Happy Camper
November 24th, 2018, 08:41 PM
Thought I would share my progress on the 1993 Explorer.
Since my last post I’ve upgraded my Cb. I can talk from Golden to DIA now. So I’ll feel a lot more secure adventuring alone in the back country. Also I’ve trashed the automatic hubs and installed manual warn.
I wanted a mild lift without spending a fortune. Especially since I will likely have to do it all over again when I do a SAS (eventually). Just enough to give it a little more clearance and make it a little more off road capable. I bought the Superlift X132 2”coils, 2-4”front shocks, Procomp 2” add a leaf rear springs, and Moog poly radius arm bushings to get me started. Might as well replace them while I’m halfway there.
Be prepared for a workout removing the radius arm bolts. Someone must have dipped them in thread lock. It took me an hour to remove each one using a 5ft cheater bar all the way out using my legs to push and my back to the wall. A little tip, on the driver side you can pop out the top of the coil spring, and remove the radius arm bushing nut then use a cable hoist to pull it forward enough to replace the bushing. On the passenger side that will not work as the axle will prevent it from going forward far enough to change the bushing. Once the bushings were in it only took about 15 minutes to install the new springs and shocks. I threw both sway bars in the scrap heap.
Installing the add a leaf rear springs was gravy. I just c clamped the rear of the spring pack and cut the center bolt. The new springs come with longer bolts. I elected to get rid of the 1/2” flat factory overload spring to hopefully gain some flexibility. When I was taking the rear shocks off the lower bolts snapped right off so I dug through my bucket-o-bolts and found some grade 8 replacements.
Once everything was reassembled I drove it about 1/8th of a mile to settle everything in then pulled it back in the garage to take measurements. I had gained 4”in front and 1.5 in back. After a lunch break and a lot of head scratching I decided to get some Monroe spring assist rear shocks hoping they wouldn’t stiffen it up too much and would put the rear where I wanted it. They brought up the back up another 1.5” and pushed the front down 1” giving me a perfect 3” all the way around. To my surprise the ride is amazing and super flexy. It feels like an off road 4x4 now. Once I got the ride height correct I put a degree finder on to see how much camber it needed. 3.5 degree camber bushings put me right on factory specs. Total cost for parts $575. No kit required. Put in another $80 for an alignment and I’m trail ready.
Since my last post I’ve upgraded my Cb. I can talk from Golden to DIA now. So I’ll feel a lot more secure adventuring alone in the back country. Also I’ve trashed the automatic hubs and installed manual warn.
I wanted a mild lift without spending a fortune. Especially since I will likely have to do it all over again when I do a SAS (eventually). Just enough to give it a little more clearance and make it a little more off road capable. I bought the Superlift X132 2”coils, 2-4”front shocks, Procomp 2” add a leaf rear springs, and Moog poly radius arm bushings to get me started. Might as well replace them while I’m halfway there.
Be prepared for a workout removing the radius arm bolts. Someone must have dipped them in thread lock. It took me an hour to remove each one using a 5ft cheater bar all the way out using my legs to push and my back to the wall. A little tip, on the driver side you can pop out the top of the coil spring, and remove the radius arm bushing nut then use a cable hoist to pull it forward enough to replace the bushing. On the passenger side that will not work as the axle will prevent it from going forward far enough to change the bushing. Once the bushings were in it only took about 15 minutes to install the new springs and shocks. I threw both sway bars in the scrap heap.
Installing the add a leaf rear springs was gravy. I just c clamped the rear of the spring pack and cut the center bolt. The new springs come with longer bolts. I elected to get rid of the 1/2” flat factory overload spring to hopefully gain some flexibility. When I was taking the rear shocks off the lower bolts snapped right off so I dug through my bucket-o-bolts and found some grade 8 replacements.
Once everything was reassembled I drove it about 1/8th of a mile to settle everything in then pulled it back in the garage to take measurements. I had gained 4”in front and 1.5 in back. After a lunch break and a lot of head scratching I decided to get some Monroe spring assist rear shocks hoping they wouldn’t stiffen it up too much and would put the rear where I wanted it. They brought up the back up another 1.5” and pushed the front down 1” giving me a perfect 3” all the way around. To my surprise the ride is amazing and super flexy. It feels like an off road 4x4 now. Once I got the ride height correct I put a degree finder on to see how much camber it needed. 3.5 degree camber bushings put me right on factory specs. Total cost for parts $575. No kit required. Put in another $80 for an alignment and I’m trail ready.