2000 XLT expedition rehabilitation thread

[2000UN93]

got the new radio in.

everything went well there, except I cannot get any FM stations to come in. I'm guessing there is some problem with the antenna.

Made some progress with the electrical gremlins. The headlights now turn off with the switch. All I did there was remove the connector from the switch, plug it back in and it worked. Still going to pick up a replacement switch though, the knob comes off mine when you turn the fogs on.

Got the instrument cluster lights working too. That was just a blown fuse. Still cannot get the tail lights/running lights to work. I've got no tail lights, but the brake lights work. Reverse lights and license plate lights do not work. I've got no power to the pins in the trailer light socket. All fuses and relays seem to be good so I will have to dig further into it. Hopefully it's just a bad ground.

Wheel bearings/front hubs are due to arrive today and I will most likely install those sunday. Trying to get this thing ready for action before it gets much colder.

 

[2000UN93]

did the front hubs today. Turns out my truck did have the 14mm studs, and I had ordered hubs with 12mm studs. Gotta be more careful about ordering parts in the future.

Because I got the 12mm stud hubs so cheap I wanted to make them work, so I picked up rotors and lug nuts for the 12mm hubs. Everything went together like factory and the truck does not grumble and groan down the road anymore. Both old hubs were toast and appeared to be factory original. Time will tell how the new hub bearings hold up but the truck drives like new for now. Installed new brake pads along with the new rotors as well, so the front axle should be good for awhile. Brake pedal feel improved after the new brakes and a bleed.

Also bought a new pair of front wipers for it. It's nice to be getting down to the last odds and ends. I am probably going to make a run to the local pick and pull yard tomorrow morning to get a few things. I am starting to wonder if I try a different headlight switch if the tail lights will come to life. That would sure be nice.

 

[2000UN93]

I woke up this morning and geared up to make a junkyard run. Figured I would take the expedition now that it is safe to drive down the street. Loaded up my tools and an empty box for whatever I may find and noticed it was starting to rain a little. Decided to pop the new wiper blades on. Turns out you can grab the wiper arms on my truck and move them both wherever you want by hand. Great. They move together like they should but it seems they are not connected to the motor or the gears are stripped. On further investigation the wipers do not work when switched on. Another gremlin to fight with.

Ended up taking my car instead, wipers work on that thing. Went out to my favorite chain of local yards, Paul's in Westville, IN. They only had 3 first gen expys, all fairly well picked over. I took a pic of one.


My junkyard wish list was:
interior rear view mirror
fuses/relays
headlight switch
front lower valence
owners manual
gray center console lid
clean rear bumper
wiper motor/transmission/ linkage

All I found was:
fuses/relays
interior rearview (pulled from a 97 explorer with auto dimming, not sure if it will even work yet)
wiper motor/transmission/linkage

Got the things I found for 50 bucks out the door so I feel like I did well. While I was gathering the parts I figured they would want 50 or so just for the wiper motor. Wish they had more expeditions there. I looked at all the expys and f150 trucks and every one was missing the headlight switch. I will be ordering that new here in a minute from amazon.

 

[BakerEdition]

You may want to check e-bay parts for one...

 

[2000UN93]

ended up getting a motorcraft switch from amazon for 67 bucks shipped. More than I wanted to spend but the knob is falling off my old one.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000C5BYI0

There are 3 or 4 different switches for our trucks depending how your truck is optioned so you have to make sure you get one that matches what you have.

 

[2000UN93]

Pic of the things I got from the junkyard trip.

It seems my interior rear view mirror broke off with the button and the base of the mirror still attached to the glass. Probably happened when the airbags went off. Getting the base off is being a PITA. The mirror just popped right off the explorer earlier at the junkyard and appears to be the same base. The info I have found about removing this base from the button on the expy said to pry gently with a screwdriver at the bottom to release the clip. I tried that and put a tiny chip in my windshield, so that method is not going to work for me. It would be nice to have a rear view mirror but I dont want to end up replacing the windshield to get one.

 

[2000UN93]

finally got that old mirror base off! Squirted it with a little PB blast and tried my own method of removal. If you look at the pic below you will see how it comes off. I pinched the spring down using needle nose pliers and used the base itself as a leverage point, rather than the glass. Popped right off.


I had to use the connector that came from the explorer to get this mirror running. Good thing I cut it off the explorer yesterday. Rather than cut and splice the wiring, I just slid the pins out of the expedition connector and arranged them in the explorer connector as needed. Looks factory to my eyes.


I used this site for the mirror pin out.
http://mustangforums.com/forum/general-tech/413502-autolamp-dimmer-rearview-mirror-how-to.html I then used a multimeter to figure out which pin is which on the expedition. The only pins I found and used were 12V+ switched and ground in the existing harness to the mirror. The mirror is kind of old school 90's ford looking but I like it.

I did not wire the autolamp feature as described in that article. I have no desire to run wires all over the truck. My only concern was the mirror dimming. To make that work I had to jumper 12V+ switched from the expy to the 12V+ constant pin of the mirror. To do this I just used a small piece of wire and tucked the loop of the wire into the wire loom. Can't even see it. Now the mirror comes on when you turn the truck on at the ignition, and goes directly into auto dim mode. You can see the green LED lightly glowing.


I like this mirror a lot. It has a button that allows you to manually dim the mirror which stays dark until you hit the button again, then it goes back into auto dim mode.

Pic of the mirror after hitting the manual dim button:


It's raining pretty hard. If it lets up I am going to install the new wiper motor/transmission and continue my quest for tail lights.

 

[2000UN93]

went out between rain showers and installed the new/used wiper motor setup.


Below you can see the problem on the old one (top)

The arm from the motor to the linkage had rusted and popped off the socket. I bet someone was too lazy to scrape the windows and it broke when the wipers were frozen to the glass.

Installed the replacement part and have fully functional wipers again. Perfect timing too, it started raining and I got to test them out.

My rear wiper has an issue I noticed though, it only travels about 1/3 of the way that it should, just wiping a little section of the rear glass. I'm guessing a new motor is needed out back too. Will save that for a future junkyard run.

 

[2000UN93]

also, I found a 2-3" perfectly round hole in the firewall next to the brake booster. On the left of booster if you are facing the engine standing at the front of the truck. Anyone know what goes there or can look for me please? I'm guessing just a grommet/body plug is missing but want to make sure. It goes straight into the cabin so I need to fill it with something. Dont want cold air/road fumes coming in.

 

[SWADE23]

2000un93 - wow thats really great work your doing...

 

[BakerEdition]

Man, Im gonna have to hire you to work on mine...YOU GO! Looks great...

 

[hwy73]

also, I found a 2-3" perfectly round hole in the firewall next to the brake booster. On the left of booster if you are facing the engine standing at the front of the truck. Anyone know what goes there or can look for me please? I'm guessing just a grommet/body plug is missing but want to make sure. It goes straight into the cabin so I need to fill it with something. Dont want cold air/road fumes coming in.

Correct, find a rubber grommet for it. I think that hole is utilized on the pick-ups that have manual transmissions for the the clutch gimmick.

 

[2000UN93]

ahh that makes perfect sense, thanks! I'll have to pick up a grommet for it. I think I will venture out to another local junkyard this coming monday and see what that one may have, hopefully I can pull a good grommet out of a truck there.

This tail light situation is driving me nuts. It's the only thing keeping me from driving the truck to work now. I know the bulbs are good. I suspect the wiring is good because the brake lights work. The brake lights use the same ground as the running lights from what I can tell. Front parking lamps work so it seems like the headlight switch is doing it's thing. I ordered that other one to try but I suspect I will still be without tail lights, license plate lights and reverse lights once I install it. If anyone has any troubleshooting tips on the rear lights I am all ears. Yesterday I crawled around under the truck and all of the wiring/ looms for the rear lights is intact, looks clean too.

 

[BakerEdition]

Heres a suggestion and you may have done this already...if yours has a trailer hitch and a plug...look around under the left rear side(drivers side) and they have a pig tail harness there make sure you got a good connection there.. and that someone has not hacked up the wires...if you take the connector apart you can get a test light and check the circuit to that point...if you get nothing then you work your way up front...you have checked all fuses under the dash and under the hood? also take a look under the dash... I'm not sure but if they had a trailer brake set up something may be unplugged under the dash...and check those bulbs...I have had some look good but were shot...my 5 cents worth

 

[2000UN93]

Thanks Steve. I just went out and had another look at the trailer wiring. It appears to be a straightforward add on with no splicing. I tested the trailer socket again for power with the running lights switched on. I am getting .5 volts to the running light pin of the trailer socket. I also unplugged the connector at the pigtail and tested there with the same results. Only getting .5v on one pin. I took the ground from the trailer wiring to the frame off and cleaned the connector and frame to bare metal hoping for some better results but nothing changed. It seems to me I am getting low/no power to the rear running lights, trailer or regular.

At the fuse box under the hood I have 12+ volts at fuses 5 and 6.

5 is trailer tow backup/park lamps
6 is parklamps/autolamps/feeds passenger compartment fuse 18

I already replaced fuse 6 with a new one which restored my instrument cluster lighting, but not my tail lights or anything out back. The only other thing I note about fuse 6 is that with the headlight switch off, both legs of the fuse holder are at 12+V. When the headlights or parking lights are switched on, only one leg of the fuse holder is 12+V. I thought that was odd but I am no electrical guru.

Do the running board lights some of you have run at all times with the park lamps or just when you open the door? I have harnesses for what I assume would be running board lights. Hopefully that headlight switch I ordered will arrive in todays mail run and I can try that.

 

[BakerEdition]

you also may want to follow that lead from the back of the truck which i believe runs inside on the left trim panel...some time people with fishin boats use a flat 4 pin connector and tie inside the truck...also if this truck was subject to road slat and corrosion..sometimes the connections on the bottom of the fuse panel become corroded or break...low voltage could also me a ground issue...the running boards I am not sure on as I dont have those....the fuse for the headlights will be hot both side because the headlights work all the time...they are not on a key switched circuit.

 

[2000UN93]

Thanks again for your help. I looked inside the removable cover inside the truck on the left rear for a flat connector for trailer tucked away and did not see one. My old explorer was set up like that now that I think about it.

So yesterday the new headlight switch got here. Installed it and although it solved my broken knob problem, the tail lights still did not work. It was at this point that I decided I have had enough of trying to troubleshoot this and it was time to use plan B. I ran a length of insulated wire from the passengers front parking lamp +12V to the passengers rear tail light +12V connector and turned the parking lights on. Immediately both tail lights came to life and I had power to the license plate lights. So I ran the wire carefully from front to back, spliced, soldered and taped the connections then put everything back together. I have tail lights now. For some reason there was no power getting to the rear of the truck so I ran a new wire rather than taking harnesses apart tracking down the bad wire.


Both of my license plate bulbs were bad and the housings have seen better days too. I went and got some new bulbs for those. It's nice to be able to drive my truck now, my other car needs a break it's due for a lot of work itself. It was really windy out earlier this evening and I expected the truck to pull me all over the road but it handled really nice for a vehicle of its size. I can't wait to get the new shocks on it next. I also need to see about the rear ABS sensor.

 

[BakerEdition]

Good for you!!! Sometimes you have to be a little creative...Kudos!

 

[jrjr]

Do the running board lights some of you have run at all times with the park lamps or just when you open the door? I have harnesses for what I assume would be running board lights.

When I unlock the doors with the remote the running board lights come on and also when I open a door. They do not come on with inside and turning on the dome light with the dimmer switch. They are not on with parking lights. My connectors are fastened to the truck frame and a wire runs to the running board. Most of mine were corroded beyond restoration and I found new pigtails at NAPA. Not exactly like the old ones, but they fit the hole with a quarter twist like the old ones did and use the same bulb. I make mine all orange. Hope that helps.

 

[2000UN93]

here is a pic from behind the wheel with the 3000K 55W xenon fog lights on.


Combined with the low beams I have no trouble seeing. I ran them on the way back from getting bulbs and no one flashed me either, I think they are aimed low enough they will not bother oncoming drivers. maybe if the road was wet and making a glare.