected I suppose.

I'll update with some pics later!
 






Gotta love new rubbers!;)
I almost have my whole front end replaced with the heavy duty upgrades too. Amazing how much beefier they are.
 












Gotta love new rubbers!;)
I almost have my whole front end replaced with the heavy duty upgrades too. Amazing how much beefier they are.

it's amazing, i'm so glad i did it all at once! it handles so much better now.
 






Hey Jen! Where ya been?

howdy!!! i've been here and there, work and play and all that. I need to poke my head in more around here! there is always an eternal project going on for me so I'm never away for too long ;)
 






did you ever change it to 4.56 gears? i have an 01 sport lifted with 33in tires and im also thinking about changing my gears.
 






did you ever change it to 4.56 gears? i have an 01 sport lifted with 33in tires and im also thinking about changing my gears.
sorry so late to see this, but I haven't switched out the gears yet. Am hoping to get it done later this summer, should make a big difference.
 






I never did post up any pics of dora after she got her new shoes... here is one of her under some snow this spring
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and another taken about 6 hours after the one above it... snow dumps up here then melts in a few hours
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and of course a pretty mountain shot of my commute to work ;)
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and finally a pretty pic of my beagle enjoying a double rainbow
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Unfortunately, what started as some cracks in the paint of the roof have turned into full on huge chunks of paint coming off, I'm going to have to get some new paint up there this summer before another snowy winter. Don't want Dora to turn into a rust bucket.
 






sad day for my beloved exploder, i hit a deer going 75mph on i-70 in kansas the day before thanksgiving on my way to visit my mom. the damage isn't as terrible as i expected, and nobody was hurt (except the deer!) but i had to leave it in kansas for the insurance adjuster and body shop to check out today. haven't heard back yet, but there isn't any body damage and the airbags didn't go off so i'm hoping that it won't be a difficult repair or anything. luckily i still have comprehensive on it so that is good. and also good thing it was lifted because that big buck probably would've came up onto the hood and windshield! i'll try to upload some pics later.
 

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I'm glad nobody was hurt.

There are worse places to leave a truck. Hopefully they will have it fixed up in a jiffy.

What I saw from the picture was a broken header, head light and grille. As long as it didn't bleed anything,,,

Say hey to Seamus for me. :D
 






I'm glad nobody was hurt.

There are worse places to leave a truck. Hopefully they will have it fixed up in a jiffy.

What I saw from the picture was a broken header, head light and grille. As long as it didn't bleed anything,,,

Say hey to Seamus for me. :D

Seamus says hi! i left him at mom's place, drive on up to say hello ;) nothing leaking, the lower control arm looks kind of bent or something, the alignment was way off. All that stuff was only a year old too. Hopefully they won't total it, but if they do I'm planning to buy it back and mom's neighbor is a mechanic and can get it fixed right up he said. No body panel damage so that's good. Maybe when I get it fixed I can swing by to say hi to y'all!
 






Long time no see. Glad to hear you're ok. Vehicles can be replaced, people can't. Hope you get it all back and road/trail worthy again, nice Ex Sport.
 












..You should come around here more often..:D
 






Long time no see. Glad to hear you're ok. Vehicles can be replaced, people can't. Hope you get it all back and road/trail worthy again, nice Ex Sport.

yeah, it could've been way worse. i'm thankful that everybody (and dogs!) were all ok. sorry bout the deer but he shouldn't be running out in front of me!

Kansas tried to kill me about a week before- I70 was iced over. Doing 40 mph was a bit sporty, but I kept going until I got ahead of the ice.
yikes - glad you made it ok! same thing happened to me on i-80 a few years back, hit some black ice in eastern colorado. scared the crap out of me, spun a 360 on the road and stopped on the shoulder. i get goosebumps just thinking about it!

..You should come around here more often..:D
i know, i'll try to be better ;)
 



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a few pics of the damage, doesn't look too terrible. alignment was way off though when i limped it the rest of the way to my moms.
 

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