Mounty71's 4x4 Long Travel Build

My pride and joy, the Mounty:

Video:

It's a 2000 Mercury Mountaineer. I acquired this fine vehicle in 2003 with just 32,410 miles on the ticker, and it was in pristine condition, having been driven by an elderly couple, and always serviced regularly at the same dealership it was delivered to from the factory.

This thing has gone through a series of different suspension setups, but currently it has:
Solo Motorsports 4" extended D35 TTB with D44 outers, and custom radius arms
2.5x12" King coilovers with 2.5x12" secondary King reservoir shocks
4WD conversion with BW4406 manual transfer case
2.5x18" rear King shocks outboard of the frame
custom ordered Deaver leaf springs with 12" 2AM Fab shackles
Full-width 8.8 rear with stock disc brakes, Blue Torch Fab diff cover/truss
4.56 gears front and rear, lunchbox front locker, limited slip rear
roll cage through dash and firewall to engine cage

(previous front suspension setup)
Long Travel front end 5" wider per side with 2.5x8" Sway Away coilovers, Dixon Bros. shock hoops
2.0x2" King bumpstops
Full heim steering
3" Procomp lift spindles
homemade lower rear A-arm crossbrace, lower A-arm mount weld-washers, upper A-arm gussets
8" limit straps
removed swaybar

(performance)
MAC performance muffler with turn down tip
MAC performance intake

(exterior)
front bumper with removable light bar, with 4 Hella 4000 55w HID conversions
custom rear receiver and swing out spare tire carrier w/ gas can
clear corners
McNeil fiberglass fenders
removed running boards
5.0 emblems
color-matched grill surround with mesh grill
clear LED light in rear bumper

(random)
ABS defeat switch
Icom race radio
recovered center console in black
fog lamp-hi beam mod
added tie-downs in cargo area
rear hatch interior handle
4x4 Ranger front towhooks
driveshaft "loop"


COMING NEXT
3-link rear suspenion
add 2.5 or 3.0x18" King bypass shocks to the rear
switch front smooth body shocks for 2.5 or 3.0x12" King bypasses
rear fiberglass
35s

Newly lifted on 31 BFG M/Ts:

After its first offroading:

Almost stock:

 

[mounty71]

And sean, any idea on the valving i posted above?

 

[carlover]

they are pretty much just what you have, just 5x5.5 lug pattern, and not very deep which is why my track width is 83.5 now/

for the valving ill have too see what bilstiens funky numbers are. but rebound as light as you can.

 

[mounty71]

for the valving ill have too see what bilstiens funky numbers are. but rebound as light as you can.

Thanks, i also PMed a guy on DR who works for bilstein so i can get at least a good starting point with them.

As for the springs, the stock springs are out and the nationals are in temporarily with the axle sitting on them. I have 1 out of 4 u-bolts on, they're 5/8" so i had to drill out the spring plates, but they're still tough to get in the spring plates. Shoulda just got stock diameter u-bolts. Then i realized that one pack's centering pin nut is too big for the spring plate, and i have no way to make the hole bigger right now, so i can't do anything else until i figure that out tomorrow. I still have a long way to go because i'll need to take the springs back off to take out a couple of leafs to lower the ride height, and probably have to move the front spring hanger back too.

As of now it looks like i might need a longer brake line and bigger bump stops, and i will need to get new limit straps.

 

[mounty71]

Lots more progress today. Sorry for the long post, but it was a pretty successful day for me.

Had the truck sitting on its own weight by about 10 AM, and even moved it back and forth a few feet to move into a new position. It is very close to the same ride height it was before, and with all 12 leafs in the pack. That's also w/o a spare, cargo, or the rear bumper that i eventually want to build. Wasn't sure whether i'd need the warrior shackles or my stock shackles, so i cycled everything and the warriors are the only way to go. Figured out i need 19" limit straps, 4.75ish" bump stops (compressed) or else i can lower my stock bump stops. I also needed to remove my hitch for the shackles to swing back.

I'm bumping it when the main leaf is flat, so my 32s wont rub the fenders, and the driveshaft hasn't plunged all the way into the transmission at this point. I'm limiting droop to a point also where the driveshaft hasn't plunged all the way into the transmission. So i'm hoping this means i don't need to move the front spring hangers back. My rear wheels have moved forward about an inch.

Overall it looks like i'm only getting 11" wheel travel max, which is less than i was expecting. I might get a bit more if the front spring hangers are moved back, but i don't want to do that at this point if i don't need to. And with my 12" shocks, i probably wouldn't be able to get much more anyway.

So tomorrow i will figure out where shocks need to be, and then put the springs back together and tighten everything down. I'm going to try to use the stock lower mounts on the spring plates, and will have to figure out how and where to build upper mounts.

 

[mounty71]

I don't even know if people are reading these updates, but i'm going to continue posting them anyway. So i thought i was going to finish last night, but i was having trouble welding one of the upper shock tabs into place (i'm trying to make it look good, not all booger welded). So i have three tabs in place. Then after i was done for the night a couple of friends convinced me i should just move the front spring hangers back now while it's all apart, and i kind of agree. So i'm going to do that today, and hopefully that wont take forever to drill out all of the rivets.

Also, somebody i contacted from bilstein is sending me new valving shim stacks for my shocks free of charge. Oh, the wonderful benefits of being on an internet forum. They'll be valved for 255/70 as a starting point, and then tuned from there.

 

[FROADER]

Good choice on doing the front hangers now. Otherwise (in my case) it wouldn't have been done for a loooong time.

 

[carlover]

good choice on the hangers. I never bothered because my ultimate plan was links, i just set up max bump, max droop and slapped in the 18's. i got somewhere around 15" if i remember right.

 

[section525]

I'm weading and waiting for pics!

 

[mounty71]

Quick question...can somebody tell me what an acceptable amount of slip shaft (not sure what else to call it) on the front of the driveshaft should be sticking out of the transmission at ride height? This is pertaining to the distance between the flange and the output of the trans. This is what i have after moving the spring hangers back, but it looks a little long to me. Before i moved them back, at ride height the flange on the left was about 1/4" from the black rubber part between 2" and 3".

 

[mounty71]

I found this image when i googled "explorer driveshaft" and it looks like i have enough of it in the trans that it should be ok. Confirmation?

 

[cybergasm]

reading but have nothing to add here, unless you want us to spam your thread with useless stuff? :

 

[mounty71]

Nobody? If someone could just go measure it on their own cars, that would help a lot.

 

[mounty71]

Bump, can anybody offer advice?

 

[mounty71]

Truck's back together. Drove it. I'm exhausted. Will update tomorrow. Goodnight.

 

[mounty71]

I love the way it drives so far, speed bumps don't feel like they are going to break your back anymore! I still need to do a few things:

charge the shocks
revalve the shocks
get a longer brake line
get longer bump stops or space the stock ones down
trim u-bolts
reinstall the swaybar (will only keep it on for street driving)

I was able to reuse my 14" limit straps by using an existing hole in the frame, so i'm saving $ there. And i also was able to reuse the stock lower shock mounts. I thought i was going to need to make a crossmember for the upper shock mouns, but i was able to just weld tabs onto the existing crossmember. And because i didn't need to lean the shocks back, i think i'll be able to keep the spare under the floor for now, until i either get a 32" spare, or move up to 33s, or unless the shock reservoirs don't allow enough room.

I wanted to do as much work as possible, but my roommate ended up doing most of the welding. Because of my driveshaft issue, we decided to weld the front spring mounts on to get the best setup, so i wouldn't have to drill a 3rd set of holes and weaken the frame more. So the spring hangers were moved back 7/8" in the end. We were joking that the next time those are coming off is when i link the truck, but that's probably more of a reality than a joke.

Almost bump:

Almost droop: (couldn't jack it up high enough to get the tires off the ground)

Ride height: (this was before relocating the spring hangers)

 

[mounty71]

So i'm having trouble finding an extended rear brake line for these trucks. Can't find a thread that has an answer about whether a 91-94 brake line would work. And i don't want stainless braided because that just adds to the cost.

 

[carlover]

unbolt the bracket that holds the line to the frame. Thats all i had to do and it was enough extra slack.

 

[mounty71]

I did that, the bracket is hanging below the frame now, but it seems like it is pulled kinda tight, and when stretched it pulls on the hard line where it meets the frame. I wanted to replace it with a longer one just to be safe, but maybe i'll save the money.

 

[mounty71]

Small update on the rearend. I finally lowered the stock bumpstops so i wont be bottoming out the shocks.

Also, you can see in the background that i trimmed the bracket for the brake line.

 

[section525]

Dood you need some penetration in a bad way there.