My 91 Explorer build......finally.

[Sunk]

Looks good man. Good explorer to start with for cheap... Keep an eye on that cross member under the motor where the drop bracket mounts. I did the identical modification to my brackets and cross member and a couple months later after some regular weekend wheeling and the cross member had a good size crack going through it. Ofcourse nothing a heavy weld couldn't fix. But yeah just something to watch for. Once again nice EX so far..

Thanks, I'll definitely have to watch out for that!

I did the same lift on my 87' ranger (that is if it is a 4in. lift). what a pain in the ass that was. I bought the kit second hand and the guy said it was for a b2 or ranger. ended up having to modify the shit out of the kit. the arms were just long enough that we had to build a custom tranny cross member. I am glad to see that the arms are actually rancho. I couldn't find any info on the kit. I am currently running 30x9.50x15's on the truck and the tires rub on the radius arms when turning sharp. I want to upgrade to 32x11.50x15's but don't want it to rub really bad. Any suggestions?

Try running different off-set wheels. I'm running my old spare on the passenger front and it rubs a little when turned hard, but none of the others do.

 

[longtravel87]

thanks. and by the way, that is one nice lookin' explorer. hopefully the setup will work out good for you.

 

[Sunk]

Got a good deal on some decent tires today.. Gotta get them mounted up, pics later.

 

[Sunk]

There are 2 decent ones there, I got for $40 each, the other 2 were free, lol. I also picked up a set of close to bald BFG ATs for spare and to complete a buddy's set. I'm running one of them on the rear til I go back to Seattle this weekend and get the other wheel that matches these.... Dunno why I didn't just take it when I moved.

I like this gearing a lot better, now I'm not almost ready to shift to 3rd by the time I cross an intersection from a stop.

 

[Sunk]

Picked up another pair of 33x12.5 Bronco STDs from a guy a friend bought a bike from, and they have better tread. I'll run them on the front so I stand a chance of turning with the locker, lol.

The gearing is nice around town, but it' a bit much on the freeway. I'm at 3000 RPM and what I think is 60. I'm not entirely sure how accurate my speedo was to begin with, but everybody passes me on the freeway. 35s are in the back corners of my mind as a possibility, but I don't really want to go much higher. I'll see how stable it is when I swap on my other set of wheels, they'll make up for running the narrower rear axle. An alignment will help too, I know the toe is still off a little bit.

I'll be working next week, so more updates after that. Until then, it sits like it is in the last picture. I ripped the passenger brake line when the axles drooped with the wheel turned when I was out playing Thursday....

 

[jpistheman]

what haven't i seen this rig around here?

were those pictures taken at rieter?

 

[Hahnsb2]

Picked up another pair of 33x12.5 Bronco STDs from a guy a friend bought a bike from, and they have better tread. I'll run them on the front so I stand a chance of turning with the locker, lol.

The gearing is nice around town, but it' a bit much on the freeway. I'm at 3000 RPM and what I think is 60. I'm not entirely sure how accurate my speedo was to begin with, but everybody passes me on the freeway. 35s are in the back corners of my mind as a possibility, but I don't really want to go much higher. I'll see how stable it is when I swap on my other set of wheels, they'll make up for running the narrower rear axle. An alignment will help too, I know the toe is still off a little bit.

I'll be working next week, so more updates after that. Until then, it sits like it is in the last picture. I ripped the passenger brake line when the axles drooped with the wheel turned when I was out playing Thursday....

With 33s you should be less than 2400 RPMs at 60 with your 4.56s...

 

[Sunk]

what haven't i seen this rig around here?

were those pictures taken at rieter?

No those pictures were taken just outside the Bellingham city limits...

With 33s you should be less than 2400 RPMs at 60 with your 4.56s...

Hmm, my speedo must have been farther off than I originally though... Either way everybody still passes me, and I'm at 3,000 RPM. Gotta adjust the driving style I guess.

 

[dburton07]

Nice lookin ex.

 

[Sunk]

I'm pretty sure my tach is off, if that's possible. I know the ratios and what not for everything else, and they're right. I kinda thought that before I bought it, but figured it couldn't be so I ignored it. I've also noticed it never reads below 1000 RPM, even when idling warm. I'll put a tach tester on it in the next couple days and see what it says.

Fixed the brake line I tore last week.

I like having a place up the street that can make whatever I need. That one should be long enough, lol.

 

[Roger]

I'm really interested about why the Tuff Country brackets fit the Ranger, but not the EX. Reason I'm interested? I'm probably going to do the same swap soon when I pull the Tuff Coutry stuff off my Ranger to get the D30 SAS under the Ranger. (D30 not strong enough for the weight of the EX in my opinion)

 

[Sunk]

They fit OK on the Ranger, but not that well. When I pulled them, it was obvious where they didn't line up. I set out to make sure everything was right when I started this build, so a little fab to get them to fit wasn't unreasonable. If you've got a welder, it's not difficult to make them fit, just time consuming.

 

[Totalled]

The tachs in the explorers aren't that accurate. Mine says 3,000 rpm @70 in 5th and I have 3.73s and 31s... Mine seems to run about 200-400 rpm fast.

Great build so far. I was planning on using the Tuff Country lift on my explorer when I sas my BII.. might just buy SJ brackets now..

 

[Sunk]

That's good to know. How do they work anyway? I'm not too familiar with coil pack engines... I wasn't quite sure how I'd hook up the tach tester, but I guess I just need a POS and a NEG wire. Shouldn't be too hard.

Looking back, when I bought the TC brackets I was being pretty cheap. I had just dumped a ton of money into the alxes and everything else, so I should have just kept spending. I think TRS Fab & Off-Road has the SJ brackets for about $230. I think I paid $175 for these.

 

[mjonesjr]

What size tires are in this picture on the Explorer?