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Cool,thanks guys! I’m staying away from the Pittsburg and central Pneumatic tools for now on unless I can specifically tell they will do the job I’m needing them to do. I was more concerned about the lack of reviews for what I had bought. I’m likely going to go with this set unless as suggested, I find a better deal on Ebay. Didn’t really even think to look there or even craigslist. I’ll keep you updated. I think pressure tester is a must have tool as you can eliminate a lot of physical problems from the diagnostics when trying to find problems.
Sigh. Same thing happened to me. I have the same transfer case and push button system…except it’s in my 1998 Astro. Was AWD, got converted to 4wd. No complaints, but this last year I put new tires on the van. Not BRAND NEW, but in really good shape. However, they are all the same brand, but one tire on the front is a 100T and the other is a 102T ( load rating ). Same tire otherwise…Kumho KR21’s.
Here’s the rub. I could shift in and out of 4wd on the fly, no problems. Only had to stop to shift into 4WD LO in park or neutral. Well, I put it in 4Hi on some ice, pulled onto the highway and could hear the transfer case whining. Didn’t do that before the tire change….hit the switch to 2WD. No dice. It moved the acutator, but the 4WD didn’t disengage until a few miles later, and then it did it with a THUD.
The second time I tried it, it make a louder THUD, and now my van has 2WD, and 2WD LO.
It’s your tires. There is enough of a rolling diameter difference to preload the transfer case/front axel to the point where it can’t “unmesh” until it gets the preload off of it. Whatever went “THUD” in my van is gonna happen to your truck until you get 4 tires of the same diameter.
Don’t lunch your transfer case out of ignorance, or reluctance. AWD and 4WD on the highway always want 4 equally rotating tires to stay happy. If they aren’t, then those Transfer cases aren’t happy and they won’t play well for very long. And a transfer case isn’t a terrible job, but it isn’t cheap either.
Maybe you should attempt a rebuild yourself? Really, it doesn’t take all that much to rebuild an engine. Now, I say that pretty flippantly, but considering the quality of what you’ve gotten already, I’m betting you could get a rebuild kit and redo the old sentra engine with a small investment in some tools and probably have a lot more confidence in it than you are going to have with these other jokers. If the cylinders aren’t terrible scored or worn ( tapered top to bottom ), you could probably get a drill powered hone and hone the cylinders, get some new rings for the pistons, probably a new set of crank and rod bearings, along with a full gasket set, new oil pump and freshen that old motor back into shape.
My wife’s grandfather used to keep the old car running with strips of leather for crank bearings way back in the day….the car ran great according to him. Sometimes you can only trust only one mechanic…you.
Happy news everyone! I had to do a bit of leg work, but NAPA carried a T designed for automotive HVAC. It was 5/8ths straight through with a 3/8ths “T”. However, those thick lines had in I.D. of 1/4th inch! So, I had to use a short section of 3/8ths ( transmission hose ) and an adapter down to the 1/4 I.D. line.
No promises, but if the weather holds and I find the time this weekend, I’ll shoot a quicky video and post it here outlining what was wrong and what I did to fix it.
Total cost was about $30 for hoses, clamps, adapters and a small stupid tax ( I will point that out in the video if I make one ).
Consider this problem solved!
Oh, and my thoughts on the steel line…asthetics. I don’t see any reason to route those lines so ridiculously complex, although I’m sure a Furd Engineer could tell me what the brain trust was thinking when they designed this engine.
Quoted From dreamer2355:
Can you post a picture as well as letting us know the type of Explorer and engine size?
1996 Explorer 5.0 AWD. I’m surprised I forgot to put that in there. The Parts department couldn’t find a diagram for the 96, but did on the 97 model year…apparently the only pics were for the 4.0.
the part number according to what I found is the callout name 9d424 “Ford Intake Manifold Heater Tube 5.0L; w/o Message Center ” I’m working on getting a picture up.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-kQ8R … 0_3315.jpg
This is the best picture of it that I could get. I wish I had taken pictures of the engine with the plenum off.
This hard line connects to a molded heater hose that connects to the water pump just below the bypass hose. It then hooks up with the heater core in back. In the picture, you can see the problem is the small connection that jumps off the line and into the plenum. I’m not sure if Ford was heating up the plenum or trying to keep it cooler. I’m not sure if I should bypass that altogether or if I should engineer it back into the system with some sort of fittings. I guess it will depend on the fittings I can find to perform such a task.
Perhaps you could find out what the availability of the proper gasket actually is from online vendors. You might be asking to do the same job twice if you use the wrong gasket, and could potentially do engine damage. IF the steel gasket failed, it’s likely stronger than a paper type gasket. Even paper type gaskets will have a crushable steel grommet around important areas like coolant passages or EGR passages to avoid being blown out by heat and pressure.
Finding the right gasket may just simply be a matter of finding out the exact motor that is in your car as the motors are pretty much universal for parts, it’s the individual car models that vary from country to country. Generally the motor is used in many models and carries the same parts.
I painted a set of rusty old rims this summer. I wire brushed and sanded and used muriatic acid to clean them. I found out later that a 10-1 ratio of water to molasses would have been more effective and not nearly as nasty!
Regardless, the important thing to do is to make sure you degrease the rims, make sure you have a non glossy surface, use a good primer and paint and they’ll turn out good. I used Rustoleum paint in a can and sprayed my rims with my Wagner power painter. Put on a nice thick coat of paint and then I ran a heater next to them for a couple of days due to the thickness of the paint. This is the first winter I’m running them, so only time will tell how they hold up.
Quality paint means a quality paint job, but bad prep will make the best paint in the world fail. You can buy a wipe on deglosser if the paint is in good shape but needs to be scuffed down due to gloss if you don’t feel like rubbing the rims down by hand or having them sandblasted, etc.
Not entirely sure on the Tahoe, but my Chevy Astro has a control valve located on the outside of the heater core attached to the A/C condensor housing. You’ll know if you have a control, simply follow the heater core lines. One will go straight into the engine, the other one will go into a small assembly and then into the engine. That assembly is both vacuum operated and electrically actuated. The solenoid that opens and allows vacuum to open the valve goes bad. You can simply bypass the hose going from the valve to the solenoid.
That being said, there is also an electrically operated blend door actuator under the dash. It’s covered by a simple to remove plastic housing. It’s located under the dash, right above the transmission tunnel. It’s semi triangular in shape and has a metal circle with a slot in it. Take the cover off, and turn the key on. Operate your heat level control and watch the actuator. If it turns clockwise and counter clockwise, it’s good and you don’t have a problem allowing heat into the cabin from the core. If it doesn’t, then you may have a bad blend door actuator or control head. You can take it apart and figure it out pretty easily if you are somewhat familiar with how servo’s operate, it only takes 3 screws to remove it and one electrical connection. You can then take it apart and “reset” it if it’s bound up the gears. My MIL’s truck was doing that and for whatever reason if you turned it to full hot, it would bind. 7/8ths and it would be find. I think there was a problem with the limit switch or something else I never did figure out.
She also still had no heat after fixing that after a while and it ended up being a thorough flush of the core that did the trick. I’d do it yourself ( backflush ) and see the flow for yourself. You can bypass the heater core and drive the van if you need to do it someplace like a car wash, etc.
As far as the line goes, you don’t have to use the one on the new intake if the purpose is already resolved by the intake manifold. All that hose is there for is to allow the engine block to circulate air through the PCV valve and back into the intake. You are better off having the non PCV side of the system either being dumped into your air cleaner box or after the throttle body to avoid things from getting mucked up with oil residue.
As far as the line goes, you don’t have to use the one on the new intake if the purpose is already resolved by the intake manifold. All that hose is there for is to allow the engine block to circulate air through the PCV valve and back into the intake. You are better off having the non PCV side of the system either being dumped into your air cleaner box or after the throttle body to avoid things from getting mucked up with oil residue.
My personal thought on it for myself is that they won’t get my business any other way. I do my own auto repair, period. I may not like it sometimes as I have to do it all outside regardless of the weather ( repinned in a new computer into my Astro in the middle of a MN February over the course of 2 days, etc )
If I knew my local shop would be willing to say “hey, bring your van in, we’ll figure out exactly what that code is being triggered by and give a reasonable guarantee that the fix we suggest is going to take care of the problem, then they’ve got my business. If all they want to do is upsell me a bunch of extra work, then I walk. I take pride in maintaining my cars myself, and I’m not to the point where I’m done working on them. I want to have a good dialogue with the shop technician that is going to work on my vehicle.
The problem is going about creating a relationship like that. I suppose all a guy can do is ask and see what they have to say.
Depends on what exactly you are expecting the book to do. Haynes goes over basic engine construction with pictures, but a service manual for the vehicle you plan to work off of can be found on Ebay for pennies on the dollar and you get much more comprehensive information. However, they are not as easy to read as they are technical manuals. I got a 3 book set for my 98 Astro for $40 and it’s a wealth of information.
Quoted From Beefy:
I was told during one of my advanced diagnostic teacher’s rants that OBDII cars contain a ‘black box’ like those used in aeroplanes. If you get into a wreck, the police can tap into the box and view info at the time of say, air bag deployment and see how fast you were going, whether or not you applied the brakes, if you had your seatbelt on etc. This allows the police the ability to determine more clearly the cause of crashes, and who’s at fault. This seems totally reasonable to me, and is obviously feasible. Anyone else hear this?
On the newer cars, sure. Some insurance agencies are trying to get people to volunteer to have them installed in their cars for cheaper insurance reasons ( of course, that’s what they say anyway ). You can get them for your teenagers car so that you can track their movements and see what they are doing to the car when it’s in their hands as well. The tech exists, it’s just a matter of which cars manufacturers decided to put it in. Likely anything with ONSTAR has the capability.
Best advice I can give is to know both ends of the job you are doing. If you are replacing the transmission filter and fluid, make sure you know how much and what type of fluid is going in, and where and make sure that you can put fluid back in before you take any out. VW likes to bury their air filters, and as said have had their share of electrical demons. I had a VW beetle that I could turn the key off and remove the key, but as long as I kept my foot on the brake, the engine stayed running. Realize this was a 1970 VW beetle with a relatively straight forward electrical system!
Asking in advance though will put you on the right track. Make sure you know your torque specs for the manifolds, etc….
