What did YOU do to your Explorer today?

[massacre]

Good for you man!
Love that color

 

[CreepingNet]

Thursday? Oil Change. Tonight, did my Income Taxes so I could order parts to do a full proper Clutch job on it and get rid of that chinese junk-parts clutch kit that was put in there back in 2013. I've been doing so much reading on the M5OD-R1 and watching so many youtubes I'm almost as acquainted with it as the guitars I build/modify, and I've not even turned a bolt yet. Did some recon this afternoon to plan my attach for the top two bellhousing bolts. Whittled the cost down big-time - about $200-300 in parts + tools total.

 

[kmack]

I spent this past Saturday installing replacement sections of wire onto the A/C blower motor. It's been two weeks since I last drove the Explorer and in that time of sitting in the street, some rat/squirrel climbed up and chewed thru the wires. There was a 2" section completely missing and half of the plug was gone!

I currently have an open invitation to that animal for a lead-diet buffet, if I ever see it!

 

[massacre]

Installed a new audio system this past weekend, my first time. It was harder than i thought it was going to be to do it correctly but i think it came out OK

 

[Exploring XLT]

Installed a new audio system this past weekend.

Same here! I can't believe how much better it sounds, so worth it.

 

[kmack]

... some rat/squirrel climbed up and chewed thru the wires.

Less than a week later, that little b*st*rd is at it again! He hasn't made it all the way thru the wires yet, but my 2 hr long repair job is completely shot now! I am officially at war with any and all furry little rodents!

 

[allmyEXes]

Here is a link to rodent deterrent electrical tape
Rodent Deter Tape

 

[CreepingNet]

Got the tax return this morning...parts ordered. LuK clutch kit 07-096, felpro PTFE rear main, luk flywheel, and Ford OEM slave.

Hopefully she'll be sitting 8.5" taller for quite a few hours on Saturday, then ready to either get a bath or play in the snow (weather depending) before back to daily driver status on Monday.

 

[kmack]

Here is a link to rodent deterrent electrical tape
Rodent Deter Tape

OMG! They are sure proud of that stuff Good idea though.

But for $50 a roll, I'm going to squeeze a lot of metal screen wire into the area to block it off from access. Worth a shot. I'll keep you posted...
I'm still going to take aim at any furry objects anyway!

 

[Exploring XLT]

Washed it! It was long overdue, forgot how nice her paint still was.

 

[CreepingNet]

More like "What did I do with my Explorer for 2 days" - and counting.....

For the last several weeks prior, I've been coming the crap out of the 1st Gen Explorer group on FB, here, Youtube, Rangerstation, Ford Ranger Forums - and getting the parts together to replace my clutch. It'd been slipping gradually worse but oh man did I not know how bad it actually was until this weekend - how I managed to get my 93 Sport on ramps is practically a miracle.

Why did I take on such a massive task myself? Because I wanted it done RIGHT this time, not to mention the cost of parts when you do it yourself equates to at last 1/3rd the cost of having a shop do it, and I'm getting paid back in weight loss and muscle gain - I feel the burn - not to mention I could find and correct several "sins" my previous mechanic did to my poor truck - such as leaving the observation window cover plug out - the bell housing was DISGUSTING! I spent almost a 3rd of a can of carefully used Brake Cleaner to clean that thing out before putting the brand new Ford Motorcraft slave cylinder in. They also swapped it with a precision clutch slave that somehow only just started to weep fluid slightly. I have a feeling mechanics see this thing and think "oh look, another junky old explorer, slap a cheap Seco kit in it and charge him $1500 to get him to go away - it'll die of timing belt failure in a few months anyway" (since they always seem to get 1st and 2nd gen mixed up, heck, the tire place I went to said my odometer was "broken" because it was only six digit - it works fine).

So with that venting out of the way, this is what I went through....

Saturday - took out the top two transmission bolts with the X on the ground, then with some borrowed ramps from the 1970's (my buddy uses em' on his vintage Jeep), got the X up in front, did the usual shifter and boot removal, crossmember, and driveshaft - Threw a Pittsburgh Automotive (Harbour Freight) 450LB Transmission jack under the M5R1 - pulled the other transmission bolts and starter, and removed the hydraulic line and electrical connectors - that stuff was all mickey mouse

Then comes the HARD part - and I mean HARD! About six hours of wrestling a 90LB M5R1 out of the Explorer - yes, with the fluid in it, and only spilled a tiny amount of it in the process. I had to use a large screwdriver to carefully shoehorn it over body seals as I could not, for the life of me, with a can of PB Blaster, a 2 foot extension and a equally a long breaker bar - get that stinkin Y pipe out. Getting the input shaft out was the easy part - getting it out of the truck - that's another story. I started at 7am, by 6 I had the transmission out.

Sunday - All the real fun starts here, installing all the new parts and cleaning up possibly the biggest mess of sludge and dirt and mud and crap I've ever seen next to a well used farm tractor. From 5am to 7am, I was cleaning up the bellhousing and the flex plate after taking off the old Seco pressure plate and clutch - which was only working enough to move the truck by mere mercy of whatever deity there is, as ALL of the friction material on the clutch, was gone - just bare metal. The last time my clutch went out it would not go anymore, this thing went up a STEEP incline in a short distance, actually, admittedly, there's a WHOOPS in here - I drove over the ramps on the first attempt!

The next few hours were battling the Rear Main seal, finding a Bearing puller that actually fit the pilot bearing, installing the new flywheel, clutch, and pressure plate. Made sure that the alignment tool smoothly moved in and out of the clutch and pilot before installation. That only took an hour or two....

Then the fight to get the transmission back in begins......this time I'm ready for it, body seals, but I did manage to come up with a creative new way to support the transmission via it's short, yet tedious reinstallation - which took me about half the time removing it did - I had a ratchet strap, an old dirty one, in my toolbox, I used this to create sort of a "hoist" using, first the hole for the stickshift to the cab using a socket extension to hold the S clips - then used play, ratcheting, and loosening, with the big-ass screwdriver shoehorn - to get the transmission past the body seals, and using the jack for periodic support and to help manipulation of the ratchet. Later, I attached the ratchet strap to the frame rails from above, and hoisted where the harmonic balancer attaches - and that allowed me to get the input shaft started. As of last night, I have about 3/4 of an inch left before the transmission is fully back in, and it's all easy from there.It's past the body seals, past the Y pipe, the input shaft is in the clutch but I don't think the splines are aligned yet - put it in gear to help with that. It could also be the ratchet strap is hindering me now after sleeping on it.

That said - the M5R1 itself is in WONDERFUL condition aside from how dirty it was, transmission fluid was still red with only a very slight black tint to it (sill going to flush with Valvoline Long Life Mercon V), and apparently not all my previous mechanics were crappy - it has freeze plugs on the shifter rails - no wonder it's so clean and has no leaks.

 

[kmack]

I'm going to squeeze a lot of metal screen wire into the area to block it off from access. Worth a shot.

So here are some pics of my project to block the wire-chewing squirrel from accessing my blower motor wire harness! I have about $13 in materials, with the most expensive being the metal window screen material. The black mesh is gutter guard from Home Repot that runs less $4 for an almost 36" long piece.

The 2nd round of damage...

Covering it all up...

The wife and I have a bet going to see if this works or not. She's not as optimistic as I am...

I covered the blower wires in the gutter guard also. It's strange in that those were the only wires attacked, both times! No other wires where touched. I'm hoping this is the deterrent that works.

If not, then there are at least 2 less squirrels currently in our neighborhood already...

 

[CreepingNet]

Clutch is done today and hooooooooooly cow does this thing shift smooth! It's almost surreal. EXTREMELY light pedal, but I can feel the slave engaging and the clutch does not even start to grab until the pedal is at least halfway out - which is about the same as it was before. I did a gravity bleed + 2 bleeds holding the clutch pedal down with a long screw driver and spitting fluid out. Also did a tranny flush with some Valvoline Long Life synthetic ATF - magnet looked almost metal particle free. The poor old X needs a bath now....not sure how doable that'll be with the whole Corona virus going on, but I'm glad to have my ride back since I'm going to NEED to be ready as I do I.T. in the medical field right now.

Parts Used
- Luk Repset Clutch and Pressure Plate 07-096
- Luk Innovations Flywheel
- Fel-Pro Rear Main Seal
- my old Power Torque Clutch Master Cylinder
- Ford Motorcraft Slave Cylinder
- Valvoline Long Life Synthetic
- Penzoil Synthetic Dot 3

 

[kmack]

... then with some borrowed ramps from the 1970's

Don't let go of those ramps if you can get them from your buddy. They don't make em like that anymore! Super stout!

 

[CreepingNet]

Don't let go of those ramps if you can get them from your buddy. They don't make em like that anymore! Super stout!

I don't think there's a chance on that. My friend's dad passed and those were his dads. As well as his truck.

Both of us have heirlooms. I remember when the X came home with just 15 miles on it in 1993. It became mine in 2001 with 215k on it...probably the most reliable vehicle I've ever known.

 

[massacre]

I installed new inner and outer tie rods and center link and sleeves today. All OEM parts.
Things went smoothly for a change, truck steers so much better now.
Hopefully I can get her in for an alignment early next week, but I installed everything with the steering wheel locked straight and the wheels on the ground so shouldn’t be too far off.

 

[Exploring XLT]

Hit some bumps in the dark... bent steering arms.

 

[Travisfab]

Built a push bar

 

[Exploring XLT]

Uh oh... look what I went and bought...

 

[kmack]

Spent right at $225 in parts this weekend to go thru the cooling system on the Ex.
- water pump & Felpro gasket
- thermostat
- ECT sensor
- radiator hoses
- fan clutch
- fan blades
- 3 gallons of coolant
- a few hours of my time

It was something that needed to be done, and it was a nice day this past Saturday to do it. Everything went back together nicely and my Explorer has a healthy cooling system once again!