Mark VIII front suspension swap?

Has anyone done it? Brian (slammedXonair) any insite from you on this would be greatly appriciated!!! :notworthy I picked up a 95 Mark VIII as a transplant donor for my 93 Ex the thread for that is here http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2402189#post2402189 So I'm going to try and keep these 2 threads as seperate as possible as per forum rules. While trying to figure a way to install the engine I kept thinking that there must be a way to section in the entire front sub frame, suspension, cross members ect one shot and not only end up with a much better front suspension but also incorporate the engine craddle since the 2 subrames are bolted together and seem to work very nicely clearance wise. My thought was possibly modify the entire front frame rails from the firewall forward, strip everything bare of all stock suspension components, engine crossmember, steering ect and modify the rails to allow the Lincoln sub frame to essentially bolt up into place. If need be I'm prepared to cut the frame at the front cab mounts and rebuild from scratch, which honestly may be the easier rt to go from the start. If I'm able to tackle this all correctly I'd end up with a factory air ride compatible system with IRS and the steering and suspension designed for this specific drivetrain I'm swapping into my Ex. I'll probably drop a couple hundred bucks and just get the coil spring conversion for the lincoln for now and next season go all out with aftermarket bags, lines, and compressor rather than attempt to figure out how Ford wired their system. I can always recoop some of my money by selling off the entire stock air ride to another lincoln owner I'll be swapping in the rear too obviously but I'm not very concerned with that end, there's a lot less potential for problems back there and I know thats been done before.

I have no idea how the front suspension on those are setup but the IRS is a good one for sure.

slammedxonair said:

I have no idea how the front suspension on those are setup but the IRS is a good one for sure.

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its set up like a front wheel drive taurus...

The layout is very very similar to a FWD car.
the spindles, hubs, ect look just like FWD crap.
there is even a space left open where the front drive axles would be.

Keep in mind the upper control arms, while are very strong for their spindly size but they are very very "dainty"

hope this helps

Twisted1 said:

rather than attempt to figure out how Ford wired their system.

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it's a very complicated system in its native format.
BUT.. it's very very simplistic.

12V opens the soleniods AT the bags to allow air into them
12V turns the compressor on
12V opens and shuts the compressor vent valve.

we wired up a stand alone system on Tiffs first mark that SVO inherited...

it'll take you about an afternoon to wire it up to work manually via switches.

You want a seperate switch for the front and rear solenoids, you dont want to try and lift/air up all 4 corners at once.
Do the fronts first, then the rears.
ALSO, you want to "not run the pump" for more than 90 seconds continually.

IF the front gets up to proper height in 30 seconds the rear will go up in 15.

The engine weight causes the front to raise slower and lower faster, so when your manually flipping the switches you have to have a good idea.. how long each end of the truck will take to raise or lower.

You could vent all 4 at the same time, but based on the above.. the front is gonna go down ALOT faster than the rear.

There is my EF contribution for the week of 02-23-2010
whoda-thunk I could post 50+ words about a mark 8's air ride..and it'd be ON TOPIC!
LMAO

again, hope this helps

Right it looks to be VERY similar to a FWD set up which is what gave me this idea of fabbing a custom frame that this sub frame could bolt into. It makes life a lot easier in some cases when you can unbolt 8 or 10 bolts and unplug a few things and have 90% of your drivetrain down and out in a couple hours. I dont think durability will be an issue since my truck is significantly lighter than any Mark out there and as for the bags, it's just one more project to have to add to this right now that I dont want to tackle right now. I'd rather run the "American springs" that I had in my 94 Mark VIII. They were inexpensive and handled amazing

Why not just go with the usual Mustang-II IFS - it has a greater after market support.

Yea I would ditch all that OEM air ride crap and get some good aftermarket components with individual corner control.

IZwack said:

Why not just go with the usual Mustang-II IFS - it has a greater after market support.

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Honestly I'd be happy with the TTB dropped, that was the origional game plan. I wasn't really too seriously considered doing anything crazy with the chasis and suspension but the motor swap could be simplified by swapping the suspension along with it. There are plenty of upgrade parts for the Mark VIII as well, enough for anything I'd need or want personally.

SlammedXonair, that was my thought too. If I do decide to bag it down the road I'd want a system I could play with a bit, not wait 90 seconds to lift the truck. I think it would loose it's "cool status" by the 45 second mark :bsnicker:
But the coil conversions they sell for these do ride and perform very well. My old Mark VIII would drift right out at 40+ mph without even the slightest lack of control and it still felt like you were sitting in a lazy boy

Ditching the IRS

I've decided to keep the solid rear axle under my Ex after listening to some personal bad experiences from a few local guys running Cobra's. The IRS is completely durable enough for the power but is very difficult to get the car launching straight consistantly. I heard of many cobra owners swapping back to a solid axle and a local guy here sold the car all together and bought a base mustang with a solid rear to build off of. So with simplicity and performance in mind The IRS is up for sale! As for the rest of it, I'll be pulling the craddle assembly out tomorrow if everything goes according to plan and I'll get some detailed pics of the set up under the car as well as once I have it removed