Swapping my 95 Sport 4x4 rear end with 97 Mountaineer

[chrisschweder]

I have a 1995 Explorer Sport 4x4 LSD 3.73. The rear end is shot. It whines grinds and howls like a dog right now. A friend at work gave me his complete rear end from a 97 Mountaineer. It has the same 3.73 gearing and LSD. The one thing that I noticed that was different was that existing rear end has a stabilizer bar with two links on each side and the Mountaineer has two larger straight bars with a bracket on each end (one of the brackets are missing).

I am in a real jam right now and need to fix it. I drove it over 200 miles yesterday (was up in Northern Michigan when it went) and 35 miles to work today. Can I swap the sway bars and remove the existing bars that are on the new one? Also what size U-bolts do I need? I was going to climb under and measure the inside width and length. Try to find something at the local auto parts store. I need to get this thing swapped over quick. Any help/advice would be appreciated.

Chris

 

[chrisschweder]

I did some searching and found the U-Bolt sizes.

I assume the two bars on the Mountaineer are because it is AWD? I just removed them. The explorer rear end didn't even have the mounts on the top of the housing for the bars. I have new brakes and rotors installed on the replacement. Time to drop the old rear end. Wish me luck! My truck is a rust bucket.