[94cobra69ss396]

I've had a vibration in the rearend of the Explorer for a little while now that I thought was from the carrier bearings. So Saturday I picked up some new bearings and pulled it apart to replace them. When I got the carrier out I saw that a tooth on the pinion is chipped. So I'm going to have to order new gears and rebuild it.

While it was down I figured it was a good time to replace the leaking valve cover gaskets, which requires removing the upper intake. However, that also means that I have to remove a bunch of other stuff as well. One of those happens to be the EGR tube. While trying to remove it the nut on the header side was a little hard to turn. I soaked it with some liquid wrench and let it sit for a few minutes and then worked it back and forth. As I did I discovered that it was actually twisting the tube on the header and not turning the nut. The only way to get it off was to continue twisting the tube until it broke off.

So after I finished replacing the valve cover gasket I spent yesterday making a new tube to weld onto the header. I cut the old one off of the factory header and then fitted a tube between it and the header. It is really tight space where it is so getting it held and tacked in place was difficult. After I tacked it I removed the header and welded it up and then put it all back together. Everything lined up perfect (which wouldn't have happened for Guy so I guess I'm having better luck) and at least it will be stronger now.