explorer rear brakes on ranger

[94splashsc]

i currently have a stainless steel brake set on my 94 ranger 8.8 28 spline. now that the calipers that always drag and sloted rotors are all shot. i really don't want to replace them with the same crap. my friend gave me the brake setup of a 31 spline from explorer. i'm looking into adapting them the the 28 spline. before i go and try to make a adapter to force them to fit, does anyone know of any other ford backplates that would work. i see the mustang had a 28 spline and 11 rotors on some but i haven't been able to find any pictures of these. to see if they're even close. i'd try my local motorsports dealer "downs ford" but the ms guy there is well i'll just call him less than helpfull to those of us not worthy enough to drive mustangs. any help or ideas anyone could give would really help me at this point

 

[dustinscott80]

typically guys wanting to run explorer discs on the rangers will swap the entire axle from an exploder to gain the 8.8 with discs. i plan on doing this swap sometime in the near future. not too sure how easy it would be to adapt the explorer discs to the ranger 8.8, but i do know of some fellas over at rangerpowersports.com that are working on using the 11" Mustang GT brakes or the 13" Cobra brakes, although i'm sure that's just for the front

 

[CodePoet]

Here's some info that might help you, in the end it might be eaiser to just swap the entire expo 8.8 into your ranger but I thought i'd try to help as much as I can!

Converting your Ranger 8.8 to explorer disc brakes

Good Luck!
CP

 

[RangerX]

i currently have a stainless steel brake set on my 94 ranger 8.8 28 spline. now that the calipers that always drag and sloted rotors are all shot.

Did your Splash come with rear discs? Or did you swap those on at some point?

After reading the link on converting, I would figure out why your current setup hasn't functioned well, and 'make it right'. Seems like alot less trouble going that way.

Sorry I can't help with the conversion Q's.

 

[NOTAJP]

On all 8.8s (F150, Ranger, Explorer, Mustang, etc) the exterior is about the same. The real difference is in the spline count and that ONLY applies to the carrier. The exterior flanges are the same for brake backing plates. The Explorer and Mustang backing plates will bolt up.

However, I think you are missing the point on a rear disc conversion. When the rear disc conversion is done, something has to be done with the brake line pressure applied to the rear brakes. Drum brakes take a lot more line pressure to accomplish the same braking vs discs. A band-aid fix would be to install a proportioning valve inline with the rear brakes. You can turn down the valving until you get 50/50 or 60/40 percent on your brakes. Right now your rear brakes are taking most of the stopping duty, which is wearing them out and warping the rotors. This happened to my Father-in-law after his BII was converted to rear discs and having a master cyl designed for front disc/rear drum. The best fix would be to get a master cyl from a '95+ Explorer or Mustang with rear discs. An even better mod for your brake system is to get the dual diaphram booster (though not required) from the same Explorer for killer stopping power. Jamie(410fortune) just got done doing all these mods on his BII and now can stop on a dime. Hope this helps.

 

[mrphdvr]

Are all Explorers 8.8? I have recently aquired the rear discs from a 99-00 X and I am going to be putting them on my 02 Edge. From one guy I've talked to he said it would be a direct swap and then just matching up lines and E-brake. I have 7.5 rearend so is it like this guy said?

 

[jimbo74]

all rear explorers except the new ones 01 and previous i believe are all ford 8.8" rear end with 31 spline axles... before 95, they all had drums, after 95, they had discs, except i think the sport trac had drums but could be bought with discs (not 100% sure on this)

 

[NOTAJP]

Are all Explorers 8.8? I have recently aquired the rear discs from a 99-00 X and I am going to be putting them on my 02 Edge. From one guy I've talked to he said it would be a direct swap and then just matching up lines and E-brake. I have 7.5 rearend so is it like this guy said?

Might want to verify you still have the 7.5. Most late Rangers were upgraded to the 8.8, but with only 28 spline axles. If you do have the 8.8, they'll bolt up. If you have the 7.5 they will not. I would find a complete Explorer axle (eBay,$400 brand new) with your axle radio and weld on your mounts.

 

[dustinscott80]

might want to take into consideration that the explorer 8.8 rear ends are 1.5" wider overall than the ranger axle. not a significant amount, but wider none the less.

actually that length only applies to 93+ model ranger vs. explorer rear ends and 3" wider than pre-93 rangers

here's a link to help out
http://www.rangerpowersports.com/tech/drivetrain/88swap.shtml

 

[Scott B.]

When I upgraded my Ranger rear disks, I bolted in an axle from a '98 2wd Explorer. Welded on new spring mounts and shock mounts. The new housing already had the brake line mounting hole on top of the pumpkin.

As for plumbing, I am using my stock master cylinder and proportioning valve - no modifications made. The brakes wear evenly, so I'm sure one end is not doing more than it's share of stopping.

We (myself and a buddy that used to work for Ford engineering) figure that the rear calipers were designed to use the existing pressure/volume from the standard master cylinder to reduce the part number count on the vehicles. Whatever the actual reason, the conversion works fine.