Front diff drop

[Pitt7542]

Hi there
Hi there guys and if there are any girls
I am from Australia and am the Owner of a 1999 ford explorer xlt UQ model
It was a local imPort I have had it
For around one year and was standard when I gOt it although now I have done a 2 inch body lift and extra leaf in the rear and Offset key for the torsion bar and new extended shocks to suit , also put wheel offsets on 1" at the front and 1.5" at the rear. have lifted it around 3" at the rear and 4 " at the frOnt, which has allowed me to
Quite
Easily put 33" tyres under her.
I cannot go bigger at the moment but want put 35s on it I will do a shackle lift the rear shackle and also the front shackles of the rear leaf spring and was thinking of moving the front diff down around 2" and that will allow me to go higher at the front any comments would be very appreciative and look forward to reading more on this site
Has any one done this mod as it seems quite easy
Cheers

 

[Caejxr]

Ifs lift kits like superlift use braketry to lower the front differential and cv axles to attain lift. However that also comes with braketry to drop the lower control arms and t-bars. Lowering just the differential section of the axle may give you clearance issues with the cv axles and the lca's. That's all I got.

 

[Caejxr]

One more thought I had. If you have done a "torsion twist" lift by tightening the bolts than maybe you could more by dropping that section but even moving to 35's to 33's if you are only adding 2 more inches of lift with tt. To fit the larger tires you cancel that out by lowering the differential so only would gain maybe an inch depending on your choice of 35.

 

[Pitt7542]

Well I have pull the front diff out and am reworking the cross member to lower the diff down and have sent the front tail shaft off to a shop to have a yoke installed as the angle would wreck everything at this point I can easily go another two inches so I hope I can lower the diff down that far to compensate now there is plenty of room for 35s just have to choose a brand I have Mickey thompsons now 33 maybe there 35

 

[gmanpaint]

That Aluminum D35 is tucked up for a reason. It wont survive a direct hit if exposed. The bracket lift kits give 4" of added height, and to fit 35" tires, you may still have to trim/cut sheet metal. The Knuckles are changed out with bigger ones with those lift kits as well to be able to use stock C/V axles, & CA's.

If you manage to drop that D35 lower, make sure you protect it and account for the changed pinion angles. A 95-96 front drive shaft would work better with the double cardon style set up.

 

[Pitt7542]

Ok with the kit then if you lower the top and bottom control arm then that fixes the issue of steering geometry and gives you some lift, but still does not fix the angle of the cv joints when lifted by torsion twist, Is that why you get heavy duty cv joints so they don't grind as hard or do you still have to drop the diff down to compensate.it looks like an add on to underneath your cross member which would still then protect your diff.I will make a bash plate to protect my diff around 1/2 inch plate should be ok. Also the Carson style shaft is definitely the way to go but spare parts in Oz are hard to come by would there be much fabrication to make one fit on my 99. I have dropped my front tailshaft off and they are putting a uni joint on the transfer case side which they say will more than compensate for such a small diff drop any other ideas or info would be greatly appreciated
Cheers

 

[Pitt7542]

Well all done and back together,was a bit of a mission.
Work done
Dropped the front diff down two inches
Reworked the front cross member to stop the back of the diff hitting
Put a diff locker in the front
Had the front tail shaft redone with a uni joint welded to it
Have 35 inch Mickey thompsons on now no cutting needed
Put a 10mm bash plate in
Did the shackle lift made them 50mm bigger
But also took off the front shackles and made new ones 50 mm bigger so now the back came up another 2 inches so 6 inches in total and Tt twist again now the front has at least 6 full inches of lift that is including the body lift
It seems to drive fine but will source a camber castor kit will post photos soon

 

[glenn_a]

how did you go with your front diff drop...?