Jaws IS solid!! (56k warning) | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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Jaws IS solid!! (56k warning)

It's the moment you've all been waiting for. It's not totally done all the way, but we just have minor things to do. What's left is: Rear brakes, attach front driveshaft, move the axle forward maybe 1-2", more welding, put Cory's steering on, then shocks. This should take less than a day to do.

'76 EB D44
'76 EB 9"
35/12.50R15 BFG MT's
15x10 Rockcrawlers
Coils from James Duff
James duff extended radius arms
Front and rear ARB's
4.56 gearing
RS9000X shocks
steering from CoryL

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sas-total_0101-A.jpg

sas-total_0095-A.jpg

sas-total_0096-A.jpg

sas-total_0089-A.jpg


Here are the new coils. They worked perfectly.
sas-total_0099-A.jpg

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I'll have more pics as the rest of everything gets together. I'll paint everything later too.

Here are previous pics of the build up:
SAS-back05.jpg


SAS-back02.jpg


SAS-back01.jpg


SAS-back03.jpg


SAS-back04.jpg


My old axle...
SAS-front_0069-A.jpg


My new axle...
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SAS-front_0063-A.jpg


My air suspension...
SAS-front_0064-A.jpg


Fitting it under...
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My old coils
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SAS-front_0059-A.jpg
 



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Don't forget your axle breather lines, and make sure all the brake lines (incl parking brake) are long enough.

Looks great! Wishes of lots of fun with it!
 






Sweet I have a few questions since my 77 early Bronco chassis is now sitting out side waiting for the swap.

So how much were the James Duff extd arms? Those are sweet and easy it looks like.

So what is up with the anlge on the coils, are you going to do anything to the Explorer buckets?

Also is that the explorer steering set up on the axle in front? Why not just use the EB ones until the ones from CoryL come in. Won't the bump steer be outrageous with the Explorer steering on it?
 






Also can you post a pic of the hiem joint and radius arm mounts on the Explorer frame. The EB frame is 3" and Ex frame is 2.5" Did you add material or what.
 






Hmm, I believe the extended radius arms were $450, but it's been a while. We have Cory's steer right now, but just haven't installed it yet. We had to pack up so we just used the explorer steering to move it. Unfortunately I'm not driving it yet. I'll have to get a pic of the custom bar we made and welded in place for the Explorer mounts for the radius arms. An EB frame is not as wide as the Explorer, so we attached the mounts to a 3" bar and welded that across my frame. I'll get some pics in the next couple days.

The angle on the coils won't change to much. The upper and Lower buckets are not exactly even, but both sides fit the coil nicely. We'll see how it works out.
 






I found a pic of when I bought it. :D Notice a difference?

92%20Explorer.jpg
 












you will HAVE to do something with those front brake lines... there isnt anywere near enough slack in them, and the first time it flexes it will rip them out.

other than that, it looks great. you can get hella-travel out of the Duff EB arms. if you are running the shocks straight up and down you will need some with 15" of travel.

sas-total_0099-A.jpg
 






Wow, I'm glad you finally got it pretty much done! It looks great. I can't wait to see some shots of how well the setup works.
 






Maybe it's just the pictures, but why do the coils look like they're bowing outward so much? If reality is anything like what the pictures look like, wouldn't those springs run the risk of snapping or maybe popping out? It might be the picture.
--Bob
 






sas-total_0099-A.jpg


yeah, that scares me too... if it were my truck id cut off the factory spring mount and get some coil buckets welded/bolted to the frame
 






Bet its gonna be a lot harder now to get in a situation like this one :D

Moab03_0041-A.jpg
 






no it is actually easier! Caus eyou start thinking "Oh it can't be bad":eek:
 






The coils isn't all that bad. It looks worse in the pic. It's partly because the axle wasn't sitting far enough forward, but thats fixed now.

The brake lines on the other hand are scaring me too. I got the extended ones for a 4-6" lift, but I don't think thats enough.

Any thoughts on that?
 






don't run them through the Sping bucket.

Or run one line to the axle in the center and split it off to the sides. The center doesn't need near the travel.
 






basically what taxmann said. if you keep it one line per side you will need lines about 7-8" longer than what you have now. run one in the center and then make hard lines out to each side like it was on the EB axle stock.
 






Here are some flex pics I took in our backyard. The brake lines are actually a lot longer than the pic look (its a very bad angle) There was plenty of slack.

sas-flex_0117-A.jpg


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I'll get some more flex once we put the upper shock mounts up a little more, but it's not high on my list as of right now.
 






Lookin good :thumbsup:
 



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holey moley! when did you do all this?

Looks great!

Fix those buckets, get teh steering on and go to MOAB
 






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