Josh's 4 door 1st gen explorer crawler (SGT Ex)

[josh40601]

what do you mean bud? I have a stock dash that's hacked to **** to fit a cage and center console and all of my other worldly belongings.

Are you referring to the fabricated dash I showed pictures of?

 

[KurtECV]

...

Are you referring to the fabricated dash I showed pictures of?

Yes. From the donor truck

 

[josh40601]

Yes. From the donor truck

alright buddy, I tried finding as many pics as i could from my pictures prior to cutting the donor up, and on sean's thread on dezertrangers

Here is a shot of the dash without any panels on it, while not great, its better than nothing.

and here are all the shots from Sean's thread

 

[KurtECV]

Thats pretty awesome.

You dont see to many custom dashes in the X's. I have heat only in my rig so i was thinking about building a dash, or get a fiberworx dash.

 

[josh40601]

Thats pretty awesome.

You dont see to many custom dashes in the X's. I have heat only in my rig so i was thinking about building a dash, or get a fiberworx dash.

I only have heat too because my A/C isn't charged. haha. I like the fiberglass dashes a lot. if i were to ever (and that's a really big if) go with a custom dash, it would be one of those. But a more realistic scenario would be just starting with a different vehicle.

 

[josh40601]

planning on doing a little shakedown run before our big Veteran's Day Weekend run this weekend, so i've put into high gear getting some of the last little things done. One of them was installing my switch panel on the console, and wiring up some interior lights. While they won't be needed (I hope) this weekend, I still want it done before the 9th.

Brian told me about these little stick on LED light bar strips from amazon or ebay and I thought it would be perfect for the explorer because at night it is pitch black in there.Case in point:

Here is a shot from the same location with the flash on

as you can see, there are 2 toggle switches "mounted" (they are just glued in, nothing fancy) to the dash. They are for the front light bar and the electric fans. Both are only available to be on during key'd ignition. I never liked these components being located here, so this was part of the reason I wanted to rework that console and get it in there.

So, I used some more of the old rear firewall panels and made this with conjunction of a 30.00 switch panel from amazon

After I moved the wiring from the switches on the left to the center, I wired up those little LED strips and ran it off a constant hot so i could have the low power LED lights functional when the truck was off. These things are awesome...

Here are the lights
6x Super Bright COB White Car LED Lights for DRL Fog Driving Lamp Waterproof 12V 7625744912933 | eBay

 

[WormsExplorer]

Those are BRIGHT! I like that

 

[KurtECV]

Do you have a link to those LEDs?

When it comes to lighting i am hesitant to buy online cause I know of peoplw who have bought online and the light output was crap to a higher end LED with the same rated light output.

 

[WormsExplorer]

Do you have a link to those LEDs?

When it comes to lighting i am hesitant to buy online cause I know of peoplw who have bought online and the light output was crap to a higher end LED with the same rated light output.

Look at the Bottom of his last post. You can also find them on Amazone.

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B071PFC...colid=2CRC59JZXYYE&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

 

[KurtECV]

Look at the Bottom of his last post. You can also find them on Amazone.

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B071PFC...colid=2CRC59JZXYYE&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

Man thats cheap, i am going to have to pickup a set of those when the time comes.

 

[WormsExplorer]

That is what I am saying. My Wife saw that and said put it in the box and she will order them. I am Happy

 

[josh40601]

They definitely do not suck. Now, how long they last? i dunno but for 4 bucks each, I'll be happy if they last a season.

 

[josh40601]

took the Ex out to Corral Canyon this weekend to see how my Silverado is going to do towing, and if the Ex is ready for the season. With Corral only being about 45 minutes away and gorgeous scenery, its a perfect place to get some seat time for the start of the season and to see if my gasser chevy with 188K miles is going to handle towing this heavy ass thing. I only got 3 pictures since we didn't have any passangers I was with a pair of Jeeps, one was a well built TJ rubicon on 37s, the other was a brand spankin new JKU Rubicon on 35s with less than a thousand miles on it :evil:


Temps were perfect, nice breeze, nice sunshine, and the trails were not packed at all.

we were cruising down sidewinder, and there is a few ledges where you get to test out your lockers if you want without beating the **** out of your car. So I tried it and my buddies noticed the front driver side axle wasn't spinning. I imediately thought it was the lockout for some reason, and I have a couple in the truck, so I swapped it out. Locked it back in, both axles turning, went to try the ledge again. same result. Passenger side was always locked, driver side would not lock. So after 10 years of being beat on, I think the front locker is toast.

this didn't end the day though, as the trails we planned on running are all pretty mild anyway. Bronco's Peak would have been a ***** and likely pulled cable if I were going up it, so we just skipped it.

We ended up running Diamondback, 911A, gunslinger, bronco flats, and Sidewinder in about 4 hours. The only damage was whatever the hell is wrong with my front end, and lots of brush scratches. The JKU did all the trails very well and impressed the hell out of me. While I don't think I would ever spend 40 grand on a vehicle like that, I can see why people do. It is very capable out of the box and the interior is fantastic. The new JL is supposed to be even nicer.

As for the explorer, time to tear the front end apart and see what's broke. I'm going to replace the hub assembly as well, as it looks like it may have ballooned out and the lockout is a little loose. If the locker is busted, I'll likely replace it with a Grizzly locker. I have nothing against the Eaton Detroit and will likely rebuild it for a spare if the parts are cheap enough, I just want to try out that Grizzly. So all in all, great shake down to find whats broke before the Veteran's Day Explorer Forum ride.

 

[josh40601]

I found out why the truck was 3 wheel drive...

After 10 years of Dan and I beating on the ol girl, the yukon axle shaft finally said enough is enough. I haven't taken off the diff cover yet but rumor has it when the axle shaft breaks with a detroit, the detroit does too. Good thing I ordered that Grizzly locker yesterday. scheduled to arrive on Thursday, along with a replacement inner driver side axle shaft. The passenger side while dirty as hell from the inside of the axle tube, is still in good shape it looks. The splines maybe starting to twist, but I'll keep running it for now.

 

[KurtECV]

Nice. Let us know how that grizzly works for you. Inner and outer axle tube seals are cheap, might as well replace them while you're at it. I have a set in my glove box for my 44 that need to be replace. Apparently there are two sizes of seals, so you'll have to measure them (at least thats through the local auto parts store. the first 44 i had under the truck got disassembled and is now just for parts, but i mangled up one seal before i knew that you had to measure them, luckily the second one came out easy enough to take a good measurement with a mic

 

[josh40601]

Nice. Let us know how that grizzly works for you. Inner and outer axle tube seals are cheap, might as well replace them while you're at it.

The inner seals are in excellent shape. The outer seals (the ones that go on the stub shaft at the hub) are shot so I'll put some new ones on there.

I got the locker out and torn down, and outside of the chunk-o-axle shoved all the way in there, nothing else looks to be broken?? I took a bunch of pictures of it last night and sent them over to Eaton to see if they seen anything broken. If not, I'm putting that ****er back together and returning the grizzly. I seen a few videos of how people cleaned out the axle tubes on youtube, I may run over to HF to see what find of apparatus I can come up with to clean out all that gunk. There is a metric ton of it in the passenger tube. I'm also likely going to replace the caps on the super-joints too.

 

[KurtECV]

Nice. That grizzly is for a dana 44 correct?

The inner seals are in excellent shape. The outer seals (the ones that go on the stub shaft at the hub) are shot so I'll put some new ones on there.

I got the locker out and torn down, and outside of the chunk-o-axle shoved all the way in there, nothing else looks to be broken?? I took a bunch of pictures of it last night and sent them over to Eaton to see if they seen anything broken. If not, I'm putting that ****er back together and returning the grizzly. I seen a few videos of how people cleaned out the axle tubes on youtube, I may run over to HF to see what find of apparatus I can come up with to clean out all that gunk. There is a metric ton of it in the passenger tube. I'm also likely going to replace the caps on the super-joints too.

 

[josh40601]

Nice. That grizzly is for a dana 44 correct?

Yes.

So I never heard back from Eaton, oh well. After inspecting the detroit, there were no cracks or broken pieces or even evidence of wear on things. All the edges still looked sharp on all the teeth, so I just reassembled it, loctited the bolts, and torqued to spec. Tech Tip... Use zipties to hold the two pieces together and keep them from springing apart if you don't have a piece of all thread long enough.

you can see the other piece of the axle shaft on the table

After reassembly, off came the ring gear and wahlah, now it is ready for someone else. I decided to stay with the Grizzly because I got such a smokin deal for it. I plan on selling this one to recoup most of my cost back.

This also came in yesterday

I was very surprised when I opened the box and it resembled the locker in my 9" rather than the detroit or the one on the box. I was expecting it to be 2 pieces like the picture on the box, rather than bolting together at the ring gear like the 9" setups do. I checked and this is the right spline count and size of the locker is correct, so we shall see!

 

[WormsExplorer]

Very nice.

 

[KurtECV]

Nice. I need to get on finishing my steering and Trac bar on mine... Your build makes me jealous