Parts for my future '91 ex.

[Blue91Ex]

Hello, I am getting my first explorer soon and while i have been reading tons of teh articles on EF, I called the current owner (my nieghbor) and asked abotu all the details he could give me. Apparently there are 2 possibly major problems, 2 mild problems, and then the usual explorer stuff liek broken middle console etc.

He said that the 4 wheel drive was acting odd for a while, it doesnt like to switch into 4wd and when it does switch in and out it makes a lot of noise and shifts rough, anyone know what might cause this and how much it would cost to fix?

Also, the transmission (i knew to ask specifically about everything he ever noticed the tranny do because of what i read on here about teh automatic transmissions) and he said that it can't seem to figure out whether to be in overdrive or drive when going up some steep hills when already in overdrive, is this a common problem or should i be worried? the truck has 160k miles and the original tranny.

Do any of you know how much it would cost at a junk yard to get a stock radio and possibly front end shocks? the radio was taken out at some point and the left front shock "might be" going bad...
I just want to know whether i will be able to get it into good working order when i buy it, i don't want to buy it with a bunch of surprizes from things that i didnt think were serious.

thanks!

 

[Combat_Medic]

well...

That sounds like a potentially expensive list of things that need attention. I hope you aren't paying too awfully much for it - $500 or so? Even then, I'd skip on a rig with transmission AND transfercase issues. Unless of course you have a lot of experience working on transmissions and the like, or you have a spare in the garage and the know how to swap it in.

I'd really be leery of a "might be" going bad shock, given first generation Ex's love for killin ball joints. It is great that you are doing your research beforehand, but don't let the excitement of owning your first rig cloud your judgement on the purchase and all that is entailed in fixing it up.

Best of luck.

 

[Blue91Ex]

well i found out that the tranny problem isnt a problem, he says you learn to use the trottle to keep it in one gear or another, there was only one or two hills around here that at 55mph going up it will have trouble figuring out what gear to be in but if you switch it to drive (out of 1, 2, d and OD) it will be fine, my parenst say that i snormal if you arent used to the vehicle. my mothers beastly dodge ram does the same thing when my dad drives it because he doesnt drive it very often.

and i got it for a great price, 300$ and it is actually in pretty good shape considering the driving conditions around here (muddy roads, craptons of salt, ruts, uncareed for tar on the main road, etc) and it has almost no body rust, just a little frame surface rust, and he has had very little repaired on it other than the 4wd which he had "repaired" several times but he told me i should get manual hubs.

so i figure i will have plenty of cash left over to fix things as long as i fix them befor they get worse. i just wants sure if you can get all the stuff from junkyards or not.

Also, the clear coat on top is wearign off, its looks patchy and kind of terrible because where teh clear coat is wearing off it has white areas so it looks liek bad water damage from a distance. Is this something that will go away if i throw another coat of clear coat on the roof and hood etc? or will i have to take it somewhere to get it completely sanded down and repainted? if so i will buy a paint gun and do it myself but i am focusing on more of just making sure it doesnt get worse, as we dont have a garage to store it in.

 

[Blue91Ex]

also the only time i would use 4wd that i know of for a while at least would be going up the short but steep and always ice covered driveway at my grandparents house and if the road is comletely ice, other than that i will stay in 2wd anyway.

 

[Combat_Medic]

Nice.

You can't go wrong for $300. Should be a fun first ride! Be sure to post lots of pics as you upgrade and add to her

 

[CyanEyed]

4x4

i recently bought a 91 ex as my first car for $500 from my dad, it was a great deal and in basically perfect condition.

To answer your questions:

THE 4x4 issue may be related to the hubs, i had to replace them first thing on mine. they made terrifying grinding noises that scared a large group of rednecks lol. you can do a search for the jeep hubs that bolt on they are a great investment. lots of good guides.

the transmission issue is likely due to the KICKDOWN CABLE which is located on the gas pedal, it is the smaller cable. basically just add zip ties around the cable to lengthen the spring (or the gap the spring fills) and test it till it shifts down where you like in the throttle. (while your down there, add some zip ties to tension the throttle cable for extra HP)

ARM REST: get one from a slightly newer EX, it will have a metal armrest mount instead of a cheesy plastic one. the trick is finding a leather one, because the cloth junkyard ones are plain **** and the leather ones dont suffer from the same decomposition.

second on keeping us posted with the mods. my friends and i found out quickly that you can turn a "lame hand-me-down suv" into the coolest car any of us own. one of my friends is looking for one now too after seeing what i did to it.

 

[Blue91Ex]

yea 300 was a great deal, the purchace is going to cost less than my laptop which i use every day. amazing what you can get for a few hundred when you are either lucky or know where to look

The 4wd is somethign i will put off until i get a job with realistic hours (working 3-7hours a week in a week piling firewood and fixing thinsg at local store doesnt amount to much) but i was told to get ford manual hubs and ignore the switches, wont be a problem because i will hardly ever use the 4wd on the road anyway.

i dont want to modify the throttle any, i am forced to try to save a smuch money as i can until i get a job an dthe extra horse power isnt nessisary, this little truck can go when i want it to as long as i hit the gas instead of the brake (man those pedals are close together, i have enormous feet...)

The ex was a loaded XLT so it already had all leather, i figure i will make some metal brackets to hold the top broken part to the original mount, or remove the entire assembly that is still attached and make a custom one, mayeb a bit lower to account for my long arms, something i can open up and store things in liek the 90's blazers had. hell mayb ill try to fit a blazer armrest in there.

The leather also is somethign i DON'T like, while its cool to say i have leather seats, leather is cold as hell in the morning in maine winter and i dotn liek a frozen a$$ for the first 15 minutes of my drive, and i was thinking maybe i could get lucky and find a nice set of 1st gen cloth seats in the same blue color, unlikely though, most cars with cloth seem to get bad pretty fast, especially if the previous owner smoked (tar is nasty and i hate the smell of tobacco smoke.)

I dotn plan on doing much but restoration, i wont use this for mudding or rock crawling, as it will be a road truck to get to and from town etc, so my main focuses are getting ti to a good enough shape to inspect, fixing the things like ball bearings (recent discovery) and rear wiper (the guy selling it to me told teh inspector to be extra thorough to make sure i would be forced to make it as safe as possible, nice guy haha)
and i have to fix the tailights (prob wiring issue, both are out) and little stuff like plate light.

THEN i will get to grinding teh small amount of surface rust starting on the rear door frame bases, i figure grind it to bare metal and primer/paint it will keep it at bay for another years or so. Also teh clear coat is wearign off and looks terrible. oh well, 300$ is about half of what i was expecting.

 

[Blue91Ex]

later on I plan on maybe adding a brush guard (if i can find a used one for fairly cheap, when if its from another type of truck, thats what angle grinders and welders are for)
and maybe if i have metal shop next year in school i might try to make custom running boards or a roof rack/basket/whatever you call them, oh and new headlights, i HATE dull headlights you cant see anything at night!

 

[Anduiril]

i dont want to modify the throttle any, i am forced to try to save a smuch money as i can until i get a job an dthe extra horse power isnt nessisary, this little truck can go when i want it to as long as i hit the gas instead of the brake (man those pedals are close together, i have enormous feet...)

There is a thread (I forget which one, I've read a lot of them recently) about the zip ties on the throttle cable. It isn't really a mod it is more fixing what has worn. The wire in the throttle cable stretches over time and doesn't open the throttle body like it did when it was new. Adding a couple zip ties to the end of the cable tightens is back up and makes it work properly, and is a LOT cheaper and easier than replacing the cable. It will make the Ex more fun to drive since you are able to use more of the engine power.

BTW Congrats on your new Ex. I'm sure you'll have fun with it. I bought my '92 4x4 for $250 (tranny needs rebuilt and 4x4 doesn't work) but it's a project truck. Do yourself a favor and read the sticky's from the various parts of the forums (Under the Hood, Transmissions, Useful threads, etc). I've learned a lot from them the past couple weeks. It's also why I can't remember which section had the thread I mentioned earlier. There are lots of useful tidbits that can make the truck more enjoyable and/or save you money by spending a couple bucks to fix something instead of hundreds to replace it. I look forward to seeing what all you do with your :exp:.

 

[Blue91Ex]

yea i might look into the throttle thing but nto right off. and yea i just brought the ex home today, i climbed into teh back seats to clean it up some and apparently niether back door wants to open from the inside so i had to climb out the foint doors by squeezing between the front seats haha. one more thing to add to the list.

 

[Anduiril]

Child Safety lock

Your back doors probably have the Child Safety Lock locked. Open your back doors. There should be a sticker on the door about the level of the handle showing you. Mine is a 92 so it should be the same as yours. There is a little silver lever below the latch. I think if it's pulled out the doors won't open from the inside. But if it's out push it in and if it's pushed in pull it out. If you can't find it let me know and I"ll take a picture of mine and post it.

 

[Blue91Ex]

okay i forgot all about that feature, thanks for the heads up, il test it when i get home. although, i thought it only didnt let you open the rear doors when the engine was running?

 

[Anduiril]

It would be nice if they only locked the doors if the engine was running but the doors are always locked from the inside. I hope that is your "problem". There are a couple other things that could cause what you are having but since it's both doors it probably is the Child Safety Lock.

 

[Blue91Ex]

okay thanks, liek i said i totally forgot about that, last car my family owned that had that feature that i knew of was like 6 years ago haha. i'll have to check i out when i get home.

one thing that i remembered after i read your last post was that when i asked my mother about it, she said when she rode in teh back last (previous owner was our nighbor and the other semi leader of friends of the local anti wind power group (industrial wind power here is a big deal and about 1/4 of teh state is against it, as it is NOT what the wind companies say it is, but i digress) she said last time she rode in it with some of the other members, the back doors worked fine, so while i cant imagine the previous owner would turn the loks on after that, maybe he did, any other ideas just in case? so i can check multiple things when i get home..?

 

[Anduiril]

I've accidentally pushed the child safety lock in a couple times before on other vehicles I've had. If that isn't the problem you'll have to pull the inside door panels off and see if the linkage has been knocked loose.

 

[Blue91Ex]

okay, thanks again ill remember to check that as well and post a reply woth the results after. also hard to do any real work on the truck as its winter here and cold/snowy and we dotn have a garage.

 

[Blue91Ex]

i got home, cleaned the truck inside, then remembered to check the doors, i didnt see any switch other than a button which i assume tells the cielings lights when to turn on, where is the child lock switch? i would rather try to avoid removong the interior paneling as long as long as possible. also i hear a small click when i pull the lever inside that sounds like it is opening the door latch but then i cant push the door open. if it was a motor problem or something, why would it be in both doors?

 

[Anduiril]

Child Safety lock

I went out and took 2 pictures (mine is a 92 but I think they should be the same place)

Side view It's the lever at the bottom ________________________Rear view I was sitting on the ground to take this picture.

The door latch is at the top of both pictures. And the Child Safety lock switch/lever is at the bottom of both pictures. If it was on the lever would be moved right in the first picture and up in the second.
And as you can see it wouldn't be that hard to move it while cleaning the car (that's when I moved mine like I mentioned before).

If this isn't the issue you are having and need to take off the interior of the door, don't stress it's pretty easy. There should be a thread about it here somewhere. IF there isn't one then let me know and I'll write one up with pics (now that I've figured out how to post them properly).

 

[Blue91Ex]

well, i just checked and i found the levers, niether was in the locked possition, both were facing down but i couldnt move either at all, i have seen several areas in teh truck that are full of thick dust (latches etc for the doors) so maybe the door is gunked up inside, either way i am not looking forward to taking the panels out, i have rear how to do it to them but i think it usually breaks the plastic fastners.. any clue what it might be other than the safety lock? liek i said it feels like the handle wants to oipen the door but the door wont budge..

 

[mr cribb]

Worst case scenario the interior door handles are broke where the door rods attach to the plastic handle bs. It is pretty common on the 1st gen's, also remember you're dealing with a 22 yr old truck. Then to make matters worse it was the first year for the explorer..... there's always problems with a first year production vehicle.

Too bad you have blue interior, I have tan cloth, but shipping would kill you from Okla to Maine.