Slowly but surely, I will get all the parts I need. After listening to the sound clip on Thrush's website, I decided to get the Thrush Fully welded mufflers from Amazon. Love the free shipping and low prices. From what I have read, they sound nice and deep without the resonance that you might get with Flowmaster Mufflers. Once I get them installed (a long way down the road), I'll see if I can get a sound clip of them running on my 302.
I also got a coil. I went with the PerTronix 40011 Flame-Thrower 40,000 Volt 1.5 ohm Coil. This should work well with the Ford Duraspark II ignitiion that I will be running. I will still need to run a ballast resistor from what I understand. It seems that the Duraspark control module will run a coil without a ballast resistor (the original harnesses had a resistor wire) , but the module won't last as long.
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Friday, July 13, 2012
AutoArc 130 by Hobart
In a previous post I had mentioned that I got a small 110 volt welder from Amazon. It is called an AutoArc and is made in the USA by Hobart and uses all Hobart parts. This was important to me since, I was worried that if I needed a replacement part, I want it to be quickly available. Well I have been using the welder for a while now. Mostly just testing on scrap metal I had laying around. The welder is capable (even if I'm not) of great welds. The one thing I did notice right away was the small one pound spool of wire that it came with ran out pretty damn quickly. So I had to get some more wire. I haven't gotten a bottle of gas yet so, I just decided to order some flux cored wire which is adequate for heavier gauge steel. I got the two pack of the two pound spools this time around. I had considered getting the 10 pound spool since I already had the Hobart Hub Kit, but decided to wait until my skills improve.
I do plan on getting a gas bottle and some solid core wire when I start doing sheet metal work on my truck. But for right now, I am still getting the drive line in and set up properly.
More to come as I progress, both on the truck and with my welding.
I do plan on getting a gas bottle and some solid core wire when I start doing sheet metal work on my truck. But for right now, I am still getting the drive line in and set up properly.
More to come as I progress, both on the truck and with my welding.
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Ford 5R55 Explorer Transmission Issues
I had promised Andy a review on my experience and here it is. Sorry it took so long.
My 03' Explorer had 92k+ miles on it when I got the dreaded Over Drive shudder when it shifted into OD. I was pretty worried about it based on every thing I had read about this issue on the different forums. I went searching for an alternative that didn't involve replacing the entire transmission (simply don't have the money for a new trans). I stumbled across a web site from AJ1E Superior Solutions, LLC that promised to fix the issues that Ford over looked with these transmissions and at a reasonable price no less!
After doing some research and reading numerous reviews, I decided that I would give them a try. I contacted Andy and ordered all the parts needed to complete the fix. The parts arrived quickly and in new condition. I called Andy again to ask about the extra o-ring's that were in the kit because I wanted to be sure that I didn't missing anything, He said that the additional o-ring's were extras 'just in case' some of the others get damaged during installation. I like the thought of not having to go and try and find new o-ring's if I messed one up. This was great thinking on Andy's part.
I sit down and read the instructions. Read them again, went over the process in my mind several times and then read the instructions again. The instructions were excellent, by the way. I determined that since I didn't have access to a vehicle lift, I would just use jack stands and a floor jack. After getting the vehicle up on jack stands, I realized that there wasn't anyway that I could do it with exhaust in the way, so I removed the H pipe and the transmission cross member from the Explorer. With the transmission tail shaft supported by the floor jack, I was able to move the trans around just a little bit and that helped with getting room for my hands. Once all of that was out of the way, I set about removing the servos one at a time. There will be a little fluid leaking out of the servo bores, but nothing more than a shop towel could clean up.
I put the new servos in one at at a time with Sil-Glide applied to all seals on both the servo and the servo covers. Then I put everything back on, exhaust... trans cross member.... you get the idea. Just replaced everything that I had taken off. I also took the time to adjust the bands since the procedures were in the instructions and it only took an additional few minutes.
Well it was time for a test drive. Almost all of the shudder was gone! Damn it! So I decided that since the fluid had not been changed (to the best of my knowledge), I would change the fluid and the filter. With the new servos and fluid change cured all but an very rare and occasional shudder. On the advice of a good friend, I decided to add a bottle of Lucas Transmission Fix after first draining the same amount of fluid out (don't over fill your trans - not good!).
I am super pleased to report that we have put an additional 6500+ miles on it since the fix and it runs as good or better than it did when it was new. That included driving in the south western deserts of the USA!
I can't thank Andy at AJ1E Superior Solutions, LLC enough for having the idea to fix an issue that Ford decided to over look. If you are having this issue, please check out his web site for the info needed to fix your shudder!
Thanks again,
Jeff
My 03' Explorer had 92k+ miles on it when I got the dreaded Over Drive shudder when it shifted into OD. I was pretty worried about it based on every thing I had read about this issue on the different forums. I went searching for an alternative that didn't involve replacing the entire transmission (simply don't have the money for a new trans). I stumbled across a web site from AJ1E Superior Solutions, LLC that promised to fix the issues that Ford over looked with these transmissions and at a reasonable price no less!
After doing some research and reading numerous reviews, I decided that I would give them a try. I contacted Andy and ordered all the parts needed to complete the fix. The parts arrived quickly and in new condition. I called Andy again to ask about the extra o-ring's that were in the kit because I wanted to be sure that I didn't missing anything, He said that the additional o-ring's were extras 'just in case' some of the others get damaged during installation. I like the thought of not having to go and try and find new o-ring's if I messed one up. This was great thinking on Andy's part.
I sit down and read the instructions. Read them again, went over the process in my mind several times and then read the instructions again. The instructions were excellent, by the way. I determined that since I didn't have access to a vehicle lift, I would just use jack stands and a floor jack. After getting the vehicle up on jack stands, I realized that there wasn't anyway that I could do it with exhaust in the way, so I removed the H pipe and the transmission cross member from the Explorer. With the transmission tail shaft supported by the floor jack, I was able to move the trans around just a little bit and that helped with getting room for my hands. Once all of that was out of the way, I set about removing the servos one at a time. There will be a little fluid leaking out of the servo bores, but nothing more than a shop towel could clean up.
I put the new servos in one at at a time with Sil-Glide applied to all seals on both the servo and the servo covers. Then I put everything back on, exhaust... trans cross member.... you get the idea. Just replaced everything that I had taken off. I also took the time to adjust the bands since the procedures were in the instructions and it only took an additional few minutes.
Well it was time for a test drive. Almost all of the shudder was gone! Damn it! So I decided that since the fluid had not been changed (to the best of my knowledge), I would change the fluid and the filter. With the new servos and fluid change cured all but an very rare and occasional shudder. On the advice of a good friend, I decided to add a bottle of Lucas Transmission Fix after first draining the same amount of fluid out (don't over fill your trans - not good!).
I am super pleased to report that we have put an additional 6500+ miles on it since the fix and it runs as good or better than it did when it was new. That included driving in the south western deserts of the USA!
I can't thank Andy at AJ1E Superior Solutions, LLC enough for having the idea to fix an issue that Ford decided to over look. If you are having this issue, please check out his web site for the info needed to fix your shudder!
Thanks again,
Jeff
Got a transmission... Real hot rods have three pedals!
I got an M5R2 out of an 89’ 5.0L F150. It should do just fine behind my 302. Now just need to measure and get my drive shaft. Of course I will need a new yoke and from what I understand, this trans will use an AOD/C4 yoke. That means the hunt should go quickly.
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