Where to order shock and leaf spring brackets?

[njdriver02]

Want to weld leaf spring mounting brackets and shock brackets to swap in a 8.8 rear? Who sells them online?

 

[rangertoy]

www.ballisticfabrication.com

 

[njdriver02]

cool found the 3.25in perch with the 2.5 inch leaf diameter and the replacement u bolts.. still looking for the shock mount, where did you guy get ones that work??

 

[kennykenny]

Support one of our vendors here at TRS. www.ruffstuffspecialties.com and look up the 8.8 simple swap kit, it has everything you need to do the swap, u-bolts, u-bolt plates, perches, and shock tabs.

 

[scotts90ranger]

spring pads are $20 on TRS Fab and offroad, for shock tabs, cut the ones off of your old axle, if you use a cutoff wheel on a grinder it'll probably have the right radius for the larger tube on the explorer 8.8... for U bolts I went to the junk yard and found a 4x4 F150 with an 8.8 and grabbed the spring plates and U bolts (I know, shouldn't reuse U bolts, but I'm not in the rust belt and they are beefy)

 

[njdriver02]

thought about cutting them off but i figured it might get messy.. anyone powercoat the entire rear end before installing it?

 

[njdriver02]

got the 8.8 for $150 from 01 v6 explorer with 4.10 ratio. will have to crack it open tomorrow, guy at the yard said all explorers come with the limited slip.. didn't know that.. nobb question does my 2.3L have one?? my apologizes inadvance.

 

[scotts90ranger]

the guy at the junkyard is wrong, but not too far off, about 1/2 to 2/3 of the explorers came with a limited slip, and it is very rare for a 2 wheel drive 4 cylinder ranger to get a limited slip, it would have to have been a custom ordered setup

 

[njdriver02]

Do you think a 4.10 with 31 or 32s, won't be too tall for my 2.3?

Second questions will the ranger rear sway bar brackets bolt to the 8.8 without any problems. My roush sway bar kit came in, now I'm wondering..

 

[scotts90ranger]

31's will be doable, but you'll use 4th more than you do now (unless you have gone bigger tires than stock on your current gearing) 32's and you'll want 4.56's most likely