I need a little lift

[J. Kennedy]

I am thinking about replacing shocks and raising my 95 XLT. My questions are:

1) Will the torsion bar and leaf spring raising method effect ride quality and roll? Will I need new front coils?
2) Can I order shocks for a regular Explorer, or do I need to tell them I am raising the vehicle?
3) Where can I get Edelbrock Performer IAS's on sale? (3 for the price of 4, etc)
4) Will I need a new front steering stabilizer? Will I need new front coils?
5) I keep seeing references to "radius arm bushings." Does this effect height?

The goal is a nice smooth ride with a minimum of time and money, since I have neither. Oh, and I HATE body roll. It never goes off road, but MA roads are like off road, but with salt added. It has 48k, and the shocks are original, so I will assume they are shot, even thought it did not bounce around too much before the end links went. I am assuming the bad shocks caused excessive roll and snapped the end links, along with rust.

I would like to stop this, so I assume it means top quality shocks ($80 Edelbrocks) and new end links. Lurking on this site has also given me the temptation of raising vehicle 1" - 2" by toying with the torsion bars and adding a leaf in the back.

I bought it used 17 months ago and have been looking for a site like this since then. I'm sure these questions have been asked a million times but I still fell like I'm missing the whole picuture. You guys rock! Thanks, JK

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J. Kennedy
1995 XLT

 

[Hank]

Hello J. Kennedy,

Welcome to the site.

You cover a lot of things in your post so I'll try to hit what I can.

#1. I have a '91 so I'm not sure if the '95 has coils or torsion bars it the front. Either way you will have one or the other. If you have torsions the easiest way to go is to crank up the bars to lift up the front and add the Warrior shackles in the rear. This should give you about 1.5 - 2" of lift. The tech articles pages has a good writeup on this. If you have coils it is a bit trickier. You can add spacers under the coils or replace the coils to get the lift. I have tried both and am much happier with replacing the coils. Look for an old post titled "cheap way of lifting" as it covers everything I went through and great input from the other members. The rear is still the same with the Warrior shackles. You could put an add-a-leaf in the rear also but it is a bit more work and will stiffen up the rear ride.

#2. So far I have not run into any problems with the stock shocks on the coil spring and shackle lift (1.5") You should be ok.

#3. I hear the Eddlebrocks are great but there is no way I can justify the cost as I do minimal off road. I hear others praise the Monroe's and Gabriel VST's which are both much less expensive.

#4. So far with the 31" tires and the 1.5" lift I don't need a steering stablizer. However I don't do a bunch of off roading where bump steer has problem.

#5. No but when they are worn out they cause alignment problems. You should be ok as your mileage is fairly low.

Hope this helps.

Best regards.
hg



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'91 EB, 4dr, 2wd
www.grimmick.com
hank@grimmick.com