Sgt Ex

[Josh40601]

Here is the bumper all painted up

Also while the paint was drying, I put the heat extractor vents on the hood.

 

[Josh40601]

Bumper installed, winch wired up

 

[Josh40601]

well I finally got back on Ex today, and got the new valve stem in for the rock rings. Its still leaking, so i am going to have to figure out something. Also decided to look at the axles a little closer. The front hubs needed some maintenance. The vents in the rotors were completely clogged with mud, so I pulled the bearings out to find them washed out and rusted, so I replaced the wheel bearings, regreased everything with marine grease, all new seals, and then moved to the back. I had to knock out the 40 tons of mud out of the rear rotors as well, but those overall were not too bad. Looks like I may have an axle seal leaking, but I'll keep an eye on it to make sure before tearing it apart. So once I get the leaking valve stem issue figured out, the passenger side of the truck will be done, and I just have the driver side left to do.

 

[Josh40601]

I just got some time today to knock out the driver side beadlocks... So I thought...

When I took the tire off, I noticed massive amounts of mud in the rotor, just like the passenger side, so I went to cleaning.

All of that came out of just the rotor.

Next I decided to go on and inspect the wheel bearings. When I took the lockout off and noticed crud, I knew it wasn't going to be good...

The inner wheel bearing was seized to the spindle, so I had to beat it off. Next I pulled off the bearing roller cage, then cut two slits in the bearing race which gave me enough slack to get it off. After 4 cans of brake cleaner, a roll of shop towels, new bearings, new grease, new seals, it was all good again.

 

[Josh40601]

shakedown run after getting her back a few months ago went awesome. Started shitty, ended shitty (for my co-pilot, not me) but man Ex worked awesome.

Started the day yesterday with 2 leaking tires and no 4wd. i was still running the electronic shift module and never had problems until yesterday. i tried straight wiring it, didn't work, so i pulled the module, shifted into 4LO manually, then disassembled the module to move it to 4LO, put everything back together, and walah! I dont have anything but 4LO, but at least I could wheel.

With that fixed, I aired both tires up to around 30 lbs, then aired them back down and they worked awesome all day.

I put about 27 miles on it today, and never hit blacktop.

I didn't get many pictures because I was having too much fun wheeling, but I did take a couple

This was at stump cave friday night after getting the 4wd working

I got high centered after getting almost over this obstacle, so my passenger jumps out to put a rock or 7 under the tires to give me that extra inch i needed to get up, and he snapped his ankle. After that, I decided to pull cable and we pretty much called it a day to get to the hospital.

That is the notch I was going over


And for the carnage report:

used the body to pivot around a big ass boulder

 

[Josh40601]

I finally started in on the LED light bar install.

I chopped a giant hole in the back of the original headlight bracket

Then cut the lens off the bucket and realized that looks like shit

so this is kinda what I am going for. I need tabs first, which is why I stopped today, but hoping to have them all done by friday.

 

[RangerSVT]

With that size, it looks like you could stack two of them in that lens, giving you a lo/hi function...

SVT

 

[Josh40601]

With that size, it looks like you could stack two of them in that lens, giving you a lo/hi function...

SVT

Lol, I don't need a low and high is definitely taken care of.

 

[bmerr98]

Man, I just got done reading through the whole 45 pages, and I gotta hand it to you, Sgt Ex is quite a beast. You've done some commendable fab work with the tube bumpers and everything, and I think your welds are just fine! As long as a grinder can pretty things up and they hold together, rock on!

Glad to see old Sarge come back home to you, too. Hope to see him in action one of these days.

 

[Josh40601]

Man, I just got done reading through the whole 45 pages, and I gotta hand it to you, Sgt Ex is quite a beast. You've done some commendable fab work with the tube bumpers and everything, and I think your welds are just fine! As long as a grinder can pretty things up and they hold together, rock on!



Glad to see old Sarge come back home to you, too. Hope to see him in action one of these days.

I appreciate the kind words good sir! Where do you normally wheel?

 

[bmerr98]

I appreciate the kind words good sir! Where do you normally wheel?

I'm kind of embarrassed to say, but I have yet to hit the trails. A bit of a noob, you might say. My 1998 is my DD, so I can't be tearing it up, but I hope to do some trail riding before too long. I'm just down the road from RangerSVT, so Turkey Bay will likely be my destination when I make my move.

You're just up in Lexington, aren't you? I smell meet up...!

 

[Josh40601]

I'm kind of embarrassed to say, but I have yet to hit the trails. A bit of a noob, you might say. My 1998 is my DD, so I can't be tearing it up, but I hope to do some trail riding before too long. I'm just down the road from RangerSVT, so Turkey Bay will likely be my destination when I make my move.

You're just up in Lexington, aren't you? I smell meet up...!

i am. Turkey Bay is a great place to trail ride. A little too far for me for what it has, but it is a great place for people close.

I will be going to Wishbone Ranch in September for the Crawl Readers Ride. That's about the only place I go to on the west side of the state. I hit up Daniel Boone National Forest (Natural Bridge, Red River Gorge, Slade, whatever you want to call it) the most often, with Harlan being a second. Harlan is amazing. Trails from dirt roads to buggy breakers.

 

[Josh40601]

Not quite factory looking, and they are a little crooked but good enough.

 

[DC]

I just got done going through all 45 pages of your explorer an I gotta say not only was it a great way to pass a couple days of deployment but its got me itching to build my explorer when I get home

 

[Josh40601]

I just got done going through all 45 pages of your explorer an I gotta say not only was it a great way to pass a couple days of deployment but its got me itching to build my explorer when I get home

well brother, thank you from the very the bottom of my heart on what you are doing over there. Let me know if you need anything