1 Ton Explorer Sport build

[Kyle M.]

Alright, figure I would post this up. I am building this for a buddy of mine. What we have here is a 99 Explorer Sport, 4.0l, automatic, 4x4. What we are doing is a fully built Dana 60, locked, 5.38 gears, full chromo shafts, and a 14 bolt in the rear. We are going to use Fox 16" air shocks with extended and heimed radius arms (like mine), full hydro steering, and undecided on wheels and tires as of now.

here it is in the shop

Started out by pulling the old 8.8 out

The the 14 bolt swap started. We are using the ruffstuff weld on pirches to push the axle back 3". these...

I had to modify them quite a bit to fit the 14 bolt tube and on the leafs, more on that later

First we needed to decide on what we were going to use for the rear leafs because the stock sport leaf is a mono leaf. We first chose to use chevy 63's to get a stretch on it of about 6" by keeping the front hanger in the same spot. Giving us a total rear stretch of 9"

Ummm, no, that isn't going to work. The 63's gave it too much lift even without shackles on them and the stretch just looked retarded. So I decided to use the stock mono leaf, then add a ranger leaf pack to it. I am using a ruffstuff 6" shackle and it has a 3" stretch from the pirch. Just right

It got a small comp cut going on now too.

Now brings up the issues with the spring pirches. They are made to fit around a 2.5" spring like a stock ranger leaf, but the mono leaf is 3" wide so I had to slot the holes and make it work. Ended up dicking around with these thing for a few days before I got them right. All in all, next time around, I will just use standard pirches and find my stretch somewhere else.

So on to the front, I had to yank all the suspension crap out, couple hours later I a big pile of junk....

Then about 4 hours more of cutting with a cut off wheel, sawsall and hammering I have this

What is next, besides lot of grinding is to plate the frame, bend up some shock hoops, make some shock tabs, figure out how I am mounting the radius arms and then a track bar.

I will update as I get more done, thanks for looking!

 

[88_Eddie]

another 2 door EX build? geez! lol....looks cool kyle, scribed

 

[Kyle M.]

Yup....I started this one the same time as the other one, but I took a few weeks off.

 

[crawlin91]

subscribed

 

[CheapThrillB2]

And both sport builds were for the same family lol.

Follow this.....

Kyles sport build is for AL (Alboy), I put a trans in this explorer and it went directly from my shop to Kyles to get built.

My sport build is Alboy's dad AL's sport who bought it from Alboy shortly after he bought it from Kyle, which happened to be Kyles old explorer sport he dd'd for awhile.

So father and son will both have SAS sports lol.

 

[Kyle M.]

Yup, big ol switch o rue with the trucks.

 

[alboy79]

Derek Jeter sucks!

 

[railman]

Derek Jeter sucks!

you actually got that statement partially right......

it should say ALL OF BASEBALL SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!

L8R, John

 

[alboy79]

you actually got that statement partially right......

it should say Railman Sucks!!!!!!!!!!!!

L8R, John

Yea he does, but he doesnt drag his teeth, so he don't suck as bad as Derek Jeter.

 

[Kyle M.]

Lol

 

[kris97ranger]

what the hell! all these damn ex builds and we just got rid of our 93 that i decided wouldnt be too good for wheeling...

 

[Kyle M.]

Got some work done today. Started out by tearing all the parts out in the engine bay that would be in the way of the shock hoops.

Then I bent some shock hoops

After that I cut some plates out to reinforce the frame where I was going to mount the hoops. I drill a couple holes in them to get a couple good weld in the centers too

Next to hold the axle in position, I decided to do a 3 link instead of radius arms,(axle was set up for it already) so I made a set of temperary arms out of pvc. Then I tacked a link arm mount to the frame, more work to be done there. The lowers are gonna be 36" long. The upper is gonna be best fit. Looking for ideas here. Not sure if I wanna put the third link on the driver or passnger side. Exhaust or drive shaft clearance issues...

Next I started fitting the hoops. Ended up I could not fit the hoop like I wanted, ended up going to the top of the frame on the rear and the side of the frame on the front. I will add a gusset to the rear one somehow. The master cylinder was a pain to fit around, it is all close but should be alright. I got the shock tabs tacked on too

Passenger side next, it had its own issues. The ac box is huge and need to be cleared

After a few min with a cutting wheel...

Plenty of room now.

Passenger side done for now

Both sides

Still have the hoop brace to make, track bar, third link, lower shock mounts and a bunch of other stuff. Hope to be ready to have.to rolling in a week or 2.

 

[Kyle M.]

Hoping to get back out there tonight for a little bit. I think I am gonna look at putting the upper link on the driver side, maybe above the drive shaft and on top of the diff so clearance isn't a big issue. Looks like I have room beside the oil pan, just have to move some fuel lines around and clear a couple brackets welded to the inside of the frame.

 

[chrwilkins30]

scribed

 

[Kyle M.]

I think i can make the 3 link work but I am gonna pull the plug. I don't have all the parts I need to do it and I already have radius arms so f it. Radius arms work great so I am fine with that.

Now I am just waiting on parts, just a couple heims joints and trackbar stuff.

Hope to make some progress on it this weekend.