Completed Project Great Pumpkin Solid Axle Swap 1993 Ford Explorer XL Rick Horwitz

[Chief34]

-Two q's Rick.
1) It doesent look like you put the rear fiber glass on. Did you? is there any tubbing done iside the rear of you truck? Or is your travel in the rear pretty much limited to go down.
2) What size shocks (Length) are you running? Front coil-overs and the rear shocks?
Thank-you.

sorry, two more Q's heh heh.
3) Can you fix the bottom of my post to run further across the screen so it wont make my post look so long?
4) And how do i get an Avatar?

Thank-You, cant wait to check out your truck on the trails sometime!

 

[Rick]

No, I didn't use rear glass.

The rear stuffs just fine

Front coil overs have 11" of travel. Not sure on the rears.

Your signature is WAY to long. It should only be a maximum of six SHORT lines. All that info should be on your Explorer Registry page and then you can put a link in your signature for that.

Send me the photo you want to use iin your avatar and I'll set it up.

 

[Chief34]

Thanks for the info Rick. I'll fix that Signature.
Did you get that fiberglass hood from perry too?

 

[Rick]

Yes, I got the fenders hood and grill from Perry's.

Thanks for fixing the sig

 

[Chief34]

Sure, no-problem. Thanks for the info I might put the front fenders on and the hood but keep the 1st gen look. I want to run 38.5" tires so that would make it incredibly easy for me.

 

[Rick]

Ramp shot taken today and a shot of the rear leaf going severly negative arch!

 

[Rick]

2

 

[JoshC]

Wow, nice shots. Are you going to do anything about those leafs, or is that the way they are suppose to work?

Happy trails!!

 

[Rick]

We're working on that Josh They don't live very long if you treat them like that

 

[Chief34]

You are getting serious flex out of that rick.

I have a Q for you. I was testing out the flex on my truck yesterday at one of my jobsites, and the front seems to be working excellent. The rear on the other hand didnt seem to have enough down travel. It might be that i just need longer shocks, but do you know of anything else that might make the rear leaf not travel very far down? It didnt really seem to look like the shock was at full droop but i am not sure what size these rear shocks are. Thanks.
-Tim

 

[Robb]

Chief,
Why not just unbolt the rear shocks at the bottom and give it another go? This would at least let you know if you are bottoming out the shocks.

Just a suggestion,

Robb

 

[Rick]

Opening up the spring clamps will allow more droop.

 

[Chief34]

Thank you for the suggestions. I will check into this.
I have another question, do you have any problems with your leaves moving within the leaf pack? i was going to just put another clamp on them further out to stop the leaf from twisting side to side but now that you said that i dont want to limit the down travel at all.

 

[Rick]

You have a couple choices. When you open up the spring clamps you can leave the ens vertical so they trap the springs. Or you can weld a u-bolt to the overload spring which accomplishes the same thing. I just hit my spring with a hammer every now and then... I had the u-bolt when I was using stock springs but it wore through!

 

[Chief34]

Sounds good. I think i will bend the clamp. Thanks. Is there any way of telling how long the shock is by looking at or measuring the body? if not ill just un-bolt the shock.

 

[Muskrat]

Rick, I saw that you had a bar installed in the coils to keep them in place. How did you work that, and would you recomemnd that type of setup for a DD?

 

[Kirby N.]

Rick, can you post a shot of the rear bumper at the rear quarter panel? I chopped my rear fenders like yours and I am begining my bumper in a few days, thanks

 

[Chief34]

Rick could you tell me what kind of leafs those are on your truck? Also, How do they ride. My leaves ride like a cadillac but I cant get them to flex like that . They barely go flat, they definately wont go negative arch.

 

[Robb]

Originally posted by Chief34
Rick could you tell me what kind of leafs those are on your truck? Also, How do they ride. My leaves ride like a cadillac but I cant get them to flex like that . They barely go flat, they definately wont go negative arch.

Do you want them to go negative?

 

[Rick]

They were National Springs. Now they are Dunbar Springs built to the same specs as the old Nationals.

Ideally you don't want to make a leaf spring go negative, but if you don't it doesn't flex.