Mud Lite lift completed

[4x4Hunter]

Mud Lite

Check out the before and afters.... what'a ya think?? I'm happy so far with the way its going. I just put the Fabtech pushbar on tonite... I was happy with the looks but the bumper on the explorer isnt very solid...the chrome flexes when any weight is put on the bar so I'm not sure exactly what to do at this point on that. I also put on a rear fin on the top of the rear cargo door. I'll have pictures of those and the flares which are painted the factory YY white, but havent made it on the truck yet.

 

[Joe93]

Lookin Good Hunter. I like it and keep up the mods.

 

[mrboyle]

Looks good!
I have a Pro-Comp Universal light bar on my '92 and it flexes just like yours does. Its real fun when I'm running the KC's at night (lights bounce like crazy). I plan to redo the mounts one of these days (keep putting it off) to see if I can stiffen it up. I 'll post some picks when I do. One idea I thought about (I'm doing mine different but this might work for you) was to take a piece of angle iron and mount it on the inside of the bumper (hold it on with the prerunner bar mounting bolts) then weld it between the bumper brackets. This should help reinforce the bumper and kep the flex to a minimum. If you go this route, make sure (if you remove the bumper to install the angle iron) you renstall the bumper and line it up before you weld the brackets in place. If you don't you may not be able to line the bumper up properly.

 

[Rick]

Looks good!

 

[4x4Hunter]

More Pics

I threw up a few more pictures of the underbody and a few of components. I'm HOPEFULLY getting my brakes done next weekend. The front brakes are starting to get weak and the rears...well they've got the same shoes since 91' ... I fear they are not doing anything. Plus when we did the lift the brake lines couldnt get bled properly since the cylinder set screws were "set-up". New ones on the way, but the rust is keeping me from doing alot of this work myself. Unfortunately my mechanic (who I've already paid) got married...new brakes on all 4 corners... lookin into the disc brake setup eventually. I'll have pictures of the painted pro runner bar and the rear fin up as soon as I can get back to my computer.

-Noel Hunter

btw. Thanks for the nice comments all. i appreciate it!

 

[Chad Summers]

Looks good.. What kind of tail fin is that? Let me know when ya get those flairs put on.. and how much of the tires they cover.. (trying to decide what size of tires to go with, wv law.. tires cant' stick out of the flairs)

 

[4x4Hunter]

Fin

The fin is a lund wind jammer i believe. I probably wont have the flares on for a week or two at best. I just got done with the brakes ... still need to do the front, the rears were a project. Its scary that the rear shoes were factory since 91'

lata.

 

[rpenner54]

Bout the zip tie for the front brake line. Use two. Have one go around the coil and then another that goes around and through that one for the line itself. It seems to work a tad bit better for flex. At least on mine it does.

 

[4x4Hunter]

Thanks for the tip

Thanks for idea Ryan. I'll try that next time i'm home.

 

[RobbieJ]

lookin good man. Robbie

 

[91'explorer 2wd]

nice truck man, like the fabtech pushbar. can u give me the info on where u ordered it through.

 

[Mark Drysdale]

The Truck looks great, just a shame you can't do that lift to a 97 XLT, but if you are interested here are some pictures of mine.

http://drysdale.freeservers.com

 

[4x4Hunter]

Thanks

Hey everyone Thanks for the input on the truck.

I actually got a deal through the local 4x4 shop on the Fabtech bar. I told the guy there that I was able to find it cheap online and he lowered the price down for me.

They dont do online ordering unfortunately. natltire.com has it though for about $150 I had it painted afterward.

 

[RTStork]

Looks great! I love the "****o-red" interior!

 

[bigDerk]

Looks awesome man, I love that stance. So much, in fact, that it's making me reconsider keeping my Explorer and going all out on it.

How does your 4.0 turn the 33's? What gears are you running? I currently have 3.27's and 31's, but I'm thinking 4.10 gears and 33's would be a good combo. I do a lot of highway driving so I'd need some decent top-end power leftover.

How much did the 5.5" lift cost, and how long did the install take, or did you pay to have it installed?

Man... I HATE THIS SITE! LOL

 

[espnfreak]

hey man nice nice truck. i think still think twice about buying a 92 or so over my 96 so i can go offroad a lot and trash it. i want to baby my 96 too much lol!

 

[4x4Hunter]

Lift and Stuff

Hey guys..

Thanks for the comment on the "****o-Red" interior... Fitting I suppose hehe...

Glad you like the truck. I'm very happy having lifted it. I think it all started two years ago. I discovered the site and read and article by one of the guys on here about young people who wanted to modify their explorers. basically the article was against it, and saving money to go to college and that sort of thing. I'm 24 now and I'm working on my MBA, but I spaced the cost of the lift over a two year time period, picking up parts along the way...shocks and lift one year, tires and rims the next...getting everything all together and that sort of thing. Well....anyway, it works..I'm happy....and the cost really wasnt that bad over the time period. I have to agree looking back though that the cost of doing a lift and running it isnt recommended if you're still on limited income or rely heavily on the truck for a daily. I do, but have a few friends who are mechanics and can get the truck fixed late at nite if need be.

I actually baby my 91' pretty good... She's got nearly 93k on her...not really that high mileage for the year, but still not great. I have a few problems with the ticking of the lifters...someday I'll get that fixed. And ofcourse the old dogleg rot that gets to alot of us explorer owners up in the north has set in.

My explorer has the gear ratio up from the 3.27..I think its a 3.55 or something like that. I have a friend who has a 92' Eddie with the 3.27's .. My suggestion is that if you're going to get 33's you'll NEED to change the gearing out and go with something like 3.73's or 4.10's If you're driving alot on the highway you're going to get better gas mileage with the 3.73's than the lower gearing. You'll want to make sure that a tranny cooler is on your Explorer too.... I call my the Ex'...which drives my gf crazy when I say "well...just spent more money on my Ex' " .... I cant spin the tires over or anything, the 4.0 doesnt have the torque to do it, but i'm not an aggressive driver so it hasnt been an issue. I went and get the Baja rims because they're easy to clean out...but so far I havent found a mud pit to run through. I'll be sure to post up some pictures when I get covered.

I really wish that I had actually taken pictures during the process of putting the lift in. Basically I spent about $2500 for the lift, including the tires and wheels. We spent 3 nites doing the lift...I'd say about 6 hrs a nite... It WOULD be possible to do the lift in one day, BUT .. I wouldnt plan on it. Do it over 2 or 3 and dont get frustrated. I had access to a welding machine, and a blow torch. THE TORCH IS A MUST.....if you dont have one...RENT IT. hehe... I cant even start to describe the troubles of rust... We actually had to re-flange the brake line in the front driver side. Also...Buy new U bolts for the rear axle. Mine arent locking tight as they tell you to reuse them. The general rule that I've heard from my friends is that you shouldnt reuse them, for the $30 or so to buy new ones... get them ahead of time. Another rental deal is a pneumatic spreader. It made the front lift ALOT easier. Just plan on getting dirty and tired...Have a friend or two around..an impact gun, and a full set of metric sockets for the gun. Having ALL the right tools makes it ALOT easier. I (by myself) wouldnt even DREAM of doing a lift...but friends can be a BIG help...especially when they build race cars

Next on the list of things to get is a set of KC 165's for the front ..and a safari rack for the top. I'd like to get my fender flares on too which are painted to match the white....ah well...hopefully before the snow starts up.

Thanks for the compliments on the truck. Hopefully it'll keep trouble free for a few months! I had to put power steering fluid in today...ahhhhh the joys of older rigs'

If any of you guys have questions or wanna chat.. my icq #6355391

www.icq.com

if you're using AOL IM there is a program called Trillian out there that will let you talk to people on IM and ICQ at the same time using their program, however you still need to download ICQ and setup your account, after which you can remove the program