Murraymountain’s Lowered 95 Sport

[97Sandbox]

Yes, bolt to the floor under the carpet. There are slits in the carpet for brackets to sneak through.

 

[Murraymountain]

Well it's time for a huge update! First off, I did get the car pretty much done for how I want it right now minus the rear sway bar (backordered) and wheels and tires. I put maybe 100 miles on it in 3 days and then went on the 1200 mile road trip. It did fantastic! Not one issue other than the rear axle smacking the frame on hard bump when I'm loaded down. So it looks like I'll have to c-notch at some point but for now it'll be fine. It doesn't hit anywhere around here where I live. SO, let me pick up where I left off... I believe I was in the middle of installing my sound system.

While I was working on the sound system and interior, I also began work on the suspension. I tried on a 2023 Mustang wheel from work which I believe was a 20". Wasn't a fan of it but I think the size will be good.

First mono out, new 4 pack out of 97 Mounty 5.0 AWD going in.

4 packs in and 3 inch blocks buttoned up.

I had already done the torsion key flip prior to messing with the rear, so once I had the rear buttoned up, I was ready to get it to move again, so I did just that. And I must say, I LOVE how it sits. It's perfect. I think the 20 inch Rennens will really complement the ride height too. It's settled more since the picture below as you will see later in the post or in the next if I split it into two posts. I am pretty much right at eye level with the roof in the rear now and I'm only like 5' 7".

My eye level view:

Anyway, I got the KYB gas-a-just shocks mentioned a few posts back for it and I have had no issues and no complaints. Handles pretty well for having offroad tires still on it and no rear sway bar at all at the moment. Other than that, the suspension was buttoned up at this point, so I moved my focus entirely to the interior. The sound system was tested and everything was working well, so the first thing I did was FINALLY install my touchscreen into the dash. I love it. Very sleek very smooth very modern.

Then I moved onto installing carpet since all my cutting and drilling and messy stuff was over with. I thought after paying nearly $500 for carpet it would have padding all around but no, so I had to buy some jute and kind of figure out how to cut it and lay it to get the carpet to lay and feel right. I glued the jute down with some dabs of silicone.

So my amp ended up not clearing the cubby hole thing they have from factory, so out it went. Then my wheels started turning, and I got creative as far as what to with the open space with an amplifier protruding for no reason.

I carpeted the entire cavity, put the trim and net back on, and added a strip light to display the amp. I really like how it turned out.

I had a friend come help me get the interior back in and it came out amazing. Pretty much everything brand new!

And about 3-4 days after that picture, off to Florida we went! Continuing this in the next post.

 

[Josh P]

The more bass the better. I'd be curious how D.J Magic Mike sounds with those speakers. Back when I was in High school I had a stereo in my room with a pair of 18s, a pair of 15s and two 12 inch subs. I got in trouble a few times for knocking pictures off the walls around the house.

 

[Murraymountain]

This is pretty much gonna be a photo dump.

After this picture, I went to the house and hit the car with some cutting compound and a good polish with a buffer. Definitely doesn't look brand new but 1000x better than what it was. I can at least see reflections in the paint now so I'm happy.

Not too shabby

Then we did the 7 Eleven photoshoot trend for the car's Instagram page. (If I'm allowed to share it on this forum someone let me know and I'll put it up lol)

And then we made the 600 mile trip back home. I had that thing up to a constant 90-100MPH for the first 2 hours in Florida. It definitely didn't like it once we got over 90, but sure enough even fully loaded down with 3 people in it it still pulled it off. I need to not do that again until I get some fresh rubber because these tires are 11 years old and dry rotting lol.

Absolutely in LOVE with the starlights.

And that's her this evening. Went for a good long Sunday evening drive and let my subs stretch their arms a little. Absolutely loving this car. Honestly I'm really starting to like the V6... I will probably end of swapping it at some point or another anyway but I definitely want to go through with the manual swap. I can guarantee that will be happening in the future. Hopefully not in the near near future as I'd like to get through some other projects before I take on that, but I guess that will be up to auto that's in it and how long it decides to hold on because I do not baby it one bit lol. I like to downshift into 2nd at about 55 and hear that straight pipe scream coasting at about 3200 RPM. Yeah I'm a little obnoxious sometimes lol.

 

[allmyEXes]

I like the dog's (chihuahua) eye view pictures. The ground has to be dry for those.

 

[410Fortune]

Looks great! You can get a late model ford ranger floor console and mount it up in there under your ashtray… gives you a little more storage and two more cupholders

What kind of head unit are you running?
The headliner is super cool

 

[Murraymountain]

Looks great! You can get a late model ford ranger floor console and mount it up in there under your ashtray… gives you a little more storage and two more cupholders

What kind of head unit are you running?
The headliner is super cool

I thought about adding something there but I kind of like the simple look of it.

The head unit is a Kenwood DMX4707S. I really like it. A volume knob would be really nice or at least something to drop/raise the volume quicker but other than that I have no complaints. Love the touchscreen.







Hey all, I need some suspension experts here. I need new tires desperately (and have some on order coming on new wheels but they're backordered), but there's no point at the moment with my current alignment. So as you know I am lowered 3 inches all the way around, and I have major camber issues. Now this is nothing I wasn't expecting, I knew what I was doing and I knew this was most likely what I would end up with, but I want to start looking into options on getting my camber back in spec or at least close to it. A little negative camber never hurt nobody, but -1.7 degrees of camber does. I already have new camber adjusters in it and they are maxed out. So now what? I saw the BTF upper control arms. Very expensive yes, but they look pretty good. I see they're supposed to fix the negative camber issues that comes when lifting these things, but would they work for lowered ones too?

Open to all opinions on fixing this issue just as long as it's not something where I'm cutting corners. I need something quality here.

 

[97Sandbox]

What camber adjusters did you go with? I'm running the Mevotech kit (+/-2.5 deg I think) and I was able to get camber in spec with them pretty much maxed out. My Sport isn't quite as low as yours though.

The issue causing the negative camber is the horizontal run of the upper control arm is now shorter than it was before because it's tipped up at your new ride height as opposed to laying nearly flat in the stock configuration. But the horizontal run of your lower control arm didn't likely change much because it went from running slightly downhill to slightly uphill. That combination is pulling the top of the knuckle inward.

The same thing happens when lifting, but I don't think it happens to the same extent because the lower control arm tips at a different rate due to it being longer. When both control arms tilt down more together, they both effectively shorten in the horizontal direction. That pulls the whole knuckle inward, not just the top or bottom. This is the nature of the SLA suspension and when we lift or lower, we move to less optimal angles compared to what was designed by Ford.

If the BTF uca is longer than a stock-style one, it should help your camber move in the right direction, but by how much I can't say. I'd make sure you're maxing out the most aggressive eccentric bolts you can find before sinking money into control arms.

The sad fact is these front suspensions just aren't designed to work at the angles we're forcing them into. It's too bad nobody makes drop knuckles for our trucks, those would be the "right" way to lower a front end without messing up geometry control arm.

 

[410Fortune]

Sport
Looks great!!

Is the sub box bolted down? Hate to see it get loose in an accident …
Always secure your subs!

Love this truck well done e

 

[GRNMACHINE]

NICE 95 Willow Green Sport! I may be biased though... Just wrapped up replacing upper control arms and other suspension parts. There are 2 different sets of Moog camber caster bolts. The set I have is K80065 with plus or minus 1-5/8" degrees, I considered replacing them with K1100348 which is up to 2" degrees caster and greasable. I have never had an issue with alignment even after lifting though, so didnt feel the need. The kits were made in US which was a positive to me as well. Decent quality kit and has been installed since around 2010 I think. Moog customer service has been great, and I believe their Problem Solver Line is guaranteed for life. They are under the Federal Mogul/Tenneco/DRiV umbrella which has Moog, Rancho, Monroe, Wagner and others. Amazon seems to have decent prices and Tenneco honors their warranty if you buy from Amazon directly. Here is a link:

MOOG Auto Part Finder | Vehicle Part Results

After entering your car's information, here are the MOOG® parts available for your vehicle.

www.moogparts.com

As Grant said above Mevotech makes a set also that currently shows plus or minus 2". Parts for these vehicles is not as plentiful as they used to be so they may have sold a set with 2.5" before, I have no idea. Their customer service has been very good as well. Their TTX line I like alot. Per Mevotech if you purchase their parts from Amazon there is zero warranty except Amazon 30 day policy. I was advised Amazon is not a distributor of their products.. Summit is, although I wouldnt worry about a warranty with bolts. Their camber kit is their Supreme line. Here is a link:

Part - Mevotech

This is the page content

www.mevotech.com

I cant say if BTF has more adjustment, I wanted to get their upper control arms but price was limiting factor (plus Moog arms I replaced were warrantied). They appear to be super high quality and well made though. All the other control arms I have looked at appear to be lower quality and no name stuff with poor reviews. And many products are long discontinued (I could find extended Rancho RS5000 shocks for front but not for rear, 9000's long discontinued for lifted 2nd gens etc). I dont know much about lowering Explorers, my plan was to lower it, but that changed once I found this site! I even special ordered my truck so I could get it without roof rails/luggage rack as I planned turning it into a "street truck"....

 

[spinnn]

Hey man, great work! Always cool to see a Willow Green sport...I have two, and theres a couple of others still hanging in there.

The one in the background is a 5-speed/4.0 with D4 axle (3.73), currently with about 410k on her. Honestly, I find her to be pretty adequate for what I do, and have done...you might find the same if you go that route. She's been everything from a dd commuter doing 130 miles a day, to being a work truck while I was a carpenter, to towing a 4500 pound camper, to where she is now...semi retired, but still ready to drive wherever. She's a tough girl, and never fails to start.

The nearer one in the photo is 4.0/autotragic, on 32's, with (God help me) 3.23 open diff. I'm going to be looking into 4.56 for that one.

I'd love to try a set of 4.10's in the stick truck, TBH, but I don't really have the time to play with it right now.