need help with control arm swap

[kevindc1818]

i want to bring down the front of my explorer, but the stupid torsions are at it again because i want to bring it 3 more inches down and have a stiffer ride in the front.Right now the front is so mushy and if i flip the key or get drop keys, then I assume that it will be even more mushy and I will bottom out on any hump or bump. I would like to know if I can take the control arms from a ranger and put them on my 4 door with drop springs and spindles.can someone give me some input???

 

[Yomie]

i want to bring down the front of my explorer, but the stupid torsions are at it again because i want to bring it 3 more inches down and have a stiffer ride in the front.Right now the front is so mushy and if i flip the key or get drop keys, then I assume that it will be even more mushy and I will bottom out on any hump or bump. I would like to know if I can take the control arms from a ranger and put them on my 4 door with drop springs and spindles.can someone give me some input???

Only if you re-engineered the whole front suspention, all X's have tortion bar front suspention. You might be able to get some short coil overs to eliminate your tortion bars and stiffen the ride, but you would still run into problems with your alignment, being that low. Trust me, i used to have a static drop on my x with my front cross member 1" off the ground

 

[reserved50]

i've done it, use Airbagits or AIM or whatever name they go by upper adjustable arms for an Explorer, they're a bunch of #### ups but after making them buy a brand new set of factory style control arms and redoing the jigs the crap actual works and you can replace the joints with the factory style Moog replacements, they corected the ball-joint angle also. If you notched the control arms and have the right shocks and bump-stops you can almost lay the front cross member on the ground and have perfect alignment

 

[kevindc1818]

my control arms dont have spring plates or whatever they are called (so that the springs can slide off the arms. Are rangers control arms the same width???

 

[CDW6212R]

FYI, there is a Sport Trac member here who just tossed his torsion bars and replaced them with coil over shocks. He wasn't dropping his truck, but the parts may very well work. He bought pre-made brackets to mount the shock ends, and some minor welding was done to strengthen the upper shock mount.

I believe he mentioned about $750 total, that wouldn't be bad if you are considering bags or some other suspension. How far down it could go is another question, but the shock/spring is the adjustable kind. It sounded interesting, you might ask about the company who makes the brackets. Good luck,