lowering factory control arms? | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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lowering factory control arms?

foolio

Active Member
Joined
March 21, 2003
Messages
75
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City, State
garden city, Michigan
Year, Model & Trim Level
91 ranger
well since there is no drop spindles for the explorer "except the guy modifying stock ones for alot of money" what about hacking up the lower control arms to raise the ball joint. seen it done on other trucks but never on a torsion bar truck that i can recall. i dont see any reason why it wouldnt work and/or be a safety issue but wanted to see if maybe im missing something that would cause a problem. by the way i am talking about doing it on a 2wd so no cv shafts in the way to worry about. heres an article mini truckin did a while back on a coil sprung ranger to show what i am talking about.
http://www.minitruckinweb.com/tech/...on_2001_ford_ranger_control_arm/photo_11.html
 



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lol yeah i seen the same thing and tried it, only i narrowed mine 2" also. not sure if me raising and narrowing the arms was what was wrong but i can personally say mine rode like
CRAP!!!! It felt like it had a see saw affect like the truck wanted to roll over on itself, albeit it didn't have a swaybar or shocks only bags but no matter, I put some factory arms back on and it was good...
 






when you put the factory arms back on did you also still have no shocks or sway bar? the reason i started thinking about this is because i didnt wanna ruin the ride by messsing with the torsion bar. i thought in theory it should ride and handle like stock. also why and how did you narrow yours?
 






I narrowed it to try to compensate for the camber curve, I just cut the front of the control arm with the ball joint off and cut 1 3/4" off the length of the control arm then replated and gussetted it with 1/4" plate and again it was a failure... I can say that if you raise the lower balljoint, it will make the upper control arm have a different angle, which changes the camber curve drastically, but on a static dropped truck it may not be that noticeable...
 






that one in the article looks scary to me, he only gusseted the lower side , but not the top,,
 






that one in the article looks scary to me, he only gusseted the lower side , but not the top,,
yeah i planned to gusset the top if i did it, and with being 2wheel drive torsion bar i could gusset the heck out of the top because there is nothing to interfere with it.
 






I narrowed it to try to compensate for the camber curve, I just cut the front of the control arm with the ball joint off and cut 1 3/4" off the length of the control arm then replated and gussetted it with 1/4" plate and again it was a failure... I can say that if you raise the lower balljoint, it will make the upper control arm have a different angle, which changes the camber curve drastically, but on a static dropped truck it may not be that noticeable...
i wonder if narrowing it is what made it unstable, i realise the top arm would be angled more but it would be the same as if i unloaded the torsion bar for a drop. i just would really like to lower it a bit and plan to tow with it so i dont know if "unloading" the torsion bar would be the best thing for towing. "if only they made production drop spindles for these d@mn things!"
 






I am sure that narrowing it and raising it did make a much bigger difference than just raising it, but anytime you move pivot points it changes the suspension, like i already stated it would raise the angle on the upper control arm, which changes the instant center of the front suspension and causes the steering rack to be out of alignment with the control arms.
I have looked into a set of custom made dropped spindles but they are $750 plus he needs a set of your spindles in the mean time...
 






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