PlumCrazy's Build

[PlumCrazy]

The mailman brought presents yesterday.

They match well with the Ultra-Lite II's.

Also got a late birthday/graduation present from the folks.

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[PlumCrazy]

Gauges are in, but it got dark before I took pics. I had to use the tech from my old cluster because the new one read about 50% of actual engine speed. I compared it to my obd2 scanner through the whole range and it is spot on now.

Finished the t bird calipers. I need the bigger master for sure.lol. the pedal almost hits the floor with the stock ranger master.


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[PlumCrazy]

I picked up a dummy proprotioning valve to adapt the rear port from 18mm o ring to inverted flare.

The one ton master has a 1.25" bore and the Ranger was only 1.06"
But I will have swap the lines to the pass side.

Here is a pic of the shoulder on the caliper after it was ground down.

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[Hooligan2c]

Glad the guages got there in 1 piece lol! They look good from what I can see

 

[PlumCrazy]

Glad the guages got there in 1 piece lol! They look good from what I can see

Other than the tach not reading right at first and a few burnt out bulbs they were in good shape.

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[Hooligan2c]

Cool deal, if you need bulbs,, I always have spares lol

 

[PlumCrazy]

Swapped masters last night. It made a huge difference.

I think I may get a 1 Ton booster too since the pedal is pretty firm now. Or I may go hydroboost.

I'm also looking into a remote reservoir for the Saginaw pump so can run my York for the OBA off the serpentine belt. I plan on using the 4 bolts that mount the stock AC comp



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[PlumCrazy]

Spent my Saturday doing these little bastards on the green bean.

The other side was worse, but as usual the frame was still solid as a rock.

7th truck I done these on now.lol

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[036speed]

I will have to call you the next time I pick up a 90s Ranger/F-series LOL

 

[PlumCrazy]

Did some research at the local salvage yard and found some neat upgrades for Expo rear discs.

Ill post up pics tonight and let everyone know how it works out when I actually get everything together and on the road.

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[PlumCrazy]

So here is what I found as far as Exploder discs upgrades.

I was already running Crown Vic rear pads since they fit in the Exploder caliper, but are 3/8 wider and actually use the whole wear surface of the rotor. Not to mention they are a hair thicker.

I looked into Crown Vic calipers a while back, I found that they are the same bore (1.88) on the Police package as the stock solid axle Exploder, but are phenolic pistons. And since the Crown Vic and Grand Marquis have one rear rear mounted caliper and one front mounted caliper it makes the bleeder upside down if used on an Expo. And the civilian Crown Vic only has a 1.182” bore w/ steel pistons. The Civilian and Police models use the same size pad, but the clips are different to accommodate the thinner walls of the steel piston.

I looked into both IRS Exploder calipers and pads as well as 2001ish F150/Expedition calipers and pads. I found that IRS Exploders use a phenolic piston caliper with the same bore and mounting as the older solid 8.8 Exploders, but use a wider/thicker pad like the Crown Vic

Here is where things get interesting. I checked out an 01 F150/Expedition brake setup. The 150 caliper uses the same style pad as the IRS Explorers, but its about 1/8” longer and will not fit in the Explorer bracket. However the 150 caliper does bolt up to both the IRS and Solid 8.8 Exploder bracket. The 150 Caliper uses a larger 2” diameter phenolic piston.

In order to use the F150 calipers I has to ditch my Crown Vic pads since the clips would not fit in the phenolic piston, but I picked up 2005 IRS Exploder pads which are the same width and thickness as my Crown Vic pads, but have a smaller clip with an offset that fits the phenolic piston.

On another note the F150, IRS Exploder, and Crown Vic all have the mounting tabs moved about 1/8” to accommodate the thicker pads. The stock solid 8.8 Explorer calipers I was using barely squeezed over the rotor with the thicker Crown Vic pads before.

I also confirmed that the larger rotors from the F150/Expedition/Navigator will not fit in a 15” steel wheel and use the 5x135mm pattern.

I had pictures of the whole setup with all the different pads and calipers side by side, but someone stole my phone with all the pics.

 

[PlumCrazy]

I guess there is a character limit on my phone.lol ill post the rest soon.

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[PlumCrazy]

I got tired of parking brake pad falling off so I fixed my way.

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[AgPete139]

Nice job with the 1 ton swap.

Have you considered writing a Tech Article for the Library?

I think you should do it...

 

[PlumCrazy]

I scored a "titanium" color cluster bezel from a Sport Trac with a white cluster. I think makes the Silver Fx4 cluster look more like my Autometers.

Before

After

I swapped the lights around the headlight knob to green aswell. Now everything is converted to green. I never did like the aqua.

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