The 1994 Navajo LX Barn Find Restoration Project

[Mudman1]

We made a huge milestone on Sunday. The Navajo made it off of the jack stands! I have a place to do the alignment and install new tires just 4 miles up the road from me. The new exhaust is on and new shocks and rear shackles. Rear diff was sucked out and refilled. I will pull the cover this fall and do a good cleaning in there. We had some problems with the Rockauto tie rod ends as mentioned above. The new MOOG stuff fit as intended. I'll need to tend to some body rust around the corners this fall, but nothing too major. I sanded, primed, and painted all the rust spots under the truck when I was working on it to add some life. That one type of Rusolium primer that converts rust to a paintable surface is pretty darn good stuff.

Today I picked up the new fan clutch, water pump, heater hoses. My Lang fan clutch tool arrived today as well. Since I have to replace the fan itself, it seems logical to replace the other parts. And I was going to replace the U and L rad hoses anyway. So with the system open may as well do it all, right? I could not find the T with the valve that connects to the heater hoses into the firewall, so I hope that is still good. Oh, I also picked up a new radiator cap. Any special tricks I need to know when doing this water pump and hose work? I presume you just burp the air out of the system like any other vehicle with the radiator cap off?

 

[Mudman1]

It runs! All new cooling system parts installed. No leaks. A/C charged and blowing a solid 60 F at idle in the sun at 85 F outside. It is now outside. Stains in carpets were lifted out and a good vacuum job done. I did find some **** though. While in storage, before I bought it, a GD squirrel decided to make a nest behind the plastic trim under the driver's door. Rotted everything away. From the pinch weld up to just below the door, almost all of it is gone. I cleaned it out and shot it with primer for rust and put two coats of paint on it. After grad school is done in December, I'll bend some sheet metal and rebuild it.

Next week it gets 5 new tires and an alignment. Then she is ready for the road of 110 miles per day.

 

[Mudman1]

Oh, and I learned something. The sun roof comes off. Push the two red levers and flip the black one and the glass comes off the knob. Tilt it up and it comes out of the hinges. I treated the weather stripping up there and around the doors with the good German stuff in the purple bottle. Don't want any leaks!

 

[Mudman1]

Explorer shakes at 60mph

You can read and watch much of what I did above.

The short version: 1994 Navajo LX 4x4 5spd manual barn find, one owner, 89k miles. Had horrible death wobble when I bought it a couple months ago. Drove it home doing 45, and parked it in the garage. I replaced 4 shocks, rear spring shackles, both sway bar bushings (kits), radius arm bushings, pivot bushing (other one would not come out, but looks decent), ball joints, all new steering joints, water pump, t-stat, fan, fan clutch, hoses, rotors, calipers, pads, rubber brake hoses, ABS sensors, and the list goes on. I did not replace the front coil springs...that is about the only stock part that could easily be replaced. Took to the local Chevy dealer last week after finishing my project work on it. They do good work, and have a roadforce balance machine. Had new Goodyear tires mounted (stock size), and an alignment. It drives beautiful up to about 63ish MPH, then from there until about 68 MPG, shakes enough for me to notice it. The only mistake I made that I know of is that I didn't have the preload on the wheel bearings right...I don't do this stuff every day for a living...so the dealer fixed them for me.

Any ideas? The shake feels like the steering arms are jumping back and forth. I'd say it is about 15% of what true death wobble feels like.

 

[Mudman1]

Tires were broken down and re-roadforce balanced 3x. Wheel bearings were snugged up a bit more. Now, no shake at 65 on my quick test run. I'll run it around this weekend to make sure we are good, then it is for work and back. Dealer had it for 3 days, only charged me $95 in labor. Good shop.

 

[Mudman1]

We have success! I walked 3 miles yesterday to go get it and drive it home. Tonight I took it out on a 35 mile road test. Got it up to 70. Drives like it should. Yes, it is a rough ride as the springs are not new, but it does not wobble and the steering is straight. That 5th gear is a true OD gear. Looks like if it stays good, I can start driving it the 110 miles to and from work each day. Tomorrow is the first day of that. It will be weird not having XM, but if it proves to be a good truck I'll add that later.

 

[Mbrooks420]

Damn. If I drove 110 miles a day, I’d buy a brand new commuter car. You’d more than make the payment on gas savings alone, and you could keep the Navajo lot longer. Plus, it’d probably ride light years better.