Trevor, my 1997 Mountaineer

[LAJandt]

I'm a 20 year old girl that absolutely loves her Mountaineer. Haven't had any problems with it, and I just got over 100,000 miles on it. Some purists might look at my car odd cause he had a collision with a deer, what caused the other side to look bad, and ruin the grille. But Trevor's gotten me through knocked down bean fields, so I'm not complaining. Most recently I've had to get the front wheel bearing fixed. (http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1499806 Thanks to this guy, or I would've had to spend alot more.)

The only problem that the car has is when you try to turn the wheel more than 45 degrees you have to hit the gas to make the car go. So not much to complain about. My father bought the car used in 2002-ish for a little over $10,000 and only drove it to work and back. Even at 17mpg I dont understand how one can do that with such a wonderful car.

Leather dual power seats
6 CD changer
V8 5.0 ltr
15" rims with 235 Duller tires
Awesome bug deflector

 

[1Aauto]

Great looking truck. Welcome to the site.

 

[Joe Dirt]

If you have to hit the gas on turn, you may have a transfer case issue, because Trev could be stuck in 4wd. (or AWD) my truck was like that, the viscous coupler was bad and I had a popping noise under very slow (foot half off the brake) speeds when rolling forward, and the hard to move when turned. I replaced the transfer case with a unit from a junkyard and all is well now.

Nice Mounty!

 

[BrooklynBay]

Welcome to this forum! Are all of the tires the same size? This is very important on a 4WD equipped vehicle.

 

[LAJandt]

Welcome to this forum! Are all of the tires the same size? This is very important on a 4WD equipped vehicle.

Yes, they have been since the car has left the factory. I've also heard the AWD will dis-engage if you have different (sized) tires as well.

@Joe; I thought that AWD vehicles were powering to the tires all the time, not only at certain times. I suppose that would be 4WD though wouldnt it?
I'm not sure, but it only started doing that after the winter and taking tight turns on the ice.

Thanks for the help guys!

 

[Joe Dirt]

The AWD setup has a viscous coupler in the transfer case. When it cannot "slip" or is locked up, you can have drivability issues...

V8boatbuilder posted a great explanation of how the v8 AWD transfercase works...

"As I explained earlier, the transfer case has a solid linkage between its input and the output to the rear shaft. The front shaft is driven via a chain and a viscous coupler. If the rear is locked up, the whole thing is locked up. If the rear is free, and the front is free, then they should spin at the same rate. However, since the connection to the front shaft is fluid-based (the viscous coupler), if the rear is 100% free, such as no driveshaft attached, but the front has a load on it (the weight of your truck), then it may or may not receive power. If you apply enough spin, (press the gas), then the viscous vanes in the VC with cause the fluid to thicken and turn the front shaft. That's also how the AWD works in the BW4404 case: if one axle is spinning faster than the other one, the fluid thickens and a connection is made."

 

[Dan Whitaker]

Once you get the problem figured out hit dad up for a set of Torque Monster headers for Christmas or your birthday.

 

[LAJandt]

Once you get the problem figured out hit dad up for a set of Torque Monster headers for Christmas or your birthday.

Hahaha, well my birthday was a week ago. I'm trying to get a innovis 3160 or 3150. I'm gonna have to try to get headers from my BF, he's going to college for auto mechanics so I think i'll be good. He's gonna rebuild his Grand Cherokee Laredo ('95) engine (what i tactfully named jennifer, cause whenever it breaks, what is often, he needs to buy alot of stuff for it. 235,000 miles) I'm gonna get him to rebuild mine, since him and his friend would take Trev out to knocked down fields when I was in class. What could be why the differential is slipping.
>.> You'd think two guys in auto would know not to do that to a stock mounty.

Thanks for all the help guys, It's always great to talk to people about my car; and Mountaineers in general, they're a great joy.

 

[97_Explorer_XLT]

I have a 97 Explorer XLT and am going to get some of those grille inserts, they look nice. I have been looking on ebay for some time, and am gonna pull the trigger one of these days.

 

[LAJandt]

The AWD setup has a viscous coupler in the transfer case. When it cannot "slip" or is locked up, you can have drivability issues..

Do you know what it looks like, cause I really have no idea. I tried a google search, but I dont know how much the explorer and mountaineer are alike. I could also crawl under and just start taking pictures and you could just point it out. Whatever works for you.

 

[Dan Whitaker]

Do you know what it looks like, cause I really have no idea. I tried a google search, but I dont know how much the explorer and mountaineer are alike. I could also crawl under and just start taking pictures and you could just point it out. Whatever works for you.

The viscous coupler is inside the transfer case.

 

[LAJandt]

How do you figure out if you have a 4 hole output flange or a 6 bolt cup?
Or would I need something entirely different?

Sorry for all the questions.

 

[Joe Dirt]

You'll have to look under your truck at the front driveshaft where they mount to the transfercase. Mine was a 6 bolt cup, you'll just be counting the bolts.0

This is the front driveshaft going into the transfercase, looking from the front of the truck to the back. Count these bolts... Mine is a 6 bolt cup.

Also- there will be a tag on there that will have the part number... Well, it should. I have a rebuilt TC, and whomever did it ripped the tag off. It should be here. This is looking at the back of the transfercase from the back of the truck where the rear driveshaft comes out and goes to the rear differential/axle.