Skyjacker woes....

[Limited Ex]

Thanks Caleb, me too me too.....
I will not have the truck back until tomorrow probably, so these pics are what I have right now. I will get some better ones when I get my Ex back, but for now, here is what I have.
You can see in this one how little, if any, it lifted the front:

 

[Limited Ex]

Here you can see how the coil is bowed forward:

 

[Limited Ex]

radius arms

 

[Limited Ex]

And the differential

 

[Limited Ex]

I am almost willing to think that they sent me the wrong radius arms. It seems to me like the radius arms are not long enough, but that still would not explain why the coils did not lift the front.

 

[X-1]

Man, that is horrible, from my experience you can measure the springs unsprung, they should measure 18 5/8th's inches, as far as bowing, I have seen skyjacker do that, they ride nice, but have a little more give, as far as your radius arms, the shop screwed up, I have same brackets, and there is no way they should be that close to the axle, the radius arm mounts are mounted incorrectly, I would have them remounted, and order new springs, if you bought those used, then you are out the springs, if you bought new have them warranty them. The lift is fixable, just gotta take apart and redo, I would check the front axle for weakness in the housing, if they trimed too much, have them replace. Nowhere in the instructions does it say grind the third member. Just for measuring purposes, I have the 6 inch with 3 inch body lift, and 33 inch tires, mine sits 45 inches from the ground to the middle of fender.

 

[X-1]

One more post,
Your coils are not set right, they need to be turned, also the axle pushed forward may be making them bowed, plus taking away some heighth. They need to move the radius arm bracket back to the right spot, and flip the tranny mount, this should get your front end back in shape, by the pics the distance should fix it, while they have the coils out, measure the length.
Good luck

 

[Limited Ex]

I got up under there and looked at it while I could. The radius arms cannot be mounted in the factory holes, this would pull my wheels back into the fander well. My mechanic had taken everything back apart once he had gotten everything in, and tried to make adjustments where he could. Oh and by chance, does anyone have the part # for the 4wd Explorer radius arms? I want to see if I have the right ones.
As far as rotating the coils, I will ask him about that, but either way they are not staying in. I am thinking that if the coils had lifted the front, the axle bracket would not be where it is against the differential.
It sucks being at school all week because then I cannot drop by there and see how things are going. But if there is no improvement at the end of this week, I may just look into the 6" Superlift, I saw that in one of my Petersons magazines.

 

[410Fortune]

Dude forget the Superlift.

Those are the correct arms and crossmember for your truck.

The picture you took of the coil shows that the coil is not turned far enough to be seated properly....

If you look carefully at the Ford coil buckets you can see they are "notched", meaning the end of the coil sits in the groove. From the pic that coil needs to be turned another 2" or so. No big deal.

Those holes in your frame are where the radius arm corssmember is supossed to mount.....if it was mounted there then the diff would not have to be notched.


You need to look at where they mounted the axle pivot brackets, they should use the same holes as the stock brackets..........to me it looks as if the pass side bracket is onthe wrong spot (hard to tell from those pictures)

All your problems could be a simple fix. If they used the 6" lift holes in the axple pivot brackets with 4" coils it could cause these problems....
Meaning get the 6" coils!!!

Take your coil out and measure it, the free length of a 6" lift coil for your truck should be almost 19", anything less and it is a 4" coil...

Also what year Ex is that??? 94 I assume (last year of the TTB)

Also what kind of a shop does an install like that? Any holes in the frame that are exposed need to be painted!!

The frame rails under the radius arm brackets and axle pivot brackets should be PAINTED before the bracket is installed.

I am guessing your install is actually okay, especially if it is aligned. HOWEVER, the work looks shotty at best. The placement of your tire in the fender well looks to be correct.
I would say that your using the 6" drop brackets with a 4" coil.........causing your problems......

Did they install camber shims? Did you get a drop pitman arm for the steering?

You can use washers to move the wheels forward in the wheel well, but like I said they look correct to me....

Damn I hate it when you pay good money and get screwed.......

DONT LET THEM get away with that.......

 

[Limited Ex]

I will ask him about turning the coils. And I will see if he can take the coils out and measure them. That is the only thing that I can think right now, is that they are 4" coils, that would explain a LOT. Because if the front end was lifted more, then I would not be concerned with the position of the tire in the fender well.
When I took those pictures, my mechanic was not completely finished getting everything installed. He wanted to get the front end aligned to see where everything got postioned. He still has to weld the rear SOA brackets and a few other things. And I did get the drop pitman arm also, and there are new shims in there too.
Hopefully like you said this could be a simple fix. Because I really like the way it looks, I just want everything working, and correct.
On my way back to school today I am going to stop by there and see if by chance he has my Ex sitting outside, and if he does, I will take some more pics. If not, I may drive back here on Tuesday to see how things are going. Because this is really freaking discouraging knowing that the suspension on my vehicle is not correct right now.

 

[410Fortune]

Dude dont sweat it. The hardest part is over.......

I made the mistake of adding Skyjacker arms to my Duff lift, well turns out Skyjacker amrs wont work with Duff coils and drop brackets (not enough lift) So I installed some coil spacers, it helped except my Camber is just a few degrees out of whack. Been that way since last July. I have eaten through 3 sets of tires since then, toyed with the lift non stop to try and correct the problem, no go.

So I am doing it right this time, we built some cut and turned beams so that I can run some 6" coils with my 2" Duff drop brackets and the Skyjacker arms. I have had a set of 33's sitting around for 9 months waiting for this to happen..........so dont sweat it man, it doesnt look that bad, I bet its just a 6" lift setup running 4" coils......

Oh and if this guy knows anything about the TTB he should know that coil is not seated properly. Having the coil seated in the bucket properly is CRITICAL to getting the right lift.


Oh and dont be discouraged yet, you know how I saud we built a set of bent beams for my truck? Well we built another set for my buddies truck, spent all day Saturday taking his front end down, 10 hours to cut and weld the beams, using the jigs we made for my beams (not on truck yet) went to bolt it all in and found we had reduced the track width by 1" (jigs were wrong). So Sunday we had to take it all apart again and cut and weld the beams again!!! fixing the jigs we built in the process. After two full days everything worked out perfect and he is now getting fit for shocks (ever see a 93 Sport ramp a 1000??? I have now). So what does this mean? It means that the TTB beams I have sitting at home with new bushings and ball joints are WRONG and I have to go pull ANOTHER set of beams from the junker, so we can start all over and build them right this time........


So just know what you are getting into when you lift a TTB..................Its not always so simple.

 

[Limited Ex]

Well, I am back at school, did not get the chance to go by the shop and see if it was sitting outside. Chances are though that he had it inside. So I am going to give him a call tomorrow afternoon and talk to him about the coils, and hope and pray that they are 4" coils. Maybe see if Skyjacker would do an exchange... Dunno about that though since I bought it used, but maybe if my mechanic calls and requests a coil swap....
And if anything else, if they are in fact 4" coils, maybe I could sell them on here. That is if the bowing of the coils is caused by them not being turned, I would not want to pass this curse on to someone else!

 

[Digger196]

w/o the radious arms does it level out?

and i got a friend that got arms on his 93X worked for him!

 

[Limited Ex]

Just from looking at the pictures, I think the only thing the absence of the arms would achieve is the coil springs straightness. But I highly doubt that just because they would be straight, the front of the truck would be any higher.

 

[cableguy]

First question, are you running the coils I sent you with the lift?

Second question, if you are running those coils I sent you with the lift, are you running the coil spacers that I sent with them?

It is a 4-6" lift............. 4 if you don't use the coil spacers and use the top holes on the drop brackets........ and 6 if you use the spacers and the bottom holes on the brackets.

Either skyjacker or superlift xtended radius arms will work with that lift. I would check with your mechanic to make sure he installed the coil spacers.

 

[Limited Ex]

Ah ha!
I bet you all the money in my pockets right now, which is not a lot since I am wearing shorts with no pockets, that he did not put the spacers in. I am almost %100 that he did not. I remember going through the parts and seeing the spacers, and figuring that my mechanic would know what to do. You have just semi-brightened my day!
I say "semi" because not everything has been done.....yet

 

[cableguy]

Sorry dude! I know I never had to notch out my diff to get it to fit so I knew something was up.

Good luck!

 

[Limited Ex]

Hey man no big deal
Hopefully the report that I have tomorrow evening will be one of higher spirits than the previous ones! Thanks

 

[X-1]

Glad to see it all beginning to work out.

 

[NOTAJP]

A Couple of Questions...

1. Did you pay this mechanic $$$?
2. He calls himself a mechanic?

Wow, tough luck. I think I'd be scared to drive after he got ahold of my rig. My wife has always called me a mechanic, I just call myself a moron with tools. Heck after reading your woahs, I think I'm ready to be ASE certified. Listen to 410, he knows exactly what he is talking about.

P.S. My 6" coils bow just ever so slightly but you do want them in the right slot.