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Exploder


SQRLPWR

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Picked up another project, and a body style I've always really liked...aka square AF.

It's a bone stock 1992 Explorer 4.0 with 119k, TTB, 8.8 Limited Slip 3.73's and 29" Wrangler M/Ts...and unmarked bright red interior. 

Its had bodywork and paint in its past, and needs body mounts, manifolds, exhaust work, a heater resistor, brakes, and 27 years of dried up crusty Krown knocking off it.

It drives like your grandmas living room LOL

Plan is to get 33x10.50's on it by means of a lift. Maybe build a front bumper and throw a winch on there....and that is it!

It's never going to be a hardcore wheeler, but just a nice overland camping rig that I can take on club runs and get some fun back into wheeling 🙂

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I think it will make a great weekend driver and overland rig.  And parts hauler and and and.....

 

Congrats and it looks great!  Esp. with an off-road themed front bumper...…….. :-)

 

It will be a luxo-yacht compared to the Sammi!

 

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Thanks.

1st order of the day, find a manual shift transfer case to replace the troublesome exploder electronic shift.

Since I'm Ranger based, Kennys has a handful of Rangers and B2000's in the yard so hopefully I can find a suitable 1993+ Borg Warner 1354 (6 planetary gears vs 4 gears in pre-1993)

https://www.therangerstation.com/how-to/transmission-transfer-case-driveshaft/1983-2011-ford-ranger-transfer-cases/

 

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Its hard deciding what to do with rigs. I wish I had kept the Cherokee I had, the Liberty needed to go but the Cherokee was one I should have kept and fixed. However hindsight is what it is. Either way you will have a good rig to run!

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Started on the 1st of a few little jobs on the Exploder.
There was transmission oil finding its way onto the radiator shroud. Previous owner installed a new radiator, and the fan was blowing droplets of oil from a leak on the transmission line connector to the radiator.
A bit of Teflon tape fixed that 🙂
 
Seems there's a few nasty DIY hoses on this thing that will need to be sorted out too.
 
 
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The Exploders heater only worked on high, so I went on a search for a replacement resistor pack at Kennys.
 
Out of all the Ranges, F-series trucks and Explorers, I was only able to find 1 resistor pack in the whole yard from a '91 F-Super Duty ....well I only needed 1 😉 
 
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Picked up a Keeper 8.5 from PA last night for the Ford that was on sale from 599 to 336. Winch looks almost identical to the Superwinch 8500, and that worked pretty good, so hoping for the best.

Also picked up a roof basket so I can move the spare out from under the rear and have something to attach antennas and the hi-lift to...maybe lights and decal or 2

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  • 2 weeks later...
Deja-vu time!!
 
So after a LOT of deliberation, advise from those that have lifted an Explorer, and research, I've decided I don't want to sink twice as much $ as the Explorer is worth into a quality long arm Skyjacker or James Duff lift, and I don't want a weak $1200 Rough Country bracket lift as they have been know to crack on the bracket and there is no performance benefit to it either.
Plus, most build threads online start with sinking money into TTB upgrades, then eventually go and do a SAS. I want to avoid spending money twice.

So I decided to do a solid axle swap and I bought a set of '1976' F150 axles - HP Dana 44 and 9 inch with 4.56 gears. '1976' because the rear end is stamped 73, and it has drums up front so it could be a 73..who knows.

The 4.56's will handle 35" tires no problem 🙂 ..and the 9 tooth pinion is massive. (well compared to the Zuk LOL)

A few thing need to be addressed;

  1. it has drum brakes up front, so I want to swap to discs
  2. one side of the Dana 44 has a broken inner and outer shaft due to a blown ujoint
  3. it needs radius arm pivot and C's bushings
  4. the coil buckets have seen better days

This time I'll make sure the coils are completely vertical, and I'll buy a Superlift adjustable track-bar instead of cutting and sleeving it to fit. https://superlift.com/adjustable-front-track-bar-66-79-ford-f150-bronco-97-06-jeep-wrangler-tj/1978/ford/f-150?fbclid=IwAR0hn_0OGMx0w__hyS-u6pHqSRcGLSjNKHfAyc9QE-xAthyAh_XmkMIalGg

It should be a relatively simple swap since there's no IFS hardware to remove from the frame.

Goal is to replace anything worn or broken, and try and keep the width as narrow as possible.

As a side note, buddy had swapped a 302 into a Ranger.....hmmmm 🙂

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