94 xlt project

Just started working on getting my 94 Explorer off-road ready, so I'll be visiting the site a lot for questions and opinions.

So far I'm on 31x10.5/15 Goodyear Wrangler Authorities and Pro Comp wheels. The tires hum when you get up to speed but it don't bother me none. They do rub when making a sharp turn, but a little trimming should fix that. Soon to come is a 4" lift and maybe 33s. In the meantime I'm gonna run a 2" lift with shackles and coil spacers. I'm hoping to get a flowmaster and some fog lights when I can. Also my KKM intake should arrive tomorrow.
Plenty more to be done, but I think I'm off to a good start.

 

[Explorin'VA]

As the truck sits now on a class ii skyjacker lift with 6" coils and a rear SOA. @boominXplorer installed the entire lift in his shop and he did a really nice job.

This is the front end before an alignment (which I still need to have done). The truck sits much higher on the passenger side. You can almost see the lean in this pic. I might shim the low side up with washers. I need to buy the fa600 pitman arm also.

The rear has welded superlift perches for the spring over conversion. Stock springs. The rear driveshaft is 1" longer than stock. The diff leak is from a sheared bolt that I need to drill out.

It flexes really well. No sway bars.

 

[boominXplorer]

Thanks for the mention. Considering you still have to get a bigger drop pitman arm and the shocks are plenty long for 8" coils have you thought about going that route? Then you can put your shackles back in the rear and get a little more flex out the rear. You should be able to get away with the extended rear shaft for now with the added height of the shackles, I would just try to keep all 4 tires on the road while driving lol.

Another option to see if it levels out is flipping the front springs left to right. They have the same part number. Maybe the one that's on the drivers side has always been on that side and that is where all your weight is (gas tank and driver seat) and it has settled. (edit: nevermind, just remembered they were new)

 

[Explorin'VA]

Thanks for the mention. Considering you still have to get a bigger drop pitman arm and the shocks are plenty long for 8" coils have you thought about going that route? Then you can put your shackles back in the rear and get a little more flex out the rear. You should be able to get away with the extended rear shaft for now with the added height of the shackles, I would just try to keep all 4 tires on the road while driving lol.

Another option to see if it levels out is flipping the front springs left to right. They have the same part number. Maybe the one that's on the drivers side has always been on that side and that is where all your weight is (gas tank and driver seat) and it has settled. (edit: nevermind, just remembered they were new)

Good suggestion. I think everything would line up nicely with 8" coils and the brackets moved to the lower hole. I may even look for f150 coil seats to see how it looks before ordering the new springs.

 

[Explorin'VA]

In the past couple weeks I've ran the breather tubes for the front/rear axles and t-case up as high as they can go. I also got the front end aligned. It drives pretty well but there is marginally higher camber on the passenger side, even with maxed out camber bushings, and it's wearing that tire out really fast. I was hoping it would settle down some, but it looks like I'm gonna have to move the axle brackets to the lower holes and have stock camber bushings installed again. I would like to level it out as well. I think I'll try adding a couple washers under the driver side coil spring, and install new leafs in the rear.

One thing I noticed is that the passenger side beam would be nearly perfectly aligned if I just mounted it in the lower bracket hole. Would it cause drivability issues having the driver side beam in the upper hole, and the passenger beam in the lower hole? I know that's just a bandaid fix, but I just need a way to keep that tire from wearing out until I can level the truck get a new alignment.

 

[boominXplorer]

Anything you do to your ride height is going to affect your camber. If you lift up the drivers side to level it out, it will fix some of your positive camber on the passenger side. If you lowered the passenger side it would take the positive camber away. (Not sure why you would go lower lol)

The best cheapest fix would to get one of those spacer kits sold on ebay with the extended stud. They are like $40. Then take one spacer and have about 1/4" cut off for the passenger side and leave the drivers alone. Then you can drop down to the lower pivot holes and it all should be about dead on or well within adjustment.

 

[Explorin'VA]

Here's a little update. I had a complete 4.10 Dana 35 sitting around that I had planned to swap in after I did the 2nd gen rear end with 4.10s. Time went on and I finally dropped the Explorer off at @boominXplorer 's shop to get the front end worked on. He put in the 4.10 Dana 35 with new brakes, wheel bearings and seals. 2wd f150 spring seats went under the 6" skyjacker coils, with new skyjacker brake lines and fa600 pitman arm to correct the bumpsteer. He also put in 4 degree adjustable caster/camber cams which corrected the camber issues I was having from the previous alignment shop installing non adjustable cams that weren't the correct degree to get the camber straight.

After the front end work was done, the hydraulic clutch line kept popping off the transmission. I had reused this line off another truck when I put in the m5od, and the fitting that connects to the slave was worn out. Ordered a new LUK clutch master cylinder and line to fix the problem.

I had to put on longer shackles in the rear to level the truck out. It sits a hair lower in the rear I think. I may do an extra leaf to stiffen up the ride some.

I also put a smittyilt cover over the spare and installed a new water pump.


The truck rides great steering wise with the longer pitman arm, level tie rod angles are the key here. There is some body roll from lack of sway bars, but it's a comfortable ride and does amazing in deep rutty sand that used to toss me around when I had the stock suspension.

I still plan on swapping in a 1354 manual, but the electric shift t case is still working great. I need a new gas tank skid plate as my old one broke off by the straps. I also picked up a random winch bumper that I'm hoping to make fit, but it's really heavy so I may keep the stock bumper for now until I figure something else out.

 

[Explorin'VA]

Recently purchased a front bumper from RLC fabrication to match the rear bumper. He custom made it and shipped it within a matter of two weeks. It's his standard first gen bumper with an inch shaved off the bottom for extra clearance. I'm looking for a used warn to put on it. The cheap winches I've been seeing at tractor supply don't look promising.