Hi, I'm new to the forums, but not new to tinkering on Ford's. Unfortunately I've found a dud and I'm here to share the bad news. If you're reading this, you're either experiencing issues or soon will be. Here's my story...
About a year ago, my neighbor who works at a body shop called me and asked if I wanted a cheap car. A co-worker of his had a 2006 Explorer EB 4.0L that had some broken chain guides. They started disassembly and realized the engine needs pulled so they stopped and wanted to sell. I couldn't pass it up for $300.
I got it home and pulled the engine. I ended up doing a full rebuild after finding that #6 had filled with a bit of water and left some pitting. After buttoning up the engine, I pushed the Explorer into my garage to prepare for reinstall and something caught my eye. The electrical connector for the fan clutch had some exposed wires right behind the connector. I found this odd. I've worked on several Fords of this vintage from F-150's and Expedition's but never an electrical issue like this. All 5 wires were bare, about an inch behind the connector and showing about 3/4"of exposed copper. I took some pictures and looked around at local uPick scrap yards and found some potential donors. I needed a few other items as well as some pictures of how everything needs to go back together as I wasn't the one that did the early disassembly.
At the yard I found 2 donors and low and behold, both had the same issue. That's weird. I ended up cutting the pigtails off the donors thinking I'll practice depinning and repair. New pigtails are available from Ford for $50 each. Ick.
I come home and figure out how to depin the connector and get to work. I start tearing back the tape and split loom and it gets worse. I begin inspecting other connections on the harness and just about every connector has the same issue. Just behind the connector, the insulation is cracked and dry rotted, most likely from movement during previous maintenance or repairs.
Apparently the wire supplied to make these harnesses is junk. If it hasn't failed yet, it soon will. Any maintenance you do on one part may disturb the connections elsewhere leading to more problems. If your Explorer runs now but has an issue, my recommendation is drive it until it quits. Anything you do to disturb the harness will cause more issues sending you down the barrel of the parts cannon.
New harnesses are NLA (no longer available). I'll attach some pictures of my findings. I'm still debating a rewire just because the car is so nice and the price was so cheap. I can just as easily cut bait and move on. I wanted to share what I found and prepare the rest of the owners of the '06-'10 (could be more) for the impending doom.
Most pictures are of my harness, the last is from a random donor in the junk yard.
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Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk
About a year ago, my neighbor who works at a body shop called me and asked if I wanted a cheap car. A co-worker of his had a 2006 Explorer EB 4.0L that had some broken chain guides. They started disassembly and realized the engine needs pulled so they stopped and wanted to sell. I couldn't pass it up for $300.
I got it home and pulled the engine. I ended up doing a full rebuild after finding that #6 had filled with a bit of water and left some pitting. After buttoning up the engine, I pushed the Explorer into my garage to prepare for reinstall and something caught my eye. The electrical connector for the fan clutch had some exposed wires right behind the connector. I found this odd. I've worked on several Fords of this vintage from F-150's and Expedition's but never an electrical issue like this. All 5 wires were bare, about an inch behind the connector and showing about 3/4"of exposed copper. I took some pictures and looked around at local uPick scrap yards and found some potential donors. I needed a few other items as well as some pictures of how everything needs to go back together as I wasn't the one that did the early disassembly.
At the yard I found 2 donors and low and behold, both had the same issue. That's weird. I ended up cutting the pigtails off the donors thinking I'll practice depinning and repair. New pigtails are available from Ford for $50 each. Ick.
I come home and figure out how to depin the connector and get to work. I start tearing back the tape and split loom and it gets worse. I begin inspecting other connections on the harness and just about every connector has the same issue. Just behind the connector, the insulation is cracked and dry rotted, most likely from movement during previous maintenance or repairs.
Apparently the wire supplied to make these harnesses is junk. If it hasn't failed yet, it soon will. Any maintenance you do on one part may disturb the connections elsewhere leading to more problems. If your Explorer runs now but has an issue, my recommendation is drive it until it quits. Anything you do to disturb the harness will cause more issues sending you down the barrel of the parts cannon.
New harnesses are NLA (no longer available). I'll attach some pictures of my findings. I'm still debating a rewire just because the car is so nice and the price was so cheap. I can just as easily cut bait and move on. I wanted to share what I found and prepare the rest of the owners of the '06-'10 (could be more) for the impending doom.
Most pictures are of my harness, the last is from a random donor in the junk yard.
Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk
