Jballard81's 1994 super cab 4.0 4x4 Restore

[jballard81]

This is the one I removed. It was in pretty rough shape

 

[jballard81]

I’ve got a fair bit of 94 parts laying around if you need some.

I need them out of my way.

Any chance you have any hub cap screws?

Or a throttle body cable for a 4.0?

Thanks by the way!

 

[NakedDucks]

No hub cap screws, but I may have a throttle body cable.

I’ll look when I get home from work this afternoon.

 

[jballard81]

Snagged a auto-dimming mirror with compass and temp from a 99 Tahoe today. Looks pretty good. Larger than the OEM rearview as well, nice for these old eyes

Teaching my oldest son to drive so I'm in the passenger seat.

Also found a B4000, want to say it was a 98. It had one of the hub caps still on it and I found 3 hub cap screws so that was a good find as well.

 

[Awesom-O]

Snagged a auto-dimming mirror with compass and temp from a 99 Tahoe today. Looks pretty good. Larger than the OEM rearview as well, nice for these old eyes

View attachment 116688

Teaching my oldest son to drive so I'm in the passenger seat.

Also found a B4000, want to say it was a 98. It had one of the hub caps still on it and I found 3 hub cap screws so that was a good find as well.

It’s such a cheap and awesome mod to do. Putting one in my BII build as well.

 

[jballard81]

Replaced the O2 sensors today. If you ever have to buy the socket like I did, this is the one you want

The full size one that AutoZone sells won't fit over the sensor. I had to file the 3/8ths on this one before my old Craftsman socket would fit.

They were the original Ford sensors. Maybe my fuel economy will improve slightly...

 

[jballard81]

Grabbed an air intake hose off a 2000 ranger today. It's definitely not shaped right on the box end but I wonder if I could cut the intake end off of each hose and shove the old one inside the new one and hose clamp it tight.
Kinda like so?

The newer one is still flexible and I'm thinking it might work if the old one doesn't completely crumble apart..

 

[jballard81]

Snagged some visors with lights and homelink out of a 04 expedition. I have a new found respect for the art of automotive electrical wiring. Shoving all the excess into the headliner seems to have worked for now

I ended up not using the second tier of the visor. It was a struggle to get that side to screw into the existing hole. I should've taken down the headliner to modify the mounting location but my headliner is in shambles, it's going to fall apart next time I try to take it down. I need a plan to repair/replace it before I take it down again...

Grabbed another ashtray from the junkyard and redid my power situation again. Looks a little cleaner now

Snagged a throttle cable off a 97 aetostar 4.0. not sure if it will work for my application though. I believe the cable I need was for the 90-94 only 4.0s (F1TZ-9A758-F)

The throttle end looks like it would fit, but the spring is less dense than on my 94. Also not sure if it's long enough or not. Will mess with it tomorrow but I'm guessing it's not quite right but I'm betting I could modify it in a pinch if needed.

Installed visors

 

[jballard81]

Replaced the inner and outer tie rods today. Used Mevotech supreme parts from RockAuto. If i could go back in time, i would have coughed up the $5 to get new adjustment sleeves as well , took at least 30 minutes to just clean the old ones up to be able to reuse them... oh well, you live and you learn.

This ball joint separator tool by Gearwrench was very useful in removing the ball joint from the steering arm.

Really only had to use it to put a little more pressure on the joint then the next hammer tap freed popped it out.

Sat the truck back down and backed it out of the garage so i could sweep up the dirt and grease before it gets tracked into the house and noticed that the front tires have a significant negative camber. YouTube shows a camber adjustment sleeve on the control arm that can be adjusted. Wish i had known that before putting the wheels back on and taking it off the jack stands

Will take a look at it tomorrow. Need to order some more hub seals as well and then i can get the upper and lower ball joints done!

 

[RobbieD]

If i could go back in time, i would have coughed up the $5 to get new adjustment sleeves as well , took at least 30 minutes to just clean the old ones up to be able to reuse them... oh well, you live and you learn.

I do the same thing myself . . .

. . BUT . . .

I have never appreciated original parts more than now. New parts have really turned into shit. You did a great job cleaning up the original sleeves, and any original part put back into service beats "new" any day. Your time, my friend, was well spent.

 

[scotts90ranger]

Your camber is off because your toe is off from changing the tie rod ends... highly recommend either taking it in for an alignment or putting the front tires on two or more layers of cardboard and bouncing the front bumper a couple times to even it out, measure the back side of the wheels at the bottom of the radius arms (right at the bead) with a tape measure then do the same at about the same height on the front side of the rim, you want 1/16" to 1/8" of toe in so shorter in front a touch...

 

[jballard81]

Your camber is off because your toe is off from changing the tie rod ends... highly recommend either taking it in for an alignment or putting the front tires on two or more layers of cardboard and bouncing the front bumper a couple times to even it out, measure the back side of the wheels at the bottom of the radius arms (right at the bead) with a tape measure then do the same at about the same height on the front side of the rim, you want 1/16" to 1/8" of toe in so shorter in front a touch...

I'll check toe tomorrow. I want to get it aligned but I believe the ball joints need to be replaced still first.

I'm also going to check the camber adjustment as well to see if it's anything other than neutral.

Thanks!

 

[scotts90ranger]

Adjust the toe before you even think about looking at camber, and if you're going to limp it along for a bit before you do or check the balljoints go for a tape measure alignment, I've done nothing but tape measure and eyeball alignments on TTB and TIB suspensions for the last 15 years and I've had pretty even tire wear assuming things didn't migrate on me...

 

[jballard81]

Adjust the toe before you even think about looking at camber, and if you're going to limp it along for a bit before you do or check the balljoints go for a tape measure alignment, I've done nothing but tape measure and eyeball alignments on TTB and TIB suspensions for the last 15 years and I've had pretty even tire wear assuming things didn't migrate on me...

I'll get the toe good before anything else. I've done a tape measure alignment before without issues. Maybe it will be good enough. Alignments near me are minimum $150. Better than burning up $400+ in tires, but I keep an eye on the wear anyway.

Thanks again!

 

[jballard81]

Picked up a dash from a 94 at the yard that's in much better overall shape than mine. Gives me the chance to refurbish it with less urgency

I'm going to try and be good about grabbing pics during the different disassembly steps and refurb steps. Will try and do a write up once done.

Some plastic was broken off in the ashtray area, so printed a 2mm thick rectangle and melted it into the approximate shape.

Took out the vents and soaked them in degreaser. They cleaned up pretty well. Really more to get the experience removing them so I don't break them when I remove them from my original dash. I'm eventually going to bed line the dash and then respray it as close as possible to the original grey. Will probably need some practice to get the vents right with all the nooks and crannies.