doonze
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- May 16, 2009
- Messages
- 506
- Reaction score
- 3
- City, State
- Fayetteville, Ar
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- '93 X Sport
***Not really an important post, just me rambling about my day, don't bother reading unless your bored or have some spare time to waste!! LOL***
Most people would laugh to hear someone call me a Redneck, but then those people have never seen me work on cars. In my F-body (camaro's and firebirds) car club they used to call me the Redneck mechanic, because of my er.... alternative ways of using tools and getting the job done.
So anyway, the Redneck Mechanic was back at it today on the X. Started off with a little battery terminal cleaning, looks like it hadn't been done since the truck was new! Got that done and started working on getting that blasted 3rd row seating outta there! A couple of days of sitting in PB Blaster seemed to have helped a bit, but I still had to use my breaker bar (18"er) because I couldn't get enough leverage with my 1/2" ratchet. And let me tell you, those damn bolts were LONG AS HECK! Took FOREVER, but finally got all four out. I see a 18-24" ratcheting breaker in my future.
Well onto the 4x4 issue. Got the common little issue with buttons get relays to click but no lights. So I attack the shift motor. The damn bolts on that weighted vibration reducer thingie were stuck as hell. So like anyone who's ever working on a suspension knows, breaker bars don't fit under a car very well and legs give a lot more leverage then arms so I turn around and start kicking, they come right off. I notice at this point I've got a little audience, what has no one seen someone kicking the snot out of a ratchet?? LOL, so anyway everything else goes smooth, was able to get the brown wire out of the harness using a jewelers screwdriver to remove that little red piece. Get the motor all apart, then a little trouble starts.
I decided to buy those little "tamper proof" star bits that have the hole in the middle just so I could get the housing off without destroying the screws (useful for the MAF too). However the first one I try just strips the head out. The other two come out easy as pie. So after about 20 mins of trying to unscrew it with some channel locks I get the idea that if two of the screws are out maybe I can pry the cover off. Well, turns out I can, and yes my little bushing was toast. So time to get a new bushing. My first idea of using my air hosing's not going to work, too small. But I had had my eye on these two pieces of vacuum hose sticking out of the back of the air filter housing just for this project. Someone had decided in the past that these hoses weren't important and had cut them off leaving about 1/2 of hose sticking out. So I pried the smaller one off and messing around with if for awhile and it was also too small, so I went and pried the bigger one off. Couldn't quite get it too fit either so got a drill bit and widened it up a bit by hand... and it fit just as pretty as you please. Took a razor blade and cut it down just right and put it all back together. Since I still hadn't been able get the one screw out, I had to hammer the case back on, 3 times! LOL, I kept getting it a little off the mark I had made to align it back right. Got that all back together, got all the electrical hooked back up under the truck but don't put the motor back on the transfer case yet. I climb in the cab and hit the 4x4 button, and I get lights!! WOOHOO. Climb back underneath so see if the motor moved, and it had, so get back in and take it out of 4x4. (Did this to align the motor) Get everything back together and it's time to try it out. I also cleaned the MAF at this point, just to see if it did any good.
Now, I know you can jack it up and check too see if the 4x4 works, but that's no fun. I remember from being young back when my dad had a Explorer EB edition that was like a 91-92, that unless it's icy or really, really slick it's almost impossible to spin the tires in 4x4. That sounded like much more fun so went and hit the dirt road back behind the house. Found a good spot by the lake and spun the tires 2 or 3 times in 2wd just to see how easy it was, and to have a reference point for my extremely scientific experiment. I then put it into 4x4 and tried to spin the tires...no spin!!! WOOT! Lots of traction. Also try 4lo, that works too!! I back up and hear the "click" of the hub releasing, so they did engage. I suppose both did, I only really heard 1 disengage, maybe heard the other, not sure, but all seems good.
So I get back home and finish up the day with realigning the striker on my door. Yeah I know, I should replace the door hinge bushings, but I lifted on the door and there is almost no play so I just did the striker. Works like a charm and I can close my door as easy as you like.
All in all a good day, oh and also I pulled my neck when doing the seat at the first of the day so did it all without being able to turn my head! LOL.
Most people would laugh to hear someone call me a Redneck, but then those people have never seen me work on cars. In my F-body (camaro's and firebirds) car club they used to call me the Redneck mechanic, because of my er.... alternative ways of using tools and getting the job done.
So anyway, the Redneck Mechanic was back at it today on the X. Started off with a little battery terminal cleaning, looks like it hadn't been done since the truck was new! Got that done and started working on getting that blasted 3rd row seating outta there! A couple of days of sitting in PB Blaster seemed to have helped a bit, but I still had to use my breaker bar (18"er) because I couldn't get enough leverage with my 1/2" ratchet. And let me tell you, those damn bolts were LONG AS HECK! Took FOREVER, but finally got all four out. I see a 18-24" ratcheting breaker in my future.
Well onto the 4x4 issue. Got the common little issue with buttons get relays to click but no lights. So I attack the shift motor. The damn bolts on that weighted vibration reducer thingie were stuck as hell. So like anyone who's ever working on a suspension knows, breaker bars don't fit under a car very well and legs give a lot more leverage then arms so I turn around and start kicking, they come right off. I notice at this point I've got a little audience, what has no one seen someone kicking the snot out of a ratchet?? LOL, so anyway everything else goes smooth, was able to get the brown wire out of the harness using a jewelers screwdriver to remove that little red piece. Get the motor all apart, then a little trouble starts.
I decided to buy those little "tamper proof" star bits that have the hole in the middle just so I could get the housing off without destroying the screws (useful for the MAF too). However the first one I try just strips the head out. The other two come out easy as pie. So after about 20 mins of trying to unscrew it with some channel locks I get the idea that if two of the screws are out maybe I can pry the cover off. Well, turns out I can, and yes my little bushing was toast. So time to get a new bushing. My first idea of using my air hosing's not going to work, too small. But I had had my eye on these two pieces of vacuum hose sticking out of the back of the air filter housing just for this project. Someone had decided in the past that these hoses weren't important and had cut them off leaving about 1/2 of hose sticking out. So I pried the smaller one off and messing around with if for awhile and it was also too small, so I went and pried the bigger one off. Couldn't quite get it too fit either so got a drill bit and widened it up a bit by hand... and it fit just as pretty as you please. Took a razor blade and cut it down just right and put it all back together. Since I still hadn't been able get the one screw out, I had to hammer the case back on, 3 times! LOL, I kept getting it a little off the mark I had made to align it back right. Got that all back together, got all the electrical hooked back up under the truck but don't put the motor back on the transfer case yet. I climb in the cab and hit the 4x4 button, and I get lights!! WOOHOO. Climb back underneath so see if the motor moved, and it had, so get back in and take it out of 4x4. (Did this to align the motor) Get everything back together and it's time to try it out. I also cleaned the MAF at this point, just to see if it did any good.
Now, I know you can jack it up and check too see if the 4x4 works, but that's no fun. I remember from being young back when my dad had a Explorer EB edition that was like a 91-92, that unless it's icy or really, really slick it's almost impossible to spin the tires in 4x4. That sounded like much more fun so went and hit the dirt road back behind the house. Found a good spot by the lake and spun the tires 2 or 3 times in 2wd just to see how easy it was, and to have a reference point for my extremely scientific experiment. I then put it into 4x4 and tried to spin the tires...no spin!!! WOOT! Lots of traction. Also try 4lo, that works too!! I back up and hear the "click" of the hub releasing, so they did engage. I suppose both did, I only really heard 1 disengage, maybe heard the other, not sure, but all seems good.
So I get back home and finish up the day with realigning the striker on my door. Yeah I know, I should replace the door hinge bushings, but I lifted on the door and there is almost no play so I just did the striker. Works like a charm and I can close my door as easy as you like.
All in all a good day, oh and also I pulled my neck when doing the seat at the first of the day so did it all without being able to turn my head! LOL.
