Got some new goodies for my truck and for the wifey's.

Got a set of white faced explorer sport gauges. $40ish shipped off ebay.
01 02 03 EXPLORER WHITE FACE INSTRUMENT GAUGE CLUSTER:eBay Motors (item 300372137801 end time Dec-03-09 20:39:54 PST)

Should have this hopefully sometime this weekend


And picked up my other ex axle from a C4C sale. Paid $75 for it. 3.73 l/s with disk brakes. Plans are to put it in the wifey's ranger, but not sure. I already have one in my ranger, but it has 3.27 gears. My truck is a 4.0 with 5 speed manual, and hers is a 4.0 with a 5 speed auto. Which one would be better in which truck? Don't see too many long, highway miles anymore. Used to, and the 3.27's worked great.




The other axle from the sale was 4.10 l/s with disks. Paid $75 for it as well, sold it on craigslist for $200. not a bad little profit for not really even doing any work. The scrap yard wouldn't allow us to pull the axles for liability reasons. the guy who bought it is putting it in his son's jeep.

 

i like the gauges, they will look sharp!

 

i can't wait to get them. plan to put blue leds behind them. anyone else got any opinions on the rear axle?

 

put the new axle in what ever needs more power, has bigger tires, or doesnt see the interstate as much. lower gears (your 3.73) gives you more bottom end power than higher gears (your 3.27)

 

well, right now the other truck doesn't even see the road, and when it does, it won't see any more interstate than the other. just wondering if the transmission gearing would make one better for the other. both will have nearly the same tire size as they are both lowered the same amount.

 

Just got my LED's ordered for the gauge, hvac, and other odd and ends. Got a 100 blue leds with resistors for $9.00

 

Can't beat that!

 

just so you know the hvac panel will probably take some modding to make it work, as mine did when i did the platinum ranger sexiness about 4 months ago

 

what kind of mods?

 

i had to remove the face from my hvac, dremel the alignment tabs off of the platinum face and the old hvac backing to snap them together

 

so you put the plat face on the ranger control panel? any reason as to why? did the ex panel not fit the ranger dash? wiring different?

 

the wiring connectors were different and the explorer had a cable actuated blend door

 

hmmm, i was looking at one that was all electric. not sure about the one i actually got. should be here monday. if it is cable, that actually works out better. my 95 is cable blend as well, but i've dealt with that before. just swap that switch out. but i understand why you did what you did.

 

yeah, the back was different so i couldnt put my electric blend door switch in the cable blend door housing so i just transferred the face

 

cool. glad to know. i swapped a 97 ranger panel into my 95, and it was all bolt in. i'm not scared to cut things up!

 

Toreador, I finally pulled my hvac panel out of my truck. guess i had to modify the 97 to get it in my 95. consisted of cutting off two posts that stuck up, and both ends where the screws go. i cut it right down the center of the holes. not sure as to why, but it's what i had to do. but looking at the plat explorer one, it is identical to the one i pulled out. all the connections are the same, and in the same location, the mounting tabs for the faceplate are the same, and it has the posts i had to cut off mine. so i will be swapping the faceplate over and adding the leds. love it when things are easy.

 

what is the electric door blend switch you are talking about. i just got an expo ST HVAC im going to put in my 01. how did u get the faceplate off just drill the tabs ?

 

the face plate is held on by like 6 or 8 tabs. you just gently pry them off. i started in one corner and got one side first, then did the other side.