Please help this lady

[dcm1978]

Her name is Anna. She loves her Explorer and it has 400K+ miles on it. She can't find this part.
Here is her story:


Our family, like most American families, is divided by the perennial Ford versus Chevrolet argument. I never thought too much about it and have had both Fords and Chevrolet trucks over the years.

About twenty years ago, give or take a couple, I bought "Bessie", a used 1991 Ford Explorer, as a work truck..

Both my husband and older sons stared at me in disbelief.

"You bought a Ford Exploder?" They howled with laughter, shook their heads, and stamped their feet.

"You wanna go broke on car repairs, Mom?"

I think Bessie heard that remark. She promptly proved them wrong and year after year, she clicked along like a sewing machine, requiring little more than regular lube, oil, and wiper blades.

Minus fifty? Turn on the oil pan and head bolt heaters for an hour, and Bessie would start. Volcanic dust? She'd keep chugging.

My work took me deep into the hintermost portions of Alaska's road system, down the Alcan Highway, and up the Dalton Highway hundreds of miles above the Arctic Circle---- "up and over" some of the most remote country and roughest roads in America. Bessie rolled her way over the Denali Highway, which isn't really a highway as you all might understand it, and deep into the Denali National Park. She took ferry rides to places like Kodiak and seemed to enjoy the salt spray splashing over her nose.

Now, I will readily admit that my husband's Chevy Pick-Up is a very good truck and easy to keep in repair and a gallant hearted machine if ever there was one.
Yes, I readily admit this, and yet....

When Bessie topped over 400,000 miles on her first engine, I said, "That sticks it." --- and I took a picture of her and wrote up and sent in a story about her to The Detroit Free Press, giving the UAW a resounding "Huzzah!" for a Job Well Done.

Proof's in the pudding. You can't argue about 400,000 miles on a single engine. You can't poo-poo entire years of service with no repairs at all.

Ford fans went crazy and soon there were more stories, "Still Rolling in Alaska!" got aired all around the globe. My ancient Ford Explorer basked in the well-deserved glory and we just kept on keeping on. 2021 will mark her 30th birthday.

But Bessie is on life-support now. She needs a part that we can't find anywhere. All you Ford Fanatics out there, all you boys who have a favorite junkyard just like you have a favorite fishing hole---- everyone, please help.

What we need is technically described as the "Fuel Pressure Regulator Return Line". It's a piece of braided steel hose with connectors on both ends, one metal connector feeding back to the fuel tank, and one snap-on plastic connector feeding into the Fuel Pressure Regulator itself.

Typical -- the plastic snap connection broke off.

This particular hose was standard issue from 1989 onward for a number of years, including 1991 from what we've been able to gather. The Parts Number for the hose is: FOTZ-9C968-A, and the whole Fuel Supply and Return System Parts Number (which would include the phantom hose) is: FZTZ-9J338-N.

Please scrounge around and see what you can find, guys.

Bessie is a living symbol of American know-how, American engineering, and American quality --- because she is all of that, and more. She's an American from the tip of her antenna to the rubber on her treads. Detroit might have built better cars, but I don't know how or when.

Bessie is the toughest, scrappiest, most enduring car I ever owned, and let's face it, she's a lot like her owner. It's only right and fitting that she should be wearing a set of our new Private Owner Plates and be part of the All-American Brass Tacks Tour, trundling from town to town and sharing our history with people across America.

So shake a leg, brothers and sisters. She's one of ours and she's down for the count. We've already scrounged through every junkyard in Alaska, and all the internet After Market sites we could find, but someone, somewhere has this part, either in a scrap yard or hiding in the back of their shop.

Either call me at (907) 250-5087, or email at: avannavon@gmail.com with subject line: "Bessie".

 

[RangerX]

Awesome story! Someone here hopefully has the the part.
Welcome to the forum.

 

[gmanpaint]

I think you can just replace that 91 style return line with one off a 92-94. Those use a threaded end to the fpr. I would swap the fpr to the 92-94 style as well. Much easier to find.

 

[dcm1978]

I think you can just replace that 91 style return line with one off a 92-94. Those use a threaded end to the fpr. I would swap the fpr to the 92-94 style as well. Much easier to find.

Thank you. I'll pass that info on to her. You don't happen to have a part number(s) do you? I know nothing about Explorers. I'm just trying to help her.

 

[gmanpaint]

PR61 is a generic part number for the 92-94 FPR's, but there are alternatives:

Alternate/OEM Part Number(s): 91TF9C968AA, 92TF9C968AA, CM4713, CM4723, F1TZ9C968A, F2TZ9C968A, F37Z9C968A, ZZL113280, ZZL213280, ZZM213280

Once that style FPR is installed, she can widen her search for the 92-94 wrench end style line for it. Might have to go to the salvage yard, but this increases her chances of finding a replacement for it.

 

[dcm1978]

PR61 is a generic part number for the 92-94 FPR's, but there are alternatives:

Alternate/OEM Part Number(s): 91TF9C968AA, 92TF9C968AA, CM4713, CM4723, F1TZ9C968A, F2TZ9C968A, F37Z9C968A, ZZL113280, ZZL213280, ZZM213280

Once that style FPR is installed, she can widen her search for the 92-94 wrench end style line for it. Might have to go to the salvage yard, but this increases her chances of finding a replacement for it.

Thank you so much!

 

[dcm1978]

PR61 is a generic part number for the 92-94 FPR's, but there are alternatives:

Alternate/OEM Part Number(s): 91TF9C968AA, 92TF9C968AA, CM4713, CM4723, F1TZ9C968A, F2TZ9C968A, F37Z9C968A, ZZL113280, ZZL213280, ZZM213280

Once that style FPR is installed, she can widen her search for the 92-94 wrench end style line for it. Might have to go to the salvage yard, but this increases her chances of finding a replacement for it.

I forwarded your information to Anna and got this reply, if you're interested:

Thank you so much! What a practical and kind help! I am still looking. This has really been a search for a will-o-the-wisp part. We found a 1991 Ford Explorer shop manual, and there was a drawing of the "mystery part" --- big as life, but no name and no parts number! Amazingly frustrating. It turns out that it was standard on both the Ford Explorer XL that I have, and on Aerostars -- which I didn't know when I started looking. I do so hope that someone has one and gets in touch.

Glad they liked the article. She's a great old girl. I'm thinking of doing some stories about her particular "finest moments". People seem to like stories about Alaska and outdoor adventures, and Bessie has had many of them. Encounters with bears and wolverines, wildfires, volcanoes, floods, treks into remote places, fording rushing streams, climbing mining tracks---- she's been there and done that. I just want to get her restored and see her go on and have more adventures. But this one part is proving to be a real problem.

PS -- I will be investigating the rest of the information about the 92-94 parts tomorrow! Please pass on my thanks!

Thanks again, gmanpaint.

 

[410Fortune]

Also Ford Rangers, Mazda B4000, explorer sport, mazda navajo, from 92-94 are also part donor candidates

 

[dcm1978]

Also Ford Rangers, Mazda B4000, explorer sport, mazda navajo, from 92-94 are also part donor candidates

Thank you, I'll pass this info on.

 

[dcm1978]

PR61 is a generic part number for the 92-94 FPR's, but there are alternatives:

Alternate/OEM Part Number(s): 91TF9C968AA, 92TF9C968AA, CM4713, CM4723, F1TZ9C968A, F2TZ9C968A, F37Z9C968A, ZZL113280, ZZL213280, ZZM213280

Once that style FPR is installed, she can widen her search for the 92-94 wrench end style line for it. Might have to go to the salvage yard, but this increases her chances of finding a replacement for it.

gmanpaint.......thanks for your info and help with finding this part. I went through the part numbers you provided and finally found a new fuel line on ebay. The Explorer is on the road again and the owner is very grateful. Here is her latest post:

The Real Reason Bessie is a "Wonder Car"

By Anna Von Reitz

All kidding from my husband and sons about my Ford "Exploder" not exploding aside, and even putting aside all the many adventures and challenges that Bessie and I have shared together, there is a deeper meaning to the little phrase "Wonder Car".
Bessie will be thirty years old in 2021. She, like her owner, has been semi-retired for about ten years. Somehow, when her second motor hit 150,000 miles (that was 516,000 miles lifetime for her at that point) I felt it was time for Bessie to have light duty--- not because she was not performing, but more in the spirit of giving an old horse some Golden Years and not having to work so hard.
During her actual working years, Bessie climbed mountains, forded rivers, and ate potholes the size of Denver. Since her semi-retirement, she has kept her wheels on actual pavement. Ironically, this is when her secret life as a true Wonder Car began.
My friend, "Cathy", had suffered for years as an abused wife living far out in the country. Her husband was good to her when he was sober, but as the years went by, his addiction to alcohol worsened and when he was drinking, he turned mean. He took a shovel to her and nearly killed her a couple months before she turned fifty ---and then she found out she was suffering from cancer.
There she was, getting older, alone except for a drunk who beat her, stuck forty miles from nowhere, fighting cancer. And no way out. To say her life and prognosis was grim, would be an understatement.
But love walked through the door when I came to her house that September, and spirited her away in an old Ford Explorer just before the winter weather closed down. Bessie was her car, enabling her to break free from her abusive husband, getting her back and forth to her doctor appointments, hauling home the groceries, and even giving her some fun -- trips to see her nieces and nephews.
A year later, she was cancer-free and beginning a new life. She got a job and her own newer car. She returned Bessie to me with a smile and a "pat" on the old car's hood as she walked away. Good things have continued to happen in her life. Two years ago, she remarried and is living her dream life.
She always gives me this wide-eyed look of amazement and squeezes my hand hard enough to hurt, shakes her head and whispers, "How did this happen?"
God happened. Friends happened. Her own will to live and to have a good life happened.
Over the years, Bessie has been part of a continuing saga of such "minor miracles", making vital transportation and carrying capacity available to people who desperately need it.
Right now, she has patch tape over her broken side light (transparent orange see-through tape) and is chugging along waiting for her new windshield, serving as a work truck for a young --by my standards-- plumber/heating technician.
He's a single father of four--- and that is already tough enough to manage, but last month he fell off a roof and injured his back.
He had been making do with a little subcompact car, but wearing a back brace meant that he could no longer drive that to get himself to and from his hospital visits, or to his worksites where he has continued to supervise jobs despite stiffness and pain. Friends had to take him everywhere, and at night he fretted--- what if one of the kids got sick?
Enter Bessie, the Wonder Truck. He can drive again, because Bessie is big enough to allow him to sit up in his back brace. And she can easily carry the bags of tools and saws and pipe to worksites. It's a whole new picture for him. His life is back. And it's because I loaned him an almost-thirty year-old Ford Explorer.
He doesn't care that her side light is taped or that her windshield still needs to be replaced. There were tears in his eyes as I gave him the keys. Bessie is working her magic again-- by making things possible that were impossible before. Gently, with her patient and indomitable spirit, that little SUV is still on the road, changing lives for the better.
And that, above all else, is why Bessie is a Wonder Car. I am not the only one who loves her, and not the only one she has saved. When one of my Readers found the phantom Fuel Pressure Regulator Return Hose and sent it to me, he gave her a new lease on life--- and also gave new life to an Iraqi War Veteran who can now independently care for himself and his four children again.
In between her duty stations away from home, Bessie delivers meals to the poor, the sick, and the elderly. She hauls food for the food bank, takes people back and forth to their medical and dental appointments, and hauls construction supplies. Bessie has helped rebuild homes damaged by earthquakes, access ramps for wheelchairs, and much, much more.

My husband calls Bessie a "Community Car" because she has had such a vital role in so many lives. I am her owner/caretaker, the one who pays for her insurance and upkeep, polishes her chrome and dusts her floorboards, but I have come to think that Bessie has a car-soul and destiny of her own. There is something above and beyond me that has kept a certain little SUV safe from all the perils of Alaska.
This afternoon, her windshield will be replaced and her new headlights are on the way. It won't be long before Bessie is back in trim and ready for another winter. God bless and keep her. She really is a "Wonder Car". I am sending my heart-felt thanks to all of you who have cared about her and thought about my repair dilemma, and helped to get the Old Girl back on track.
It means a lot, yes, more than anyone who thinks that she is "just an old car" can ever know.

 

[Kesp4.0]

What a great story. Are there pictures of this car anywhere? I'd love to see what it looks like

 

[dcm1978]

What a great story. Are there pictures of this car anywhere? I'd love to see what it looks like

She said she would send me a picture but I haven't received it yet. I'll post it when I get it.