Expo 8.8 swap!
#1
Expo 8.8 swap!
Needing a new rear end, I went and got myself an Expo 8.8 with disc brakes. Got meself an L/S diff! Brad, you said good luck finding a 4.10 Expo at Harry's? I saw over a dozen of them lol. So here begins my swap!
Looked around, found this axle.
The red is there for the cashier to see that it's a 4x4 rear.
And thanks to my buddy for letting me borrow his sawzall, I got it out pretty damn easy! Got the calipers too. I have some new pads and rotors on order for next weekend, and gonna order up some leaf perches and shock mounts.
Now for a quick question... What should I do to connect my soft brake lines to my hard lines? Cut it back a little and new fittings? Or just make it fit? Also, there was a 3rd shock absorber and a counterweight on the passenger side of the differential. What's that for??? Can I get rid of it? Or will it mess with something to take it off?
Looked around, found this axle.
The red is there for the cashier to see that it's a 4x4 rear.
And thanks to my buddy for letting me borrow his sawzall, I got it out pretty damn easy! Got the calipers too. I have some new pads and rotors on order for next weekend, and gonna order up some leaf perches and shock mounts.
Now for a quick question... What should I do to connect my soft brake lines to my hard lines? Cut it back a little and new fittings? Or just make it fit? Also, there was a 3rd shock absorber and a counterweight on the passenger side of the differential. What's that for??? Can I get rid of it? Or will it mess with something to take it off?
#9
Ladies, ladies! There's plenty to go around! Haha. I brought a metric socket set, a BFH, battery operated sawzall, a pipe (for leverage), WD-40 and a breaker bar. You'll need splined sockets to get the driveshaft off, they're a specialty bolt so an ordinary socket won't work.
06Ranger, how fast are you driving? Lmao. I can make it to the Lake Ontario border in NY in about 3.5 hours lol But hey, if you're up to it come down anyways! I had a buddy come up from West Virginia (a 7 hour one way trip) for a good friend of mine to do body work on his truck.
06Ranger, how fast are you driving? Lmao. I can make it to the Lake Ontario border in NY in about 3.5 hours lol But hey, if you're up to it come down anyways! I had a buddy come up from West Virginia (a 7 hour one way trip) for a good friend of mine to do body work on his truck.
#11
You could use the factory line from your Ranger, cut it short near the perches, flare 'em, and use the new softlines, but I found the earlier mentioned way of doing it to be more cleanly done.
My pic above shows my setup. I've added a spacer to at the "Y" compensate for my additional lift. Without that spacer, the new lines would be far more clean. Also note: pic shows locker wires hangin' loose after just being installed.
The reason you'll want to ditch the Explorer lines from the axle is because the Explorer "Y" is off the driver side of the axle. The Ranger is on top of the differential. Explorer line from frame to axle is shorter than Ranger as well. Expo's are spring under and the expo lines work fine on a spring under application (IE 5" drop). Not so much on a spring over application, especially when you add 2.5" stock blocks to the mix (IE your Ranger, my Ranger, any 4x4 Ranger).
Also, there was a 3rd shock absorber and a counterweight on the passenger side of the differential. What's that for??? Can I get rid of it? Or will it mess with something to take it off?
Or 12pt combination wrenches. Believe it's 12mm. Grab a 12mm and a 13mm and double wrench them for extra leverage. No need for specialty sockets. (EDIT: Brinker beat me to it. lol.)
#15
Were you using a standard or metric 12 point? Pretty sure they're a 12mm so if you were using a 1/2" that's probably why!
#19
Brad, did you use the Expo setup for the brakes? I see you have the soft line going up towards the bed. And I'm just gonna reuse my spring perches and shock mounts because I don't have $140 to fork out for the perches and mounts from ruff stuff.
#21
Yeah, I used a sawzall to cut through the old ones lol So I'll need em. Probably if I'm off work tomorrow I'll take it up my buddy's and cut the old **** off. Can I just run without the rear swaybar? Or do I need to remount my current one?
#23
There's one on the front of my axle....I think. I'll get a pic tomorrow unless someone else has some insight? I'm almost positive it does. If not, then disregard that last question.