OEM Radius Arms

[badge49]

The other day I saw a 2nd Gen. Eddie Bauer with OEM rear radius arms. If you took that OEM setup and did a simple SOA, would those little radius arms hold up or bind too much?

 

[gijoecam]

The other day I saw a 2nd Gen. Eddie Bauer with OEM rear radius arms. If you took that OEM setup and did a simple SOA, would those little radius arms hold up or bind too much?

?? Umm, no you didn't. I'm not sure what you saw, but it either wasn't a second-gen EB, or it wasn't a stock rear radius arm.... ALL stock second gens were solid rear axles on leaf springs. (To my knowledge) Ford has never used radius arms on the rear of any vehicle. The FRONT of the first-gen Rangers and Explorers, yes, but not on a second gen Explorer...

 

[snoranger]

do you mean these?

 

[section525]

Yeah those little traction bars came on all the V8s. Which that Eddie probably was. If you did a SOA on a V8 you'd need to either remove those (which I did) or lengthen them.

 

[badge49]

Maybe I'm using the wrong part name. This is what I'm refering to as a radius arm. It's from "pimmpedout97x" thread (http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=182301).

 

[badge49]

Yeah those little traction bars came on all the V8s. Which that Eddie probably was. If you did a SOA on a V8 you'd need to either remove those (which I did) or lengthen them.

For a SOA application, would a lengthened set of those fix axle wrap?

 

[gijoecam]

Aaah, yeah, forgot about those... But they're not radius arms. They're called 'anti-wind-up' bars in the factory service manual. Radius arms are a whole 'nother ball-game. That's why I was confused...

As for using them with an SOA to prevent axle wrap, I'm gonna guess probably not. At that point, you've changed the geometry enough that the mounting point is going to be different, so lengthening them is a must.

-Joe