Ultra cheap offroad race Explorer turned rock crawler

[Shran]

A bit more progress - I finally have my plasma table working correctly, IE not cutting beveled edges on parts, thanks to a buddy of mine. I cut some tabs for the drag link to tie rod spot, and made a mockup drag link out of a piece of pipe. Now that I know the angles on that piece, I started working on the frame side track bar bracket. I have the frame plated with 1/4" and one of the brackets cut out - the rear bracket will be slightly different - once I have that tacked together I can build the axle mount, that part should be fairly easy. Then once I'm happy with where all that lands, I am going to cut the upper & lower link material to length and get those tacked together so I can cycle the suspension and get a measurement for coilovers.

 

[Shran]

I got a few more brackets cut out over the weekend - frame track bar mount is tacked together, axle mount is partially assembled. Both of these will get a bunch more gussets but I'm holding off on that until I get the bump stop mounts and lower shock brackets built so that I don't run out of room for those. I got a length on the drag link and am having my buddy thread me another piece of DOM for that. Once I get that in place I may rotate the mounts on the tie rod a bit, I ended up pushing the track bar back towards the axle. They are the same length and parallel to each other but I think it'll look/function better if I rotate the drag link mounts about 5 degrees.

 

[Shran]

I cut my upper & lower link material to length over the weekend and tacked the threaded bungs into them, then assembled the drag link and put it all together. My front driveshaft bolts in easily and I think it'll be good enough. I did a bunch of suspension cycling and landed on what I think will work OK - I can have the rotors almost touching the floor at the point where the pinion u-joint starts to bind. I can make that better if I clearance the yoke a bit. I can make it a lot better if I lengthen the upper link but then my caster goes away and the track bar hits the diff cover. I feel like I should have more pinion angle at full droop but I guess it is what it is, I also need caster at ride height... it's set for about 6-7 degrees positive right now and 10 degrees at full bump.

It is nerve wracking cutting $300+ worth of tube. Measure twice cut once goes straight out the window. It's really measure 14 times and then stop halfway through a cut to re-measure cuz I'm second guessing it.

A little motivation, I haven't had the front tires on it for months. I am super pleased with the right height right where it's at in the front. I think that should give me about 3-4" of uptravel and at least 6" down, depending on the coilovers I end up with. The passenger side tire clears everything at full bump/both sides and with the driver's side at full droop I will just have some very minor trimming to do. Rear needs to come up about 2-3".

 

[Shran]

Waiting on a few parts to arrive so I decided to work on the rear. I removed the leaf springs and replaced them with some newer aftermarket 4 door springs, new bushings, and a set of lift shackles that I robbed off a parts truck. This gained me the 2" of height I needed. The bushings were really bad and the stock shackles had holes rusted through them so I'm glad I did it regardless.

Next on the rear is a disc brake conversion. I am using pre 1978 GM truck calipers, Ruff Stuff brackets, and F150/Bronco rotors. Couple of little technical issues I ran into with parts already - the GM brake hoses that match the caliper application are not going to work. The brake line end is a male fitting and female would be way more ideal so I found some that are for an '85 Buick Riviera that are supposed to be better - we will see.

Secondly the Ford rotors have a hub attached to them normally so the lug stud holes are too big. The usual fix for that is little pieces of pipe that fit around the studs so that the rotor stays centered. That is janky as hell I think. I hope this is helpful to someone else - I found some that are for a late 70's F150, front, 2wd that have a longer and wider shoulder but the serrated part is the same diameter. I put all five on and there is a TINY hair of play in the rotor but not enough for me to worry about. Dorman part number 610-148.