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I recently sold a car with a payment and replaced it with one without. Say hello to my new (to me) Excursion. She's a 2000 XLT in Toreador Red with a V10 and 4WD. Picked her up with 176k on the clock with an engine that has less than 100k on it (previous owner popped a radiator and took out the original). Drove it 3.5 hours home (come to find out that that was a brave endeavor) and began working on getting her into top shape.
Before the previous owner even got done taking all of her old stuff out and cleaning it out, I already had a new radio in. Nothing special, just a Planet Audio radio so I can have my Android Auto.
Once I was home, a new set of mirrors and headlights were installed. Then I spent two days of buffing the paint to get the shine back as well as removing swirls/light scratches.
This is about when all of the Amazon and Rock Auto packages started flooding in hot and heavy. I replaced the following:
- All five door lock actuators
- Full set of pads and rotors (old pads had plenty of meat but the old rotors were WARPED)
- Thermostat (gauge is still reading low but scan tool says it's normal)
- LED interior lights
- Sylvania 9007 LED headlights (very good)
- Slide-out cupholders
- Headlight switch (stopped the fast dinging whenever the door was open)
- Left barn door latch cable
- Rear hatch struts
- LED license plate lights
- Trim ring on the shifter
A couple additional accessories I installed were
- Auto-dimming mirror with home link
- Console extension with cupholders (haven't even used the Slide-out yet)
- USB ports where the lower cig lighter used to go
- Programmed a couple extra remotes
- Got the keypad number via trial&error
- Dashcam
- Backup cam
Now for the cool stuff. I installed some 285/75R16 Falken Rubitreks and I couldn't be happier with those. Capable, smooth, and quiet. Balanced out nice and easy. Only one of the wheels needed more than two ounces. Didn't want to go too big and have to replace hubs and ball joints more than I need to. Plus it's just not necessary IMO. The oldest tire from the old set was fifteen (!!!) years old. Cool thing I drove it 3.5 hours home at 70 MPH lol
I got some 43-818 (non HD) springs for the front and a set of Rancho 9000s from Rock Auto. Coupled with 4" tapered blocks to replace the factory blocks in the rear from ProComp. Now it sits PERFECTLY level, down to a sixteenth of an inch. I was thinking it would be pretty level, but it's pretty exact now. Front springs should settle in a little but no bro dozer squatty potty for me. On the left spring I did have to remove, grind down, and reinstall the retaining bolt as it wouldn't sit flush with the axle. Then when all was said and done, I got thrown a curve ball on the alignment rack. The threads on the tie rods and the sleeve were so rusted out that no matter which way I turned the sleeve, it kept going toe-in. An unplanned run to Advance later to get some tie rods and a sleeve and now I dialed in the 0.06° of total toe that I wanted. Steering feels a little better now so I guess that's a plus. Greased up the driveshaft slip yoke while I had it on the rack to get rid of the clunk. Since the new springs came with new bushings, I don't have the distinct spring pin bushing pop anymore either.
Some things I want to do but will defer for now:
- Turns out that slightly-less-used engine developed a small oil leak from the front cover above the AC compressor. I'll just add oil for now.
- Why wouldn't they drill out and replace the one broken exhaust stud while the engine was out? She's not leaking so she's getting run until she does.
- Caster bushings. 3.2 L and 3.8 R isn't too bad, but I want to pump those numbers up. Ball joints are in good shape so I'm not in too much of a rush since I'll probably do the ball joints at the same time.
- Glove box latch is broken. Poo.
- What other headrests fit the Excursion, preferably taller ones? Finding cloth ones are proving to be a chore and they don't seem to offer much protection. The last owner apparently never had them and she was the second owner since 2004.
- Fog lights
- Air compressor setup from my last car
- Get the steering wheel reupholstered (one of the rare things I really shouldn't do myself)
- Who has a passenger side secondary sun visor in grey they want to part with? Mine's cracked.
My Alignment Tech refused to use those things, even though I already had them. he had some words for them, that I can't repeat here.
He ordered up Special, two-piece adjusters that allows him to set Castor and Camber Separately, no fudging,
lol, yeah, that's because your alignment tech is lazy and didn't want to unbolt both the axle U-bolts and the leaf spring center bolt to install them. In his defense, that is a pain in the azz especially if you're trying to reuse the original old rusty springs. Moral of the story, the shims work just fine, and they do provide for the adjustment of "Castor and Camber Separately, no fudging ".
OP, if you want more castor , and don't want to replace the ball joints, then shims will do that for you (see link below to available options from WFO concepts, just an example, plenty of other places sell them too). Yes shims also change the pinion angle at the same time, but 5* of pinion angle is nothing for a double cardan front driveshaft joint to deal with.
Very nice. I have a 2001 V10 in that color. Was that center console already in it when you purchased it? Looks much nicer and sturdier than the stock version I have.
Very nice. I have a 2001 V10 in that color. Was that center console already in it when you purchased it? Looks much nicer and sturdier than the stock version I have.
It's an XLT without a lot of options, so that's actually the center seat folded down with some cupholders attached.
lol, yeah, that's because your alignment tech is lazy and didn't want to unbolt both the axle U-bolts and the leaf spring center bolt to install them. In his defense, that is a pain in the azz especially if you're trying to reuse the original old rusty springs. Moral of the story, the shims work just fine, and they do provide for the adjustment of "Castor and Camber Separately, no fudging ".
OP, if you want more castor , and don't want to replace the ball joints, then shims will do that for you (see link below to available options from WFO concepts, just an example, plenty of other places sell them too). Yes shims also change the pinion angle at the same time, but 5* of pinion angle is nothing for a double cardan front driveshaft joint to deal with.
I just don't feel like buying another set of U-bolts after I had JUST installed these when I did the spring swap lol
Plus, I need to replace the seals on the axle shafts anyways. Sleeves are easy to put in, and I can keep an equal amount of caster on each sides with different sleeves (2 degrees correction on the left and 1.5 on the right would bring them basically equal). Helps with pulling more than you'd think, especially while braking.
I've only owned one vehicle that wasn't a shade of red. It really cramped my style.
Ranger - Electric Current Red Metallic
'68 F100 - Royal Maroon
Volvo and three Ducatis all red
Miata - Soul Red Metallic
'67 F-100 - Red on White two tone
Recently-departed '22 Lexus GX was the super rare Claret Mica (deep, dark red)
And now we welcome Toreador Red to the family!
It's just something that happened to be a coincidence on the first few and now I'm running with it. Red or die.
early 2000's Ford Minivans have the same cloth and headrests. I stole them from a 98 Aerostar I think it was for my 2000 XLT. Exact match. Grab a spare set so you can install into the 3rd row. My daughters 2006 Merc Mariner has the same leather headrests as my 2005 Limited...I've been eyeing aquriring them for my 3rd row. If you've got time, walk a junkyard. 1998-2004 Ford are extremely similar. I've repurposed so many parts over the years from Expy and Crown Vics. They seem to be the most similar I've found after the Superduty itself.
sounds like you're on the hunt for some replacement trim pieces. luckily the dash for all Excursion models is the same. you can steal parts from 99-07 Superduty. the 05-07 has a slightly different dash that doesn't work. Their lower dash drops in though. Other trim pieces are mostly the same. The 05+ cupholder is nicer. You can swap the faceplate so it matches your current dash, but you retain the deeper 05+ pockets.
I highly recommend grabbing the driver pillar grab handle from a 03+ X or Superduty. your pillar already has the location marked on the pinch weld. Drill 2 holes, pop the trim on, bolt on the handle. very easy install.
Originally Posted by Antonm23
lol, yeah, that's because your alignment tech is lazy and didn't want to unbolt both the axle U-bolts and the leaf spring center bolt to install them. In his defense, that is a pain in the azz especially if you're trying to reuse the original old rusty springs. Moral of the story, the shims work just fine, and they do provide for the adjustment of "Castor and Camber Separately, no fudging ".
OP, if you want more castor , and don't want to replace the ball joints, then shims will do that for you (see link below to available options from WFO concepts, just an example, plenty of other places sell them too). Yes shims also change the pinion angle at the same time, but 5* of pinion angle is nothing for a double cardan front driveshaft joint to deal with.
Plus, I need to replace the seals on the axle shafts anyways. Sleeves are easy to put in, and I can keep an equal amount of caster on each sides with different sleeves (2 degrees correction on the left and 1.5 on the right would bring them basically equal). Helps with pulling more than you'd think, especially while braking.
Assuming the roads where you live are crowned to allow for rain water runoff (they're supposed to be and most places are), then you'll end up with a very slight steering pull if you put both sides equal in castor. Not a big deal and will have absolutely no ill effects on tire wear of any kind, but its common for alignment shops to set the set the castor slightly different between sides to accommodate for road crown so they don't get angry customers bringing their cars back complaining about a steering wheel pull.
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