I bought this 1997 4x4 Expedition in 2003 or so, while I was in college. A good friends aunt owned it, and sold it to me for what they offered her on trade in. Think I paid $12,500, at the time. It had 60k miles on it and was in pristine condition. I drove it about a year, but felt too much like a mom bus to me. I then sold it to my sister, who still happens to use it as her primary driver to this day. I'll use this thread to chronicle my shamefully slow progress bringing the truck back to it's glory days. Here's a picture of it as it sits today-

As it sits today, she's just under 200k miles. This truck has been extremely reliable, and has not needed much beyond routine maintenance. It's had the air suspension replaced over a decade ago, original starter was replaced about two years ago, and the original alternator was replaced about a year ago. That's the sum total of repairs it has needed. Pretty unbelievable. My sister was a teacher, and the school she worked at was less than two miles from her house. That's what has kept the miles down.

After taking a good look at it, it was going to need the front end/suspension reworked. Ordered new UCA's, lower ball joints, tie rod ends, sway bar bushings, and end links. Also ordered a new air suspension delete kit to replace the shocks/springs. Also, figured out the hood needed new struts the hard way. Jumped that repair ahead of the suspension work.



ETA- Cheap hood struts I ordered: https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=10933432&cc=1119596&pt=1404&jsn=20491

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So here's a look at the suspension, before I got started. Note the original rotors are still holding strong, have never even been turned. On the 3rd set of pads, but the second time I changed them it didn't need it.



I started with the upper control arms. To say they were shot, would be an understatement. Stud just flopped around, no resistance. Bushings gone as well.



Here's a picture with the new arm installed. Parts are a real problem these days. Ford no longer makes them, so you are stuck trying to figure out what has a chance of being decent quality and giving good service. TRW made the originals I pulled off, but no longer offer them under any label. Went with the Mevotech TTX terrain tough xtreme, which is basically the affliction tshirt version of suspension parts from what I can tell. Country of origin is China, so who knows.



ETA- Upper control arms I used: https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=10079696&cc=1119596&pt=10401&jsn=11267

So the next thing I did, was replace the lower ball joints. Just doing the ball joints vs the entire arm, saved a couple hundred bucks. After seeing the bushings on the upper control arm, and all the hell replacing the lower ball joints- I wish I had just replaced the lower arms altogether. The ball joints really put up a fight, you can see the indention from the press on them.

So for the lower ball joint's, I went with Dormans Premium RD- rugged design. Boot was of a higher quality, and seemed like a good part. Unfortunately, also made in China. Time will tell, but I'm sure it will be fine. Moog's on my no fly list, been disappointed with multiple parts from them recently. Also saw one of there ball joints cut open and it was plastic inside instead of metal. Picture of the new ball joint pressed in-



ETA- Lower ball joints I used: https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=7521792&cc=1119596&pt=10070&jsn=11315

Cool. I had the same rig as a work vehicle and loved it.

I always felt like I was driving a covered wagon.

MTTANK said:

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1agswitchin4lanes said:

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Ranchos??

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My sister had a friends husband do the air suspension conversion about a decade ago. I asked my dad about it and he said whatever he put on the front was way off, and so a buddy at a parts store came up with these Rancho's for the front. Notice the dust cover missing on one side, guy was a hack. When I replaced them, they were still functioning okay. Stamped made in USA. The kit I bought used coilovers for the front. I don't think just that shock was sufficient, but I didn't major in suspensionology.

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Shocks on the front are just for dampening. That front end is held up by the torsion bars so no need for a coil.

The rear's were a bear. The fact that I'm a beef castle and don't have a lift, probably attributed to my heartache. The one's I removed were monroe's and they were shot. You can see the picture of one I compressed by hand that stayed that way and did not rebound at all. The Suncore one's I put on worked fine, but seemed pretty soft to me as I was able to easily compress them by hand. The new springs felt lighter than the one's I pulled, but under weight the rear sat up higher when I got it on the ground. Guess we will see how it looks after they settle.

Of all the suspension work I did, the tie rod ends were the biggest problem for me. I decided to replace the inner and outers on both side's, as well as the adjusting sleeves. The first set I bought were Dorman's on RockAuto, same line as the lower ball joints. They were good quality, but one of boxes had an entirely wrong part. Got mad and sent those back and waited a week for RA to send me a set of Delphi's. I get those in, and two of them won't thread on to the adjusting sleeves. At this point, I lost my temper and headed to a local parts house with what I had. They took them out of the box and showed me that they threaded onto the sleeves and would work. When I go to insert the last one on the outer drivers side, it turns out the stud is not long enough. Insanity. Determined to be done, I was able to use a part from the other wrong order to get it together. All this to say, I'm not linking parts and I hope you have better luck than I. I almost put the originals back on, as they were still functioning but the boots had seen better days:

I admire your ambition on pressing the lower ball joints out. I definitely would have gone the easy route and did the lower control arms. I bet she's going to ride like new after all the work!

The high mount brake light has needed to be replaced for years. At $130 bucks, this one hurt a little. Ford no longer makes them, and the cheap ones look terrible and report fitment issues. First picture is the old one mounted. Note the saw em off sticker I put on it over 20 years ago!





ETA: Link to part- https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=13028381&cc=1119596&pt=2804&jsn=25131

Went to BYOT recently, which is the pick a part in Bryan. Was on the search for some Expedition parts, and did pretty well. Quite a few Expeditions there.

Found an extremely rare harley davidson model:



Thing had just short of 400k on the clock, and looked to be taken out of service by a wreck. Sorry for the terrible picture:


Found one with a VCR in the console!

Ha, a VCR

Saw a couple of other pretty cool trucks. This bullnose F100 was in incredible shape. The paint and body on it was almost perfect, looked to have a 302 in it. Interior was in really good shape too. Can't believe someone scrapped it, but maybe that says more about me than them....



And then I saw a bricknose Bronco. Was impressed in the shape of the interior with original seats still in it. Shout out to JB

That brick nose. I miss mine so much.

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Our '03 popped over 300k just before I sold it. And the 15 is at 181k currently.

Love the Expy and will probably get another when the time comes.

Always fun to watch a project thread. I'm contemplating hanging on to the 15 so my kids can drive it. 5 years to go.