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stephens 94 sport


94sport

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This is all taken from my build log on explorerforum, but i had to post it here so most of this at first will be catching up.

Hey, my names Stephen and I've been lurking on this forum since I got my first X, it was a 1993 eddie baur that was kinda beat and only had 126k on it. but after discovering this forum I've regretted getting an auto after hearing how much of a pain they are, so not wanting to get invested in something that was bound to fail. That brings me to today! I found a clean 1994 sport, the man who was selling said it was his dads and he bought in 1996 for 11,000 and trading in his 1989 bronco XLT. I decided with how clean it was and some dickering I got it for $2100 with 123k miles on the 6 digit odometer. I'll get some more pictures tomorrow, but its the cleanest X I have seen in Montana.


Haven't been very active on the forum because of finals, and the holiday season! but there has actually been progress on the sploder! finally the weekend of my birthday I started installing the lift! I hadn't originally planned to go with a rough country lift. but classic city offroad took off $100 when i messaged them on pirate 4x4, so i decided to get it and if something broke or wasn't working I would change things up down the road. hopefully once the snow is gone and its not cold.

pics of the rear with the lift springs in

And the front being a pain.

and how it looks on chicken tires with the lift!

My friends brother in law owns a tire shop, so my buddy got me a great deal on some 33x12.5r15 Ironman offroad M/T's he picked them up when here was there on Christmas! unfortunately its dark and snowing so no tire picks but i got some new wheels for the sploder so here is them!

pics with the tires and rims on will hopefully be up soon maybe later today!

plans for the sploder is hopefully exhaust work(started my green explorer with cat delete and dynomax exhaust and I miss the throaty sound. but green explorer should be sold soon and get my some money for gears, locker, etc!!) hopefully going to go snow wheeling later this month! we are supposed to get like 4-9 inches this Friday!

Alright! finally posting some pictures! the Explorer is lifted and even had a chance to go on a little shakedown run in the snow! was a great trip, but we were all disappointed that there was only maybe 16 inches of snow on the mountain.(also nobody got stuck which wasn't any fun!)

33s and rims all squared away!

probably one of my favorite things on this explorer!

I went with a few buddies, one jeep on 31s with lockers front and rear, one jeep on 35's with a rear tru-trac, and a GMC 1500 on 32s(now has my old explorer!) thats beat. we all aired down to 10psi, and had fun! explorer did great, but on the highway up to the mountain I decided that the 3.73 gears have to go once it gets warm! thinking 4.56 but a part of me thinks 4.88's would be awesome! was a lot of fun hoping to go on another trip soon, hopefully with much more snow so I can have some fun!( don't mind the honda badge my buddies zip tied it on there!)





A few poser shots on a stump showing that the stock bumpers need to go, definitely hitting the front, and the rear its rubbing the side pieces, but so far I am pleased and impressed after all the negative things I've heard from the dense people saying TTB sucks.


so far I've made a laundry list of things I need to do!
list so far:
sell old explorer!(would be nice to get money for gears and a locker)
gears!(4.56? possibly 4.88s I need opinions!)
locker(Rear trying to decided if a selectable is worth it, I've heard powertrax no-slip has good road manner but here in Montana we do get a lot of snow and ice.)
bumpers( I have all the steel I need in the back of the old explorer!!)
sliders(eventually I think the steps are fine but they tie into the body and not the frame and I would hate to rip them off)
onboard air( going to see if the A/C on this explorer works first if it doesn't I'm going to use that, if not I'll find another option)
swap alternators( my green explorer used to be an SPL vehicle before I got into offroading and it has a custom 270 amp alternator I'd like to put on the new one, oh and steal the AGM battery out of it as well)
install my camshaft position sensor(current one is squawking like a bird and keeps my CEL on and that bugs me)

I cannot stress how happy I am with everything so far, also I wish it was warmer so I could do more work, as the garage gets pretty cold. But any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
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94sport

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some more updates! was browsing facebook and found an explorer part out two hours away and scored a manual transfer case with all the goodies!(floor plate,shift boot, linkage) it was a shame he cut the boot because it was a manual trans too, but I'm sure with what I have I can get it to work and look nice, also got the vent! all of it for $100

another update on a sad note, I sold my first X, sad to see it go but i get to keep the 31's on it! so thats a plus. probably sell those soon since they were only 6 months old. this money will go towards gears, install kits and a rear locker.

A few questions for the more experienced members, first any recommendations on a rear locker? we get a fair amount of snow and I know auto lockers can sometimes be a pain but are affordable(heard good things about powertrax no-slip anyone have experience is it worth the extra $100). Second picked up some 1/4 steel strap and 2x4 tubing for a bumper and am starting to look at welders? what works and is affordable? I don't think i'll have any access to anything but 110v. have i gotten to thick of material?
 
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alaskan155

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wow huge pictures. had to zoom out to look at them.

for welders if you can spend the coin the hobart 210mvp(or miller 211) (that way your ready for 220 when you want, but can run off it of 115v.

personally im in a rental, and my fuse panel is in the garage so i wired in a 220v plug pretty easily so i could reverse it when i move out. but i just have a miller thunderbolt xl ac/dc stick i got for $300 of craiglist.

also if you have a dryer (30amp) or range stove(50 amp) 220 you could build a extension cord.


also be careful with that ruff country lift. i have heard since it uses a drop plate instead of a bracket that it could punch a hole in the diff.

http://www.therangerstation.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20

other than that looks like a nice build, i just bought a 94 4dr myself that i am going to start building.
 

94sport

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also be careful with that ruff country lift. i have heard since it uses a drop plate instead of a bracket that it could punch a hole in the diff.
.
yeah I read into it a whole lot before purchasing it, and it seems as long as you have the bumpstop extensions in you can save yourself from that occurrence!
but if a problem shows its head purchase a different brand of brackets.

currently having a problem on trying to justify a SAS, but i don't know if i can, or if i can justify regearing the X

congrats on an X 94s I'm finding are less fun because they have EGR and the Camshaft position sensor :x:icon_bounceblue:
 

94sport

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Have parts on the way for some upgrades! will get pictures later, currently playing with a lot of bumper ideas, went shooting the other day. ended up kinda wheeling, the snow was really wet and heavy, jeep buddy ended up not having a fun day.
 
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alwaysFlOoReD

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You really need to resize the pics. 1200x800 pixels is good. I didn't bother looking at your pics because I don't have the time to scroll. And I don't want to bother zooming out because then I can't read your post.
 

scotts90ranger

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I wouldn't bother doing a SAS, especially if you would end up with a Dana 30, you'd end up with the same problem as your jeep buddy... The D35 is just fine

For rear locker, I have an Aussie and have since I put 35's on the Ranger (explorer rear axle) and it is awesome, most of the time I forget it's there, it does ratchet sometimes but it just flat works...
 

94sport

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You really need to resize the pics. 1200x800 pixels is good. I didn't bother looking at your pics because I don't have the time to scroll. And I don't want to bother zooming out because then I can't read your post.
pictures fixed

wow huge pictures. had to zoom out to look at them.

for welders if you can spend the coin the hobart 210mvp(or miller 211) (that way your ready for 220 when you want, but can run off it of 115v.

personally im in a rental, and my fuse panel is in the garage so i wired in a 220v plug pretty easily so i could reverse it when i move out. but i just have a miller thunderbolt xl ac/dc stick i got for $300 of craiglist.

also if you have a dryer (30amp) or range stove(50 amp) 220 you could build a extension cord.


also be careful with that ruff country lift. i have heard since it uses a drop plate instead of a bracket that it could punch a hole in the diff.

http://www.therangerstation.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20

other than that looks like a nice build, i just bought a 94 4dr myself that i am going to start building.
ended up with a nice little 220v machine using some stove plug in the mother-in-law suite next to the garage
 
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94sport

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I wouldn't bother doing a SAS, especially if you would end up with a Dana 30, you'd end up with the same problem as your jeep buddy... The D35 is just fine

For rear locker, I have an Aussie and have since I put 35's on the Ranger (explorer rear axle) and it is awesome, most of the time I forget it's there, it does ratchet sometimes but it just flat works...
I have a dana 44 I can get for really cheap but the explorer keeps impressing me everytime we go wheeling so I'm starting to think I happy with it the way it is currently, I bought a spartan locker when ebay was having the 20% off everything sale, just waiting to put it in. but I hope to move to 35s when I finally Kill these 33s.
 

scotts90ranger

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The axles you have are fine for 35's, but could still have some failures here and there but nothing catastrophic... anything more than that and a D44 and fancy axle shafts are needed in all corners (8.8 should be fine, but shafts could be a weak point)
 

94sport

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Bought some more stuff.... hahah got the stuff for my radius arms, barnes enduro joints and 2in 1/4 wall Dom. college semester ends in like 2 week!!!!(YAY) and got this really cool old 8274 with some jeep badge on it for 150$ no controller, but it still works guy had an 8274 on his ramcharger and plugged in his controller to show it works, came with a cool winch plate too!




 

94sport

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Semesters over! Been intermittently working on a front bumper... I'm no fabricator so I'm sure it will continue to evolve, gonna make a rear one at some time probably with a tire carrier.



Oh, and I found these at a really good deal and couldn't say no :eek:
 
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94sport

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Lots of stuff happened! extended radius arms in, did some wheeling still trying to find time to put in gears before school starts. bought a parts explorer... wanting to do SOA in the rear now. and trying to figure out new front springs.. since my grandpa winch sagged my front a bit and my steering is inverted slightly with my FA600 pitman arm.




 

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Your build looks great. I like the 1st gen Sports... I like 1st gens in general.

An alignment shop should be able to fix the camber issues with bushings, or you could try spacers under the coils as an easy fix but there's a little more experimentation involved. I need camber correction bushings in my '92 because of the winch and bumper too, it's just a hair off. The weight makes a big difference.
 

94sport

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Gears in and a spartan in the rear. 4.88s and a locker make this thing so badass. sitting at about 2900ish rpms at 70.

now question is do I need 35s.
 

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