Transforming my explorer to an Xplorer

[Ken Cooke]

Felix,

I'll be happy to see the finished product. This is gonna be a nice X once everything is bolted on! Too bad you won't have her tested in time for my Baja trip on Saturday!

Class III+ Trails in Baja, Mexico

-Ken

 

[Felix]

More pictures of my SAS project. What a pain in the arse it is to get everything right. Oh well, I started it and I will finish it, now if they only made a soap that got metal shavings out of your skin.

TTB go bye bye....

In with the new. It sat for a day and half without any thing under the front but, I couldnt leave it sit like that for long so I started placing the new axle in there. The following pictures are of the axle in place and mocking the wheel posistion.

Next up is getting the spring buckets and track bar mount finished up and installed. Then one more trip to the parts store to get some brake calipers and pads to make this thing stop once again. More pics soon, I hope.

 

[Diff Whack Daddy]

Lookin' good. I see you found the shock mounts. If you end up running Rancho shocks, the 9012's are the ones to get.

 

[DB_1]

Lookin' good Mark I don't know how high the drag link is in relation
to the track bar is (or will be) but take a look at it and see if it will line up if we flip tie rod over the knuckle. If you think it'll work, i'll bring over my reamer
if you wanna go that route.

 

[410Fortune]

Hey David, you get more flex yet?

 

[DB_1]

I'm workin on that as we speak I made new radius arm brackets that will mount just behind the tranny x-member and i'm sleeving the arms with some DOM and heims on the ends. I'll do a write up when i'm done with it. (hi-jack over)

 

[Diff Whack Daddy]

Hope these help.

Hey Mark, I hope these will help you.

 

[Felix]

After a few days of drag-n-ass I got some work done today. I mocked up the spring buckets then marked them and cut them down. I am now to the point where I need a welder. I am going to re place the bottom frame rail support on the spring buckets sence that has been cut off. Also, I am going to weld the spring tower and shock tower together along the side and back to increase the mating / load bearing surface area. This along with the lower rail support will make it plenty strong. When all this gets done I will take pictures to show what I am talking about. Then I get to tackle the track bar and mount... I am really dreading this part but have a few ideas stirring around that should make it plenty strong and work out just fine.

I still need calipers and shocks guess I need to order those soon.

More to come soon

 

[Josh S.]

Damn dude thats looking really *****in!! Can't wait to see it out at T-haven

 

[Felix]

Got some more work done on the explorer today. I will post some pictures of the work finished in a little bit. I finished welding the trackbar mount to the frame. Hope I dont have to take that off cause it is really on there now . Tomorrow I will make my new track bar, or I will order a new one with a hiem joint on frame end. After that its time to rough aline it and take it for a test drive. Pics of progress to this point soon to come.

Here are the pictures of my new track bar mount.

 

[Felix]

well its finished, finally got it all installed. Just waiting on the shocks to get here sometime this week.

Took it for a test drive tonight the wopping 1.5 miles to the gas station on base to fill the tank. WOW, it really needs those shocks . It drives pretty good but really needs an alignment. I have it roughly set though I can still feel it pull a little bit.

I will have some pics up of the truck in the drive way tomorrow night. There should be some more pics after next saturday when it gets driven out to Johnson Valley for the Offroaders clean up project going on.

 

[rino351]

PICS!!!!
We Need Pictures!!
I'm sure it is a sweet feeling!

 

[bmxking5]

I can't wait for the pics!!! Congrats on completing the SAS. Do you want to come down to GA and do mine now j/k What shocks are you going with?

 

[Felix]

I ordered the rubicon express 14" travel twin-tube shocks. I dont remember the numbers it was like rxt3211 or 3210.

Should have some pics up in the next day or two. The power was out all day yesterday and had to play catch up today for all the lost time.

 

[Felix]

here is a picture of my custom track bar.

I took the 78 Bronco track bar and cut just under 5 inches out of the center. I then ground the cut ends @ 45* all the way around to make a V notch when they are placed together. After that the seperate ends where placed on the truck in their proper locations to orient them properly. I tacked them together then pulled the assembly back out of the truck.

Before tacking the two halves together I put a sleave over the bar that would be later used to strengthen the splice. The sleave is 6 inches long and centered on the splice with rose bud holes drilled in it.

After welding the V notch solid and finish grinding the sleave was slid into place. I then made the rose bud welds and finished with welding the ends of the sleave tube to the bar.

After all the welding I let it cool and ground all the rough off the welds and hit it with some primer.

This is only a temperary track bar till my custom adjustable heim jointed track bar gets here. Though I am possitive this custom spliced track bar will not break.

Here is a pic of the truck sitting in the drive way after I spend the better part of 2 weeks after work and a full weekend of welding under it.

hope you all enjoy what photos I have posted at this point. Also, I hope that what has been typed here is usefull to someone else considering doing this modification.

I will have more pics Suday the 9th after I return from the Johnson Valley OHV park clean up.

 

[FROADER]

Mark, it's looking good. I'm ready to see that thing perform out at Truck Haven!!!

 

[DB_1]

So you done with my friggin' welder yet? Lookin' good Mark.

 

[Felix]

I got a few more pics taken of the explorer today. As my neighbor left their stock explorer parked on the side of the road today. So, I got the camera out and took some comaprison shots.

and one more pic of it sitting in the drive way.

 

[Josh S.]

great job Mark, can't wait to see this ***** in action in the desert!!! Congrats on doing the majority of it yourself, I'll give you 2 of these...

 

[ExplorerSport77]

hey u really did a nice job...truck looks good...