first I want to say I love my aerostar! I never really liked fords, I got my first aerostar as a victim of circumstance, my second aerostar by choice. I also have a 1975 f250 supercab. I love my van, but it has a few "quirks"

ok, we'll start with the questions first!

95 ext, e4wd, 4.0 here

my "norm" a/c works great, both front and back. when I turn the **** to "max" a/c it sounds as if the air is being diverted somewhere, and the air coming from the vents is drasticly reduced. on "norm" a/c the air coming out is the same velocity as on vent.

whats up with that?

is it normal to have to set the cruise control a few mph over what you really want to do in order to get it to do the right speed? like if I wanna go 55, I have to set my cruise at like 58 mph, and it drops down to around 55.

does everyones sliding door trim panel constantly come loose?
my screws magicly come out and disappear. this happened on my 91 shorty too. don't know why.

is there a way to have your trailer hitch and spare tire too? my reciever hitch blocks access to the spare tire cubby underneath the van. so they didnt put a spare there, and I want one!

you know the netting on the rear cubby holes? that bungee cord at the top that lossens and sags so it wont hold anything in anymore? I came up with a quick fix! at the very side of the netting, at the top where the bungee is strung through, I pulled a loop of bungee out, and took up slack until the bungee was tight, then secured the loop with a zip tie, and tucked the loop out of the way. worked like a charm.

I polished my dull headlights with polishing compound. thanks to the board and it infinite knowledge! my headlights look good as new.

while I was at it I polished the plastic side mirrors, and they got all shiny black and new looking too instead of all grey and hazy.

you can make a set of ski's for your rear seats and use them outside the van while camping etc. al you need it 2x6's and a little bit of plumping pipe. ask me for details if you wanna know more!


thank you all board members! your help is awesome. nowhere else can you get a group of people all together that all have the same vehicle, and the same issues. I also like to help when I can when I see someone has had the same problem as me.

this is a very valuable resource, keep it up!

 

well, i can address one thing, about the sliding door trim panel, are you talking about the large panel? if so, mine came off wuite a few times, and so i took some 3/4" wood screws and just drilled them in all alone the bottom of the paneling, works likea charm, and thanks for the tip for the bungee stuff, mine is saggin as well.

 

reese makes a hitch that you can keep spare tire. i have one.
only thing i do not like is that it does hang aliitle low but it works good.

 

easy fix on the screws that keep falling out.

Just put a dab of any silicone sealer on the threads and run them in. once it sets up the screws stop backing out.
Silicone on screw threads works great on almost anything that loosens up.

 

awesome idea, never thought of that!

 

I had the same problem with the sliding door inner panel. Silicone did the trick for me, too.

Making "skis" for the seats is a great idea - even for just storing them when they are out of the van. I find they tip over really easy and am generally afraid to leave them out in the open.

Every hitch I have ever seen for the Aerostars either eliminates the under-slung spare tire or sticks out under the bumper. Then again , there really isn't any room to have both a hidden hitch and the spare.

I made a custom removable hitch for my shorty van. I had a bunch of receiver tubes kicking around (don't ask) and I bought a clear-out Class II hitch for $10 which I promptly cut up. The hitch was for a Dakota pickup, but for $10 I would have started with anything that looked suitable. The frame brackets were a perfect fit & I welded a receiver tube to each one so that it sat just under the bumper. I welded the frame brackets to the van, taking a lot of care to make sure they were perfectly parallel. I was going to drill & bolt, but I ran out of time...

I welded a piece of 2x2 tube to each end of the hitch beam (I had to cut the end of the driver side tube at 45 degrees to clear the spare). Each 2x2 was drilled to accept a 5/8" bolt. I was going to use hitch pins, but figured it would rattle too much. When the hitch is installed, it sticks out behind the bumper and is a real shin-banger. It takes less than 5 minutes to take it off & then only the 2 receiver tubes are visible.

And the spare is accessible either way.

Cheers,
Eric

 

The spare on the Aerostar is a pretty dinky one and not worth keeping anyway. I bought a rim and put a full size tire on it. The full size tire fits perfectly under the rear seat with the attachments Ford put in the left hand compartment with the jack. It's just a hook and a wingnut lying about there.

As for the panel screws falling off, that seems a common affliction. I got so tired of it, I drilled the holes bigger and bought some of those plastic push-through, and just pressed them in with my thumb. Looks ugly but it's an old van anyways.

The skis, now that's a great idea. What size of pipe did you use?

 

i used the same diameter pipe as the posts in the floor. take out your seat and measure the posts that lock your seats in, and get that size pipe. I cant remember the size off hand, and it may be different year to year.

then measure the distance from the font to rear floor posts, and drill the appropriate sized holes in your 2x6's to about an inch deep on each side. this recess will hold the ends of the pipe.

use 2x4's as a spacer between the two 2x6's.

i think the pipe section was only about 4 inches front and rear, both sides.

also, be sure to make the ski's about a foot longer in the rear, or you'll fall over backwards when plopping in them at the camp site. been there, done that.

I should make sets and sell em on ebay!

 

You obviously have a shorty, all of my aerostars have been extended and take a full size 15", yes 15", spare tire with the factory tow setup.

I love the factory tow set up as this way I get the 3.73 limited slip rear end, in both 2 and 4 wheel drive.

 

I have an extended van and the class III hitch clears the spare with no problem.
BTW, in answer to one of your questions, I ALSO have to set the cruise a little higher than registered to get the proper speed.SAME with my previous Aerostar.
I think it might be a vacuum delay or something.
Cruise on both of mine weren't really quick to respond when starting up a hill they would have to CATCH up because they sensed the slow-down a little too late.
don-ohio (:^)

 

The 1989 CC controller can be adjusted. I don't think all the later (both vacuum, and the 1997-only electric versions) can. I'm pretty sure I tried to adjust it on my '93 and failed.

On the pre-facelift models (maybe pre-'92?) the CC controller is mounted kind of above your right foot. Open it up, there's a potentiometer to tweek to adjust the pull-in.

Pics toward the end of this post from 2007.

 

you are answering a 13 yo question,lol

 

I love resurrecting old threads. It's my hobby.