97 4 door AWD v8. What did I get into?

[john willis]

We went into thios kind of blindly and purchased an explorer today. We ended up with a very clean 97 v8 all whell drive. It has 40,000 on a factory installed motor. I am not sure what the deal is with the 4 whell drive. I looked under the truck and see there is a dif and shafts going to both front wheels but there is no switch on the dash. It is all wheel drive but can we put it into a low range some how. There is no button like my older explorer had.

We got it home and removed the side step already and mounted a yakima rack set up where we will put a roof rack similar to a can-ferr. We will put a full size spare up there as well as mount some lights untill we get a buymper for the front.

What is available for suspension? Any thing out of the box we can throw on to run 33's. I eventually want to get some thing from McNeil or Auto fab or maby camburg but untill then whats out there?

Can a locker be put into the front? What should I have in the rear? an 8.8"? What tranny is behind the v8's?

Any input would realy be apreciated?

Thank You
John Willis
www.realsoegear.com
www.forbiddenbags.com

 

['97 V8]

its all wheel drive, so no switches, but you can do what i di and swap out your tranfer case for a 4406 case. A lift is available. Superlift makes one for 1600 and its 4 inches. You can fit 33's with it. A cheaper route is to do a torsion bar twist and that'll give you about 2 inches. You can buy some warrior shackles and that will give you 1.5 inches in the rear which is 70 shipped to your door. Also for the rear, buy an add a leaf from summit, which is 30 bucks. Then buy a 3" body lift PA #853 which is around 170 shipped. After all that you can fit 33's.

A locker for the rear 8.8 would cost you around 300 bucks becuase you have a limited slip carrier. For the front it will be 250 or so. The tranny behind a V8 is a 4R70W..its a pretty good tranny.

 

[nickm347]

.

 

[CougarX]

its all wheel drive, so no switches, but you can do what i di and swap out your tranfer case for a 4406 case. A lift is available. Superlift makes one for 1600 and its 4 inches. You can fit 33's with it. A cheaper route is to do a torsion bar twist and that'll give you about 2 inches. You can buy some warrior shackles and that will give you 1.5 inches in the rear which is 70 shipped to your door. Also for the rear, buy an add a leaf from summit, which is 30 bucks. Then buy a 3" body lift PA #853 which is around 170 shipped. After all that you can fit 33's.

A locker for the rear 8.8 would cost you around 300 bucks becuase you have a limited slip carrier. For the front it will be 250 or so. The tranny behind a V8 is a 4R70W..its a pretty good tranny.

Yeah, what he said... :

 

[kert0307]

If you have the cash, go for the RCD 5" lift it will change the torsion bars out for coilover shocks.

http://www.racecardynamics.com/products/suspensions/ford/ford4wdranger/ford4wdrangerfull.htm

You mentioned camburg and mcneal. If you're looking for long travel, they don't make any for 4x4 explorers or rangers, only 2wd.

Here's the only long travel 4x4 kit available.
http://www.dixonbrosracing.com/proddetail.php?prod=DBR-011&cat=1