My wife's 93 explorer, with some stuff.

[BasqueGuy]

This is just a very basic build, it is being built to fill a very specific need. Not so much as a giant rock crawling monster, with 42" tires and eleventy-billion inches of travel. It will serve more as a daily driven, back country rig- and while being a capable off road vehicle... It will still be tame enough to run to town in or commute the interstate with.

Base vehicle is a 1993 Ford Explorer 4x4 xlt. Engine is standard 4.0 ohv, m50d transmission, 1345 case, dana 35 front, 8.8 rear.

Drive train mods will include Atlas transfer case and full width front and rear axles, dann44 and a dana 60, as well as 4.10's and 33" tires. Custom radius arms and 12-14" coil overs for the front, 4" over stock full size bronco rear springs, shackle sliders (from Liquid Iron Industries), traction bar for the rear.
Other details will be dealt with as they arise, small parts pile together and pics to come.


I understand that what I want to build here may not be your cup of tea, and that's fine. Like I said, there are some variables that are forcing me to work with in certain parameters. I would love some feedback, however... Maybe we can keep it all friendly? Pirate4x4 has left a seriously foul taste in my mouth. If you have feed back, cool... Just please don't flame me for not being hardcore enough, keep in mind this is my wife's daily driver... What's your wife drive??


Still in the Parts gathering phase, but should turn into a full blown build in the next couple weeks. Really looking forward to this build, should be a quick one!! Cheers, and thanks for having me. :biggthump

 

[Jason94sport]

umm ok................ in for pics when done

 

[x5050160]

Cool what parts are you gathering now. This is how I would do a build on mine.

 

[Iron Weasel]

The D35 on the first gens uses a lot of the same components from the D44 and the ring and pinion is a reverse cut high pinion design to give it more strength. Our D35 is basically a D44 with a D35 differential section that's stronger than a "normal" D35. The 8.8 is also good for around 1300 lb. ft. of continuous torque while the D60 semifloat is good to about 1500 lb. ft.
Reason I bring that up is that the axles on the first gen are more than capable of holding up against 33's with 4.10's driving the axles especially if you're not using lockers. That's not to say that you can't break them, but you'd have to be putting some serious power to bust a shaft on the 8.8.

Not saying that you shouldn't go with a 44 & 60, they are stronger than the 8.8 and 35...not arguing that fact, but it's only a marginal gain and would save you a couple grand that you could use for some other mods elsewhere. If you were running 35's with 4.56's and were locked front and rear then I'd definitely go for a 44/60 but the stock 35/8.8 would be fine unless you're out horsewhipping it on purpose.

 

[Tbars4]

Maybe we can keep it all friendly? Pirate4x4 has left a seriously foul taste in my mouth. If you have feed back, cool... Just please don't flame me for not being hardcore enough, keep in mind this is my wife's daily driver...

You should find this place is just what you are looking for...:biggthump

..and there is no flaming allowed here..

..Plus anything you want to do to your X, the information can easily be found here in detail..

 

[Mike's brother]

Sounds pretty cool to me, BasqueGuy. I'm signing on to see where this goes.

And my wife drives a Chevy, but I keep that kind of quiet.

:exp:

 

[BasqueGuy]

Hey guys!:wavey:

My sleep schedule is fried, and my capacity for thought hasn't joined me yet this morning. However, it's a good day! I got some more parts that my wife surprised me with this a.m. That and a large surplus of coffee, and we're off.

In response to some things that were brought up..

X5050160, I have a nice little pile! But it's all insignificant still, as I can't begin building just yet. I will drag everything out today and snap some pics.


Iron Weasel, you are absolutely correct. I am certainly not knocking the 35ttb or the 8.8, in fact... If I could convert the 8.8 to a full floater 8 lug version, I would use it before I used the 60. There are other axles I would choose to swap in before a 60 rear as well, but in the end. I have the 60, fresh gears and a Detroit all ready to go. I have a few reasons for wanting the full floater back there, but believe it or not... It's more for piece of mind than anything else, and having the fresh spare axle kinda sealed the deal.

Tbars4, Thank you!! I have stalked these pages like a ninja for a while now. Haha, there's so much information here... It's already helped me build my little ranger up, as well as lending many ideas to my current project. I really enjoy it around here, Great Forum. And I apologize for the assumption, I was going to share this there(Pirate) and they just made fun of me and told me how lame it was going to be, etc...

Mike's brother, Lmao You're secret is safe here my friend!! Although, it could be worse...


A little more info to catch everyone up on my grand plan. Me and my wife travel a lot, and more often than not remotely. In fact, well we just don't like town too much. So desolation it is!! But seriously, I just sold off my last project (1990 Ranger) to fund this build for my wife. We have a Dodge tow rig, that just clicked 100k which will become the wheeler after this build is complete and are in the process of buying a deuce which will become the camper / tow rig for this outfit. So, we have a lot going on. Anyways, I am heading out the door to get some pics and play in the dirt for a while.

Update soon, pics sooner! Hope everyone is having a great day.

 

[Tbars4]

..No apologies needed..

.Where in Cali are you located?..and we would love to hear more about your Ranger if you decide to post a thread on it too even they it was sold..

 

[BasqueGuy]

Tbars4, we're currently in Los Banos Ca... And there's not much here honestly, but it keeps me close to the shop which is just south of Fresno. Speaking of that, I really need to migrate some of these parts over there. I'm running out of storage space at a very rapid rate.

The Ranger was my baby, but a total junkyard build... 35ttb/44outers with stx drop brackets and ball joint relocation, JBG Early Bronco springs and extended radius arms for the front. Welded up 8.8 and flip flopped f150 rear springs under the frame... I was going to mirror this guy on Dezert Rangers, and build a dana 44 / 50 hybrid axle and a 14 bolt out back... But in the end, the Explorer is more practical for hauling the wife and her goodies around and having the full size rear seats is a real blessing.

I guess once I finish this current string of projects, and we're fully mobile again... I would really like to build another ranger, maybe a dana 60 sas with some bling parts, or...? Maybe that super bling dana 44/50 hybrid.... I just don't know yet.

Yesterday wasn't a total flop though, as I scored another junk yard axle for next to free. Dana 44 with the cast wedges, so it's not the greatest axle around, but for 75 dollars... Well, I guess it just made sense. Speaking of that, I need to go drag this thing out of my truck. Anyone got some spare muscles they aren't using at the moment?

Okay, so I failed on the parts **** yesterday... I will see what I can do about that this a.m. and other than that- Back to our regularly scheduled program.

 

[Tbars4]

..Hahaha...We recently had a Moderator here move from Los Banos to Florida to retire and modify Hoverounds or something..

..Looking forward to more updates and the pictures..

 

[Bulldozer]

Dana 60 is massively overkill IMO unless your're running HUGE tires or BIG V8 power.