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My first DIY job, success

Hey!

A very big "thank you" to everyone here for answering all of my newbie questions for the last few weeks. Last night, I went out into the garage and nervously got to working on the Explorer.

I changed the drive belt. The old one was in really bad shape, cracks everywhere. It was a bugger yanking on that tensioner pully with my left hand and trying to wrench the new belt onto another pully at the same time.

Air filter, easy.

Drained the coolent, easy.

Replaced my bum thermostat. That housing was really in there. I scraped the skin off my hand trying to get it out from under that pipy looking thing on top because I was too nervous to try to take that complicated thing off (see, newbie, don't even know what it is, looks like a carborator?). I finally got the stat out and replaced it with a Stant and a new O-ring.

Backflushed the heater core. This went pretty smoothly except that I ended up spraying water all over the place on accident. No rust or sediment in either the heater core or the radiator.

Refilled everything, put everything back together, and the truck runs! (At least I was surprised) Not only that, the temp is nice and steady now and the transmission problems I thought I was having went away! Thanks again to everyone here for your help.

-troy

Reply to
tfandango
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Reply to
Jonah

Well put.

If I recall correctly it's easier to remove the thermostat housing when the belt is removed. You might also need to unplug the wiring going to the timing sensor. Bottom line is that it's generally easier to remove something like an alternator and put it back on than to try to work around it. I use a length of pipe over my rachet wrench when removing/installing the belt. The extra leverage makes it easy.

Reply to
Ulysses

thanks! I thought about a length of pipe when I was changing the belt, but alas, no pipe was to be found.

Reply to
tfandango

Well, you are probably going to have to buy more tools anyway so a 1/2" drive socket set with a long breaker bar might do the trick. And let's not forget that you will need the big socket set when you get around to changing your radius arm bushings. After you do that changing the belt will seem real easy ;-)

Reply to
Ulysses

Make a note - Never start taking things apart when the parts store is closed. This will save you a great deal of frustration!

Steve R

Reply to
Stephen Read

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