offroadkarter
New Jersey Chapter member
I've been doing some work on my friends 97 explorer, he is a truck driver (right now a teacher, the student does all the driving) so he left the truck with me to do a tune up and some other work.... I picked the truck up last Wednesday and started working on it.
Story on the explorer: His fiance's parents have had this 1997 4.0 SOHC XLT since new, it always went to the ford dealer for service and sears for tires. Yeah, sears
, anyways. In 2002 the motor had to be replaced, I dont know why but i suspect the timing chain went on the first motor (common problem on 4.0 sohc's). The body has 164k miles on it, but you wouldn't know from looking at it. They got a free highlander from someone in their family, and they were going to junk this truck when they asked my friend if he wanted it. And of course, being the smart person he is, took it. This truck has been garage kept since new. Of course my friend lives in an apt complex so not anymore 
Anyways, wednesday I picked it up and got to work with some stupid stuff.... One thing some people on the explorerforum do when they dont feel like buying a new throttle body is modify the stock one. You can grind down the butterfly flap screws and shaft to increase the air flow. I figured, its free, why not try it.
In the garage at work, I work at my uncles funeral home and he has a 4 car garage he lets me work in. This is where I did the lift kit on my truck.
I should have taken a pic of the TB un touched, this whole back was covered in sludge. This is after I cleaned it off with carb cleaner
After attacking the TB with the dremel. Normally you disassemble it to do this but, I didn't feel like doing that. I got the screws flat and took a bit off the shaft
Anyways, I did the drivers side plugs and wires Wednesday night, it was cake. Plugs popped right out with a cheater pipe and the wires slipped off no problem. Took it around the block and everything was normal, so I parked it for the night and went home
Thursday comes around, I start on the passenger side.
Jacked it up, put 2 jack stands underneath, took the wheel and splash guard off, and found the plugs. This is the side that sucks, but with patience it can be done. And I didn't need any swivel joints, I just had one hell of a long extension, plugged into a normal extension. Although for plug 3 i had to use a different socket wrench.
Wheel off, splashguard still there. I think brakes are going on the soon list of to do's
here is with the splashguard off, the plugs you see are 2 and 3.... The trans dipstick tube ran RIGHT infront of 1 and 2... 2 was the worst, my hand got pinched so many times.
Anyways, after alot of yelling and choice words, I got that side done. 6 new bosch irridium plugs and duralast wires. I immediately noticed that the truck started up alot faster and idled alot smoother, so far so good! Took it around the block and it feels great, glad the tune up is out of the way.
Friday came, I took the truck to the junkyard with a friend to grab a few things. About an hour round trip overall, truck drove great didn't skip a beat.
Saturday, My friend that owns the truck stopped over to help install the HID's and new fog lights. It turns out I got the wrong bulbs for the fogs, and I am sending them back to DDM tomorrow for the correct ones. The headlight kit came out of my 96 bronco, I put 55W's in that now.
Also, since my friend is buying my brothers 31" tires off my brothers 94 explorer, and eventually buying soft 8's, we decided to mount my brothers spare on my friends 97 to get a preview....
Yeah, looks badass
Anyways, that night when my friend and other friend were installing the HID's and tucking the wires in, something went wrong and the headlights wouldn't turn on. We ran out of time so My friend parked the truck in the lot and took his crown vic back home. Frustrating day
New fog lights from that day, they are DEPO brand. We couldn't get the OEM brackets off (bolts to rusted) so i just stuck the new fogs in these brackets. Worked fine.
Sunday, my friend (not the truck owner, someone i went to HS with) came over to help me look over the HID kit. As we start to take it apart, I noticed a wire in the harness I never saw before. I slid the cover back on the control box plug and sure enough, a wire pulled out. Plugged it back in and we have headlights! I had to repin the 9007 plug on the kit since when I installed it on my bronco I did it wrong and never fixed it. Now the Hi is Hi and the Lo is Lo. Looks great, isn't to blinding to other driviers, and it sure improved the light output.
i've since re aimed these headlights to make them more even and not in drivers faces, but this was untouched alignment at night
Lo
Hi
Lo
Hi
backed it in next to my bronco, the bronco makes the explorer look like a festiva
I took the explorer to work today, got a chance to vacuum out the interior since I had the vac out anyways.
I looked under the truck to think about future exhaust planning (i can tell the cats are shot as well as the muffler, this truck is loud) and I saw this hanging down, so I ripped it off
Its good that I did, because it did this
anyways, last thing I did tonight, the fog and rear defrost buttons have been kinda acting up. These little bulbs and switches are a pain in the freaking ***. And this truck has the older ford blue bulb look, all the bulbs have little blue condoms on them. So we've taken like 10 bulbs from the JY and i grabbed this fog light switch from the last trip, as the one that came with the limited bezel had a flashing "fog light on" light. The defroster one doesn't work now. These bulbs are loose in the switch because the contacts are well worn, so my friend tried to bend the contacts on the bulb down to touch more, but for some reason it stopped working....
The fog light ones goes on and off, but atleast the green light doesn't flicker anymore. We'll figure it out, thursday we are off to the JY again to take more bulbs and switches
So thats it for now, I ordered Warrior WAR 153 1.25" lift shackes for the rear, and the front we are lifting with a torsion twist. I will send the bulbs back to DDM tomorrow for the correct ones, and get that install squared away. This truck has a long list of to-do's, with an order of very important, to it can wait.
I'll update this thread when more stuff gets done. Its nice working on a 2nd gen explorer again, We haven't had a 2nd gen at the house since my brother had his 98 XLT V8 up until 2008.
Story on the explorer: His fiance's parents have had this 1997 4.0 SOHC XLT since new, it always went to the ford dealer for service and sears for tires. Yeah, sears
, anyways. In 2002 the motor had to be replaced, I dont know why but i suspect the timing chain went on the first motor (common problem on 4.0 sohc's). The body has 164k miles on it, but you wouldn't know from looking at it. They got a free highlander from someone in their family, and they were going to junk this truck when they asked my friend if he wanted it. And of course, being the smart person he is, took it. This truck has been garage kept since new. Of course my friend lives in an apt complex so not anymore Anyways, wednesday I picked it up and got to work with some stupid stuff.... One thing some people on the explorerforum do when they dont feel like buying a new throttle body is modify the stock one. You can grind down the butterfly flap screws and shaft to increase the air flow. I figured, its free, why not try it.
In the garage at work, I work at my uncles funeral home and he has a 4 car garage he lets me work in. This is where I did the lift kit on my truck.
I should have taken a pic of the TB un touched, this whole back was covered in sludge. This is after I cleaned it off with carb cleaner
After attacking the TB with the dremel. Normally you disassemble it to do this but, I didn't feel like doing that. I got the screws flat and took a bit off the shaft
Anyways, I did the drivers side plugs and wires Wednesday night, it was cake. Plugs popped right out with a cheater pipe and the wires slipped off no problem. Took it around the block and everything was normal, so I parked it for the night and went home
Thursday comes around, I start on the passenger side.
Jacked it up, put 2 jack stands underneath, took the wheel and splash guard off, and found the plugs. This is the side that sucks, but with patience it can be done. And I didn't need any swivel joints, I just had one hell of a long extension, plugged into a normal extension. Although for plug 3 i had to use a different socket wrench.
Wheel off, splashguard still there. I think brakes are going on the soon list of to do's
here is with the splashguard off, the plugs you see are 2 and 3.... The trans dipstick tube ran RIGHT infront of 1 and 2... 2 was the worst, my hand got pinched so many times.
Anyways, after alot of yelling and choice words, I got that side done. 6 new bosch irridium plugs and duralast wires. I immediately noticed that the truck started up alot faster and idled alot smoother, so far so good! Took it around the block and it feels great, glad the tune up is out of the way.
Friday came, I took the truck to the junkyard with a friend to grab a few things. About an hour round trip overall, truck drove great didn't skip a beat.
Saturday, My friend that owns the truck stopped over to help install the HID's and new fog lights. It turns out I got the wrong bulbs for the fogs, and I am sending them back to DDM tomorrow for the correct ones. The headlight kit came out of my 96 bronco, I put 55W's in that now.
Also, since my friend is buying my brothers 31" tires off my brothers 94 explorer, and eventually buying soft 8's, we decided to mount my brothers spare on my friends 97 to get a preview....
Yeah, looks badass
Anyways, that night when my friend and other friend were installing the HID's and tucking the wires in, something went wrong and the headlights wouldn't turn on. We ran out of time so My friend parked the truck in the lot and took his crown vic back home. Frustrating day
New fog lights from that day, they are DEPO brand. We couldn't get the OEM brackets off (bolts to rusted) so i just stuck the new fogs in these brackets. Worked fine.
Sunday, my friend (not the truck owner, someone i went to HS with) came over to help me look over the HID kit. As we start to take it apart, I noticed a wire in the harness I never saw before. I slid the cover back on the control box plug and sure enough, a wire pulled out. Plugged it back in and we have headlights! I had to repin the 9007 plug on the kit since when I installed it on my bronco I did it wrong and never fixed it. Now the Hi is Hi and the Lo is Lo. Looks great, isn't to blinding to other driviers, and it sure improved the light output.
i've since re aimed these headlights to make them more even and not in drivers faces, but this was untouched alignment at night
Lo
Hi
Lo
Hi
backed it in next to my bronco, the bronco makes the explorer look like a festiva
I took the explorer to work today, got a chance to vacuum out the interior since I had the vac out anyways.
I looked under the truck to think about future exhaust planning (i can tell the cats are shot as well as the muffler, this truck is loud) and I saw this hanging down, so I ripped it off
Its good that I did, because it did this
anyways, last thing I did tonight, the fog and rear defrost buttons have been kinda acting up. These little bulbs and switches are a pain in the freaking ***. And this truck has the older ford blue bulb look, all the bulbs have little blue condoms on them. So we've taken like 10 bulbs from the JY and i grabbed this fog light switch from the last trip, as the one that came with the limited bezel had a flashing "fog light on" light. The defroster one doesn't work now. These bulbs are loose in the switch because the contacts are well worn, so my friend tried to bend the contacts on the bulb down to touch more, but for some reason it stopped working....
The fog light ones goes on and off, but atleast the green light doesn't flicker anymore. We'll figure it out, thursday we are off to the JY again to take more bulbs and switches
So thats it for now, I ordered Warrior WAR 153 1.25" lift shackes for the rear, and the front we are lifting with a torsion twist. I will send the bulbs back to DDM tomorrow for the correct ones, and get that install squared away. This truck has a long list of to-do's, with an order of very important, to it can wait.
I'll update this thread when more stuff gets done. Its nice working on a 2nd gen explorer again, We haven't had a 2nd gen at the house since my brother had his 98 XLT V8 up until 2008.
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