Rear spring swap 4 door to 2 door

[stan412]

Has any one here changed out their 2 door rear springs with ones from a four door? If you did, what year is yours and what year and rear spring code did you replace it with? How much did it raise the rear? How is the ride compared to before? Or any other suggestions to raise the rear of the sagging 2 door Explorers?

 

[TomCat_Ford]

I have a '98 Sport, but had a '96 4D parts Explorer... I basically took the two additional leaf springs and the overload spring off from the main '96 spring and added them to my '98 factory spring (add a leaf x3, I suppose). I had to use new bolts, as it would have been impossible for me to get the nuts off from the bolts holding the leaf spring pack together. I also had to get creative with the strap that was around the springs on the '96, but I was able to get them on there as well. It took the sag right out of the rear end and brought the rear ride height back to its normal height. It did stiffen the ride up a bit, but the absence of a sagging rear end sure is worth it!

Hope this helps some.

 

[team]

I have a 96 sport with 170,000 miles with the normal sag to the rear. I went and purchased the autozone shackles for $18.00 and it gave me 1.5 inches of lift in the back. I then cranked up the torsion bars a tad to get the front to the correct ride height and now it sits perfectly level.

 

[HiImElvis]

Replaced 97 Sport Monoleaf w Junkyard 4 leaf

I replaced my 97 Sport's mono-leaf rear springs with a set out of a later model year 4 door I found at the salvage yard. Appears the rear end in these things is a popular item, there were several Explorers at the salvage yard with the rear axles already pulled, made grabbing a set of springs about a 10 minute job for me. I got springs out from under a V8 model thinking they'd be the heaviest capacity. They would have been a direct swap for the mono-leafs in my 2 door, but I did some measuring and it appears that the 4 leaf pack was about 5/8" thinner than my original monoleaf pack which had four 5/8" spacers and a 3/4" main (only) spring. I decided not to try to figure out why my old spring pack and the 4 door one were different overall thicknesses and just added one of the spacers to the 4 leaf pack (whcih I am 100% convinced does nothing to help the ride height, I think they used the spacers so the U-bolts and shocks they put under the 2 and 4 door models could be the same). The studs from the junkyard 4 leaf pack would have been long enough to accept the spacer, but I chewed them up pretty good using a pipe wrench as a backup when I removed the nut from the bottom. New studs at NAPA were only a few bucks each. Also, when I installed the salvage yard springs under my X, I switched them so the pass. side is now on the driver's side and vice versa (to try to help with the gangster lean).

Results: 97 Explorer Sport now sits level front to back and side to side. As far as ride quality goes, I feel like it's as stiff now as it was before (no noticeable change), but it feels more stable when cornering and when I drive over railroad tracks the back doesn't seem to want to jump sideways now either.

If anyone knows why the 4 leaf packs are 5/8" thinner (the thickness of 1 spacer) than the 2 door monoleaf packs, I'd sure like to hear the answer...

 

[vroomzoomboom]

i changed my mono leaf in my 98 sport with a leaf pack from a 00 4 door that i parted out some time ago recently, i picked up a 00 sport that still has the mono leaf in it. after being used to driving my truck, there was a huge difference in the ride compared to the 00 sport.

 

[stan412]

Just an update on this, I put Monroe Sensa-Trac load adjusting shock absorbers on the back of my explorer sport and they raised the rear about 1 1/4 inches. Now my explorer looks "normal" with out the sagging rear end look, I can tow with out the rear almost on the ground and as a bonus the ride is much better!
The part number is 58617, found them on Amazon.