axle swap to drop interchangability question

[pontiacfieroguy]

a friend of mine has a 93 explorer automatic 4wd and is willing to trade me axles from my 89 2wd 5spd ranger. I know the ujoint is differnt and that my axle is spring over and his is spring under but I want a drop and he wants the lift. is there any way to swap them with little to no cash outlay? I posted this in the axle section but then realized maby the minitruck section might be a better fit so please forgive the double post

 

[stegomon]

his sploder is a 8.8 your ranger is a 7.5. it should mount in ok with some mods. you will have to deal with the rear shocks. and make sure that his and your gear ratio is the same...if not...BOOM

 

[kryptonitecb]

If you're doing a straight axle swap without touching the internals you don't really need to worry bout gearing IF DOING 2WD TO 2WD. Since he has 4wd your buddy must make sure the gearing for the front and rear axles are the same. However as a warning, don't swap the guts from each others axle, they are different. Other than shock lengths everything should bolt up if the brakes are the same(both disk or both drum).

Sent from the road while ignoring traffic

 

[pontiacfieroguy]

his 4wd doesn't work because he is too cheap to replace bad hubs and it needs a trans so he me told I could canabalize whatever parts I want including the 4.0 if I feel like dealing with 12mpg. with the available parts between the two vehicles could I deàl with the flange/ujoint incompatability ssue and still and make my truck work? his truck working isn't important bc it will probably go to the scrapyard soon. is it possible to mount the shocks without changing the mounts since ill be taking the plate that the spring mounts to at the axle? sorry I'm just new to the lowrider scene and usually prefer lifted 4wd but am starting to like lowered trucks

 

[stmitch]

To use the shock mounts from the explorer, you'll need two passenger side plates, and you just reverse one so that it faces the right way for your shocks. The expo axle is probably wider than yours as well, so it may affect how low you can drop the truck.

 

[kryptonitecb]

Wider by 1" on each side which puts the front and rear axles at the same width.

IIRC the flanges are the same but since his is 4x4 it will be shorter.

I would take the 4.0, he might get 12mpg but his explorer is a bit heavier. So in theory you should get better. If not you still have a 4.0 in your truck

Sent from the road while ignoring traffic

 

[pontiacfieroguy]

Wider by 1" on each side which puts the front and rear axles at the same width.

IIRC the flanges are the same but since his is 4x4 it will be shorter.

I would take the 4.0, he might get 12mpg but his explorer is a bit heavier. So in theory you should get better. If not you still have a 4.0 in your truck

Sent from the road while ignoring traffic

I'm planning to build a high compression high rpm screamer 2.3 after I take care of the susension and id like to keep the weight as low as possible so I'm not really to intersted in the bigger motor for this project but as soon as I get another welder I'm thinking of trying to build a 2wd buggy kinda like a sand rail just to play around in and that would be a great donor motor but that's another project long down the road, my fab skills are decent but ive got a ways to go on the mechanicin skills before that dream becomes a reality. its funny the more I learn about working on cars the more I learn that I don't know half as much as I thought I did when I was younger.

 

[JoshT]

I like the way you think there buddy. I got a fresh 2.8L in an 84 I totaled. I don't want to scrap the motor and I've been thinking of building a sand rail around it. Thinking of something like the Chenowth DPV that the military uses, except as a standard 2 or 4 seater not that odd 3 seat arrangement they use.

 

[pontiacfieroguy]

I'm thinking much smaller than a chenworth, as close to gocart size as possible. I figure 200hp+/- in something weighing around 1200-1500lbs max could be fun and tubing is cheap enough. super short wheelbase like transmission almost connected directly to rearend short.

 

[JoshT]

That size you are probably talking sub 1000lbs. With a standard VW based rail, you are probably looking at 1200lbs at the heavy end.

I'm leaning more towards a light weight, street legal, fun to drive hunting buggy. Basically your standard sandrail (with a little more beef on the frame), except instead of big-n-littles run a 31"-33" tire front and rear have it set up so bottom of frame is just above or at center line of tire. And of course a mid mounted 2.8L V6 instead of a rear mounted VW engine. It would be smooth on bottom so it would easily push itself ig it ever gets close to high sided, and I'd make a removable cabin enclosure so I could run it during the colder months as well (not that it gets very cold here in GA).

 

[pontiacfieroguy]

That size you are probably talking sub 1000lbs. With a standard VW based rail, you are probably looking at 1200lbs at the heavy end.

I'm leaning more towards a light weight, street legal, fun to drive hunting buggy. Basically your standard sandrail (with a little more beef on the frame), except instead of big-n-littles run a 31"-33" tire front and rear have it set up so bottom of frame is just above or at center line of tire. And of course a mid mounted 2.8L V6 instead of a rear mounted VW engine. It would be smooth on bottom so it would easily push itself ig it ever gets close to high sided, and I'd make a removable cabin enclosure so I could run it during the colder months as well (not that it gets very cold here in GA).

I'm a redneck not an engineer so I usually overbuild everything and I'm a 300 pounder so I was taking that into account. got any ideas for a good donor front suspension? it will be awhile before I start on anything like this but its never too early to start collecting parts

 

[JoshT]

Exactly what type of use did you have in mind? Honestly that'll be the biggest deciding factor on type of suspension. The two most common on sand rails is the VW torsion beam, and the long travel a-arm style. If you'll be doing simple dirt road driving the torsion beam would work fine, IMO it's be more than enough for mild offroading as well. If you'll be driving and jumping it like they do in the dunes you'll probably want to build a long travel suspension.

For what I have in mind, I'd using the torsion beam. Most of my off road use would be on rough dirt roads, logging roads, and skidder roads. Got no interest in, or desire to jump any vehicle. Sure high speed over rough terrain would be fun, but we don't really have areas open enough for that around here. If the torsion beam handles what the military uses it for well enough than I think it'll work fine for me.

EDIT: Guess I didn't really answer your question. The #1 donor for a dune buggy suspension would be an old VW Beetle, the standard beetle not the super beetle. It's actually convenient because if you plan to use a transaxle that is also the #1 donor of them (though a bus axle might be better for that motor, really not sure). Other than that I'm really not sure. It depends on your designs and, as mentioned above, what you plan to use it for. If it's going to be primarily off-road you might even want to think about the front suspension from a larger 2wd 4 wheeler.

 

[pontiacfieroguy]

probably 75% on road with a little open field/dirt road/ extremely light trail thrown in. don't want to do a transaxle, it will be a traditional rear drive layout. vw was my first thought on front suspension but don't know if it could handle the weight of a 4.0 up front. damn all this talk has got me missing my 65vw sand rail. I need to hurry up and find steady work again so I can get started on this soon

 

[JoshT]

I don't know. I know that most buggies with the beetle suspension run coil overs and I imagine that they could be set-up to handle the weight. The link suspension would definitely handle it. As for a making the clip from something else work, you would be building the thing from the ground up so I doubt it would be much more work to run what ever suspension you wanted.

This is what I have in mind for my own if it ever happens. Found a sand rail model in Google sketch up, modified it, printed it, traced it, and modified it some more till I got what I wanted. To give a idea of size those are supposed to be 32x11.5x15 tires I quickly made, I'd probably run a slightly shorter tire. The 32 just helps me imagine the size since that's the tire size on my newer truck. The idea is mid mounted 2.8 and push the tires to the corners, this gives most stability and best approach and departure angles available in the package. The small "truck bed" would hold spare tire or a place for camping equipment, maybe even to haul a deer if I take it hunting.

 

[doorgunner]

I'm planning to build a high compression high rpm screamer 2.3 after I take care of the susension and id like to keep the weight as low as possible so I'm not really to intersted in the bigger motor for this project but as soon as I get another welder I'm thinking of trying to build a 2wd buggy kinda like a sand rail just to play around in and that would be a great donor motor but that's another project long down the road, my fab skills are decent but ive got a ways to go on the mechanicin skills before that dream becomes a reality. its funny the more I learn about working on cars the more I learn that I don't know half as much as I thought I did when I was younger.

Repped.......for hijacking your own thread