Yet Another Unexpected Weekend Project

I promise this blog will be more about tech and geek stuff rather than all automotive stuff, but it seems I have had a streak of bad luck with my Expy lately...  Driving it on my rather long commute to work, I have been experiencing a massively irritating shudder.

Shudder, that is an interesting work.  I actually felt at times the vibration was going to rattle my teeth out!  I pulled the Expedition into the Geek's Garage to have a look.  I crawled underneath, jacked it up, poked and prodded, but found nothing that really could be the cause.

So to the interweb I went!  I went over to the Ford Trucks forum and did some searching. It seems this is a common problem with the Expedition.  The fine boys over there explained to be that my Expedition has what is called a limited slip differential.  There are clutches in there that keep the gears engaged and do other things that I don't understand.  I guess when they get tired of the gear oil in that is in there, they start to "shudder"...And I though my truck was just allergic to my workplace.  I guess I will keep my job.

OK, so, the mighty interweb says to change out the gear oil in the differential with 75/140 gear oil and add some friction modifier to it.  Actually it says to add the friction modifier and then add the gear oil, but more on that later.  The friction modifier (also called limited slip additive) comes in a toothpaste like tube near the gear oil.

Limited Slip Additive

As a warning, this is one messy and nasty job,  I suggest you have lots of towels hand that you can throw away after you are done.  Also, put some cardboard down to protect your floor, and by all means wear gloves.  Gear oil is some of the nasty stuff and smells a bit the dead monkeys.  Last time I checked, women were not impressed by dead monkey smell, so try your best to keep this stuff off of you and every thing else!

Gear Oil

First you need to remove your old nasty gear oil from your diff. There are a couple of ways to do this.  You can remove the back cover by taking off all of the bolts and then having to reseal it or you get yourself a suction pump and remove it from the fill hole.  Since I wanted to do this as quickly as possible without the risk of leaks, I chose the suction pump route.  Here is a picture of my hand powered suction pump.

Fluid Suction Pump

It is a pretty basic tool.  Stick the hose end in the fluid and pull back on the handle.


Next you will have to locate the fill plug on the differential.  This is a small plug that has a square hole in it that your socket wrench will fit into.  You need to be a little careful when removing so you don't break it or strip it, but my came off easily.  Just in case, spray it with some lubricant, such as PB Blaster, the day before you try to take it off.  That always helps speed it up.  Here is a shot of my diff fill plug...

Differential Plug Location

OK, there are no more pictures from here on out because as I said, this is a really messy job.  I am a geek at heart, so my camera will not get near this dead monkey smelling stuff!

So next, remove your fill plug.  Feed your hose end of your fluid suction pump into your diff.  You will probably have to bend it and coax it in past the gears, but it will eventually go in.  Once you get the hose in to near the bottom of the diff, slowly pull back on the handle of the fluid suction pump.  It will fill up with gear oil.  I had my oil pan nearby and dispensed with the old oil from the pump to the oil pan.  This took several times until I could not get any more gear oil out.  Now the diff is mostly empty.

Next I added my Limited Slip additive to the diff.  It is hard to maneuver under there, but you will get it.  Remember, be careful not to get this on you.  It is nasty stuff.  Your date will thank you later...

OK, now that you have put in the additive, it is time to put in the gear oil.  Again, it is hard to maneuver under here, so take your time, you will get it.  First I tried adding hoses to the end of the gear bottle, but I found it was easier and faster if I maneuvered the bottle into place and then placed my gloved finger over the end till I got to the fill hole and then released my finger and squeezed the oil in.

That is it.  Don't forget to replace your fill plug and clean up the dead monkey smell off of everything.  Take your Expy out for drive and make some turns or find a spot to do some figure eights to get your gear oil mixed good.

So far the shudder is gone.  I will come back and update after a couple of weeks to see if that is still the case.


Remember, save money and stay geeky!

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Unexpected Weekend Project: Sunroof Leak

With all the needed rain we had this weekend,  it also brought me a lot of trouble.  While my car is getting fixed from the rear end collision I suffered, I was driving my backup.  The beautiful Ford Expedition.  It was raining so hard that I had a large leak that sprang from my sunroof when I was driving.  I am not talking a few small drops, I am talking streams of water!  Major streams of water!

After I got it home and started to dry myself off, I could hear water sloshing around in the sunroof area.  I am not an extreme genuis by any means, but I know this is not good.  I opened the sunroof and could see that water was pooling all around the sunroof opening.  A quick internet search told me that there were drain tubes in the sunroof opening that are supposed to carry this water away.  It appears they are plugged up!  Here is a picture I snapped with the headliner slightly removed so you could see them.

Gray tubes that carry water out of the sunroof

See those gray tubes at the upper left of the photo?  Those are the beauties that are clogged. Now how to unclog them?  If you open your sunroof and look at the corners, you will see some holes.  These are the drainage holes that lead to these tubes.  I tried to get a picture of mine but it did not turn out very well.

Drain hole in the upper right area of this photo

On the top right of this photo you can see a hole.  Sorry, there are other things in the way, but they are right there in the corner of the sunroof. Mine were in the front corners, towards the front of the car.  I have heard that others have them at all four corners.  Mine only had the two front holes.  

Now I had to figure out how to unclog the tubes.  My tubes were made of a rubber so I was trying to be very gentle and not puncture them.  First, I started to clean up the interior part of the sunroof.  I mean the part that the glass covers from up above.  I cleaned and scrubbed all of the dirt out really well.  This I am sure is what caused my tubes to clog.  I will now get up there and clean that out often to prevent this problem from happening in the future.  Now to unclog the drain, I started with a small piece of  copper wire.  I stuffed it in the drainage hole trying to clear the clog.  This did not work because the water was not disappearing.  So I tried this several times with no luck

I went on the hunt for something rigid, yet more flexible than my copper wire.  I finally stumbled across this:

Cable tie, the best sunroof drain unclogger!

The ever multi-useful cable tie!.  It was perfect.  I was able to insert it into the drainage hole and clear the clog.  I did this several times to make sure it was all cleaned out.  I then grabbed a large cup if water and poured it into the sunroof area to make sure the drain was functioning.  All was well.

So there you have it.  About 2.5 hours of my life that I will never get back.  Hopefully this will help someone else out there with a leaky sunroof....

Remember, save money and stay geeky!

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The E36 Alternator

Normally replacing an alternator is a breeze.  Unless you don't have all of the information. One day I was backing out of my garage to head to work when I noticed my battery light came on.  Since I have a decent commute, I decided to pull my baby back into the garage.  I did some research and found out it was most likely the alternator.  So here is where I made my first mistake.  I went to Autozone and they sold me a replacement alternator.  It does not come with a pulley.  No big deal, right?  I can remove the pulley form my old one and put it on the new one with my new impact.  Solved...


So I did it, it took no time at all, and while I was at it, I replaced the belt.  I took it to go see my son's baseball game and when I was almost there....Pop, crack, thump bang....battery light.  I limp there and take a look.  The belt is shredded so bad around the crank, I need to call a tow truck.  Here is where the fun starts.  I am researching like a mad man!  I finally stumble on an obscure post that says the alternator pulley is only compatible with the same manufacturer that made the alternator. Guess what?  During my car's year (1998) depending on the date it left the line, it could have a Valeo alternator, or a Bosch alternator.  Autozone sold me a reman Bosch.  I looked at my old one and it was a Valeo.  The Valeo pulley is not compatible with a Bosch alternator. Stinko!!!!

Now what do I do?  I need my baby back on the road.   I do what any reasonable geek will do and go to the internet.  I had several recommendations for this site that remanufactures and sells alternators. Alternator Pros is a first class business.  I wanted to make sure they could sell me what I needed so I gave them a call.  They were very helpful and did agree that the pulleys are not compatible and that they do indeed sell alternators with pulleys attached.  I purchased one and put it on the car and my problems are gone.  Lesson learned.  If you need a good replacement alternator, go to Alternator Pros.  Hopefully this will help other E36 owners.  Remember....save money and stay geeky.


You are right: you don’t have to comment or share, but do it anyway; I love hearing from you!