Adjustable coil buckets install

[93XploderMS]

could not find any decent information on installing adjustable coil buckets. The rig in question, 1997 Exploder with a 1993 TTB front frame graphed in.

The driver side is the difficult one with the frame bumped out for the steering box. I have seen where guys cut out the frame a good 1” past the rear steering gear box mounting hole. I wanted to keep it simple so I cut as little as possible.

A plasma cutter makes this easier, I then welded in a piece of 3/8

I got the competition engineering adjustable coil buckets. The tabs didn’t go low enough so the rear one I notched and the front one I cut flush

Passenger side finished.

 

[allmyEXes]

Nice! Nice work! I had considered doing that to a Gen II but my other though was a Gen II front cap swapped on to a Gen I 4x4 body...

 

[93XploderMS]

Nice! Nice work! I had considered doing that to a Gen II but my other though was a Gen II front cap swapped on to a Gen I 4x4 body...

Thank you, I wouldn’t hesitate to put a gen 2 on a gen 1 frame. Only the front body mount doesn’t match and that is real easy to fix. The front frame horns are 1.5” narrower so I notched them to fit the v8 radiator. If you are v6 i believe it’s easier since they don’t go as low as the v8. I also went with a 2” body lift for better clearance of the engine to 1st gen crossmember. The 2nd gen put the engine lower and farther back, better weight distribution. When you try to use 1st gen v8 M/M options it makes the engine higher then the stock gen2 transmission mount. I have the thicker F150 transmission mount and shims. I will build a custom transmission crossmember one day with the bigger f150 transmission mount.

I had a 2 door gen 1 and my wife wanted kids so I needed a 4 door to have an off-road family rig. This is my “4th” rig. I say 4th because I own too many and this one is never treated as a 3rd vehicle. I have this instead of a side by side.

 

[93XploderMS]

Driver side finally finished, I used the top steering box mounting bolt for my shock hoop mount.

Full drop 9” from ground to top of hub

Full compression 22” ground to top of hub. Bump stop limits it on purpose.

 

[RangerX]

Nice! Curious what coils you’re running?

 

[93XploderMS]

Nice! Curious what coils you’re running?

I’m running a stiff spring right now, that’s why I want the adjustable coil buckets. It’s a Rancho 4” lift for a Bronco F150

 

[93XploderMS]

Finished the front spring mounts and dual shocks. Brought it to the shop where I work to double check and align it.

The dual Billies took care of the freeway speed death swaying. Before with single Billies if there was an expansion strip for a bridge I would start slowing down from 65mph to about 58mph before I ran over it to minimize the sway/wobble. It was nerve racking. It wasn’t the speed as much as it was loading the front suspension from slowing down that helped.

Now I can ride people’s booties through the rough roads or the curves. Wahahahaha

The 1/4 plate steering stops for the Dana 44 Knuckles helped with the annoying tire rub on the radius arms, it was nice not to hear it.

Next day 1/26/19 I went to play in the snow. I did this same spot on 12/23/18 in my FZJ80 on 34 with no problems. Shows you how much a trail can change. The start of the hole the Sammy winched me up enough to get my front bumper headed up and the tires did the rest. The rear of the hole the Sammy was no help so I chipped all the ice away from my winch and easily pulled out. You can see my winch line in the pic.

My fzj80.

They call me lead foot, in the X I hit 30mph on the snow covered trails and the FZJ80 I hit 25mph.

 

[93XploderMS]

When I was playing in the sand I noticed my passenger side ujoint was shot, I’m running 5-760x spicer joints. I wasn’t happy so I finished the weekend in 2wd and just had fun. That trip I also found the transmission shifting funny. I fixed that with a valve body from another X, at the same time I did the Jmod.

Back to ujoint, I found both ujoints on the right shaft bad, I must have not aligned the shafts at the slip yoke properly. Luckily I had another inner shaft with joint but I didn’t have a 35 long shaft with 44 stub shaft laying around. I did have 2 extra 5-760x joints. So I installed a joint and the caps would just fall out so I welded them on the sides of the yokes and had to grind them to fit in the knuckle. That held for 3 trips before I broke a weld and then snapped the yokes

I went to the junkyard today and got another shaft, I would love chromoly but!!! All my research found full c clips or putting a slight bevel in the back of the hole for the cap and welding in is the best luck on stock shafts. My driver side shaft is full c clip and now the passenger side shaft is welded

Machining the shafts for full c clips.

 

[Travisfab]

Was expecting to see this style!

 

[93XploderMS]

Was expecting to see this style!

I don’t know if that style would handle my driving, I have massages the 1/4 plate already with my playing. The real reason is because I never found that style new, just a few pics here and there.