"Red Bull"

[Kris Guilbeaux]

Id like to point out how far along this Explorer has come. Back on 12/10/06 I bought this Explorer from a Towing company with a storage lien. This is what it looked like when I got it home.

 

[sport97]

Very impressive!

 

[MrQ]

Kris did some great work on it for sure. I'm glad I could be able to make it even better.

 

[GRNMACHINE]

NO doubt, Kris does excellent work!!!

I am with gman, I run 35/36 psi as well for 33's. Never found a definitive answer on what psi to run when changing tire size.

 

[MrQ]

Yup, I'm getting the painted bumper that matches Red done by him, which was the last piece of bodywork that needed to be completed on her.

 

[reapereviltwin]

Red Bull is looking good Dan!!!

 

[MrQ]

Well not much has changed. I just recently moved to Houston from the suburbs and it feels great to be on my own. The only downside to this (really, is there only one?) is that progression on Red Bull will be stalled out for a while. Right now I am letting my parents use her until they get the a/c fixed in their Explorer, Baxter. Hopefully that situation will be remedied soon and I can get back into my baby.

 

[MrQ]

Aaaannnd, the situation just took a turn for the worse.

While I was at work I noticed a considerable amount of coolant coming from the Dodge. I figured that since I had a backup vehicle that I would go ahead and put the Dodge on ice till I was able to look at it this weekend. My dad was nice enough to bring Red by work and we switched cars. As I went to go to lunch I found a disturbing problem, the engine wouldn't start. After about an hour of diagnosing (I was desperate for any other reason than the obvious problem) I finally had to conclude that the fuel pump had gone out for good this time. No amount of beating on the tank would get it to restart. So again I had to get Red towed back to my parents house and drove my leaking dodge back to my apartment.

This time I am going to replace the tank and clean it out real well, replace the fuel pump, the sock and the fuel filter. I am so tired of dealing with this problem. So much for an easy weekend.

 

[sport97]

Bad luck. Is it possible there is a short killing the pump? My buddy had a bad fuel pump module in his f150 than fried the pump.

 

[MrQ]

A short actually was killing the pump. When I dropped the tank this afternoon, I found that the connection to the pump IN THE TANK had fried, melting the plastic and turning the pin into charcoal. When I inspected it further I noticed a large amount of build up on the pins in the connector. My conclusion is that there was enough material to bridge the positive and negative pins thus shorting out the pump. I did test the pump and it was fine, but I went ahead and did a warranty replacement on it anyway. I wasn't sure how the pump would fare after such a short and I really did not want to drop the tank again. Besides I needed a new connector since the old one was garbage. I swapped out the fuel pump harness and the tank from the Kermit clone's old setup and buttoned everything back up. After a few false starts due to a clogged fuel filter and not enough gas in the tank, Red fired right up. Its good to have my Explorer back again, I missed her.

 

[NICE59FORDF100]

glad to hear you got it running friend!

 

[gmanpaint]

glad to hear you got it running friend!

X 2!

 

[Hitchhikingmike]

did you check the impedance of the pump? Probably bad if less than 1Ohm

 

[MrQ]

Red is still fighting me. After a few weeks with the new fuel pump, the explorer started to bog when I took tight turns or when I applied the brakes to stop. It got worse with less than a 1/4 tank, to the point that it died on me in some bad situations. It started right back up every time, but it made me very uneasy to drive it for the long distances I needed to find work. (BTW, I lost my job in June, due to some #######'s definition of insubordination) Fortunately, Russell offered to do a complete diagnostic on Red in Austin, so up TX-71 I went. With his help I was able to diagnose my speed control issue (more on that later), fix a lit 4x4 light, and replace the fuel pump...again.

The cruise control was actually a pretty simple fix, but it would have had dire consequences if Kris hadn't been so diligent in making sure that Red was up to date on the safety recalls. The brake switch on the master cylinder had leaked causing the recall harness to blow a fuse. If the harness hadn't been there, Red would have been very "black". Sufficed to say, kudos to Kris!

Also during the diagnostics, Russell found out that my charging system was barely maintaining 13v at highway speeds. This led to Red having to be constantly tied to the battery saver while we worked on her in the driveway. I had switched out the battery before I left for Austin so that wasn't the problem. I'm starting to think that the alternator is giving up the ghost. Sure enough, once I bid Russell and Kris adieu and thanks, I checked the charging level on my Scangauge on the way home and I never got above 13.5v and I was pushing 90mph. After I let the truck sit for a while, say a couple of hours, it wouldn't even crank. :sigh:

And then it got worse, the new fuel pump had no effect on the bogging I was getting at stops and turns. Frustrated and out of money for right now, Red is sitting in the driveway waiting for me to fix her again.

 

[Hitchhikingmike]

Surely you cleaned out the IAC valve right? Perhaps there is a vacuum leak?

 

[MrQ]

I think I have got the fuel pump problem nailed down. It occurred to me that when the original fuel pump was removed it had a rubber sleeve on it to insulate it from the support bracket. Granted the new pump came with one, but it covered the bottom of the fuel pump as well which is different from the original setup. What my thinking is, is that the extra rubber material between the fuel pump and the bottom of the frame moved the sock filter to about an 1/8" from the bottom of the tank. It may not be much, but I think it is enough to cause a problem. I referenced a thread on EF about a similar issue a few weeks ago and dismissed it as irrelevant, but apparently this guy was onto something.

I guess I need to drop the tank AGAIN and cut off the bottom portion of the sleeve to put the sock back in the right position. I will be forever pleased with this explorer if I never, EVER have to drop this damn tank again.

Anyways, I still have some other problems to fix on Red like the replacement cruise control switch and harness which I picked up from ford, the hood release wire, replace the alternator and fix the hinge on the back glass.

All in all if these are the only problems I'm having on this Explorer I am in pretty good shape.

 

[NICE59FORDF100]

not to mention you have calibrated speedometer and finally a working LR speaker lol.

 

[MrQ]

I forgot to mention that Russell. Thanks again!

Anyways, when I lost my job I was put in a financial bind, I had a 1 year lease on an apartment, water and electric, two vehicles to maintain which included insurance. In order to free up some money I have had to consider letting go of one of my vehicles. I hate the thought of doing it because both of them are a part of me and very dear.

Unfortunately time and money has run out with no job in sight and I have had to make the decision....























I am selling the Dodge. Red Bull stays.

 

[Keeper0311]

Good choice man. Hope the job situation clears up.

 

[MrQ]

DAMN, I am going to have to drop the tank AGAIN. Apparently there is a little plastic piece that goes underneath the fuel pump to hold some gas in place even when it gets sloshed around. It has since gone AWOL in the tank and is making a nice noise in there. That plus the stalling when I stop or turn gave me some clues and thanks to Kris, he pointed me in the right direction so I can get this fixed once in for all!

Tomorrow is D-day for that. Today was mod and fix. I went ahead and painted the engine cover (red of course) to make the engine stand out a bit. I also fixed the hinge on the back glass. The problem was that Ford in its wisdom decided to use a fine thread zinc coated bolt to attach a soft aluminum hinge. Over time the screw stripped out the threads in the hinge and it fell apart. I had some taps laying around from when I did the timing cover helicoil on the original Flyer and found one that was close to the original size hole and tapped it out with a wider thread. I then went through an odd assortment of machine screws to find something that fit. In the end I had to modify the screw length and after dropping it into the rear hatch sub frame multiple times I finally got it in. Hopefully it will last for a while.