The sas of Betty Ford

[gmanpaint]

So what is your advantage going with the EB RA brackets instead of going with say..F-150 or F-250?

Does the 4" drop of the EB brackets compared to the drop of the F150/250 brackets offer any better angle for the wedges and bushing degree choice?

Will they get hung up on anything wheeling?

Loving the thread so far.

 

[corncobbcolin]

I'm sure the Radius Arm brackets off a f150 or f250 would work just fine as for anything pre or post 78-79 I'm not sure if you get the same amount of drop needed. As for getting hung up while wheeling I'm sure its no worse then radius arms on drop brackets using a standard 4 inch lift. There is great advantage I've noticed using the 78-79 radius arm brackets is that the way they hang off the frame it gives you a great platform to build the new transmission cross member off of. I will have pics of that when finished building it.

 

[alakers]

Best thread ive seen in a long time.
Bookmarking this for this summer, where I will replicate your exact project hopefully with the same finesse.
Excellent job, now hurry up and get this B!+(# wheelin !!!!

 

['93 Blue Fire]

What happened to the thread? Im curious as to what you did with steering and the tranny mount. Also what work was outsourced

 

[corncobbcolin]

I will continue on the build starting next week. As for out sourcing I had the rear spring over done and some welding (my welder suck) and the gearing done. But here is a few teaser pics.

 

[Xeek]

i dont see anything about it. whered the trac bar mount come from?
and those steering angles look way off

 

[corncobbcolin]

The reasons nothing is up on measurements or what I've used so far is cause I've yet to check on how well the steering works at full flex. I'm not going to put info up on something that doesn't work. It was just a teaser pic of where I'm at so far. As for regular steering it works just fine no binding at all.

 

['93 Blue Fire]

What is the total lift you have so far? Was it enough to clear the 38s without any trouble? Also what axle do you have in the rear?

 

[corncobbcolin]

I'm not sure how much lift I have at this moment but when I was looking at other peoples pages they were claiming around 8 inches of lift running the same set up. I haven't had chance to put the 38's on yet but before I did the swap I was running 35's on a 4 inchs of lift so the 38"s shouldnt be a problem, granted I did some major fender trimming. As for the rear I'm keeping the 8.8 for two reasons one it is just as strong as a 9 inch ( I'm sure I'll get flack for saying that ) with quality axles and gears that will take a ton of abuse. The other reason is I have leased land on a private offroad park in Iowa and the trails are super tight and people running full width axles up there have a very hard time getting through the tight trails. There is plenty of spots that are a tight squeezes for the explorer as is. I don"t have a single straight panel lets from trees plus missing windows.

 

[Xeek]

yea those springs give about 8" more like 9" since theyre new.
throw the boggers on for a pic. i wanna know how they fit without a bodylift. after my humvees go bald i wanna get some 38.5x11(38") boggers. so im interested to see the fitment

and about the steering, i asked cause your drag link and trac bar look like they form an X instead of being parallel.

 

[corncobbcolin]

I get what your talking about now Xeeks. I copied this set up off a guy with an early bronco who want to bring his tie rod up a little higher and his looked just like this and flexed and drove fine. Now saying that I really don't know if it will work the same on a Explorer and I haven't had a chance to test it. Now if it doesn't work I just move the tie rod back on the bottom it drops the steering parallel with the track bar and cost ten minutes worth of work. Then I'll write up how I have the set up. If I can get my other laptop to fired up I will post the link to his page, sad to say it took a milk bath two weeks ago and doesn't wanna work.

 

[FROADER]

It's looking good and I'm anxious to see it done. The only thing I will mention (as Xeeks did) is the angles of the drag link and trac bar. You want those parallel with each other to avoid bump steer.

Keep it up!

 

[FireZapper]

I'll throw my 2 cents in. Get the proper misalignment spacers for the heim joints. You have a lot of stress points with those tubing spacers. That could get your angles better, maybe even swap back to a stock pitman arm.

 

[corncobbcolin]

Thanks for the input on the steering everyone and I see whats going on and what needs fixed. Hopefully I can get it changed up in the next day or so.

 

['93 Blue Fire]

Corncobcolin did you buy an adapter to use the 5x4.5 wheels from the explorer or did you get one to use the bronco wheels?

 

[corncobbcolin]

I swapped my 5x4.5 for a set of 5x5.5 rims and bought wheel adapters for the rear. I also bought a pair of wheel spacers that were the same width as the rear adapters for the front.

 

['93 Blue Fire]

Do you remember the cost on those?

 

[corncobbcolin]

Sure do I bought them off of ebay the spacers ran me $59.99 shipped and the adapters ran me $79.99 shipped. The seller is under cjbargins there very fast shipping and a great product. I've bought 2 inch wheel spacers off them before for our cj5 which I've been running for about a year and they have held up perfect.

 

['93 Blue Fire]

Cool thanks very much for all the info

 

[Four0Sport]

bump for updates and pics!